Escalation of Accounts Receivable on Sponsored Awards Procedure

Purpose

The purpose of this procedure is to provide the institutional standard for escalating outstanding accounts receivable payments related to grants, contracts, and other sponsored agreements.

Covered Parties

This procedure applies to any Sponsored Research invoice generated by Research Financial Operations (RFO) at Boston University.

Definitions

Invoice: A document that shows a list of goods and services and the prices to be paid for them.

Outstanding Accounts Receivable: A balance due on an invoice to Boston University.

University Procedure

It is the responsibility of (RFO) to follow up on all outstanding accounts receivables for Sponsored Research invoices. In the case where Sponsors do not pay BU in a timely manner, the following steps will be taken to relieve the accounts receivable balance.

Invoice Outstanding	Responsible Party	Collection Resolution Steps
Greater than 60 Days (2 Months)	Billing & Account Specialist	Subsequent Invoices include a past due statement of outstanding accounts receivable
Greater than 90 Days (3 Months)	Billing & Account Specialist	Inquiry is sent via email to Sponsor with a cc to BU Department Administrator and RFO Billing Manager.
Greater than 120 Days (4 Months)	Billing Manager	Phone Call and/or Email is sent to Sponsor; PI and Director, RFO is informed of nonpayment.
Greater than 150 Days (5 Months)	Director, RFO	Director Calls and/or Emails Sponsor with a cc to AVP, Sponsored Programs, Post Award; follows up separately with PI for his/her assistance.
Greater than 180 Days (6 Months)	Assistant Vice President	AVP will lead the following discussions: Involve Collection Department Put account into PAFO/OSP status so that no future charging can occur (if still active) Temporarily suspend programmatic activities and deliverables to Sponsor Stop any and all payments to Sponsor if we have under other sponsored agreements Work with Sponsored Programs – Pre Award to no longer accept awards from this Sponsor

Sponsored Programs, Post Award will work collaboratively with Research Financial Operations, the Sponsor, Department, and Principal Investigator involved to resolve outstanding accounts receivable in a timely manner. Once an invoice remains uncollected for Greater than 270 Days (9 Months), it is the responsibility of the Department and Principal Investigator to remove all unpaid expenditures from the Sponsored Account.

Responsible Parties

617-353-4100

Subject	Contact	Phone
Process Invoices Process Payments Collection of Outstanding ARAccounts Receivable	Research Financial Operations Sponsored Programs, Post Award	617-353-4555
Collection of Outstanding AR	Collection Department	617-353-4100

History

This procedure was adopted in November 2014; updated June 2022