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SPH Support for Doctoral Students

Processing Stipend, Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance

Support for PhD students is typically provided by two funding sources, each of which requires supplemental funding as described in the “SPH Support for Doctoral Students” handout. Please refer to this guidance for additional information on the different types of funding sources and student work hour restrictions.

Section 1: Processing Stipends

At Boston University, stipend payments are processed by different payroll offices depending on the stipend’s funding source. Two sources of external support currently exist at SPH:

1. Pre-doctoral training grant support (“T32” grants) – Processed as Non-Service Stipends

2. Research Grant Support: (GRA/GRF) - Processed as Service Stipends

Section 2: Processing Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance (All funding sources)

Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance are processed based on students’ allocation needs through the Office of Student Financial Services and should be processed as outlined in this handout.

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Section 1: Processing Stipends

1. Pre-doctoral training grant support (“T32” grants) – Processed as Non-Service Stipends

o Processed by Payroll Office (not Student Payroll Office) o Paid Monthly

a. After receiving the Notice of Award (NOA) from the sponsoring agency (NIH NRSA institutional training grant “T32”), the BU Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP): i. Creates 2 Sponsored Program numbers (SP#s) as described below:

o SP# for Health Insurance & Other Direct Costs (Travel/Software/Research Supplies, etc.) o SP# for Stipends, Tuition and Fees

ii. The BU Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) then notifies the School of Public Health (SPH) that an award has been approved and provides the Notice of Award and Sponsored Program numbers (SP#s) to the SPH Principal Investigator (PI) and the SPH Academic Department (Grants Manager).

b. The SPH Principal Investigator (PI) initiates the trainee appointment in xTrain.

Trainee then: o Accepts the appointment in xTrain o Registers for classes o Selects Health Insurance plan via Student Account.

Note: These 3 steps must be completed before the SPH Academic Department can process a Trainee’s Non-Service Stipend in SAP.

c. After receiving the SP#s the SPH Academic Department:

i. Completes Non-Service Stipend request forms (one per funding source) and emails requests to SPH Finance and Administration for processing. * See Appendix A for an example and instructions on how to complete Non-Service Stipend request forms.

ii. Trainee’s Non-Service Stipend request forms should be submitted to SPH Finance and Administration following the timeline example provided in Appendix A.

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iii. All forms should be submitted to SPH Finance and Administration by email, in a Zip File folder, with the following format:

o Folder with department name: e.g. EH Stipends

o Sub-folder with student’s name: e.g. Smith, Jane o PDF of request form with student’s name, funding source, and date range of the

stipend: e.g. Smith, Jane T32 9.1.17-6.30.18

d. After receiving the Non-Service Stipend request forms, SPH Finance and Administration:

i. Inputs the stipend information in SAP/Business Warehouse.

ii. Emails copies of the Non-Service Stipend request forms to the BUMC Office of Student Financial Services (OSFS) for processing. This serves as the request for a FD# creation, needed to process the stipend payment in SAP (FD# for Tuition, Fees & Health Insurance are addressed on the next section of this handout). Note: BUMC OSFS does not provide a Stipend FD# to SPH Finance and Administration. The FD# is entered directly into SAP by BUMC OSFS.

e. BUMC OSFS/Payroll Office (CRC):

i. BUMC OSFS: Processes all information provided by SPH Finance and Administration as detailed above. ii. Payroll Office (CRC): issues monthly stipend payment to SPH full-time Doctoral Students.

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2. Research Grant Support: (GRF/GRA) - Processed as Service Stipends

Graduate Research Fellows (GRFs) or Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) are PhD students engaging in research activities with a faculty member that is a critical part of their pre-doctoral training. Funding for graduate research assistants can come from research grants, such as R01, but not T-32 grants. GRAs should be processed within the Student Employment system by the appropriate SPH Department Administrator.

o Processed by Student Payroll Office o Paid Weekly

Please follow these steps to hire graduate research assistants through BU’s Business Link portal

a. Log in to the Business Link and select the Student Employment option. b. Under “Hiring Process Functions,” click New Hire/Rehire. c. Select the initial fields - type of employment (departmental), student ID number, semester, year and action (new

hire or rehire). d. Click submit.

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e. Complete the following in section one i. Job grade - 0 (indicates job is paid a weekly salary).

ii. Job code - RF (designated code for GRF/GRA jobs). iii. Start/end dates - Use the start and end dates of the current semester.

Note: For weekly salaried jobs, start date must always be a Monday and end date must always be a Sunday.

iv. Number of hours worked per week – 20 f. Click submit.

Note: to rehire a GRF/GRA into the same position (same funding source and pay rate) for a new semester, find their existing job number using Student Employee Information under “General Functions.”

Under step C above, choose option “rehire” instead of “new hire.” Complete all other initial fields.

Under step E above, leave both the job grade and job code fields blank, and type the student’s job number into the “Enter Job Number for Rehire only” field. Complete the start date, end date, and number of hours worked per week fields.

When you click submit in step F, section 2 will automatically populate with funding source, object code, mail codes, and weekly salary.

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g. Complete the following in section two i. Unit, department, source - the Legacy code for a Department’s SAP Cost Center or Internal Order.

The SAP crosswalk tool can be used to find the unit, department, source code. ii. Object – 0902 iii. Mail Code, Check Destination, IPP - Use the appropriate Department mail code and check destination.

A table of codes can be found at the end of the section. IPP must entered for research positions. Students should complete a new IPP when working as a research assistant in a new department.

iv. Weekly salary - Complete as appropriate. h. Click submit.

* Example for FY19 could vary if multiple funding sources exist.

(Stipend of $653.65 x 52 weeks = $33,990)

i. Review all information entered and ensure that it is correct, then click update at the top. j. The student job record is now created, but not approved (and therefore not available for payment). k. To approve the job, go to the main Student Employment page, click Approve/Review/Delete, and enter the

job’s mail code. Check off the job and click approve. i. Weekly-salaried jobs and one-time payments are now ready for processing in the next payroll run.

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Section 2: Processing Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance (includes all funding sources)

a. After receiving the SP#s (from Section 1, step 1.a above) the SPH Academic Department:

i. Completes the following Fund Data Number (FD#) request forms and emails these requests to the

BUMC Office of Student Financial Services (OSFS) for processing.

o FD# request form for TUITION & FEES (one request per funding source) o FD# request form for HEALTH INSURANCE (one request per funding source)

* See Appendix A for instructions on how to complete a Fund Data Number request form.

Note: SPH Academic Department receives FD#s from BUMC OSFS in approximately 2 weeks’ time.

ii. Reviews trainee’s account in BU Student Link to confirm registration is complete and calculates funds’ allocation according to student needs.

iii. Receives FD# from BUMC OSFS.

iv. Completes the ‘Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance’ spreadsheet combining the FD#s received from BUMC OSFS and the information collected from the trainee’s account in BU Student Link.

* See Appendix A for an example on how to complete the “Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance” spreadsheet.

v. Spreadsheet (from Section 2, step a.iv above) is then emailed to SPH Finance and Administration for processing.

b. After receiving all Academic Departments’ spreadsheets containing Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance

information, SPH Finance and Administration: i. Compiles the reports into one workbook and reviews account allocations to ensure charges are going

to the correct School funding source. Note: SP#s are not reviewed by the SPH Finance and Administration Office.

ii. The complete workbook is then emailed to BUMC OSFS for processing.

c. BUMC OSFS:

ii. Processes all information provided by SPH Departments as detailed above. iii. Notifies SPH departments that process is complete.

d. SPH Academic Department:

i. Reviews student account in BU Student Link. ii. Runs monthly BW reports to verify expenses hit the correct GL.

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Stipend Payment Corrections

o Corrections of Non-Service Stipend payments for stipends that are “historic” (end date of stipend is in the past) are done via journal entry by the SPH Academic Department.

o For corrections of Non-Service Stipend payments that are “current” (end date of stipend has not happened yet), a new Non-Service stipend request form will need to be submitted to OSFS.

o Corrections of Service Stipend payments for stipends that are “historic” (payment has already been issued) are processed through the Student Payroll Office using a Student Salary Adjustment Request Form (SARF).

o Corrections of Service Stipend payments that are “current” (payment has not yet been issued) are done in the Student Payroll System by the SPH Academic Department.

o All other corrections (Tuition, Fees and Health Insurance expenses) are done via journal entry by the SPH Academic Department.

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Appendix A 

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Non-service Stipend Request Form - Instructions

1. Request date: Date the request form is completed. 2. University ID Number: The student’s BU ID number. 3. Mail code: The mail code the stipend check should be sent to. 4. PA*: The personnel area (PA) of the student. Use 2100 for BU Medical Campus. 5. Last name: The student’s last name. 6. First name: The student’s first name. 7. MI: The student’s middle initial (if applicable). 8. Home address: The student’s street address. 9. City: The student’s city of residence. 10. State: The student’s state of residence. 11. Zip code: The student’s zip code. 12. Country: The student’s country. 13-16: If applicable, for international students: the student’s country of citizenship, visa type, visa expiration date, and date of entry into the US. 17. WT**: The student’s wage type (WT). Use 2790 for US citizens and 2791 for international students. 18. Cost center OR internal order number: The cost center or internal order number the stipend is being paid from. 19. Amount per pay period: The amount the student should receive from this funding source, per month. Note: A separate form should be submitted for each funding source. 20. Start date: The start date of the stipend. 21. End date: The end date of the stipend. 22. Comments: Please enter a comment detailing what the stipend payment is for. 23. Name, signature, date: This should be signed by the person responsible for the cost center or internal order number.

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To submit non-service stipend request forms to the SPH Finance Office:

1. Save requests in the following format: -Folder with department name -Sub-folder with student’s name -PDF of request form with student’s name, funding source, and date range of the stipend Example:

2. Convert department folder to a zip file:

3. Email to the SPH Finance Office.

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T-32 Training Grant support - Non-service Stipends’ Timeline

Grant Fiscal Year: 7/1/17 – 6/30/18

7/1/17 6/30/18

Appointment Year: 9/1/17 – 8/31/18

(e.g. stipend amount: $33,000)

SP# Year 1 9/1/17 6/30/18

(e.g. stipend amount: $33,000*) (e.g. stipend amount for new appt. year: $33,990)

SP# Year 2 7/1/18 8/31/18 9/1/18 6/30/19

*Unliquidated obligation should be carried forward from prior year (SP#1) to pay this appointment period.

Non-service stipend forms due to SPH Finance & Administration as follows:

Non-service stipend request forms for payments starting in September (2018) must be submitted by the first business day of September. Non-service stipend request forms for payments starting in July (2019) must be submitted by the first business day of July. Sponsored

program number will change, but monthly stipend amount should stay the same. Non-service stipend request forms for payment starting in September (2019) must be submitted by the first business day of September.

Sponsored program number should stay the same, but the monthly stipend amount should change based on new appointment year.

Examples for FY19:

Non-service stipend period start Payment date Submission deadline September 2018 9/28/28 9/4/18 July 2019 7/26/19 7/1/19 September 2019 9/27/19 9/3/19