Step 1: New Fund Request

When a new award is received, a separate fund will need to be established in order to properly account for and report on the award activity. A new fund request must be submitted through the online Fund Maintenance System, which can be found on the WebRaider portal, F&A Work Tools tab. A system navigation document (New Fund Request Information) can also be found on WebRaider.

Funds are considered restricted if the outside party providing the funds places restrictions on how the funds can be spent. All restricted awards, grants and contracts are set up in Banner as multi-year funds (ex. 21Z, 24Z). Restricted gifts, endowment earnings, and cost share funds are set up as fiscal year funds (ex. 18, 24). Listed below are a few ways to describe how multi-year funds differ from fiscal year funds:

    1. Multi-year reporting is based on inception to date rather than fiscal year.
    2. Transactions populate the grant ledger in Banner for multi-year funds.
    3. For multi-year funds, the budget is entered at the beginning of the award and the available budget rolls forward each fiscal year rather than requiring a new budget via budget prep each fiscal year (like fiscal year funds).

The fund represents where the sponsored funds are coming from. It is a self-balancing set of Accounts that shows ownership of cash or fund balance.

The organization represents who is responsible for managing the project. It is the budgetary or departmental unit. The department must determine which orgn code to associate with the new grant fund.

The program represents why TTUHSC was provided the funding. It is the NACUBO function classification. The department must review the work/purpose of the grant and determine the appropriate program code for the new grant fund. For reporting purposes, research or public service may not be co-mingled with other programs. Below are descriptions of the three primary program codes used with grant funds:

  1. Instruction (10) - includes expenses for all activities that are part of an institution’s instruction program.
  2. Research (20) - includes all expenses for activities specifically organized to produce research, whether commissioned by an agency external to the institution or separately budgeted by an organizational unit within the institution. Research is the systematic study directed toward fuller scientific knowledge or understanding of the subject studied.
  3. Public Service (30) - includes expenses for activities established primarily to provide non-instructional services beneficial to individuals and groups external to the institution.

Research Attributes

If the research program code is selected, several research attributes will need to be populated in order to fulfill various research reporting requirements. Below are the research attributes that will need to be carefully reviewed and selected:

THECB Research Types

    1. Medical Sciences are concerned with causes, effects, prevention, or control of abnormal conditions in man or his environment as they relate to health. Examples are clinical medical sciences, internal medicine, neurology, surgery, etc.
    2. Biological Sciences are those life sciences that deal with origin, development, structure, function, and interaction of living things. Examples are biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, etc.
    3. Education includes research related to any aspect of education. This includes elementary, secondary, and higher education, educational policy, education administration, etc.
    4. Evaluation qualifies as research when it is part of a specific research undertaking. Evaluation conducted separately from a research project is considered research when it involves scientific method and hypothesis testing procedures with fairly rigorous standards.
    5. Areas of Special Interest are intended to provide information on expenditures in areas of special interest to the public. Current areas are Aging, Aids, Cancer, Cardiovascular, Child Health and Human Development, Diabetes, Health Disparity, Hispanic/Border Health, Human Stem Cells-Adult, Human Stem Cells-Embryonic, Mental Health, Obesity, Rural Health, and Other. A fund may have more than one type of special interest.

NSF Research Types

    1. Basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without a particular application or use in view.
    2. Applied research is original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge. It is directed primarily towards a specific, practical aim or objective.
    3. Development is systematic work, drawing knowledge gained from research and practical experience and producing additional knowledge, which is directed to producing new products or processes or to improving existing products or processes.

The department may select any person as fund manager but the fund manager should have a basic knowledge of accounting and exhibit basic management skills. Fund managers are responsible for the financial and operational management of their funds. The Fund Manager and the Principal Investigator (PI)/Program Manager (PM) are primarily responsible for the management of the grant fund and compliance with all applicable laws/regulations. Please refer to HSC OP 50.03 for more detail.

A new fund may be requested once award document or executed contract is received.

    1. The subsequent year fund of existing grant may be set up if the award or executed subcontract have not been received yet, as long as OSP confirms that the next year award is forthcoming. If for some reason it is not received, the department must cover all expenditures.
      1. Only 100% of salary (and related IDC) and 20% of remaining direct budget (and related IDC) may be set up. The remainder may be budgeted once the executed award documentation is received.
      2. It is helpful to set up the new year’s fund timely to minimize labor redistributions and cost transfers (audit risk).
    2. Accounting Services requires a new fund for each budget year of a grant for reporting purposes. The only exceptions are for CPRIT and NIH grants, where all years of the grant may go into one fund. A new fund is not necessary if a no-cost extension is received.

Documentation/Information that should be attached with the New Fund Request

    1. Executed Notice of Award
    2. Sponsor approved grant budget
    3. Negotiated IDC information
    4. Any financial report due dates
    5. Grantor terms and conditions (specifically for private grants)
    6. Subcontract information if expected
    7. Cost share commitments or requirements
      1. Funding source of cost share fund
      2. Salary cap funding source (if applicable)
    8. If any important information is not provided, the new fund set up will be delayed or rejected.

Depending on the type of fund, the new fund request could be routed to Research, Office of Sponsored Programs, Student Business Services or Institutional Advancement. All new fund set ups are routed to the Orgn manager, two levels within Accounting Services and Financial Systems Management (FSM) as the final approver.

>> Step 2: Award Budget
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