Description

Key Business Questions

Use this dashboard to answer questions like:

• Which of my awards in PERIS have corresponding activated financial accounts?

• How long have my awards been awaiting budget activation?

• How do I find out the status of an award? What is the current status of my project activation requests?

• What is the current status of my subaccount requests? How can I find out if my subaccounts were pre-approved?

• Have my subaccount recipients reallocated their budgets into appropriate subcode categories?

• What is the current available budget (by subcode) in my projects?

• Which of my projects are subject to indirect cost exclusions? Which subcodes are included / excluded from the calculations for my projects?

Basic Usage

Several dashboards are included here. Each dashboard can be customized using filter options and saved for quicker access, or sent as email subscriptions delivered directly to your inbox.

Monitor Award Status

The purpose of this dashboard is to monitor the various statuses an award record can go through from its initial creation in PERIS™ MyFunding through setup of a sponsored project in the PRISM RPA system. Converted awards are not included (CNVA).  Use of the filtering options has described below and give insight to where action is needed if a project has not yet been established.

There are two Days Since counts the will continue to increment but will help you identify issues if the next step has not been completed.  

• If the Award Status is still in process (Draft, Final Review, Pending Response, Review), the Days Since Created will indicate how long it has been in process. A default View option is available: Awaiting MyFunding Activation.

• If the Award status is Active or Advance Account and the RPA Activated flag is False, then the Days since PERIS Activated will indicate how long it is waiting for the RPA activation. A default View option is available: Awaiting SPA Activation.

Click on a specific AWD record to display links to open the award or proposal in MyFunding. You must have the necessary role/security assigned within the MyFunding record to open.

Filter options include:

• School/RC: Unit responsible for the award/proposal creation in MyFunding

• Department: Department code and name responsible for the award/proposal creation in MyFunding

• Direct Sponsor Name: direct sponsor assigned in MyFunding

• RPA Activated? Select only awards with a Project Number in RPA (True); only awards that have no accompanying Project Number in RPA (False); or both

• Award Status as assigned in MyFunding

• Award Created in PERIS is the date the Award was created in the MyFunding. Use the slider to change the range, or click on the date to pull up the date picker calendar.

• Principal Investigator: only one person can be designated as PI for an award.

• Award ID: to select or search for a specific Award by MyFunding Id

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Proposal Budget Details

The purpose of this dashboard is to provide a view of awarded proposals where more than one budget was created during the proposal process.  This is the first indicator that subaccounts were pre-planned/pre-approved for the subsequent subaccount requests.  The dollars shown are what was proposed and not necessarily the Awarded amount.

Filter options include:

• School/RC: Unit responsible for the award/proposal creation in MyFunding

• Department: Department code and name responsible for the award/proposal creation in MyFunding

• Award Created Date is the date the Award was created in the MyFunding. Use the slider to change the range, or click on the date to pull up the date picker calendar.

• Funding Source: Institution (Internal) is removed by default, those are typically for Cost Share budgets and thus not relevant in the more than one budget count search

• Award Status as assigned in MyFunding (by default, Active and Advance Account are selected as those statuses indicate the award was sent to RPA for activation)

• Awards with >1 Budget: Show awards with multiple proposal budgets (True), awards with a single proposal budget (False), or both

• Award ID: to select or search for a specific Award by MyFunding Id

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RPA Sponsored Project Activations

This dashboard will display all newly created sponsored projects in RPA based on the RPA activation date. It mimics the current RPA Account Activation view that users must log into PRISM to view and download.  It will include all activations as of the previous day. In a small number of cases, the RPA activation date may not be updated if a modification request is for very limited project data such as a date extension only.

For this view, when you download the data, using the download button, there are additional columns of data available that are not displayed.

Click on a specific project record to display a links to 'Display Current Budget Details.'  This will display the current budget amounts posted to the General Ledger as of the day before.  This is important to remember as SPA does not post the new activation budget entries until the next morning after activations is confirmed.  Thus, for the projects created yesterday, budgets will not show here until the next day.

Filtering options include:

• Continuation Code (assigned in RPA)

  • Add to existing project: continuation updates the existing project number

  • New project number: activation is for a brand new award/new project number

  • New project number created: a continuation that requires a new project number be created

• Billing Code: RPA billing ID (same as master project number)

• Agency Name: Direct sponsor assigned in RPA

• Funding Source: source of funds based on the direct sponsor and fund type. Any dollars the University receives as a subaward where the Prime sponsor is the Federal government are indicated as Federal Pass Through. Tracking for pass through funds not received from the Federal Government is currently available in RPA.

• Activation Date: when the project was activated in RPA; use the slider or simply click on the date and the calendar will open to select a new date

• School/RC: Unit responsible for the award/proposal creation in MyFunding

• Department: Department code and name responsible for the award/proposal creation in MyFunding

• PI Name: Principal Investigator listed on the Award (only one person can be designated as PI in PERIS MyFunding)

• Project Code: RPA project number

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Subaccount Status Request

Use this dashboard to review the status of subaccount requests processed within the PRISM RPA system. There are several possible steps in the approval workflow, which are displayed on the table (Request Status) or can be filtered using the drop-down menus on the right of the screen:

• New: request created but not yet submitted to the designated approver

• Request Submitted: submitted for Department/RC approval

• Department Approved: approved and awaiting SPA approval

• Department Rejected: rejected by Department/RC approver; sent back to requestor

• SPA Approved: subaccount project(s) activated the next business day

• SPA Rejected: sent back to requestor

Users can create, save, and subscribe to custom views, to, for example, keep tabs on all requests awaiting Department/RC approval.

Additional filter options include:

• Requestor: name of the person who initiated the request in RPA

• Master RC: Responsibility Center assigned to the master project

• Master Dept: Department assigned to the master project

• Master Project ID: RPA master project number (same as Billing ID)

• Agency Name: Direct sponsor assigned in RPA

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Budget Allocations

This dashboard displays sponsored project budget allocations for active projects that have Award End Dates that are no more than 12 months old. By default, the view will show any Project that has more than $0 budget allocated to the 8130 subcode. This setup allows users to verify that proper budget allocation has been completed after the initial setup or addition of funds from the sponsor (award modification / continuation). Use additional filter options to review details about current budget balances.

Filter options include:

• Project End Date: RPA project end date

• Award End Date: RPA award end date; use this filter in combination with project end date to identify awards where a continuation is expected

• Master Project Dept Code: department assigned to the master project

• Project Dept Code: department assigned to the project (this would include subaccounts and independents)

• Master Project RC Code: Responsibility Center assigned to the master project

• Project Status as indicated in RPA (not linked to dates): Active (A) or Inactive (I)

• Subcode: the dashboard will show all budget details for any project that has a non-zero balance for any of the subcodes selected in this filter.

• Project Code: find a specific Project Number (including subs and independents)

• Master Project Code: master project number

• Subcodes with Negative Balance: use this filter to show only subcodes with negative balances (True); subcodes with $0 or positive balances (False), or both

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Budget Transaction Details

Use this dashboard to review research budget transactions initiated by departments, by SPA, or by the automated RPA project activation process.

By default, the view shows records with journal category of BMR-Dept Research, which are entries created by departments through the online research Budget Modification Request (BMR) application. For those entries, the journal name includes the user’s HR Department, their initials, and the date the entry was created. Use the GL Category Name drop-down filter to view Budget Modification Requests entered by SPA with RPA (BMR-Research); or initial budget setup entries from an RPA activation (Budget).

Use the filter options to review data:

• GL Period: GL period to which the entry was posted

• Posted Date: Date of GL post (this can cross periods)

• Project Number: this would include subs and independents

• Master Project Number: same as the billing ID

• GL Category Name - Default value is BMR-Dept Research

  • BMR-Dept Research - Entries created by departments in the on-line research BMR application

  • BMR-Research: BMRs entered by SPA within RPA

  • Budget: Initial budget setup entry from RPA activation

• Batch Name: GL journal batch name (shown on current level reports)

• Journal Name: GL journal name (there can be multiple journals within a batch). For Department initiated BMRs, the journal name includes the user's HR Department, their initials and the date the entry was created

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Non-Standard MTDC

Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) are the total costs that can be directly identified to a sponsored activity less certain categories of direct costs that are excluded for purposes of application of indirect or overhead costs. The University is required to exclude certain categories of costs, by fund accounting entity, for purposes of overhead application to be compliant with Office of Management and Budget. This dashboard shows all active projects that do not follow the MTDC standard subcode rules for indirect cost calculations, along with relevant subcode inclusion/exclusions, based on one of three cost methods:

For Cost Method 1 projects, the University has established a standard list of subcodes that are included and excluded in the calculations.  The subcode information can be found on the CFOs website and is also displayed in the Grants Forecasting application.  In some cases, there can be additional exclusions setup in RPA for Method 1 projects.  If SPA has setup additional exclusions, they will be listed here.

For Cost Method 3 projects, all subcodes are included in the calculation except those listed here.  If a project is setup as cost method 3 and does not have any exclusions rules, it will not be listed here.

For Cost Method 5 projects, all subcodes are excluded in the calculation except those listed here. If a project is setup as cost method 5 and does not have any inclusions rules, it will not be listed here.

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What is the source of this information?

These dashboards brings together data from PERIS MyFunding (Pitt Electronic Research Information System) and different sections of PRISM (Pitt’s Real-time Integrated Solution for Management) Financial system, including the General Ledger and Research Accounting Project (RPA) modules. Data are transformed and loaded into the University’s Data Warehouse, and subsequently synced with the Tableau Server each morning, so data entered into systems today will not be reflected in dashboards until the next business day. Refresh dates are published on each dashboard for reference.

How do I get access?

Access to these dashboards is granted through your Financial Approver. Use the following link to https://services.pitt.edu/TDClient/33/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=427