Billing and Business Office
Business Office
Regular Office Hours
Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Phone: 404.727.3248
After Hours & Weekends
If there is an emergency, please contact the Veterinary Staff at 404.726.6816.
Billing Policies and Procedures
Where do I find my lab's invoices for DAR purchases/services?
Invoices, both current fiscal year and historical years, can be found on our secure SharePoint site. If you have been granted access to this new site already, the above link will take you directly to that site's home page and you need only click on "Invoices" to access the documents. If you have not yet been granted access, when you click the link, you will be prompted to request access. Once DAR IT receives your request, we will grant it (provided you are an Emory employee and associated with research being conducted at DAR) and you will be able to access the invoices.
How do I obtain backup documentation for the charges on my ledgers?
Obtain copies of your bills from DAR, the Core Labs and Emory National Primate Research Center (ENPRC)
Click on "View billing files on secure website" and login using your Emory network ID and password.
Click on the file folder for the fiscal year that you would like to view then select the month. The PDF files are listed in order by smart key, not PI name, however, you can do a browser search on the directory in order to locate all bills for a specific PI.
Charges from SOM Core Labs and Emory National Primate Research Center (ENPRC)
The School of Medicine uses the DAR billing system to input and charge for the Core Lab services. If you utilize services from the SOM Core Labs you will have charges from them on your DAR bills. If you look at your bill you may notice that there are smart keys that have "SOM" or "COL" in front of them. This indicates a charge from the SOM Core Labs not DAR. For questions regarding SOM Core Labs charges please contact Sherie West at 404.712.8628 or sbwest@emory.edu.
ENPRC also utilizes the DAR billing system for their rodent housing charges. If you see a "Y" in front of a smartkey on your bill this indicates a Emory National Primate Research Center charge. Please note that Emory National Primate Research Center maintains per diem rates separate from DAR. Your per diem charges will vary depending on whether or not you house your animals on campus or at Emory National Primate Research Center. For questions regarding Emory National Primate Research Center charges please contact Patreia Jones at 404.727.2622 or pjjones@emory.edu.
How to change your Emory SpeedType
DAR Account Change Form (Animal Transfer Form allows for the change of the speedtype assigned to a cages or group of cages, what we term as a "transfer" of cages from one account to another)
- "Requestor" pertains to the person completing the account change form. All pertinent and current information must placed in the appropriate fields especially a valid email and contact number.
- "Project Investigator Information" is the PI to whom the speedtype (ST) is linked. This information is used to make certain the change is appropriated to the correct PI.
- "Account Number Change #1":
- Change Account Number is the speedtype currently being used by the stated PI. It is usually the number that is due to expire or is no longer being used. This speedtype will be inactive in the DAR system when our processing of your request has been completed.
- New Account Number is the speedtype which the PI/dept designates to replace the original. This number will take the place of the previous speedtype.
- Change Date is the actual date requested by the PI/dept in which the change will take place in the DAR system. As the census is always a few days behind the true calendar date, if you mark "ASAP" on your form, we will process the transfer on whatever date we are currently reconciling in the census process. (For example, on the day of writing this example the calendar date is Feb 13, but we are processing Feb 3). For accounts, it might be preferable to designate the change to occur at the beginning of the following month.
- Change Account Number is the speedtype currently being used by the stated PI. It is usually the number that is due to expire or is no longer being used. This speedtype will be inactive in the DAR system when our processing of your request has been completed.
- "Comments" is reserved for any information the requestor feels is important towards the account change process.
Once the account change request has been completed by the requestor, pressing submit will forward the information to the census coordinator for processing. Upon receiving and reviewing, an acknowledgment email will be sent to the requestor of any problems, concerns or approval.
Animal Transfer Form
Completing the Animal Transfer Form provides the census coordinator the necessary information to process transfers for changes to the PI, Protocol number, SpeedType/DAR Account, Location of Housing or Cost Center (type of housing). Fields pertinent to the information being changed/transferred need to be completed on the form. Columns 1-9 should be completely filled out. Columns 10-14 should only contain the changed information. Always complete Column 15. The Form(s) can be faxed or emailed. Please sign each page of the transfer. This is your authorization for the changes to take place.
A sample form with fictional information is provided to demonstrate each type of change. You may combine actions on the form. (Ex: transferring unused animals from your protocol to a new PI may require that you add back animals to your protocol, listing all of your current information… remember to do a line per stress level… and then completing all of the columns 10-14 with the new PI's information). Both you and the new PI should be signing this form to authorize the transfers.
Services Provided by DAR
The Division of Animal Resources provides a wide range of services to the P.I.'s and labs and, for which, charges are assessed and will appear on your bill:
- SURGERY Services
- TRANSPORT Services – includes transport of animals to/from Airport, and pickup to, from, and between facilities including Wesley Woods, GA Tech, GA State, Morehouse, CDC and the VA Hospital. Transport services are billed separately. SpeedType and PI must be on form.
- VET TECH ASSISTANCE
- GAMMA CELL Management
- PURCHASE of certain Drugs ordered by PI's
- SHIPPING ANIMALS OUT OF EMORY Vet Tech Services
- DIAGNOSTIC/HISTO AND NECROPSY – In house and Outsourced
- QUARANTINE Services
- SPERM CRYOPRESERVATION Services
- ANIMAL CARE AND HUSBANDRY Services
- GENETICS TESTING via TRANSNETYX
In order to process the bills in a timely manner, we need the following information from you. This information is given to the technician who will be in charge of the service:
- Species, Facility, Number of animals
- PI and Lab Contact, Department and SpeedType Number
- Contact information including phone and email information
Rate Calculations
Per Diem rates are calculated annually based upon the analysis of a full year of costs. We utilize September 1- August 31 costs in order to complete the review and calculate new rates to be in place for each Fiscal Year. The rate calculations are reviewed by the Animal Resources Advisory Council (ARAC) in the School of Medicine, and rates are adjusted upwards or downwards based upon the recovery of expense at 100%. Animal rates are reviewed to verify that there is no profit or loss.
Services provided by the DAR are also reviewed and general guidelines on adjustment of fees are approved.
Some services used 'bundled' pricing and these are made available in September annually (eg: Anesthesia Induction instead of charging for each syringe, ml of drugs used and hour of labor).
Direct Labor and Supplies may be adjusted throughout the year based upon actual costs. We provide detailed fee and price schedules.
How We Invoice for Services
The person providing the service provides the DAR office with a summary of detailed labor and supplies for the service. These items are entered into our database (Granite™) and invoiced against the SK and Protocol (if applicable) that were provided to the technician at the time of ordering the service.
How We Control the Quality of Our Billing
Cages in the animal facilities are scanned via a barcode on each cage card twice each week. After scanning, the information is loaded to a file for our I.T. Department. The I.T. Department reviews the raw data to ensure it is error free. The process of scanning allows for us to capture movement of a cage from one location to another and also cost centers for the type of housing (autowater racks, sterile, biohazard, etc.) The reviewed data is uploaded into our database and viewed by our census specialist who ensures further, that cost centers, speedtypes, housing, facilities, etc. are correct according to the species and against the previous scan information. At this time, transfers that have been submitted by the PI's/laboratory staff are applied to the scanned data and the data associated to the cage cards is altered to match the transfer request. Quality control reports are run and checked prior to the data being posted and again before the bills are set to run for each month. Account change requests are entered into the database to change the impacted animal orders and service charges. When the bills have been run, an additional report will tell us if speedtypes are frozen/out-of-bounds/expired. Currently, if the report finds this type of data, the DAR office calls or e-mails P.I.'s and their lab and financial staff to obtain new speedtype(s). This ensures that the data we place into our system is accurate and complete prior to the upload and prior to posting the bills on our website.
Planned Changes to the Billing Process
We have a very short window, of only a few hours, in which we capture all of the changes to the out-of-date speedtypes before we upload our bills into the Compass Production system, therefore, we are moving to a pro-active approach, reminding PI's and the financial accountant associated with a particular speedtype early each month, that the expiration date on a speedtype is approaching and requesting transfers and account change forms prior to posting of the bills.
We are always looking for ways to improve upon our service to you. Please feel free to provide us with thoughts or suggestions.
Updated: 1.11.2023