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Home > Important Notices (full list) |
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Important notices are listed below in chronological order - click on one to jump to it
EFS-SP NOTICE 014: SPA New Account/Project and Rebudgeting Request Form Posted & Preaward/Advance Project Request Form Updated (7/03/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 013: E-Award Distribution Procedure and Distribution Lists (7/02/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 012:
Job Aids Available for Grants, Projects and Contracts Modules (7/01/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 011: F&A Allocations (6/27/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 010: PS-Friendly Budget Now Available (6/26/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 009: New Online Training for Sponsored Projects Users is Available (6/20/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 008: eResearch Systems Scheduled Outage Notice (6/19/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 007: Revenue Recognition and Small Business Reporting (6/11/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 006: EFS Contract for Professional Services Overview (6/03/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 005: EFS Key Financial Policy and Procedure Changes (5/27/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 004: Conversion Strategy: EFS-SP Conversion (5/22/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 003: Key Policy and Procedure Change: EFS Cost Sharing (5/20/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 002: Transaction Processing during the Transition and at Go-Live (4/25/08)
EFS-SP NOTICE 001: Sponsored Projects Cutoff Dates Announced (4/25/08)
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The SPA New Account/Project and Rebudgeting Request Form is now ready for use and posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/NewAccountRequestrebudgeting3Jul08FINAL.xls
The Preaward/Advance Project Request Form has been updated and is also posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/form/preaward_form1.cfm
If you have any questions, please contact Kevin.
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As you may have already heard, SPA will now be sending NOGAs and copies of award documents out electronically rather than via paper copies. A copy of the new E-Award Distribution procedure is available on the EFS-SP web site at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/eAwardDistributionProcedure.htm, and summarizes the changes and the expected benefits of this new mode as well as details about what you can expect to see.
In this new mode, we want to make sure that we have the proper contact information for your unit. Our current distribution list was shared with the Research Associate Deans at their June meeting and they have provided us with a number of updates. If you have additional updates, we will happily accept those as well. The current version of the list (containing all updates received through 6/26/08) may be found at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/EFS-SPE-AwardDistributionDeptandUnitMailingList26Jun082Jul08.pdf
Updates should be sent from the Dean, Research Associate Dean, Unit Head, existing contact person, or RRC manager, but others may send updates as well provided that they include a sentence in their communication to us that they have the necessary authority to act on behalf of their unit (see below).
You may wish to consider using a "generic" email distribution address (e.g., "dentistryawards@umn.edu") so that you do not need to update it as personnel change. Please note that if your unit is one where a dean has previously designated that all 3 copies of the NOGA/award (PI, unit, dean) go to the dean's level (for further distribution), you may not override that preference absent the permission of the designated dean's contact.
We will accept updates at any time and generally are able to update our distribution lists within a couple of days. To update information for your area, please send the:
Department/Unit Name (and associated DEPT ID(s), if possible)
Old Contact Name
New Contact Name
New Contact Email Address
This information should be emailed to Jean Delutri in SPA, at jean-d@umn.edu or via fax to 624-4843. To avoid confusion, we prefer to receive the changes in writing rather than over the phone. If you are not the Dean, Research Associate Dean, Unit Head, existing contact person, or RRC manager for your area, you must include the following statement in your email "I have obtained the approval of my unit head and/or have the authority to authorize this change on behalf of the unit named above." We will retain these emails in case there are questions about a change that was made. If your unit wants certain NOGAs sent to specific people, we would appreciate your establishing a group email address or designating a primary point of contact so that you can further customize distribution once the award documents arrive at your unit.
Please feel free to contact Kevin McKoskey, Jean Delutri, or Pamela Webb if you have any questions.
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SPA and SFR have teamed up to prepare several jobs aids that may be of use as we first begin to use the EFS Grants, Projects and Contracts Modules. The job aids include step-by-step instructions and screen prints for how to perform a commonly-needed activity. Please feel free to share these with others, including faculty, in your area who might be interested. We anticipate adding new job aids to this list as time goes on. The inital set of job aids is listed under the "Training and Job Aids" section of the EFS-SP web site and includes:
Please don't hesitate to let Sue, Kevin or Pamela know if you have any questions or if you have a particular request for a job aid.
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The new procedure describing how F&A Allocations will work in the new system has now been posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/F_and_A_allocations.htm This procedure describes how F&A jobs are run, how F&A expenditures are posted to the financial system, and how you can establish or modify revenue sharing for F&A.
In CUFS, revenue sharing occurred on a main or child account on an account-by-account basis. To split F&A revenue, units had to either do journal transfers of F&A between departments behind the scenes, or split up their budget so that each partner sharing in the F&A revenue had its own child account. In EFS, F&A revenue may be captured either on a project-by-project basis (same as in CUFS) OR divided on a single project on a percentage allocation basis between two or more departments/units (new). To create shared F&A revenue, you may complete and submit to SPA either:
1) PS-Friendly Budget Form (best for proposals or new projects being awarded)
2) Establishing or Modifying F&A Allocation Form (best for splits that are added after the original award budget is created, or for changes in splits during the course of a project)
It is expected that a single individual (usually the PI of the Primary Project or his/her representative) will assume responsibility for obtaining and retaining documentation of the revenue-sharing arrangements. The easiest documentation for a split revenue-sharing agreement is an approved PRF with the appropriate percentages listed in Section 17, but emails or other authorizing correspondence from a Dean or Research Associate Dean (or others authorized by them to make such decisions) also meet this requirement. It is the responsibility of the individual certifying the percentages on the form to obtain the necessary approvals. The sharing arrangements need to be kept on file in the department and available in the event that there is a later question about the revenue allocations made. Until the PRF can be changed to add Dept IDs in Section 17, please submit one of these forms whenever you wish to establish a new F&A split or or modify an existing project to add F&A revenue sharing.
Revenue splits can only be done on a go-forward basis. Please allow up to 10 business days from date of submission of the form to SPA for the new splits to appear in EFS; expenditures after the system has been updated will be calculated nightly per the updated policy.
If you have any questions, please contact Sue, Kevin, or Pamela.
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The PS-Friendly budget is now ready for use and posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/PS-Friendlybudget-Final26Jun08.xls
Primary Project and Subsequent Projects
The budget is an Excel workbook that has been designed so that the Primary Project (the old "Main") is Tab 1, and four subsequent projects (previously known as "Multiples" or "Child" accounts) can be loaded into Tabs 2-5. If you have additional projects, please use a fresh workbook.
PS Budget-Only Cost Categories
In Peoplesoft, most costs are budgeted at the category level (e.g., "Travel/Mileage/Moving" rather than "Travel-Domestic"). Some of the object codes that we used for budgeting in CUFS can no longer be used but instead need to be budgeted at the category level. To help you manage this rollup - and to know what the equivalent CUFS object code is to the new PS account category, please use the cross-walk table provided by the Budget Office at: http://www.budget.umn.edu/FY09docs/CUFS_PS_conversion_grid.xls (Tab 1).
Cost-Sharing
Please note that these spreadsheets have been designed so that you can enter both the sponsor budget and, if needed, a cost-sharing budget for a project. Please see the instructions on the form itself for how to handle the case where a single program is the cost-share fund source or where there are multiple programs serving as cost-sharing fund sources.
F&A Split on a Single Project
In EFS, F&A can be distributed either on a project-by-project basis (same as in CUFS), or within a project (new). If you have split an award into multiple projects and each project will be allocated its own F&A, this section of the form need not be completed (100% of F&A will be credited to the project's DEPT ID). If you are splitting F&A within a project, complete the bottom section of the form to designate which DEPT ID will receive what % of that project's F&A. One individual must assume responsibility for verifying that the F&A split has been agreed to by all parties (e.g. on an approved PRF or by agreement after the proposal has been submitted).
Completed workbooks should be emailed to your SPA grants administrator. If you have any questions, please contact Sue, Pamela, or Kevin. |
SPA, SFR, and Training Services have partnered together in creating an online presentation for sponsored projects users.
The presentation is located at: https://umconnect.umn.edu/sponsoredpresentation/
Highlights of the presentation include:
- Updates to sponsored business processes throughout the proposal, award, management, and closeout phases
- Navigational paths on where to find information in the new financial system such as: proposal status, award status, and
budget information
- Sample NOGA
- Sample reports
- Other resources
The presentation is approximately 37 minutes long. This staff development training is optional for users to complete. Its
purpose is to help sponsored users prepare for the implementation of the new financial system.
The full presentation may also be downloaded by clicking here.
For more information, contact Training Services at: 612.626.1373
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As a part of the EFS transition, the systems run by the OVPR (including EGMS, RSPP, REPA, ROC, RCR, ROHP, and MTARF) are being updated to contain certain fields needed by the new financial system (for example, replacing Area with DeptID in the PRF). We have arranged for this update to take place outside of business hours to minimize impact on our users. The systems listed above will be unavailable from *6:00 p.m. on Monday, June 30th until 8:00 a.m. the next morning, July 1st*. All data and records in these systems (including in-progress records) will be retained and available for use once the system comes back up. No action is required by users.
Principal Investigators or departmental administrators who are working on proposals for early July should be particularly aware of this temporary shutdown, as PRFs and EGMS budgets will not be able to be accessed on that evening. NIH R01 proposals with a due date of July 5th and other proposals due on July 1st should NOT be impacted, as all of these proposals should have already arrived at SPA by this time.
If you have any questions, please contact the EGMS Help Desk at help@egms.umn.edu or 624-1600 for assistance.
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As of June 11, two new updates have been added to the EFS-SP web site, in the Key Policy and Procedures section. The first update concerns Revenue Recognition in EFS, and how that process differs from the current system, and can be viewed at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/revenuerecognition.htm . The second update is an alert regarding Small Business Reporting – it is located at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/smallbusiness.htm
Any questions you may have about these updates should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.
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The latest update to the EFS-SP web site concerns another Key Policy and Procedure Change: the new structure for Contracts for Professional Services. The four new transaction types for CPS are as follows:
VCPS - For services under $3,000
QCPS - Services from $3,000 - $25,000
CPS - Services at $25,000 and above
PCPS - Request for entertainer / performer contracts
To learn more about these transaction types, as well as various other issues related to these contracts, please visit the “Contract for Professional Services” page on the EFS-SP website, located at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/cps.htm
Any questions you may have about this change should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.
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As of 5/20/08, the Policy Office, in partnership with the Policy owners, has compiled a list of all the major financial policy and procedure changes that relate to the EFS transition. A complete list of these changes, in areas ranging from Procurement to Sponsored Projects, can be found on the EFS-SP web site, at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/policy-procedure.htm
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Colleagues,
As you know, Sponsored Projects conversion is very complex. In the upcoming months, we will need to convert data from several systems (CUFS, EGMSi, JDE) into one, sometimes using the same conversion script. Conversion scripts must follow a specific order, and some scripts are dependent on previous conversion scripts.
For a summary of the conversion scripts that will have the most impact on academic departments, please see the EFS-SP Conversion Strategy document recently uploaded to the EFS-SP web site. All conversions described therein take place between June 21 and June 30, unless otherwise noted.
As always, any questions you may have about this change should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.
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As of Tuesday, May 20, SPA and SFR have announced a key policy and procedure change concerning the tracking and recording of cost share in EFS. At present, there are various ways of tracking and recording matching and cost share, but there is no requirement that transactions be identified and tied to the sponsored project in the financial system. However, in EFS, all cost share (reportable and non reportable, committed, mandatory) will be identified and tied to the sponsored project in the financial system using the COA account string.
To read the complete procedure change and its ramifications, please visit the EFS Cost Share web page on the EFS-SP site. Additionally, you will find several excel workbooks for reference purposes posted on the website, here, here and here.
Any questions you may have about this change should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.
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Colleagues,
As we all know, sponsored projects don't magically halt in mid-stream while we migrate from one financial and grants management system to another. SPA and SFR have been working on plans to help ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, downtime is minimized and that processing of transactions before, during and after Go-Live happens in an orderly, sensible, and efficient manner.
Toward this end, please see the EFS-SP Transaction Processing during Transition and After EFS Go-Live document to understand how proposals, awards, subawards, financial reporting, invoicing, and other key transactions will be handled during the transition period and right after Go-Live. We have also prepared this information in an abbreviated "Quick Guide" for use as a rapid reference document.
We hope these documents will be useful tools as we plan for the migration. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb, or Kevin McKoskey know.
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SPA and SFR have now established cutover dates for processing of various sponsored projects transactions prior to converting to EFS. The most important dates for Principal Investigators and departmental administrators are as follows:
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 5:00 p.m. – Last day for SPA to receive proposals, awards, departmentally-approved sponsored rebudgeting requests (NBUDs )and Contracts for Professional Services (CPS), PI-approved subaward invoices, and departmentally-approved pre-award spending requests to ensure that transactions are completed and data converted into EFS for Go-Live. Transactions received after this date will be held and manually entered into EFS after Go-Live.
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 5:00 p.m. – Last day for SFR to finalize sponsor financial reports and invoices.
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 8:00 a.m. – System processing of sponsored projects transactions resumes. . This is the first day for completion of proposals, awards (including NOGAs) into EFS, as well as establishment of EFS chart-strings (including chart strings for new awards and for pre-award spending accounts), sponsored rebudgeting (formerly “NBUD”), payment of subaward invoices, and finalizing new and modified subawards. Period 12 for FY08 closes.
MONDAY, JULY 7, 8:00 a.m. – Financial reporting and invoicing sponsors in the system resumes. Reporting copy of EFS with project detail and balances becomes available today.
A complete, downloadable copy of the master cutover calendar and additional detail about what information is needed in order to process each type of transaction is available on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/EFS-SPCutover.doc.
We have established these dates in concert with the EFS Project Team and the existing plans for conversion of sponsored projects data, and believe them to be reliable. It is always possible, however, that changes in the project schedule (including conversion requirements) will mandate an earlier cutover date. If this occurs, SPA/SFR will immediately notify departments; however, units are encouraged to submit transactions as early as possible to minimize the impact of any such change.
Questions about these dates may be address to Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb, or Kevin McKoskey. |
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