Monitoring Expenditures

The Principal Investigator (PI) is accountable for project expenditures and must approve all of the charges processed against an award. The RF Report Center PI Dashboard allows the PI (or key personnel on the project) to view award expenditure information quickly and easily and provides both summary and detailed financial information on an award. It provides information related to:

• account balances
• cash receipts
• vendor encumbrances and payments, and indicates which checks have been reconciled
• personnel activity, listing individuals who are being paid and their status on the award.

Award balances and other information will be representative of data in the Oracle Business system as of the previous day.

Access to the RF Report Center PI Dashboard is automatic for PIs. A PI may choose to delegate access to their award information by completing the RF User Access Form and submitting it to Lisa Gatti. The PI can also designate access to key members of the project staff and customize their access to only view portions of the information. For example, one staff member may be permitted access to accounts payable and purchasing information, but not to personnel information. Or, a staff member may be allowed access to a project but not to the associated award. For more information about accessing these tools, please contact your Grants Management Administrator, Lisa Gatti at gattila@buffalostate.edu.

Award type, funding source, and program requirements are all considerations in determining the amount of flexibility that is permitted between cost categories on the award. They also help to determine how to proceed in the event that a budget needs to be modified. In most cases, sponsor approval is required to substantially change the approved budget. All budget changes must be approved by the SPO Grants Management Department prior to contacting the funding agency. Your grants management administrator should be contacted for questions related to managing the approved budget and for guidelines related to formal budget modifications. There are deadlines for most sponsors.

The Research Foundation (RF) has overall fiduciary responsibility for all externally funded sponsored programs, therefore Sponsored Programs Operations (SPO) Grants Management Department also monitors the expenditures on the award. This helps to ensure that all charges are being recorded accurately and timely, and that they comply with federal, state, funding agency and RF requirements.