Account monitoring units - Research Administration

In order to perform the tasks of this work instruction, proficiency in ASU systems is required. Training for ASU financial systems is provided by Financial Services and available through ASU’s Training and Development website. training on the following financial items is needed: (Refer to ASU’s Training and Development website.)

Recommended trainings include:

Workday Financial Management System (in BlackBoard)
Cash Handling
Payroll
P-Card
Travel

There are additional trainings for non-financial systems and resources recommended for account monitoring, including:

ERA Grants
Sponsored Projects Allowability Job Aid
Allowable and Unallowable Expenditures Checklist for 2 CFR 200
RSP 508-01 Charging Direct and Facilities and Administrative Costs to Sponsored Projects
ASU Dashboards
Account Forecasting Tool (FT)

Account monitoring

In order for ASU to be good financial stewards of the sponsor’s funding, all project accounts, including cost sharing, sub-award, and program income accounts, should be monitored and reconciled on a monthly basis. Paying close attention to accounts can avoid under-spending and overspending as well as quickly identifying any charges that may have been mistakenly charged to the account. The Financial Services Policy Manual (FIN 210) requires that all payroll and other expenditures be reconciled monthly for all accounts.

1. Using Workday reports, the unit business manager/research advancement post-award manager or other designated personnel will reconcile all project-related accounts monthly to ensure:

the accuracy of charges to accounts,
status of documents, and
account balances per FIN 203.

2. Review financial reports for accuracy of expenditures and codes on all accounts and take appropriate action to make corrections.

3. Maintain financial records in an audit ready manner. Organize for accessibility and in a way that is easily understandable by anyone who would require access in the event of an audit or the absence of a record keeper per FIN 103.

4. Manage all aspects of unit payroll on a monthly basis. For each person paid each month, the manager must verify that the:

authorized correct amount has been paid,
payroll is charged to the correct account, and
charges are appearing on the correct account.

5. Units can use the Payroll Detail and Payroll Summary reports in Workday6. Be timely in taking corrective action when payroll problems are discovered or brought forward for resolution. Note that payroll cost transfers should be made within 90 days of their discovery per RSP 506-02.

Allocation of costs between interrelated projects

Grants awarded by two or more agencies under the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) may be declared interrelated when one or more of the following criteria are met:

The theoretical approaches are interrelated.
Studies of the same phenomena are conducted by the same or different techniques.
Studies of different phenomena are conducted by the same technique.

In addition to the above criteria, the following two requirements apply:

All or most of the costs would be also be legally eligible for support under the federal appropriates from which the other projects are funded.

AND

Each sponsor award includes directly or by reference applicable language allowing use of the interrelated project criteria.

Investigators who have multiple federal awards which meet the above requirements must complete the Documenting Interrelated Projects form and forward it to [email protected] for review.

If approval for interrelatedness is granted, the unit must establish a reasonable allocation method for the costs incurred on the affected project accounts. For additional information on allocating costs between projects, refer to the Sponsored Projects Allowability Job Aid.

Cost transfers

During monthly reconciliations, expenses may be identified as having been posted to the incorrect account. For expenses that need to be transferred to or from a sponsored account, refer to: Job Aid – Processing cost transfers.

For expenses that are unallowable, departmental staff must promptly transfer the expense to a non-sponsored account (typically a locally-funded program account), which will route for Grant Manager and central Financial Services Accountant review and approval.

Spending on the account

Developing good business purposes for transactions

Units are reminded that Financial Services requires clear documentation of the public purpose served by every ASU expenditure as a way to fulfill ASU’s fiduciary requirements outlined in FIN 119: Public Purpose Served.

Units wanting to develop audit-ready business purposes to include with their transactions, are encouraged to use the KE Financial Services Public Purpose Guide. This guide was developed by KE Financial Services for internal use, but was approved for use by ASU’s Financial Services (on 01/06/20) and ORSPA’s Fiscal Oversight (12/19/2019). Units are highly encouraged to adopt this guide for both sponsored and non-sponsored transactions.

Payroll and/or stipends

Follow the procedures for hiring staff, student hourly employees, and faculty using Hiring and Recruitment guides from ASU Business Services.
Follow the procedures for hiring graduate research or teaching assistants using Graduate Support Staff guides from ASU Graduate College.
For student stipends, follow the procedures in the Student Stipend Job Aid.

Non-payroll expenditures

All units can implement their own internal process to request purchases. At a minimum, this process should include records that capture strong programmatic justification for the expense as well as PI and Workday Grant Manager Approval.
Using the Sponsored Projects Allowability Job Aid, determine if the expenditure is allowable and that there are enough funds in the account to cover the expense.
1. If the answer is no, the item or travel is not allowed on the project. Try to find another solution prior to going to the PI. The assigned GCO and other RA’s in the area are good resources for help.
2. If the answer is yes, process the travel or purchase via the appropriate method according to these standards.
For projects which include subawards, refer to WI-MS-10.

CAS exceptions

Write on or attach justification for the expenditure to the transaction documentation (e.g…, purchase order, etc.), and retain in the unit’s file, ensuring:

The proposed expense meets the criteria set forth in the appropriate CAS Guidance tab.
The expense is allowable, allocable, and reasonable.
The expense is processed in accord with all ASU policies/processes.
PI and/or Workday Grant Manager approval (this includes SunRise orders.
A copy of one of the items below is kept in the unit’s file:

Post award expenses where the expense was included in the proposal

A copy of the approved award, budget, budget justification, or note budget justification page # on the transaction document.

Post award expenses where the expense was not included in the proposal

A copy of the sponsor’s approval, where required (e.g… federal funds).

An AMT GCO approval as a result of an email request submitted for review and guidance.

Confirmation that the unit has

reviewed the expense, and
ensured the expense meets the requirements of the CAS Guidance tab.

In the event there are doubts about the strength of the CAS expenditure documentation, reach out to your Award Monitoring AMT GCO.

Expense advances

The efficient operation of a sponsored project sometimes makes it necessary to have funds readily available. Sponsored expense advances may be utilized for approved project purposes. The applicable policy for expense advances is RSP 503-02.

To request an expense advance, the employee or the unit’s Expense Data Entry Specialist will need to create a Spend Authorization task in Workday.

Employees requesting expense advances must complete Cash Handling Training.

PI oversight of fiscal and programmatic performance

In accordance with §200.202 Program Planning and Design, PIs should take into consideration the importance of developing a strong project plan and design to set the stage for demonstrating program results. All facets of the project should be considered (budget, scope of work, planning, large purchases with sponsor funds, fulfilling cost share requirements, etc) and planned for, in order to meet the needs of the PIs, the project and the sponsor. To comply with this requirement, the Investigator is to perform the following:

Working with RA staff, check that monthly expenditures, payroll and other, match the project plan. Make note of any discrepancies.
1. The RA can use the different reports available in Workday, keeping in mind that unless there are adjustments to future funding for personnel, encumbrances will be associated with the end of the ASU fiscal year rather than the end of the project.
Working with RA staff, check that monthly expenditures and payroll are accurate. The KE Account Forecasting Tool (FT) will help forecast the ending balance of the project. If the project is in a state of overspending or under spending, the tool will aid in simulating changing employee resources and expenditure levels in order to derive an acceptable outcome.
For projects which include subawards, refer to WI-MS-10.

Note: deadlines which appear in the project plan and alert RA staff to any changes as soon as possible. The summary of important dates should include institutional dates (fiscal year end, deadlines for personnel actions, effort reporting periods and certification deadlines) as well as project specific dates (reports due, fiscal reports due, end dates etc.).

Documenting cost sharing

For information about documenting the following expenses, visit the Cost Sharing sitelet:

contributed effort for hourly and non-exempt employees
third party cost sharing
non-personnel cost sharing not direct-charged to a Cost Sharing Companion Account
Non-Federal Grants as Cost Sharing

Making changes to cost sharing commitments

Changes/updates to cost sharing commitments can occur for various reasons:

A proposal was submitted with TBDs and/or other incomplete information.
An award comes in which requires more cost sharing than anticipated and requires a revised cost sharing budget.
An award may come in which requires less cost sharing than expected and requires a revised cost sharing budget.
During the project, circumstances related to committed cost sharing may also change. For example:
- An individual listed leaves ASU or cannot otherwise participate in the project
- An individual is not listed but will contribute to the project
- Effort has increased or decreased for an individual

This list is not meant to be all inclusive but rather illustrative of the types of changes that will require action on the part of the RA. If changes occur:

1. Prepare an Award Change Request in ERA and a Cost Sharing Requirement Form (CSRF):

Changes to effort should include:
- name and ASU affiliate ID for the individual whose contributed effort is being adjusted,
- effort reporting period affected by the change, and
- justification to support the change.

For all other cost sharing budget changes:
- indicate the changes being made, and
- provide a supporting justification.

2. Obtain signature(s):

a. PI (The PI’s approval should contain the following statement: “This email constitutes my approval for processing the cost sharing changes requested on the CSRF. As the Principal Investigator, I understand my project is still obligated to meet its total cost share commitment”

b. Chair/Dean (ONLY needed when modifying the total amount of cost sharing committed by the unit/dean to the project.

3. Submit PI approved CSRF tvia ERA Award Change Request.

NOTE: Changes to funding source do not require an Award Change Request nor CSRF. An email to the assigned GCO will suffice.

After-the-fact review report

The method used by KE to meet the requirements of compensation review in 2 CFR 200.430(i) Standards for Documentation of Personnel Expenses. For instructions for the PI as well as guidance for the RA and unit fiscal staff, please see the After-the-Fact Review Report page. The page also provides answers to frequently asked questions.

Obtaining Workday and p-card overrides

Overrides may be required for sponsored project Workday budget checks and P-card purchases. In order to streamline this process and speed up response from your GCO, use the following standardized processes to request an override.

Workday budget checks and overrides

After a Workday transaction fails a budget check, the initiator will be able to request an Override within Workday. The request will route to AMT for approval.

P-card overrides

The override process at J P Morgan Chase can take as long as 2 – 3 hours. Overrides should be obtained prior to attempting to make the purchase.
Most sponsored P-card restricted items must be approved by the sponsor (usually via the proposal budget justification).
Information you will need to send to your GCO to obtain a P-card override:
1. item(s) being purchased
2. vendor
3. estimated total amount of purchase
4. grant (account) number
5. 1 – 2 sentence justification of the charge (why is it allowable/necessary on this grant)
  1. To expedite the process, please also include links/excerpts from the proposal budget, sponsor guidance, etc. that support the allowability of the charge.
6. name on P-Card and last 4 digits of P-card
Send an e-mail to your GCO and to [email protected] or your P-card representative.
1. Subject: P-Card override Grant (account) number
2. Body: Information in item 3 above
GCO will reply to all recipients with either approval or disapproval.
If the P-card office was included on the e-mail, they will receive the GCO’s approval directly and will process the request. Otherwise forward the GCO approval to the P-card office.

Complete and track variances to project plan

Working with the PI, the RA should:

obtain project plan that contains task breakdown structure and associated deliverables;
obtain most recent project plan that details task progress (relative to the last progress report) and level of completion;
update project plan with any changes;
compare stated task completion level to the anticipated completion level described in the original project plan.

Account forecasting tool

The account Forecasting Tool (FT) is the KE-recommended tool for forecasting departmental accounts, including grants. FT pulls financial information from several University data sources into an excel spreadsheet so the user can see the information in one place. The tool shows/allows:

budget, expenditures, encumbrances and a forecast both summarized and by spend category
expenses as “inception to date” or by fiscal month on the same row for easy trend analysis
personnel funded from that account or set up in PeopleSoft to be funded in the future
simulation of changing resource levels to see a projected ending balance

To learn more about all of FT’s incredible features and to view access instructions and training materials, visit https://analytics.research.asu.edu/account-forecasting.

Note that this tool is not meant to replace Workday (WD) or to replace the monthly audit readiness reconciliation tools available in WD.

Complete and submit deliverables

Send an email reminder to PI of sponsor specific deliverables coming due.
Send a request to PI requesting a copy of the report.
Follow up with PI, as needed, to ensure the report is submitted.
Working with faculty, submit a report to the sponsor, if not already sent by PI, and retain a copy for the unit’s file.
Forward a copy of the report to the AMT GCO for their file.
Comply with NIH’s Public Access Policy, which requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication.

Preparation for end of obligation

Principal Investigator

An automatically-generated Sponsored Project Notice stating that a project account is ending within 60 days is sent to the PI. Below is additional guidance based on the three scenarios described in the letter.

Additional time and/or funding from the sponsor is expected:

1. Confirm all required deliverables have been submitted to the sponsor. Most sponsors will delay issuing a modification to an award if technical deliverables (i.e… progress reports, drawings) are not submitted on time.

2. Once confirmed that all project deliverables are current, send an email to the unit RA Staff who will coordinate with Award Management (AMT) Grant and Contract Officer (GCO) to request status of the award modification. The assigned AMT GCO will contact the sponsor and notify the RA and PI of status.

3. If the sponsor indicates the award modification will be delayed, the project may need to continue on an At-Risk status. Contact the assigned RA to exercise the at-risk option, when required to maintain continuity of the project.

4. For projects which include subawards, refer to WI-MS-10.

5. If the project has cost sharing, this is a good time to review the cost sharing with the unit RA staff to ensure the commitments are on schedule to be met. The RA staff member will coordinate with the assigned AMT GCO.

No additional time and/or funds from the sponsor but a No-Cost Extension is needed to continue work on the project:

1. Contact the unit RA to request a no-cost extension. The RA will complete the required forms based on receipt of a technical justification to support the request from the PI.

2. If the project has cost sharing, this is a good time to review the cost sharing with your assigned RA staff to ensure the commitment is on track to be met. The RA staff member will coordinate with the assigned AMT GCO.

3. For projects which include subawards, refer to WI-MS-10.

No additional time and/or funds from the sponsor are expected and a no cost extension is not needed to complete the work on the project:

1. Complete the scope of work and prepare the final deliverables for on-time submission to the sponsor.

2. Contact the unit RA to finalize and reconcile all project expenses and encumbrances. All final expenses should be posted and all encumbrances should be cleared on or before the project end date. If expecting expenses to post after the project end date, submit a justification to the unit RA explaining what these purchases were and that they were used within the project period.

3. If the project has cost sharing, confirm that the cost sharing is on track to be met. The RA staff member will coordinate with the assigned AMT GCO.

4. For projects which include subawards, refer to WI-MS-10.

5. Archive project financial and technical records in accordance with the Sponsored Projects Records Retention Schedule.

Unit administrator (i.e… research advancement staff, business operations managers)

The RA or BOM may receive a Sponsored Project Notice stating a sponsored account within the unit is ending within 60 days. Below is additional guidance based on the three scenarios described in the letter.

1. Initiate communication with the PI to determine what actions may need to be taken.

2. Refer to WI-EP-130 if the PI would like to request the project account be placed on at-risk status or request a no-cost extension.

3. Perform the following actions:

3.1. Update account fund mapping for payroll to ensure that personnel costs are funded from appropriate accounts once sponsored funding expires. Each pay period, Financial Services has to manually remap pay which has been mapped to expired accounts to ensure that payroll processes correctly and that all employees are paid. This re-mapping results in posting of pay to RID accounts which may in turn need to be transferred to an appropriate funding source. Proactive updates to account mapping will eliminate time-consuming manual re-mapping by Financial Services and will eliminate processing of payroll redistribution requests by units and Research Operations. To extend account end dates as needed to accommodate delays in funding increments and award notices, refer to WI-EP-130. Ensure that account fund mapping for sponsored accounts which are permanently expiring are updated. Additional details on this process can be found here.

3.2. Cost sharing – confirm contributed effort has been certified; submit to Research Operations the 611E-W reports highlighting non-payroll cost sharing expenses; request certified cost sharing memos from 3rd party contributors.

3.3 Subawards – Refer to WI-MS-10.

3.4. Reconcile expenses and encumbrances on all project accounts.

3.5. Confirm all effort is certified.

3.6. Inform AMT GCO whether this will be final obligation or not as early as practicable. If this is the final period, go on to WI-CP-01.

Training needs