FAQs - Charging, Billing, Paying



How do I know what rates apply for using various instrumentation and tools?

Prior to gaining access to RIMS, you can consult the web sites of the various user facilities to learn their respective rates and charges.  After you have a RIMS account, you can access the fee and pricing information in the Product Management option under the Applications dropdown menu.  The product list there can be narrowed by product type for more manageable review of the lengthy list, and then the pricing for academic and non-academic use is available under the view option for each product.  CAUTION:  Product pricing in the Product Manager does not include Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs which are applied to internal budgets when the charges are billed and external accounts when the invoices are generated.


How can I get a cost estimate for my work to share with my advisor?

The technical staff members working in the user facilities can work closely with you to cost out a price estimate for the work you would like to have done.  While you can view the product pricing and rate schedules, it is a good idea to have the technical staff members weigh in on how long the project work will take and, therefore, how that figures in to the cost.


How can I find out what the price is of a supply item or consumable I want to purchase through RIMS for my work?

You can access the fee and pricing information for general and specialty supply items (as well as other product types) in the Product Management option under the Applications dropdown menu in RIMS.  The product list there can be narrowed by product type for more manageable review of the lengthy list, and then the pricing for academic and non-academic use is available under the view option for each product.  CAUTION: Product pricing in the Product Manager does not include Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs which are applied to internal budgets when the charges are billed and external accounts when the invoices are generated.


What is IBIS?

IBIS stands for Integrated Business Information System and is the University’s accounting mainframe system.  RIMS and UFIS both “talk” with IBIS on a daily basis to ensure that the billing project information for the facilities is current and valid according to the accounting system and the terms of the respective award or contract.


When are Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs added?

Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs, sometimes referred to as indirect costs or overhead, are applied to internal budgets when the charges are billed to the IBIS system.  F&A costs are added to external account invoices at the time the invoice is generated.  CAUTION: F&A costs are not included within RIMS on any screens or reports showing billing totals or pricing. When reviewing charges and prices within RIMS, be advised to account also for the respective F&A costs that will be applied at the time of billing/invoicing.


How do I create a new billing account/project?

From the “Add, Change, Delete Billing Account or Modify User Profile” option on the right sidebar of the www.rims.psu.edu page, internal users will access the UFIS system to request addition of a new billing account.  Required fields to request a new billing account include Budget Number, Campus, Fund, Funding Source, PI Access Account User ID, and PI E-mail.  Make sure you have gotten this required information from your advisor or billing contact prior to trying to submit the request.  Tip/Trick:  Even though Funding Source is a required field, the choice of “Unknown” appears in the dropdown list to satisfy the required field setting without having to know the source of grant funding at the time of the request.  New billing accounts for external users are established as part of the overall paperwork process that external users go through with the facilities administrative and technical staff to create an external account. The UFIS system is not set up to accommodate external users with Friends of Penn State accounts.


How do I delete a billing project on my list that is no longer valid?

From the “Add, Change, Delete Billing Account or Modify User Profile” option on the right sidebar of the www.rims.psu.edu page, internal users will access the UFIS system to request the account deletion.  A grid of active billing accounts appears on the main UFIS page with a red “X” in the far right column to permanently delete the billing account from UFIS, and then correspondingly from RIMS.


What is SIRO?

- see Glossary –


Who am I e-mailing when I use the generic RIMS e-mail address?

The rims@psu.edu e-mails go to a shared mailbox that is monitored by several facilities operations staff members to ensure that your e-mail is acknowledged and answered in a timely fashion.


When will I be invoiced for the work my research group members do in the facilities?

RIMS billing is based on a monthly billing cycle for invoice generation and distribution.  Around the 5th of each month, PIs receive their previous month invoices as PDF documents attached to an e-mail message from rims.psu.edu.  For example, invoices for November are issued around the 5th of December.  Billing contacts for the projects simultaneously receive a copy of the e-mail messages and attached invoices.


When I receive my monthly invoices, how do I pay my bill?

Within five working days of receiving monthly invoices, PIs and billing contacts should review the invoices and e-mail rims.psu.edu with discrepancies or questions.  At the end of the fifth working day, internal invoice totals will be uploaded to the IBIS accounting system to direct bill the respective grants and accounts for each billing project invoice.  External invoice payment should be remitted to the address on the invoice, terms net 30.  External payment can be made in the form of check (preferable) or by credit card for small invoices.


Who do I contact if I have questions about charges that appear on my monthly invoice?

If you have questions about charges that appear on your monthly invoice, please e-mail rims@psu.edu to discuss your invoice and questions/issues as soon as you receive it but no later than five working days after you receive it.  Better yet, take a look periodically throughout the month via the Project Transaction Data report in RIMS to monitor invoice charges prior to final invoice generation.  CAUTION:  Pricing shown on the Project Transaction Data report does not include Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs which are applied to internal budgets when the charges are billed and external accounts when the invoices are generated.


What if I selected the wrong project in error when I used an instrument in the facilities?

Immediately upon realizing that you selected the wrong project, contact the technical staff member in the facilities to request that your transaction be adjusted to reflect the correct project.  Or you can also e-mail rims@psu.edu to request the transaction adjustment.  CAUTION:  You must request the transaction change prior to billing closing for the month to avoid the incorrect invoicing of the charge.  Billing closes the 5th working day of the following month.


What if I forgot to log off when I finished in the facility?

If you forgot to log off when you finished your work in the facility, you can log into RIMS from any computer and log yourself off.  Then e-mail the technical staff member in the facility where you worked to ask them to adjust the transaction unit total.  Or you can e-mail rims@psu.edu to request the transaction adjustment.  CAUTION: You must request the transaction change prior to billing closing for the month to avoid the incorrect invoicing of the charge.  Billing closes the 5th working day of the following month.


How do I know how many minutes a transaction is in hour units?

If you are checking your transactions and want to make sure the units are correct, there is a "Minutes=Hours Reference Table" posted online here for your convenient reference if you are thinking in terms of minutes instead of the RIMS hour units.


How can I see what charges are on my project for this month?

There are several places in RIMS where users can see their own charges:  (1) the Transaction Manager and (2) under Applications, Reports, in the Project Transaction Data report.  CAUTION:  Product pricing in the Product Manager does not include Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs which are applied to internal budgets when the charges are billed and external accounts when the invoices are generated.


Why is my billing account/project closed?

The primary reason your RIMS billing account/project may be closed is if the account end date in the IBIS accounting system has passed.  RIMS “talks” with IBIS on a daily basis to synch project end dates with account end dates.  Per University and Federal grant management policy, charges cannot be incurred on a project/account after the account end date.  The facilities technical or administrative staff cannot provide a replacement account for work to continue without disruption.  Your department or unit is responsible for providing that replacement account number—either on another project that the user will now be working on or an advance fund number assigned by Research Accounting to bridge the gap between the account closing and establishment of a new account or subsequent year funding increment.  Your department billing contact will need to e-mail rims@psu.edu to let us know if the end date in IBIS has been extended for a closed project because RIMS only synchs open project data with IBIS daily.


Why else could my billing account/project be closed if the account end date is IBIS is valid?

If you know that you project’s end date in IBIS is still valid, another less likely reason that your RIMS billing account/project may be closed is that we received a request from your PI and/or Billing Contact to close the project because the balance is running low or some other administrative reason.  You can e-mail rims@psu.edu to inquire about why your account is closed, but ultimately, you will need to talk with your advisor and/or department billing contact for guidance and direction on continuing your facilities usage.  And your advisor or department billing contact will need to e-mail rims@psu.edu to have the project reopened for your use when they wish to do so.  We can’t accept an e-mail from a user saying that his/her PI says the project can be reopened.


What do I do when I get an e-mail message that my billing project is closing in 30 days or in 14 days?

When you get the 30-day or 14-day notice that your billing project is closing, you need to follow up ASAP with your advisor and/or department billing contact to see what the plan is for continuing your work in the facility.  Note that your PI and department billing contact also receive these advance-notice e-mails of the upcoming account end date.  Therefore, your PI may already be thinking about switching you to work on another project, or he/she may already be working with the department on a grant extension, subsequent year increment, or an advance fund number.  Unfortunately, the account end date in IBIS doesn’t update until the paperwork is completed for extensions, increments, and advance fund numbers.  And that means that the RIMS project date will continue to synch daily to match the IBIS end date because that is where we draw the information from for billing projects.  If the IBIS update is done prior to the RIMS project closing, it will be caught and updated in the daily synch between the two systems.  If the IBIS update is done after the RIMS project has already closed, your department billing contact will need to e-mail rims@psu.edu to let us know because RIMS only synchs open project data with IBIS daily.


Why is there an issue with my billing account/project closing when this is only the end of the first year of my three-year grant?

Multi-year award accounts are set up in IBIS differently depending on how the award paperwork is written by the sponsor and Penn State’s sponsored programs office.  Even though it is clear on paper that your grant is for three years, it may be set up to hit IBIS in three one-year increments .  Often times, this is tied to the annual grant reporting requirements set in place by the sponsor because they want to review progress and monitor activity prior to releasing the subsequent year ‘s increment.  Unfortunately, this may create a gap between the IBIS end date from the first year and when the second year increment date is processed in the IBIS system.  Our recommendation is that you get the dialogue going as far as possible in advance of the increment end date between you, your billing contact, academic department, college or unit research office, and the sponsor to move the paperwork along and avoid such a gap.  Realistically, even with weeks (or months) of advance planning and dialogue, there may be “wrinkles” that prevent the disbursement of the increment prior to the end date of the previous year’s increment.  When that is the case, we cannot violate University and Federal grant management policy to put charges on an account after the end date.  Your department or unit is responsible for pursuing an advance fund number through Research Account to bridge the gap between the account closing and the next year funding increment.  Your department billing contact will need to e-mail rims@psu.edu with the advance fund number when it is created so we can process the project request/update in RIMS.


What do I do when I get an e-mail message that my billing project is NOW closed?

You can e-mail rims@psu.edu to inquire about why your account is closed, but ultimately, you will need to talk with your advisor and/or department billing contact for guidance and direction on continuing your facilities usage.  And your advisor or department billing contact will need to e-mail rims@psu.edu to have the project reopened for your use when they wish to do so.  We can’t accept an e-mail from a user saying that his/her PI says the project can be reopened.


How do I keep my project from closing if my department is getting the account extended?

The only way to keep your RIMS project from closing the day after the IBIS account end date is if your advisor, in conjunction with the billing contact, academic department, college or unit research office and the sponsor, arranges for the IBIS account end date to be extended.  As soon as the formal paperwork for a grant extension, subsequent year funding, or advance fund number is processed, the IBIS information will be updated.  If the IBIS update is done prior to the RIMS project closing, it will be caught and updated in the daily synch between the two systems.  If the IBIS update is done after the RIMS project has already closed, your department billing contact will need to e-mail rims@psu.edu to let us know because RIMS only synchs open project data with IBIS daily.