Frequently Asked Questions

These award mechanisms are distinguished by who benefits and what is expected in return. A grant satisfies specific sponsor requirements; the primary benefit of grant work is the awardee (i.e., University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver)). For example, the CU Denver Special Education Department might receive a federal grant to develop a school program.

The majority of awards at CU are grants. Contracts are agreements to acquire CU services or deliverables that benefit the sponsor. For example, a department in the CU Denver School of Medicine might contract with a pharmaceutical company or with the State of Colorado to develop an online test.

This is a completed application for funding (scientific presentation, budget, and any necessary administrative paperwork), plus all necessary internal approval forms (e.g. COMIRB, IACUC, etc.). Please see your Sponsored Programs website at Office of Grants and Contracts.

Budgets are typically determined by sponsor requirements. The grant or contract proposal includes a proposed budget, which is an itemized summary of anticipated expenditure activity for a given period and activity with an identified (or proposed) means for financing. The budget is comprised of direct costs and indirect costs (F&A). Direct costs can be easily and accurately identified with your sponsored project.

These types of costs include: personnel, consultants, equipment, supplies, travel, participant costs, other expenses, and sub-award/subcontract costs. Indirect costs - F&A (Facilities and Administrative) include: utilities, public safety, building equipment use and maintenance, departmental personnel for administrative or clerical functions, membership dues and fees for professional organizations, telephone line charges, office supplies, postage, and copy machine fees.

The F&A rate requested for a sponsored project depends on the characteristic of the award. CU Denver has a Federal F&A rate agreement which outlines the applicable rate for direct Federal and Federal flow-through projects. For other types of non-Federal awards, such as State, non-profit/associations, industry and other projects, CU Denver has established an F&A rate grid which dictates the appropriate rate.

The sponsor may award the requested budget, or may award a different budget. The award notice includes this information and the awarded budget is set up in the financial system.

• OGC F&A Information
• Facilities and Administrative Costs, Fiscal Policy 4-4 (PDF)

Yes, most sponsored projects pay F & A. CU Denver will seek to recover appropriate F&A costs for all sponsored projects. F&A costs are those costs which are incurred for common or joint objectives of the University and thus cannot be easily allocated to a specific project.

Some common F&A costs include: utilities, public safety, building equipment use and maintenance, departmental personnel for administrative or clerical functions, membership dues and fees for professional organizations, telephone line charges, office supplies, postage, and copy machine fees. F&A rates are negotiated on a regular basis between the CU Denver Office of Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance and representatives of the Federal government.

If a sponsor is unable or unwilling to pay the appropriate F&A rate, the administrative unit will need to submit a waiver for approval of a non-CU Denver F&A rate.

• F&A Cost Chart
• Facilities and Administrative Costs, Fiscal Policy 4-4 (PDF)

Restricted funds are those available for financing operations, but which are limited by donors or other external agencies to specific purposes, programs, departments, or schools. CU's restricted funds include Fund 30, Fund 31, Fund 34, and Fund 35.

• Fund and Revenue Accounting (DOC)
• University of Colorado Funding Breakdown

Learn more about establishing a pre-award.

Issuance of a preaward speed type does not authorize spending prior to the start of a project. Department must understand sponsor policy to determine if pre-spending is allowable. If spending occurs and is determined to be unallowable, it will be department responsibility to remove expenses timely. 

The need for a new project number/speed type is based on the restrictions of the award. We review for carry forward restrictions or any other reporting restrictions that would prohibit us from extending the original number.

Please contact your postaward specialist for changes to your projects budget. In some cases they can make the change without sponsor approvals, others they need to work with your sponsor.

• Rebudgeting Request from Rev 2012 November

Marketplace is tied to the fiscal roles. In order to be an approver in Marketplace for your speedtype, the individual needs to be setup as fiscal staff. Please see Award Administration forms at the Grants and contacts website.

• Change of Fiscal Staff- Fund 30/31 Form

For changes to Fiscal Manager or Fiscal Staff please complete the appropriate form. The forms contain instructions on where to send the request and can be found on the forms page of the OGC website.

The Fiscal Principal is designated via the award notice and updates to this role will require advanced approval from the sponsor.

• Change of Fiscal Manager- Fund 34 Form
• Change of Fiscal Staff- Fund 34 Form
• Change of Fiscal Manager- Fund 30/31 Form 
• Fiscal Manager Principle Change Fund 34

Sponsored projects should be under the org for your department that is designated as such. If for some reason the project is setup incorrectly or the PI has changed departments the reorg can be requested via any of our setup group.

For the status of your project setup please contact [email protected]. Please be sure to include Proposal # and PI name in the request.

After the award is received you should have your speed type in an average of 15 days. Please note this is an average. Many speed types are setup in a much quicker time frame. To avoid waiting for your speed type you can always request a preaward. The form for this can be found under Grant Application forms and can be submitted to the preaward office.

Please work with your postaward specialist. They will review the award and determine the need for a program income account. If needed they will forward to the setup group to get a Speed type for the program income.

Please work with your postaward specialist to make sure everything needed for cost share get properly setup.

Fund 30, a sponsored project fund, accounts for revenues from sponsors (including private businesses, corporations, foundations and other not-for-profit organizations, other universities, and federal, state and local government), which supports research, instructional, or public service activities that are related to the mission of the UC Denver.

Fund 31 for a sponsored project fund, is used to account for revenue from the State of Colorado including all state agencies and State of Colorado universities.

Once an award has been approved by the sponsor, OGC must set it up in the financial system. To do this, they need project information, including:

• Name
• Department number of the designated Principal Investigator (PI)
• Sponsor information
• Budget period (sponsorship funds are normally allocated one year at a time)
• Project period (i.e., the entire length of the project, which can be longer than a single budget period, particularly if the sponsor is a Federal agency)
• CFDA number, if the project is from a federal source
• Budget - funds may be allocated for specific purposes
• Financial reporting requirements

When a project is set up in the financial system an e-mail will be sent to the departments and PIs in which they will receive the project number and speed type, which allows them to correctly charge expenses to the project.

It depends. OGC does invoicing for projects which require financial information from the general ledger. If your unit is responsible for invoicing, the requirement will be communicated during project setup.

AR Types are used in PeopleSoft to define the method of billing. In PeopleSoft go to:

General Ledger -> Chartfields -> Project.

Once you pull up your project in the system, the AR type can be found on the Award Number Tab. Projects that are AR type 2 are billed by OGC. Projects that are AR type 3 and 5 should be billed by the awarded department.

Invoices are based on the terms and conditions of the award. If the invoice is for a fixed price, OGC invoices for those fixed price amounts and time frames. If invoices are based on expenses, the expenses are pulled from the General Ledger on either a monthly or quarterly basis. To determine the expenses included on the invoice, you can review your financial statements.

A sample template can be found below and on the OGC website under the Form Library.

• Billing Invoice Template - UCD

 

For payments being made via check they should be made payable to the University of Colorado Denver and mailed to:

University of Colorado
Grants and Contracts [grant # – PI's initials]
PO Box 209436
Dallas, TX 75320-9436

For payments being made electronically please reach out to our Accounts Receivable team at [email protected] for more information.

 

All checks for fund 30, 31, and 35 should be deposited by the Office of Grants and Contracts. You can drop the checks for these funds at the Bursar Office Drop Box located in Education 2 North, 3^rd floor – Room 3120A. The check should be accompanied by a cash receipt form with the speed type and account code. If you have questions, please contact [email protected].

The cash receipt form is available here.

A check for a fund 3X expense reimbursement should be deposited by the Office of Grants and Contracts. You can drop the checks for these funds at the Bursar Office Drop Box located in Education 2 North, 3^rd floor – Room 3120A. The check should be accompanied by a cash receipt form with the speed type and account code where the original expense was charged. If you have questions, please contact [email protected].

Please use the Balance Sheet transactions reports to review payments applied to the GL for all cases other than program income. Program income payments can be found in the Summary section under revenue. There is also a Payments Received report on the Cognos site. If you have further questions please reach out to [email protected].

OGC will provide copies on a case-by-case basis for special circumstances. There is currently no process in place to provide check copies for all payments. If you have a special circumstance please contact our Accounts Receivable Team at [email protected]

Please contact [email protected] and include the following information as part of your request:

• Check Number
• Amount
• Date of Check
• Project or Speed Type
• Any other relevant information

All gift checks with a gift speed type that is not linked to the CU Foundation should be deposited by the Office of Grants and Contracts. You can drop the checks for these funds at the Bursar Office Drop Box located in Education 2 North, 3rd floor – Room 3120A. The check should be accompanied by a cash receipt form with the speed type and account code. If you have questions, please contact [email protected].

For checks that are linked to the CU Foundation please deposit those directly with the CU Foundation.

See the Contracting Offices Flow.

A contract is a legally binding agreement between two parties. Anything that binds the University to certain terms and conditions is considered a contract.

 

An amendment changes an existing contract by adding new terms and conditions, changing existing terms, changing the scope of work details, adding new money, or changing the duration of the agreement. Any amendment will be processed by the same office that is responsible for processing the original agreement.

If the work is supported by a private industry entity and involves human subjects research, please use the CRAO portal to submit your request instead of InfoEd.

Human Subjects Research includes:

• Research involving a living individual about whom data or biospecimens are obtained, used, studied or analyzed through interaction/intervention.
• Where identifiable, private information is used, studied, analyzed, or generated (PHI). This includes human samples or data from an existing biobank.
• Any experiment that involves a test article and one or more human subjects and that either is subject to requirements for prior or eventual submission to the FDA as part of an application for a research or marketing permit.

The OGC Contracts team has 10 business days from the date the agreement is assigned to complete our initial review, but most requests are turned around within a week. Unless there is an emergency or firm deadline to make us aware of, we would appreciate you holding any non-urgent status requests until the end of the 10-day review period.  

If the terms of any agreement are not in alignment with University policy and must be negotiated, the OGC Contracts associate will reach out to the external party directly and copy the department contact you have provided with your request. Depending on how quickly the external party can provide a counter review of our changes, and how extensive the changes are, this will extend the 10 day turn around period accordingly.   

When an agreement includes terms that create any unique risks involving intellectual property, data use, IT security, or regulatory issues (such as GDPR, CAA, FAR clauses), the OGC Contracts reviewer will coordinate with the appropriate University office to facilitate the review of those terms prior to finalizing the agreement for signature.

See the Fee for Service Quick Reference guide.

See the Sponsored Project v Fee for Service document.

If your agreement is reviewed by a member of OGC Contracts, we will use our designated signature authority to sign the agreement on behalf of the University.

For more information on who can sign contracts at the University see the University Contracting Menu 

• Sponsored Projects: You will always know the status of your agreement by checking your email! We copy you on correspondence with the sponsor during negotiations so you know where we are in the contracting process. Feel free to use this email chain to update your faculty members, loop them in directly if that is their preference, or communicate directly with the sponsor about their review progress as you see fit.
• Fee-for-service/Revenue: You will always know the status of your agreement by checking your email! You will be communicating directly with the counterparty during the negotiation process on behalf of the University, so you will be the central point of contact for any status updates regarding the contracting process.

Please contact [email protected] for any questions regarding ePERs.

You should reach out to your payroll liaison and supervisor to make any necessary changes.

If you are getting a second login page or the login page is rejecting your password and username, please try the following steps:

• Clear your cache and browsing history. When you go to clear the browsing history and cache, you need to make sure to select Site Settings.
• Access ePERs through your campus portal rather than using a link in the email.
• Try a different browser that has a clear cache and browsing history.

Date Range	Semester
January 1 - May 31	Spring
June 1 - August 31	Summer
September 1 - December 31	Fall

 

The timely manner to complete the ePER is 30 days from the day the ePER was generated, but policy indicates it must be certified within 120 days.

Employees receive an email the day the ePER is generated and then will receive a reminder email every 30 days until certified. If after 120 days they have not certified the ePER, they will get an email every 10 days and their supervisor will be included in that email.

No, please contact your payroll liaison to have the salary corrected.

N-Not Complete

• The employee has not certified their ePER.

P-PET required (Pending Payroll Adjustment)

• The employee has tried certifying less than the pay with cost share.
• If the employee believes that their actual effort percentage is less than what their pay with cost share was, the employee will need to work with the payroll liaison to create a PET to move pay off that sponsored project.
• If the effort is correct, the employee needs to certify the actual effort percentage for greater than or equal to the pay with cost share.

R-Revised PER Issued (Revised)

• Something in the system (typically a PET) was submitted that caused the ePER to change.
• The employee will need to recertify for the updated effort.
• If they have issues with the percentages, they need to work with their payroll liaison.

H-Hold (On Hold)

• There is a payroll error (negative pay or suspense).
• Effort with Cost Share exceeds 100%
• Please reach out to [email protected] for questions.

If the employee is no longer with the university but has outstanding uncertified ePERs the supervisor of the employee at the time the ePER was issued will need to certify in the system.

Please use the supervisor certification guide for assistance.

Please reach out to [email protected] on next steps.

We typically suggest having the PI’s listed on the sponsored projects to certify the effort. The PI listed on the sponsored project will not have access to certify the ePERs in the system and will have to certify via PDF copy of the ePER. The person of knowledge will complete the certification via PDF, you will send it to [email protected], and we will certify in the system. PDF signed versions must have a statement of knowledge on why they are certifying, all Actual Effort % filled out, and a signature. Please see example of our expectation of certifying a PDF copy of an ePER.

Please contact [email protected] for any questions regarding cost share.

The Pay with Cost Share Effort/NIH Cap column shows the Payroll Distribution % column plus any percent of effort committed to the project but paid by university funds. This column also includes any percent of salary over the NIH salary cap.

You are required to report any effort that was paid for by the sponsored project plus any additional effort on that sponsored project that was paid for the university (cost share). So, when you are certifying your ePER you will always want to review the Pay with Cost Share/NIH Cap column and ensure that your Actual Effort % includes that.

Below is an example of what it might look like on an ePER.

The employee’s org and supervisor are based off the job org and supervisor listed in HCM by HR.

No, we cannot retroactively change HCM data for employees (org, supervisor, ID, name, etc.).

• This report is released every quarter (March, June, September, and December).
• It is sent to the Project Investigator with awards that have outstanding ePERs.
• The outstanding ePERs are for individuals that work on the PI’s award. 
• Please note that this can include individuals from other orgs.
• The PI should review the report and complete the following actions:
• Ensure that the proper individuals are working on your awards and with correct effort levels.
• Encourage any individuals that are still active to certify their effort.
• If the individuals are terminated the PI can coordinate with the supervisor to certify the effort.
• If both the individual and supervisor are terminated the PI should reach out to [email protected] for next steps.

We do not have a system setup to have an ePER released before a person leaves. We would suggest that the supervisor sit down with the employee and discuss their payroll distribution and anticipated effort before they leave, and then when the employee leaves and the ePER is released then the supervisor can certify the ePER in the system based off the knowledge and discussion they had with the employee.

• This report is released at the beginning of every month.
• It is sent to the person listed as the fiscal manager on the org.
• It may be necessary to forward this email to someone else in the department.
• The report will show you all the people with uncertified ePERs listed in the org.
• The employee’s org is based off the job org listed in HCM.
• The ePERs with a Hold status are not included in this report.
• The department should review the report and reach out to any employees that have outstanding ePERs.

The InfoEd eRA Portal is the official electronic research administration system adopted by the University of Colorado to manage the research lifecycle from start to finish including proposal application and submission, sponsor award, renewals and project closeouts. This system enables faculty, administrators and staff to efficiently track grants and contracts through its life span with 24-7 availability.

Fiscal Compliance offers an InfoED training class each semester. Information is found on the Fiscal Compliance Training website. Step-by-step manuals are also available in InfoED under the "CU InfoEd Updates & Training Information" website link.

Training sessions and working lab sessions are listed on the ERA Training Calendar. Contact: [email protected] to register.

• Complete the InfoEd User Request Form
• For Instructions or Security Questions, Email
• Access will be provided to you within 24 hours of your request

InfoEd eRA website

Denver and Anschutz Medical Campuses: Login = University Login Password = University Password

Verify that you selected the correct Campus Location Contact [email protected] for assistance.

Go to the InfoEd website. Select the “Login” button Type in your InfoEd Login name and password where indicated. (This will be the same username and password you use to login to your machine or my.cu.edu portal.) Click on “Denver” in the campus drop‐down field Select “Login”.

If someone other than the originating PI wishes to access a Proposal, (to view or edit) the PI must grant authority as a delegate. The delegate will now have access to ALL proposals he/she is a delegate for. Follow the steps for “How to Delegate Authority”

Log into InfoEd From the Portal page, click on “My Profile” Select “Edit” Select “Delegates” from the list of options to the right When the window opens up at the bottom of the page, click on “Add” at the right of this section The Personnel window will pop up. Search for the person to delegate authority to and click on “Select” NOTE: The person who is acting as a delegate will have access to ALL proposals created by the PI

Log into InfoEd From Portal page, click on “My Proposals” in left menu Click on “Search For” Enter number in the “Proposal Number” field Click “Locate” Once proposal is listed, hover over the Open icon beneath the proposal number, then click the “Edit” icon under “PD”

Yes! Click “Save” to save your work, then click “Done” to close the proposal. See question above to find your saved proposal.

Log into InfoEd From Portal page, click on “My Proposals” in left menu Click on “Show/List” A results screen will display a list of proposals either in-process or completed. This list will include proposals for the Logged in User or any proposals that the user has been granted access for. Once proposal is listed, hover over the Open icon beneath the proposal number, then click the “Edit” icon under “PD”.

In order to have access to the Proposal, the PI must delegate authority to you in the InfoEd eRA system. You will now see this person under the section titled “Individuals who may access items” Follow the instructions for “how do I find my saved proposal".

In the process of answering the initial set-up questions in the New Proposal Questionnaire the radio button for ‘Will this proposal have multiple principal investigators?’ click on Yes (default is No). Once the proposal is set-up with this response, the system will expect the necessary documents and assignment of Role in the Personnel section. The correct selection for Role is PD/PI.

The Associated Department is the department that is responsible for managing the proposal and defaults to the Primary Appointment of the PI. This is also the department that is used for primary routing. If a proposal will be managed outside of the PI’s primary appointment, for example a center, simply change the Associated Department to that center/institute.

In this situation a PI may be submitting a proposal where the Facilities and Administrative Rates or Indirect Cost Recovery is to be designated to another department, school or center. This can be changed in the Set-Up pages in the Associated Department section and will function to alert the Office of Grants and Contracts of the alternate Org(anization) to receive the F&A. It is important for the Routing Sheet to reflect the correct Org number receiving the F&A.

The PI has to delegate authority in InfoEd for either ‘read/write’ or ‘view only’ in order for anyone to access, search or view human subjects protocols. This authority is found in the PI profile under delegate and has the ‘read/write’ or ‘view only’ options.

These details are indicated on the routing sheet and signed agreements (if included). The signed agreements can be uploaded in the Internal Documents tab and are not submitted to the sponsor.

Primarily this is handled with the F&A agreement as an internal document upload and noted on the internal routing sheet.

Presently, this option is not available in InfoEd eRA. Members of our eRA team are exploring the possibility of this enhancement. Always insert the correct performance site information as the default is the OGC address, DUNS, Congressional District and other details. Every subcontract performance site is automatically added in this section.

The new form set C is available now and will be available when selecting the sponsor on your New Proposal Questionnaire. If you started a proposal in eRA using the Form Set B2 and need to convert to C return to the SetUp Questions, uncheck the completed box and edit the sponsor opportunity and select the form set C. There are some minor changes between B2 and C noted here.

• Cover letter – if uploaded, will be lost (the upload location has moved to the face page
• Face Page – data is retained
• Performance Sites – data is retained
• Other Project Information tabs – data is retained
• Budgets, including sub awards – data is retained
• Key Personnel – data is retained
• Research Plan – Uploads for Planned Enrollment or Cumulative Inclusion will be lost. There are new forms for data entry content, which will appear as S2S forms.
• Checklist page is being deprecated (superseded) with some of the questions moving to the Cover Page Supplement. Those questions will have to be re-answered in their new location.
• S2S forms – all data will be lost for the S2S forms and will require re-entry into the new version of the form
• Career Development Award Supplemental Form
• PHS Fellowship Supplemental
• Training Program Plan
• Training Budget Subaward Attachment Form

There are two tabs in PD for other document uploads. For those other documents required by the sponsor the tab is labeled Other Attachments. Any documents required for internal review or required internal agreements are uploaded in the tab labeled Internal Documents.

The very first step for a subcontract is on the initial Set-Up page and the question “Will your proposal include any Subcontracts?” is checked Yes (default is No). The next steps are within the Personnel section to assign those personnel related to both the proposal and subcontract. Building the budget for the subcontract will be within the Budget tab under the appropriate headings.

The current method for entering this type of appointment is to populate the base salary at the current FTE basis. For example, if a 1.0 FTE faculty member is paid $100,000 and decreases from 1.0 FTE to 0.75 FTE their decreased base salary is $75,000. On the grant proposal the faculty effort is 20% so the calculation is based on 20% of $75,000. Fringe Benefits are selected at the Part-Time 0.75 FTE – 0.99 FTE rate of 30%.

These functions are entered in the Budget tab under the sub tab Budget Items. In the window Budget Items click on the folder icon next to the PI or person’s name and a window opens with the Budget Detail. In the Salary/Payroll Information under the Appointment choose the Type (drop down box) Academic and set the number of Months to 9. Next, in the Appointment Start/End enter S(tart): 01-Sep-20(current fiscal year)13 and E(nd): 31-May-2014. Save. 

If there is a Summer appointment, select the Edit Details button and click Add Appointment, enter data into the Salary/Payroll Information section under the Appointment, a box will allow you to select Type: Summer and number of Months: 3. In the Appointment Start/End S(tart): 01-Jun-2014 and E(nd): 31-Aug-2014. 

Enter the Base Salary for the PI or person and select the correct Fringe Benefits based on their appointment/s. 

Directly below this information is a row with radio buttons the first selection and default is Continue Salary past appointment end. Change this selection, click the radio button to Recycle Salary on the Annual Anniversary (respecting effective dates). 

Since it is possible for a PI or person with an Academic Appointment to have different effort on the project during the academic year (for example 50%) than the summer months (for example 100%) you may populate the Time and Effort levels on Project accordingly. This will require input of the Start Date, number of Months, End Date and Effort for that time period. You will need to enter each Period of the Budget with these dates to correctly reflect the effort. Save often to prevent losing any data.

From the University of Colorado Denver, Grants and Contracts Website Routing Requirements: 

Forms and Documentation Requirements: All applications and proposals sent to Grants and Contracts must be in a complete and final format upon receipt and include the Routing Form, other required internal forms, approval signatures, a print-out of all parts of the grant application including attachments, and a print-out of instruction materials (non-NIH Sponsors only).

For faculty and employees that have a significant financial interest, the COIC Office has to review all research activity and/or institutional responsibilities to determine if the significant financial interest could directly and significantly affect the design, conduct or reporting of research or their institutional responsibilities. If this determination is made then the faculty or employee has a financial conflict of interest that must be appropriately managed in accordance with UCD policy. Each overlapping research protocol, grant, or research contract will need to have a separate management plan developed and approved by the COIC Office and signed by the faculty or employee.

Questions: Conflict of Interest 

Cannot submit for PHS or NSF funding opportunities.

Termination of the activity that creates the conflict of interest, including inability to draw funds from grant and contract speed types or participate in IRB protocols.

Funds drawn from a federally funded grant may need to be returned.

Additionally:

• Divestiture of significant financial interests.
• Deactivation of employee’s badge access to parking and labs.
• Disciplinary action against the employee up to and including termination.
• In the case of violation of criminal or civil law, violation may be subject to civil or criminal penalties.
• Reporting to applicable federal agencies 

For more information:

• OGC Conflict of Interest page 
• UCD Conflict of Interest and Commitment website and link to submission/update instructions

Pease visit Fund 35 New Speedtype Setup Request Form.

Please visit the system controller’s website to review the Decision Matrix used to identify if you have a gift.

Please see page 26 of the finance document for instructions to route a journal entry for approval

If the check is revenue for the gift account 240400 should be used unless the check is from UPI, Inc. then account code 240401. Reimbursements for gifts need to be deposited into the account code where the expense occurred. The following are special events account codes:

240410- Registration 240411- Sponsorships 240412- Donations 240413- Auctions Sales 240414- Merch. Sales

Email OGC, [email protected]

Pease visit Gift Speedtype Set-up and Control on gift accounts and forms required to setup a gift account.

Please see page 26 of the finance document for instructions to route a journal entry for approval.

Send an email to [email protected].

If the check is revenue for the gift account 240400 should be used unless the check is from UPI, Inc. then account code 240401. Reimbursements for gifts need to be deposited into the account code where the expense occurred. The following are special events account codes:

240410- Registration 240411- Sponsorships 240412- Donations 240413- Auctions Sales 240414- Merch. Sales

All gift checks with a speed type that is not linked to the CU Foundation should be deposited by the Office of Grants and Contracts. You can drop the checks for these funds at the Bursar Office Drop Box located in Education 2 North, 3rd floor – Room 3120A. The check should be accompanied by a cash receipt form with the speed type and account code. If you have questions, please contact [email protected].

For checks that are linked to the CU Foundation please deposit those directly with the CU Foundation.

Post-award administration is the period and activity of carrying out the obligations of the award to the sponsor. This is a joint effort on the part of the PI, administrative unit, and OGC.

For more information, please refer to the following:

• Roles and Responsibilities for Sponsored Project Management, Fiscal Policy 4-13 (PDF)
• Grants and Contracts Training

Project expenditures should:

• Comply with the terms and conditions of the award
• Be reasonable under the circumstances of the specific project for which they are charged
• Directly contribute to the accomplishment of the University’s mission and be a necessary expenditure for the specific project for which they are charged
• Be charged in proportion to the benefit received by the project.

When in doubt, contact your Postaward or Sponsored Program Specialist for additional guidelines.

Program Income means gross income earned by CU that is directly generated by a supported activity or earned as a result of a sponsored program award. Program income includes, but is not limited to, income from fees for services performed, the use or rental of real or personal property acquired under federally-funded projects, the sale of commodities or items fabricated under an award, license fees and royalties on patents and copyrights, and interest on loans made with award funds.

Interest earned on advances of Federal funds is not program income. Except as otherwise provided in Federal awarding agency regulations or the terms and conditions of the award, program income does not include the receipt of principal on loans, rebates, credits, discounts, etc., or interest earned on any of them. The use of monies generated from program income is subject to the applicable rules and regulations of the awarding agency and any other restrictions placed upon the program income as a part of the award terms and conditions.

For example, some awards use program income to reduce the award monies provided by the awarding agency, some use it to meet matching requirements, and some allow the use of program income monies to further the objectives under which the award was made.

Generally, the same cost principles applicable to sponsor-provided funds are likewise applicable to program income monies. Additionally, the awarding agency may have separate rules and regulations that specify the time frame during which the program income must be used (e.g., during the effective period of the award or after the award has ended).

• Fiscal Policy for Program Income, 4-11

A no-cost extension (NCE) refers to the extension of the project period without additional funding. Approval of no-cost extensions to sponsored projects may be handled internally or sought externally from the sponsor. You should contact your sponsored projects office to discuss a potential NCE well in advance of the end date of the award.

As the end of a project nears, there are two main issues to consider:

• Should the project continue or be closed?
• What reports need to be submitted to the sponsor? 

To continue the project, an extension approval from OGC and your sponsor may be required. Usually, extensions must be filed with the agency within 60 days of project termination.

Check with OGC if you have any questions or concerns about the process. If the project will be closed, the project's financial issues need to be resolved, such as completing reports by project deadlines, finalizing invoices from subcontractors, terminating monthly charges so they don't hit a project after its end date - this includes telephone toll charges (regular phone charges won't be on most projects) - and computer support charges, clearing any encumbrances after everything spent during the award period has been paid, making sure the project balance is zero, in order to allow the project to be closed by OGC.

Remember, project money cannot be spent after the project end date. If the project is federally funded, or if it is terminated before the planned end date, there are additional requirements. Contact OGC for more information about project close out.

• Closeout Policy Page

Unobligated funds are the portion of the funds authorized by the sponsor that has not been obligated by the awardee, and the amount is determined by deducting the cumulative obligations at the end of a budget period from the cumulative funds authorized for the budget period. Carry forward of these funds refers to the sponsor approving that the unobligated funds can be used in the next budget period.

• Budget Page

Financial reports should be reviewed monthly if not more often, to verify that expenditures and encumbrances are correct and charged to the right project, and errors should be corrected immediately. The reports provide budget information for most federal and some non-federal awards and can be used to do projections based on future planned spending.

Every month, be sure to reconcile every project for payroll expenses, vendor and/or subrecipient payments and revenue received. Keep track of sponsor payment activity to ensure payments are received and recorded properly by OGC in the financial system (i.e., follow up on accounts receivable).It is often helpful to understand what expense items are encumbered to then know what planned expenditures will need to be projected to avoid cost overruns.

For example, subrecipient agreement amounts may be encumbered, while other purchases such as the procurement card are not. With regular monitoring of the financial activities for an award, the PI will avoid problems or enable a more expeditious resolution should a problem arise. If you know an expense looks odd, be prepared to back it up with documentation.

There are specific reports that are the most useful in managing a sponsored project. For summary information, assuming the project has a budget, use the Summary of Financial Transactions, targeting column "I", Available Balance". If Available Balance is positive, then you have budgeted funds left to spend. If there is not a budget (e.g. Clinical Trials), Use the Balance Sheet (SNA) Transaction report, targeting "Pooled Cash". If cash is positive, you have cash available. The Detail report (Detail of Financial Trans) - lists details of every transaction on a particular speed type during a certain timeframe, which you select.

• Guide to Monitoring Costs on Sponsored Projects (DOC)

For encumbrance calculations, the system program looks at a series of dates; finds the earliest one; and then calculates the encumbrance amount through that date. The dates that are looked at in the process are:

• Project Budget End Date (for grants and contracts as set up in the Finance System)
• Funding End Date
• Appointment End Date
• Contract Pay End Date

Therefore, it is important for administrators to understand what dates the payroll liaison has entered in the HR system in order to understand how the encumbrances on a specific speed type are calculated

The best place is the University Controller website.

The Outstanding Encumbrances Report is an itemized list of all encumbrance transactions occurring on a particular speed type for the period of the report. The period that the report covers is noted in the header at the top of the report.

Payroll Encumbrances are driven by the HR panels within PeopleSoft. This information is input by your departmental payroll liaison. If you find that amounts for payroll are not encumbering correctly contact your departmental liaison to ensure that the Funding Distribution has been input correctly for each individual employee.

Requisition and Purchase Order Encumbrances are driven by users in the department entering and approving Requisitions and Purchase Orders. Contact the PSC (Procurement Service Center) help desk.

All valid PETS are reviewed in the month they are created. If the PET was rejected or copied forward because of justification issues, you would have been notified. Please go look at your PET in HR under reports and reviews. The certification box must be checked in order for the PET to come to OGC’s work list. If this was not checked we are not able to approve. You can update the PET to the current period and certify to resubmit.

In HRMS go to Reports and Reviews > Funding and Suspense > Payroll Expense Transfers. Enter the PET number and you can review the entry including the status.

Please visit the HCM Community website for Step-by-Step guides for entering PETs.

In some situations, a sponsor may allow spending prior to the receipt of an award. In these cases the PI may request that a project be established (i.e., pre-awarded) in advance of the award document. By making this request, the PI and administrative unit are acknowledging that they carry full financial responsibility for any costs incurred prior to the receipt of the award.

The proposal processing steps are as follows:

1. First, a PI (Principal Investigator) creates a Grant Application for sponsored research
2. The PI/Department "routes" the application to OGC
3. OGC reviews the application for policy and legal issues
4. OGC provides Institutional Endorsement of the application, and returns it to the PI or Department. 

The PI or department will submit the proposal unless AOR submission is required. If OGC is required to submit the proposal, PIs and departments should follow the instructions on the Proposal Return Coverpage.

A fiscal role is attributed to CU Denver personnel authorized to carry out financial transactions on behalf of the University. CU Denver currently has the following types of fiscal roles which cascade in a hierarchy from officers to fiscal principals, fiscal managers, and, finally, to fiscal staff / non-fiscal employees.

• A Fiscal Principal (found on Orgs, Programs, and Projects) is the principal administrator of a unit and is entrusted with programmatic and financial responsibility. The fiscal principal may delegate fiscal responsibilities to the fiscal manager, but retains ultimate accountability for the activities of the unit.
• A Fiscal Manager (found on Orgs, Programs, and Projects) is designated by the Fiscal Principal. The Fiscal Manager assists the unit head/fiscal principal in carrying out financial duties and has authority and responsibility for fiscal transactions.
• Fiscal Staff (found on Speed type) is designated by the Fiscal Principal or Fiscal Manager and participates in fiscal transactions (i.e., initiates purchases, receives cash, enters transactions into Finance System, monitors contractors, verifies compliance)
• Understanding Fiscal Roles

A cost transfer is the transfer of a cost incurred initially on one university program/project and subsequently transferred to a sponsored project. A cost transfer does not include items posted to a suspense account or program that are cleared to the appropriate project on a timely basis (less than 60 days from the original posting).

OMB Circular A-21, Principles for Determining Costs Applicable to Grants, Contracts, and Other Agreements with Educational Institutions, states that "...any costs allocable to a particular sponsored agreement may not be shifted to other sponsored agreements in order to meet deficiencies caused by overruns or other fund considerations, to avoid restrictions imposed by law or by terms of the sponsored agreement, or for other reasons of convenience." It goes on to state that, "...any costs allocable to activities sponsored by industry, foreign governments or other sponsors may not be shifted to federally sponsored agreements."

The University recognizes that transfers of costs from one project to another are occasionally necessary to correct bookkeeping or clerical errors in the original charges. The University also recognizes that closely related work may be supported by more than one funding source and that in such cases a cost transfer may be completed to split the expense between projects. Again, all projects receiving a portion of the expense must directly benefit from this expense.

Frequent, tardy, and unexplained (or inadequately explained) transfers, particularly where they involve projects with significant cost overruns or unexpended fund balances, raise serious questions about the propriety of the transfers themselves as well as the overall reliability of the University's accounting system and internal controls.

• Fiscal Policy 4-12
• Direct Charges to Federally Sponsored Projects, Fiscal Policy 4-7 (PDF)

Rebudgeting is when funds that are available for spending are reallocated between budget categories. Rebudgeting is considered a change in the awarded budget and may require prior approval by the sponsor. Sponsors differ in their policies on rebudgeting.

The award document and any terms referenced should be reviewed prior to any change to determine whether the award agreement permits rebudgeting. At times it may be appropriate to contact the sponsor to determine if rebudgeting is permissible. Any request must detail why the rebudgeting will help accomplish project goals.

• Re-budgeting Request Form

The terms and conditions of the award should be reviewed, and OGC personnel should be contacted to help facilitate the extension. Be prepared to provide a rationale for the no-cost extension and document how remaining funds will be spent. Depending on the sponsor, additional information may be necessary to facilitate the time extension.

Year-end calendar information is available on the University Controller's website. If you have a fiscal role, every month the Finance Department will email you with approaching deadlines outlined on the Finance System Calendar.

There is an excellent description of payroll encumbrance calculation on the Boulder campus's Accounting Services website:

• Description of Payroll Encumbrance Calculation - University of Colorado Boulder Accounting Services

Yes, only when transferring a residual cash balance from a closed clinical trial to a closed trial account in fund 26.

• Clinical Trials, Fiscal Policy 4-1 (PDF)
• Cash Transfer Table (XLS)

In the process of answering the initial set-up questions in the New Proposal Questionnaire the radio button for ‘Will this proposal have multiple principal investigators?’ click on Yes (default is No). Once the proposal is set-up with this response, the system will expect the necessary documents and assignment of Role in the Personnel section. The correct selection for Role is PD/PI.

Step 6 allows the user to insert the Project Begin and End dates of the entire project. Step 7 confirms the number of Project Budget Periods because sponsors such as Department of Army and Department of Defense may have different budget periods that are not necessarily related to the number of project years.

The Associated Department is the department that is responsible for managing the proposal and defaults to the Primary Appointment of the PI. This is also the department that is used for primary routing. If a proposal will be managed outside of the PI’s primary appointment, for example a center, simply change the Associated Department to that center/institute.

In this situation a PI may be submitting a proposal where the Facilities and Administrative Rates or Indirect Cost Recovery is to be designated to another department, school or center. This can be changed in the Set-Up pages in the Associated Department section and will function to alert the Office of Grants and Contracts of the alternate Org(anization) to receive the F&A. It is important for the Routing Sheet to reflect the correct Org number receiving the F&A.

The PI has to delegate authority in InfoEd for either ‘read/write’ or ‘view only’ in order for anyone to access, search or view human subjects protocols. This authority is found in the PI profile under delegate and has the ‘read/write’ or ‘view only’ options.

These details are indicated on the routing sheet and signed agreements (if included). The signed agreements can be uploaded in the Internal Documents tab and are not submitted to the sponsor.

Primarily this is handled with the F&A agreement as an internal document upload and noted on the internal routing sheet.

Presently, this option is not available in InfoEd eRA. Members of our eRA team are exploring the possibility of this enhancement. Always insert the correct performance site information as the default is the OGC address, DUNS, Congressional District and other details. Every subcontract performance site is automatically added in this section.

The new form set C is available now and will be available when selecting the sponsor on your New Proposal Questionnaire. If you started a proposal in eRA using the Form Set B2 and need to convert to C return to the SetUp Questions, uncheck the completed box and edit the sponsor opportunity and select the form set C. There are some minor changes between B2 and C noted here.

• Cover letter – if uploaded, will be lost (the upload location has moved to the face page
• Face Page – data is retained
• Performance Sites – data is retained
• Other Project Information tabs – data is retained
• Budgets, including sub awards – data is retained
• Key Personnel – data is retained
• Research Plan – Uploads for Planned Enrollment or Cumulative Inclusion will be lost. There are new forms for data entry content, which will appear as S2S forms.
• Checklist page is being deprecated (superseded) with some of the questions moving to the Cover Page Supplement. Those questions will have to be re-answered in their new location.
• S2S forms – all data will be lost for the S2S forms and will require re-entry into the new version of the form
• Career Development Award Supplemental Form
• PHS Fellowship Supplemental
• Training Program Plan
• Training Budget Subaward Attachment Form

There are two tabs in PD for other document uploads. For those other documents required by the sponsor the tab is labeled Other Attachments. Any documents required for internal review or required internal agreements are uploaded in the tab labeled Internal Documents.

The very first step for a subcontract is on the initial Set-Up page and the question “Will your proposal include any Subcontracts?” is checked Yes (default is No). The next steps are within the Personnel section to assign those personnel related to both the proposal and subcontract. Building the budget for the subcontract will be within the Budget tab under the appropriate headings.

The current method for entering this type of appointment is to populate the base salary at the current FTE basis. For example, if a 1.0 FTE faculty member is paid $100,000 and decreases from 1.0 FTE to 0.75 FTE their decreased base salary is $75,000. On the grant proposal the faculty effort is 20% so the calculation is based on 20% of $75,000. Fringe Benefits are selected at the Part-Time 0.75 FTE – 0.99 FTE rate of 30%.

These functions are entered in the Budget tab under the sub tab Budget Items. In the window Budget Items click on the folder icon next to the PI or person’s name and a window opens with the Budget Detail. In the Salary/Payroll Information under the Appointment choose the Type (drop down box) Academic and set the number of Months to 9. Next, in the Appointment Start/End enter S(tart): 01-Sep-20(current fiscal year)13 and E(nd): 31-May-2014. Save. If there is a Summer appointment, select the Edit Details button and click Add Appointment, enter data into the Salary/Payroll Information section under the Appointment, a box will allow you to select Type: Summer and number of Months: 3. In the Appointment Start/End S(tart): 01-Jun-2014 and E(nd): 31-Aug-2014. Enter the Base Salary for the PI or person and select the correct Fringe Benefits based on their appointment/s.

Directly below this information is a row with radio buttons the first selection and default is Continue Salary past appointment end. Change this selection, click the radio button to Recycle Salary on the Annual Anniversary (respecting effective dates). Since it is possible for a PI or person with an Academic Appointment to have different effort on the project during the academic year (for example 50%) than the summer months (for example 100%) you may populate the Time and Effort levels on Project accordingly. This will require input of the Start Date, number of Months, End Date and Effort for that time period. You will need to enter each Period of the Budget with these dates to correctly reflect the effort. Save often to prevent losing any data.

From the University of Colorado Denver, Grants and Contracts Website Routing Requirements Forms and Documentation Requirements: All applications and proposals sent to Grants and Contracts must be in a complete and final format upon receipt and include the Routing Form, other required internal forms, approval signatures, a print-out of all parts of the grant application including attachments, and a print-out of instruction materials (non-NIH Sponsors only).​