UW Research

Subawards

Contents

Incoming Subawards

An incoming subaward is when another institution (pass-through entity) receives funding and issues a subaward to the UW (subrecipient) for a portion of the project.

Review information for setting up an incoming subaward.

Outgoing Subawards – First Steps

When an award includes an outgoing subaward, a variety of steps must occur before we can pay a subrecipient for their work on a University of Washington award.

These initial steps must happen before anything else in the process and are critical for us to be able to pay our subrecipient for their work on our award. After you take these steps you can move through the rest of the steps in SAGE and beyond.

Watch the video or walk through the steps that follow on your own.


First Steps - Before Requesting a Subaward

Prime Award from Sponsor Set Up in Workday?

First, determine whether the prime award is set up in Workday. The prime award must be by the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) and set up by Grant and Contract Accounting (GCA) in Workday before a subaward request is submitted in SAGE. You can tell that an award is set up by looking for a “Processed” status of the Award Setup Request or Award Modification Request in SAGE.

Award Line (Grant#/GR#) for Subaward in Workday?

Additionally, the sponsor must have approved the subawards on the project. This approval can take many forms, depending on the sponsor.

Prior to submitting a subaward request in SAGE, you must ensure each subaward has an Award Line (also referred to as a grant or GR#) in Workday. If the award line was created as part of the award set up process, you are all set. If not, you need to submit an Award Modification Request to OSP and GCA to have the new subaward award line added.

Your Award Modification Request must include a SAGE budget with a worksheet for each subaward. The dates for the Subaward must fall within prime award start and end dates.

Subrecipient listed as a Supplier in Workday?

The subrecipient must be listed as a supplier within Workday. If they are not, complete the UW Supplier Registration Request form in UW Finance Connect. This generates a request to the Business Systems Team to initiate steps with the supplier for Supplier registration. Note that the UW Connect form must be completed by the UW requesting department and not by the supplier.

Is the entity listed as a Subrecipient in Workday?

If the entity is listed as a supplier, but not yet listed as a subrecipient in Workday, send an Award Portal ticket to GCA and request the subrecipient be added to Workday.

Confirming a subrecipient is a supplier and also listed as a subrecipient in Workday is the department’s responsibility. This can happen at any time prior to requesting a new subaward in SAGE.

Ready to request a subaward in SAGE?

After these foundational steps are complete, you are ready to begin the subaward request.

Note that if a subrecipient is not listed as both a supplier and a subrecipient in Workday, the UW cannot create a purchase order that the subrecipient needs. This means they will not be able to invoice the UW and get paid for the work they have done until that happens. These steps must happen before you can move onto requesting a subaward in SAGE.

Next Steps to Establish and Set Up an Outgoing Subaward

Workflow for Establishing and Setting Up Subawards

After you have completed the essential first steps, you are ready to begin a Subaward Request in SAGE.

Watch the Video or walk through the steps that follow on your own.


Begin Subaward Request in SAGE

When you create the SAGE Subaward Request you choose the Award (AWD#) that the subaward is associated with.

Once you’ve initiated a Subawards request in SAGE, the status in SAGE for the subaward request will be “Composing”.

Submit Subaward Request in SAGE

When you create the Subaward Request you choose the Award (AWD#) that the subaward is associated with.

After you complete the Subaward request in SAGE, submit it to OSP. The status of the subaward request in SAGE changes from “Composing” to “In OSP”.

OSP Administrator Assigned

OSP conducts a preliminary review to determine whether the request is complete. If it is not, OSP returns the request with notes about missing information or documentation. Once the request is complete, it is assigned to an OSP subaward administrator.

If a subaward request is returned to campus in SAGE the SAGE status will be “Returned.” Once the request is complete and returned to OSP, it is assigned to an OSP subaward administrator.   The status of the Subaward request in SAGE will then read as “OSP assigned.”

OSP Issues Subaward to Subrecipient

The OSP subaward administrator drafts the subaward agreement and issues it to our subrecipient via email, copying the department contact listed in SAGE.
At this point, the SAGE status of the subaward request is “Issued”.

Review & Negotiation

The subrecipient reviews the agreement and returns a Partially Executed Agreement back to the OSP subaward administrator who then negotiates terms, if necessary.

OSP Requests Supplier Contract & Purchase Order

Once the agreement is negotiated and partially executed, OSP submits a request to Procurement to create a Supplier Contract & Purchase Order in Workday.

Procurement Creates Supplier Contract & PO

Procurement creates the Purchase Order (PO) in Workday and routes it to the campus Grant Manager. The OSP subaward Administrator receives notification of the new PO number.

Campus Reviews & Approves PO in Workday

The campus Grant Manager reviews and approves the PO in Workday.

Subaward Signed & Activated in SAGE

The OSP subaward administrator adds the PO # to the subaward agreement, signs, and emails it back to the subrecipient, copying the SAGE campus contact.

OSP also finalizes the subaward in SAGE and the SAGE status of the subaward request displays as “Active”.

Award Line for the Subaward Activated in Workday

GCA receives notice of the Supplier Contract and Purchase Order and links them to the previously created subaward Award Line in Workday.

  • Award line is linked to the supplier contract & PO
  • Award line is available to use

Invoicing

Throughout the project, Subrecipients will email invoices to uwashington@ghxinvoicing.com. They must include the complete Purchase Order number, including the “PO-xxxxxxx” prefix, on the front of all invoices pdf format is strongly recommended.

  • Subrecipient emails invoices to uwashington@ghxinvoicing.com
  • Include PO number “PO-xxxxx”
  • PDF Format strongly recommended

Invoice Approval

The campus Grant Manager reviews & approves the invoice in Workday or requests updates from the subrecipient, if needed. This process is called ‘receiving’ in Workday and is required for an invoice to progress to the payment stage.

Next, the UW PI reviews & approves the invoice within Workday. After this approval, payment will be issued to the subrecipient.

Please note: in order for payment to be issued, the invoice must be showing against the PO and the receiving function must have been performed in Workday. Both of these actions must be completed before payment can occur.

 

Review Subaward FAQs

Required Documents

NEW subaward requests must have:

  • Letter of Intent (LOI) or subrecipient face page signed by authorizing official
  • Subaward Scope of Work (SOW) that includes background info/objectives and a clear description of the work to be performed
  • Detailed budget on prime sponsor budget form or spreadsheet, and
  • Budget Justification that ties specifically to the budget line items

Modification requests must include backup documents for the requested changes.
Examples:

  • Is funding being added?  Provide a detailed budget
  • Is the Scope of Work being changed? Provide a new Scope of Work

The subrecipient negotiated F&A rate agreement may also be required.

Compliance Considerations

When establishing subawards, there are many compliance areas to consider. For example, human subjects and animal use protocols must be in place for subrecipient entities to engage in these types of research.

Review:

Learning Opportunities