300 Closeout of Award

301: Close of Award Responsibilities

Grant, Contract & Gift Accounting Manual
Section 300: Closeout of Award
Revised: 08/08/2003

Purpose

To facilitate the closing of awards.

Applicability

All employees.

Policy

Awards will be closed in a financially responsible manner and within the appropriate time period for closeout. All reports and documents necessary for closeout will be completed and submitted by the appropriate deadline.

Procedure

Responsible Party Action

Departmental Accounting Staff or Principal Investigator (PI)
  1. (a) At close of award, process:
  • all costs for sponsored fund and cost share fund in a timely manner. (Generally, all costs must be for services or goods received before the end date of award.)
  • All invoices quickly after the end date to meet financial reporting deadlines.
  1. (b) When requested, review final financial reports prepared by the Office of Post Award Administration and/or approve final invoice amount.
  1. Completes all project deliverables.
  2. Prepares and submits all required technical reports directly to the agency.
  3. Answers email inquiries from the Office of Post Award Administration regarding technical reports and patents.
  4. Retains all technical reports for three years following closing of award.
  5. Ensures all subcontractors have completed deliverables, all reporting obligations have been met, and that the scope of work has been completed.
  6. Completes subcontract closeout document for the Office of Post Award Administration.
  7. Ensures that any and all cost share from outside entities has been met, reported and accounted for.
  8. Retains student timecards and other documents noted in GCG 302-03: Record Retention.

Business Affairs (Office of Post Award Administration)

  1. Prepares and submits final financial report and/or invoice at or before required deadline.

  2. Coordinates submission of other closeout documents.

    These documents may include:

  • Invention Statement or Patent Report
  • Equipment Statement and request for release of accountability or physical transfer of equipment from funding agency
  • Subcontract Release and Contractor's Release
  • Cost-Sharing Report
  1. Balances the fund, verifying that: All costs incurred have been reported to the sponsor; all dollars have been received from the sponsor; any necessary adjustments have been made; and cash balance is zero.
  2. Closes the fund from future activity in FIS Banner.

302: Closeout

Grant, Contract & Gift Accounting Manual
Section 302: Closeout
Revised: 08/08/2003

Purpose

To identify the procedures for closing awards.

Applicability

All employees.

Background

The Office of Post Award Administration has designed a suggested Grants & Contract Closeout Check-off Sheet to help facilitate the closeout process. A sample of the Grant & Contract Closeout Checkoff Sheet is located on the Business Affairs website.

Definition

Closeout Date

The date that all final documents must be received by the sponsor.

Closeout Date

The period that all final documents must be processed and sent to the sponsor. For example, if it says 90 days, you will have until closing of the period following 60 days after the end date to make corrections. To allow for processing time the department should process all corrections 30 days prior to the contractual due date of reports. Remember that this information will be noted on the Award Information Sheet of the original award only. It will not be noted on the Award Information Sheet of future amendments.

Policy

The Office of Post Award Administration will identify the closeout period on the original Award Information Sheet. Departments will facilitate the closeout process in a timely manner including the processing of necessary corrections and adjustments.

Procedure

Responsible Party Action

The Office of Post Award Administration
  1. Sends email to the Principal Investigator (PI) and department accountant requesting the date the technical report was submitted and information regarding patents/inventions.

Department

  1. Facilitates the closeout process in a timely manner. This includes processing necessary corrections and adjustments.

The request for Technical Report/Patent Information is uniformly carried out for all agencies except National Science Foundation (NSF). Notice is electronically received in the Office of Post Award Administration from NSF when the technical reports are submitted. Patent reports are not required for NSF although the OSU Technology Transfer office should still be contacted for any possible patents.

Awards from DOD (Army, Air Force, ONR), Dept of Energy, or NASA requires Standard Form 298 "Report Documentation Page" when ONR has administrative authority. Even though a complete Technical Report may have been submitted to the program officer, the tech report will not be checked off as completed until the SF 298 is submitted.

  • The Office of Post Award Administration sends out the first Tech Email within 30 days after the end date of the award with a respond by date. This request for information will be sent to the:
    > Department Accountant and the PI.
  • If the first request is not received back, a second request is sent out after the original respond- date.
  • If the second request is not answered, a third request is sent out stating that the Department Head and the Dean will be notified.
  • If no response has been received, the Director of Sponsored Programs is notified.

To view a sample of the Tech Email, click on "Forms" from the Office of Post Award Administration web site and choose "Tech Email",

Closing the Grant Fund

  1. There is a button on data warehouse to help monitor awards that are ending. It is under multi-year operating ledger. The button is titled "Ending Award by Org". The query will prompt for the org number and date. It is recommended that this report be run at the beginning of each month entering the current date at the prompt, paying close attention to projects ending within the next 60 days that have a balance. Any necessary corrections and adjustments should be started at this time to facilitate the closeout process. The department should continue to monitor these awards until they show up on the terminated funds report, which is located under current operating ledger in data warehouse. Charges have been known to show up after the end date unexpectedly. Note that the report may duplicate fund numbers when there has been a change in F&A cost basis, cost share basis or Fund Financial Manager attributes, there will be lines for the activity showing the old and new data. The report will also list funds with zero balances until the grant is closed. Once the grant is closed, the fund will drop off this list. Funds with zero balances can be ignored.
  2. The report FGROPNE in Banner FIS can be run to check for open encumbrances. All encumbrances must be liquidated before indexes and funds can be terminated. (Subcontract encumbrances will be liquidated by the Office of Post Award Administration).
  3. There is a canned query in the HR Data Warehouse that can be run to check for default pay. The buttons are titled "active jobs for an index" and "active jobs for a fund". If there is still default pay set up at the time of closure, and it is a student or temporary job, the Office of Post Award Administration will fill out a labor distribution change request form moving the default pay to "ZNOPAY". If not a student or temporary job, the Office of Post Award Administration will request the department to move the default pay or terminate the employee job in HRIS, if appropriate.
  4. Departments are responsible for informing the Office of Post Award Administration of adjustments or corrections that have not posted to Banner FIS before the department's closeout deadline. This includes invoices, journal vouchers and payroll documents.
  5. If the fund has been expended in excess of the approved budget at end of closeout period, the Cost Overrun Policy will be initiated. See GCG 209-03: Grant and Contract Overrun Policy.

302-01: Closing Fixed-Price Grants

Grant, Contract & Gift Accounting Manual
Section 302: Closeout
Revised: 08/08/2003

 

Purpose

To identify the procedures for closing awards.

Applicability

All employees.

Background

The Office of Post Award Administration has designed a suggested closeout check-off sheet to help facilitate the closeout process.  A sample of the Grant & Contract Closeout Checkoff Sheet is located in the drop-down menu under "Forms" on the Business Affairs website.

Definition

Closeout Date

The date that all final documents must be received by the sponsor.

Closeout Date

The period that all final documents must be processed and sent to the sponsor. For example, if it says 90 days, you will have until closing of the period following 60 days after the end date to make corrections. To allow for processing time the department should process all corrections 30 days prior to the contractual due date of reports. Remember that this information will be noted on the Award Information Sheet of the original award only. It will not be noted on the Award Information Sheet of future amendments.

Procedure

A fixed price agreement is invoiced for a flat amount for the task or scope of work and the expenses are not subject to detailed reporting.  OSU is under Cost Accounting Standards, that state that costs will be estimated (the proposal) and incurred in the same manner.  Therefore, if there is salary in a fixed price budget, it is expected that salary will be expended on the index set up for the award.

When Oregon State University (OSU) receives a fixed-price award, the funding entity intends that it be spent for a specific project.  Once that project is completed, unless restricted by the award document, it is OSU’s policy to allow the department to retain the remaining cash for their use toward the support of departmental research.  After ensuring that all appropriate expenditures have been posted, the remaining cash is considered by OSU to be a restricted gift. Cash balances exceeding 20% of total award will require agency approval. The cash is transferred to a departmental restricted M2XXXX fund less appropriate F&A costs, if award allows F&A costs.  The Manager of the Office of Post Award Administration must be informed in writing that the fixed-price project is completed so the appropriate transfer can be made.  The appropriate M2XXXX index should be included in the request.

The end date of the fixed price agreement means the same as the end date of a cost reimbursable agreement.  This date is when the project is to be completed and the technical reports (deliverables) submitted to the sponsor. Whether OSU is allowed to bill in total or is required to invoice in detail has no bearing on the technical project.

If the project is not complete by the end date shown on the award, then a no-cost extension should be requested by the PI to the sponsor.  The sponsor needs to know how the research is progressing and when it can expect the deliverables.  If the sponsor does not require a formal amendment, the no-cost extension request can contain an agency approval signature-line.  Once signed the approval should be forwarded to the Office of Post Award Administration for input.

Assuming that the project is completed within the end date these funds should close in the same timely manner as cost reimbursable funds.

302-02: Equipment Closeout

Grant, Contract & Gift Accounting Manual
Section 302: Closeout
Revised: 08/08/2003

 

Applicability

All employees.

Procedure

Upon termination or completion of an award, a physical inventory of federally owned property must be completed.  A list of accountable property is generated by Property Management or The Office of Post Award Administration and sent to the Principal Investigator or the departmental inventory coordinator for a physical review of the equipment.  The Office of Post Award Administration will confer with the PI and ask what equipment disposition he/she may want to request from the sponsor.  Regardless of whether there is sponsor-owned property or not, the Office of Post Award Administration must send a property listing to the sponsor if required by the terms of the award document.

If the sponsoring organization releases equipment title to OSU, t he Office of Post Award Administration notifies Property Management to correct the title codes on the equipment records.  The release date is also recorded on the inventory record in place of the award number.  The PI and/or department are also notified of any release.  If the value of the released asset is below the capital threshold for OSU, Property Management will remove it from inventory and notify the owning department to add the item to their supply inventory.

The sponsor may allow accountability for equipment to be transferred to a new or continuation award.  The Office of Post Award Administration will notify Property Management to make the necessary changes (new award code and sponsor ID number) to the asset records.  Title will remain vested with the sponsor. When accountability transfers to a new award it is no longer considered contractor-acquired property, but government-furnished property.

If the disposition instructions from the sponsoring organization require that the equipment be returned to the sponsor or sent to a third party, the responsible department will handle the shipping arrangements.  A copy of the disposition instructions should be attached to a completed Property Disposition Request (PDR) and forwarded to the Office of Post Award Administration.  The Office of Post Award Administration will forward the PDR to Property Management for removal of the record from inventory.

302-03: Record Retention

Grant, Contract & Gift Accounting Manual
Section 302: Closeout
Revised: 08/08/2003

 

Purpose

To provide a record of the establishment and administration of individually sponsored awards on restricted funds.

Applicability

All employees.

Policy

Document compliance with fiscal reporting requirements, including billing information for accounts receivable to sponsoring agencies.  Awards may be federal, state, commercial, or non-profit.   This may include but is not limited to: proposal; project summaries; grant authorizations; contract documents; project budget change and adjustment forms; invoices; receipts; cashier’s receipts; equipment purchase orders; prior approval request forms; account request forms; vendor telephone contact logs; subcontracts; grants and contracts monthly budget summary statements; institution billings; balance sheets; SF272 reports for grants and contracts that are operating on direct payments; final financial reports; property reports; patent/invention reports; contractor’s release reports; assignment of refunds and rebate documents; equipment disposition reports; and related documentation and correspondence.

Procedure

Office of Post Award Administration:

  1. Retains Record Copy
    Retention Period:
  • 5 years after final financial report is submitted and the fund is closed, or
  • for awards that are renewed quarterly or annually, 5 years after quarterly or annual financial report is submitted unless specified as longer by the terms of the contract.

Business Affairs:

  1. Retains all invoices, ledgers, reconciliation statements, etc. for the required time period.

Unit/Department/PI:

  1. Retains Copy of Record
    Record Retention:
  • 3 years after final financial report is submitted and the account is closed, or
  • for awards that are renewed quarterly or annually, 3 years after quarterly or annual financial report is submitted unless specified as longer by the terms of the contract, or
  • 3 years after audit, whichever is longer.
  1. Required to keep Time card backup for all students and persons paid on hourly wage.  These must be kept for the entire duration of the award and 3 years after the award termination date.  If these are not separated out by funding source, it is recommended keeping these for 8 years.
  2. Should keep any correspondence with the sponsor and all technical reports and deliverables for the 3-year retention period.  Do not keep paper purchase orders (PO) if the PO is in Banner (eliminate duplication).  Retention of packing slips is not required unless specifically noted in award terms and conditions.  If it is a ‘sensitive contract’ that requires lots of backup, keep everything connected with that agreement for 3 years after end date.