Award and Project Financial

Requirements for handling award funding

After an award has been accepted and/or a contract signed by the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) on behalf of the Principal Investigator (PI), the Office of Grants and Contracts (OGC) will establish project number(s) when the following items are in place:

  • The Ohio State Financial Conflict of Interest Screening/Disclosure Form (eCOI) (required at proposal stage) is completed by the PI and approved by the Office of Research Compliance
  • Institutional Review Board (IRB) and/or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval (if applicable)
  • Fully signed contract or award on file at OSP
  • All effort reports have been certified or are in the process of being corrected for all of the investigator’s projects

Some awards may also require that additional agreements be in place, such as technology commercialization plans, confidential disclosure agreements or conflict of interest management plans. Conflict of interest management plans are handled by the Office of Research Compliance.

The OSP project number is a unique, eight-digit number (long-established projects may have six-digit numbers). The project number is a critical component of WorkDay, a series of alphanumeric characters that identify financial transactions and ensure that charges are made to the correct award. The project number is typically used by OSP employees when they communicate with PIs. It is also one of the identifiers that can be used to obtain project-related financial information from the OSP electronic research administration project management tools.

Once a project number is assigned, a Project Signature Authorization and Information Request form must be completed to authorize specific individuals to make purchases. This form may be initiated by project staff but requires the signature of the PI before it is submitted to OSP.

After the award has been received and the project is set up, funds may be spent. Investigators and their staff are responsible for reviewing all project costs to ensure they are reasonable and appropriately assigned to the project, must approve purchases greater than $3,000 and must approve payments to subawardees. The OSP is responsible for completing all purchase transactions, issuing payments, processing travel reimbursements and humans subject payments and billing sponsors.

Purchase Orders

Goods and services from off-campus vendors are typically purchased electronically by using the university’s financials system (PREP). If a requisition or purchase order is submitted electronically, it must be done so by an individual authorized to enter requisitions or purchase orders on behalf of a project or department. Upon receiving requisitions, OSP buyers will review projects for available funds, whether the purchase is allowed and reasonable for the project. They will also check to confirm that the request is within the project’s start and end dates and then send the purchase orders to the vendors.

Monthly Monitoring

OSP sends an email monthly to all PIs whose projects have financial activity. This message provides a link to the online Month End Financial Statements (eMEFS). This tool can be used to reconcile project expenses and commitments at the end of each month. You can also view and print the project financial summary and various detailed personnel and non-personnel reports. If cost sharing is required on the project, these expenses can be verified.

The PI Portal can assist in monitoring financial, personnel and administrative award information. You can review personnel and non-personnel commitments and expenses, check that any significant award modifications have occurred, verify the current investigators’ effort percent and Conflict of Interest status are current and verify that projects are in compliance with all terms and conditions.