Tag Archives: Advance Budget Request

September 2021 Advance Maintenance Release

SAGE Advances

Replace Attachments on Advances

Attachments to the new Advance request tool can now be replaced with new versions of the document after the Advance has been routed for review. Prior to this update, once an Advance had been routed, you could only upload attachments as additions without a clear relationship to the existing attachments they replaced. This update brings attachment functionality in line with the eGC1, making it easier to maintain attached documents and identify the latest versions.

advance attachment table with expanded options menu

When there are multiple versions of an attachment, the latest version will display at top and click the expand arrow to see prior versions.

advance attachment versions

Warning on Advances Related to Award with Automatic Carryover

When an award includes automatic carryover, and a department would like to begin spending on a future period that is not yet fully authorized, a temporary budget extension is more often the appropriate choice rather than a renewal advance request. To help inform users, a new warning will display after clicking to create an advance when SAGE detects that the advance is related to an award (funding action) that includes automatic carryover. You can choose to either proceed with an advance, or, be redirected to the temporary budget extension form.

create advance automatic carryover warning

Notification of Advance Extension to Reviewer from Organization Receiving Funding

An email notification will now be sent to the Advance Reviewers for the Organization Receiving Funding on Advance Extensions when the advance is routed to GCA. This will keep campus reviewers informed, while not requiring direct approval in SAGE.

Advance Reviewers Now Display on Advance Approval Graph

The names and NetIDs for the people designated in ASTRA to approve for an organization will now display on the Advance approval graph. This will make it easier for Advance Preparers to identify who to coordinate with when needed.

advance approval list of organization reviewers

Improved Visibility to Cost Share and Compliance Updates

The Cost Sharing and Non-Fiscal Compliance sections of the new Advance request will now display an “Updated” indicator to make it easier for reviewers to identify when the responses in the Advance have been altered from what was listed on the related eGC1.

example of updated indicator on non-fiscal compliance section

SERA

Add Link to Cycle View from Advances in SERA

GCA will now be able to navigate to the associated cycle from within Advance requests in SERA. This will make it easier for GCA to quickly reference information about how the advance fits within a broader award.

sera advance request header example

GCA can Replace Cost Share Addendum with New Version

GCA can utilize the new attachment versioning functionality to replace Cost Share addendums when an Advance is in “In GCA” or “Processed” status. This will allow GCA to ensure the Advance request record contains the latest version of the Cost Share Addendum.

SPAERC & SERA

Advance Extensions Display on FAs and in Cycle View

Advance Extension requests will now display alongside New and Renewal type requests on the Funding Action and Cycle view in SPAERC and SERA. This will provide OSP and GCA with visibility to how Advance Extensions fit within the broader award.

Funding Action:

list of related advances on a funding action

Cycle:

cycle view including an advance

FIDS

Priority Review Indicator Now Displays for All Disclosures Related to Advances

All SFI disclosures that are triggered for review by a routed Advance will display in FIDS with a “Priority Review” flag. Previously, this flag was only set for Advance-related disclosures that went to “Review Required” status. Now disclosures that resolve to “No Review Required” will also be flagged for priority review. This will provide ORC with an easy way to identify all disclosures with a related Advance in routing.

To delete a new or extension Advance Budget Request:

  • You must be an owner or have permission to edit the Advance Budget Request.
  • The Advance Budget Request must be in Composing status.

See note below about Advance Budget Requests in other statuses.

Start by selecting the “more options” menu icon to the far right of the Request Status in the advance header. The menu icon is three, blue vertical dots.

From the menu, select Delete request. The following image shows this menu.

header menu to delete request

When you select Delete request, a confirmation dialog displays, stating the advance with be permanently deleted, as shown below.

delete advance confirmation dialog

To cancel deleting the request, select either the Cancel button, the blue X in the upper right, or click outside of the dialog.

When you select Delete Request, the system will remove the advance and will display your list of advances.

Note: Advance Budget Requests in a status other than Composing

Currently, SAGE does not allow you to delete or remove an Advance Budget Request that is not in Composing status. The SAGE Team is aware of the need and is developing the ability for campus and GCA to “Permanently Withdraw” Advances that are no longer needed. This will better align with the eGC1 processes, and allow users to filter and view the advances in the future if needed. Until that option is available, leaving an Advance Budget Request in a Returned or Withdrawn status does no harm.

June 2021 Advance Budget Request Approval Change

Based on user feedback, we have made updates that streamline the SAGE Advance Budget approval process and Advance Reviewer role setup in ASTRA.

Advances with financially responsible division or sub-division level organization codes can now be approved by either a division OR department level ASTRA-authorized Advance Reviewer.

If no division level Advance Reviewer is set up, the advance will automatically forward to the department level Reviewer, if one is authorized in ASTRA.

Need Both Division and Department Level Reviewers?

If you need to assign someone the Advance Reviewer role at both the division and department level, make sure to assign division-level authorizations first, before department-level.

Reminder: An Advance Reviewer is Required

The Advance Reviewer role is required to approve advance budget requests in SAGE. If there are no Advance Reviewers authorized for your organization in ASTRA, the advance will be blocked from routing, and a notification will be sent to sagehelp@uw.edu.

What if I already authorized Advance Reviewers in ASTRA at the division level?

If you already authorized Advance Reviewers in ASTRA at only the division level, you can either keep your authorizations as is or you can remove the division level reviewers and replace them with a department level reviewer.

Please keep in mind, if there is no division level reviewer, a department level reviewer is required.

This article describes the email notifications sent from GCA.

The Advance SFI & FCOI Notifications and Advance Reviewer Email Notifications articles provide information about advance related email notifications. The SAGE Suite Email Notifications article provide information about other system emails.

Once GCA has processed the Advance Budget Number Request, SAGE will notify you by email. The emails are sent to the Principal Investigator (PI), the sub-budget PI, and the Advance Preparer.

Click the link in the Email Subject column to see an example of its content.

Email Subject Purpose Sent When Sent To
Advance Budget Request Processed To notify the PI and preparer that an Advance has been processed by GCA. GCA completes the request PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Advance Sub-Budget Request Processed To notify the sub-budget PI and preparer that an Advance has been processed by GCA. GCA completes the request Sub-budget PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Extension of Existing Advance Processed To notify the PI and preparer that an Advance Budget Number end date has been extended. GCA approves the extension PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Extension of Existing Sub-Budget Advance Processed To notify the sub-budget PI and preparer that an Advance Sub-Budget Number end date has been extended. GCA denies the extension Sub-budget PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Extension of Existing Advance Denied To notify the PI and preparer that an Advance Budget Number extension has been denied. GCA approves the extension PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Extension of Existing Sub-Budget Advance Denied To notify the sub-budget PI and preparer that an Advance Budget Number extension has been denied. GCA denies the extension Sub-budget PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)

This page describes the email notifications sent during the approval process for advance budget requests.

The Advance SFI & FCOI Notifications article describes the email notifications initiated by the advance preparer from the advance’s SFI & FCOI page, and the automatically generated emails to the Office of Research SFI Compliance Officers.

The Notification of Processed Budget Requests article provides information about other advance related email notifications. The SAGE Suite Email Notifications article provides information about other system emails.

Who is Notified When and Why

SAGE sends a number of email notifications during the routing and approval process. The table below lists each notification type, the condition that generates the email, and the recipients. SAGE generally sends emails to the person’s UW NetID address.

Use the link in the Email column to see an example of the email.

Email Purpose Sent When Sent To
Advance PI Approval Required To alert the PI that an Advance is waiting for approval PI Review node status updates to “In Progress” PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Delegation of PI Approval of Advance To alert the PI an Advance is being submitted in their name and that the PI Approval is being delegated due to their absence or inability to approve. PI Delegation is selected on “Submit & Route” page PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Advance Approval Required of Dept. Reviewer To alert the Advance Reviewers that an Advance is waiting for approval Department Reviewer node status updates to “In Progress” Advance Reviewers
Advance Approval Required of Ad Hoc Reviewer To alert an ad hoc Approver that an Advance is waiting for approval Ad-Hoc Reviewer node updates to “in Progress” Advance Reviewers
Advance Request Submitted for Renewal Award To notify Advance Reviewers that an advance request has been submitted for a renewal award. “Submit & Route” selected for an advance (type=renewal) Adavance Reviewers
Advance Budget Extension Request Submitted To notify Advance Reviewers that an extension request for an advance has been submitted. Select “Extend” for an advance on the My Advances page Advance Reviewers
Advance Request Returned by Reviewer or GCA To alert the Advance Preparer of the need to modify Advance data “Return Request” selected Advance Preparer(s)
PI Re-Approval Required for Re-Submitted Advance Request To notify the PI that the Advance is resubmitted and requires re-approval PI Review node status updates to “In Progress” and had a previous outcome of “Approved” PI, cc: Advance Preparer(s)
Dept Reviewer Re-Approval Required for Re-Submitted Advance Request To notify Advance Reviewers that the Advance is resubmitted and requires re-approval Department Review node status updates to “In Progress” and had a previous outcome of “Approved” Advance Reviewers

 

The System to Administer Grants Electronically (SAGE) is the tool that researchers and grant administrators use to prepare proposals for approval and submission to the funding agency. At the UW, the appropriate campus units, compliance offices, and the Office of Sponsored Programs must review and approve all grant and contract proposals.

The Approvals component of SAGE manages the electronic routing of the proposal for approval. It is also used to manage the approvals for Advance Budget Requests for funded proposals.

This guide describes the functionality of the Approvals component for both eGC1 applications and advance budget requests.

Note: Rules for New or Renewal Type

  • A type of New is assigned when the eGC1 selected for creating the advance is in a cycle without a processed FA.
    • An exception to this rule is when the eGC1 selected is a Competing Renewal, the advance type assigned will be Renewal even if it’s in a new cycle without a processed FA.
  • A type of Renewal is assigned when the eGC1 selected for creating the advance is in a cycle with a processed FA.

For a Renewal, the General Information section will display an additional section showing the associated budget(s).

The following image shows an example of the budget information.

renewal advance prior budget selection

The data shown includes:

  • Budget Number
  • Start and End Dates
  • Short Title
  • Sponsor Award Number

Any sub-budgets associated with the parent budget will also display. You can select the ones you want to also be renewed.

The budget number for a Non-Competing Renewal is from the most recently processed Funding Action in the same cycle as the selected eGC1. For a Competing Renewal, the budget number is from the most recently processed Funding Action in the related cycle previous to the cycle of the selected eGC1.

By default, if there is only one budget listed, it is selected and cannot be changed.

The Non-Fiscal Compliance section of the advance will include any Compliance updates from other advances assigned to the award number.

Once you submit a renewal advance, it will go directly to GCA. It does not need approval by any campus reviewers.

The Advanced Search link on the My Approvals page displays the search criteria which you can use to find specific eGC1s or Advance Budget Requests.

my approvals advanced search

You can search on any single field or a combination of the criteria to locate items. More specific searches will return fewer results.

Search Field Description
Item Number Enter the entire eGC1 or Advance number with the prefix. For example, “A12345” or “ADV12345”.
Short Title Enter any of the words or string of letters contained in the title. You must enter at least three characters.
Full Application Title Enter any of the words or string of letters contained in the title. You must enter at least three characters.
PI name (last, first) Enter the last name, or the last name plus first initial, or the last name plus first name. For example: Smith; Smith, J; or Smith, John. You may also enter just the beginning of the last name as long as you enter at least two characters.
Org Code Receiving Funding Enter three or more starting digits of the organizational code. See the Organization Code description for information about the codes.
Sponsor Name Enter any of the words, string of letters contained in the sponsor name, or the sponsor’s acronym. You must enter at least two characters.
Date Approved After Enter a valid date (mm/dd/yyyy). For example, enter 6/1/19 to display eGC1s that you approved after that date.
Date Approved Before Enter a valid date (mm/dd/yyyy). For example, enter 6/1/19 to display eGC1s that you approved before that date.
My Approval Status Choose an approval status from the drop-down menu. eGC1s in the selected status will appear on the display list. Choices are:

  • Approved
  • Returned
  • En Route
  • Waiting Approval
  • Watching
  • Watched
Item Status Choose an item status from the drop-down menu. Only Items in the selected status will appear on the display list. Some of the statuses only apply to eGC1s or Advances, as noted. Choices are:

  • Routing
  • Withdrawn
  • In OSP (only applies to eGC1s)
  • Approved (only applies to eGC1s)
  • Returned
  • In GCA (only applies to Advances)
  • Processed (only applies to Advances)
  • Awarded (only applies to eGC1s)
  • Denied by Sponsor (only applies to eGC1s)
  • Permanently Withdrawn (only applies to eGC1s)

Select Search to display the results list, which displays the following information:

  • Item # – select this to view the approval flow
  • PI Name
  • Org Recvg Funding
  • Short Title
  • Sponsor Name
  • My Approval Status
  • My Approval Date
  • Item Status
  • Ready to Submit

June 2021 Advance Budget Request Streamlining

The Advance Budget Request process has been revised, in order to introduce streamlining and address pain points in the current process. Below is a comparison of current state to future state process.

Current-to-Future Streamlining

advance process current and future

Release Highlights

  • Advance eligibility determined by system, streamlining processes through
    • Deprecation of Advance Eligibility web form
    • Elimination of OSP role in Advance Request process
  • New design for ease of entry
  • Electronic routing replaces paper approvals and expedites SFI reviews
  • Streamlined business unit processes
  • Prepares for future Workday forms and processes
  • GIM 9 alignment with new process

Advance Eligibility Determination Automated

With this release, users will go directly to SAGE as Step 1 of the Advance Budget Request process. SAGE will systematically determine if your eGC1 is eligible for an advance, based on the following business rules:

Advances will be allowed if:

    • The eGC1 is in “Approved” or “Awarded” status
    • The eGC1 is not a Non-Award Agreement or a Pre-Application
    • The eGC1 does not have a related Funding Action that has made it to GCA for processing

As a result of this automation, two major streamlining shifts are introduced:

  • OSP will no longer be involved in the eligibility determination process. This allows requests to go directly to GCA once campus approvals are complete and any compliance issues are resolved.
  • The Advance Request Eligibility web form will be deprecated. Users will complete the entire advance request process from within SAGE.

The system eligibility check will not cover whether a sponsor allows pre-award spending. Advance preparers will still need to verify pre-award eligibility before proceeding.

New design for ease of entry

The advance request form is redesigned for a more intuitive and streamlined entry process. Design features include:

  • Left navigation panel contains sections to be completed or reviewed, with status symbols indicating when sections are considered complete
  • Data collected at time of proposal defaults from the eGC1 for reduced entry
  • Key eGC1 details are visible in a collapsible right side panel for reference

advance product update advance layout

  • Helpful alerts indicate when SFI disclosures or PHS Training requirements are not met.

advance product update S F I

  • Easy review and update of Non-Fiscal Compliance responses from the original eGC1. Users are prompted to update missing protocol information at time of Advance. This allows the SAGE system to connect to Zipline and Hoverboard, and expose the protocol status and details within SAGE over the life of the Award. Users will be asked to confirm that they have reviewed the non-fiscal compliance questions to further ensure accuracy and completeness.

advance product update N F C

Electronic routing for approval and SFI reviews

Approvals of advance budget requests will now happen within SAGE, eliminating the former paper process. A new ASTRA role is available for departments to use in designating their Advance Reviewers. Preparers will also be able to include ad hoc approvers on Advances.

advance product update approvals

Streamlining Business Unit Processes

By taking a holistic approach to business process reengineering for advance requests, three of our business units will experience time savings and improved processes.

  • OSP removal from review role for advances. By automating the eligibility checks for advances, and systematically confirming when SFI reviews have been completed, OSP no longer needs to be a part of the advance request process. The time savings realized can be applied to other areas. OSP will still have visibility into advances through SPAERC, and will be alerted to their presence in a more prominent way when setting up Funding Actions.
  • Office of Research SFI alerts. The Office of Research will now receive notifications of only the relevant SFI reviews associated with the advance request, upon submission of the Advance Request. FIDS reviewers will also benefit from improvements to their tasklist that call special attention to reviews required for advances, to aid prioritization of work.
  • GCA SERA updates. Grant and Contract Accounting will no longer need to print paper copies of key documents like approvals, and will have more relevant SAGE and Finance system data in their request view, reducing the number of systems/views they need to hop between to complete processing. The SERA user interface will also have a more modern and user friendly layout.

GIM 9 Alignment with advance request process

The GIM 9 policy updates will reflect business process changes introduced in conjunction with this release, to add clarity, bringing policy and system behavior in sync, including providing flexibility on the length of the request, and contributing to overall streamlining of advance processing.

Helps Prepare for Future Workday Forms and Processes

The redesign and technical infrastructure work in this release are significant in laying the groundwork for the SAGE Finance Transformation work to come. The improvements that will directly support the FT efforts include:

  • New design patterns will be used in future post-award intake forms. Users will benefit from a familiar data entry experience across advance, award setup, and award modification requests when Workday goes live. This will allow them to navigate easily within and between forms, and simplify training and onboarding efforts. The new design patterns will also allow ORIS to develop the new FT intake forms more quickly, as they leverage the existing work done on Advances.
  • Creation of a new Approvals and Workflow engine. With this release, a new Approvals and Workflow engine has been developed using more modern technologies and a configurable design that will scale well for the FT work to come. Eventually this new engine and approvals design will replace the eGC1 approvals as well.
  • Development of new Microservices for Advances. The development of microservices for advances lays the groundwork for being able to easily flow data between SAGE and Workday, as well as support data flows to MyResearch and EDW in the future.

This article describes:

Approval Flow

To approve an advance, log in to SAGE and click on the Approvals tab to view the My Approvals page.

my approvals tab header

Select the advance to review from the list or use the Advanced Search link to find a specific advance.

When you open an advance, the approval flow displays, as shown in the following image.

advance approval flow example

The Approvals section of the advance displays this approval flow and can be used to check the approval status.

The approval flow reads from top to bottom. Some approver nodes are grouped and can be approved in any order.

The above image shows the approval flow for an advance in Routing status. The first node lists the Advance Preparer(s), two in this case, and indicates the routing date for the advance.  The node is green to show its step is complete.

The grouped nodes are for the Principal Investigator, Organization Reviewer, and the Office of Research (SFI Review):

  • The PI node includes the principal investigator’s name and status.
  • The organization reviewer node includes the organization’s name, code, and status.
  • The SFI review status is either Ready for review or Review complete.

In the Organization Reviewer node, select the See All Reviewers link to view a list of reviewer names and NetIDs, as shown in the image below.

advance approval list of organization reviewers

Next is the GCA Reviewer node with a status of Not yet ready for review. Last is the Processed node, which will turn green when all other nodes are complete. See the example image at the end of this article.

Note: if PI delegation is selected, the Principal Investigator node will not display, and the PI delegate chip will be added to the Organization Reviewer node, as shown in this image.

advance organization reviewer node with P I delegate chip

After reviewing the advance, you can approve it or return it for modification by the PI and/or advance preparer. The following image shows the return and approve buttons.

advance approve and return request buttons

Approve

When you select Approve Request, a dialog will display with an optional comments box and assurance text. The text varies depending on whether you are the PI or an organization reviewer. The PI’s dialog is shown below.

advance principal investigator approval certification

Check the box to indicate you have read and agree with the certification text. This will enable the Approve Request button, allowing you to complete the process. You also have the option to Cancel.

Your approval will be added to the Comments & History section.

If you are an organization reviewer, you will see similar menus as the PI. The dialog may differ as certain elements like Human Subjects only apply to the PI.

Note: If PI Approval is delegated and the research involves Human Subjects or Animals, the organization reviewer will be providing assurance on behalf of the PI that spending will not occur until an approved IRB or protocol is in place.

Return

If you select the Return Request button, a dialog displays, as shown below.

advance approval return dialog

To complete the process, enter the required return reason and select Return Request. The PI and Advance Preparer will be notified.

SFI & FCOI Review

The Office of Research will approve the SFI status and the approvals section will reflect this update.

NOTE: If an investigator’s disclosure status updates from “Waiting for JIT” to “No Review Required” the investigator’s name will no longer appear on the SFI Review node.

The following describes the possible statuses for the Office of Research approval node, each with an example image.

SFI Review 1: Displays on approvals prior to routing the advance.
s f i node prior to routing

SFI Review 2: Displays once advance is routed.
s f i node after reviews complete

SFI Review 3: Displays after system process runs to update Just-in-Time (JIT) status.
s f i node after JIT update

SFI Review 4: Displays after Office of Research reviews disclosures.
s f i node after disclosure review

SFI Review 5: Displays when system process updates all disclosures to “No Review
Required”.
s f i node when no review required

Add/Remove an Ad Hoc Reviewer

If you can edit the advance, you can add an ad hoc (i.e., for a particular purpose only) reviewer to the approval flow. These manually-added reviewers could be a person that needs to review and approve the advance in addition to the Principal Investigator and Organization Reviewer.

You can add a person by clicking on one of the plus signs (+) that appear on the approval flow. Once you submit the advance, the group nodes will be ready for review, and you will no longer have the option to add someone before the group. Similarly, once the advance is ready for review by GCA, the plus sign before GCA will no longer display.

The following image shows this state of the approval flow.

advance approval flow ad hoc callout

When you click on the plus sign, an Add Reviewer dialog will display. Enter a comment
for this reviewer, which is required. Then search by name or NetID for the person you want to add. The Add Reviewer button will then be enabled for you to select. The approval flow will update to show the added node, and the reviewer will be notified when their node is ready for review, like the other approvers. The following image shows the Add Reviewer dialog.

advance add ad hoc reviewer

To delete the added reviewer, click on the 3-dot menu icon in the node and select “Remove reviewer”. A confirmation dialog will display. The following image shows the Remove Reviewer dialog.

advance remove ad hoc reviewer

Processed Approval Flow Example

The following image shows an example of the approval flow for an advance in processed status.

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