Your  Account:

OSP FAQ's

  1. Where do I send my documents?
  2. How do I do a financial or expenditure transfer?
  3. Why are there revenues or expenses in the wrong Dept ID?
  4. How do I get a CSUSM Corporation ProCard?
  5. Are there restrictions for expenses?
  6. I want to purchase software. What do I need to do?
  7. The purchase I want to make exceeds my ProCard limit or I have an issue with my purchase. What do I need to do?
  8. Do I need a hospitality form?
  9. How do I check my balance or activity on my project?
  10. My project activity is not coming up in Data Warehouse. Why not?
  11. What is the difference between a Guest Lecturer Form and an Independent Contractor Agreement?
  12. I want to pay a CSUSM or CSU staff or faculty member. What do I do?
  13. I want to hire a retired CSUSM employee. Can I do that?
  14. What are the travel guidelines?
  15. Can I purchase Gift Cards?
  16. How do I create a purchase order?
  17. How do I get access to CFS/Peoplesoft?
  18. How do I check payment status on an invoice?
  19. Who do I contact?

1. Where do I send my documents?

Invoices to be paid and direct pay forms must be approved by CSUSM Corporation. Generally, the Director of OSP or a Sponsored Project Analyst (SPA) with delegated signature authority reviews and approves requests for sponsored projects.

Purchase requisitions are keyed online by the Principal Investigator (PI) or designee. Please reference the online tutorial for keying purchase requisitions.

Independent contractor agreements should be completed and attached to an online purchase requisition and are keyed by the PI or desginee.  Please reference the online tutorial for keying purchase requisitions.

Financial or expenditure transfer request forms must be completed and emailed to OSP for review and approval. As a courtesy, OSP will forward approved requests to Fiscal Services, with a copy to the requestor, for processing.

Deposits are taken by the requestor to Student Financial Services (SFS), cashier’s office.

ProCard agreement forms can be emailed to corppcard@csusm.edu.

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2. How do I do a financial or expenditure transfer?

Use the Expenditure Transfer Form.

The project and/or account that will incur the expense will be a debit (positive) amount; the project and/or account that will be credited will be a credit (negative (-)) amount. Contact auxiliary accounting for additional help.

Send the completed form to sponsoredprojects@csusm.edu or the assigned SPA for review and approval.

Note: A transfer of funds between CSUSM Corporation and CSUSM is not permitted.  If a university department needs to bill a CSUSM Corporation sponsored project, or if a project needs to invoice a university department, a billing upload will need to be completed.

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3. Why are there revenues or expenses in the wrong Dept ID?

The department ID is not hard-coded with the project. The dept ID is included in the chartfield* string at the time the revenue or expense transaction is submitted. An expenditure transfer request must be completed to correct dept ID errors.

*A chartfield string is defined as... Account – Fund – Dept ID – Class (if applicable) – Project.

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4. How do I get a CSUSM Corporation ProCard?

Complete the ProCard Agreement Form.

The ProCard Agreement Form can be found on the CSUSM Corporation Policies, Procedures and Forms page.

Once the form is complete, it can be emailed to corppcard@csusm.edu. The ProCard administrator will request a card from the bank on the project requestor’s behalf. Once the card has been received by the ProCard administrator, the requestor will be contacted.

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5. Are there restrictions for expenses?

All expenses must comply with sponsor and CSUSM Corporation policies and procedures. The responsibility for expenses is with the PI who may delegate oversight to the department’s admin coordinator or budget analyst. There must be available funds in the project to cover expense(s).   

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6. I want to purchase software. What do I need to do?

Under the Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI) a separate form may need to be completed. For more information please see the procurement website.

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7. The purchase I want to make exceeds my ProCard limit or I have an issue with my purchase. What do I need to do?

Contact the ProCard administrator at corppcard@csusm.edu.

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8. Do I need a hospitality form?

 CSUSM Corporation requires a hospitality form for all hospitality activities. Hospitality expenses include such items as meals, light refreshments, promotional items, gift cards and awards.  All hospitality expenses must follow the guidelines of CSUSM Corporation’s Public Relations Funds Policy and the Hospitality Policy, both found on the CSUSM Corporation website.

For all gift card purchases requesters will be required to complete a hospitality form and the gift card request form. The approved hospitality form must be attached to the gift card request form. For gift cards for CSUSM Corporation Research Participation Incentives with an approved Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol, a hospitality form is not required, please refer to the CSUSM Corporation Gift Card Purchasing Procedures for more information. 

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9. How do I check my balance or activity on my project?

CFS Data Warehouse is used to view and run reports for financial transactions. CFS user guides are available on our website.

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10. My project activity is not coming up in Data Warehouse. Why not?

Make sure the correct business unit is selected. The project may reside in SMFND instead of SMURS and vice versa.

A report will not populate until revenue or expense activity has occurred.

The project may still need to be set up in the system.

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11. What is the difference between a Guest Lecturer Form and an Independent Contractor Agreement?

Guest Lecturer: Effective 7/31/21 the Corporation Guest Lecturer form will no longer be available as all ICs, regardless of length of service, must complete the IC process and forms.

Independent Contractor: The Independent Contractor (IC) performs as a consultant or specialist in an area of expertise and typically provides services over a period of time. The IC agreement is required to be completed and must be submitted to CSUSM Corporation. A purchase order number will be provided once the agreement is received by CSUSM Corporation. Subsequent invoices, which must include the PO number, will be submitted by the IC and approved by the department before submission to A/P for payment. Certain CSU employees may not be engaged as an independent contractor.

If the IC is an NRA, there will be additional steps and forms to complete. For more information, contact CSUSM Corporation HR at 760-750-4700 or hrcorp@csusm.edu.

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12. I want to pay a CSUSM or CSU staff or faculty member.  What do I do?

Faculty and staff members must be paid in accordance to the Overload and Additional Employment Guidelines. You can find the guidelines on the CSUSM Corporation website.

For faculty and exempt employees an Employment Authorization Form (EAF) request must be submitted.  Please see the WuFoo form on the CSUSM Corporation website. Once this is received by CSUSM Corporation a faculty/exempt form will be completed for you.

For non-exempt staff members,  submit a standard EAF form which can be found on the CSUSM Corporation website. For more information about hiring a CSU faculty or staff member you may contact CSUSM Corporation HR at hrcorp@csusm.edu or 760-750-4700.

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13. I want to hire a retired CSUSM employee.  Can I do that?

A retired CSU employee can be hired by CSUSM Corporation with no restrictions, particularly with ‘wait’ time after retirement. The retired employee and the hiring department must complete the necessary new hire paperwork. The newly hired employee will need to participate in a new hire orientation with CSUSM Corporation.  For more information contact CSUSM Corporation HR at hrcorp@csusm.edu or 750-760-4700.

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14. What are the travel guidelines?

Please refer to CSUSM Corporation’s travel policy and the CSUSM guidelines. Be sure to use current request and claim forms.

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15. Can I purchase Gift Cards?

Please refer to CSUSM Corporation’s gift card procedure for more information. 

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16. How do I create a Purchase Order?

Purchase order requisitions are created in the Common Financial System (CFS). Please view the Office of Sponsored Projects Requisition Online Tutorial for information.

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17. How do I get access to CFS/Peoplesoft?

Fill out the Common Financial System Access Form.

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18. How do I check Payment Status on an invoice?

You can check invoice payment status in CFS. Please review this "How To View Payment Status" guide provided by CSUSM's Procurement department.

19. Who do I contact?

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