What is the Grants Accounting module?

Purpose of GA Module

The Grants Accounting module is a customized accounting ledger for tracking information specific to grants and related accounts at WVU. The GA module collects and maintains financial details (original budgets, expenditures and payroll, balances) and demographics (award agency, primary investigator, significant dates, etc.) for sponsored agreements, federal contracts, and cost sharing accounts.

Some Examples of Grants

Grants are awarded to fund research or projects in many fields of study and can vary quite widely. Everyday researchers at WVU are investigating questions of medicine, astronomy, energy conservation, community service, psychology, history...nearly everything! Grants are also sometimes awarded for building construction or other projects at the university.

• The Spread of Gypsy Moths and its Association with Defoliation Events
  • Funded by the US Dept of Agriculture - NRE - Forest Service
• The Economic Feasibility of Wind Power in West Virginia
  • Funded by the WV Bureau of Commerce - WV Development Office
• Specialty Care Coordination
  • Funded by the WV Dept of Health and Human Services - Maternal & Child Health
• Dental Pain Sensitivity, Fear, and Avoidance: Linkages with the MC1R Gene
  • Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the MD Dept of Health and Human Services

Which Financial Details are in Grants View?

• Budgets
  • How much was originally budgeted for the whole project? For each Task or year of the project? What was budgeted for salaries?
• Expenditures
  • What has been spent so far from each category? View individual expenditure items.
• Commitments
  • How much of the budget has been promised for purchase orders or payroll?
• Available Balances
  • How much is left in the budget after expenditures and commitments?

What Demographic Details are in Grants View?

• Sponsoring agency name and address
  • Who's paying for this project? The name and mailing address of the agency (whether governmental, corporate, or private) will be listed.
• Start, End, and Close dates of the Award.
  • Start date = first day that money can be distributed and spent
  • End date = last day that money can be spent
  • Close date = date that the project must be completely closed, with all adjustments completed
• Installment dates
  • Some grants are awarded for multi-year projects, in which case, the granting agency may disburse the funding in installments for each period or phase of the project.
• Principal Investigator
  • The researcher/faculty member here at WVU who has submitted the research proposal and been awarded the funding for the project. Other important members of the research and administrative staff are also listed, such as any co-principal-investigators, the members of WVU research administration overseeing the financial or other deatils.
• Terms and Conditions
  • Some grants have a list of terms and conditions that must be met to maintain funding – such as a requirement that the funding agency will have input on replacing the PI if they leave the institution, or that reports are required to be submitted at certain intervals, or travel is restricted to the US.
• Facilities & Administrative Rate
  • the F&A rate is a percentage of the funding paid to the University or College for overhead/indirect cost.  Rates can vary.

How does Grants information get into MAP?

When an award has been approved by the funding agency, they will notify the Office of Sponsored Programs and the PI. The OSP will then create a new set of project and award numbers in MAP as approporate. During this process they will enter the financial details and demographic information about the award provided by the granting agency and from the research proposal documentation. OSP will establish the original budget and division of funding to different categories, or expenditure types.

Once the Office of Sponsored Programs has established the project accounts in MAP, the PI may begin spending money. The financial transactions for these expenditures are recorded in other MAP modules , and electronically pushed to the Grants Accounting and General Ledger modules. Expenditure transactions could come from:

• Payroll - employee pay
• Procurement - requisitions and purchase orders
• Payments - invoices, P-Card, postage, phone