After an award is made, the Principal Investigator/Project Director or an assigned Budget Manager is responsible for tracking the sponsored project expenses and budget. The individual in charge of tracking the budget will document award expenses on an ongoing basis and will reconcile their records with the official financial records (General Ledger) of the university.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of financial aspects related to sponsored projects; for a complete guide on managing your award, please download our Sponsored Project Handbook Part II: Award Management.
The PI/PD, with oversight by the Activity Manager, is responsible for spending the funds as proposed by the sponsor in adherence to the sponsor and university policies. All purchases within ProcureSU are also reviewed for allowability, allocability and reasonableness by the Grant Accountant prior to approval.
When the purpose of the purchase is not obvious, include a comment about how the purchase benefits the grant project. This will help expedite approvals for payment and help when documents are reviewed for audit.
Please see review the Procurement Thresholds in the below section for further details.
To ensure that the university continues to obtain goods and services at the best value, the following methods of competitive bidding are required for all new contracts or non-contracted purchases. If assistance is needed, it is recommended to engage the Procurement Department early in the bidding process. Note: Sponsored Project procurement thresholds are different from general SU procurement thresholds.
| Dollar Amount | Bidding Requirements | Bidding Process |
|---|---|---|
| $0 - $3,000 | verbal quote required | If pricing is considered reasonable, there is no requirement to solicit a competitive quote/proposal. |
| $3,001 - $50,000 | 2 written quotes required | Obtain a quote/proposal from at least 2 qualified sources for supplies or services. Include documentation from both sources with the requisition. |
| $50,001 - $150,000 | 3 written quotes required | Obtain a quote/proposal from at least 2 qualified sources for supplies or services. Include documentation from both sources with the requisition. |
| over $150,000 | RFP/RFQ competitive proposals | The University will evaluate the proposals received and award the contract to the responsible firm whose proposal is most advantageous to the program, with service levels, price and other factors considered. |
| Sole Source | If only one source is qualified to provide the goods and services, it is an emergency purchase or required by a federal awarding agency, the purchase may be made without competition. The Sole Source Justification form must be completed. |
Cost sharing is any project cost that is not reimbursed by the sponsor to support the scope of work defined by the sponsored award. Cost sharing, also known as “matching funds” or “in-kind support”, is funded by Seattle University or a third-party, which is generally a non-federal resource.
Cost-share requirements are determined in the proposal stage and if included in a proposal and subsequent award, cost-share will be held to the same standards as the sponsor funded award in regards to personnel, purchasing, prior approvals, tracking, reporting, and spending down. All committed cost sharing must be tracked and may require reporting.
Seattle University’s policy is to charge the federally negotiated indirect rate to all publicly-funded sponsored projects. Privately-funded grant indirect costs are charged at the accepted rate of the sponsor, as negotiated by the Director of the Office of Sponsored Projects at the time of the proposal submission.
Indirect costs include the facilities and administrative costs that are not easily assigned to specific projects such as physical building space, utilities, technological services, minor office supplies and printing, and administrative staff of the department and university, among other real costs. Please review the SU Indirect Policy for more information. When an indirect or administrative rate are charged to a grant, the items considered indirect costs cannot be directly charged to the award.
The Grant Accountant will charge indirects, based on your expenses, to your budget at the end of each month.
The PI, with support from their Activity Manager, is responsible for spending their sponsored project funds and associated cost share (if applicable) at the rate proposed in the project’s plan. Good communication and timely review of financial information by both the PI and Activity Manager will help avoid spending spikes, address potential audit questions, and facilitate close-out of the award.
Activity Managers should work with their PIs to develop a spending plan for a controlled spend of the award dollars to avoid a spike of spending toward the end of the award period due to inadequate financial planning. Spending spikes not only pose an audit risk, but often result in unallowable costs that require transfer off of the award.
See sections 4.8 Budget Tracking, 4.9 Budget Reconciliation, and 4.11 Financial Reporting Tools of the for best practices on how to be fiscally responsible and avoid spending spikes.
Please contact OSP to request a budget tracking and mapping tool to assist in financial planning.
Budget tracking maintains an up-to-date record of your grant's expenses and remaining balance for project planning purposes. Each purchase should be recorded, documentated, and reconciled with SU’s General Ledger on a monthly basis by the grant's Activity Manager. This will help you determine if a re-budget or no cost extension is necessary.
OSP can provide a budget tracking template for each new award and SROs are available to work with the grant's Budget Manager to set-up the spreadsheet and discuss best practices. Please contact OSP for the budget tracking and mapping template.
Purpose: to ensure your records match with the official institutional records. By tracking expenses and reconciling on a monthly basis, you can identify mistaken charges, anticipated charges that are missing from the university’s official record, or capture charges missed from your records.
Monthly: At the end of each month's financial close (approximately 2-3 weeks after the end of each month), the Controller's Office will send an email to all Activity Managers announcing the close of the month. At this time, the Activity Manager must reconcile their records with the controller's monthly financial report provided in InformSU.
Quarterly: After the end of each fiscal quarter while your sponsored project is active, the Grant Accountant will send a summary report of your financials comparing actuals to date with total budget, rate of spending, and project timeline complete (% of total award period already complete). This report must be signed by the sponsored project's PI/PD and budget manager certifying that the charges are correct.
If an error or unallowable cost has been discovered, the PI and Budget Manager must complete a standard Journal Entry form and an additional grant-specific Cost Transfer Justification Form to remove the unallowable cost.
JEs should only be used to correct errors and not as a mechanism to regularly shift expenses from a different account on to a sponsored project account. This is a highly discouraged situation as it can raise red flags during an audit.
Projects Accounting is a new tool specifically for sponsored projects. It is a convenient tool to review your sponsored project's financial health and is based on your project's timeline, rather than the fiscal year. It can be accessed in Self-serve at InformSU.
For more information, you can find training opportunities, videos, and resources related to financial reporting tools through EngageSU.
InformSU is the home to institutional reports and data sources, including the official financial records of Seattle University. Sponsored Project PIs and administrative staff are granted access to their sponsored projects financial reports after the post-award meeting. You can access InformSU through the MySU website.