Step 7: Manage the Award & Finances

• Review your account regularly. A monthly review is recommended and a quarterly review is required. Waiting until the end of a project can lead to overspending or unspent funds. 
• Your GCM and your departmental academic coordinator can help you to learn how to navigate Workday. You should check your faculty grants management dashboard monthly to ensure charges are accurate.  Many online resources are also available for learning how to navigate your accounts in Workday.
• Document cost sharing continuously over the life of the project, if relevant.
• Fixing a misposted charge. If a charge lands on the wrong award, move it promptly. 
• Corrections of clerical or bookkeeping errors on federal awards should be made within 90 days of discovering the error, with a clear explanation and your certification that the new charge is correct. 
• Costs can’t be transferred simply to cover an overrun or to spend down a balance; they have to be appropriate for the approved project. 
• If a charge posts to the wrong account, ask your GCM to correct it promptly.

Every dollar you charge to a sponsored project should be defensible. Before charging any cost to your award, check it against four basic tests that federal sponsors apply — and that Grants Accounting applies to non-federal awards too:

• Reasonable — a prudent person would agree the cost is necessary and the price is fair.
• Allocable — the cost benefits this specific project, and you can explain how.
• Allowable — the cost is permitted by your award’s terms, the sponsor’s rules, and Wake Forest policy. WFU policy is sometimes more restrictive than the sponsor’s; when they differ, the stricter rule applies.
• Consistently treated — you charge similar costs the same way across all your funding sources.
• Who to Contact: Your GCM can help you determine whether a cost is allowable before you commit to it.

• When a charge isn’t obviously tied to the project, add a short justification at the time of purchase — a note in the Workday comment field, or a brief email attached to the expense — explaining how it benefits the work. 
• A good test: if an auditor reviewed this charge three years from now, would they understand why it was necessary for this project without having to call you? If not, add the explanation now. 
• Clear documentation up front prevents delays, questions, and disallowed costs later.

• Coordinate and monitor time commitments to ensure project goals are met and resources remain available.
• Modifications to the scope or key personnel effort may require formal written sponsor consent (not just verbal approval) before implementation. 
• Charge salary to the grant in a manner reflecting actual dedicated effort.
• “Key Personnel” roles and commitments are established during the pre-award phase as the minimum necessary for the project.
• Consult award terms or ORSP before adjusting personnel time to check if internal or sponsor approval is required.
• Federal Uniform Guidance typically requires prior approval for:
  • A 25% or greater decrease in time committed by the PI or Key Personnel.
  • Changes to personnel identified in the federal award.
  • PI absences or disengagement of three months or more.
  • Faculty appointment changes impacting research time.
• When requesting prior approval, justify how the reduction impacts scientific progress and coordinate with your GCM to notify ORSP.

• Federal rules require that salary paid from federal or state awards be certified — an after-the-fact confirmation that the effort charged matches the work you actually did. This is separate from payroll. Explore the full policy here.
• Certification deadlines
  • Staff and graduate students certify twice a year (around July and January); faculty certify three times a year (July, January, and October — the October round covers summer effort paid from federal or state funds)
  • Once a report reaches you, review and certify it within 45 days. Timely certification matters for sponsor reporting and compliance.
  • Keep effort accurate year-round
• If actual effort differs significantly from what payroll shows (more than 5% above or below your total), a payroll adjustment may be needed. And remember that a change of more than 25% in committed effort, or a PI absence of three months or more, generally needs sponsor approval first.
• Who to contact:
  • Your GCM reviews effort reports before they reach you and can help with adjustments
  • ORSP advises on sponsor approvals for effort changes.
  • Check Effort Certification Job Aid, Effort Reporting Administrative Policy, and Effort Reporting Administrative Procedure for more information

• When part of your project is carried out by another institution under a subaward, Wake Forest is still the prime recipient — legally and financially answerable to the sponsor for the entire project, including the portion your subrecipient performs. That means WFU has to confirm subrecipients spend the funds on authorized purposes and deliver the work promised in their subaward. Monitoring that is a shared effort.
  • The PI: performance. Review the technical and progress reports your subrecipient submits, stay in regular contact with their PI, and confirm the agreed deliverables are being met before you approve their invoices for payment. Your sign-off is what tells Post-Award the work behind an invoice actually happened.
  • Your GCM: finances. Checks that each invoice is itemized, carries the required certification statement, and matches the work performed, and that the subrecipient is spending at a pace consistent with the project timeline.
  • The Post-Award office: risk. Provides backup on invoice review, confirms each year that the subrecipient has a current Single Audit where applicable and no findings that affect your project, and — for higher-risk subrecipients — requests more frequent or detailed financial reports and conducts additional review.
• ORSP prepares all subcontracts and outgoing subawards; plan early, since negotiating a subaward takes time. Sponsor approval may be required if the subcontractor wasn’t in the original proposal or award.
• Modifications to incoming agreements are also handled through ORSP.
• The most important habit on your end: don’t approve an invoice until you’re satisfied the work it bills for has been done. A subrecipient invoice you approve is a statement that the deliverables are on track.
• Explore more about sub-recipients here.
• Who to contact: Your GCM coordinates subrecipient monitoring with you and loops in Post-Award when a subrecipient needs closer oversight.

• Purchase goods and services as needed under the award’s terms, and manage equipment and assets per university policy. 
• Time your purchases to the project: order equipment needed for the project at least 90 days before the project ends, and avoid ordering materials and supplies in the last 30 days unless you can justify that they are needed to complete the work.
• Procurement processes approved requisitions, all purchases over $2500 must be made via a purchase requisition/order.
• Know your purchasing thresholds. Federal rules set the level of competition required based on the size of a purchase.
  • Micro-purchase (up to $15,000): competition isn’t required as long as the price is reasonable; keep brief documentation of that reasonableness. Good for routine, low-cost supplies or services.
  • Small purchase (over $15,000 up to $350,000): obtain price quotes from an adequate number of qualified sources (generally three or more) and document the quotes, your vendor selection, and a price analysis.
• To check the status of payment to vendors, you can check this on your Faculty Workday grants management Dashboard and work with your GCM who can contact Accounts Payable for you to provide an update
• P-card charges:
  • You (the PI) are responsible for reconciling your p-card promptly.
  • Please note that your GCM and academic coordinators are not allowed to reconcile p-cards.
  • Instructions about how to reconcile transactions through an expense report.
    • See Create Expense Report Reimbursement Job Aid
    • See Reconciling PCard Transactions in Workday Job Aid
    • See Tax Guide for PCard Reconciliation Job Aid
    • See Reimbursement for Personal Charges on a Pcard Job Aid
• Who to contact: Your GCM, Accounts Payable (), and Procurement () can help you choose the right path and keep the documentation an auditor would expect.

Follow the regular WFU travel guidance, with a few added requirements that protect your award if it’s ever audited:

• Keep itemized receipts.
  • Sponsored-project travel is reimbursed on actual expenses, not per diems, so keep itemized receipts for everything — meals included. They show that what you charged was allowable (for example, that alcohol or an unusually expensive meal wasn’t charged to the grant). 
  • A Missing Receipt Affidavit covers the rare lost receipt, but using it repeatedly can lead to a denied reimbursement.
• Tie the trip to the project.
  • If you’re presenting, keep the conference agenda and any title or acknowledgment slide (or poster header) that names the sponsor and award number — for example, “Research reported here was supported by [Sponsor] under award [number].” 
  • If you’re traveling for fieldwork, data collection, training, or a project meeting rather than presenting, note the traveler, role, destination, dates, purpose, and benefit to the project in the expense comments.
• Handle personal days carefully.
  • Adding personal time to a grant-funded trip is fine, but it’s the single most common audit flag. 
  • Pay your own lodging, meals, and incidentals for personal days; cover any added airfare cost; document which days are business and which are personal.
  • Reminder: never put personal expenses on your PCard.
• Plan foreign travel early
  • If foreign travel was not in your approved budget, consult ORSP before you commit — it may require the sponsor’s prior approval
  • Federally funded foreign travel must use a U.S. flag carrier under the Fly America Act (limited exceptions apply). 
  • At least 30 days ahead, complete the international travel forms through Global Programs & Studies, and consult ORSP about export controls.

• Buying equipment on an active award
  • Follow WFU’s purchasing thresholds and competition requirements; larger equipment buys need documented quotes.
  • Time it well. Order equipment early enough that it arrives and is genuinely used during the project — generally well before the end date, not in the final weeks. Equipment can’t be purchased late in an award simply to spend down a balance; it has to benefit the remaining work.
  • If you’re building a custom instrument from components (“fabrication”), tell your GCM — the assembled item may be treated as one piece of equipment for budgeting and F&A purposes.
• Title, tagging, and inventory
  • Ownership (title) follows your sponsor’s terms; your GCM and ORSP confirm whether title vests with WFU or the sponsor.
  • WFU’s Capital Assets team tags and records each asset, and departments conduct a physical inventory at least every two years to verify the University’s property records. Keep your equipment where it can be located and verified. 
• Disposal, loss, or closeout
  • If grant-funded equipment is lost, stolen, or disposed of, the PI may be responsible for notifying the sponsoring agency; disposition at the end of an award follows the sponsor’s property terms.
• Who to contact: Your GCM helps budget and time equipment purchases; WFU’s Capital Assets team () handles tagging, inventory, and disposal.
• Policies: Asset Management and Fixed Assets.

• Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) — for physical materials such as cell lines, reagents, specimens, or equipment loans.
• Data Use Agreement (DUA) — for datasets you’ll receive or share, especially restricted or identifiable data.
• Confidentiality / Non-Disclosure Agreement (CDA/NDA) — when you’ll exchange proprietary information with a company.
• Route these through ORSP (with Wake Forest Innovations where intellectual property or a for-profit company is involved). As with proposals, you can’t sign them yourself — only an authorized institutional official in ORSP can.
• Start early. Negotiating terms can take several weeks, and materials or data should never be accepted or sent before the agreement is fully signed. Researchers should allow at least two weeks for contract review and negotiation. Ultimate review time required may vary depending on the complexity of the contract.
• If human-derived materials or identifiable data are involved, confirm your IRB approval covers the transfer first.
• Who to contact: ORSP handles MTAs, DUAs, and confidentiality agreements; Wake Forest Innovations handles those tied to intellectual property or commercialization.

• When your grants incur expenses, you will receive discretionary funds proportional to a fraction of the indirect costs that the university receives to support your research activity. 
• These funds are allocated to your personal Institutional Discretionary (ID) account, which is more flexible than grant funds but is not unrestricted personal money.
• Allowable uses include student stipends and research assistants, temporary lab help, bridge funding during gaps, conference registration and travel to present or meet collaborators, lab supplies, publication fees, professional memberships, and journal subscriptions.
• What it can’t cover:
  • Personal expense reimbursement or additional academic-year salary (summer salary is allowable).  
  • “Double dipping” on costs already charged to a grant is also not allowed. For example, if a conference trip is already budgeted and charged to your NIH award, you can’t also run that same airfare or registration through your ID account — that would be paying for one cost twice, out of two pots of institutional money.
• If you leave WFU, any remaining ID balance reverts to your department — it can’t be cashed out.

• Many budget changes can be approved by ORSP under Expanded Authorities; others require the sponsor’s prior approval. 
• Use the prior-approval and rebudget request forms for changes that need review.
• Start with your GCM, who will help you to navigate the approval process

• Multi-year awards rarely spend to the exact dollar each year. Whether you can carry an unspent balance into the next budget period — and whether you need approval first — depends on how your award is classified. Every NIH Notice of Award states whether the grant is SNAP or non-SNAP, so check yours.
• SNAP awards (Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process). Unspent funds carry over automatically from one budget period to the next and stay available across the project period — no separate request needed. When the next year’s amendment arrives, Grants Acounting () updates the end date and adds the new funds in Workday, and you continue spending as usual.
• Non-SNAP awards. Carryover is not automatic — it requires prior approval from the NIH Grants Management Officer assigned to your award, which can take months and may be reduced before it’s granted. Plan ahead so a gap doesn’t stall your work. Let your GCM know so they can work with ORSP Central on the approval.
• If that approval won’t arrive before your current budget period ends, submit an  Award Continuation Form so you can keep incurring costs in anticipation of the forthcoming amendment.
  • Note that this form makes you — and your department — responsible for any unallowable charges if the sponsor ultimately does not continue the project.

• If you need more time to finish the work but not more money, you can request a no-cost extension (NCE)  before your award ends.
• An NCE extends the end date of the project without adding funds.
• You can’t request one simply to spend down a remaining balance — there has to be a genuine need to complete the project’s work.
• Request it through your GCM who will contact ORSP, and they will contact the sponsor for approval. 
• For a one-time extension of up to 12 months, the sponsor must be notified well before the original end date — so in practice, start the conversation with your GCM 45 to 60 days ahead to give ORSP central time to process it.
• Once the approved NCE is received, the Post-Award office updates the end date in Workday.