Last week, with little to no fanfare, the New York State Education Department (“SED”) issued the new Reimbursable Cost Manual (“RCM”) for fiscal 2018. The new RCM, as promised by SED, did not include any significant changes from the 2017 RCM. The only changes to the 2018 RCM were as follows:
- The 2018 RCM clarifies that retention bonuses may be awarded to individual employees and do not need to be issued across the board. The only caveat is that uniform criteria for determining eligibility for receiving a retention bonus are contained within the employer-employee agreement
- Bankruptcy costs provided by lawyers, accountants, and other consultants are specifically listed as non-allowable costs
- In allocating property related costs to SEIT, the RCM does not allow instructional space to be allocated to the SEIT program. Administrative costs can be charged to the SEIT program.
Kenneth R. Cerini, CPA, CFP, FABFA
Managing Partner
Ken is the Managing Partner of Cerini & Associates, LLP and is the executive responsible for the administration of our not-for-profit and educational provider practice groups. In addition to his extensive audit experience, Ken has been directly involved in providing consulting services for nonprofits and educational facilities of all sizes throughout New York State in such areas as cost reporting, financial analysis, Medicaid compliance, government audit representation, rate maximization, board training, budgeting and forecasting, and more.