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  • 1.  Grant Awards and Grant Payments: counting rules

    Posted 07-26-2024 03:50 PM


    hello all! 

    I'm looking at our historical practices of recording grants in our CRM-- we pipe them over from our OSP. Typically, we just bring over the award and count it in the year it was awarded, but an issue has arisen and I'm wondering-- should we also be bringing over the grant payments to record as cash received for the year? We aren't using it for the GL, but want to follow guidelines or best practices. I couldn't quite figure it out, but I may be missing something obvious.

    with the usual apologies for asking such a basic question
    Susan



    ------------------------------
    Susan Hayes-McQueen
    University of Washington
    shq@uw.edu
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Grant Awards and Grant Payments: counting rules

    Posted 07-26-2024 03:56 PM
    Many research awards these days are conditional, requiring you to return unused funds. Also, very few are multi-year without a provision that the funder reserves the right to review and discontinue annually. Therefore, it is generally a better practice to record something only once the funds are in hand (you need to track those anyway to complete the VSE properly). And ideally, you should count them only after they have been spent (if there is a "return unspent funds" clause).

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987




    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Grant Awards and Grant Payments: counting rules

    Posted 07-26-2024 04:15 PM
    PS - It isn't a basic question, either!

    It is ideal to think of these grants as identical to your concept of conditional pledges. The award is NOT a binding agreement. The grantor typically retains control over the grant until the funds are delivered and expended per their instructions.

    When I was at Duke and NC State, we never counted the award - just as we did not officially count conditional pledges. We only counted the payments (and not for the GL) as the funds arrived.

    I also reviewed financial reports quarterly to determine whether unexpended funds were returned. If they were, I would reduce the last grant payment by the returned amount.

    CASE does not address "awards," per se. It only addresses grant payments and our need to include those in VSE reports.

    John
    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987


    On Fri, Jul 26, 2024 at 3:55 PM John Taylor <johntaylorconsulting@gmail.com> wrote:
    Many research awards these days are conditional, requiring you to return unused funds. Also, very few are multi-year without a provision that the funder reserves the right to review and discontinue annually. Therefore, it is generally a better practice to record something only once the funds are in hand (you need to track those anyway to complete the VSE properly). And ideally, you should count them only after they have been spent (if there is a "return unspent funds" clause).

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987




    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Grant Awards and Grant Payments: counting rules

    Posted 07-29-2024 11:06 AM


    Thank you John! as always...



    ------------------------------
    Susan Hayes-McQueen
    University of Washington
    shq@uw.edu
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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