Research and Cost Accounting Blog

New Feature: Award Setup Form added to SPARC award notification emails

iO has the capacity to store information about awards that is not captured in the Cayuse documents, but is significant for reporting and analytics.  Until now, RCA has been collecting this information through informal communications.  In order to streamline the process, we have designed a simple, one-page Adobe Sign form that allows departments and PIs to provide all this data before setup begins.

As of this week, the SPARC award notice email will contain a link to the form in the Comments section (see below).

The Department Administrator, Project Manager, or PI who receives the SPARC notification and has a Rice Adobe Sign account can initiate the form and add others to the routing as needed. There are no required approvals, and the form is configured to include RCA as the final stop.  Please note the brief instructions for how to fill out the workflow at the top of the page.  For more information about Adobe Sign, please visit https://kb.rice.edu/page.php?id=85738.

Detailed information on how to fill out the form itself can be found in the Award Information Help Document.

We’ve had several inquiries lately about what Fund Types and Fund Sources should be used in order to fund projects via Balance Transfer.  Please use the information below for funding Cost-share, Deficit, Salary Cap, and Faculty Fund projects, as well as University Awards.

We’d like to share some information on the different Non-Billable projects that are available to the departments in iO.  Some of these are created based on information contained in SPARC notices, while others require a help desk ticket to the RCA queue in order to be created.

Advance Spending award

1. Used when initial agreement has not been received from sponsor
2. Processed thru SPARC
3. RCA will create award and associated project
   1. Award and project names will include “Adv Spndg”
   2. Duration will be six months
   3. Project will have external funding source
   4. F&A rate will be MTDC
   5. Budget will be set up for $1
4. Once agreement is received through SPARC, RCA will update PPM
   1. Award and project names will be changed to reflect sponsor information
   2. Duration will be extended per agreement
   3. Budget will be amended per agreement

Cost Share project

1. Used when a proposal includes Rice cost-share
2. Signed cost-share form should be included in SPARC award notification packet
3. RCA will create a new project while setting up a new award
   1. Project name will include “C/S”
   2. Duration will be the same as award
   3. Project will have Internal funding source (balance transfer required)
   4. F&A rate will be same as signed cost-share form
   5. Budget will be set up for amount on cost-share form
   6. Department will use project number on LD submissions for cost-shared salary
   7. All travel and ODC expenses which are to be cost-shared should be coded to this project

Salary Cap project

1. Used when a faculty’s salary is above the limit set by NIH or CPRIT
2. Department will submit help desk ticket (non-billable projects)
3. RCA will create a new project within the existing award
   1. Project name will include “Salary Cap”
   2. Duration will be the same as award
   3. Project will have Internal funding source (balance transfer required)
   4. F&A rate will be 0%
   5. Budget will be set up for $1 until one is provided by the department
   6. Department will use project number on LD submissions

Pending Amendment project

1. Used when existing award period is ending, but we are expecting an amendment for more time
2. Department will submit help desk ticket (non-billable projects)
   1. Department will attach request form found on RCA website
3. RCA will create a new project within the award
   1. Project name will include “Pending Amd”
   2. Project will begin the day after the award end date, and will have a duration of six months
   3. Project will have same external funding source as Base project
   4. F&A rate will be same as current project(s)
   5. Budget will be set up for $1
   6. Department revise LDs to reflect new project number
   7. All new travel and ODC expenses are coded to the new project
4. When amendment is received, RCA will process it under this new project
   1. Project name will be changed to “Year 2” or other applicable identifier

Deficit project

1. Used when project expenses are more than allowed by the sponsor
2. Department will submit help desk ticket (non-billable projects)
3. RCA will create a new project within the award
   1. Project name will include “Deficit”
   2. Duration will be the same as award
   3. Project will have Internal funding source (balance transfer required)
   4. F&A rate will be 0%
   5. Budget will be set up for overage amount
   6. RCA will process cost transfer to move direct portion of overage to new project, using expenditure type ODC: Excess Costs

In order to make the structure more consistent and easier for users, we’re restructuring some of the sub-folders in Box.

Currently, you see:

We are going to move all of the drop off locations to “drop off here” and all of the processed / in progress files to “processed”.

Within “drop off here” you will now see these choices:

The template for each folder is listed, and all of these are available under templates, which will look like this:

The FBDI box folder will continue to host the Labor Distribution template and instructions and the budget transfer memo job aid, but both of these are submitted through AdobeSign processes and completed templates should not be dropped off in Box.

Please name your general ledger entries with your name and date.  Please name your sponsored project cost transfers using the following naming convention:

These naming conventions will make it easier for RCA to answer questions when people inquire about progress (i.e. “did my entry post?” or “did my cost transfer for project XYZ get processed?”).

Hello, everyone:

We have received several inquiries lately regarding expenses that posted incorrectly to a department’s Central Operating Fund (100.000000) instead of posting to the appropriate Fund Type and Fund Source for a sponsored project (e.g. 104.040000 or 104.047000).

The Fund Source value is derived with a mapping set based on the Award Type for Rice Sponsored Projects.  PPM has a version of the mapping set, and it contains 23 Award Type values.  Payables also has a version of the mapping set, but it only contained 9 Award Type values.  When the system can’t find a match, it maps to an employee’s Default Expense Account.  Typically it would be the Central Operating Fund, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.

The Payables mapping set has been updated and should now include all Award Types for Sponsored Projects.  In order to correct any existing error on your GL, please create an GL entry to credit expenses on the incorrect COA string and debit expenses on correct COA string.

Hello,

When entering expenditure types on a cost transfer, please use an expenditure type that is on this list in box. Please enter exactly as written to ensure prompt, accurate processing.

https://rice.app.box.com/folder/156749942989

We have made some changes to the Expenditure Type list for use on Sponsored Projects.  Please use this new list going forward.

Expenditure Types 11.01.21

There’s a lot of new terminology that we’re all having to learn with the iO system.  Three of the more important terms are Award, Project, and Task.  Let’s take a quick look at what each one means and what it’s used for.

Sponsored Projects

Award is only used for sponsored projects.

• Award number for externally-funded sponsored projects start with 1
• Award number for University-funded sponsored projects start with 9
• The award contains the demographic information, such as sponsor name, start and end dates, PI, Co-PI, terms & conditions, etc.
• Each sponsored project gets one award number for the duration of the research being done
• Expenses do not post to awards

Project is what you should enter when charging to sponsored projects.

• Project numbers for sponsored projects start with G.
• There can be multiple projects associated with a single award.

Task is where budget and expenses live.

• Sponsored projects are not managed by task, thus the task for sponsored projects is always Task 1.

Faculty Funds

Project number for Faculty Funds start with F.

• In addition to budget and expenses, FF projects contain the demographic information since there is no award associated with them.

Task is where budgets and expenses for faculty funds live.

• When a FF project is created, it automatically has four tasks, but the departments can set up more as they see fit.

The topic of Advance Spending versus Pre-Award has come up recently, so we wanted to provide some information to distinguish the two.

Occasionally circumstances arise where you may determine it’s necessary to begin work on your project before the official start date of an award.  There are two mechanisms for allowing costs to be incurred prior to the award start date:

Advance Spending

In cases where an award has not yet been issued by the sponsor, it may be appropriate to request the creation of an Advance Spending award.  This should be done in order to allow work on the project to begin while the award is being negotiated, and in order to mitigate the need for cost transfers.  Advance Spending can also be used for awards that include restricted carry-forward that receive a new PO from the sponsor each year.

To request an Advance Spending award be created, please work with SPARC to process a Pre-Award/Early Setup Request through Cayuse.  When an advanced spending fund is requested, the PI is asked to identify the specific amount of direct and F&A costs needed as well as a rationale for the request. If the award is ultimately not made, is made for a lower amount, or the start date is beyond the 90-day pre-award period for federal pre-award, the responsible Dean’s office will work with the PI’s department and the PI to identify a fund to pay for any unallowable charges.

Pre-Award

In cases where an award has already been issued by the sponsor, it may be appropriate to request Pre-Award spending.  Most federal sponsors allow recipients of grants and cooperative agreements issued under Uniform Guidance to incur project costs up to 90 calendar days before the official start date of the award without prior approval.  If your federal award has been received by SPARC and you determine you have allowable and allocable costs incurred within this 90-day period that should be charged to your new award, you may request Pre-Award spending.   For non-federal sponsors, you will need to provide approval for Pre-Award in writing from the sponsor.

To request a change in the award start date to allow Pre-Award expenses, please work with SPARC to process a Pre-Award/Early Setup Request through Cayuse.