Recharge Billing

Last Reviewed 2026-06-30

Background

The UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Computer Science (CS) is a nationally recognized leader in cutting edge computer science research and teaching. Our faculty, staff, postdocs, affiliated researchers, and students require a sophisticated computing environment and level of technical support. This infrastructure and the associated support are provided through the Computer Services Recharge Center (CSRC). The CSRC is funded by a mix of federal and non-federal funds.

Service Fee

A service fee applies to each user of the CSRC and is charged based upon each person’s salary distribution. For example, if a person is supported 50% by one funding source and 50% by another source during the month, each source pays 50% of the CSRC fee for that user for the month

1. If your PI is using Computer Science faculty on the project, their time is billed out as a percentage of their total effort on your project for each billing period. These percentages are multiplied by $680.00/month.

2. If your PI is using Computer Science GRAs on the project, their time is billed out at a 50% rate monthly (working 20 hrs/week) = $340.00 because they already have access to all of CRCS's computer facilities/service. In the summer (when they are working 40 hrs/week) the monthly billing rate is $680.00.

3. If your PI is using Computer Science undergrads on the project, their time is billed out at a 10% rate monthly (working 20 hrs/week) = $68.00 because they already have access to CSRC’s computer facilities/service. In the summer (when they are working 40 hrs/week) the monthly billing rate is $67.60.

4. Outside collaborators supporting CS research also receive a fixed and reduced level of service and are billed at .05 FTE/month for service ($34.00). For non-CS users of the CSRC (i.e., non-CS faculty, research staff, or students) funded by non-CS sources, the CSRC service fee is adjusted according to levels of access and usage of services. These percentages are multiplied by $680.00/month.

• 2.5% for a CS login. Most are on this service level. It allows the non-CS PI or staff/student to access CS servers.

• 5% for Google Apps. This allows access to CS email and Google Docs/Calendar.

• 20% for access to CS shared storage. This includes Google Drive.

• 50% for remote IT support. This level is usually for groups with special hardware needs.

Billing

For all these scenarios, CS bills your chartfield string 3 times year year in arrears through the life of the project (or as long as you are using our facilities/service). For example, in January 2024 CS will be billing for all services from 09/1/23-12/31/23. Prior to billing, charges are reviewed and validated with each person responsible for the financial accounting of the funding source (e.g., PI, research administrator, post-award accountant). Once billing has been validated and completed, all charges will stand, and credits cannot be processed.

Compliance

The CSRC is reviewed by the University every two years to ensure that it is in compliance with all applicable Federal, State and University regulations, including OMB Uniform Guidance, Federal Cost Accounting Standards, and applicable University policies. The service fee is reviewed annually to ensure that the CSRC is operating on a strict cost recovery basis.

1 All CS faculty, research staff, and students are subscribers of the CSRC on a consistent basis and are charged accordingly as they receive equal and full access to the CSRC’s technology infrastructure and services to support their research efforts. This includes workstation computer support and access to a myriad of centrally managed computer systems, including CS-based servers and cloud-based resources and services. Technical support is provided by a staff of five with significant expertise in research computing.