Financial accounts are defined in the Grants system to capture information required by your institution's financial system. This allows the two systems to communicate when integrated.
Budget allocations can reference a financial account, and this is required for authorized and advance account allocations.
The first time you save a newly created award, the system automatically sets up one default financial account, which you can then edit as needed. This topic shows how to create a new financial account from scratch or by copying an existing one, how to update an existing account, and how to delete an account.
To create a new financial account
Open the desired award from the Dashboard or the Grants Awards page.
From the workspace, click Edit Award.
Navigate to the Financial Setup page.
Under Financial Accounts, click Add.
The Add Financial Account form appears.
Type a name for the account.
Enter any of the optional information needed for your financial system.
Select the indirect cost base type.
This selection determines the indirect cost calculation used during budget reconciliation for all allocations that reference this financial account.
Once the award is activated, changing this selection does not change the indirect calculations for allocations referencing this financial account.
Select whether this financial account is active or not. Only active accounts are available for selection in budget allocations.
When done setting up this financial account, click OK, or OK and Add Another.
To create a new financial account from an existing one
On the Financial Setup page, to the right of the desired account, click Copy.
In the Copy Financial Account form, make any changes to the information needed for the account you are setting up.
When done, click OK.
To update an existing financial account
On the Financial Setup page, click Update for the financial account you want to modify. You can update financial accounts in an award until the award enters the Active state. After that, you must create a Financial Account Change modification to update the account.
Update the information in the Edit Financial Account form.
Click OK
To delete a financial account
On the Financial Setup page, click the Delete button 
to the right of the desired financial account.
You can delete a financial account only if:
The account is not referenced by allocations in the award or any of its modifications. Otherwise, you must first remove or change that reference in those allocations.
The award has not entered the Active state. Otherwise, you must create a Financial Account Change modification to delete the account.
Manage Award Allocations
Key to setting up an award or an award modification is defining allocations. When you create an award, the system automatically creates non-authorized allocations with $0 amounts based on the number of budgets and periods in the funding proposal(s).
Note: This does not occur in cost-share, subaward and external component budgets.)
You can:
Complete the default allocations.
Delete the default allocations or any other allocations you may have created.
Create new allocations from scratch.
Create new allocations by copying existing ones and modifying the information as needed.
Note: If funds for all budget years have been awarded at the beginning of the project, you can remove extraneous allocations and reconcile the funds for each period into a single allocation (assuming your institutional accounting practices permit this).
To complete the default award allocations
Create a new award or open an existing award for editing. (See Create a Funding Award on page 9.)
Ensure the start and end dates on the General Award Information page are correct.
On the Budget Allocations page, click the name of a default allocation.
The Edit Budget Allocation form appears.
Select the appropriate financial account for this allocation (see Manage Financial Accounts on page 11).
If you characterize this allocation as Authorized by Sponsor or Advance Account, a financial account is required.
If the sponsor has released funds for this allocation, select Authorized by Sponsor.
(To learn how to set up an allocation to document institutional approval of advance spending, see Establish an Advance Account on page 16.)
Select whether your institution will cost share project expenses for this allocation.
If you select Yes, the Budget Reconciliation page will provide a column for entering cost share amounts. (See Reconcile the Award Budget on page 17).
The Cost Share selection can be changed in these types of award modifications:
Revision
Carryover
Continuation
NGA Revised
Budget Allocation Correction
Type the direct and indirect amounts awarded for this budget allocation.
The total awarded amount shown on the Budget Reconciliation page and the workspace is the sum of all authorized allocations.
Type this allocation’s indirect rate.
This rate is used to calculate indirect costs on the Budget Reconciliation page. (See Reconcile the Award Budget on page 17).
Select the indirect cost base type.
This determines which budget categories are included in the indirect cost base.
Enter any other required information.
When done, click OK.
The Budget Allocations page reflects your changes.Repeat the steps for each default allocation to complete.
The procedure is the same for updating any additional allocations you have created.
To delete an allocation
On the Budget Allocations page, click the Delete button
to the right of the desired allocation.
To create a new allocation
On the Budget Allocations page, click Add.
Complete the Add Budget Allocation form.
When done, click OK.
The new allocation appears on the Budget Allocations page.
To create a new allocation from an existing one
On the Budget Allocations page, click Copy to the right of the allocation to use as a template.
The Copy Budget Allocation form appears. It contains the same information as the original allocation, except the original's name is prefixed with "Copy of." and the authorization defaults to "Not Authorized."
Edit the name and other information as needed for the new allocation.
When done, click OK to save the changes.
Establish an Advance Account
If the research team requests the central office to authorize spending before an official award notification is received, or before the sponsor releases funds for a budget period, you can signal users that this is being done by putting the award or award modification into the Advance Account state.
To establish an advance account
From My Inbox or one of the tabs on the Grants Awards page, open the desired award or modification.
Click Edit Award or Edit Award Modification in the workspace.
On the Budget Allocations page edit the desired allocation by doing one of the following:
For awards:
Click Add to create a new allocation.
Click the name of an existing allocation to edit it.
For award modifications:
Click Add to create a new allocation.
Click the [Add] or [Update] link in the Action column to update a default allocation.
Click the Update button under Edit updated allocations to update an allocation that has already been updated from its default instance.
Click the Update button under Edit new allocations to update a newly created allocation.
(See Manage Award Allocations on page 13.)
On the resulting form, select Advance Account.
Complete or update the other questions as needed, then click OK.
On the Budget Allocations page, click Save, and then Exit.
Initiate a review of the award or modification. (See Initiate a Review on page 22.)
When the assigned approver is satisfied with the award or modification, they activate the award or approve the modification. (See Submit a Final Review on page 24.) This moves the award or modification to the Advance Account state.
Update Advance Spending to Authorized Spending
When the Sponsor authorizes funds for a period in which advance account spending was allowed, you should update the award to reflect that.
To update advance spending to authorized spending
Create an NGA Revised award modification. (See Create an Award Modification on page 27.)
Change the authorizations of any allocations that were set to Advanced Account to Authorized by Sponsor.
Once the modification gets approved, click the Activate Advance Account activity on the parent award's workspace. The award advances to the Active state.
Reconcile the Award Budget
When the amounts awarded by a sponsor differ from the amounts proposed in the funding proposal, as the assigned specialist, you must adjust the award budget accordingly. If an allocation you are reconciling includes cost share, you can account for that at the same time. You can reconcile the budget when you're first setting up the award in the system or afterward. This topic shows the procedure for an award, but it's the same for financial types of award modifications.
To reconcile the award budget
Open the desired award from the Dashboard or the Grants Awards page.
From the award workspace, click Edit Award.
On the Award / Authorized Budget Reconciliation page, select the allocation to reconcile.
A list of budget categories appears.
Note: Only authorized and advance account allocations are available to select. (See Manage Award Allocations on page 13.)
To populate the Baseline column with amounts from the proposal’s budget, click Import ($).
On the Import Budget form, select the budget periods from which to import amounts, and click OK.
Adjust the imported values in the Adjustments column with positive or negative values until the Difference amount in the page header reaches zero or a positive amount acceptable to your institution.
If the selected allocation includes cost-sharing, a column for adjusting cost share amounts appears in the budget table, as well.
Note: The system calculates indirect cost by including categories flagged with the dagger symbol in the indirect cost base, then multiplying the base by the indirect rate specified in allocation setup. The indirect cost base specified in allocation setup determines which budget categories show the dagger symbol.
When you've reconciled the budget, click Continue.