Online Financial Statement Guide

Transcription

1 Contents Life Sciences Policies... 2 Online Grant Management... 2 Financial Statement Submission Deadlines... 2 Financial Policy Highlights... 2 proposalcentral Login... 6 Accessing Awards and Budget Section... 6 Viewing the Financial Statement... 7 Entering Expenditures... 8 Submitting the Electronic Signature Submitting the Financial Statement to the Simons Foundation Contacts and Access Additional Training on Financial Statement Submission V

2 Life Sciences Policies This instructions document will give overall and inclusive instructions on submitting Online Financial Statements in the Simons Foundation Life Sciences program. The terms and conditions applicable to grants funded by the Simons Foundation Life Sciences program are set forth in the policies and procedures documents, unless otherwise specified in the award letter. Grantees and their institutions must abide by all applicable laws and regulations. Please download the applicable policies and procedures document found in the Deliverables section of your award and on the foundation s website at for detailed guidelines on policies and on what financial reporting we require. Each grant program has unique characteristics, such as duration, funding levels, allowable costs, and reporting requirements. If you have any questions about Life Sciences policies and procedures, please contact the foundation at [email protected]. Online Grant Management Awardees and their financial administrators, as well as any additional staff members as needed, will be granted access to a web-based tool, proposalcentral (pc), to use for all aspects of award management, and must use said tool. *Activation agreements, reallocation requests, progress reports, reallocation requests, carry forward requests, no-cost extension requests, and publications must be submitted using the web forms found in proposalcentral. All web forms are available in the Deliverables section of proposalcentral. Financial Statements can be accessed and must be completed online in the Budget section of proposalcentral. To access proposalcentral, go to *Note: Reallocation requests, carry forward requests and no-cost extension requests are not applicable for Simons Foundation Fellowships. Financial Statement Submission Deadlines Financial Statements must be submitted electronically by the designated Financial Officer using the pc system: Financial Statements are due 60 days following the end of each funding year, 60 days following the end date of the grant or within 60 days of the termination of an award even if the grantee submitted a Carry Forward or No-Cost Extension Request unless specified differently in the award letter. Grant payments and future grants are contingent on submission of required reports. Financial Policy Highlights Below are highlights of the Simons Foundation Life Sciences policies related to online Financial Statement submission. For additional details, please refer to the award s specific Policies and Procedures document found in the Deliverables section of your award on pc and on the foundation s website at V

3 Allowable expenses vary between grants and programs. Please reference your approved budget on pc to see what your grant was originally approved for in each category. If applicable to your award, any reallocation over $50,000 requires preapproval. Personnel Costs: o Faculty: There is no salary cap for principal investigators (PIs) or other faculty on a Simons Foundation grant; however, the compensation is prorated according to the individual s percent effort on the grant. There is no minimum percent effort required for PIs or other personnel on any foundation award type, but it is expected that PIs will join the collaborative o o o community of foundation Investigators and partake in some conferences, workshops and symposia organized by the foundation. Postdoctoral Research Associate/Scholar/Scientists/Fellow or equivalent employee position: The Postdoctoral Research Associate or equivalent employee must be an employee of the grantee institution, with benefits. There is no salary cap for a Postdoctoral Research Associate or equivalent employee position. Simons Foundation funds may only be used for personnel who are employees of the grantee institution and who are eligible for benefits. Funds may not be used for fellowship stipend supplementation unless specifically authorized by Simons Foundation staff. Graduate research assistant (GRA) or equivalent: There is no cap on the compensation package for a GRA on a Simons Foundation grant; however, the compensation package is prorated according to the GRA s percent effort on the grant. The compensation package includes salary, stipend or wages; healthcare allowance or fringe benefits; and tuition remission. Indirect costs may be taken on GRA salaries, stipends or wages and healthcare allowance, but not on tuition. Simons Foundation Fellowships: Annual stipends and health insurance allowance are typically included in the personnel costs section in the pc budget. Payment cannot be made directly to fellows. Fellowships will be administered by the host institution. Unspent health allowance funds must be returned to the foundation. Travel: Travel expenses, unless specifically approved, are limited to $2,000 per year per individual per project to attend scientific meetings directly relevant to the Simons Foundation research grant. o All travel and accommodation expenses exclusively related to foundation-organized conferences, workshops and symposia will be reimbursed outside of the award funds. Equipment: The Simons Foundation will own equipment purchased with foundation grant funds with a unit cost of $50,000 or more. At the end of the grant funding period or in case of grant termination for any reason, the foundation reserves the right to retain ownership or cede ownership to the investigator's institution. Equipment with a unit cost of $50,000 or less shall be the property of the institution. Equipment over 50K is not an allowable cost on Simons Foundation Fellowships. Indirect Costs: Indirect costs are limited to 20 percent of direct costs, with the following exceptions: equipment, tuition, pre- and postdoctoral fellow stipends and benefits, any subcontracts with budgets including indirect expenses. Indirect costs paid to a subcontractor may not exceed 20 percent of the direct costs paid to the subcontractor. The indirect cost rate is non-negotiable. No indirect costs may be taken on Simons Foundation Fellowships V

4 Change of key personnel or percent effort of key personnel: o Change of PI: Under rare circumstances, a change in PI will be approved. All changes in PIs require a formal written request and approval, signed by the institution s Signing Official. The letter must state the reason for the personnel change, verification of eligibility of new personnel, verification of qualifications, verification of availability of new personnel and a description of how the change will affect the scope of work, implementation and timeline of o o the research project. A curriculum vitae and biosketch must be provided by the new PI. All documents must be submitted as a PDF to the Deliverables section on pc. Change of PI is not allowed for Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life Investigator Awards. Change of key personnel (other than PI): Changes in key personnel who dedicate 25 percent or more of their time to the grant require formal written request and approval, signed by the institution s Signing Official. The letter must state the reason for the personnel change, verification of eligibility of new personnel, verification of qualifications, verification of availability of new personnel and a description of how the change will affect the scope of work, implementation and timeline of the research project. A curriculum vitae and biosketch must be provided for all new personnel. All documents must be submitted as a PDF to the Deliverables section on pc. Changes in key personnel who dedicate less than 25 percent of their time to a grant do not require prior request or approval, but notification of the change should be communicated immediately to the Simons Foundation and be included in the next Renewal Scientific Progress Report. Change in percent effort of key personnel: Any change in percent effort of key personnel by 25 percent or more of their originally allocated percent effort requires prior written request and approval, signed by the institution s Signing Official. The letter must state the reason for the change in the percent effort and a description of how the change will affect the scope of work, implementation and timeline of the research project. All documents must be submitted as PDFs to the Deliverables section on pc. Subcontracts: Please complete the Subcontract Financial Statement form available for download on our website at or in the Deliverables section of your award in pc at Financial Statements must be reported for each subcontract. Insert additional Subcontract Financial Statement tabs into the workbook as necessary. Please upload the subcontract budget as a PDF in the Deliverables section of pc. Subcontracts are not allowed on Simons Foundation Fellowships. IMPORTANT NOTE: The Subcontract Financial Statement must be signed by the Contact PI s institution s Financial Officer before it is uploaded in the Deliverables section of your award. Reallocation: Grantees are given discretion to move up to $50,000 of the annual awarded funds across approved budget categories. Reallocations exceeding $50,000 of the annual awarded funds require formal request and approval. The Reallocation Request web form must be submitted electronically by the designated institution s Signing Official using the pc system. For Simons Foundation Fellowships, only funds within the research allowance may be reallocated. Prior approval is not required. V

5 Multi PI Financial Statements: A separate electronic Financial Statement must be submitted for each institution s award if the funds are paid to multiple institutions for multiple PIs. Each PI and their financial officer will have access to their approved budget in pc for entry of expenditures. Multi PI Financial Statements are not applicable for Simons Foundation Fellowships. Carry Forward (CF): A CF may be requested for any unexpended balance from one funding year to the next. An official CF Request web form is due 30 days prior to the end date of the funding year. If the funds are $50,000 or less of the total annual awarded funds, a formal request is not required; funds will be automatically carried forward to the next funding year. Any unexpended balance over $50,000 of the annual awarded funds will require formal approval via the CF Request. For Simons Foundation Fellowships, only funds from the research allowance may be carried forward. No formal request is required. Unspent research allowance funds will be automatically carried forward to the next funding year. o For multiple PIs at different institutions: The contact PI must submit one overall CF Request for the entire project, even if the PIs are at different institutions. No-Cost Extension (NCE): An NCE may be requested to extend the end date of a grant without providing additional funding. Requesting a formal no-cost extension via the NCE Request web form is required in the final funding year regardless of the amount of unexpended funds. A request for an NCE is due 30 days prior to the end date of the funding year. For Simons Foundation Fellowships, an NCE is not allowed. o For multiple PIs at different institutions: The contact PI must submit one overall NCE Request for the entire project, even if the PIs are at different institutions. V

6 proposalcentral Login When a proposal is awarded in pc, the users that had access to the proposal will continue to have access to the award with the same permission levels. The system allows only users with Administrative and Edit access to add or edit online Financial Statements. If you would like to allow an individual at your institution to have access to process or submit the Financial Statement, please refer to the Contacts and Access section of this manual or [email protected] with the name, and role of the person who will be processing or submitting the Financial Statement. To access your award, log in as an applicant at If you forgot your password click the Forgot Your Username/Password? link or go to For assistance, please call or [email protected]. Accessing Awards and Budget Section Once logged in to pc, users can access their assigned awards and corresponding web form deliverables by following these instructions: 1. Once logged in, click on the Manage Proposals (1) tab. 2. Then, click on the Awarded (2) tab. 3. In the Awarded section, click on the Award Details (3) link under the Status column for the appropriate award. 4. The Award Details screen provides access to different sections of the award. For online Financial Statement submission, please click on the Budget (4) link. V

7 Viewing the Financial Statement The Budget section is comprised of periods (or funding years), which can be viewed by selecting the different tabs. Each period has two tabs: Summary (S) and Detail (D) tabs (see below). The Summary tab is a read-only summary of the data collected on the Detail tab for that period. Please note that the start and end dates for each period are outlined in your award letter and cannot be revised. To enter any expenditures and notes, you must do so on the Detail tab in the Expenditure (5) and Notes (6) columns (shown below) for the award period for the funding year you are reporting. The Summary and Detail tabs for each period have seven columns: Column Name Description Can Grantee Edit? (1) Expense Type SF approved expense line items (personnel costs, non-personnel costs, IDC) No (2) Proposed Budget submitted with the grant application No (3) Awarded SF approved budget No (4) Carry Forward Approved balance from the previous reporting period No (5) Expenditure Expenses reported by the grantee Yes (6) Notes Budget justifications. This column will expand after you click Add Notes. Yes (7) Balance Based on the formula of: (Awarded + Carry Forward) Expenditure = Balance No V

8 Entering Expenditures You must enter expenditures and notes on the Detail tab for the active period. For example, to submit expenses for year two of the grant, select the tab labeled Period 2 Detail. Please review the start and end dates for each period to find the applicable timeframe for expenditure submission. Expense categories are divided into the following sections: Personnel Cost (8), Non-Personnel Cost (9), and Indirect Costs (10). The Personnel, Non-Personnel and Indirect sections are used to calculate the Total Costs (11). V

9 Expenditures for each category and subsequent line items should be submitted in the Expenditure (5) column and details regarding those expenditures should be submitted in the corresponding text field under the Notes (6) column. A justification entered in the Notes (6) column for each expense (personnel and non-personnel) is required for online Financial Statement submission, even if you did not spend the awarded funds in that expense category. Please provide a clear justification for each listed expense and explain any variances with the approved budget. Expense details should be entered in the Notes column (6) next to the applicable expense. Please provide the following required details in the Notes field of personnel and non-personnel categories: (For Simons Foundation fellowships examples, see page 11) Expense Type Enter in Notes Fields Personnel Non-Personnel Costs (Examples) Appointment Type: Academic, Annual, or Summer Institutional Base Salary: e.g., $50,000 USD Percent Effort of personnel on project: e.g., 100% Fringe Benefit rate: e.g., 32% Description of personnel s role on the project: e.g., Dr. Mary Parker worked on a model for the project. Equipment Supplies & Small Equipment Travel Animal Costs Consortium & Contractual Direct Indirect Costs Type of equipment purchased and justification of equipment: e.g., Pupillometer (AMTech Pupilknowlogy Compact Integrated Pupillograph) for use on project participants. Detailed itemization for all supplies purchased, e.g.: Glassware $1,000 Reagents $2,500 Chemicals $4,000 Who traveled where, for what purpose and for how much? e.g., PI and Postdoc traveled to X Scientific Conference $2,000 Provide Detailed Cost Itemization: e.g., 25 cages at 2 mice/cage at $1.00/day for 365 days The subcontract institution and PI name with a brief description of the work that was completed at the subcontract site Distinguish between the main site and subcontract site s IDC by entering IDC in either the Indirect Costs field or Subcontract 1-4 Indirect Costs. IMPORTANT NOTE: An entry in the Notes field is required for every line item. Please enter N/A in the corresponding Notes field if there are no expenses to report for that particular line item. You will receive an error message and will be unable to submit the online Financial Statement if the notes field is empty or if you use one of the following symbols from the Notes section: & < or >. By default, the Notes (6) column is hidden in order to conserve space on the screen. To open and close the Notes column, click the Add Notes link or the Hide Notes link, respectively. When the Notes column is V

10 displayed, add, delete, or modify text in this column by editing text in the Notes field and clicking the Save button (13). Please note that it is important to save changes frequently by clicking Save Changes (13). The system will automatically log out if the session is idle for more than 25 minutes. Please note that pc does not permit users to make changes to previously approved personnel names and non-personnel categories. To add new personnel or a new budget category, please scroll down to the end of each category and select the Add link. Please provide a justification for any changes in the Notes (6) column. For Simons Foundation fellowships Expense Type Subcategory Notes Example Appointment Type: Annual Personnel Percent Effort of Fellow on Project: e.g., 100% Stipend: e.g., $50,000 USD Health Allowance: e.g., $10,000 USD Supplies & Small Equipment Detailed itemization for all supplies purchased, e.g.: Glassware $1,000 Reagents $2,500 Chemicals $4,000 V

11 Non-Personnel Costs (Examples) Travel Other Expenses Online Financial Statement Guide Who traveled where, for what purpose and for how much: e.g., Fellow (Name) traveled to Name of Scientific Conference $2,000 E.g., Server space, Data Storage IMPORTANT NOTE: An entry in the Notes field is required for every line item. Please enter N/A in the corresponding Notes field if there are no expenses to report for that particular line item. You will receive an error message and will be unable to submit the online Financial Statement if the notes field is empty or if you use one of the following symbols from the Notes section: & < or >. IMPORTANT NOTE: The foundation does not accept negative expenditures. If you need to make changes to a previously submitted Financial Statement, please notify the Simons Foundation grants team at [email protected]. Each note field has a 700-character limit (including spaces). If you try to save a note with more than 700 characters, the note will NOT be saved and an error message will appear indicating that you should revise your text. Submitting the Electronic Signature Once the expenses and details are entered appropriately, the designated Financial Officer must log in to his/her pc account and approve the online Financial Statement for the award period displayed with an electronic signature. The Enter Electronic Signature text box is located at the bottom of the Period Detail screen and marked with a red asterisk (*). The Financial Officer should enter his/her full name as verification that he/she approves the expenses and details as provided in the online Financial Statement. The Simons Foundation will not accept signatures from institutional personnel other than the Financial Officer per the foundation s policies. Please refer to our Policies and Procedures document at Once the name is entered as text, the Financial Officer may then click the Save Signature (14) button. IMPORTANT NOTE: If your institution does not accept electronic signatures, please follow these steps: 1. In the electronic signature box, enter: Please refer to the deliverables section for signature. 2. Submit the Financial Statement. 3. Print the Financial Statement. 4. Have the Signing Official sign the printed Financial Statement. 5. Upload the signed web form to the Deliverables section of pc under the deliverable type called Signed web form or online FS for institutions that DO NOT allow electronic signatures. V

12 Submitting the Financial Statement to the Simons Foundation Online Financial Statement Guide After the electronic signature is saved, the Financial Officer must click on the Submit Period to Grant Maker as Final (15) button. Clicking this button will submit the online Financial Statement to the foundation for review. Please note that changes cannot be made after submission unless re-authorized by the foundation. Contacts and Access If the designated Financial Officer (or any administrator that requires access) does not have access to the grant in pc, this can be managed in the Contacts & Users Access section, accessible from the Award Details screen. To update an existing contact s permission level, select the appropriate level from the drop-down menu in the Permissions (1) column and click the Save Changes (2) button. In order to submit online Financial Statements and electronic signatures, users must be granted Administrator access. To learn about the different types of permissions, click the Hints & Tips for Access Permissions link (3). For additional instructions on adding users to your award contacts, please refer to the Contacts and Access section in the Instructions for Navigating Your Awarded Grant manual at Additional Training on Financial Statement Submission For additional instructions on submitting web forms, please refer to the following instructional video: V