Over Expenditure Policy

The role of the Office of Post-award Management (OPM) is to assist departments in monitoring grant expenditures. In a case of over expenditure, OPM not only brings the problem to the attention of the responsible people, but can also help by reviewing and interpreting the information on financial reports and troubleshooting problems that may be contributing factors. In cases of over expenditure, the PI and department administrator should take immediate steps to eliminate the shortfall within the month after it appears on the Financial Summary Reports. In practice, over expenditures should not continue beyond a three month period.

How OPM manages over expended grants:

• OPM will notify the Principal Investigator and/or department if an over expenditure occurred. However, you should not wait until you are notified by OPM of the overdraft to initiate corrective action. If OPM is advised that additional funds are forthcoming within ninety days (either through continuation, renewal, or incremental funding of the award), then the over expenditure can remain in place. If additional funds are not expected, then action should be taken to clear the over expenditure before month end. It is a normal course of action for the department to transfer expenses off the grant to another grant as allowable (IDT or PAF).
• If the PI is unable to resolve or propose a plan to remedy the over expenditure, a notice will be sent to the School Fiscal Officer specifying the project/grant, and amount overspent to request assistance to clear the over expenditure.
• If the over expenditure is still not cleared, an unrestricted department account will be requested by OPM from the School Fiscal Officers to absorb the over expended balance.

No-Cost Extensions

Due to unanticipated circumstances, a Principal Investigator may need additional time to complete the project. A request for a no-cost extension must be submitted to the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) and should provide such information as cause of delay, objectives to be accomplished, period of extension, and the remaining funding. Requesting an extension simply to allow sufficient time to spend the available balance is not acceptable.

Some federal Sponsors, such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation (NSF) authorize UTD to extend a project as long as the Sponsor is notified in advance. The Office of Sponsored Projects will determine which type of no-cost extension is most appropriate and will contact the Sponsor. After OSP receives Sponsor approval for the no-cost extension, OSP will complete and route the needed internal documentation to OPM. The termination date in PeopleSoft is then changed by OPM.

For projects that require the Sponsor's written approval for a no-cost extension, OPM cannot extend the termination date until written approval from the Sponsor is received and internal documentation is processed by OSP. The timing for such requests varies by sponsor, but should generally be processed in sufficient time prior to the scheduled termination date of the project (approximately 30-60 days).