LSA RAIN: Post Award Administration
from the College’s Perspective
March 16, 2011
Presenters:
Pamela Shehan
Holly Rose
Krista Farmer
Overall Program Objective
 Provide you with information on
important policies and practices
necessary to help effectively perform
post-award duties in LSA
Learning Objectives
 After this program you will:
 Understand College’s viewpoint on certain Post
Award functions
 Understand College’s Best Practices and Polices
 Understand the financial oversight process for a
sponsored award
Financial Monitoring of Projects
Quarterly Review – What do we look for?
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Is spending in accordance with what was awarded?
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Review cost transfers – purpose of transfer, does it
abide by 120 day guidelines?
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Review cost sharing; was the obligation fulfilled?
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Are the appropriate individual's effort on project?
Project Award Notice & Change
 PAN (Project Award Notice)
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ChartFields and ShortCodes
Time Periods and Budget Amounts
Cost Sharing
Indirect Cost
M-Pathways Statement Recipient
Timing of P/G being activated in M-Pathways
P/G establishment e-mail
 PAC (Project Award Change)
 Indicates changes in terms/conditions
 Additional Funding
 Time extensions
Project Start Up & Award Changes
Why do I care about the 7471?
*Required in LSA for all awards*
(upload through eResearch)
• Used to allocate awarded budget
• Uses University's budget categories
• Relevance to the PAN and PAC
• Establishing Sub Project/Grants
*PI must always sign off on 7471 and it’s the college’s best
practice that the Key Ad. or the Business Manager sign*
Sponsor Regulations
Federal Regulations
•OMB Circulars
•A-21 - Identifies allowable costs vs. unallowable (which
costs should be covered by indirect cost recovery)
•A-110 – sets standards for ensuring proper policies and
procedures are in place for managing costs related to
federal grants and contracts (i.e. cost sharing ,budget
revision approvals, audits, determining allowability of
cost, etc.)
•A-133 – Annual audit of expenditures charged to
federal grants and contracts.
Sponsor Regulations
Federal Regulations Cont.
•Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) Agreement between federal sponsor and university, giving
DRDA the authority to approve certain changes of an award
without prior sponsor approval.
•Agency and Award Specific Rules
Non-Federal Regulations
•Varies by Sponsor
Spending Project Funds
What do I do next?
Human Resources / Appointments
Financial Administration
 Initiating Charges
 Financial Monitoring
 Policies & Best Practices
Project Closeout
Human Resources/Appointments
 Effort Reminder
 Proposed effort needs to be expended
on the P/G
 Effort on the P/G correlates to the work
being done
 Rebudget
Initiating Charges
Travel & Expenses Concur Travel & Expense System – Route to Dean’s
Office Analyst for approval for C/D and Key Ad expenses
 P-Card
 Out-of-pocket reimbursements
Requisitions and Purchase Orders (POs)
 Equipment
 Transactions in excess of $5,000
 Transactions that require special approval
Journal Entries
 Used on an exception basis only
 If charges being transferred occurred in excess of 120 days,
then a 120 day exception memo is needed to describe the
extenuating circumstances
Initiating Charges
Travel & Expenses Cont.Lump Sum Advance
 Approval – must be approved and signed off by the
custodian and higher administrative authority. If
greater than $10,000, must also be approved by the
Dean’s Office (include copy of PBSR and budget detail
for advance amount with request).
 Voucher for expenses – original receipts must be kept
for all expenditures and submitted monthly with the
voucher form
https://www.finops.umich.edu/programs/forms/lump
sumadvance
Initiating Charges
Subcontracts –
 Used when funds for a project will be paid to an outside
organization. (i.e. another university, non-profit entity or
for-profit business)
*Important Note – It is the department’s responsibility
to review all expenditures submitted by subcontractors
to ensure appropriateness.*
For questions, you should contact the Office of Contract
Administration at 763-3193 and/or refer to the below
website.
https://www.finops.umich.edu/programs/subcontracts
Financial Monitoring of Projects
Policies & Best Practices
 Fiscal Responsibilities / Financial
Stewardship
“It is the responsibility of every faculty and staff
member who is involved with any financial activity on
behalf of the University to be fiscally responsible and to
exercise appropriate financial controls…”
http://spg.umich.edu/pdf/500.01.pdf
Financial Monitoring of Projects
What is Financial Oversight?
 Supervision of financial practices and policy
implementation
 Review and monitor financial transactions and reports
Four main elements of fiscal responsibility include:
 Budget Planning (e.g. proposal planning, re-budgeting)
 Financial Management
 Reconciliation
 Internal Controls
Financial Monitoring of Projects
What is Financial Management?
 Oversight on how funds are spent and managed
 Ensuring funds are handled according to various policies and
sponsor guidelines
Oversight includes:
 Review actual activity compared to budget/trends regularly
 Investigate unexpected variances and document findings
 Ensure financial activity is appropriate & proper approvals were obtained
 Ensure transactions are assigned to the appropriate chartfields
 Ensure adequate documentation is maintained
Financial Monitoring of Projects
What is Reconciliation?
 Matching and comparing transactions in the financial
ledgers to receipts and other documentation
 Providing reasonable assurance that transactions are
authorized, valid, complete and accurate
LSA’s Best Practices include:
 Reconcile appointment, payroll, and general ledger data monthly
 Review all sponsored reconciliation packages regularly
 Review project management reports with faculty regularly
Financial Monitoring of Projects
What are Internal Controls?
 SPG states, “a coordinated set of policies and procedures used by
managers to ensure that their units operate efficiently and effectively
in conformance with applicable policies, regulations and laws.”
 Assurance that resources are protected from potential errors and
irregularities
Examples of Internal Controls include :
 Proper separation of duties
 Internal control reports review in M-Reports & Business Objects
 Regular reviews of financial statements and reports
Financial Monitoring of Projects
 Means to Accomplish Financial Oversight:
(Refer to Financial Oversight Document and RTF Best Practices)
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M-Reports
eReconciliation
Unit Defined Commitments
FinODS reports (i.e. PBSR, SOA)
Business Objects reports
Financial Monitoring of Projects
Revenue Monitoring
Part of monitoring activity on a project is confirming that
funding is received from the sponsor (i.e. Advance or
Scheduled Payments, LOC, Invoiced)
For Projects that are Invoiced:
 Review Statement of Receivables report to confirm
payment(s) received
 Uncollected receivables are ultimately the
responsibility of the department
Financial Monitoring of Projects
Cost Share Monitoring
 Ensure that the required cost sharing expenditures
are charged to the cost share chartfields
 Reminder – Due to recent changes to LDBAL, it is
important to fund cost sharing expenses in the same
fiscal year they are expended (also ensure funding is
coming from appropriate source)
Fixed Price Agreements
 Fixed Price Project ending with a positive
balance – unit keeps remaining funds
 Dean’s Office must sign off on the FSR memo
from Financial Operations
 Portion of the balance may be retained
by the College
RESIN (Research Incentives)
 What is RESIN?
 Return of some of the sponsored indirect costs
 RESIN funds help support research-active faculty
 How is it calculated?
 20% of IDC from two years prior, or
 $1,749 per Faculty FTE
 How is it returned?
 Block Funding Initiative (BFI) – College recommends at
least half of the allocation be distributed to faculty and rest be
retained for other initiatives.
 Research Incentive Program (RIP) – College recommends
20-25% be distributed to faculty and the rest be retained for
unit-wide research needs.
Keep in Mind Resources
 DRDA is available for consultation and assistance
throughout the life of the project
 Project changes (new PI, budget change, etc.)
 No cost time extensions
 Other forms of assistance…
 Financial Operations is available for:
 Questions about allowable expenditures
 Reporting Issues
 Dean’s Office – Financial Analyst is available for:
 Questions on Policies & Best Practices
 Questions or help with difficult situations
Additional Resources
 Financial Operations – http://www.finops.umich.edu/
 Closeout Checklist - http://www.finops.umich.edu/programs/forms/SPPGCC
 Subcontracts - https://www.finops.umich.edu/programs/subcontracts
 Lump Sum Advance - https://www.finops.umich.edu/programs/forms/lumpsumadvance
 DRDA – www.research.umich.edu
 LSA Internal Resources
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LSA Research - http://lsa.umich.edu/research
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LSA Budget & Finance - http://lsa.umich.edu/facstaff/finance/budfin_policies
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Financial Oversight
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Real-Time Financials Best Practice
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LSA RESIN Policy
Wrap Up
Questions or Comments?