Set Up, Manage & Close Out Awards

The award management process begins once you have met your funding source's compliance requirements, the program provisions are complete, and once the award is available and set up in PeopleSoft.

Throughout the project term, some of the following changes may occur:

• Changes in key personnel
• Award end dates
• Budgeted amounts
• International travel
• Specialized equipment

The UTSW financial system must reflect accurate award limitations and restrictions. This critical stage receives regular audits throughout the project life cycle.

How to Manage Your Award

Get Started with Accuracy

• Confirm Award Details

  Review your Grant Notification Report (GNR) to confirm that your award details are accurate and let SPA know of any issues you might need to be addressed.

• Ensure an Accurate Budget

  Verify funding to ensure accuracy of your setup-fees budget, award start date, and payments received for incremental budget increases.

  Review the terms and conditions listed in the negotiated agreement. Contact SPA through ServiceNow to correct inaccuracies.

• Confirm Compliance Requirements

  Confirm compliance requirements such as spending, reporting, and disclosures throughout each project stage. Failure to obtain an approved Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol may result in restricted funding categories and delay in proceeding with projects as anticipated.

• Monitor Subrecipients

  Make sure your agreement is executed and a purchase order has been created. Check with your subrecipient to ensure they are invoicing on a regular basis. Monitor your purchase order, encumbrance balance, and accounts payable on the SCi005 - Invoices Vouchered by Accounts Payable report in Orbit.

• Source Your Employees

  Source your employees working on your project and review regularly for updates.

Ongoing Review for Your Success

• Review Encumbrances

  Regularly review your monthly encumbrances to ensure SPA can accurately help you manage your award. Work with Accounts Payable, Purchasing, and SPA’s Contracts Team to clear obstacles for your award.

• Review Budget Errors

  Review your Chart of Accounts (COA) to ensure you are using the correct information that pertains to your specific award. If the COA is inaccurate, contact SPA’s Clinical Trial Finance team for assistance with your budget error.

• Review Expenditures

  Review expenditures ensuring all study costs are captured and any needed cost transfers are completed. Making necessary corrections in a proactive manner allows for addressing issues earlier in the financial management stage, rather than at the end of the award. We recommend monthly financial reviews.

• Control Deficit Spending

  Control deficit/over-the-limit (OLT) spending of the project's total funded amount.

• Communicate Early Terminations and Relinquishments

  Communicate early terminations and relinquishments to SPA by submitting a ServiceNow ticket.

Incorporate Best Practices

• Submit Award Amendments

  Enter all award amendments to SPA through ServiceNow and provide the correct award modification type. The UTSW financial system must reflect accurate award limitations and restrictions. 

• Invoice for Industry Clinical Trial

  These invoices (not billed in PeopleSoft) should contain the award number, project ID, PI name, and full study title (not abbreviated). The startup invoices are billed in Velos.

• Use Accurate Identifiers for Cash Management

  Use your award number (award number begins with OPA) as an identifier if you are creating your own invoices within the Department for easier cash applications. Please do not include the department invoice.

• Create a Financial Management Process

  Form a system for managing your project's financial, human resource, and operational aspects.

• Examine Scientific Progress

  Observe scientific progress throughout the project and report necessary modifications with the sponsor for approval when pertinent.

• Prepare for Site Visits

  You will need to maintain a study binder with protocol-related activities, updates, study-activity progress, and upcoming visits. Make sure your records are up to date by ensuring collection supplies are not expired, visit logs are complete, and consent forms are up to date.

Financial Reporting Process

Our Clinical Trial Finance team manages start-up billing and invoicing for clinical trials, ClinCard administration, and clinical trial budget reviews and maintenance in collaboration with a designated department administrator. Managing these processes include the following tasks:

1. Complete Agreement

   Complete Service Order Agreement (SOA) for affiliate research.

2. Identify Subjects and Enroll Patients

   Identify subjects and enroll patients in Velos for clinical trials.

3. Finalize Budget Negotiations

   Finalize budget negotiations with sponsors.

4. Report Expenses

   Report clinical trial expenses to SPA.

5. Finalize Clinical Trial Agreement

   Execute final Clinical Trial Agreement (CTA) in conjunction with SPA’s Industry Contracts team.

6. Submit ClinCard Forms

   Submit a Request Form via ClinresClinCard@utsouthwestern.edu for access to the ClinCard system.

7. Request ClinCard Waivers

   Request all ClinCard waivers via ClinresClinCard@utsouthwestern.edu.

How to Manage Financial Reporting

1. Review Agreement Documents

   Periodically review your agreement documents to ensure that you know upcoming due dates and check your project ahead of the grant year-end dates for any reconciliation or cleanup your award might need.

2. Review Expenses Incurred During Performance Period

   Review all expenses incurred within the period of performance for allowability. Your department needs to ensure all expense invoicing has been received. If there is a subcontract, the department should ensure all invoices have been received for financial reporting during the period.

3. Transfer Disallowed Personnel Expenses

   Transfer any disallowed personnel expenses by the direct retro process for Maintenance Award group approval. If disallowed other expenses, transfer off using the non-salary cost transfer (NSCT) tool.

4. Review Encumbrances

   Review encumbrances and, if necessary, work with Purchasing to clear them.

5. Use the Financial Reporting Template

   Ensure that your team uses an accurate sponsor financial report template for reporting. If your department receives the template from the sponsor, please send it to the SPA Reporting team.

6. Request a No-cost Extension, if Needed

   If you are going to request a no-cost extension, please notify SPA through ServiceNow.

7. Review and Approval

   Once the SPA Reporting team has completed the financial report, using the eGrants process, the financial report will be sent to the PI/Department for review and approval signature.

8. Certify and Submit to Sponsor

   After the PI has uploaded the report and performed the certification in eGrants, the report will route to the Financial Officer for approval and submission to the sponsor.

Expert Tips

• Receiving funds from a funding source

  If you receive a check from a funding source, please do not send it through interoffice mail. We ask that you send the funds to the Accounting Cash Management Window and include the award and invoice number.

  You will also need to review the allocated amount to ensure your budget is increased based on the cash receipt and monitor your deficit spending.

• Locate funds not in Chart of Accounts

  If there are funds that you believe have been received from the Sponsor but have not yet been applied to your Chart of Accounts (COA), please review the Unapplied Cash Spreadsheet.

• Closing out a clinical trial or study

  Notify SPA through ServiceNow when the award should be closed prior to the performance award end date.

  Notify SPA through ServiceNow when the department receives a closeout notification and let us know if the project or award should remain open for any reason.

• Managing monthly budget changes

  During the award performance period, the department is responsible for managing monthly budget changes to ensure an accurate clinical trial/study budget, confirm award start and end dates, and review your award budget monthly. You must view your funding details each month. For additional assistance and guidance, please consult with the Clinical Trial Accounting team.

• Managing indirect cost funding shortfalls

  UT Southwestern policy states that the Institution will fully recover the costs (direct and indirect) associated with conducting research or providing services under sponsored agreements and contracts.

  A shortfall can occur when the sponsor (funding source) does not pay enough indirect costs to meet the 10 percent requirement mandated by UT Southwestern (for non-industry-sponsored grants and contracts).

  During the agreement proposal stage, an unrestricted departmental COA String must capture the 10 percent indirect cost shortfall. You must enter this information in eAgreements in section 12.0.

• Managing Clinical Trial Agreement (CTA) revisions

  SPA’s Industry Agreements team will review and approve all sponsor clinical trial agreement changes through ServiceNow.

FAQ and Guidance Materials

• Are there any resources to help us with clinical trial budgets? (PDF)
• How do I get my study set up with ClinCard? (PDF)
• I received a payment for my clinical trial. Why has the budget not increased? (PDF)
• How to correct a DCT invoice? (Video)
• My PI does not want to use ClinCard for our study. They want to use gift cards. What is the process for that? (PDF)
• How do I determine if my DCT invoice has been paid? (Video)
• Who can help with SOA completion? (PDF)
• What queries and financial reports are available to help me manage my clinical trials? (PDF)
• Is there DCT invoicing training available? (PDF)

Training Opportunities

• Module H: Award Maintenance Overview Level One
• Module I: Introduction to Revenue Cycle and Cash Management Level One
• Module J: Financial Reporting and Award Closeout Overview Level One

Ask for Guidance

Inquiries reviewed and assigned within four hours, Monday – Friday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Open a ServiceNow TicketWhich SPA Team Can Help

Leadership

Nataliya Samodov, MBA

Director, SPA Finance and Clinical Trial Finance

nataliya.samodov@utsouthwestern.edu

 

Contact Us

As your project comes to an end, there are essential tasks you will need to complete to ensure your award has an orderly close. Your award closeout procedures will vary based on your contract with the sponsor.

Estimated Duration

You will have 45 days to pay the expenses incurred during your award's performance period. Please read your award documentation and pay close attention to the final invoice's terms.

If you wish to pay for expenses after the award period, you will need to coordinate with SPA’s Billing or Revenue Team to ensure costs are appropriately invoiced to the sponsor and paid.

During the award period, which is the start and end date of the award, expenses can be incurred and paid. After the award end date, the department may pay for costs incurred during the award period.

Once you provide the department number and approved budget, the award setup process will begin.

How to Close Out Your Award

• Federal Awards
• State Awards
• Contracts
• Agreements
• Clinical Trials

Expert Tips

• Facilitate a Smooth Closeout

  Read and follow outlined instructions on the 60-day Notice of Award Close letter from SPA.

  Ensure the completion of encumbrances, and there are no outstanding financial transactions, including cost transfers or posting expenses.

  You must send invoices to the sponsor program for NBP and FIX awards and ensure all invoices are paid and posted to the award.

• Manage No-Cost Extensions for Your Award

  Suppose you would like to request additional time for research. In that case, you may submit a request to your sponsored program and coordinate with your proposal specialist.

  If you believe your request will receive approval, create a ServiceNow ticket to inform SPA not to start the award closeout process.

• Request a Residual Transfer (NBP & FIX)

  Create a ServiceNow ticket to request a consolidated residual transfer. If you want a specific COA to transfer the residual, please list it in a ServiceNow ticket.

  Submit all invoices to the sponsored program and ensure all invoices are paid and posted to the award.

  You must complete all no-cost transfers or expense transactions.

  If the anticipated residual funds are more significant than $20K, submit a PI Statement explaining why the funds were not spent on the award's research required activities.

• Has my award been closed?

  If it is 120 days past the award end date, it should be closed or is in the process of being closed. Ask your department if anyone received the GNR – Closeout report. If confirmation is needed, create a ServiceNow ticket for SPA.

• Can I spend research funds after the award closeout period?

  Typically, you may not spend research funds after the award closeout period. If you have a special circumstance, please submit a ServiceNow ticket for SPA review.

• My Award Still Has Balance. Can I Spend It?

  If the award end date has passed (45 days for federal; depending on the contractual language), no one should post additional expenses to the award.

  SPA will no longer post a closing budget entry to zero out budget lines, so it is common for balances to remain after the award is closed.

• What to Do With a Check After the Award Closes

  Once the award is closed, it is incredibly problematic to reopen it. That is why SPA asks for all transactions to be posted to the award, including cash transactions, before the award begins the closeout process.

  In the rare event where you receive a check after the award is closed, create a ServiceNow ticket with SPA Cash Management to coordinate the deposit of the funds.

Taleo Training

• Module J: Financial Reporting and Award Closeout Overview Level One
• Module K: Clinical Research Services Overview Level One
• Module L: Clinical Trial Accounting & Analysis Overview Level One

Ask for Guidance

Inquiries reviewed and assigned within 4 hours, Monday – Friday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Open a ServiceNow TicketWhich SPA Team Can Help

Leadership

 

Nataliya Samodov, MBA

Director, SPA Finance

nataliya.samodov@utsouthwestern.edu

Contact Us