GRANT BILLING Session I

1. GRANT BILLINGSession I History, Setting Up Grant Billing in BANNER, & Roll Up Accounts June 2007

2. A Little History • Grant Billing is a tool provided with the Research Accounting module of BANNER Finance. • It was implemented in August of 2002, three years after MSU began using BANNER. • Prior to implementing Grant Billing, all invoicing was prepared by hand by individual Fiscal Managers. • Grant Billing was implemented with the goal of providing FMs with system-generated invoices and reports that can be used to bill or report to sponsors in an accurate, consistent and timely manner.

3. Setting up Grant Billing • For GB to work properly, it requires specific data entry steps to be followed when setting up a each new account, such as:

4. 1. Entering established Grant Billing account codes on all new grant accounts: • Unbilled Accounts Receivable (UNGRU), • Billed Accounts Receivable (12GRB), • Undistributed Cash Receipts (UNGRC), • the Refund Clearing Account (UNGRR), • and for G&C Deferred Revenue (25GRD). This data entry is accomplished by the Program Assistants and is entered across four BANNER screens during the Gold or Bluesheet data entry process.

5. 2. Establishing a bill (or report) event in BANNER at the bluesheet stage. The bill and or/report set-up in BANNER is based on the terms of the award as granted by the sponsor. The FM is responsible for reviewing the terms of the award and determining the criteria for these events. The FM must provide this information on the bluesheet: • the format of the bill required by the sponsor, • the frequency a bill should be submitted to the sponsor, • where the bill should be sent, and • any applicable billing minimum.

6. Determining Bill Format • BANNER Grant Billing has the following federal billing and reporting formats available as part of the baseline product: 270B, 272B and 272R, and 269R. • If the sponsor requires one of these formats, you would indicate that on the bluesheet for “BILL- Format.” • If the sponsor requires something other than that, you have the following options:

7. MSU Bill- A bill format developed in-house that details expenditure activity for a given period by budget category. These categories mirror the Inception to Date web report. If the sponsor does not require a federal format, and does not have a unique, agency-specific format, this bill format is the preferred one for invoicing.

9. The bill formats covered so far- 270B, 272B and MSU- are all printable bills. They will produce hard copy invoices that should be used to bill the sponsor. If none of those formats fit the sponsor requirements, the FM will have to produce a bill by hand for invoicing. For this reason, we have created several non-printable bill formats that will update our AR in BANNER Finance but will not produce a hard-copy invoice. Each of these non-printable formats have specific uses.

10. SPCL- “Special”This is the format that should be selected if a sponsor has an Agency-specific bill format they require for invoicing. • LS- “Lump Sum” This is the format that should be selected if the grant is on a Letter of Credit. • NOPR- “No Print” This is the format to be selected for all other billing scenarios, such as when all funds are received up front, or the sponsor is on a fixed payment schedule.

11. Determining Bill Frequency • The bill frequency indicated by the FM on the bluesheet should reflect the sponsor’s invoicing requirements, regardless of whether the FM is using a system generated or hand generated bill. • The bill frequencies available in Grant Billing are: • M “Monthly” (on the last day of each month) • Q “Quarterly” (3/31, 6/30, 9/30, and 12/31) • SA “Semi-Annually” (6/30 and 12/31, unless otherwise indicated by FM) or • A “Annually” (12/31, unless otherwise indicated)

12. The Program Assistants determine the duration of the billing and reporting events based on the frequency indicated by the FM and the Project Period Start and End Dates provided on the bluesheet. Events are scheduled to continue up to, but not beyond, 90 days past the end date of the grant. This ensures that the Grant Billing process will continue to run as final expenditure activity is occurring during the allowable post-award period.

13. Grant W1200 Project Start: 8/15/2006 Project End: 8/14/2008 Bill Frequency: Monthly Bill events will be scheduled starting 8/30/2006 and ending 10/31/2008 Grant W1205 Project Start: 8/15/2006 Project End: 8/14/2008 Bill Frequency: Quarterly Bill events will be scheduled starting 9/30/2006 and ending 9/30/2008 Examples:

14. Determining Billing Address • It is very important that the Agency Address/Contact recorded on the bluesheet and entered into BANNER reflects the invoicing address and contact for the grant. • This address will appear on any bill that prints out of Grant Billing. • This address will produce a mailing label for the Accounting Tech to use when mailing your invoice, regardless of whether you are using a system generated or hand generated bill. • Please provide complete information on the bluesheet so that the Program Assistant can locate the correct GR code in BANNER and enter it for the grant.

15. If a grant is an IMOU, please designate the OSP Subcontract Manager as the contact on the bluesheet. This will serve as a reminder that the invoice should be routed to the Subcontract Manager.

16. Determining Bill Minimum • Sometimes a sponsor will indicate a billing minimum for invoicing. Other times an FM will determine that they would only like to bill the sponsor if the invoice meets a certain dollar amount (i.e., $500). • If you know you will only mail a bill if it’s $100 or more, for example, please be sure to indicate on the bluesheet for ‘Billing Limits: Minimum to Bill’ the amount “$100.” Otherwise, the system will produce a bill that won’t be used. And, the next bill event will be out of sync with what you are actually invoicing to the sponsor.

17. Example • Grant W1200 does not have a billing minimum set. At the end of month one of the project, there are only $50 worth of expenditures on the grant. Grant Billing produces a bill for $50 but the FM decides it’s not worth sending and they will just invoice that amount the next month. They toss the bill. • Our AR in BANNER would now show a receivable of $50 when in fact nothing has been invoiced to the sponsor.

18. At the end of month two, there has been a lot more activity on the grant. During month two, there was an additional $2000 worth of spending. Grant Billing produces a bill showing current period activity of $2000 and cumulative activity of $2050. Since the sponsor was never invoiced for that initial activity of $50, this bill would not be correct to send. It, too, is tossed and the FM must do a hand-generated bill to show the current period activity to be the full amount.

19. Summary of Best Practices Relating to Grant Billing Set Up at the Bluesheet Stage • Select a format that reflects the sponsor requirements. If the sponsor has not designated a specified format, please use the MSU format whenever possible. • Select a frequency that reflects how invoices are actually being sent to the sponsor whether you are using a system generated or hand generated bill. What is processing through Grant Billing and is updating our AR should match what is being mailed out the door. • Be sure the billing address is what is entered for the Agency in BANNER. • Be sure to use Bill Minimums that reflect your billing practices and the sponsor’s requirements.

20. A Few Other Features to be Aware of in Grant Billing • Billing Maximums are set in BANNER to prevent Grant Billing from processing expenditures that are beyond the Agency’s Authorized Amount. • Activity that occurs on Account codes deemed Unallowable or Invalid/Non-Specific by OSP will also not be processed through Grant Billing. • Grant billing can not process expenditure activity for a grant when the net of the unbilled activity is a negative amount.

21. Billing Maximum • During data entry, the Program Assistants use the ‘Current Amount’ of funding as indicated on the bluesheet as the Billing Maximum. This prevents Grant Billing from processing expenditures through billing that will exceed the current authorized funding amount. • If the Total Award/Anticipated Funding (listed on the bluesheet as the ‘Maximum Amount’) is greater than the ‘Current Amount,’ and if the FM would like Grant Billing to use that funding level as the billing maximum, it is possible. It requires approval from the Financial Officer to be implemented.

22. Unallowable and Invalid/Non-Specific Expenditure Activity • OSP maintains a group of account codes that are deemed unallowable expense types for OSP funds (per OMB circular A-21). We also maintain a group of account codes that are classified as Invalid or Non-Specific account codes for OSP funds. • Any activity that occurs on one of these types of account codes will be put on “Hold” and will not be processed through Grant Billing. • The ICHIBAN web report ‘Unallowable_or_Invalid’ provides a list of grants that have such activity and should be reviewed periodically by FMs.

23. Ex: 62886 is the default account code for Paris card transactions. Since that activity still needs to be defined by the department, OSP considers it an Invalid expense. It will not be processed through Grant Billing until it is defined with a specific account code in BANNER.

24. Net Negative Activity • Grant billing will not run for a grant (i.e., a bill event will not “satisfy”) if the net of expenditure activity for that grant during the bill cycle is negative. • The activity will be moved from “unbilled” status to “hold” status by a process we run prior to running Grant Billing each month. • When there is enough positive expense activity to offset the negative activity, that same process will move everything back to “unbilled” so that it will be processed through Grant Billing.

25. Roll Ups

26. What is a roll up? • Rollups are groupings of grants that for billing or reporting purposes need to have activity detailed for both the individual grants as well as for the group of grants as a whole. • Putting grants in a rollup group allows the FM to bill and/or report on the grants as a group yet also see the detail by individual grant. • Rollups are named with the convention “RUx####.” (ex: “RUW0142”) using the grant number of the prime award in the naming.

27. Example 1 A Montana Wheat and Barley Project is awarded to MSU. The award is divided into 10 individual grants. The sponsor wants to see one bill/report for the project as a whole but the FM needs to monitor the breakdown of the spending on each of the 10 grants.

28. The FM can set the project up as a rollup. • The FM will receive one bill/report for each grant individually, as well as one master bill that combines the activity for all of the grants.

29. Example 2 • A US Fish and Wildlife Project is awarded to MSU for 5 years. For internal purposes, MSU decides to break the project up into 5 different grants, one for each year of spending. • The sponsor sees the project as only one award, so the FM needs a way to carryover the cumulative spending from year-to-year, grant-to-grant, so that the history is maintained each time one grant closes and another grant opens.

30. The FM can set the project up as a rollup. • The FM will receive one bill/report for each grant individually, as well as one master bill that combines the activity for all of the grants over the entire life of the award. • The FM will be able to freeze and close the individual grants as needed while maintaining their histories for billing and reporting.

31. There is also an ICHIBAN web report ‘Roll_Up_History’ that will provide a way to monitor activity on Roll ups on a day-to-day-basis. It also provides an audit history should the FM ever need to look-up information on grants that were in a rollup.

33. To set up a rollup, the FM would complete a greensheet and submit it to the front office for data entry. • The front office then forwards it to the Grant Billing Coordinator for set-up.

34. The FM would complete items 1-4. Directions for completing the Green Sheet are on the form…

35. GRANT BILLINGSession II Freezing a Grant in Grant Billing & Setting Final Report Reminders June 2007

36. Freezing a Grant Grant Billing Considerations

37. Grant Billing and the Pink Sheet • When preparing to freeze and close a grant, there are several items on the Pink Sheet that are affected by Grant Billing.

39. If the answer to any of the above questions is ‘No,’ then the grant will have to go through Grant Billing closeout. In FGITBAL, are acct. codes 1104, UNGRU, 12GRB and UNGRC all zero? Inception to Date Report FGITBAL • Is the Cash balance zero? c. In grant billing, is the total unbilled and total hold zero?

40. From the handout “Grant Billing Close Out Procedures for Fiscal Managers 10.2006”

41. Has there been any expense activity on the grant since the last deferred grant process ran (FZRGRNT)? • FZRGRNT runs nightly. You can search for expense activity by using FGITRND and querying the current month’s activity. • Short-cut: compare Expense totals at top and bottom of ITD. If they are different, there has been current day expense activity. • If there has been activity that day, you must wait until the next day for that activity to process before you can proceed.

43. Invalid/UnallowableITD zero? • If there is a balance in either the invalid or unallowable budget category on the ITD report, you must prepare a JV to move the Unallowable/Invalid amounts to 1)another fund and/or 2)to the correct expense category. • You can use the report ‘UNALLOWABLE_OR_INVALID’ found at https://ag.msu.montana.edu/ichiban/ in conjunction with FRIGITD to research unallowable and invalid expense activity. • The Grant Billing Coordinator can enter those types of JVs for you as well.

44. Are there encumbrances to clear? • If there is a Benefit Encumbrance balance only, the Grant Billing Coordinator will be able to clear that for you prior to freezing the grant. • If there are any other Encumbrance balances, you must work with the appropriate offices first (i.e., P&PR, Purchasing) to clear those balances prior to submitting the fund to the Grant Billing Coordinator to freeze.

45. Is the cash balance zero? • If it is not zero, and a JV needs to be processed, the Grant Billing Coordinator can prepare and process the JV for you for amounts up to $100.00. Corrections are taken to 1)IDCs, 2)General Benefits or 3)Other (supplies, travel, etc.). • Please note: if the correction amount is greater than $100.00, you must prepare the JV and route it for approval. The Grant Billing Coordinator can data enter the JV and follow-up with the grant billing and freezing steps when appropriate.

46. Is the total unbilled and total hold zero? • If not, you will need to submit the grant for grant billing closeout.

47. Provide a copy of the ITD report for Grant Billing closeout. • Unless there is a JV prepared by the FM accompanying the ITD, all ITDs submitted to the Grant Billing Coordinator should be emailed to the Grant Billing Coordinator Group set up in your WEB Finance Reports. • That group should include the Grant Billing Coordinator(s), the Subcontract Manager, the Subcontract Program Assistant, and yourself.

48. If there is a JV to be entered, the process to zero and freeze the grant takes three days: Day One- Prepare and enter JV Day Two- Clear billing Day Three- Freeze

49. If the grant only has billing/hold to be cleared, the process takes two days. Day One- Clear billing Day Two- Freeze

50. In clearing grant billing and freezing the grant, the Grant Billing Coordinator will complete the following steps. • Run the BANNER processes needed to complete the relevant items on the pinksheet and freeze the grant, and do the BANNER data entry. • Return pinksheet, current Finance ITD Web Report, FGITBAL screen print, and subk approval email, along with the original documentation, to the Fiscal Manager. • The Grant Billing Coordinator will also include a copy of any JV that they processed to freeze the grant.