Business and Finance

1. How do I hire an independent contractor?
2. How do I get an honorarium?
3. What is a business contract?
4. How do I request a wire transfer?
5. How do I order or cancel an office phone?

Q. How do I hire an independent contractor?
A. If you want to hire an independent contractor the first step is to determine what kind of service provider you are hiring. The three types of independent contractor service providers are: Common services, Professional services, Consultants.

ERSO Internal Procedures for hiring Independent Contractors:
Instructions & Flowchart

The procedure in hiring an independent contractor varies depending upon your need (some individuals can not be hired as independent contractors). University Business and Finance Bulletin Bus-77 provides detailed guidelines on hiring independent contractors in university environment. Additional information on independent contractor services provided by employees can be found at the following sites:
BUS-77: Independent Contractor Guidelines
Conflict of interest: SB 1467

If you need assistance, please contact Cynthia Weekley; cweekley@erso; 3-8423, or Cathy Jen; ckj@erso; 2-5875

Q. How do I get an honorarium?
A. An honorarium is normally a one-time payment granted in recognition of special service or distinguished achievement for which propriety forbids any business price to be set and is manifested by an activity such as a lecture, panel discussion, etc. Non-academic staff members are not eligible to receive honoraria.

Prior to the event, complete the “Honorarium Recipient Employment Status Worksheet”, sign it and give it to your RSO along with a copy of an announcement of the lecture, panel discussion activity. The Worksheet cannot be processed without the following information:

Speaker’s name
Speaker’s SS# or Tax ID #
Speaker’s permanent address (include country if speaker is not from the US)
If speaker is not from the US, the visa type
The amount to be paid ($7,500 for non-UC personnel, $2,000 for UC faculty)
Date(s) of the UC activity
If the speaker is from the UC system, home campus and employee ID

If you need any assistance on getting an honorarium processed, please contact your sponsoring faculty’s research support officer (RSO). The RSO will ensure that a PO is created for the payment if the speaker is not from UC, or that a one-time payroll payment is issued through UCB’s On-line Payroll Time Reporting System.

Effective April 28, 2006, all honoraria require the written approval of the Dean.

For more information go to:
http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/acctman/d-371-35.pdf

Q. What is a business contract?
A. A contract is a legally binding agreement between two parties which obliges each party to do, or not to do, a certain thing. Business contract refers to non-research related contracts associated with business relationships, non-common goods and services, strategic alliances, intellectual property, and copyright agreements.

Discuss your specific contract-related situation with your RSO who will research the requirements. Your RSO will tell you whether the situation calls for a contract, and if so, what kind. Please provide as much information as possible, including: approximate dollar amount, the contracting parties, the location and objective of the project, the duration of the project, and the source of the funds that will be committed.

The RSO will work with the campus Business Contract Office (BCO) throughout the process. All business contracts initiated in ERSO will need to be reviewed and submitted through the ERSO Assistant Dean.

BCO is responsible for final preparation and execution of contract documents including the appropriate business, policy and legal review. Information on the contracting process can be found here.

Q. How do I request a wire transfer?
A. Enter your request on-line on the ERSO Intranet in the same way you would a purchase request. In the “Comments” field state that a wire transfer is required. Please note that domestic electronic transfers should be executed by Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and not via wire transfer. When an international wire transfer is required (eg, foreign currency transactions), please complete all fields on the wire transfer form found at http://financialoperations.berkeley.edu/Forms/disb/WireTransferRequest.pdf and give it along with the necessary documentation to your RSO. The RSO will check the form and documentation for accuracy, and then submit it to ERSO Assistant Dean’s office for signature. ERSO purchasing staff will forward these documents to the central campus Wire Transfer Desk for processing and execution.

Q. How do I order or cancel an office phone?
A. Please contact your RSO who will initiate the CNS (Communication and Network Services) request through ERSO’s CNS contact Bob Miller at 2-6073 or bmiller@erso.berkeley.edu

Please provide your RSO with the necessary information such as room location of the phone, chartstring to be charged for the CNS service request, and the personnel name associated with the phone line.