Central Engineering has been established as a distinct Cost Center within SAO. The costs of engineering services are calculated by charging an hourly rate for the actual time staff spend working on a project. A project’s cost will depend on what type of fund they use.

For staff who are employees, the rate consists of the employee's hourly salary, multiplied by the personal leave rate, then by the fringe benefits rate, then by the CE overhead rate. If a project is drawn on federal or internal overhead funds, this is the final cost.

If other funds are used, the General and Administrative rate (this consists of CE's assessed share of the operating expenses of SAO overhead departments including Human Resources, Financial Management, and the Computation Facility) is also added.

Occasionally, CE supplements its staff with technical services contractors. The rate for contractors' time would include the hourly rate paid to their employing agency plus the CE overhead rate. Then, if the project is not drawn on federal or internal overhead funds, G & A will also apply.

Personal Leave Rate: 22.3%
Fringe Benefits Rate: 26%
Fringe Benefits Rate Intermittent Appointees: 8.4%
Engineering Overhead Rate: 28.7%
General and Administrative Rate: 13.5%

Additionally, if you require the Machine Shop to procure materials for you, the cost of those materials plus the CE overhead rate for that base cost would be billed to you monthly.

The biennial rate negotiations take time and effort and it is not uncommon to receive the two year rates after the first year of the cycle has commenced. When this occurs, we use the previous year’s rate and invoice as normal. Once we receive the new rates, Financial Management will issue a corrected invoice.

Information Required to Establish New CE Jobs:

1. Requestor’s name


2. Funds Administrator’s name


3. Project name


4. Have you consulted with an engineer or the Machine Shop manager to get an estimate of the amount of hours/materials you will need? If so, with whom did you speak?


5. If machining services are needed, please the Machine Shop services form (https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/ms/MACHINE_SHOP_SERVICES_REQUEST_FORM.pdf) and send it to machine-shop@cfa.harvard.edu, along with any pertinent drawings for CAD files. On that form, be sure to include budgets for materials you wish the shop to procure on your behalf (these will be invoiced with the CE overhead added to the cost). The Machine Shop Manager will review the request and assess shop availability to meet required delivery dates.


6. Please provide the Peoplesoft fund number or Harvard PO.


7. If your job requires multiple task numbers or work breakdown structures, please provide them.


8. Brief description of what you need done


9. Staff type (i.e. senior mechanical engineer) or proposed staff name.


10. Number of hours required for each staff type


11. Date when work must be completed


12. Does the fund expiration meet or exceed the date within which work must be completed?

Project Cost Accounting:

Each CE job is assigned a unique job number and, if applicable, associated task numbers. A Microsoft Project schedule is generated for the job and files are created and associated with the job in the Cobra software. If the schedule is not generated by either AIS or the CEA, kindly add the CEA to the resource list. Then, the CEA requests a new account key for WebTA. CE staff receive weekly timecards which contain the hours in the schedule for each project to which they are assigned on a monthly basis. Staff members record their actual productive hours each week in WebTA. That data is taken and incorporated into next week’s timesheet, with the declining balance of hours.

Project cost-to-complete reports are generated for each week and also for month end and are deposited on the EVM Reports Center website by the AIS group. This allows designated project management and administration access to this information. The reports detail actual charges in hours and dollars as well as projections of future cost.

CfA Projects Funded Through HCO or Harvard University:

The process for arranging for engineering support for projects funded through the Harvard College Observatory is the same as described above except that administrators of these projects must submit a Harvard University Purchase Order to the CEA instead of fund number information.

A few important notes:

• Accruals for CE are done differently than accruals for the rest of the Observatory. On the last calendar day of the month, FMD does a “take” of the actual hours inputted into WebTA. The result is an accrual that is very close to the actuals. Corrections are not part of this “take”, so keep in mind that any corrections will likely not process until the following month’s fiscal sheets are available. That means 533’s and any Harvard invoicing may require adjustments in the following months.


• Although the staff works diligently to keep within their monthly budgets, events may arise that cause them to overrun. The staff is aware that they must inform the CEA so we can contact you to see if you want them to continue work or hold until further discussions can be had.


• Despite careful planning, resource conflicts sometimes arise. The CEA will discuss these with the Director of CE and work toward resolution.


• We hold a weekly meeting for customers of the Machine Shop each Wednesday from 11:00 to 11:30 in the war room (R-344 at CDP). If you have work in the shop, please try to attend so that questions may be answered and matters discussed as priorities sometimes need to shift very quickly.


• If you are planning to submit a proposal with engineering or machining in it, please contact the CE Director. He will put you in touch with the most appropriate contact to ensure that budgets submitted are planned with that expertise.


• We advise budgeting Machine Shop services for proposals using rate of a GS 11/10. Funded work can be assigned to any one of multiple employees with different rates. So, when developing a MS Project schedule, we book the time for the future in the generic employee resource “Machinist, 11/10”. Machining costs are reported for the actual rate of the employee performing the work. However, because of the fluidity of the prototype machining process, we are focused on delivering within your total budget rather than a set amount of hours. So, the total dollar amount we are authorized is the target we work towards and track against for the shop only.