SPA Compliance & Operations

Overview and Purpose

We perform compliance monitoring for various research transactions for UT Southwestern Medical Center using the Uniform Guidance as our foundation. Uniform Guidance streamlines and consolidates government requirements for receiving and using federal awards to reduce errors and improve outcomes.

SPA reviews the University's research financial aspects, including coordinating and validating data of multiple financial and programmatic audits each year. Our internal review process includes:

Reviewing typical nonallowable costs on grants.
Evaluating Change Funding forms.
Monitoring transactional research attributes.
Completing various CPRIT compliance requirements.
Data collection for numerous annual institutional surveys.
Sampling and monitoring research activity to ensure compliance with federal agencies, sponsor guidelines, and University policy.
In collaboration with the Provost’s Office, routinely monitoring the Salary and Wage Confirmation process related to sourcing university employees' reasonableness on research awards.

Salary and Wage Confirmation

Salary & Wage Confirmation – Q3 Activity Paused

Q3 activity will be paused as we are working with developers to enhance the accuracy of the reporting.

Your teams may still utilize this tool to review and ensure all retros and corrections are made timely and ready for year-end reporting.

From a compliance standpoint, we will not be tracking or sending any communication on status of submissions this quarter. Instead, we will be reaching out to specific departments to partner for testing and review of the reporting updates.

PFr005 Report
SPA uses the Salary and Wage Confirmation Report (PFr005 Report) in Orbit to generate compensation details for employees sourced for sponsored research.

As required by Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.430, the PFr005 Report allows PIs and delegated departmental staff to:
- Review budgets
- Validate salary charges’ reasonableness across the PI's research portfolio
SharePoint Repository

We also provide a repository to store various salary and wage confirmation reporting requirements via SharePoint.

SPA grants default access to each department or center's Department Administrator. All additional users must request access to be granted department security to the SharePoint Repository. Please request access by opening a ServiceNow ticket with SPA's Compliance and Operations Team.

Salary and Wage Reporting Timeline

wage and salary graph showing first quarter report due January 15, second quarter report due April 15, third quarter report due July 15, and annual attestation report due October 15

Per University Policy, RES-253, Principal Investigators are required to conduct and submit approved Salary and Wage Confirmation reports four times per fiscal year, representing Q1, Q2, Q3 and the Annual Attestation to meet federal and institutional requirements

Expert Tips

Where can I find information regarding Salary and Wage Confirmation?
You can access Salary and Wage Confirmation guidance by:
- Signing up for Taleo Learn modules
- Referencing Salary and Wage Confirmation FAQs
- Viewing the Salary and Wage Confirmation Institutional Policy RES-253
I have received an audit notification. What should I do?
There are times when sponsors will request compliance review, desk audit, or request for information. Should you be contacted directly from these funding agencies, we ask that you do the following:
- Contact SPA upon receipt of the request.
- Share original communication and required deadlines.
- Do not respond directly without guidance from Sponsored Programs Administration. We will want to determine if there are other request instances and do not wish to duplicate with conflicting information.
How can I distinguish when something is an allowable cost?

There are several essential expenses you will need to account for in your grant proposal budget when seeking funding for your research. Remember budget costs must be reasonable, allowable, and allocable.

What costs are allowed?
Allowable Cost Document: Provides clear and concise information on the types of costs either allowed or not allowed under a grant.

What guidelines are required for federal funding?
Uniform Guidance Document: Federal guidelines all institutions should follow that receive federal funding.
Where can I find my departmental research data in Power BI?
Power BI provides several reports that may be beneficial to you or your teams.
- GL Research Expenditure, RHi002
- GL Nonlabor Expense, FDi002
- Grant Proposals, RHi001
- Grants Personnel, RHi008
- KK Grants Funding, RHi003
- KK Commitment Control Transactions, KKi001
- GL Cash Deposit By Award, RHi007
- GL Velos Journal Details, RHi006
- Salary and Wage Confirmation, PFr005
- Invoices Vouchered by Accounts Payable, SCi005
Access may need to be requested and granted by your department approver.
Where can I find UT Southwestern’s most recent single audit report?

UT Southwestern’s latest single audit report is available on the State of Texas Single Audit report. For further questions regarding this process, please contact Carol Walters.

UT Southwestern Single Audit Report