Abbreviations and Definitions

Terms Definitions
ACH Automated Clearing House is used for the electronic transfer of funds and payments.
Allowable Purchase Allowable Purchases are purchases made by NCSU employees that are in the best interests of the university to include supporting the mission of the institution to include; academic, research, and extension. See the NCSU Basic Spending Guidelines.
AP (University Office) Accounts Payable (University Office) is a department within the University Controller’s Office that ensures all university expenditures maintain compliance with state, federal, and university policies and procedures, while serving the unique needs of university faculty, staff, students, guests, and vendors.
AP (CBO) Accounts Payable (CBO) is an area under CBO Business Services that processes Journal Vouchers, Vouchers, Requisitions, and MarketPlace approvals for CALS.
AR (University Office) Accounts Receivable (University Office) is a department within the University Controller’s Office that collects all payments for goods/services offered by NCSU, where an invoice has been generated by NCSU. It is also the department that handles wire payments to NCSU to ensure they are credited to the appropriate project/phase. They also collect all payments from extramurally funded sponsored agencies in support of sponsored program activities. They perform collections on all NCSU invoices that have not been paid after 120 days (utilize third-party collection agency).
AR (CBO) Accounts Receivable (CBO) is an area under CBO Business Services that receives and processes deposits for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for all ledgers, such as; receipt projects, state/federal projects (reimbursement of expense), and discretionary and trust funds. Accounts Receivable processes Interdepartmental Transactions (IDTs), to include internal billing for CALS where a good or service has been provided to another NCSU college or department. The A/R office also processes external billing requests to invoice external customers that use NCSU goods or services. In addition to billing, they perform light collections when an invoice has reached 30, 60, and 90-day non-payment.
Budget Office The Budget Office assists departments with budget projections and spending plans for their diverse budget portfolios, which include state and federal appropriations, distance education, sales and service, Education and Technology Fees (ETF), Facility and Administration (F&A) funds, restricted trust funds, discretionary funds, and endowment investment income.
Business POCs The Business Points of Contact are designated individuals within a department who is responsible for communicating with the units within the CBO and performing a wide variety of administrative tasks pertinent to their specific area of expertise. This person could be a Business Services Coordinator, a HR representative, or another designated individual(s).
Business Services CALS Business Services consists of Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable supervised by Accounting Supervisors for each respective program to include travel, PCard, accounts payable, and account receivable.
CAMS Capital Assets Management System is a department of the University Controller’s Office that manages physical assets on campus.
Capacity Grants Capacity Grants are federal funds provided to land-grant institutions to further the research and extension programs in each state. Each capacity grant is governed by the legislative act that instituted the program.
C&G Contracts & Grants consists of two groups: Pre-Award and Post Award. These groups work with CALS faculty on the Pre-Award submission of proposals and the Post Award administration of contracts & grants awarded to NC State University, including financial administration, effort reporting, and financial regulation compliance.
CALS College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
CBO The CALS Business Operations (CBO) is the central business-processing unit for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The CBO strives to provide fast, efficient customer service for faculty and staff, with a focus on solving problems and supporting projects and departments while maintaining compliance with college, university, state and federal regulations.
CBO Help For assistance, you can email the CBO at: cbo_help@ncsu.edu.
Chain of Custody Chain of custody refers to the documentation that records the acquisition, transfer, and disposal of FEPP property.
CN Continuing Year is a designation of a type of budget journal in which the funding stays within that project into future years.
COI Conflict of Interest 
Cost Share Cost sharing indicates that more than one sponsor will share in the costs associated with a project.
CUI Controlled Unclassified Information
CY Current Year is a designation of a type of budget journal in which that budget allocation only remains within that project in the current fiscal year.
Discretionary Funds Discretionary funds are non-appropriated funds that provide additional flexibility but still fall within University spending guidelines. Discretionary funds are provided by Donors or external organizations.
EHRA Employee EHRA employees are academic, research, and professional personnel positions exempt from the State Human Resources Act (EHRA) except faculty reappointment, promotion, and tenure processes.
ERA Enterprise Research Administration
Equipment Equipment is an item that is non-expendable, tangible, or of personal property that has a useful life of more than one year AND an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more.
ETF Educational and Technology Fees are student fees paid to the university that are distributed back into the college to enhance the student experience.
Fabricated Equipment Fabricated Equipment is an item that is built or assembled in its original form from individual parts by a PI and/or other sponsored project personnel or an internal/external shop. The sum of the parts must cost $5,000 or more and have a useful life of more than one year.
Facility Manager A Facility Manager is a CALS Faculty or Staff Member who is responsible for a Service Center. This would include identifying the need for a Service Center rate, incurring associated costs, and submitting invoices. Responsible for renewing the rate after a two-year period.
F&A Facilities and Administrative are revenues returned to the college based on the amount generated on competitive grants.
Federal Fiscal Year Federal Fiscal Year is the federal government’s fiscal year (October 1st– September 30th.)
FEPP The Federal Excess Personal Property program allows for universities with agricultural research or extension programs to borrow excess property from the USDA to further the goals of those agricultural research or extension programs.
Fleet Card Gas cards, called Fleet Cards, are issued to pay for gas and minor vehicle repairs.
Fringe Benefits Fringe Benefits are a percentage of the total salary for each category of employee, intended to cover four types of employee benefits – retirement plan contributions, federal taxes, insurance costs, and the fixed benefit composite rate. The rate at which these benefits are charged to the sponsor is determined by the category of employee.
FTE Full Time Equivalent is a designation related to employee’s effort.
FY Future Year is a designation of a type of budget journal in which that budget allocation remains within that project for a future year.
FYTD Fiscal Year to Date
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
Green Zone Part of the 20 & 5 Policy when a PI submits a proposal 20 business days prior to the PI’s deadline.
HR Human Resources
IACUC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
IDB Interdepartmental Billing is used to process the billing of a product or a service between different University Projects.
IDJ Interdepartmental Journal is used to record all non-transfer Journal entries between two separate departments. This includes reimbursements, corrections and reclassification.
IDS Interdepartmental Sales is used to record the sale, or the refund of a previous sale, of a product or a service between different University Projects.
IDT Interdepartmental Transfer is the process in which departments within the University bill each other for goods or services or share expenses.
IRB Institutional Review Board
JV Journal Vouchers are used to move funds to/from projects that have been identified as being placed on the incorrect project/phase.
Ledger 5 Ledger 5 is a term used to describe a competitive sponsored grant.
LI Legislative Increase are salary increases approved by the state legislature.
MyPack Portal The MyPack Portal provides NC State University Students, Parents, Faculty, and Staff with access to the Student Information System (SIS), Human Resources Systems (HR), and Financial Systems (FIN).
NCARS N.C. Agricultural Research Service
NCSU North Carolina State University
NCURA National Council of University Research Administrators
NIH National Institutes of Health
NOI Notice of Intent
NSF National Science Foundation
OIT Office of Information Technology
OUC Organization Unit Codes are used to record all expenditures made by departments.
PAC Post-Award Consultant
PCard The University Purchasing Card is a Visa corporate liability credit card used by approved employees for legitimate NC State University business purchases.
PDU Proposal Development Unit
PHS Public Health Service
PI Principal Investigator is the individual who commits time and effort to ensure research related to competitive grants is completed.
PINS Project Information Navigation System is an electronic system used to track proposal data and to verify approvals from all faculty and administrators involved in submitting a particular proposal. The use of the PINS system is a required part of the submission process for all proposals submitted by all university faculty.
PMR Project Modification Request
PO Purchase Order 
Pre-AC Pre-Award Consultant
Pre-AM Pre-Award Manager
Project A Project is a six-digit number that designates the type of funding.
Project Responsible Person The Project Responsible Person is the designated individual(s) responsible for managing project resources and ensuring appropriate use of the resources. This may be a Principal Investigator, a Co-PI, a Business POC, and/or other project personnel.
RA Research Administration
RCR Responsible Conduct in Research
RADAR Research Administration Date and Reports is an online system for monitoring and recording all award actions. It is used by SPARCS to store proposal and award data. It also allows campus users to run queries and reports on sponsored project data.
RDO Research Development Office
ReAlls Payroll Reallocations are used to change a historical salary payment.
Reconciliation Deadline Any Purchase (PCard) Card activity requires the cardholder to upload receipts in sufficient time to be received and reconciled by established monthly deadlines. It is recommended to upload receipts no later than 3 days after a purchase is made.
RED Research Enterprise Data System
Red Zone Part of the 20 & 5 Policy where a PI submits a proposal within 5 business days of the PI’s deadline.
RCS Research Support Council
Req Requisitions
RFP Request for Proposals
Reporter Reporter is the University learning management software system.
SAR System Access Request is an internal system used to gain access to other relevant systems.
SDC Salary Distribution Change is used to update the allocations of future salaries.
ServiceNow ServiceNow is the University’s document intake system allowing users to input and maintain documents. ServiceNow provides self-service tools and knowledge base articles to help students, faculty, and staff find answers to common questions.
SHRA Employee SHRA Employees that are covered by the State Human Resources Act (SHRA) and carry out a wide range of activities in support of NC State’s mission of education, research, and extension.
SME Subject Matter Expert 
SOP Standard Operating Procedures
SPARCS Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance Services facilitates the submission of proposals, negotiation of agreements, the administration of internally and externally funded projects, and the administration of subagreements that provide funding to the University. This includes all aspects of externally sponsored research and scholarship, from pre-award management to non-fiscal post-award management.
State Fiscal Year State Fiscal Year is the state government’s fiscal year (July 1st– June 30th.)
Statement Deadline Any Purchase (PCard) cardholder account with activity during a billing cycle must submit an approved statement by the published deadline. Statements not approved and finalized by the published deadline will be considered late and may be placed on spending hold.
Subaward/Segment subaward, or segment, is an agreement to sub part of an award internally to another University entity.
Subcontract A subcontract is an agreement with an external entity.
TA A Travel Authorization is used to request approval for a business-related trip. In this document, the traveler indicates trip destination(s), purpose, dates of travel, and estimated cost for the trip.
TEARS The Employee Activity Reporting System is a system that is used to record effort reporting and cost share setup related to federal funds.
TR A Travel Reimbursement is when a traveler incurs costs associated with their approved travel, which may include; airfare, lodging, meals, rental car, and/or other approved costs.
Travel Status Travel Status occurs when an employee is away from their duty station or home while traveling for University business, and acting in an official capacity as approved by the employee’s supervisor, CALS, and the University.
Unallowable Charges Unallowable Charges are transactions that do not fall within the spending guidelines/regulations for each funding source.
Unallowable Purchase Unallowable Purchases are purchases made by NCSU employees that are unauthorized or for personal use. See the NCSU Basic Spending Guidelines.
Unity ID Unity ID is the number given to faculty, staff, and students used to identify their specific record within the University.
WRS WolfPack Reporting System is used to access financial data.
Yellow Zone Part of the 20 & 5 Policy where a PI submits a proposal within 20 business days of the PI’s deadline.