Award Management

Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA) is responsible for the post-award administration of grants and contracts received by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). This includes:

  • Account setup
  • Processing of expense transactions
  • Billing
  • Receivables analysis
  • Financial reporting
  • Account closeout activities

For questions or issues contact: Sponsored Projects Accounting

Monthly Expenditure Review

What

The PI and designee must review financial activity for EVERY sponsored project monthly.

How

Review the ISMMS Monthly Expenditure Review Checklist along with the following financial reports in Sinai Central:

  • GLM 402 Fund Budget Report – Summary of the budget vs actual costs of the grant (direct costs only).
  • GLM 316 Account Detail Transaction Display – Lists current month and project to date expenses.
  • GLM 185 Salary Projection Report – Lists all personnel and the percentage of effort for the remainder of the budget period.
  • GLM 180 PO Status Report – Lists all purchase orders issued and remaining unpaid balances.

When

Monthly review of ledgers is required by the 15th of every month.

Questions

Sponsored Projects Accounting is available to assist PIs/administrators in reviewing/understanding the reports. Please contact the SPA accountant assigned to your department.

Resources

Cost Transfers

What

cost transfer is an after-the-fact reallocation of the cost associated with a transaction from one Sponsored Project (SP) to another. Although costs should always be charged to the correct SP, cost transfers are sometimes necessary for the following circumstances:

  • Correct an error
  • Allocate costs benefiting more than one project
  • Transfer pre-award costs to a grant
  • Remove an unauthorized cost overrun during closeout
  • Remove unspent balance either returned to the sponsor or carried forward to continuation year

When

Cost transfers must be processed within 90 days of the original charge.

How

Cost transfers are submitted online using the Sponsored Project Accounting Cost Transfer Form, Sinai Central’s fund transfer function and the Human Resource Transaction System (HRTS) salary distribution system.

All cost transfers must be properly documented by the PI/designee and reviewed/approved by Sponsored Project Accounting.

Refer to the Mount Sinai cost transfer policies and procedures for detailed information.

Resources

Approval for Post-Award Modifications

Post-award programmatic changes and budget revision must have prior approval requirements of the ISMMS and/or the funding agency.  Please consult your Notice of Award (NOA) or Agreement for information specific to the individual award. For more information on general prior approval requirements for NIH grants, please consult the table in section I of this document.

Failure to obtain required prior approval from the appropriate awarding Sponsor may result in the dis-allowance of costs, termination of the award, or other enforcement action within the funding agency’s authority.

NIH Salary Cap: Effort and Salary Source Transaction Forms

NIH Grants that Do Not Allow Automatic Carryover

Guidance for grants that do NOT allow automatic carry forward of funds.

Post-Subaward Subrecipient Monitoring

For detailed guidance on Subrecipient Monitoring, refer to the Subawards financial memorandum.

Industry Funded Projects

For industry funded projects, follow the terms outlined in the agreement.

Reporting Requirements

Annual Statement of Verification – Time & Effort Report

What

Annually, Faculty/Designee/Principal Investigator completes the “Statement of Verification – Time & Effort Report” certifying the percentage of effort and resulting salary charge, as indicated, are reasonable in relation to the work performed.

Activities Certified:

  • Research
  • Instruction
  • Hospital Duties
  • Other

Who

For faculty and professional employees who allocate salary/effort to grants.

When

The Time & Effort Report must be completed on a calendar year basis. It is School policy that the employee and supervisor with first-hand knowledge of the employees’ activities must verify the statement.

How

Complete the time and effort report in Sinai Central.

Resources

Federal Financial Report (FFR)

What

Used the FFR to submit financial information about individual grant awards.

When

The FFR is required on an annual basis, except for domestic awards under the Streamlined Noncompeting Award Process (SNAP) and awards that require more frequent reporting. When required on an annual basis, the report must be submitted for each budget period no later than 90 days after the end of the calendar quarter in which the budget period ends.

How

Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA) prepares a draft FFR outlining the expenditures that are charged to the projects. This draft FFR must be reviewed by the PI and the department administrator for correctness, completeness and to certify that the costs are reasonable and allocable to the project. Any correction must be communicated to SPA as soon as possible. SPA will submit the FFR to NIH Commons after the PI and the administrator responsible for the grant confirm all the costs.

Note
Failure to submit complete, accurate and timely financial status reports may indicate the need for closer monitoring by NIH or may result in possible award delays or enforcement actions, including withholding, removal of expanded authorities, or conversion to a reimbursement payment method.

Resources

NOT-OD-17-074

GCO Annual Submission

What

Submit an annual application (also referred to as a yearly renewal and a non competitive continuation) to the GCO. The application must be submitted each year of the project. Refer to InfoEd for the project expiration date.

How

Annual GCO applications are submitted in InfoEd.

For step-by-step instructions, refer to  “Creating a Non-Competing Continuation, No-Cost Extension or Final Report Submission“.

When

The application in InfoEd should be created in parallel with the NIH Annual Progress Report (RPPR) or annual reports of other funding agencies.

IRB/IACUC Compliance
If the project yearly start and end dates are the same as the GCO / InfoEd submission, then submit IRB/IACUC prior to the InfoEd submission.

If the IRB/IACUC yearly start and end dates are different from the GCO / InfoEd yearly submission dates, then submit IRB/IACUC approximately 8 weeks prior to the IRB/IACUC expiration date.

Failure to submit the compliance application will result in delays of review of the InfoEd application at the GCO.

Routing and Approval Process

  1. PI Approves InfoEd Application
  2. Routed to Dept(s)
    1. Dept(s) Approve
  3. Submitted to GCO for Review
    1. GCO Coordinator does initial intake reviewing the Sinai Central IF and the InfoEd application, checking to make sure appropriate compliance (i.e., PPHS and IACUC) applications were filed to respective offices as appropriate, and assigning a GCO #.
    2. GCO Coordinator will either issue a receipt or communicate what information or documentation is missing in this initial review stage.
    3. GCO records record.
    4. GCO Grant Specialist conducts review after GCO receipt is issued and determines if step 5 is required.
    5. Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) conducts final review and submits to external agencies for S2S applications.
    6. InfoEd status is changed to Review Complete.
Department Approval Tracking

To ensure department signatories sign applications in a timely manner, check the approval routing queue in InfoEd.

  1. Hover on the yellow folder icon under the Project Title.
  2. Select view PD.
  3. Select the Finalize Tab to view the routing history.

This is especially important for submissions with key personnel from two or more departments.

To find a list of department signatories, refer to the InfoEd Routing List.

GCO Review and Approval Deadlines

  • ISMMS Sponsored Projects – One Business Day
  • Federal Non-Competitive Applications – Two Business Days prior to extramural funding agency deadline.
  • Federal Competitive Grant and Contract Applications – Five Business Days prior to extramural funding agency deadline by 11am.
  • All Other Sponsored Project Applications – One Business Day prior to extramural funding agency deadline. (Contact your GCO Grants Specialist for projects with complex budgetary and/or administrative requirements. One business day may not apply.)

Note: For projects with complex budgets/administrative requirements (ie. foundation applications, federal non-competitive) it is strongly recommended that applications are submitted in advance of these deadlines.

NIH Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR)

What

NIH award recipients are responsible for submitting timely and accurate Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR) (NOT-OD-17-074). There are three types of progress reports:

  1. Annual RPPR
  2. Interim RPPR
  3. Final RPPR

When

Refer to the NIH Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) website for reporting due dates.

How

Submit the Annual Research Preformance Progress Report (RPPR).

Step 1: RPPRs are uploaded and submitted via eRA Commons by the PI or a person with the “ASST” role. For detailed guidance, refer to Other Support Guidance for NIH Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs) and the resources listed below.

Step 2: A non-competitive NIH InfoEd application must be submitted in parallel. For more information, see GCO Annual Submission.

Step 3: Upon review, the grant specialist will notify the designated Authorizing Organization Representative to submit the RPPR application on eRA Commons.

Resources

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Joint Appointments

What

ISMMS requires faculty who have Joint Appointments to  complete and sign a MOU, documenting the effort assigned to each activity (Clinical, Education/Supervision, Research and Administration) at ISMMS and the affiliate.

When

Annually

How

Research Compliance will issue a reminder to the Department Administrators on a calendar year basis. It is the Departments’ responsibility to distribute MOUs to faculty who have salary support from a federal grant and to retain the properly approved MOU in accordance with the statute of limitation audit requirements. Refer to the Memorandum of Understanding – Joint Appointments.