March Meeting Q&A

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Submitted by jnagle on

Greetings Colleagues, 

Meeting materials are available for your review along with a list of links shared during the session. Q&A from our session are included here for reference and will be available with the other meeting materials shortly. 

Within a week or so following every MRAM, an email like this one typically goes out with Q&A from the session and a link to the meeting materials.

Jump to topics: 

Award Setup & Modification Requests - Tips for Success

NIH Update

Q: Can you say anything about CloseOut being delayed in GCA for final financial reports currently. Will this penalize PIs?
A: Response provided by GCA -There is a possibility that GCA's financial reporting backlog could impact Principal Investigators. Final financial reports is a high priority for GCA and we are working with certain sponsors directly to mitigate the impact to the University. If a sponsor has contacted you directly regarding a late financial report, please forward to gcahelp@uw.edu so we can get that prioritized.

Reporting Tools - Expense & Award Remaining Balance 

A presentation was provided on a reporting tool under development with a request for feedback. The final reporting tool is envisioned for completion after the end of March. When complete it will be available in EDW. Because the tool displays data of a potentially sensitive nature, the demonstration was removed from the recording of our March 2024 meeting. 

Link to the beta post-award dashboards (must be logged into the UW VPN to access): https://bitools.uw.edu/#/site/Transitional/views/Post-AwardDashboard/GrantTransactions?:iid=2
NOTE: Once the production versions are released in BI Portal (target date 3/31/24), these beta versions will no longer be accessible. 
Link to the Quick Guide to using the pre-production Tableau versions of the tools (must be logged into Google with UW NetID and password to access) 
Give feedback here about the dashboard functionality or data questions. 
Send general questions about the post-award dashboards to datagrp@uw.edu 

Q1: What user permissions are needed and in what systems to view this report? Will this be based on security role or anybody can access it - faculty and staff? 
A1: These beta versions are permissioned to UW staff and PIs. If you or someone you know needs access, please email datagrp@uw.edu. When it moves into BI Portal, it will be permissioned via ASTRA authorization for EDW access. 

Q2: What would you advise for departments that have concerns with allowing PIs to see the information for every grant within the unit? Especially in regards to internal dept. budgets like startup, etc. 
A2: Because of the sensitive nature of start up information, we are removing standalone grants from the data set in the beta dashboards. 

Q3: How do we access the Quick Guide instructions that are in a Google doc if we do not have a Google account?  
A3: Instructions from UW IT to Activate UW Google account. 

Q4: This doesn't seem accurate. Where can I provide feedback?  
A4: Please complete the pre-production tools feedback form. 

Q5: Can we download the information?
A5: The Quick Guide provides instructions. 

Q6: Does this work for cost sharing worktags?
A6: To view cost share, select cost share from the "Grant L3 Name" filter.

Q7: Is this a good tool for PI Review?
A7: Yes. You can filter by PI to look at that person's portfolio of projects. If you support multiple PIs and want to view each of them, you can filter for the group you support to see details for all of their portfolios.

Un-answered questions may be included as s a follow-up in next months Q&A.

GCA Update

Q1: Is there a way to expedite FFR requests? I am concerned that the delay is going to impact the sponsor's decision to approve our carry forward funds. It is delayed by about 3 months so far and in past years we have found out about our carry forward funds by now.
A1: Please submit an urgent request to gcahelp@uw.edu. Impact to carryover funding is considered a “loss of funding”. Review GCA Urgent Requests webpage for more information.

Q2: In the past when submitting a MOD for the next year of funding for a NIH SNAP award we only had to submit the budget for the new year as laid out in the new NOA. Recently OSP has been asking for the budget in the MOD to reflect the entire amount of the award on the NOA for all years. Is this what is needed moving forward?
A2: Guidance for MOD budgets remains the same. For a MOD with incremental funding, the SAGE Budget snapshot should provide a budget for the new funding increment. A budget for the entire award is not necessary. It is only the MOD form itself that requests the entire amount when Funding & budgeting changes are selected ("Modified Sponsor Total for All Spending Periods"). The total does not need a budget breakdown, just the increment. We will clarify with our OSP reviewers so this guidance is consistently given.

Q3: What is the status of hourly/retro pay posting incorrectly as SOTC? Late last fall Jesse Rice was providing reports revealing these errors, how are they being discovered now?
A3: The hourly/retro payments are still posting incorrectly as Salary Over The Cap (SOTC). The long-term solution to correct this is at least one year away so it is important for campus units to monitor reports and post the corrections on a regular basis. Please visit the Post Award Fiscal Compliance Resources: Salary Cap Issues in Workday webpage for resources for this topic.

Q4: Has there been any update on when GCA might be able to add program worktags on grant worktags?
A4: GCA is working with Procurement Services and the UW Finance Operations Team to document the process campus will need to follow. We expect this to be done in the next couple of weeks. GCA will then work with the Finance Application Management team to do an upload for mass corrections. GCA will also post instructions on our website on how to inform GCA if new program and/or assignee worktags are needed at the time of Workday award line setup.

Q5: Could you talk about the120 days cut off guidance for transfers that has not ended, due to delays for grants being approved. Some transfers are longer than 120 days.
A5: GCA is aware of the issues the ASR backlog can create, including the resulting need for campus to process cost transfers once the award is available in Workday. When explaining the lack of timeliness for cost transfer, we encourage campus units to provide an answer that accurately describes the circumstances that prompted (e.g. A backlog in central offices resulted The award was not available in Workday for five months.).

SAGE Update

Q1: How do departments track 25% change in PI effort if the Workday budget is rolled up for all personnel?
A1: When an award is set up in Workday, only the budget amounts (dollars) are entered into the system. The level of effort (or percentage share of salary committed to the award) is not set up for individuals. For example: if the PI commits to 10% effort on the award at a value of $10,000, Workday will display the $10,000 budget amount, not the10% committed effort level. This is similar to the functionality and set up in the legacy financial system.

Because the level of effort is calculated against the level of pay charged to an award in relation to the actual pay received during a period, fluctuations in the institutional base salary or a change in the individual’s overall FTE could result in actual dollars paid which are different than at the time of submission of the proposal budget.

In order to monitor PI/key personnel effort, units would need to review the proposal sent to the sponsor and the level of committed effort (%) in the proposal budget for the PI or key personnel in relation to the payroll costing allocations in Workday to evaluate the current level of committed effort.

Q2: On the salary screen: research coordinator and research scientist may not necessarily have the )1-10 faculty designation. Will they still be aggregated in the total?
A2: When you click on personnel amount fields, the right side panel opens. Toward the bottom of the panel, there is a personnel category field (labelled UW Sub-Object Code). It is this category that is mapped to the Workday ledger code used in integration. You can update that UW Sub-Object Code as needed, for each personnel row entered.

Q3: How do you enter things like salary in SAGE budget without breaking it down by individual?
A3: When you click the Add Personnel Cost link, you will see an option to "add placeholder personnel". When you click on the amount field, the right side panel opens, and you can enter the salary and computed benefit rate percent, by type of personnel. The UW Sub Object code field (toward the bottom) is what is used to map to the appropriate Workday Ledger, needed for integration. A job aid will be coming soon with detailed instructions to help with placeholder personnel entry.

Q4: Is there is an update on restoring the ability to export a list of eGC1s?
A4: That work has not been prioritized at this time, but is in the backlog.

Q5: How would the high level entry of salary sum work with differing fringe rates?
A5: When you create placeholder personnel rows, you will want to assign them a specific UW Sub-Object code (found in lower right side panel). When selected, a default rate will pre-populate. This defaulted rate may suffice, but if not, you can calculate the percent to update it to based on [total benefits]/[total salary] shown on your NoA for that group of personnel.

CORE

Q1: For those of us only missing "1043 Internal Controls in Purchasing" will that course be released/updated soon or waived for us?
A1: The Internal Controls class will be released by the end of the summer 2024.

Q2: Will a notification go out when new courses are available?
A2: Yes, new courses will be announced at MRAM meetings and posted to the CORE website as they are available.

Expires Date