October Meeting Q&A Follow Up

The following Q&A are also available on the Research website
 
Q1: How will clinical trial budgets be managed in the SAGE Budget? Does/will the SAGE Budget tool support per-patient budgets?

A1: Clinical trials will not use SAGE Budget. They will be set up as zero dollar awards, which will increase as invoices are generated. More information is upcoming on how this process will work in SAGE.

Q2: How will Advances be handled?

A2: The Advance process will be handled very similarly to the current state. Campus will continue to initiate the process in SAGE. In current state, OSP places an eGC1 in a cycle. In future state, an eGC1 will be linked to an award by campus. Once an eGC1 is in either an "Approved" or "Awarded" status, campus will be able to create and submit an Advance to GCA, who will review and enter into Workday. GCA will complete the entry and notify campus that the award is available for use in Workday.

Q3: Who will be able to create a new award? Do they need to be included on the eGC1 on the "Contacts & Assign Access" tab and given access?

A3: We are exploring the creation of a new ASTRA role for Award Admin, which will allow units to establish who should be notified when OSP returns the award request to campus. This role will also be assigned to individuals who can create a new award request for the unit.

Q4: Who initiates the Award Request, and what happens if OSP and Campus/PI are both notified of an award?

A4: The goal is to have awards made to the University setup in SAGE as soon as possible.

Some sponsors send awards only to OSP. OSP will prioritize initiating these Award Requests in SAGE and will return it to campus to connect your budget and complete the required fields. After campus completes those tasks, they submit the Award Request back to OSP.

If you or your PI receives a Notice of Award (NoA), whether or not OSP is copied, initiate the Award Request in SAGE. If the Award Request has already been initiated by OSP, the preparer will receive a validation message on screen, and will not be able to proceed with the setup. You will then wait for OSP to return the partially completed Award Request to you, then continue with your required entry and submission.

OSP will check and confirm that NoAs which go to both the PI and OSP have been initiated. If it has not yet been initiated, OSP will begin the Award Request process. This may add a day or two to the process.

Q5:  How will we be notified that the award has been received?
A5 : If OSP receives the NoA and initiates the Award Request, you will be notified automatically via email when they have returned the SAGE Award Request to you for completion. If you are a contact on the related eGC1, you will also see the Award Requests on your Award Requests In Progress list in SAGE.

Q6: Does the new award process eliminate the one day delay in using/seeing budget numbers?
A6: Yes, Workday is updated in real time. Once GCA completes the award setup, a notification will be sent to let the unit know that the award setup is complete and is immediately available for use. There may still be a delay in seeing award information in other downstream systems such as Award Portal.

Q7: If both GCA and OSP are entering terms and conditions, how will you ensure that an award doesn't get stuck waiting for someone to "submit" the next step to GCA?
A7: There is a sequential review process. OSP will review first, then send the Award Request to GCA so they can review and complete the Award Setup process. When GCA has verified all SAGE information is correct, the Workday award integration is completed and campus is notified. This sequential process will happen in a similar way to how it’s done today.

An Award Request’s status and the Last Action Taken will be visible to campus, as well as OSP and GCA, in SAGE. This will provide transparency into where an Award Request is in the process.

Q8: Will cost share commitments be included in SAGE Award or is that submitted separately?
A8: Campus will upload the cost share addendum as an attachment on the SAGE Award Request as needed. GCA will continue to validate addendum against award and will enter both effort and non-effort cost share commitments in Workday.

Q9: Within SAGE, is there going to be actual linkage between the years of a U01 (new budget number each year) rather than just a text field in an eGC1? That is, Will the AWD numbers and GC1 numbers be displayed and, ideally, clickable?
A9: The renewals process, and more generally the award modifications process, is still being ironed out. Stay tuned for more details. The eventual goal will be for campus to have a modifications workflow that is similar to what is being built for award setup: campus would complete a modification request form in SAGE along with any related updates to their award budget, for that request to be routed to OSP and GCA, approved in SAGE and integrated to Workday. How far we can get in the time remaining is being assessed. More information on an interim process will be released toward the end of the year.

Q10: How will cycles be corrected if they are off? This has been an issue with advance requests.
A10: Currently, OSP and GCA are working together to bring cycles into alignment with the Workday award structure. In future state, cycles will be replaced by Awards. The request for an initial advance will result in a partial award being set up in Workday. When we have a final award agreement, the completed award request will fully activate that award.

If it turns out that an advance should have been applied to an existing award instead of getting set up as a new award, there would still be clean-up actions needed, to ensure spending occurs against the correct award. GCA will work with campus to correct and ensure that expenditures that have posted on the advance award line are reprocessed under the correct award.

Q11: For awards such as a T32, which will, in most cases, have restricted carry forward, will we need to enter that in the budget or is that still handled by GCA for us?
A11: For T32 awards, campus will only be required to include new funds plus any amounts that are released (less unobligated balance) in their SAGE Budget. GCA will continue to carry forward any restricted funds remaining to the continuation award line.

For any awards that have current year funding restrictions, campus will need to enter restricted funds in SAGE Budget. GCA will verify that budget details match the sponsor award before integrating into Workday.

Q12: In the case of a R01, funds are awarded each year. Will we be going into SAGE each year, copying the budget period to the award section, revising to match the award and submitting? Who is responsible for doing this? The department?
A12: You would update your SAGE Budget (same one linked at award setup) with the new or updated period’s budget data. OSP and GCA will be able to see the changes at time of renewal because that budget is already linked to the award. For pre-existing awards converted into Workday, you would create your budget at time of renewal and there will be a process (TBD) for linking it to the award at that renewal stage. More details coming toward the end of the year.

Q13: Does the new system include a way to address incremental awards that are for only part of a budget year, and/or cross budget years?
A13: Each award line in Workday can have a distinct start and end date, as long as they fall within the overall award duration. Award Budgets, however, are bound to the budget period structure. Since SAGE Budgets will supply data to both the award line setup and the award budget setup, overlapping periods creates a challenge.
Within SAGE you will be able to set an alternate start and end date in the Worksheet settings (this is new functionality), as long as those dates fall within a budget period. If the start and end dates extend across more than one period, the best practice will be to create a single period in SAGE to allow maximum flexibility in setup of the SAGE budget worksheet start and end dates.

Q14: Will SPAERC be going away?
A14: A new OSP/GCA shared application called SAGE Central will be introduced with UWFT go live. SAGE Central will be OSP and GCA’s grants management application going forward. The new Awards section will be built directly in SAGE Central, while some of the other components (non-award agreements, applications processing) will be accessed from SAGE Central, with little change in the way that processing takes place. For those sections not related to Award Setup and Management, it will be the same familiar SPAERC experience, just branded as SAGE Central.

Q15: When we initiate an Award Request, will we have the opportunity to secure additional approvals within SAGE from the PI/Unit/Dean’s Office?
A15: We are aware of this need, and it is being scoped for delivery after Workday go-live. In the near term, additional department-level approvals will be obtained as they are now, outside of the SAGE system.

Q16: Is there a "Level 2" SAGE Budgets class, for tips and tricks on setting up complex budgets, including sub-budgets, for example?
A16: Great idea! We will take this into consideration for future course development.

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