Basic Grant Management

To assist you with managing your grants, several reports are available online that provide information about your budget, expenditures, any encumbrances, and the spendable balance on your accounts, and payroll information for the employees paid from your accounts. The accounting information is current as of the prior day’s close of business and the payroll information is immediately current.

Current information on your grants budget is available through ITWorks . If you have not yet been given an account, please contact Stacy Hutchinson.

We fully encumber indirect costs when we enter your grant into our accounting system and subcontracts as they are initiated. We also encumber any charges or other commitments of which we are aware. This presents a more accurate picture of the total funds you have available to spend if you’re solely looking at the bottom line. Please review these reports regularly to ensure that you are spending in accordance with your budget and that there are no errors.

It is extremely important that you stay current with any reporting requirements. In the extreme, failure to do so may effect the your ability and even that of others from UMCES to obtain funding from agencies with which you are delinquent. The specific reporting requirements are typically included in the award document which is attached to the summary sheet. There are normally both scientific and financial reporting requirements.

As the PI, you are responsible for meeting the scientific reporting requirements and submitting them to the agency. Funding agencies may require quarterly, semi-annual or annual reports. The format of such reports can vary widely from agency to agency. Additionally some agencies require online submission; others require hard copies. Make sure you know and comply with the requirements identified in the summary statement that you received at the beginning of the award. Prior to submitting these required periodic reports, you will need to obtain a CBL Publication number (format [UMCES]CBL date-XXX) from Elissa Lee. Please send an electronic copy of the report to Elissa Lee for our records. It is also helpful to send an email to ORAA informing them that you have met the reporting requirements for that time period.

You should work with the Budget and Finance Office in preparation of the financial reports that are due to the agency and ensure timely completion.

In some cases, you may be issued multiple account numbers for one grant. An example of when this will occur is when you have participant costs with certain sponsors at a 0% indirect rate for costs which normally have indirect costs associated with them. You would receive one account number for the participant costs portion with an indirect rate of zero and another account number for all the other expenditures at the standard indirect rate.

If you are a PI on a grant with other PIs, it is critical that you and they are aware of any financial commitments made by the others and that there is an understanding about who is accepting the responsibility for managing the grant and for reporting and providing any deliverables.

Several months before your grant ends you will start receiving email notifications that the account will be terminating. If you think you will need additional time (a no cost extension request) or if you require a budget reallocation to align your expenditures with the budget or to shift funds from one category to another so you will be able to spend it, this is the time to start planning for those requests. Please note that many agencies will only accept requests for no-cost extensions six month prior to the end of the grant.