For specific rules and regulations concerning the academic year salary recovery program, please visit the Research & Engagement website.

Academic year and summer additional compensation salary recovery from grants is outlined in the Provost's memo issued April 4, 2011.  For a more thorough detail of the policy requirements, please refer to the Research Administration & Compliance FAQs page.

The Research & Buyout form, commonly known as the ‘Buyout Form,’ is a living document. Minimally, we expect to see them revised up to 3 times throughout the academic year.

The process itself, Academic Year & Summer Additional Compensation Salary Recovery, is approximately a 15-month process when one considers the desire to buyout of a course or place salary on grants for the research side to the faculty receiving the benefits of the program. There are many moves that need to take place: reviewing the grant budget to determine what can be placed on research/course buyouts for the upcoming year, documenting the course and research buyouts, finding the replacement faculty for the course buyout, processing of the personnel action forms by university departments, accounting for funds against the grant, and lastly to the money transfer to your account/action forms being completed and processed by the university.

Initially, mid-October is the first round of forms.

We expect to see updates during January and then again prior to the end of March as grant funding arrives, budgets change, etc. We certainly will accept forms earlier than that.

Process

Step 1: The Research & Course Buyout form needs to be completed electronically up to the point of signature, with the help of the departmental administrative assistant, follow-up by the grants manager.

Please note, the form is color-coded. ALL yellow fields must be completed in full. At this time we are not accepting pdf signatures due to the transfer of monies and the cost associated with the program.

Section 1 is general information concerning the person whose information is being placed on the buyout form.

Minimally we need the faculty name and salary as of the date you are completing the document.

Section 2 details salary amounts placed on the various grants or other funding.

It is important to complete the entire chartfield, Project # / Dept ID/ Fund / Speedtype as we use the string of information to validate.

Pay close attention to Funding year START date and Funding year END date. This is the current budget year for which you have salary coverage.

It is not the years of the grant nor is it the academic/contract year (unless the dates of the grant actually coincide with those periods of time).

Place both the academic year and summer salary you expect to pay from each grant. (As you receive additional funding, this form should be updated.)

Section 3 is Buyout portion of the form.

Teaching Buyout

It is not necessary to place the salary you are paying TO the buyin faculty. It is important to complete the credits, course/semester, and buyin instructor. The transfer and payment formulas are driven by completing this information.

If you do not have any course buyouts, this remains as NA for the instructor name.

Research Buyout

The calculation for month 1 Summer, month 2 and 3 allows us to ensure we are abiding by the policy. Please ensure that attention is paid to the ‘remaining balance’ to the right of the entry (yellow) boxes in this section.

Section 4

This is an auto populate section that is used for allocation of funds to the Dean, department, and faculty. The split between the Dean and department is negotiated yearly.

Information in this section drives the summer allocation and the bonus allocation. [See cells L60 (summer) and M60 (Bonus)].

Signatures

The grants manager signs off on the form to ensure section 2 is completed with the appropriate amounts to be placed against the grant(s).

The faculty signs off, agreeing to the amounts placed on the form along with the stipulation that if the faculty is to receive compensation from the Academic year (AY) and summer additional compensation salary program, the fringe associated with it will be charged against their RTF.

The Chair/Head signs off as a matter of process to ensure we are all on the same page for this process.

Buyout Updates

As mentioned previously, forms are expected to be updated throughout the academic year. The end of March is a deadline we have imposed to ensure all transactions make it through the system prior to the Controller’s Office placing a level of review against the process. They do so when end of April beginning of May approaches as the intensity of the close of the fiscal year draws near. Large swings due to buyouts makes this process difficult at the university level. There will always be special circumstances that we will review as they arrive. Late submissions may wait until the new fiscal year opens.

Human subject compensation can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including same-day cash, same-day gift cards, and future payments via a check from UMass. Regardless of the method you choose, all compensation to human subjects must be tracked and accounted for. Particular stringency must be applied when working off of a grant.

If you would like to pay your subjects with on-the-spot cash, in order to obtain the cash in the first place, the Principal Investigator (PI) must fill out a Controller’s Office Advance Request. Please download this form and fill it out electronically (which will automatically generate an invoice number), then email it to the address on the form, with a cc to bctr@schoolph.umass.edu. You must also attach the IRB approval. The PI is then personally responsible for accounting for and/or returning the total amount of cash withdrawn in this manner. Please be aware that there is a $100/subject and a $600 total non-payroll compensation/subject/year limit to human subject cash advances. These limits are related to security and IRS regulations. If you wish to exceed either of these compensation limits, you must pay your subjects after their participation via a UMass-issued check. Please see the section below entitled “If you would like to pay your subjects after they participate in the study…”

At the time of the study, the investigator should have each subject complete a Human Subject Participant Advance Settlement Form acknowledging receipt of the payment. These forms should be turned into the Business Center promptly for processing, along with any leftover cash.

If you would like to compensate your subjects with on-the-spot gift cards, if at all possible it is best to purchase the gift cards in person with a cash advance, using the Controller’s Office Advance Request. These gift card tracking sheets, along with a copy of the advance request, should then be turned into the Business Center for processing. Please be aware that purchasing gift cards with a Procard is not allowed. 

When you distribute the gift cards, each subject should fill out a gift card tracking sheet, which essentially functions like a receipt. These gift card tracking sheets, along with either a copy of the advance request or the Purchase Order (PO) number, should then be turned into the Business Center for processing.

If you would like to pay your subjects after they participate in the study, at the time of their participation you will need to have them fill out a Human Subject Compensation Payment Request Form so that the University will know where to send the payment. Non-UMass subjects are required to fill out a UMW-9 form to be added as vendors into the system, but current employees and students need only provide their full name, a valid ID number, and a current, legal (non-PO Box), off-campus address.

The use of human subjects for studies is heavily regulated. For information on laws and policies regarding human subjects, including informed consent, CITI training, and other related issues, please visit the Office of Research and Engagement website.

For specific rules and regulations concerning expenditures or university policies, please visit the Controller’s Office website. For all forms, please make sure to allow adequate processing time when submitting documents to BCTR.

Purchase Order Request: Used to organize information and initiate the request for a Purchase Order.

Invoice: Used to create an invoice for services/goods for non-employees. If this is for a first-time vendor, the appropriate vendor-add form must be completed.

Sole Source: Required for professional services when cost is $10,000 and greater and when not on University contract.

Contract for Services (Short Form): Optional for services when cost is up to $10,000.

Contract for Services (Long Form and Instructions): Required for services when cost is $10,000 or more.

Vendor (new): Used when paying companies or individuals for the first time. Use UMW-9 for U.S.-based companies/individuals or W-8 BEN for foreign vendors/individuals.

Business Expense Approval Form: Required form when the expense is related to business meetings, meals, and/or entertainment or when an employee is seeking reimbursement for approved expenses. For detailed information, be sure to read the Business Expense Policy.

Signature Delegation Form: Used to temporarily grant signature authority to a substitute individual when the person with customary signature authority is unavailable (e.g. out of town, on vacation, etc.).