A. SUMMARY OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE
This policy documents the process involved in creating a Recharge Center at USNH.
1. Definition of a Recharge Center: A Recharge Center reallocates materials costs (excluding salaries and wages) within a department or a limited area of accounts. Recharge Centers simply recoup, through a redistribution method, the materials costs relating to a particular activity. An example of a Recharge Center is a departmental copier.
2. Why is a Recharge Center policy necessary? USNH must use consistent and equitable cost accounting practices to ensure compliance with federal regulations and cost accounting standards. This is essential to ensure continued funding of federal programs. These federal regulations are outlined in detail in the Procedure 2-073, Establish a Recharge Center Rate.
3. Responsibility: Departments are responsible for the determination that a Recharge Center is needed. Please call your campus CFO or the Asset Management and Cost Analysis group in the Controller's Office at 862-3466, if you need assistance.
B. DETAILED OPERATING PROCEDURES
1. Deciding if a new Recharge Center needs to be created. Will the Recharge Center bill most users for the service? Before a Recharge Center is established, a determination must be made that the costs are going to be billed to all customers.
If a recharge center is not going to bill for all users, cost sharing must be recorded for the unbilled research portion of the service. See the University of New Hampshire Policy, Cost Sharing on Externally sponsored Programs, for a more detailed discussion of the handling of total costs of projects and centers.
2. Recharge Center accounts: Recharge Center costs are generally handled as contra-expense credits against expense object codes, so a new account may not be required. See Procedure 10-001, Revenue Accounting.
3. Recharge Center Rates: The creation of a new Recharge Center requires the establishment of a Recharge Center rate. See Procedure 2-073, Establish a Recharge Center Rate, for detailed instructions.
The official version of this information will only be maintained in an on-line web format. Any and all printed copies of this material are dated as of the print date. Please make certain to review the material on-line prior to placing reliance on a dated printed version.
