CERES: Reconcile Awards Budgets

Reconcile an Award Budget

Note: The attachments contain a job aid related to this article.

SR may contact a Research Administrator (RA) to reconcile a budget if an award is significantly cut by the sponsor from the amount proposed​, if the award is complex and requires multiple financial accounts/chart strings​, or if the award has changes to subaward total dollars. SR notifies the RA through the Ancillary Review type: Award Needs Department Response. The RA receives an email notification, and the award appears in their CERES inbox. The award will be in a Draft state when sent to the RA.

To reconcile the award budget

1. Open the desired award by clicking the link in the email notification or from your CERES inbox.
2. From the award workspace, click Edit Award.
3. On the Budget Reconciliation page, select the budget period allocation to reconcile. A list of budget categories appears. If there are multiple allocations that need to be reconciled, the SR Specialist will indicate this in the ancillary review comments. The RA will select the first allocation that needs to be reconciled, complete that reconciliation, and save it. Then, the RA will repeat the same process for the additional allocations.

Note: Only authorized and advance account allocations are available to select. Allocations that are not yet authorized cannot be reconciled.

4. There are two approaches RAs can take to populate the budget: Importing from a proposal budget or manually adding the authorized amounts.

Option 1: Import Budget

1. To populate the Baseline column with amounts from the proposal’s budget, click Import ($).
2. On the Import Budget form, select the budget periods from which to import amounts, and click OK.

Note: For awards received for proposals submitted in InfoEd, the import budget option will not be available. All entries will need to be made manually as shown in Option 2: Manual Entry

3. Adjust the imported values by entering positive or negative values in the Adjustments column values until the Difference amount in the page header reaches zero. The Total column will automatically update to reflect the difference. Active Allocation Total amounts cannot be less than zero in any budget category.

Note: The system calculates indirect cost by including categories flagged with the dagger symbol in the indirect cost base, then multiplying the base by the indirect rate specified in allocation setup. The indirect cost base specified in allocation setup determines which budget categories show the dagger symbol.

Option 2: Manual Entry

Manual entry is necessary for awards related to proposals submitted in InfoEd.

1. Enter the positive amounts needed for each category in the Adjustments column. The Baseline column will remain $0.

Note: The entry for awards related to proposals submitted in InfoEd will all be positive since they will be entered here from scratch.

2. Like the Import option, the F&A will automatically calculate based on the F&A cost base and rate entered during award set-up.
3. The budget is reconciled when the Difference is $0.

5. When you've reconciled the budget (by either option), click Save and then Exit at the bottom of the page.
6. To notify SR that the reconciliation is complete, click Submit Ancillary Review on the award workspace.
7. Complete the Submit Ancillary Review form. Answer Yes to the questions to indicate the reconciliation is complete. Any comments entered will populate in the email notification to SR.
8. Click OK.

You are returned to the award workspace. Once the Ancillary Review is updated, the Reviewers tab will reflect the new information. The award no longer appears in the RAs CERES inbox. The assigned SR Specialist receives an email notification that the Ancillary Review was completed, and award setup will resume. ​