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Your award is set up and you received the chartstring(s).

SPA is pleased to be able to offer an Award Kickoff meeting as follows:

• What happens at an Award Kick-off meeting:
  • The team gets together: SPA staff (RA, FA, and others as applicable), department research administrators (DRAs) and, wherever possible, the Principal Investigator.
  • Discuss the terms and conditions of the grant award
  • Review reporting requirements
  • Review subrecipient monitoring
  • Review prior approvals (carryover, no-cost extensions)
  • Review Roles and Responsibilities of each teammate
  • With the team now on the same page, we can promote and facilitate efficient and effective grant management.

Department Initiated Award Kickoff Meeting

Departments should consider arranging kickoff meetings if they have concerns about managing the award, and/or have faculty or administrative staff new to sponsored project management.

Departments can request kickoff meetings by contacting spa@uvm.edu. Please indicate if you want us to focus on a particular topic.

SPA Initiated Award Kickoff Meeting

SPA may initiate a kickoff meeting when special circumstances warrant one (e.g. multi-year, multi-department, multiple and/or complex subawards, complex cost-sharing, and unusual billing terms).

In situations where SPA would like to request an Award Kickoff meeting, Schuyler Dunn, SPA Operations and Office Support Specialist, will reach out to the assigned department administrator with a meeting request and for help coordinating attendance.

Each award has unique terms and conditions and the best way to manage an award is to understand the requirements. Please read through your federal or non-federal award and become familiar with the conditions, paying attention to the period of performance, budget, reporting and deliverable requirements.

•  and the 

Below our links to common federal sponsor grant policy websites.

Refer to Issuing and Monitoring Outgoing Subawards

Refer to this page for information on Cost Allocation to Sponsored Projects.

Refer to this page for information on Spending Near End of Award Period.

All charges to sponsored projects must be reasonable, necessary for the performance of the project, and allocated appropriately to any project that benefits from the charge.

• Refer to Reasonable, Allocable, Allowable Costs, Examples, FAQs
• Refer to SPA Financial Management

NIH began providing childcare support to recipients of full-time NRSA individual fellowships in April 2021 and to full-time pre and postdoc fellows appointed on NRSA institutional awards in September 2021.

Beginning in FY25, NIH will provide childcare costs to individuals supported under the F99 Phase only of a F99/00 Predoc to Postdoc transition award. See the full Guide Notice at NOT-OD-25-008.

NRSA and F99 Fellows can receive up to $3,000 per 12-month budget period for costs for childcare provided by a licensed childcare provider.

For more details about budgeting see the NIH resource pages at: , and .

For the Pre/Postdocs to be reimbursed, please follow the 

Charging of expenditures to the correct account code is one of the best ways to ensure compliance with award conditions. ¶¶Òõ̽̽s account codes are available with descriptions at:

• Refer to ¶¶Òõ̽̽'s Chart of Accounts: 
• Click  the accordion, Chatfield Value List, then Account (Excel).  An excel spreadsheet appears and under the Expense Tab you will find account codes and a description for use.

For awards supported with federal funds some costs are considered normally indirect and under certain circumstances may be approved as a direct cost.

• Requesting a Normally Indirect Cost be allowed as a Direct Cost

Refer to this page for information about Fly America Act and International Travel Guidance.

Refer to this page for information on Participant Support Costs (excluding training grants).

Refer to this page for information on Meals, Refreshments and Food Related items Charged to Sponsored Projects.

Refer to this page for information on Cost Sharing Commitments. 

Refer to this page for information on Administrative and Clerical Salaries as a Direct Cost. 

Refer to this page for information on Financial Management Roles and Responsibilities.

Refer to this page for information on PeopleSoft Tools and Best Practices. 

Designed specifically for Investigators and research administrators who need fiscal information quickly and easily to help answer questions such as:

• How much money do I have left to spend?
• Can I hire another lab tech or graduate student this summer?
• Will I have Carryforward?
• Will I have funds available for a No Cost Extension?

PI Portal

It is expected that Principal Investigators and key personnel meet their respective effort commitments on all sponsored agreements as proposed and awarded. PIs must report and certify effort as required by ¶¶Òõ̽̽ policy. 

• Refer to: Effort Management and Reporting Office

Principal Investigators are responsible for on time submission of annual and final technical progress reports. SPA is responsible for preparing invoices and delivering on-time financial reports. Reporting requirements are usually described in the award document.

Federal RPPR - Research Performance Progress Report

Inventions developed in whole or in part from sponsored project funding must be disclosed promptly to   to ensure protections and ¶¶Òõ̽̽ meets its obligations to sponsors.

Refer to this page for information on Carryforward Requests.

To help manage your grant from NSF, NIH, NIFA, Energy, NASA, and Commerce, handy is maintained that clearly identifies what prior approvals have been waived or retained.
Refer to the following procedures for the following:

• Post Award Budget Change Requests
• Prior Approval Procedures
• Carryover of Unobligated Balances
• No Cost Extension
• Cost Transfers involving Sponsored Agreements

When sponsored agreements are entered into PeopleSoft, the entire awarded budget becomes immediately available for spending.  The Principal Investigator (PI) with assistance from his or her unit administrators (UA) may begin posting expenses up to the total authorized amount.  It is important to keep in mind, however, that the University essentially advances funds to each sponsored project until reimbursement from the funding organization is received. 

In order for billing to commence, ¶¶Òõ̽̽ must first receive an award document from the sponsoring organization.  The agreement must be accepted by the University, and the project must get established in PeopleSoft.  Awards that are set up prior to award receipt (Advance Accounts) remain on hold for billing until the authorization is received and processed by SPA.

Contract Types

Sponsored projects can be grouped into three major categories – (1) cost reimbursable, (2) fixed price, and (3) fixed rate agreements.  Cost reimbursable agreements are paid based on actual allowable costs incurred up to the total awarded amount.  Fixed price agreements are reimbursed based on programmatic work completed regardless of actual expenses.  Fixed rate agreements are most commonly known as clinical trial awards where reimbursement occurs on a fixed amount per unit of measure (e.g. study participants, tissue or blood samples, office visits, completed surveys, etc.).  Any unspent balance on a fixed price and fixed rate agreements is subject to

Billing Methods

SPA’s Cash Management team bears the primary responsibility for all sponsored billing and accounts receivables activities, which are done through ¶¶Òõ̽̽’s financial system of record PeopleSoft.  Reimbursement requests must adhere to the terms and conditions, which are outlined in every agreement.  There are two primary methods for requesting reimbursements.

1. Letter of Credit (LOC) Draws

LOC draws, which are performed for the majority of federal agreements, are by far the most efficient and least burdensome way of requesting payments.  Utilized by federal agencies only at this time, this method allows grantees to request a reimbursement for multiple awards funded by the same agency via one transaction.  Drawdowns are performed either once or twice per month for each federal agency.  Once the draw request is submitted, the University is reimbursed within a day or two, with funds being transferred via Automated Clearing House (ACH) into ¶¶Òõ̽̽’s bank account.  LOC draws do not typically require any follow-up or collections activities.

2. Paper Billing

This method of billing requires an actual invoice, which gets submitted either electronically or via mail to the sponsor along with any required back-up documentation.  PeopleSoft has a batch billing functionality, which allows to create and print multiple invoices at the same time.  Depending on the terms of the agreement, invoices can represent costs incurred grouped by cost category (cost reimbursable invoices) or grant deliverables completed (milestone based invoices).  SPA’s AR Specialist follows up at least monthly on all receivables older than 60-90 days.  At times, SPA may require assistance from PIs and unit administrators to help us secure payments; however, this doesn’t happen often.

Cost reimbursable awards can only be billed after expenses have posted in PeopleSoft, which may result in a time lag between when the award is first set up and when the initial invoice is created.  Milestone based payments are requested once the deliverables outlined in the agreement have been completed.  SPA staff will contact unit administrators or PIs to confirm deliverables’ completion prior to issuing such invoices.

Negotiating Invoicing/Billing Terms with Sponsors

During the negotiation period, SPA Award Acceptance Officers review and, if necessary, negotiate invoicing terms with sponsors.  The goal is to increase efficiency and reduce the administrative burden on central offices, departments, and PIs.  Examples of burdensome invoicing terms include requirements to submit receipts, progress reports and other types of back-up with each invoice; reclassify costs in a way different than how they are grouped in PeopleSoft; create invoices on sponsor specific (rather than ¶¶Òõ̽̽ standard) templates.  SPA may require assistance from PIs and unit administrators to collect back-up, reclassify costs, coordinate invoice and progress report submission.

How to View Invoices Submitted to Sponsors

All invoices submitted to sponsors can be located in the PI Portal, Financial Documents tab.

For more information and for any billing/accounts receivable questions, please contact SPA’s Sponsored Revenue and Cash Management Team.

View More Information on Financial Management

¶¶Òõ̽̽ is subject to financial audits, including those performed by internal, external, state and federal audit offices. This document describes the various types of audits of sponsored awards and the associated roles and responsibilities.  The terms of the award dictate the requirement for and what type of audit may be necessary. Federal and federal pass-through awards are included in the annual Single Audit mandated by Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 Subpart F. In addition, individual sponsors may require further reviews such as desk reviews of selected invoices or site visits.

Primary management of all audits, desk reviews and site visits connected with sponsored awards resides with SPA Compliance Analyst.

Guidelines for being Audit and Site Visit Ready

• Create and maintain documented Internal Controls.  Auditors want to see that you have procedures documented and that the project staff follows them.
• Ensure that all purchase receipts and supporting documentation are in one place and can be linked to the expense transaction.
• Ensure that each expense transaction can stand alone. This means that anyone can read the documentation and confirm that it is reasonable, allowable, allocable, and consistently treated.
• Be prepared to describe how specific expense transactions are tied to the program objectives.
• Keep organized and complete accounting, contract, and project files.
• Ensure that all Cost Transfers are documented. 
• Ensure that bids and consultant contracts are on file in the appropriate place.
• Keep a list of personnel authorized to approve expenses.
• Resolve issues when they arise, do not wait for an audit or Award end.

Best Practices in an Audit

• Contact the SPA Compliance Analyst Angie Leahey at angie.leahey@uvm.edu, if you or your department are notified of an audit or contacted by an Auditor.
• Be prompt in responding to requests from SPA Compliance Analyst.
• Keep original documentation on site; Auditors can have copies if they want to retain any documentation.
• Only provide information that is asked for, do not elaborate.
• Do not include office politics or other departmental issues in the response.
• Only answer questions you know the answer to; do not hesitate to defer.
• Do not return any documentation to archive/off-site storage until the audit has been resolved.

Please see

History

All Federal agencies are required to perform an audit on their recipients.  This became a burden and it was decided that a single audit can be completed for all recipients to be used by all Federal agencies.  In 1984 OMB Circular A-128 implemented the Single Audit Act for States, local governments and Indian Tribes.  In 1990 OMB Circular A-133 was issued where the Single Audit Act was expanded to cover non-profit organizations including Institutes of Higher Education (IHEs) who expanded over a specified dollar threshold.

With the issuance of the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200) in December 2014, the Single Audit Act provisions were rolled into the Uniform Guidance at . 

Information on the Single Audit can be found in the .

A Single Audit

A Single Audit must be completed on all recipients who expend $750,000 or more in federal funds in the recipient’s fiscal year. 

Audits must be performed in accordance with GAGAS (Generally Accepted Governmental Auditing Standards) by an independent auditor.

A Single Audit does NOT prohibit federal agencies from conducting their own audit of a recipient, a specific award, or a program. 

An Audit includes a review of the following:

Financial statements. The auditor must determine whether the financial statements of the auditee are presented fairly in all material respects in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Internal control. Using the Compliance Supplement (see below), a review is made on internal controls over Federal programs based upon the guidance in Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and the Internal Control—Integrated Framework, issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

Compliance. The auditor must determine whether the auditee has complied with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of Federal awards that may have a direct and material effect on each of its major programs.

Risk Assessment

To ensure transparency and allow for risk assessments, the Single Audit must be published in the Federal audit clearinghouse web site.  Federal agencies as well as prime recipients (flow through) use the results of the Single Audit to assist in assessing risk.  The risk assessment will determine the level of control the Federal agency believes is necessary to ensure the recipient is compliant with the award and Federal agency terms and conditions. The higher the risk the greater the level of oversight and controls imposed by the Federal agency.  

SPA Compliance Office uses the Single Audit information to perform a risk assessment on all sub-recipients.

¶¶Òõ̽̽ Single Audit

At ¶¶Òõ̽̽, the annual single audit typically includes reviewing Research and Development R&D Financial Assistance.  Expenditures on sponsored projects as well as internal controls that govern sponsored project administration are reviewed as part of this audit.

Compliance Supplement

The Compliance Supplement is published annually by the OMB.  It provides instructions to the auditor on what and how to conduct the audit.  It identifies existing important compliance requirements that the Federal Government expects to be considered as part of an audit.

The Compliance Supplement also provides a source of information for auditors to understand the Federal program’s objectives, procedures, and compliance requirements relevant to the audit as well as audit objectives and suggested audit procedures for determining compliance with these requirements.

The focus of the Compliance Supplement is on compliance requirements that could have a direct and material effect on a major program.

Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards (SEFA)

Recipient entity must prepare a SEFA which lists all Awards (direct and flow-through) by their Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number.  The expenses reported in the SEFA are used by the auditors to apply the risk-based approach required by and detailed in the current Compliance Supplement to select specific programs and awards for auditing and testing. 

For information on roles and responsibilities and the process flow, please see