New Account Setup for Grants & Contracts

• Description/Definition
• Process Overview
• PI/Staff Procedure
• Supporting Documents

Description/Definition

The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) negotiates specifics of grant/contract awards with sponsors on behalf of the University. When the agreement is finalized, OSP prepares a Notice to Establish Account (NEA) and sends it to Grant and Contract Accounting (GCA). GCA assigns a new budget number to the grant/contract award upon receipt of the NEA. GCA enters all information pertinent to the award into the University Financial Accounting System (FAS). This allows the Principal Investigator (PI) or authorized staff to buy goods and services to accomplish the project specified in the award. See also GIM 34 - Guidelines for Classification of Gifts, Grants, and Contracts for assistance in determining whether an award is a grant, contract or gift.

Separate instructions exist to:

• Set up a new Sub Account
• Set up an Advance Budget

1. Principal Investigator (PI) submits a proposal package to Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). See GIM 1: A Guide for the Preparation of Grant and Contract Proposals
2. Sponsor notifies University of the award. (If award is received in the department, the award plus all attachments must be forwarded to OSP).
3. University accepts the award by returning an appropriately signed form to the sponsor.
4. OSP issues a NEA and sends award package to GCA. The award package includes the NEA, the award documents, copies of GC-1, GC-1 addendum, and the budget portion of the proposal relevant to post award accounting.
5. Upon receipt of the NEA and award package from OSP, the appropriate team in GCA assigns a budget number and enters the following information into the Financial Accounting System (FAS).
• FIN Screen 4 (02 Index) information.
• FIN Screen 4 information for sub-accounts if specified on the NEA.
• FIN Screen 5 permanent budget information.
• The Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs encumbrance is created in the Purchasing System (PAS). A BSC encumbrance is created for the indirect cost on the first $25K of an subcontract as noted on the NEA.
• Revenue Journal Voucher (JV) is prepared for the funding.
• Cost Sharing pledges into the Faculty Effort System in the (BGT) driver.
• Invoicing or Automatic Payment schedule (JDE).
• Fiscal reports schedule in the FR database if applicable.
6. Department can now find the budget number online. Also, goods and services can now be charged to this project.
7. GCA emails the PI and administrator, the new budget number. A copy of the NEA is sent to the budget's UW box number.

PRE AWARD: The following activities performed by departmental staff essential to the setup of a new account:

1. Proposal preparation. See GIM 1 -- A Guide for the preparation of Grant and Contract Proposals
2. GC-1 and GC-1 Addendum preparation. Especially critical to the new account setup are:
   PI Name, PI EID, Organization Code
   Budget (including Indirect cost rate and exempt items)
   Type of award (grant, contract, training grant, fellowship)
   

3. Award documents from Sponsor and all attachments must be sent to OSP.

The following situations and omissions are the most frequent causes of delay in the process of setting up a new account:

• Incomplete / inaccurate GC-1 and/or GC-1 Addendum forms
• Missing personnel information in HEPPS for PI (when PI is transferring institutions to UW, but hasn’t arrived on campus yet).
• Award Amount is not identical on all three: award document, NEA, GC-1 budget.
• Begin Date and/or End Date of the project is not identical on all three: award document, NEA, GC-1.

• Correct an error in the name of the Principal Investigator.
• Change Organization Code or Campus Box Number
• Changes to the Indirect Cost Rate require an NEA from Office of Sponsored Programs.
• Begin Date or End Date Correction.

If FIN Screen 4 and the NEA agree, then a date change requires a new NEA. Contact Office of Sponsored Programs osp@u.washington.edu.

If FIN screen 4 is different from the NEA, please inform the GCA Team assigned to your school or college.

• Setting up a sub-account

Review the FIN Screen 5 entries for accuracy

• To have corrections made, see instructions for re-budgeting.
• To correct the amount of the indirect cost encumbrance, contact your GCA team for assistance.

Supporting Documents

GC-1 – Request for Approval of Application for Grant or Contract
TRANSPASU – Transactions/Parent/Sub Form for setting up a sub-account.

Rules and Regulations:

GIM 1--A Guide for the Preparation of Grant and Contract Proposals
GIM 34--Guidelines for Classification of Gifts, Grants, Contracts
Administrative Policy Statement 36.2 - Gift Processing Guidelines

Grant and Contract Accounting
A Department of Financial Management
gcaques@u.washington.edu
Modified: March 15, 2006