Financial Reporting and Invoicing
LRAs assist PIs in planning expenditures and monitoring financials of sponsored projects, while Central Post-Award prepares and submit invoices to sponsors.
Financial Status of Sponsored Projects
Local Research Administrators (LRAs) assist Principal Investigators (PIs) in planning expenditures and monitoring the financial status of ongoing sponsored research projects. Reports reflecting sponsored project activity are available from the University’s financial system (PeopleSoft).
The LRA should reconcile all sponsored projects on a monthly basis to ensure that all transactions are authorized, valid, complete, and accurate. Reconciliation is a process of comparing account transactions recorded in the system to the department’s supporting documentation (e.g. vendor invoices, transfers) and resolving any discrepancies. Monthly reconciliations should include a review of both personnel and non-personnel costs and cover the following:
- Allowability, allocability, and reasonableness of consistently treated expenses
- Budget vs. actual spending
- Awarded effort vs. actual effort
- Cost transfers
- Overexpenditures
- Expenditure of funds in a timely manner
- Cost sharing, if any
- Appropriate account code usage.
Financial Reporting and Invoicing
Central Post-Award is tasked with preparation and submission of invoices and financial reports to sponsors. Such documents must be submitted in a format and on a schedule agreed to in the award documents. All financial reports on sponsored awards must be signed by an authorized Post-Award representative.
For all annual and final fiscal reports and vouchers requesting payment under a federal award, Post-Award officials authorized to legally bind the University will sign the certification required by CFR 200.415. This is done in order to confirm that award expenditures are proper and in accordance with the award documents and approved project budgets.
Draft final fiscal reports are sent to the PI and their LRA in advance of the reporting deadline. Any changes or concerns regarding the expenses that were initiated prior to the award end date but may not have been captured must be communicated to Post-Award within 10 business days from the receipt of the draft report in order to be addressed.
Reporting Schedule
Financial reports to the sponsor may be required monthly, quarterly, annually, and at the end of the award, according with the award terms and conditions. Please note:
- Final Federal Financial Report SF425 is filed 90 days after project period end date
- PHS fellowships: Termination Notice is filed instead of the financial report
- Federal Subcontracts: monthly invoices automatically generated from PeopleSoft system
- Massachusetts State: monthly reporting via Enterprise Invoice Management (EIM) system
- For deliverable/task based invoice the PI must confirm to Post-Award that the deliverable/task has been completed.