Post-Award Process
Road From Proposal to Award
When a proposal is funded, the PI of a sponsored
program project and Office of Sponsored Programs
are notified through a "Notice of Grant
Award." This document may include the grant
award number, name of the PI, name of sponsoring
agency, total amount of award by year, cumulative
total, and start and end dates of the current
years funding. The Office of Sponsored Programs
will forward a copy of the notice award, in
addition to terms and conditions of the award
to the Office of Budgets and Contracts. At this
point, the Office of Budgets and Contracts will:
- Generate a budget code which will be activated
in the BANNER system
- Generate a file which will include:
- Compliance checklist
- Budget transfers/adjustments
- Contract/award notification
- Financial statements/reports
- Original proposal
- Banner Input Sheet (internal Budgets
and Contracts form used to set-up BANNER
account
Prior to establishing budget codes and the
initial budget in BANNER, the Office of Budgets
and Contracts will contact the PI to confirm
the distribution of awarded monies between line
items [if applicable]. This may be submitted
via e-mail on the Budget Worksheet form.
Although a detailed budget is often in the
proposal, sometimes an increase or decrease
in funding may warrant a revised budget. However,
if the budget is to remain exactly the same
as the proposed budget, the PI may document
this on the Budget Worksheet Form to the Office
of Budgets and Contracts Office. In such cases,
Budgets and Contracts will utilize the proposed
budget to establish the new BANNER account associated
with that award. At this time, the PI will also
be contacted to arrange a brief orientation
meeting time with budgets and contracts to review
pertinent financial management issues associated
with his/her award. PIs with grant award management
experience will be issued a PI handbook and
compliance report for their award via campus
mail, and may arrange a meeting with the Office
of Budgets and Contracts at their discretion.
When the BANNER account is established, a budget
will be forwarded to the PI through campus mail,
and he/she may begin to make expenditures against
the account via the Purchasing Office (purchase
requisitions) and/or the Controller’s
Office (check requests). If the PI does not
already have BANNER access, the PI should now
obtain a BANNER userID and password in order
to log onto the BANNER system’s budget
module and monitor account activity. PI’s
(and anyone that the PI would like to have access
to the account information) may apply for a
BANNER account through Lotus Notes. Please contact
the Director of Banner Services for more information.
The PI and others with access to the account
may also wish to attend BANNER training. You
may contact MIT for times, dates and location
of these training sessions.
The Collaborative Effort of Grant Management
The process of financial management of the
sponsored project is a collaborative effort
primarily between the Principal Investigator
(PI), Controller’s Office and Office of
Budgets and Contracts. The Controller’s
Office and the Office of Budgets and Contracts
are departments within the Division of Business
and Financial Affairs. Each office has a specific
and separate function that allows for "checks
and balances."
In short, cooperative management happens as
such: the PI determines how the money is spent,
the Office of Budgets and Contracts "opens
the account" and provides approvals for
expenditures, and the Controller’s Office
records transactions (expenditures) in BANNER,
collects the funds, and processes payments.
The Office of Budgets and Contracts at no time
will input any charges into BANNER against an
account. Purchase requisitions and check requests
submitted to the Controller’s Office and/or
purchasing by the PI are only routed to Budgets
and Contracts for approvals. This review is
solely done to ensure compliance of purchase/payment
requests to grant terms and conditions. Likewise
the Controller’s office should not create
line items or make other adjustments to any
sponsored project budget.
Finally, the PI should always maintain copies
of supporting documents of all expenditures.
This will enable the PI to reconcile his/her
records with the general ledger maintained in
BANNER. Discrepancies in account item expenditures
should be addressed to the appropriate office.
Receiving Payment for Sponsored Projects
All federal agencies making sponsored program
awards are requested to transmit funds directly
to the Controller’s Office. These funds
are generally acquired through an automated
drawdown of funds. If the award is a subcontract,
usually the college must invoice the contractor
in order to receive payment. These invoices
are generated in the Office of Budgets and Contracts.
Please note the compliance report in the orientation
packet to determine when the contractor will
be invoiced for payment.
