Lab Admin/Staff Handbook

Contacts and FYI

Duties and Responsibilities

Important Contacts

Calendars

Perks

Training Sessions

  • Training sessions offered through the Center for Workplace Development can be accessed on Harvie. Information on other training sessions is sent through the staff@chemistry email list.
  • Safety Training: offered through CCB, with monthly sessions in the Division Room.

Personnel Management

Appointments

Payroll

  • Sick Days: report before Thursday 3 pm of the same week in PeopleSoft, or notify Lisa Ball or Deana Ste. Marie by email

Performance Reviews: in PeopleSoft

Address Changes

  • You and staff personnel: The Payroll Office needs to have up-to-date information on your address.  Should you change your address, make sure to enter your new address in PeopleSoft by using the Employee Self Service Site. Payroll needs this information in order to mail your tax forms at the end of each calendar year.  Also, the tax forms issued by the Payroll Office need to match your address.  In addition to entering your address change in PeopleSoft, please make sure to notify Deana Ste. Marie via e.mail to insure that your personnel record is up-to-date.
  • International personnel: also inform HIO
  • Graduate students: also inform Registrar

Arrival/Orientation Procedures

  • Lab Services: Temporary access card, mailbox
  • Operations: Keys, lab tour
  • Accounts: email, research computing, MessageMe, purchasing (see below), library
  • Safety: sign up for mandatory training sessions through Mathieu Lalonde, fill out relevant forms; note that Visiting Scholars must complete the Risk and Release form
  • Prescription Safety Glasses Form
  • Participation Agreement for OSP
  • Statement of policy on intellectual property
  • Library: orientation, online access (SciFinder, ChemBioDraw)
  • Confirmation of appointment and benefits: ID office, Joe Lavin
  • International fellows: register at International Office
  • Fellowship/Grant Holders
    • All postdocs anticipating or currently receiving grant support
           should speak to your assigned SSRA.
      • All NRSA postdoctorals must take a course in the Responsible Conduct of Research, Chem 305qc, offered in January and August.
    • Tax Implications of Fellowships: see Joe Lavin
  • Purchasing: HCOM setup, instrument facilities access
  • Instrument use: contact individual facilities directly for training and access codes to calendars
  • Crimson Cash

Departure Procedures

  • Return of keys, temporary access cards and other swipe cards
  • Postdoc termination if date is early
  • Cancellation of accounts: stockroom, purchasing, mailbox, instrument facilities
  • Forwarding address and email address to John Randazzo and lab admin
  • Desk cleanup: Delegation of chemicals, glassware, equipment, lab book

Financial Management

ABLE

OFARA: your in-house resource for questions

FAS Financial Office

  • a resource for policies and forms ranging from gifts to journal transfers
  • contains official travel spending policy

Object Codes for Sponsored Research

Record Keeping

  • General Records Management
  • Retention Periods for Research-Related Documentation
    • Non-sponsored research: 4 years following end of fiscal year
    • Sponsored research: 6 years after final account closing unless granting agency specifies longer
    • Audit reports: 5 years following end of fiscal year in which audit is completed
    • Unfunded proposals: 3 years following unfavorable notification
    • Note: disposal of records is not mandated by GRS

Purchasing/Reimbursements

  • Finance Office Contacts in CCB: your portfolio manager and SSRA, or general at ofara@chemistry.harvard.edu
  • Update new group membership lists with account breakdowns on a regular basis.
  • Inside Harvard purchases
    • CCB Facilities charges -- Billed monthly, reconcile with Mary Mucci
    • Other facilities charges -- MCB, LISE, SEAS, reconcile with designated contacts
    • Lab Services Charges – Billed monthly or quarterly (e.g. for hazardous waste) based on actual use, order slips retained in financial office.
  • Outside Harvard purchases
    • P-Card – procured through Financial Office
      • Not to be used for purchase of chemicals, animals or animal-related products, travel expenses, internal services (e.g. technology product center) or goods and services from unincorporated vendors, or gift certificates or gifts over $75.
      • Not to be used for conference fees without an approved Exception Request form     
      • Submit original receipts to the Finance Office, attached to sweep report, at least one week before sweep date. A Missing Receipt Report must be filed if the original receipt is unavailable.
      • Retain copies of sweep report and original receipts for at least four years.
      • Telecommunications charges require a signed Telecommunications Payment Request Form attached to sweep report.
      • Business descriptions on sweep report must show business purpose.
      • Warning: The Director of CCB may confiscate your PCard if you fail to comply with CCB PCard policies.
    • HCOM Vendors – these include postdocs and visitors as well as merchant or service providers
      • All vendor setup information, including changes, is entered using Vendor Request within the Oracle e-Business Suite
      • Foreign nationals require a FNIF
      • Forms including Tax-Exempt certificates: see OFARA site
      • Equipment orders in HCOM require quotation, VJF, new tag number obtained from John Randazzo, PAF if >$50K and Debarment form if >$15K and authorization from SSRA, all as attachments
      • Business meals
        • for Instructional Lunch Fund, see George O'Shea, Coordinator in Gregg Tucci's office -- teaching fellows are instructed about reimbursement process during their orientation
        • for spending limits (lunch, dinner, by faculty, or by group members), see your Portfolio Manager

 

Travel

  • FAS Travel Policy
  • Use Corporate Card, not PCard for travel expenses.
  • Travel Advances Charged to Sponsored Projects
  • Travel and Reimbursement Fund 016632
    • Travel and Reimbursement fund must be zeroed out in the general ledger no later than June 16th.
    • If a Lab has already submitted a reimbursement request to the sponsoring institution, and if payment is not received by June 23, please contact Lisa Ball with payment information.
    • If reimbursement in full will not be made, a journal voucher transferring non-reimbursable expenses to another discretionary account is needed. Please refer to year end closing schedules for journal deadlines (on Finance Office web page).
  • Harvard Preferred Travel Agencies
  • Per Diem
    • Can be used if there is proof of travel (useful when postdocs attend conference and don't have all receipts)
  • Required Documentation for Travel Reimbursements
    • If there are many receipts, these can be listed on a spreadsheet with explanatory notes (e.g., if one or two are missing).
    • Missing Receipts
    • 60-Day Policy
    • Exception Criteria and Requests
    • Exception Request Form
    • Non-reimbursable Expenses

Gifts

  • Inquiries about Gifts
  • Determination of Gift or Grant
  • Establishment of Gift Account
    • Check made out to Harvard University
    • Accompanied by original letter from donor organization and postmarked envelope
    • New account is in 370-31230-300000 series
  • Gift Check Processing: through Lisa Ball
    • Include original letter from donor organization with postmarked envelope.
    • Include cover sheet containing 33-digit string.
    • Give all checks to Diane Beebe or place in an inter-departmental envelope for Lisa's mailbox.
    • Checks received after 12/31 without postmarked envelope are processed as gifts for the following calendar year.
  • Gift Funds are Non-Income Bearing
  • Transfers to/from gift accounts Not Allowed - Harvard must fulfill stewardship obligation in showing that gift is spent in accordance with donor's wishes

Unrestricted Designated Accounts

  • Used to separate and track certain activities, e.g. royalty income or a workshop
  • Repository for income that is special purpose but isn't gift or grant
  • Income-Bearing
  • Fund numbers in 016000 range

Industry Sponsored Research Agreements

Grants and Sponsored Fellowships

  • OSP Site
  • GMAS
  • FAS Research Site
  • Funding Sources
  • Private Funding Sources
  • RAS website
  • CREW
    • More Reports in CREW
    • Recommendations: run Periodic Expense Report and Detail Listing monthly for all grants, and run Invalid Code Combinations
    • DL: review individual transactions to determine if all charges are appropriate and accurate
      • See the Committed Funds Report to track the status of purchases that have been approved, but have not yet posted to the General Ledger for payment.
    • PER: see current financial position of a given account and monitor its financial activity over a specific time interval
    • ICC: identifies transactions posted to an invalid activity/subactivity/fund combination; or do a DL using the parameter activity only (not fund+activity); ICC transactions should be corrected promptly or else they must be posted to unrestricted accounts.
  • GMAS
    • View active projects on PI page and Segment homepage
    • Check that previous Segments have been closed
    • Submit new project segments and budgets
  • Cost Transfers
    • Journals requests are submitted using the Automated Data Interface to ccbjournalrequest@chemistry.harvard.edu.
    • A Cost Transfer Form is not necessary when removing salary from a federal fund to a non-federal or unrestricted fund.
      • The subsequent Monthly Salary Certification will capture the federal fund adjustment.
      • It is advised that the Lab Administrator staple it to the prior period's Monthly Salary Certification as back-up documentation of recertification.
      • OFARA will follow the same procedure: this will be the process of recertification in lieu of the non-required Cost Transfer Form.
    • Expenses cannot be transferred to an account with a deficit balance.
    • Follow year logic on grants, particularly NIH fellowships.
    • Be mindful of benefits costing in Asperin - not linked to stipend.
  • Effort Reporting = Compliance
    • Account coding changes for lab admins and staff (excluding grad students and postdocs): requests should be forwarded to your SSRA to verify allowability, with copies sent to Deana Ste. Marie for processing in ASPERIN.
    • Salary overruns can be paid from unrestricted accounts, though effort should be certified on original grant. Raises Cost Sharing issue (see Cost Sharing above).
  • Interest Policy
    • Non-federal grants and awards accrue interest based on the prior month surplus balance, annual rate of 1%
  • Compliance
    • Hotline: 1-877-694-2275
  • Inventions and Invention Reporting
  • Award (Post)
    • Account Reconciliation
      • See Cost Transfer guidelines above.
      • Reconcile closed accounts within 30 days of actual project end date to avoid problems at 90 days.
      • Run Invalid Code Combinations report.
    • Account Disabling
      • In GMAS, check on PI page to see that account is closed or active
      • If active, check Segment homepage under Accounts
      • If active, navigate to Accounts, click Main and look at account financials
      • Also view Chart of Accounts, look under Subactivity to see if GL feed reads "Ready to be Disabled"
      • Run DL Lite of activity and subactivity only (Not Fund) to view inappropriate charges
  • Auditing

Group Lab Functions Management

In the lab

  • Equipment
    • Sponsored Research Policies
      • This page contains information on equipment purchases and enhancements, fabrications, inventory, useful lives, transfer, and disposal/donation.
  • Chemical inventory
    • Chemicals of Interests
      • Process
      • FQA's
  • Material Transfers
    • If academic lab or not-for-profit is the other party, a Simple Letter Agreement should be used.
    • If company is the other party, transactions must be facilitated by Office for Technology Development.
  • Intellectual Property Policy
  • Group time allocations: vacation/absence reports
  • Group jobs (maintenance/ordering)
  • Visitors
    • Risk and Release form
  • Safety issues
    • Although as a laboratory administrator you will not be conducting experiments, you will be in the vicinity of instruments and chemicals that you may not be familiar with. Should you ever have any questions or concerns regarding the objects or materials near your work environment, feel free to contact the Department's Science Safety Officer. The Safety Officer will make every effort to provide you with relevant information and/or follow-up with the relevant researchers while maintaining your anonymity.
  • Energy Savings

General lab services

    • Telephones
      • Additions/Changes to service or equipment: see John Randazzo
    • Network services
    • Alcohol use questions: see John Randazzo

Computing

Library

Student Activities

  • Study Cards
    • Students complete these online by going to my.harvard.edu pages.
    • Instructions for creating the study card: under "Courses" tab.
    • Contact info changes, also for emergency contacts: under "Campus Resources" tab. Make sure students print these out and give to you.
    • Study card signatures are to be obtained by the students: from Tony Shaw (Co-Director of Graduate Studies), from your PI for research courses, by course professors if necessary.
    • Submission: Can be done individually, but some groups appoint a person to collect and file them.
    • Late filing of study cards = $40 fee.
  • Rotations
    • Information about the rotations process is in the Faculty Handbook, maintained in the Director's Office. Although rotations are assigned there, it is up to lab admins to make sure that students are assigned mentors and work projects, have a chance to meet other group members, and get a sense of how business is conducted in the lab. Rotation schedules become available on a staggered basis, beginning in October. Each segment lasts either four or eight weeks, depending on student preference.
  • Open House
    • During open houses, first-year students get a chance to meet group members and to learn about the different research projects underway in the group and/or potential research. Barbara Anderson contacts groups in September to schedule open houses during the fall term. These should not conflict with major seminars or absence of the professor, and should be attended by all group members. Costs for refreshments and advertising are borne by individual groups; frequently the department subsidizes a small portion of refreshment costs. Venues can vary from individual seminar rooms to Pfizer (no refreshments allowed inside) to the Department Center (reserve through John Randazzo).
  • Room Reservations
    • Department Center and adjacent small rooms: contact John Randazzo
    • Pfizer Lecture Hall and Cabot Division room: contact Barbara Anderson
    • Bauer Lobby, Naito Lobby: contact Mike Paterno
  • Poster Printing
  • Group Meetings
    • When scheduling open houses, Barbara Anderson will ask for a list of planned (or tentative) group meetings for the fall term, which potential group members could attend. A list showing location and time of meetings of the full group and any subgroups if appropriate, with titles of the talks and names of speakers, with contact numbers for key people, is helpful for circulation to the first-year grad students. Some groups post meeting schedules on the group website.
  • Oral Exams
    • These are scheduled twice during a student's progress toward the Ph.D. degree: 1) any time between the second and fourth years for the independent research proposal and 2) at the conclusion of research when there is a public presentation of the student's work followed by a private defense before the dissertation committee. Responsibility for scheduling the exams lies with the student. Exams can be scheduled in group seminar rooms or Cabot Division Room. Make sure that the student notifies the Department Office of the venue and time of all exams. The Dissertation Defense packet (described below) contains a form for scheduling the defense time and place; make sure that this is returned to the Department Office.
  • The Ph.D. Dissertation
    • Students cleared to write their dissertations should come to the Department Office to pick up a folder containing the Application for Degree form and materials covering dissertation preparation and submission. For their convenience, we have posted the GSAS instructions for dissertation format on the CCB website, on the Graduate Programs page. They are given here as a reference. Please ensure that students do not rely on previous group dissertations when formatting is in question, particularly for the abstract; the instructions are easily available online.

Faculty Support

FAS Policy on External Activities (Grey Book)

Annual Reports

  • The FAS Dean requests, early in the second term, a report on all activities undertaken in the past calendar year. Faculty activity reports should contain all publications, courses taught, students supervised, committee responsibilities, new external research funding committed, honors and awards received, and service at the external level (such as participation on journal editorial boards, NIH study sections, ACS board service, e.g.) and/or consulting activities. The Dean's office notifies faculty and lab admins when the electronic interface for the faculty activity report submission period is ready.

References and Citations

  • On the Library Database webpage, use both the Science Citation Index and PubMed to keep current with faculty publications. In addition, SciFinder Scholar (available through Marcia Chapin in the library) provides sophisticated search options.

CCB Faculty Academic Handbook

  • The Director's office issues the handbook at infrequent intervals. It contains information about the Ph.D. programs: the research proposal and oral exam requirement, rotations, group selection processes, faculty advising (curriculum advising and the 2-4-6 timeline), and course descriptions and schedules. The final section, entitled Resources, describes the CCB Advisory Council and includes information about counseling facilities on campus devoted to academic or emotional difficulties, harrassment, and professional development. Faculty in general don't spend too much time referring to these, so it's a good idea to keep it handy as a reference.

Meetings (including conferences and parties)

  • Reserving Rooms: consult latest list from director's office
  • Reserving audiovisual equipment: see John Randazzo
  • Coffee setup: see John Randazzo
  • Champagne glasses: see John Randazzo
  • Poster printing

Teaching

  • Coursepack Services
  • Non-local: contact Josh Phillips at www.xanedu.com, booklets will be distributed through the Coop
  • Local: secure copyright permissions at www.copyright.com, have booklets printed and distributed at Flashprint
  • Textbooks and Review Copies
  • Reserve Book Lists:
    • * Copies should be given to Marcia Chapin in the CCB library and to the Cabot Science Library (if undergraduate course)
    • * Lists should be submitted well ahead of time if new books must be ordered, and in any case by two weeks before the course begins.
  • Library (if undergraduate course)
    • Lists should be submitted well ahead of time if new books must be ordered, and in any case by two weeks before the course begins.
  • Academic Technology Group
    • The ATG of FAS Computer Services offers workshops for faculty and course staff to learn to develop and administer course websites using Course iSites. Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows (PITFs) and ATG staff are available to consult with faculty about setting up course websites, developing course web resources, or using any of the administrative and pedagogical tools in Course iSites. PITFs hold daily drop-in consulting hours in the Science Center. Visit the website for the schedule, or email atg@fas.harvard.edu to set up an appointment.

      Small Courses without Teaching Fellows: Faculty who teach small courses can register with ATG to have the Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows post documents to their course websites during the term. Please contact atg@fas.harvard.edu for more information or to register for this service.
  • Course Catalogue
  • Q-Guide Evaluations

Travel

Alumni

  • The Director's Office maintains a file of all CCB alumni, both postdocs and graduate students. This file is currently limited to graduate students who earned their PhD's after 1996 and very recent postdoctorals, but contains data on current employment and contact information. Many groups also maintain lists of former co-workers on their group websites together with employment and contact information.

List of lab personnel

Faculty effort (FASERS)

Supplemental Salary Request

  • Faculty may receive compensation on top of their academic year salary for participation in sponsored research, if provision has been made in the corresponding budgets. Requests for supplemental salary are made in the spring, using a form supplied by the financial office.
  • Supplemental salary FAQs

Printing services

Records Management

Rules of Faculty Procedure