Guidance for the Purchase of Personal Computers and Electronic Devices on Sponsored Projects

Key Notes

This document is intended to serve as a guide for the UW ' Madison campus regarding the purchase of basic electronic tools with funds from sponsored projects. Recent changes in Federal regulations make computing devices allowable as direct costs on Federal awards if they meet certain conditions.

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Computing Devices

Computing devices are defined in the Uniform Guidance, 2 CFR §200.20 and 2 CFR §200.94:

• Computing devices means machines used to acquire, store, analyze, process, and publish data and other information electronically, including accessories (or "peripherals") for printing, transmitting and receiving, or storing electronic information.
• A computing device is a supply if the acquisition cost is less than $5,000, regardless of the length of its useful life.

Throughout this guidance document, the term "computing device" will be used interchangeably with "computers" and "electronic devices." Examples of computing devices that are allowable if they are essential and allocable (see below) include:

• Computers - including, but not limited to desktop computers and laptop computers.
• Electronic Devices - including, but not limited to tablets, iPads, e-readers, printers, external hard drives. This is not a complete list and questionable items should be directed to your Dean or Director's office. Because of State and University regulations, smart phones and cell phones generally cannot be purchased.

Effective Date

Effective immediately, proposals with an expected start date of 12/26/14 or later may include costs for computing devices in accordance with the Uniform Guidance, as outlined below. New awards or incrementally funded awards with a new funding increment beginning on or after 12/26/14 also may proceed in accordance with this guidance.

Background

Prior to the release of 2 CFR 200 et al., also known as the Uniform Guidance, the Federal government's point of view was that computing devices were general purpose equipment that were unallowable on Federal awards. To charge computing devices as direct costs on Federal awards, PIs were required to demonstrate that unlike circumstances existed and that the devices were not administrative in nature. This will no longer be the case.

The Office of Management and Budget acknowledged in the preamble to the Uniform Guidance that technology improvements have helped lower the cost of computing devices below the Federal equipment threshold of $5,000 and, as such, these devices should be treated similarly to other items under this amount. With the advent of the Uniform Guidance, computing devices may be considered allowable direct charges under certain circumstances, so PIs will need to demonstrate that such costs fit the criteria in the Uniform Guidance. Computing devices that cost $5,000 or more and have a useful life of at least one year are considered equipment. This policy deals specifically with computing devices that cost less than $5,000, which means they are treated as allowable supply items, not as equipment.

Federal Guidance

The Uniform Guidance, 2 CFR §200.453, part (c), states:

In the specific case of computing devices, charging as direct costs is allowable for devices that are essential and allocable, but not solely dedicated, to the performance of a Federal award.

The following criteria will be used to determine whether or not a device is essential and allocable:

• The need has been included in the original proposal and completely justified as to the reason it is being included in the project budget.
• It has been approved by the sponsor as part of the budget and award process.
• The device is necessary for the performance of the project.
• The project will be negatively impacted by not purchasing the computer or electronic device.
• The purchase must represent good stewardship of the sponsor's funds and the project's stated objectives.
• The costs are reasonable and directly benefit the project that purchases the equipment.

Non-Federal Sponsors

The basic criteria for purchasing computing devices are similar for non-Federal sponsored projects, but may be more flexible depending on the sponsor. Principal investigators are recommended to include a justification for the purchase of computing devices with non-Federal funding, but divisional offices may have varying requirements. Please contact your Dean or Director's office for guidance. Please note that written sponsor guidelines may prohibit the purchase of computers and electronic devices. All other sponsor restrictions, such as rebudgeting, prior approvals, notifications, etc., apply to the project.

Proposals

The device should be identified in the proposal budget and justified as to why it is essential and allocable to the performance of the award. Inclusion in the budget and budget justification is intended to enable the sponsor to review and concur with the need for the computing device. Written justification and/or approval is meant to prevent questions regarding the allowability of costs in event of an audit.

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Modular Budgets
Not all proposals include detailed budgets; some sponsors allow the use of modular budgets. In the case of modular budgets, the PI and his/her department are expected to provide a written justification for a computing device. This justification should be provided in the RAMP record and will be reviewed by the Dean or Director's office. Contact your Dean or Director's office regarding specific procedures on submitting such a justification.

Post-Award

Not every cost can be anticipated at the time of proposal preparation. When a post-award need for a computing device is identified and prior to its purchase, an explanation of the need should be submitted to the appropriate College/School research contact. The purpose and benefit of the device to the specific project should be fully described in the justification. Contact your Dean or Director's office regarding specific procedures on submitting such a justification.

If a computing device is purchased with sponsor or University funds, the device is the property of the University and should be retained by the department after the end of the award for ongoing research activities or for disposal in accordance with University policies.

If a computing device expense is deemed unallowable at any time, the cost will revert back to the PI, the PI's department/unit, and the college/school for recovery from an unrestricted source of funding.

Supplies versus Equipment

Consistent with the Federal and State definitions of equipment, the University has defined capital equipment as an article of nonexpendable, tangible property with a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more. Items with a useful life of less than one year or an acquisition cost of less than $5,000 are defined as supplies. That means most personal computers and laptops are defined as supply items, not as equipment.

For computing devices that are considered equipment (items with an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more with a useful life of more than one year), the devices fall into one of two categories: either general purpose equipment (2 CFR §200.48) or special purpose equipment (2 CFR §200.89).

General purpose equipment is equipment which is not limited to research, medical, scientific or other technical activities. Such equipment is unallowable as a direct charge, unless the Federal awarding agency or pass-through-entity has provided prior written approval.*

Special purpose equipment means equipment which is used only for research, medical, scientific, or other technical activities. Special purpose equipment is allowable as a direct cost, provided that the items have the prior written approval* of the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity.

*The Federal-wide Research Terms and Conditions will continue to apply to awards in which they are incorporated.

Other UW Resources/Information

Nikolai Ouroboure Sebiestor Tribe Minmatar Republic Likes received: 2
Some background info:
I'm a station trader who has been at it for awhile (started last year for a long time before taking a break and coming back a couple of weeks ago) and love the amount of isk I have been pulling in. But as many of you know station trading is boring as all hell. So I'm looking for something to supplement my trading income (because who doesn't love more money) with a passive-esque income source so PI looks very attractive right now.

I'm no stranger to making spreadsheets to track profits or doing my research for profitable items, so don't think I'm asking for someone to handhold me through this, but like with everything in eve there is a metric butt ton of conflicting info on the subject. So I have a few questions-

1.) How often do I have to check up on the planets I colonize? Would it take hours of my time (assuming I'm a few jumps away from my system) And how long would that generally take?

2.) What's the highest tier (P1, 2, etc.) I can get from production on one planet?

3.) What are your recommended skills before even attempting to go out there?

4.) What size industrial ship is a minimum before moving the volume needed to make a good profit?

5.) Is it better to just adapt so that I can use all my slots in one system or to spread out across multiple systems for max profit without a huge headache?

I'll have more probably, but I'll wait till I have those filled, thank y'all! Ms Forum Alt Doomheim Likes received: 65
I would strongly recommend you get connected on SiSi and try out your various PI schemes there before you do any on Tranquility. I would also recommend you do research planets as far as possible to see which customs offices have the lowest taxes. I would also recommend you do it in low sec (if you don't have access to planets in null) and move your stuff around in a cloaky hauler like a Viator.

Finally I would recommend you stick with 7 day cycles at least and try to build up to P2 on each planet if only for the reason that just processing P0 -> P1 and then moving it to factory planets for P1->P2 or P2->P3 doesn't scale too well with number of characters. I mean it becomes prohibitively tedious the more characters you add.

Part of your research should be checking out planets in various systems to see which ones have most of the resources you want of course (roughly). Which you can discover in planet mode by playing with the sliders. Take care not to use planets with large radius (like gas planets) as the reach of your extractors affects the power "cost" of having them. The larger the distance, the fewer heads you'll be able to support.

Anyway test it out on SiSi first. Entent Waine Totality Squad Vyraj. Likes received: 1
Short answer yes. Here is why, I have one account, 3 character each trained up to do PI on 6 planets. I am now in the process of developing a PI production line including a total of 18 planets. 12 to make larger commodities with the lower commodities I bought, then I would take those commodities a put them on the remaining 6 planets to make even larger commodities, each planet making 3 of those larger commodities. When I am done setting up I should be making in profit 400,000,000.00 ISK every 24 hrs, 2,800,000,000 ISK every 7 days... (Sorry my first calculations were way off)

This set up took a long time including training and not to mention the tedious time in setting up the production line.

1. The setup I mentioned above may be checked every 2 days and once the setup is complete it should take me around an hour to rotate commodities and place the end products on the market. Honestly I don't mind the time I mean PI makes me ISK while I sleep. As you are starting out with PI your check might just be 30 minutes or less, setting up the production takes the longest.

2.
Look at this
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Check this out

3. Skills:
*Command Center Upgrades - the more power you can give your command centers the more you can do on planets
*Interplanetary Consolidation - the more planets you have available to you the more you can make
*Planetology/Advanced Planetology - are only important if you want to extract from the planets if you want to by the lower end commodities as I mentioned above this skill is not necessary
*Remote Sensing - remote scanning only if you wish to extract from planets
*Train to fly an Epithal

4. As soon as you can fly an Epithal you will be able to move a good amount of commodities as you just start out.

5. I would say The larger the production line the closer you would want your planets. All 6 planets for my 3 characters are all in the same system. I used the too here to find what system has the 6 specific planets I needed, I must say I was surprised to find exactly what I was looking for.

And like you I use spread sheets, I didn't know how to pull data from eve so I check this out.

the most importtant thing to research is what planetary material to make (largest profit).

I have been doing this for years if you are serious and need help I am willing to help you and answer any questions, message in game Entent Waine.

Best of luck to you. Andrew Indy Cleaning Crew Likes received: 291
Entent Waine wrote:Short answer yes. Here is why, I have one account, 3 character each trained up to do PI on 6 planets. I am now in the process of developing a PI production line including a total of 18 planets. 12 to make larger commodities with the lower commodities I bought, then I would take those commodities a put them on the remaining 6 planets to make even larger commodities, each planet making 3 of those larger commodities. When I am done setting up I should be making in profit 172,800,000.000 ISK every 24 hrs, 1,209,600,000 ISK every 7 days...


I could see taxes killing your profit unless you are in null/have very good taxes in your area. Assuming you are buying P1 and refining to P4 you are going to have to import and export at 4 times (assuming 5% tax that's a 20% overhead)

Also that's a lot of work, you will have to haul a tonne of PI.

Assuming 20 Advanced Facilities per planet that's unit of P1 per day per planet. That's m3 per day per planet. assuming you first 12 planets are P1-P2 or P3 then that's m3 per day or 4 Epithal loads, plus the export and import of the higher lvl items. You will also need a Freighter run from a Hub every 5 days.
Entent Waine Totality Squad Vyraj. Likes received: 1
Shiloh Templeton wrote:
Instead, what you should do to make the most isk (and to leverage your station trading skills) is buy the raw materials at good prices and run "factory planets" to turn it into more profitable commodities. More isk, but you'll spend a lot more time hauling every day or two.

I agree Shiloh Templeton.

Andrew Indy in the profits I mentioned that is with all taxes and fees, all export and import I will be doing.
Actually the export import percentage I am using is 16%, the custom offices have taxes ranging from 12% - 16% so to save time I just use the highest tax for all my custom offices, this also help when I have to change prices when I put my end product on the market.

Yes its a lot of work but is there an easy way to make over a bill in a month in EVE?
You have to put in time and money to make money.
Currently my setup is half done I only have one character with 6 planets making commodities with the resources I bought ( I have one more character that will be doing this. Then one character using 3 planets (I'll try and finish the other setup for the remaining 3 planets today) to make the end products. Yup I did the calculations and in profits I am getting 200.000.000.00 ISK a day... (wow as I was going over my calculations I realized the profit calculations were way off, these are correct now). About how much hauling I will be doing your estimates are correct being that I am half done with my setup I am using 2 Epithals.

My setup uses 18 Advanced Facilities per planet, 6 to one Launchpad. Each pad hold .0m3 (2 planets total with this setup). I can replenish my planets every day or every 2 days. If I replenish every day I will use 2 Epithals so yes wow I was thinking to train for a Freighter, it will save time :) but currently I don't need one.

All I was doing is showing Nikolai Ouroboure the potential of PI, The extent of what I am doing don't have to be followed but a smaller scale and one could still make some decent ISK.

Thank you Andrew Indy for your reply, I wouldn't have caught my miss calculations in my previous post.
Chane Morgann Fuzz Industries Likes received: 8
If you are an individual player, I wouldn't attempt PI anywhere in high-sec.

The major corps and alliances have taken over every possible location for custom offices, and for the most part, have raised the taxes to a level that cannot be sustained by individual players.

Again, it seems CCP has created a situation where it forces individual players to either join a huge corporation so that they might enjoy the full range of game play, or the individual player must figure out a novel way to circumvent the current game play architecture in order to enjoy some aspects in the game they currently are not able to under more normal circumstances.

I am sure I am going to once again get a lot of guff from corporations, and those people who enjoy the gang mentality. But honestly, come on. If you don't want individual players, then stop advertising professions for individual players as if you can engage in all the game dynamics by doing so.

The more I feel as if I am being led by the nose, to play within a corporation structure, instead of being able to express myself as an individual, the more I find myself hoping that another game that would be somewhat like EVE, will come along and fill in the major holes and gapes that currently exist with the EVE game structure. I don't care for giant corporations in real life, and certainly do not want to feel forced into being part of one within the EVE structure either, nor do I want to support those corporations via being taxed a ridicules amount just to accumulate planetary resources.

Agent Unknown School of Applied Knowledge Caldari State Likes received: 56
Chane Morgann wrote:If you are an individual player, I wouldn't attempt PI anywhere in high-sec.

The major corps and alliances have taken over every possible location for custom offices, and for the most part, have raised the taxes to a level that cannot be sustained by individual players.

Again, it seems CCP has created a situation where it forces individual players to either join a huge corporation so that they might enjoy the full range of game play, or the individual player must figure out a novel way to circumvent the current game play architecture in order to enjoy some aspects in the game they currently are not able to under more normal circumstances.

I am sure I am going to once again get a lot of guff from corporations, and those people who enjoy the gang mentality. But honestly, come on. If you don't want individual players, then stop advertising professions for individual players as if you can engage in all the game dynamics by doing so.

The more I feel as if I am being led by the nose, to play within a corporation structure, instead of being able to express myself as an individual, the more I find myself hoping that another game that would be somewhat like EVE, will come along and fill in the major holes and gapes that currently exist with the EVE game structure. I don't care for giant corporations in real life, and certainly do not want to feel forced into being part of one within the EVE structure either, nor do I want to support those corporations via being taxed a ridicules amount just to accumulate planetary resources.



I attempt to use the jetcan method where taxes are high, but the command center's storage is small compared to the launchpad and doing the expedited transfers makes it take much longer than it should anyway.

I didn't really like the player-controlled customs offices because they're super easy to defend - but at the same time, nothing's stopping you from starting a wardec and taking a few for yourself if you have the guns to do it. Pro tip: many nullsec alliances won't bother with highsec wars. Of course, shoot their POCOs and you might be in for some fun. Entent Waine Totality Squad Vyraj. Likes received: 1
Chane Morgann I am actually making Advanced Commodities in high sec, custom offices tax are around 15%. Today I got done making 140 Advanced Commodities (took me less than 2 days to make), I didn't put it up for sale but I sold it to buy orders. Yes I lost some profit doing this but I rather do this and make money faster. I made about 79,000.000 ISK in profit.

Yes there has been some changes, trust me I know. I was living in a WH extracting Raw Materials making Advanced Commodities. The tax was not high, I was gone for a while from EVE and came back with all new POCO in the WH. The tax the owners implemented was reasonable but for some reason I did not have access to the POCO's it said something about standings. I tried reaching out to the owners to grant me access but no luck. I did some research and it seems the corp that owns the POCO's was no longer active. I decided to pack up and start over somewhere else and ended up in high sec.

Some changes might hurt the solo player but it seems there might be a way around obstacles in EVE.

I think buying the raw material takes up too much space on your planets instead buying the Processed Materials gives you more space = more profit.

erg cz if you are doing PI in high sec you can't make your full potential of profit if you are extracting best way to go is to buy the raw or processed. If you are in 0.3 or lower security space the yes extract and make sure you have a fit to help you run away from gate camps, research this. Echo Gengod MaxGen Biotechnology Likes received: 1
Nikolai Ouroboure wrote:Some background info:
1.) How often do I have to check up on the planets I colonize? Would it take hours of my time (assuming I'm a few jumps away from my system) And how long would that generally take?

2.) What's the highest tier (P1, 2, etc.) I can get from production on one planet?

3.) What are your recommended skills before even attempting to go out there?

4.) What size industrial ship is a minimum before moving the volume needed to make a good profit?

5.) Is it better to just adapt so that I can use all my slots in one system or to spread out across multiple systems for max profit without a huge headache?

1 - Others have said this before: It depends. With PI you set the harvest rates so it can literally be a few hours to a week or so.

2 - The question is not tier level but efficiency. PI is an efficiency game. If you can obtain 500 units of P1 goods sold at 2 each vs 5 units of P3 goods sold at 75 each from a single planet it's still much easier to and cost effective to just go with the P1 units. The main thing to consider is the CPU and PWR limitations as if you have more processing you'll inherently have less refining. The other topic to consider is (if you're not using alliance planets and the like) what the tax rate is and how much shipping you'll have to do yourself in order to make ends meet.

3 - I would go with the ingame cert level of 3 or 4 for the most productivity but you can certainly start making money off a planet at lvl 1 mastery (albeit small, but passive ISK is passive ISK)

4 - Just get an Epithal. For lowsec and lower you might want to hold off for something stronger. With my setup I can transfer PI goods from planet refinery to refinery in a Viator. Love my Viator.

5 - Preference would be to keep things in system if you plan on hauling from POCO to POCO. Planets, from my short experience, tend to be quite homogenous depending on security status. You're eventually going to want to focus low and null only as everything else pales in comparison. Mephiztopheleze Laphroaig Inc. Likes received: 1,309
Nikolai Ouroboure wrote:Some background info:
I'm a station trader who has been at it for awhile (started last year for a long time before taking a break and coming back a couple of weeks ago) and love the amount of isk I have been pulling in. But as many of you know station trading is boring as all hell. So I'm looking for something to supplement my trading income (because who doesn't love more money) with a passive-esque income source so PI looks very attractive right now.

I'm no stranger to making spreadsheets to track profits or doing my research for profitable items, so don't think I'm asking for someone to handhold me through this, but like with everything in eve there is a metric butt ton of conflicting info on the subject. So I have a few questions-

1.) How often do I have to check up on the planets I colonize? Would it take hours of my time (assuming I'm a few jumps away from my system) And how long would that generally take?

2.) What's the highest tier (P1, 2, etc.) I can get from production on one planet?

3.) What are your recommended skills before even attempting to go out there?

4.) What size industrial ship is a minimum before moving the volume needed to make a good profit?

5.) Is it better to just adapt so that I can use all my slots in one system or to spread out across multiple systems for max profit without a huge headache!
My $0.02...

1: Personally, I run my extraction planets on a one day cycle and re-set them just after downtime. The shorter the cycle you run, the more resource you'll extract. If I know I won't be able to check it for a few days, I set it to run longer.

2: You *can* do direct to P2 or P3 on some planets, but that tends to be slow going as extractor heads chew vast amounts of powergrid. I just extract and refine to P1 on my extraction planets and then use factory planets to process it into P2/P3.

3: Remote Sensing I, Command Center Upgrades I and Interplanetary Consolidation I. Seriously, that's all you need to start. If you're going to do the factory planet thing, I strongly suggest that character train CCU V.

4: Gallente Industrial I and an Epithal. Accept no substitutes.

5: Keeping everything close to home has strong advantages and can save a lot of hassle when it comes to emptying your extraction planets.

I'm running my PI chain with four characters and a total of 23 planets and that's as much Farmville In Space as I'm prepared to put up with. Resetting the extraction planets takes around ~10mins each day. Keeping the factory planets fed adds another 10mins every other day. For my efforts, I reap just shy of ISK 2b/month in assorted PI goods I sell and a lot of goodwill from corp and alliance mates I can shower with Nanite repair paste.

Occasional Resident Newbie Correspondent for TMC: http://themittani.com/search/site/mephiztopheleze

This is my Forum Main. My Combat Alt is sambo Inkura

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