With a sponsored award, there are some essential things to know and do to ensure that you are timely with reporting and in compliance with the terms and conditions established by the sponsoring agency.
Campus Specific Deliverables
Award setup
- When a proposal or contract is finalized, the award amount and the sponsor's terms and conditions for how funds should be spent and reported are fixed. Contracts & Grants Accounting uses the award information to create a basic award structure in the Berkeley Financial System (BFS). See the Project Costing Chartfields section on the Chart of Accounts page for details regarding designated chartfields to use to track project spending.
- The initial setup process may take a total of two business days to complete following the Phoebe Award Summary issuance. RAs will receive a notification when the primary chartstring is activated and the award is available for spending as well as additional mapping and/or budget reallocation.
Final reporting and award closeout within the specified time frame
- Failure to submit financial or technical reports within the specified time frame puts the university at risk of having punitive actions imposed. Such actions can include an awarding sponsor withholding an award(s) to an investigator or to the entire university, withholding of payments on invoices, or revocation of the Expanded Authorities Agreement, which affords the university latitude in the budgeting and management of federally awarded grant funds. Situations giving rise to such actions would undermine the university’s research and training functions, both core functions. Therefore, adherence to closeout procedures is non-negotiable. Award Closeout(link is external) covers the responsibilities and procedures to follow.
- As part of the University’s internal control environment, one key control includes a requirement that Divisional Finance Leader or delegated staff review the general ledger detail activity on a quarterly basis to ensure proper recording of expense transactions. This process helps to ensure that recorded expenses are authorized, allowable, allocable, and within the budgeted amount. If costs reflected in the general ledger have been identified as inappropriate, a cost transfer is required. This would include C&G related expenditures. See the DFL onboarding section for internal controls for more information.
- DFLs should also be aware that sponsored project compliance is a shared responsibility involving SPO/IAO, Contracts and Grants Accounting, and Principle Investigators in the academic schools. That shared responsibility includes PIs reviewing their faculty portfolio reports, which includes general ledger activity. We highly recommend that DFLs regularly coordinate with PIs and check in with Berkeley Regional Services, where the RAs reside, to ensure PIs are fulfilling their financial review responsibilities. This gives the DFL assurance when they review the quarterly financial reports that the information included is complete, accurate, and only represents authorized transactions of the University.
- See also 2 CFR § 200.343(link is external).
Deficit clearing
- Research Administrators, Fund Managers, and CAOs should monitor and review their awards and promptly transfer any deficits to the appropriate fund to ensure compliance and adhere to award closeout deadlines. The C&G Deficit Clearing Process(link is external) (monthly and year-end) supports proactive award management and complies with the campus’ deficit clearing policy, sponsor and federal guidelines, and internal and external deadlines.
- See also 2 CFR § 200.308(link is external).
Effort reporting
- Effort reporting(link is external) is a process mandated by the federal government to verify that direct labor charges to, or cost shared on, sponsored projects are accurate, timely, and reflect the actual level of work performed.
- The Principal Investigator / designated Effort Reporting Coordinator is responsible for ensuring that data entered into the Effort Reporting System is complete, accurate, and timely.
- See also 2 CFR § 200.430(i)(1)(link is external).
Facilities and Administration Costs
- Berkeley Sponsored Projects Office(link is external) describes the process we use at Berkeley to calculate and include the indirect costs for departmental and central office support of a sponsored project, including the administrative staff in all the service units on campus, along with current rate agreements.
- Indirect costs are automatically assessed in BFS on appropriate direct cost activity per award setup(link is external) configuration in BFS.
- See also 2 CFR § 200.414(link is external).
Roles and Responsibilities
Various individuals and/or groups need to work together throughout the life of an award to effectively manage sponsored research awards on the UC Berkeley campus. We list the key groups that finance staff work with here. For a complete list, see CGA Award Closeout Roles and Responsibilities(link is external), which details the roles and responsibilities by function in post-award management to ensure the successful fiscal management of the award.