Q. How do I contact Research Operations Office?
The Research Operations Office web page [1] has a search facility to find your department's Research Support Advisor/Administrator (RSA)
The Research Operations Office web page [1] has a search facility to find your department's Research Support Advisor/Administrator (RSA)
The grants module is designed to only allow income from a sponsor to be credited directly to a grant via the AR Module. This process is managed by the Research Operations Office. As all income received must be processed through AR, it is not possible for departments to credit any other type of income directly to a grant.
When entering a grants journal, against each transaction line the user must specify where the ‘other side’ of the journal should go in the GL by entering the distribution code into the descriptive flex field (‘DFF’). [2]
On a grants journal which posts an additional cost to a grant, the DFF determines where the credit entry in the GL goes. The corresponding debit entry distribution in the GL is derived from the project, the sponsor type and the expenditure type (Detailed guide: How grants are reflected in the general ledger [3]). It will always go to an M source of funds when the Grants module balances are transferred overnight into the GL. The effect of this is expenditure in M sources of funds reflects expenditure on the grants module (with a few known, expected reconciling items).
If an M source of funds is selected in the DFF of a grants journal both the debit and credit are posted to M source of funds. The posting to the grant will have no net effect on M source of funds. Spend in M source of funds will no longer tie to spend in the grants module. For this reason we have added the warning message telling users not to select an M source of funds in the DFF.
If you have any questions, or feel you need to use an M source of funds in the DFF of a journal, please speak to Research Accounting. Ext: 64796, ufs_grants@admin.cam.ac.uk [4]
You can match an invoice to an existing purchase order if the goods were received prior to the end date. You can pay an invoice or travel claim after the end date if the expenditure was incurred during the active period of the grant.
Refer to detailed guidance Posting Expenditure after the End Date [5].
The expenditure item date of a transaction being posted to a grant must be within the active dates of the project, i.e., after the start date and before the end date. This error message will appear if the transaction item date is outside of the project start and end date range.
After the end date and before the close date
After the close date
The start, end and close dates for an award are on the award status report.
[but watch using quick matching; the expenditure item date may default to the invoice date and get stuck in the interface between AP and grants and not charged to grant]
Access to the data is controlled by adding user responsibilities to the award and project set up screens. Contact your Research Services Administrator/Advisor (RSA) for help.
Grants entries are transferred to the GL overnight, so a posting to a grant should hit the GL the following day. If one or more grants transactions is not transferring to the GL:
If none of these checks reveals the problem, then contact your Research Services Administrator/Advisor (RSA) for help.
NB: Allow for the Grants/GL interface postings to run, i.e. midday and overnight
Contact your Research Services Administrator/Advisor (RSA) who can check that you have been named correctly on each relevant grant.
You should already have access to the project screen views but will not be able to run the award status report. If the department that owns the award agrees that you should have access there are two ways of giving access to run the award status report:
The award status report will show all projects funded by the award. Please discuss this with the award-owning department and then contact your Research Services Administrator/Advisor (RSA).
The entry will be the GL side of one or more transactions entered in the Grants Module. The Cost Audit Report, which is available in the Grants Module (AUD: Cost Audit Report), will give a listing of the project code, expenditure type and item date for each amount that makes up the GL posting.
Run the Grants AUD: Cost Audit Report with the GL code you are reviewing, the relevant month’s GL period and/or an appropriate interface date: this will show you what has been posted from grants into GL.
Refer to the detailed document for instructions on how the use the report and look up the original journal [6].
Make a note of any error messages and the screen you were in. We suggest you take a screenshot if possible please. If you think the problem/message is related to the grant contact your Research Services Administrator/Advisor (RSA).
For other AP issues please contact the AP helpdesk at UFS_AP@admin.cam.ac.uk [7]
Look on the department Cognos report, Payroll Costs [8].
This report provides administrators with a summary of the charging of employees' salaries across all the awards in their department.
Alternatively, look for the expenditure on your departmental suspense grant as it may have failed the validation checks when the payroll was imported. If the payment is not on the suspense grant contact your Research Services Administrator/Advisor (RSA) or the Research Accounting team.
Transaction Controls can be set up to prevent spending on a particular Expenditure Category or Type as required. This functionality is used to ensure compliance with sponsors' terms and conditions.
The error message indicates that the task's Transaction Controls have not been set to allow the Expenditure Category or Type selected. The user should check the award budget screen to ensure that there is a budget for the Expenditure Category they wish to charge the expenditure to. If there is a budget, and charging to the Expenditure Type is allowed under the sponsor's terms and conditions, contact your Research Services Administrator/Advisor (RSA).
Links
[1] http://www.research-operations.admin.cam.ac.uk/
[2] https://www.finance.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/gms_prcgrntjrnl.pdf
[3] https://www.finance.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/gms_gmsingl.pdf
[4] mailto:ufs_grants@admin.cam.ac.uk
[5] https://www.finance.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/gms_expndenddt.pdf
[6] https://www.finance.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/gms_ga_car.pdf
[7] mailto:UFS_AP@admin.cam.ac.uk
[8] https://www.finance.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/cog_gms_paycst.pdf