Frequently Asked Questions

Carleton University has three different systems (the Graduate Job Requisition System, eShop, and Payroll Profiles) to pay Research Assistants. Please email us with more details of this employment such as whom you are hiring (an undergraduate student, graduate student, consultant, research associate, etc.), how many hours they will be working per week, and whether you will be directly supervising them. Once we have this information, we can guide you accordingly on the best process to pay them.

You can pay a backdated RA through the Graduate RA system as long as the student was registered as a graduate student during this backdated term. Please note that the payment will be issued as a lump sum as it is for work done in the past. It is recommended that you notify your RFS Officer when you do submit a backdated payment request in the Grad RA system.

Please note that lump sum payments are subject to higher statutory deductions – if a lump sum is paid, it is automatically interpreted as a monthly payment, and taxed accordingly.

Due to the pandemic, “Type A” RA payments have changed in the way they are paid and are currently being issued as an advanced lump sum that is directly deposited into the student’s student account. If the student has a balance owing in their student account, the RA payment is put towards that balance. Please have your student check their student balance, and contact Student Accounts if they have any questions.

For “Type B” RA payments – if the box titled “Payment to Include Employment Source Deductions” was checked off in the Graduate RA system, the payment would have been reduced by approximately 14% to accommodate these source deductions. Unlike “Type A” payments, “Type B” payments are put through the payroll system where the student gets paid as per the University’s payroll schedule. If your student hasn’t been paid at all, it may be because they haven’t accepted the job offer in Carleton Central

To pay a student at another university whom you are not academically nor professionally supervising, you would set the individual up as an independent contractor in eShop. Once the work is completed, the student would provide an invoice for payment. Payments to independent contractors can be issued to those situated domestically as well as internationally.

Yes, the best practice in the field is to have a written record of the employment agreement. This record can be as simple as an email to the student that outlines the compensation, the duration, and the scope of work as well as a statement that the agreement can be terminated if the terms are not met.  When hiring a registered graduate student, we advise that the duration of the employment reflects the individual semester the student will be working within.

The RPA service can help determine whether a particular expense would be eligible to be charged towards your fund. Please email us with more details such as what product/service you would like to purchase, how much it will cost, how it relates to the research, and which index (fund) you would like to use.

Please complete the Pcard application and submit it to your department’s head for approval. Once signed by your department, you will need to submit the application to the designated Procurement Officer, who will then contact you with more details.

Depending on the equipment’s value, it may be subject to the University’s Procurement Policy. Please send us an email with more details so we can help determine which process and related financial system is best to use.

Yes, please send us an email with more details so we can best guide you to a successful           submission. In your email, please include information on whom you are hiring, if and when            you’ve worked with this contractor previously, the scope of the work, how their work would              relate to the research, and which index (fund) you are planning to use.

Please send us an email with more details so we can guide you to where this expense is found in  FAST.  Information we would require is which index(fund) you had used for your research expense, which financial system you had submitted the expense in, approximately when the expense was submitted, and if possible a copy of the receipt or the information found on the receipt.

Yes, please send us an email with more details on whom you are hiring such as whether they are an undergraduate student, research associate, administrative assistant, etc. and what the scope of work is so that we can help determine which account code to use. If you know and can advise, it would be beneficial for us to also know if the person you are looking to pay has worked for the university before so we could advise whether the individual needs to be documented with Human Resources.