This page will serve as a resource for those institutions that are completing the annual AACP Financial Survey. Should you have any questions that are not addressed the FAQs below please e-mail Danielle Taylor. Frequently asked questions will be posted on this page to assist college or school staff members who are completing the pilot study. AFO-SIG members will help to provide answers to your questions.

2011-12 Financial Survey Webinar

This Webinar provides a brief overview of the 2011-12 Financial Survey followed by a question and answer session with members of the Administrative and Financial Officers SIG and individuals completing the survey at participating institutions.

Click here to view the recorded Webinar.

Financial Survey: Frequently Asked Questions

Section I: Operational Income

Should internal scholarships be reported under Operational Expenses?

Scholarships from internal accounts should be reported under Operational Expenses. Scholarships from foundation accounts should not be included in operational expenditures, but should still be included in Question #3 in the Key Questions tab of the survey.

Under Other Operational Support in Section I, the instructions mention that income from gifts or contributions from all sources that can spent at the school's discretion should be included. Most of the gift monies that we receive have restrictions associated with their disbursement. Should these grants also be included?

For this question, school's discretion means only that the school makes the decision to spend the funds.  Of course gifts are often restricted as to their use. Include those funds for which the college/school makes the decision on the expenditures. For example, with scholarship funds, if the school makes the decision on who receives scholarships these funds would be included here.

Regarding Section I, our school is a private institution that supports the college with dollars from the university. Our funds are allocated to us with a few exceptions. The survey requests total funds received directly or indirectly which originate from state funding sources. We do not have any state funding sources. How should we report our data?

Please report allocations from the university in column D: state and campus allocations. Although the funds the college receives are not state funds, they are allocated from the university and belong in this column.

Regarding Section I, our tuition and fees are university funds. From this we receive a portion of the tuition and some of the fees directly and indirectly. How should we report our data?

If the allocation from the university distinguished tuition and fees from other allocated funds please report the amount received, by the college for its use, in column E (only report the amount allocated to the college and not the total amount of tuition and fee revenue if a portion is retained by the university). If the allocation does not distinguish tuition and fees, report the full allocation in column D.

Section II: Operational Expenditures

In Section II: Operational Expenditures, do noncapital expenditures include depreciation, amortization, and provision of debt?

Only cash expenditures should be included. Depreciation is not an actual cash expenditure; therefore, do not include those items.

In Section II: Personnel Expenditures, do we only report salaries (not including premiums, awards, and bonuses)? 

If the funds for the premiums, awards, bonuses, etc. are part of your college's budget and those funds were reported in the revenue sections then please include them in the salary line. Use the salary figure that is available in your fiscal year-end financial statements--don't spend a lot of time customizing the data for the survey.

Also under Personnel Expenditures, should we include the entire salary of faculty who generate salary recovery/reimbursement, as technically this portion of their salary is funded by a source external to the college?

Please report any funds that pass through your college, regardless of the source. If the external source is paying the individual directly (e.g., the individual receives a separate paycheck from someone outside of your institution), do not include. If the funds come to the college and are expensed on the college's accounts, report the expenditures.

Also under Personnel Expenditures, should we include those research faculty whose salaries are budgeted on clearing accounts as they are entirely charged out to grants? Technically none of these salaries are actually funded by the college, but again, a sponsor or external source?

If you are reporting the funds from the clearing accounts in your revenue then the expenses also need to be reported. If grants are not included in the "college's funds" because of accounting practices at your institution, but those grants are considered to be "yours" (in other words, the Primary Investigator's faculty appointment is in your college) you should include both the revenue and expense, even though it may not be in your college's fiscal year-end financial statements. This would be added to the salaries report.

Under Personnel Expenditures, how should we report APPE payments to preceptors who are technically considered adjunct faculty?

If your paid preceptors are paid as employees, which from your description they are, then you should include the costs in the salary lines.  To decide whether they should be in the faculty line or the other salary line consider the following: adjunct faculty who have a title of assistant, associate or full professor - include the costs in faculty salary; otherwise, include them in other salary (e.g. if they are instructors, lecturers, etc.).  If your preceptors are paid as vendors, include the cost in non-capital expenditures.

Section III: Research Expenditures

Should research revenues and research expenditures balance (Tab 1, cell T21 and Tab 2, cell J4)?

Yes, please complete the Annual Research Expenditures tab (Tab 2) first and then enter the total from cell J4 into cell T21 on the first tab of the survey.

Section IV: Key Questions

In Question #3 (scholarships), as it relates to Pharm.D. student scholarships, should student awards and payments made to students for travelling to professional conferences on behalf of the college be reported?

Please do not include travel awards in Question #3.

In regards to Question #4 on the Key Questions tab - we have several students in this classification with varying FTEs. How should we respond?

Please respond based on a 0.5 FTE student. 

Question #4 on the Key Questions tab asks about the percentage of M.S. and Ph.D. students with waivers. We provide waivers for all of our research and teaching assistants that releases them from paying the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition. Would these count toward this estimate? Also, who is the denominator for each of these percentages? Is it all graduate students, just TA's, or just RA's and TA's?

Please use the total graduate student enrollment as your denominator. Then count the total number of graduate students that receive waivers for any reason. This may include graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and research assistants; however, it is not limited to job title.

For the average stipend per student the logic is similar except that you are adding up the stipend dollars paid to all of those students enrolled in graduate education programs in your college and then dividing that number by the total number of graduate students (both M.S. and Ph.D.).

Question #5 on the Key Questions tab asks schools to provide information on fellows paid directly from college/school accounts. If these employees are paid from grant or contract funds should we report them?

Please report all sources of funds that pass through your college/school and are used to fund fellowships.  This would include fellowships/dollars paid from grants.

Question #6 on the Key Questions tab is labeled "payments for preceptors." Our school pays the sites directly. Should schools include both preceptor and site payments, or just preceptor payments?

Please include both payments to preceptors and site payments.