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  • 1.  Questions regarding pre/post award systems being used and interfaces

    Posted 06-14-2021 09:50

    K-State's post-award office has been assigned the task of reviewing our systems needs in order to develop a plan for replacing/improving some of our current systems, some of which are homegrown.  We would greatly appreciate it if any of you would be willing to help us out and let us know a bit about what processes you have in place by answering any of the questions below that you can.
     

    1. K-State currently uses Oracle E-Business Suite for our financial system. What financial system is used at your university?

     

    1. Do you use an automated interface or upload process to transfer data between pre-award and your financial system (new awards, modifications, etc.)? 

     

    1. Do your primary systems manage the items below or do you have other systems or processes to -  
      1. keep track of due dates of financial reports and invoices due to sponsors, especially those that are based on milestones or tasks (vs. expenditures incurred)
      2. generate reports and invoices in the formats required by sponsors
      3. monitor when required reports have been submitted to the sponsor
      4. produce an aging of accounts receivable to assist with identifying overdue or uncollectible receivables
      5. produce reports for PI's that show burn rates and anticipated expenditure rates or ad-hoc reports
      6. Manage subrecipient agreements - 
        1. monitoring detailed budgets vs. actual expenditures (for approving payments to subrecipients)
        2. other required monitoring such as audits, rate agreements
      7. meet federal payroll verification (effort reporting) requirements
      8. produce federal property/equipment reports (and if so, does post-award manage or another office?)

     

    Again, any feedback you can provide is greatly appreciated - thank you in advance!



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    Roger McBride
    Assistant Director of Sponsored Programs
    Kansas State University
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  • 2.  RE: Questions regarding pre/post award systems being used and interfaces

    TEAM CAYUSE
    Posted 06-14-2021 10:30
    These are great questions, Roger, thanks for asking it. I'll give other folks a chance to respond before I badger the regulars into jumping in!

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    Simon Helton
    He/him
    Community Manager
    Cayuse
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  • 3.  RE: Questions regarding pre/post award systems being used and interfaces

    SUPERSTAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 06-15-2021 04:05
    Good morning!

    1. What financial system is used at your university? OU uses Banner - which I have a love-hate relationship with.  But I have used PeopleSoft in another context, and that was difficult, too.  I must confront the fact that my brain does not work like an accountant's.  But that's another post for another day ;)

     

    1. Do you use an automated interface or upload process to transfer data between pre-award and your financial system (new awards, modifications, etc.)?  We use the Award tab in Cayuse SP to slide information from pre-award to post-award.  The missing piece in Cayuse is a system-generated email to the post-award adminsitrator that it's there.  We're a small office, so we just handle that.  But it surely would be a help.  Also, there's a wide range of proposal and award statuses that is really useful.  We keep adding on to how we're using that, and still have room to grow.  But it's super-useful for me for tracking where things are.  After a while (not a long while), you just know pretty much how many proposals are routinely in development, how may awards are being managed, how many contracts are in negotiation.....  If something seems stuck in a status, I'll catch it on my morning review of the dashboard.

     

    1. Do your primary systems manage the items below or do you have other systems or processes to -  
      1. keep track of due dates of financial reports and invoices due to sponsors, especially those that are based on milestones or tasks (vs. expenditures incurred).  Cayuse does this, using the Events tab and we use the heck out of it.  We could make it better, we've just figured out.  So, defiitely explore this option.  It's helped us a lot.
      2. generate reports and invoices in the formats required by sponsors - I don't think Cayuse does this.  I haven't found it yet, if that's available.  Our sytem is home-grown.
      3. monitor when required reports have been submitted to the sponsor - We use Cayuse for this, but it's kind of gerry-rigged.  There's a Proposal Notes field and we put it there.
      4. produce an aging of accounts receivable to assist with identifying overdue or uncollectible receivables - Banner generates this for us at month-close.  We use the heck out of it.  I would run this every week, if that made any sense.  But it doesn't, since it relies on month-close data.  So, we have a week-by-week check that we run just in the office.
      5. produce reports for PI's that show burn rates and anticipated expenditure rates or ad-hoc reports - Cayuse Fund Manager does this.  We're just ramping that up now, but we have big plans ;)  I can share the spreadsheet we've been using, but... really we're going to ditch that as soon as we have Fund Manager fully up.
      6. Manage subrecipient agreements - 
        1. monitoring detailed budgets vs. actual expenditures (for approving payments to subrecipients) - we're working on making this better.  Right now, it's pretty home-grown and it's annoying.  I'm sure we can make Cayuse do what needs to be done; we just haven't had a minute to fully explore the functionality.
        2. other required monitoring such as audits, rate agreements.  We get rate agreements at pre-award, so they're attached to the proposal/award record.  But see above for the rest of the subrecipient monitoring.
      7. meet federal payroll verification (effort reporting) requirements - this is a Banner-based system for us.  Cayuse has an Effort Reporting module, but we don't have it (yet).   
      8. produce federal property/equipment reports (and if so, does post-award manage or another office?)  Another office (Facilities) handles this.  I have plans for appropriating this since I have worries, but right now we don't need more work.


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    Andrea Buford
    Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
    Oakland University
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  • 4.  RE: Questions regarding pre/post award systems being used and interfaces

    RISING STAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 06-18-2021 11:55
    Hi Roger,

    Those are great questions.

    1. What financial system is used at your university? - Illinois State University uses (I apologize because it has gone by several names) Colleague/Ellucian/Datatel. I will accept condolences from anyone that knows the system... :) 

     

    1. Do you use an automated interface or upload process to transfer data between pre-award and your financial system (new awards, modifications, etc.)? - We currently don't, but we are getting ready to implement HR Connect, Fund Manager, and Effort. My assumption is that once we implement those we will have an API set up to transfer data from our financial system to the Cayuse modules but not the other way around.

     

    1. Do your primary systems manage the items below or do you have other systems or processes to -  
      1. keep track of due dates of financial reports and invoices due to sponsors, especially those that are based on milestones or tasks (vs. expenditures incurred) - Yes cayuse keeps good track of due dates and financial reports, if you utilize events well. This has been a huge benefit for ISU.
      2. generate reports and invoices in the formats required by sponsors -Not at the current time, but the potential exists for an API to be developed after new modules are put in place.
      3. monitor when required reports have been submitted to the sponsor - We use Milestones and Events for this
      4. produce an aging of accounts receivable to assist with identifying overdue or uncollectible receivables - no - this functionality is handled by our A/R system that is part of colleague and it was revamped this year to capture this data more accurately.
      5. produce reports for PI's that show burn rates and anticipated expenditure rates or ad-hoc reports - yes, this is managed through cognos reporting, but is being modified this upcoming year to utilize cayuse financials.
      6. Manage subrecipient agreements - Yes, the subaward module manages all record retention related to subawardees including agreements and audit compliance. The detailed budget monitoring is not possible with either of our systems, but I am not certain that is a major concern for our institution.
        1. monitoring detailed budgets vs. actual expenditures (for approving payments to subrecipients) - 
        2. other required monitoring such as audits, rate agreements -
      7. meet federal payroll verification (effort reporting) requirements - Not currently
      8. produce federal property/equipment reports (and if so, does post-award manage or another office?) - No, this is a pain point for our campus and has led to many audit findings. A current control review is underway.


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    Eric Boerngen
    Outreach Coordinator, Research and Graduate Studies
    Illinois State University
    edboern@ilstu.edu
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