Frequently Asked Questions - Award Budget and Setup

Existing awards converted to the new system have as many activities (funding periods) as determined in the CF1/CF2 attributing task done in early in 2014. If the converted award has only one funding period, it will have an activity of 01. If there is more than one activity associated with the project, there will be more Activity IDs.

To access the Project Activity status:

• Access the RA Grants WorkCenter in BFS
• Click the Report/Queries tab
• Click the Project Activity link under 'Award Information'

Create a CF1 with the attribute "Non-C&G Attribute" for use with internal tracking (i.e., not important for sponsor reporting). This CF1+attribute will not interfere with tracking cost share, fabrication, etc., and will not create a project value in BFS. Please be sure to add a line with zero dollars in the budget upload - this will enable CGA to add the CF1 to the mapping table.

For example: You just received the Phoebe Award Summary, but the awarded amount is substantially different from the original proposal and it will take more than two business days to revise your spending plan.

CGA cannot complete award setup in BFS without a budget, as the consequence of a delay in budget submission is a delay in activating the award fund to initiate spending.

Please take the time you need to submit an accurate budget to CGA, and if the budget is correct, spending can begin two business days after submission.

Total Costs for a sponsored award typically include both Direct Costs and Indirect Costs.

Direct Costs include:

• Instruction
• Sponsored Research
• Other Sponsored Activities
• Other Institutional Activities

Please refer to Direct Costs for more information.

Indirect Costs include:

• Building Use Allowance
• Equipment Use Allowance/Depreciation
• Operation and Maintenance
• General Administration
• Department Administration
• Sponsored Project Administration
• Library
• Student Administration

Please refer to the What are F&A Costs? page for more information.

When an agency will not pay benefits, a department can charge them to a different source after the fact. The procedure for doing so is as follows:

• Payroll should be set up and charged as usual
• The Dept/Account/Fund/Chartfield1/Chartfield2 for benefits should be identified
• SPO set-up documentation should indicate that benefits are to be charged to a different Dept/Account/Fund/Chartfield1/Chartfield2 and identify what that Dept/Account/Fund/Chartfield1/Chartfield2 is
• CGA will invoice everything except the benefits

A formal contract is an agreement between the university (signed by the Sponsored Projects Office (SPO)) and a funding organization or subaward recipient. The agreement documents the terms and conditions of the award and is essential for its financial administration as it defines allowable costs, overhead rates, payment terms, etc.

When a contract is signed, SPO sends a Phoebe Award Summary email to the Principal Investigator named on the award. Spending on the award may begin once the budget is set up in the Berkeley Financial System (BFS).

Please email CGA to request the additional CF1 values at CGAawards@berkeley.edu.

Although both CF1 and CF2 can map to a project in BFS, the best practice is to use CF1 to track Fabrication, as well as Task/Deliverable. Use CF2 to track PI/Faculty.

At this time, the CGA analyst will create a description based on the chartfiled combinations that indicate a new project should be created. For example:

• Additional PI
  • Award number 2nd PI Last Name
    • Example: 123456 2nd PI Sailor
• Different Task
  • Award number Task 1 PI Last Name if applicable
    • Example: 123456 Task 1 Sailor
• Fabrication
  • Award number FAB Plant Fund number
    • Example: 123456 FAB 12345
• F&A
  • Award number F&A Rate 1
    • Example: 123456 F&A Rate 1

Currently we are unable to include a description field in the budget template. We are researching how this might be accomplished.

When a budget is submitted, the CGA analyst begins by looking at the chartstrings to determine whether they are free from errors, and that all the costing elements of the award (subawards, cost sharing, funding periods, etc.) are represented in the budget. Then, based on the mapping between the CF1 and CF2 Ccartfields with the PC chartfields, each chartstring is assigned a Project and Activity ID.

There are a set of funds that the budget office refers to as Contracts and Grant funds. These funds include federal appropriation funds and financial aid funds. These two fund groups are not managed by CGA and so are not in scope for the C&G project. For all sponsored award funds managed by CGA, the departments will use the TempBudg for all budget transactions hitting fiscal year 2014 and earlier. To access the funds list, please refer to the combo edit rule for the C&G funds and it will show what nodes on the EFA_FUND tree are considered CGA funds.

The TempBudg will no longer be used for budget transactions for sponsored award funds starting in Fiscal Year 2015 and later. This means that any transactions posted to the June 2014 and earlier accounting periods (even if they were posted in July) will use the TempBudg, and any transactions being posted to the July 2014 and later accounting periods will use the Commitment Control ledger (KK).

TempBudg entries can be uploaded via the journal import process and online via the journal entry pages. Commitment Control entries can only be uploaded through the Budget Import process.