When we talk to researchers at universities and other organizations, they often bring up our products‘ reporting features, because they never know when they’ll get reports from their existing system. It highlights the importance of timely grant accounting reports.
One researcher said that after she received the first of what was supposed to be a monthly report, she waited six weeks for the second, another two weeks for the third, and eight more weeks for the fourth. The varied delivery schedule was frustrating, and she wanted to make sure Cayuse’s grant accounting software would address these concerns.
Underlying reporting challenges
Consistent delivery is obviously a problem with grant accounting reports, but there are other underlying issues that aren’t as obvious.
Many large research organizations close their general ledger accounting systems and produce monthly financial statements within two weeks after a month ends. You’d only expect report delivery to vary by a day or two each month. What’s causing the large variance?
It stems from the fact that the monthly financial statements generated from the general ledger accounting system don’t provide adequate information without further processing. The statements need to reconciled, reformatted, and combined with additional information to be converted into usable grant accounting reports for post-award management. Here’s why:
- You need reconciliation to verify expenditure compliance
- You need reformatting for easier interpretation and analysis
- You need additional information such as projected personnel costs encumbrances, indirect costs encumbrances, and budget allocations for optimal post-award management
Another underlying issue is researcher expectations. Today, we all get our monthly banking and financial statements like clockwork, and PIs expect the same of the reports needed to manage their research funds.
How to create a schedule for delivering grant accounting reports
The key to delivering grant accounting reports on a reliable schedule starts with identifying the steps involved to produce a usable format for post-award management and the time needed to complete each step. Following is an example of a timeline for delivering monthly reports from accounting staff to researchers. In this example, the organization completes its monthly financial statements five days into the following month.
- Day 5: Departmental accounting staff gets transactions from general ledger accounting system for prior month
- Day 10: Finish generating and adding encumbrances for projected personnel and indirect costs; create budget revisions if necessary
- Day 15: Finish reconciliation and review the results
- Day 18: Generate and distribute grant accounting reports to research team
In this example, researchers receive monthly grant accounting reports 18 days after a month ends.
There are two issues to consider when evaluating the proposed schedule. First, this schedule assumes that automated processes transfer data from the organization’s financial system, combine the additional information, and reformat the reports. Without automation, this schedule will take longer. Second, while you could probably achieve a faster schedule, it’s important to give yourself some cushion and account for employee absences and competing priorities. Remember, reliability is key!
Conclusion
The moral of this story is that you can deliver usable grant accounting reports on a reliable schedule if you have strong collaboration and helpful automation tools (like Cayuse!). An off-the-shelf grant accounting software solution like Fund Manager will make this much easier for you. It’s an essential part of maintaining compliance and post-award management.
For help delivering grant accounting reports on a reliable schedule, or more information about our grant accounting software solutions and services, contact us today.
