Assistant Controller – Contracts and Grants Accounting
+1 415 476-0829
Contracts & Grants Accounting
Management Contact
Director – Administrative Services
+1 415 476-8461
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Effort Reporting How-to Guide.
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Facilities & Administrative (F&A) Costs are the costs that are incurred by a grantee for common or joint objectives that cannot be identified specifically with a particular project or program. These costs are also known as “indirect costs” or “overhead.” At UCSF, the Costing & Cost Recovery Policy & Analysis unit of Budget and Resource Management develops the F&A proposal and negotiates F&A rates with our assigned federal agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
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Private sponsors of contracts and grants require periodic Financial Status Reports (FSRs) to help ensure that the funding they have provided is being spent in accordance with their policies and the approved budget. To help ensure that this process is performed timely, CGA sends an email notification to the RSA and to Principal Investigator 45 days prior to the reporting deadline. To create and submit a Financial Status Report to a private sponsor:
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NOTE: The last effort reporting certification cycle at UCSF was completed in August 2020 for the period of January 1 through May 2, 2020. Effort reporting has been replaced by award verification.
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What is a stipend? A stipend is a payment made to an individual under a fellowship or training grant in accordance with pre-established levels to provide for the individual's living expenses during the period of training. A stipend is not considered compensation for the services expected of an employee. If you are unsure whether to submit your stipend request through the Stipend Payment Request Application or payroll, contact your Human Resources Specialist for guidance on how to pay the stipend based on classification of the program and fellow.
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This guide outlines the purpose and process for preparing and reversing a non-payroll accrual entry, which may be required in the Final Reporting, Final Invoicing and Closeout of Federal Awards. These procedures apply to Federal and Federal Flow-Through award except for clinical trials. For clinical trials and private awards, see Final Reporting, Final Invoicing and Closeout – Clinical Trials and Private Awards
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Departments complete the Final Reporting Certification Form in the PeopleSoft Research Administration System (RAS) system as part of the Final Reporting Certification Process initiated by Contracts & Grants Accounting (CGA). CGA will notify the RSA and Principal Investigator (PI) by email when an award is scheduled to expire and action in accordance with the Financial and Reporting Closeout Process is required. The email contains details on the award, and a link to PeopleSoft RAS. Use the details on the award to complete the Final Reporting Certification Form within PeopleSoft RAS and submit online to CGA for review and approval. The form will route to the correct CGA analyst based on the award number.
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This article outlines the purpose and process for preparing and reversing a payroll accrual entry, which may be required in the Final Reporting,Invoicing and Closeout of Federal Awards. See the article Final Reporting and Closeout of Federal Awards – Non-Payroll Accruals for instructions on preparing and reversing non-payroll accrual entries.
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At UCSF, Principal Investigators and department research administrators work with the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) on pre-award activities from proposal development and submission through award negotiation and acceptance. OSR negotiates award terms on behalf of UCSF and the Regents of the University of California.
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Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) is responsible for completing the setup of both new awards and award modifications in the Research Administration System (RAS) and ultimately generates a Project for the department and PI to use for spending on the award. Once setup is complete, the CGA Service Team notifies the PI, Research Services Analysts (RSA), and OSR Primary Analyst.
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The proper administration of an award, including award spending, is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator (PI) and department. It is important the PIs and departments understand the terms and conditions of the award in order to fulfill the requirements outlined by the awarding agency. PIs are responsible for oversight of financial, scientific, and compliance aspects of the award. PIs and departments exercise budgetary control and ensure that expenditures incurred are within the authorized budget and period and that only those costs that are allowable, allocable and reasonable are charged.
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Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) is responsible for financial reporting for sponsored awards. CGA works with Principal Investigators and departments to ensure that financial reporting is completed timely. Frequency of submission will vary and is based on the terms of each agreement or sponsor request. CGA prepares and submits financial reports for federal awards. For private awards, departments prepare financial reports and submit them to CGA for review and submission to the sponsor. CGA will always contact you before submitting a final financial report and may contact you with questions regarding the preparation of interim financial reports.
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An award closeout is the final reconciliation and reporting of expenses and activities. This involves reviewing project expenditures, resolving open commitments, collecting subrecipient documents, and preparing required final reports and deliverables for submission to the sponsor. An automated notification from Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) will be sent to departments 45 days prior to the award end date that the award is coming to an end. Departments should then determine whether to request a No Cost Extension (NCE) or carryover. If the sponsor has pre-approved an NCE or carryover, then a confirmation from the departments should be sent to CGA via email.
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The PeopleSoft Research Administration System (RAS) is the system of record for post-award contracts and grants including expense processing, budgeting, revenue recognition, billing, and payment. This guide describes key data in PeopleSoft RAS that are relevant to understanding an award.
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A subaward is a formal legal agreement between the Regents of the University of California on behalf of its San Francisco campus (UCSF) and another organization (subrecipient). An outgoing subaward is used when a substantive portion of the programmatic work outlined in a UCSF proposal is conducted at another organization. The subrecipient takes full responsibility for adhering to the terms and conditions of the subaward including those flowed down from UCSF’s sponsor under the Prime award. UCSF’s Principal Investigator (PI) and his/her associated administering department are responsible for the conduct of the subrecipient’s work. PIs and departments should carefully read and follow regulations related to subawards in order to remain in compliance.
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The Research Administration System (RAS) is our system of record for post-award contracts and grants financial transactions used by campus/UCSF Health Research Services Analysts (RSAs) and the Contracts & Grants Accounting (CGA) unit of the Controller's Office throughout the award lifecycle. RAS is a module of the PeopleSoft financial system. RAS transactions include:
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The Post Award Responsibility matrix shows Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) and Principal Investigator (PI)/Department responsibilities by function.
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Access the UCSF PeopleSoft Financial System to update Project Details including the Research Services Analyst (RSA) assigned to a Project, the Project Nickname, and the Dept Preferred Posting Level.
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This job aid outlines the process for accessing the RAS Invoice/Payment Reconciliation Report and reconciling invoices and payments in RAS to ensure that billing is complete and payment is received.
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This guide provides an overview of active attributes used in PeopleSoft/Research Administration System (RAS), as well as the situations in which each attribute would be added to an award. Attributes are added to an award during setup and can be modified later by Contracts & Grants Accounting (CGA) if the characteristics of an award change. Attributes enable tracking and reporting based on various features of an award. The comment field of the Attribute will provide the unique details about the Attribute specific to the award; generally are excerpts of the award agreement clauses themselves.
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Category Milestone Type Milestone Code Description Likelihood of Occurrence Closeout CLS-A ANNUAL Activity Period Closeout Due Required if there are multiple activity periods. One milestone per period Closeout CLS-F FINAL
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Sponsor Type Description Usage 01 Federal Government Departments, agencies, etc. of the United States government 02 State Government Departments, agencies, etc. of the State of California 03 Other Government Agency
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This guide provides an overview of active terms used in PeopleSoft/Research Administration System (RAS), as well as the situations in which each term would be added to an award. Terms are added to an award during setup and can be modified later by Contracts & Grants Accounting (CGA) if the characteristics of an award change. Terms provide management with insight to compliance requirements. The comment field of the Term will provide the unique details about the Term specific to the award; generally are excerpts of the award agreement clauses themselves.
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The following chart describes the selections for Flow Through Type that appear on the Flow Through detail page when creating a Subcontract proposal in RAS. When your proposal has an Agreement Type of Subcontract, you are required to select a Prime Sponsor and a Flow Through Type for your proposal. The nature of a subcontract is that you are requesting money from another institution that has an award from a sponsor such as NIH, DOD, or any other sponsor; the sponsor where the money originates is called the Prime Sponsor. For each proposal with an agreement type of Subcontract, you must use the detail page to identify the Prime Sponsor and Flow Through Type.
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During Final Financial Reporting, Invoicing and Closeout of Sponsored Awards, departments ensure that all expenses are complete, accurate and allowable, and that costs from subawardees, other Dept IDs, and recharge units have been recorded in the General Ledger (GL). In situations when expenses have not been recorded in the GL, an expense accrual may be required. An expense accrual is the recording of the cost estimate for a product or service that was delivered during the award period but has not yet been recorded in the GL. Creating an accrual ensures that all direct expenses are properly recorded at Final Invoicing, Reporting and Closeout.
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Step-by-step guide for using the Stipend Payment Request Application.
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This job aid provides step-by-step instructions for completing a PeopleSoft journal to properly offset student tuition and fees.
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This document outlines the purpose and process for preparing budget entries, which facilitate financial reporting and compliance management for sponsored research.
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Award Modification When project modifications (i.e., revised budgets, no-cost extensions, etc.) are necessary, principal investigators/departments must provide adequate justification and ensure required approvals are obtained. Modifications such as those listed below, typically require approval from the sponsor, RMS as well as CGA. Change in scope Change in Key Personnel Supplemental Funding Budgeting Revisions * Carryover Funding * Sponsor approved No-Cost Extension (NCE) Grant Transfers * If pre-approved by the sponsor, these items can be requested of CGA directly.
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NOTE: The last effort reporting certification cycle at UCSF was completed in August 2020 for the period of January 1 through May 2, 2020. Effort reporting has been replaced by award verification.
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UCSF assigns the responsibility for financing overdrafts, unallowable charges and deficits as well as receiving surpluses to the department that owns the award. During the award lifecycle, situations may arise that require the use of a discretionary journal to transfer identified charges from an award to the department. After consultation with campus and in order to complete these transfers in an efficient, consistent, and timely manner, discretionary journals will use a default chartstring following the procedure outlined below.
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This procedure streamlines the administrative steps needed to process certain award advances without increasing institutional risk. Use of an award advance allows for spending in the correct Award and Activity Period, minimizing cost transfers. Without an award advance, departments will need to record expenditures on a discretionary fund until the sponsor funds the award/budget period. Which awards qualify for an automatic advance? CGA Compliance will establish an advance in RAS for a continuation or supplemental year on a current award, including City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) awards, when:
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Establishing Journal Preparers and Approvers in PeopleSoft Take the online course “Understanding PeopleSoft Journals” in the UC Learning Center. Completion of this course is required for access to PeopleSoft General Ledger and Journals. Journal Preparers must complete Parts 1 and 2 of the online course Journal Approvers must complete Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the online course Notify your manager and department Access Administrator of the date you completed the training so that PeopleSoft access can be requested. The Access Administrator submits the request for access to PeopleSoft Journals using the Access Management System available in MyAccess.
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New Award Setup Process When the appropriate unit within the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) completes the input and loading of appropriate documents into the Centralized Agreement Contract Tracking and Approval System (CACTAS), they hand off the record to CGA by populating the “Award Set-Up Queue” in CACTAS which indicates that the record is ready for processing.
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The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has developed charging practice guidelines for sponsored projects in accordance with the Uniform Guidance and associated Cost Accounting Standards (CAS).
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A special state appropriation is a type of agreement which is a hybrid between a sponsored project and internal University of California agreement. Special state appropriations exist for all four tenets of the Mission Statement of the University of California, San Francisco: Instruction, Research, Patient Care and Public Service. For research purposes, a special state appropriation is a study that has been approved for funding internally by a University of California program. In this regard, a special state program has features of an intramural agreement. The primary University of California statewide research programs are:
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Award Requirements All end of project financial reports must be received per the sponsor’s requirements and deadline. The financial report must accurately account for all expenditures. Institutions must liquidate all obligations incurred per the sponsor’s requirement and deadline. All awards must be closed out in the institution's financial system within 120 days of the project end date. All technical reports, progress reports, and other deliverables must be completed per the sponsor’s requirements and deadlines. Establishing the Award Trail Out Period
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Program income is gross income earned by the University that is directly generated by a supported activity or earned as a result of a federal award, in whole or in part, during the period of performance. The period of performance is typically the award period but may be defined as alternative dates in the award document. Examples of program income include:
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Participant support costs are defined in the Uniform Guidance as direct costs for items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to, or on behalf of, participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with conferences or training projects (except NIH Kirschstein-NRSA programs). Participant support costs do not include expenses incurred to incent or enable research subjects to participate in studies, such as gift cards, stipends, dependent care costs, parking fees and transportation.
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The Termination Notice (TN) documents the termination of appointments for National Research Service Award (NRSA) recipients.
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Cost Transfer Journals should only be used to transfer costs/expenses onto or off of sponsored research accounted for via Award Projects in PeopleSoft RAS.
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The Student Service Team in Contracts and Grants Accounting works with departments to disburse funds to students and post doctoral candidates.
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Billing and collections is a collaborative effort requiring Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) and the individual department to partner together. Depending on the type of award, either CGA or the department will handle the procedures and responsibilities. Broadly, CGA handles the majority of specific billing tasks including updating the Research Administration System (RAS) with the department reviewing RAS regularly and contacting CGA to ensure billing is complete and payment is received and applied correctly.
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An External Audit is a periodic or specific purpose audit conducted by external (independent) qualified accountant(s). Its objective is to determine, among other things, whether (1) the accounting records are accurate and complete, (2) prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and (3) the statements prepared from the accounts present fairly the organization's financial position, and the results of its financial operations.
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The Educational Travel Grant Procedure was established to streamline the acceptance, processing, payment application, and close-out of nominal travel grants from select private sponsors. This procedure applies only to a small subset of travel grants and is not meant as a general substitute for normal grant submission, acceptance, and post-award procedures.
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Award Purpose defines the type of sponsored award. For additional information on Award Purpose see the UCSF Research Administration Glossary located on the Office of Sponsored Research website Function defines the mission/purpose of the transaction. For additional information on Function, see the Quick Reference Guide “What Function Should I Use for My Activity?”
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Effective April 1, 2015, the following procedures will apply to foreign currency awards. Exchange Rate Consideration The exchange rate is the price of one currency expressed in terms of another currency. For example, the average exchange rate of the U.S. Dollar to the Euro for March, 2014 was 0.72. This means 1 U.S. Dollar was equivalent to 0.72 Euros. Fluctuation in exchange rates can have significant effect on the payments for sponsored research projects. All UCSF departments should be aware of the risks, including potential loss of Dollars, involved in agreements containing payment terms in foreign currency.
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Overview These procedures set forth the accounting to move the deficit/overdraft or surplus associated with a sponsored award as well as to sweep the cost share for a sponsored award. These procedures ensure consistency in accounting treatment while allowing for proper mission-based reporting. Deficit Transfers Transfers are needed to clear overspending on an award which can result from:
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Fund Numbers for 2015-16 though 2017-18 for State General Fund, General Fund Specific State Appropriations, and Special State Appropriation.
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Sample CGA notice of upcoming award termination.
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This table allows pre-award offices to easily compare preferable, acceptable, and not acceptable award terms and conditions along with other considerations and comments. Required Award Term Preferable Position Acceptable Position Not Acceptable Position Considerations Comments 1. Award Budget Period
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Information for prospective and current postdocs, postdoc alumni, and faculty mentors is available on the Office for Postdoctoral Scholars website. In the Controller's Office:
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Slide deck from the UC Office of the President on the UC Effort Reporting System - Cost Sharing. NOTE: The last effort reporting certification cycle at UCSF was completed in August 2020 for the period of January 1 through May 2, 2020. Effort reporting has been replaced by award verification.
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CGA service teams provide support based on award department. In order to ensure high quality service and compliance for certain special award types, these special awards are supported by a single team regardless of the department associated with the award.
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National Institutes of Health (NIH) Notice NOT-OD-02-017 defines Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) compensation for those GSRs funded by NIH research grants. The compensation level is tied to the National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral stipend level 0 that is in effect at the time the grant award is issued. GSR compensation includes total salary or wages, fringe benefits and tuition remission from all NIH sources. The notice established a policy related to the level of compensation for graduate students supported by funds from the NIH. This policy applies to all graduate students at the grantee institution supported by research grants or cooperative agreements funded by the NIH; it does not apply to graduate students receiving compensation under a NRSA training grant or...
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Describes the UCSF procedures for requesting approval for additional compensation for Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellows under National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants Policy Statement 11.2.10.2.
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The federal government and other sponsors define cost sharing as the portion of sponsored project costs not borne by the sponsor. There are three types of cost sharing:
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Chapter 23 (Assembly Bill 74), Statutes of 2019: LIST OF STATE GENERAL FUND, UC GENERAL FUND & SPECIAL STATE APPROPRIATION FUND NUMBERS FOR 2017-18 THROUGH 2019-20
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This Quick Reference Guide explains the procedures for payment remittance for all sponsored projects. Instructions include payment remittance procedures for both paper checks and electronic funds transfer (EFT).
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Read about UCSF's new award verification procedure being implemented in April, 2021. Award verification is UCSF's procedure to support Principal Investigators (PIs) in meeting the requirements of the Uniform Guidance for federal awards.
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Learn what you can do now to get ready to use the Award Verification Tool beginning in April.
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Access resources and training to view details, steps, demonstrations, or try actions available in the Award Verification Tool.
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The Award Verification Tool was designed with built-in flexibility to meet the varied needs of research teams. The following workflow process diagrams illustrate a few of the ways to integrate the award verification process and use of the Award Verification Tool into local financial procedures. Your local award verification process and role assignments should complement and leverage your existing procedures such as PI/RSA meetings, and BSR or other financial reports. Keep in mind that not all awards and projects within a PI's portfolio need to follow the same process; apply the process that best fits the specific situation.
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Research Service Analysts (RSAs) have the ability to manage Program Manager assignments directly in the Research Administration System (RAS). This job aid describes the procedure RSAs can follow to add the Program Manager reporting role to an award.
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Review answers to common questions about award verification.
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UCSF will implement a new award verification procedure in April 2021 to support Principal Investigators in meeting the requirements of Uniform Guidance for federal awards. Following are detailed considerations you can consider now to get ready to use the Award Verification Tool in April. Or you can choose to follow a more focused look at how to Get Ready for Award Verification.
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Use this checklist to assess your readiness to begin using the Award Verification Tool in April 2021 and as new sponsored awards are funded and set up in the Research Administration System (RAS). More information is available on the Get Ready for Award Verification web page.
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Departments are responsible to ensure that billing is complete and payment is received per the terms and conditions of each award. In some cases, payments intended for research projects may not have enough information included with them to identify the correct project and distribute the funds appropriately. The Controller’s Office maintains the following tools to support departments in identifying incoming funds and distributing them to the correct sponsored award.
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Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) supports UCSF's mission by providing collaborative and advisory post-award management and financial oversight of sponsored research. CGA works collaboratively with Principal Investigators, research administrators, the Office of Sponsored Research, other University units, and sponsors from award set-up through close-out; managing billing, collections, and financial reporting as well as monitoring post-award compliance.
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This DocuSign Workflow Owner User Guide covers : Assigning a single approver and optional note Adding additional workflow Tracking status of an envelope Receiving completion or declination notice with link to invoice Error handling Out of office - sharing DocuSign folders
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Topics in this DocuSign User Guide for Approvers: Approving an invoice Declining to sign an invoice Routing to a different approver Receiving completion notice with link to signed invoice Out of office -sharing DocuSign folders
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The following guide outlines the necessary steps for departments and Contracts & Grants Accounting (CGA) during final financial reporting, invoicing and closeout for all types of sponsored awards. While federal and non-federal awards are treated differently in some cases, in general the principles are the same. Variances are highlighted where appropriate.