Home | Process | Close out project | Close and archive accounts

Responsibility: ORSPA-FOT
Prepared by: FOT
Work Instruction Number: WI-CP-20

This work instruction contains the following sections:

Close Account

Archive Project Documents

Close account

An award is ready for Closeout review after AMT has completed the final reporting requirements for the award. AMT will also prepare and F&A reconciliation which breaks down the total direct and F & A costs and any resulting direct cost deficits, F&A adjustments or residuals that need to be processed before the award can be closed. The breakdown will include the totals by grant and award.

  1. Confirm that final deliverables are complete. If missing, contact the assigned AMT team member responsible for fiscal reporting.
    1. Final Invoice/Financial Report/Reconciliation: Confirm there are no uncompleted deliverables with the class of “Fiscal” in ERA. Confirm final paperwork, with backup, is saved in Award SharePoint.
    2. Final Property/Patent Report: Confirm there are no uncompleted deliverables with the class of “Property” or “Intellectual Property” in ERA.
    3. Cost Share: If the award has a cost share requirement, confirm that the final reconciliation of the cost share account is saved in SharePoint. 
  2. Check the “Sponsored Payments and Expense Summary” report in Workday to ensure that there is no Pending Activity. Take the following steps to resolve any pending activity:
    1. For Subaward Supplier Contract (SCON), see step 3 (Subaward Closeout)
    2. For F&A pending activity, no action is required. The F&A will resolve itself once the direct cost encumbrances are cleared. 
    3. For all other encumbrances, contact the department for resolution. 
  3. Confirm Subaward Closeout is Complete
    1. Confirm final invoice has been paid and that total expenses on the account match ASU’s final reported amount.
    2. Pull subaward supplier contract in Workday and check status. If the subaward supplier contract status is not equal to “Closed”, contact the PNT Subawards team to request that they close the supplier contract.
    3. Once the supplier contract is closed, pull subaward record in ERA and close.
  4. Compare Final direct costs reported with Total direct cost in Workday (Budget to Actuals-Grant Ledger Detail).
    1. If Direct Costs in Workday are greater than the Final Reported Direct Costs:
      1. Check the F&A reconciliation for a direct cost deficit. If the deficit is less than or equal to $300, process a deficit transfer journal using the KE program account and cost center. If the deficit is greater than $300, process a deficit transfer journal to the department’s RID account and cost center (see Deficit Transfer Work Instructions)
      2. Check to see if any new expenses have been posted to the grant/award since the final report was created that need to be moved off. In most cases, the department will have to cover these expenses with their department account.
      3. While completing the final fiscal reporting for an award, AMT will identify which expenses, if any, are unallowable and request that the department remove them from the grant. If the department has not moved the expenses by the time of closeout review, reach out to the unit for a program account and cost center to transfer these expenses to (see P1_Unallowable Journals_060619). 
    2. If Direct Costs in Workday are less than the Final Reported Direct Costs
      1. Check backup for expenditures that were planned to be moved to the account after the final report was created. If there are pending expenses, contact the department to have them applied to the grant.
      2. Check to see if any expenses included in the final reporting to the sponsor have been subsequently removed from the grant in Workday. They may have been deemed unallowable after the final reporting was completed. In this case, contact AMT to prepare a revised final.
      3. For true fixed price awards, the F&A rec will detail how any remaining funds should be split between Direct Costs and F&A. For Direct Cost residuals totaling greater than or equal to $100,000 or 20% of the award obligated amount, complete the Fixed Price Residual Distribution Form on the Forms and Templates page.
      4. For cost reimbursable awards, any remaining funds after the closeout review will be refunded to the sponsor.
        1. Small grant balances that are approved for retention by ASU will be distributed to CC0383/PG06483 via a transfer in/transfer out and department reporting roll tag of “KED – Small Grant Balance”. Balances of $10 or less will automatically be retained.
        2. For non-small grant balances on awards that ended more than one year ago, escalate to the Post Award Services director for review before contacting the sponsor for specific instructions.
          1. Non-Federal Funding Balances of <=$300: Notify sponsor of balance and indicate ASU will retain to support research purposes unless instructions to the contrary are received within two weeks. After two weeks, follow-up with the sponsor to indicate that ASU is retaining the funds and follow the “small grant balance” process in 4.2.4.1.
  5. Compare Final reported F&A costs with the Total F&A Costs in Workday (Budget to Actuals-Grant Ledger Detail- Repeat By):
    1. Check the F&A reconciliation for any adjustments necessary to get Workday and Reported F&A to match. Often, if the discrepancy in F&A is small (due to rounding and timing differences), AMT will report the amount that matches Workday, thus alleviating the need to process an F&A journal. Therefore, it is especially important for AMT to clearly define the amount of F&A actually reported to the sponsor.
    2. If an adjustment in F&A is required, follow the F&A Journal work instructions. 
  6. Confirm that the budget for each account is reasonable via the “Sponsored Payments and Expense Summary” report.
    1. The budget total for sponsor funded accounts should equal the ERA obligated amount within plus or minus $1.00 
    2. Individual grants should not have final expenses exceed the budget by more than $25.00. If they do, notify [email protected] to do an ERA modification to update the budget. 
  7. Confirm that the billing in Workday matches the final reconciliation documentation:
    1. Using the “Sponsored Payments and Expense Summary” report, verify that the total billed amount matches the Final.
      1. If they don’t match, generate a Workday invoice as appropriate (invoice, invoice adjustment, stand-alone invoice, etc.) 
    2. Verify on the Award Line Summary in Workday that there is no billing pending or in progress
    3. Verify in “View Sponsor Invoices for Award” tab in Workday that there are no invoices with “draft” or “in progress” in the Invoice status column and that there are no “Partially Paid” or “Unpaid” invoices in the Payment Status column.
      1. If there are outstanding invoices more than 60 days past due with no recent collections activity noted on the invoice, contact the Cash Management team to manage collections.
  8. Confirm that Revenue Recognition and Expenses LTD match on the “Sponsored Payments and Expense Summary” report.
    1. For grant cost share accounts where revenue recognition does not match expenses, contact the Cash Management Cost Share Administrator to finalize payments.
    2. If their recognized revenue and expenses still don’t match, double-check prior steps for any missed items or processes. If there are no missed items, contact the Grant Administrator for assistance. 
  9. Once the Final report matches Workday expenses, recognized revenue, billed amount (for non-consortium sponsor-funded accounts) and payments received, proceed with inactivating the grant(s) and closing the award:
    1. In ERA, close the account record(s) and then close the award.
    2. In Workday, inactivate the grant and add the award to the “Match ERA Closeout” award group. Workday will automatically close the awards in this award group on a weekly basis.

Archive project documents

Sponsor and University legal requirements exist for records retention periods, records storage, and records destruction. The requirements vary by sponsor and type of records. Sponsor requirements can be determined by reference to official sponsor guidance.

The Sponsored Projects Records Retention Schedule is maintained by the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records under Schedule Number: 999-07-15.

  1. Upon completion of the closeout account process, any awarded physical files are to be digitized for electronic storage until the specified retention period has expired and the records are destroyed. The following steps should be completed—One PDF should be created for the award’s NOAs and mods
  2. One PDF should be created for the remaining award documents 
  3. PDFs should have an indicator of destruction date denoted by a date prefix in the file name
    1. NOAs and mods PDF destruction date = 33 years after award end date
    2. Remaining award documents PDF destruction date = expiration date specified in records retention schedule based on sponsor type
  4. These two PDF documents should be saved on the itfs1 server in the CLOSED folder nested as follows: itfs1.asu.edu > ovprea > ORSPA > Archive > K > ACCTG > CLOSED. The award archive folder should be titled with the award ID number.

Digital records for older awards whose files have not previously been stored in physical (paper) format can be found at the following location once having logged into the VPN: \\cholla.rc.asu.edu\KE\PostAward\Archive\K\ACCTG\CLOSED\