Thanks to valuable user feedback, the Office of Research Information Services (ORIS) launched a redesigned SAGE Budget tool in 2020 with a more streamlined, efficient, and intuitive look and feel. This new design also lays a foundation for upcoming integrations between SAGE and Workday.
Over the last year, we’ve collected your feedback and have added several features to ensure the current SAGE Budget format meets all of your core needs (e.g. APL and Fixed Fee). We are now ready to retire the legacy format, which allows us to focus our continued enhancements in the new format only. This is especially important as we prepare for the critical role that SAGE Budget will play in communicating award budget information to the financial system when the UW goes live with Workday Finance.
Upgrading of all Legacy Budgets
With the retirement of legacy SAGE Budget, all existing budgets in the legacy format will be upgraded to the new (current) budget format. Upgrading means:
When you open your budget, it will open in the new (current) version.
Those who had access to the legacy budget will have the same access on the upgraded version.
On the History page, snapshots of previous budget versions will now display in the new (current) format.
All costs and settings (like targets and salary caps) that were enabled on the legacy budget will be enabled on the upgraded budget.
Note: Auto Adjusting Entries (AAE) will not be available in the new (current) format. AAE will be converted to a standard costs line on the primary worksheet, with a note, “Converted Auto Adjusting Line.” The following budget details will remain the same:
object/sub-object code
cost amount
periods
Budget List Updates
The following changes have been made to the budget list:
The option to create a legacy budget has been removed
The Format column has been replaced with a Created Date column
An “Upgraded” indicator displays when a budget has been upgraded by the system
The default sort order on the budget list remains the same, descending by last edited date. You can still search for your budgets by Principal Investigator (PI) name, budget number, or budget title.
Other Budget Updates (released in advance)
The default Prorated Direct Cost (PDC) rate that displays when you enable APL on a budget worksheet has been updated from 35.2% to 35.0%.
SAGE eGC1
Ad Hoc Approver Improvements
Two changes were made to the list of roles that display when adding an ad hoc approver to an eGC1 approval flow:
Several out-of-date roles have been removed.
The list has been alphabetized.
SAGE Subawards (released in advance)
Subaward Expiration Fix
Subawards that reached Expired status were not updating to Active status when a modification was processed which pushed the End Date into the future. That issue has been fixed so that the overall Subaward reflects accurate status information.
Subaward History Now Includes All Subaward Status Changes
The Subaward History now includes events for each time the Subaward Status changes. Previously, the Subaward History only included status changes for Subaward Actions. This will provide more information about when the overall Subaward transitioned through process steps.
When you are logged in to SAGE, but have not been actively using the system for 40 minutes, a dialog message displays indicating that your session will expire in 5:00 minutes. The dialog will continue to count down the time. You have the option to click “Keep Working” to re-activate your session.
If you do not click “Keep Working”, then when the time count reaches zero (0) minutes, your session will expire. Your browser will be redirected to a “session expired” page from which you can log back in to the system you were using. Any unsaved data at the time your session expires will be cleared.
The SAGE system has always timed out after 45 minutes of inactivity. We have now made the timeout more visible so you know that your session has expired, instead of sending you to the tasklist with no explanation.
The following image shows the session timeout dialog, with the time remaining until expiration and the instruction to click “Keep Working” if you want to continue to stay logged in.
Campus research teams and related central offices use the SAGE Suite electronic research administration system to manage application proposals and related items. The suite consists of three components that access the shared SAGE Suite database.
SAGE: System to Administer Grants Electronically – used by campus researchers and administrators
SPAERC: Sponsored Projects Administration & Electronic Research Compliance – used by the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP)
SERA: System for Electronic Research Accounting – used by Grants and Contract Accounting (GCA)
In addition, FIDS: Financial Interest Disclosure System is used by researchers designated as investigators; it integrates with SAGE
The following set of tables gives a high-level overview of who uses each of the different components, and describes the possible actions and the why and/or when.
SAGE: System to Administer Grants Electronically
WHO: Campus research administrators, Principal Investigators, campus reviewers, compliance reviewers
ACTION
WHY / WHEN
Create SAGE Budgets
Centralizes data gathering for salaries, benefits, F&A rates. It can be connected to an application, which automatically populates the eGC1 budget data on the Budget & Fiscal Compliance page. Any changes to the budget will update in real time when the eGC1 Budget & Fiscal Compliance page is viewed.
In addition, if your eGC1 is a Grant Runner application using the RR Detailed Budget form, your budget data will appear in the form.
Create applications (standard or Grant Runner)
Required for all sponsored research. The standard eGC1 pages of the application are, in effect, an approvals routing cover letter for the proposal. Only the UW uses the eGC1. It does not go to the sponsor.
A Grant Runner application includes, in addition to the standard eGC1 pages, the sponsor forms for NIH. OSP submits the application “system-to-system”.
Approve routing applications
The Principal Investigator, Multiple-PI, Application PI, academic reviewers (division, department, dean) and compliance reviewers (human subjects, animal use, EH&S, etc.) view and approve the application. At each approval, SAGE captures a PDF snapshot of the application and attaches it to the eGC1’s Approvals History & Comments page. Copies of the attachments are also captured.
Administrators and reviewers have the option to return the application to the research team for changes. They can also add other reviewers (as individuals or a group) to the approval flow as needed. These are referred to as “ad hoc” reviewers (approvers or watchers).
Request an advance budget number for awards
Used when the research proposal is being awarded by the sponsor, but the actual award has not yet arrived. It requests GCA to set up a budget account in the financial system so the research team can start spending the anticipated award money. The preparer completes the request in SAGE, then GCA processes it in SERA.
Create subaward requests for awarded applications
Used when a research proposal has been awarded and part of the award needs to go to the subrecipients (subcontractors) that are the UW research team’s collaborators. For a new award, a “new” subaward request (SA) is created along with its parent subaward (SC). For an ongoing award, a “modification” request would be created within the existing subaward (SC).
SPAERC: Sponsored Projects Administration & Electronic Research Compliance
WHO: Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP)
ACTION
WHY / WHEN
Review and approve applications
OSP reviews the information on the eGC1, such as the sponsor proposal information and compliance questions, after all campus reviewers have approved. When OSP approves the application, they place it into a new or existing Cycle.
Add Approved applications to a Cycle
A Cycle holds a “competing segment” for a research team/project/sponsor combination. It’s a container to keep applications, their related advances, funding actions, admin actions, and subawards together. One cycle can be “related” to another, so that more than one segment is associated.
A Cycle is automatically deleted when the last item in it is removed.
Create various types of Administrative Actions as needed
Administrative Actions document various related agreements, adjustments and/or changes, and the finalization of a research project. These actions all appear in the project’s cycle, associated to their appropriate parent item.
Note that all actions (including Funding Actions) start as “unidentified” ones, with a prefix of AA. They are then converted to the specific type needed.
Non-Award Agreement (NAA) records a generic agreement not pertaining to funding.
Pre-Award Notification (PAN) records a change to the proposed project before the sponsor awards funding.
Post-Award Change (PAC) records changes to the project after the sponsor awards the funding.
Close Out (CO) records the tracked activities to terminate a project upon completion of the research.
Create Funding Actions (FA) for awards
When the sponsor awards an application, OSP creates a Funding Action as a child of the application. Depending on answers to certain compliance questions, the system may apply one or more automatic “holds”.
Once OSP completes the FA (and all holds are cleared), they transmit it to SERA for GCA to establish a budget in the financial system (if not already done via Advance Request).
Process subawards
OSP reviews the subaward requests, and negotiates the contract with the subrecipient. The request moves through several statuses until, when the agreement is “fully executed” the request becomes Active. It is automatically “Expired” once the End Date is passed.
SCs and FAs can have a many-to-many relationship. The system enforces that all related FAs and SCs must be within the same cycle.
SERA: System for Electronic Research Accounting
WHO: Grant & Contract Accounting (GCA)
ACTION
WHY / WHEN
Process Advance Budget Number Requests
Received from the research team, an advance allows the team to spend award money before the actual award arrives. GCA adds a budget number to the ADV and sets up that budget in the financial system. As part of completing the ADV, the system sends a notification to the requesters.
Process Funding Actions
Received from OSP. GCA adds a budget number, if needed, and sets up the budget in UW financial system. As part of completing the FA, the system sends a notification to the requesters, and the first-level reviewers for the organization code receiving funding.
Process Post-Award Changes
Received from OSP. Not all types of PACs are sent on to GCA. As part of completing the PAC, the system sends a notification to the requesters.
Create “Other” items
Created as needed for various budgetary processes. These items only appear in SERA.
FIDS: Financial Interest Disclosure System
WHO: Any research personnel designated as an “Investigator” on the PI, Personnel, & Organizations page of the eGC1.
ACTION
WHY / WHEN
Create a Financial Interest Disclosure for an eGC1
or
A disclosure for a CoMotion tech transfer agreement or IRB approval
or
Complete an Annual Update disclosure
Investigators are required to disclose any significant financial interests (SFI) such as salary, equity, sponsored travel, etc., that might, or might appear to, bias their research.
An investigator must complete a disclosure for each eGC1, whether or not there are SFI that apply, before the proposal can be marked as Ready-to-Submit = Yes.
The disclosures are reviewed by the SFI Reviewer, in the central Office of Research, who determines if there is a potential for a Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI). The review occurs at the time of award (just-in-time).
Annual Updates: All investigators are required to review and update their SFI at least once a year. The “year” is calculated from the date of the last disclosure created in FIDS. Investigators are notified by email 45 days prior, and again at 15 days prior, to the end of that year’s time.
Full details on using FIDS can be found in its User Guide.
NIH will require the use of FORMS-E application packages for due dates on or after January 25, 2018. Grant Runner now includes the FORMS-E version for the following agency specific forms.
PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement
PHS 398 Research Plan
PHS 398 Career Development Award Supplemental
PHS 398 Modular Budget (expire date change only)
PHS Assignment Request
PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information (New!!)
Federal-wide form updates that will also be incorporated into FORMS-E packages, and which are supported by Grant Runner, include:
New Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information Form
Grant Runner now includes the new PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information Form. You will have the option of completing the form in its entirety directly in Grant Runner, or importing a completed PDF version of the form into Grant Runner. Due to the length of this form, it is recommended that you preview the form in Grant Runner or in PDF format, early in the proposal development process to plan appropriately for the information collection involved.
SAGE Subawards
Subrecipient Re-Certification Status and Form
When completing the subaward request in SAGE, a prompt will display below the subrecipient’s name if their certification status is in an expired state and needs re-certification. This prompt will have a link to the Subrecipient Certification PDF form that can be uploaded in the Attachments section of the Subaward Request once completed. Attachment of the Subrecipient Certification form is not required prior to submission of the subaward request. This status prompt and link will also display in the Subaward Overview Summary section.
SAGE eGC1
Non-Award Agreement Application Types
SAGE now provides a dedicated, streamlined eGC1 format for submitting Non-Award Agreements to OSP by requiring only the set of fields necessary for these application types. You will now select Application Types “Non-Award Agreement (new)” or “Non-Award Agreement (continuation)” for the following types of agreement:
Confidentiality Agreement
Data Use Agreement
Memorandum of Understanding
Unfunded Collaborative Agreement
Unfunded Research Agreement
Affiliation Agreement
Material Transfer Agreement
Note that you should select “Non-Award Agreement (continuation)” to extend an existing agreement beyond the initial term.
Activity Locations Survey
We want your feedback on the new look and feel of the Activity Locations page. Click the “Give Feedback” link at the top of that page and let us know what you do/don’t like about the design as we evaluate updates to other parts of SAGE.
Use the View Attachments button on the upper right of the Subaward Overview page to display the Subaward Attachments page.
This page lists all of the attachments associated with the subaward, grouped into Department Request Documents and OSP Documents. You can use the Filter function to display attachments for just a single request.
In addition to the standard information about an attachment, the list includes the Subaward Request Number.
To return to the Subaward Overview page, select the Close button below the list or use the breadcrumb.
The Manage Access page allows anyone with read/write access to a subaward to assign additional editors and readers, beyond the primary contacts/owners, to cover absences and collaborate in a more intuitive and consistent way across SAGE.
When you assign access to someone, you indicate either read/write or read-only access to your subaward.
You can navigate to the Manage Access page from either a request in Composing status or from the subaward overview page for all other statuses. Select the Manage Access button in the upper left area.
This page has two sections: Subaward Managed Access and Related eGC1 Access.
Subaward Managed Access
This section lists the individuals that currently have access to the subaward and allows you to grant access to others. The list includes each person’s name, permission type and reason.
The following image shows this section.
The first individuals listed have a permission type of Owner. They are the UW PI, Subaward Preparer, and Financial Contact, as indicated in the Reason column. Each of these owners is always listed, even if one person has more than one role.
As you assign access to additional users, they will be listed below the owners. Their permission type will be either Read Only or Read/Write depending on what you choose. The reason will be Assigned Access.
Permission Types
Read Only access allows the person to view the subaward, but not edit it.
Read/Write access allows the person to edit the subaward.
Note: Only subawards for which you have read/write access will appear on your tasklist. You can search for and then view any subaward for which you have read-only access.
Add a User
To add a person, select the Add Another User link. The Personnel Chooser dialog will display. Use it to search for and select the desired person. The Manage Access page will refresh and display the added person.
Note: the default access permission type is Read Only. You can use the drop-down menu to change the permission to Read/Write.
Remove a User
To remove a person with assigned access, click on the trash can icon to the far right of the row. The system will not prompt you to confirm the deletion.
Related eGC1 Access
Anyone who has access to an eGC1 (PI, contacts, or assigned read/write or read-only access) can view a subaward which has that eGC1 as the parent of any of the subaward’s funding actions.
Permission types for these individuals are either their eGC1 owner role or the type of Assigned Access on the eGC1. For Assigned Access permission, either “readwrite” or “readonly” displays. The reason column will list the number of the associated eGC1. The possible owner roles are:
Principal Investigator
Administrative Contact
Budget Contact
eGC1 Preparer
Budget Preparer (if the eGC1 has a linked SAGE Budget)
The following image show an example of the list.
If your access to the subaward is through an eGC1, the subaward will not appear on your tasklist. However, you can search for it and then open it to view.
This final release for the SAGE Subawards Project includes priority items requested by preparers as well as some updates that will allow OSP to manage subrecipient profile data more effectively.
Managed Access
To make it easier for subaward preparers to cover absences and to allow for broader department review and access to subawards, you can now add additional users (beyond the three UW contacts) with either read/write or read-only access.
Expanded Subrecipient Profile
To improve OSP’s ability to report subaward information to sponsors and auditors, we have added the following attributes to the subrecipient profile in SAGE:
Employer Identification Number (Federal Tax ID)
DUNS and DUNS +4
Country
Subrecipient Types have also been revamped to better align with reporting requirements.
Attachments Display Changes
From a link on the Subaward Overview page, you can now view a consolidated list of attachments for the entire subaward.
On the subaward request details page, the Attachments section now visually separates attachments that departmental subaward preparers uploaded from those that OSP did.
Performance Improvements
Using the Subawards section of SAGE and SPAERC will now be faster and more responsive, allowing you to accomplish what you need to get done with less waiting.
Improved Validations
The Start and End Dates on subaward requests are now checked by the system to ensure they make sense within the context of the broader award and subaward. This will help alert you to any easy mistakes made when preparing a request.
Other Enhancements
SAGE Tasklist
The SAGE tasklist now displays the most recent BPO number, rather than the one listed on the first request. Searching the tasklist will also now only return subawards where the most recent BPO matches your search criteria.
Subaward Overview Page
A visual cue has been added to the Request in Process section on the Subaward Overview page to make it easier for users to identify how to open the details of request.
A new Modification Number field has been added, which will be populated by OSP in SPAERC but will be visible on the Subaward Overview page in SAGE as well. The Modification Number will confirm the sequence of changes to the subaward agreement.
You’ll now see the BPO number associated with each request, within both the Requests In Process and Processed Requests section of the Subaward Overview, for easy reference.
This SAGE update introduces to you easier collaboration with the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), more subaward status transparency and a refreshed user interface.
Collaboration
If you are a Subaward Preparer, you are able to:
Withdraw a subaward request with “In OSP” status
Cancel a subaward request either “In OSP” or “Withdrawn” status.
OSP can return subaward requests that are “In OSP” or “OSP Assigned” status and will include an return comment so you can revise and resubmit.
Transparency
For better transparency, a history of changes and comments now displays on your subaward.
You can track the following types of events and comments from the Subaward Overview and within each Subaward Request:
Status Changes (includes returns with explanations and related comments)
Ad hoc OSP comments to you about a subaward
OSP Assignment changes
Changes to attachments
Changes to OSP Assignment Date, Issue Date, and Fully Executed Date
The Subaward Overview page allows you to either view a comprehensive list of events for all related subaward requests, or filter to see only those for a particular request.
Ease of Use
Subawards refreshed design makes it easier for you to find the information that matters most.
Two new sections on the Subaward Overview Page:
Request In Process – This section helps you quickly identify the current request being worked on. This section includes requests that have not reached Active status (i.e. Composing, In OSP, OSP Assigned, Withdrawn, Returned, or Issued).
Processed Requests – This section includes any requests your items that have been processed for this subaward (i.e. Active, Expired, or Canceled).
You and OSP now share the same interface, which makes it easier for collaboration on subaward development.
My Subawards Task List
The “Latest Request Status” column helps you easily identify the status of requests that are still in process.
Your subaward requests in either “Returned” or “Withdrawn” status also have an arrow icon next to the status to help you identify those requiring action.
