Personally, I would prefer to keep things in the year they happened. If we send out a proposal or get an award on June 30, then it's recorded in the FY that's within minutes of ending. Similarly, if it happens on July 1, even though we did most of our work earlier, I would like to account for it in the FY that just started. Then dates match and things feel tidier - to me.
There can be reasons for doing it some other way, though. (Seriously, is there a single rule that's true every single time?) It has been known to happen, for instance, that funding comes in very late for work that's already happened; State funding is a particular mess that way. We would probably count that in the year when the work happened and likely the agreement is dated that way, anyway.
If a particularly large award comes in right at the cusp of the year, my boss always wants to look at which FY "needs it" the most - so that the years look good funding-wise. THAT, I discourage, and so far I've won.
A
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Andrea Buford
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Oakland University
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-16-2021 14:41
From: Pamela Vargas
Subject: End of the Fiscal Year Procedures... Thoughts??
Hi, everyone!
I'd love to hear how you handle proposals (and awards, too!) near the end of the fiscal year. We always have some proposals that come in in June, but don't go out until July (beginning of our FY). Don't get excited.... We generally don't get that much notice! It usually means we've had challenges with something in the proposal and fortunately there wasn't a hard deadline!
If you think a proposal won't go out before the end of the FY, do you assign it to the upcoming year? Or do you move proposals if they don't go out before the end of the year? I'm thinking of making some changes to make reconciling some of our reports easier, so I would love to hear what others are doing.
And of course, there are similar challenges with awards, so any thoughts there are welcome, too!
Pam
/ Pamela A. (Krauser) Vargas
Director
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
Southeast Missouri State University
One University Plaza, MS0125
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701
T 573.651.2196
pvargas@semo.edu