It's 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: Office of Grants and Contracts
Start by visiting your Sponsored Programs office website: Office of Grants and Contracts)
First, a PI (Principal Investigator) creates a Grant Application for sponsored research; then the PI/Department "routes" the application to Grants and Contracts. Grants and Contracts reviews the application for policy and legal issues. Grants and Contracts then provides Institutional Endorsement of the application, and returns it to the PI or Department.
The PI sends paper applications to the sponsor for a funding decision. Most electronic applications are submitted electronially to the sponsor by Grant and Contrats. Check with the sponsor or Grants and Contracts PreAward to determine the mechanism for electronic applications.
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.
If the sponsor decides that any or all pre-award expenditures are unallowable, the department will transfer all pre-award expenditures to an appropriate alternative source of UC Denver funding. In order to establish a pre-award project, the PI must complete a guarantee memorandum (Exhibit A, Fiscal Policy 4-10) which reflects the appropriate alternative source of funding that can be used to cover any expenditures the sponsor disallows. There is a risk!
Projects (Sponsored projects funds) account for revenue received from sponsored projects, which are negotiated through the Office of Grants and Contracts. A project code is a 7 digit code. Please see the "Sponsored Projects" category in this FAQ database for more information about projects.
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., CU). For example, the UC 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 UC Denver School of Medicine might contract with a pharmaceutical company or with the State of Colorado to develop an online test.
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.
Facilities and Administrative rates are negotiated on a yearly basis at UC Denver by the Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance and representatives of the Federal government. 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.
Yes, most sponsored projects pay F & A. (Facilities and Administrative) costs (previously known as indirect costs). Some costs cannot be easily allocated to a specific project, as they are incurred for common or joint objectives throughout the university.
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 yearly basis at UC Denver by the Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance and representatives of the Federal government.
Once an award has been approved by the sponsor, Grants and Contarcts must set it up in the financial system. To do this, they need project information, including: the name and department number of the designated Principal Investigator (PI); the sponsor information; the budget period (sponsorship funds are normally allocated one year at a time); the 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); the CFDA number, if the project is from a federal source; the budget - funds may be allocated for specific purposes; and the financial reporting requirements.
When a project is set up in the financial system, departments and PIs will receive the project number and speed type, which allows them to correctly charge expenses to the project.
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.
Managing sponsored project funds is extremely specialized and complex; -- please see the following links for more information:
Fund 31, a sponsored project fund, is used to account for revenue that is subject to TABOR reporting, and includes local government sponsors (Colorado cities, towns, counties but not state agencies) and state agencies that have been designated a TABOR enterprise such as the Colorado Division of Wildlife. UC Denver is no longer setting up fund 31 projects; but some active fund 31 projects still exist.
A sponsor is an external funding agency that enters into an agreement with the institution to support research, instruction, public service or other sponsored activities. Sponsors include private businesses, corporations, foundations and other not-for-profit organizations, other universities, and federal, state and local governments. The purpose of a sponsored project is to provide funding for certain activities that the sponsor wishes to use UC Denver resources to achieve.
A Sponsored Project can be defined as, research, instructional, or public service activities that are related to the mission of the UC Denver and sponsored by external agencies or entities (see Fiscal Policy 4-5, Application/Proposal Approval Process for Sponsored Projects (http://www.ucdhsc.edu/admin/policies/).
Sponsored projects issues that require administration by Grants and Contracts include any one of the following: The award is an agreement from a governmental entity; sponsor support is directed to satisfy specific, programmatic objectives that are to be accomplished within a specific time and budget framework;The sponsor is entitled to receive some deliverable, such as a detailed technical report of research results or a report of expenditures; There is a provision for audits by or on behalf of the sponsor; The funding is for a project with compliance issues including, but not limited to: human subjects, animal use, biohazard.
A Sponsored Project can be defined as, research, instructional, or public service activities that are related to the mission of the UC Denver and sponsored by external agencies or entities (see Fiscal Policy 4-5, Application/Proposal Approval Process for Sponsored Projects (http://www.ucdhsc.edu/admin/policies/).Sponsored projects issues that require administration by Grants and Contracts include any one of the following: The award is an agreement from a governmental entity; Sponsor support is directed to satisfy specific, programmatic objectives that are to be accomplished within a specific time and budget framework;The sponsor is entitled to receive some deliverable, such as a detailed technical report of research results or a report of expenditures; There is a provision for audits by or on behalf of the sponsor; The funding is for a project with compliance issues including, but not limited to: human subjects, animal use, biohazards, and biosafety; The sponsor requests publication restrictions, patent, or licensing rights.
Start by visiting your Sponsored Projects website at Office of Grants and Contracts
There are many! Please see your Sponsored Programs office website: Office of Grants & Contracts) Additionally, please see our campus policies at: http://administration.ucdenver.edu/admin/policies/index.htm and view the Grants and Contracts section.
Sponsors include private businesses, corporations, foundations and other not-for-profit organizations, other universities, and federal, state and local government. See your Sponsored Programs office website for more informatiion: Office of Grants & Contracts/)
Effort Reporting
Personnel Effort Reporting (PERs) is CU's employee effort reporting and certification procedure required for complicance with federal regulations. Compliance with these regulations is necessary to assure continued federal funding,a nd therefore is required on all projects. Please self-enroll in the Blackboard training course, "Personnel Effort and Reporting", at: University of Colorado Denver Blackboard
NOTE: Use your CU employee or non-employee ID as both user name and password to log in.
Reports are available in Cognos Reporting System that can be helpful for employees with fiscal roles to manage who is being charged to sponsored projects and reflect if those employees charged to the sponsored project have completed their Personal Effort Report certification as required by A-21. If you hold a fiscal role you, these reports can help you manage your projects.
There are currently three management reports, including:
ePER Summary by Org
ePER Summary by PI
Uncertified ePER by Org or Campus.
These reports are in the reporting system located the following link: https://fin.prod.cu.edu/
Each of the reports has a step by step guide that gives detail about how to run these reports and what information they include. Step by step guides are also available to help you. They are located at: https://www.cu.edu/System_Controller/help/sbs-epers.html
Award Administration
Fiscal Staff (found on SpeedType) 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)
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.
Postaward 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.
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.
If an expenditure benefits more than one project, the cost must be allocated in proportion to the benefit to each project. You should: spend no more than the amount authorized by the sponsor for the project period; ensure that sponsor limitations on the amount of money that may be spent in any single budget category is adhered to; make sure that costs are incurred only for goods or services that will be used or received during the project period; that purchases or hiring for a project adhere to the Procurement Service Center™'s rules governing the purchase of goods and services and the Human Resource rules that govern the hiring of personnel; and that any adjustments in salary are consistent with University Human Resources and department policies and procedures, and are appropriate for the type of award.
Print out these standards. The following are expenditures that are not allowable on federally sponsored research: Advertising, Alcoholic beverage, Entertainment, Fundraising, Lobbying, Proposal preparation costs, Membership in civic or community organization (e.g., country club), Goods or services for personal use
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.
Rebudgeting is when funds that are available for spending are reallocated between budget categories to best accomplish project goals. 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. Any request must detail why the rebudgeting will help accomplish project goals.
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.
A no-cost extension (NCE) refers to the extending of the project period without additional funding. Approval of no-cost extensions to your project 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.
Be prepared to provide a rationale for the NCE and document how remaining funds will be spent-- Note that additional information may be necessary depending on sponsor requirements.
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 Gratns and Contracts and your sponsor may be required. Usually, extensions must be filed with the agency within 60 days of project termination.
Check with Grants and Contracts 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 Grants and Contracts.
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 Grants and Contracts for more information about project close out.
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. Carryforward of these funds refers to the sponsor approving that the unobligated funds can be used in the next budget period.
Each month after the official closing, four (4) reports are delivered to departments for each speed type/FOPP via intercampus mail. These reports are also available on-line. Reports include Summary of Financial Transactions (Summary of Budget, Revenues, Expenditures and Transfers;Detail of Financial Transactions (Detail of Budget, Revenues, Expenditures and Transfers); Balance Sheet Transactions; Outstanding Encumbrances.
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; revenue received. Keep track of sponsor payment activity to ensure payments are received and recorded properly by Grants and Contracts 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. For example, 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 speedtype during a certain timeframe, which you select.
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 the payroll liaison has entered in the HR system in order to understand how the encumbrances on a specific speedtype are calculated. For more information on the HR set-up process, see the "Administer Workforce" and "Manage Positions" modules at: http://www.cu.edu/pbs/sbs/#aw
The best place is the University Controller website.
There is a list of updates on this page, and a link to the Major Project Initiatives. Also, on the Finance homepage, check out the "What's New" section on the right hand side of the page.
On the Balance Sheet Detail report, look under "ASSETS"--if any payment has been received during the current month, or carried over from a previous month, it will show up as a credit balance under the heading "Accounts Receivable" in the column "Current".
Another shortcut is to add current cash balance plus expenses charged to the project; this amount totals cash received thus far. Finally, the Downtown Denver CIW website has a payment received query (requires CIW access).
More accounting details:
If a sponsor pays "upfront" money, before expenditure transactions are created, the system will debit the $$ to cash and credit the $$ to accounts receivable. Since a credit in accounts receivable is an abnormal balance, the system will make an adjusting entry at the end of each accounting period that debits the accounts receivable for the abnormal balance $$ and credits "unearned revenue" for the same $$.
Once a new accounting period is opened, the system reverses the adjusting entry – it debits "unearned revenue" and credits "accounts receivable", once again creating an abnormal balance.
During the month, as expenses occur, the system:
- debits the expense accounts
- credits revenue for a matching amount
- debits accounts receivable for a matching amount
- and credits cash for a matching amount.
Year-end calendar information is available on the University Controller's website.
UC Denver campus-specific guidelines will be added once available to the accounting services home page under the Processes and Accounting Structures section.
The Outstanding Encumbrances Report is an itemized list of all encumbrance transactions occurring on a particular speedtype 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 at 315-2846 if you have any problems with procurement encumbrances.
For more information, please see the following documents:
There is an excellent description of payroll encumbrance calculation on the Boulder campus's Accounting Services website:
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, and fund 34.
It depends on the sponsor and the type of sponsored project:
Most federal agencies -- like NSF and NIH -- pay via letter-of-credit draw-downs -- during the month, funds are drawn down electronically from the sponsor to match expenditures, as long as the expenditures are within the budget and the expense has been incurred (e.g. is not an accounts payable entry).
Sometimes the sponsored projects office bills the sponsor via an invoice generated in SPINS -- the sponsored projects information system that is used to set up the project initially.
Occasionally, departments bill the sponsor directly, with their own invoice form, e.g. in the case of a clinical trial when payment is based on the number of patients enrolled in the trial. When the department receives the payment, they forward it to the sponsored projects office for deposit, or make the deposit themselves.
Finally, in some instances, the sponsor pre-pays without being billed.
Each month after the official closing, four (4) reports are delivered to departments for each speed type/FOPP via intercampus mail. These reports are also available on-line. Reports include Summary of Financial Transactions (Summary of Budget, Revenues, Expenditures and Transfers;Detail of Financial Transactions (Detail of Budget, Revenues, Expenditures and Transfers); Balance Sheet Transactions; Outstanding Encumbrances. 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; revenue received. Keep track of sponsor payment activity to ensure payments are received and recorded properly by Grants and Contracts 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. For example, 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 speedtype during a certain timeframe, which you select.
Only at the UC Denver campus, and only when transferring a residual cash balance from a closed clinical trial to a closed trial account in fund 26.
Training
There are many types of compliance training available at CU -- many are available on Blackboard, our online training delivery system: Our Fiscal Code of Ethics course explains CU's Fiscal Code of Ethics; PERS (Personnel Effort Reporting) training is also available on Blackboard; as are HIPAA (Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act) courses; and FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) courses.
The HSC has developed "Research Administration Start-to-Finish", a guide for sponsored projects administration on Blackboard; similarly, the DDC campus offers "Contract and Grant Administration" on Blackboard
Details on the above courses, as well as additional Grants and Contracts courses offered, can be found at Grants and Contracts Training
The OUC (Office of University Controller) Compliance Unit, located downtown in the PSC offices, will be developing new training initiatives as new policies are developed and as new directives are mandated. Other campus-based compliance related courses, documents, and tools are available on the Finance Website, and the OUC website.
Personnel Effort Reporting is a federal requirement for everyone working on a sponsored project. Blackboard offers the course, "Personnel Effort Reporting".
To enroll in this course go to Blackboard, log in with your CU employee or affiliate ID as both user name and password, select the "Course Catalogue" tab, then "Browse Course Catalogue", and enter all or part of the course name in the search box. Then select "Enroll".