To approve an advance, log in to SAGE and click on the Approvals tab to view the My Approvals page.
Select the advance to review from the list or use the Advanced Search link to find a specific advance.
When you open an advance, the approval flow displays, as shown in the following image.
The Approvals section of the advance displays this approval flow and can be used to check the approval status.
The approval flow reads from top to bottom. Some approver nodes are grouped and can be approved in any order.
The above image shows the approval flow for an advance in Routing status. The first node lists the Advance Preparer(s), two in this case, and indicates the routing date for the advance. The node is green to show its step is complete.
The grouped nodes are for the Principal Investigator, Organization Reviewer, and the Office of Research (SFI Review):
The PI node includes the principal investigator’s name and status.
The organization reviewer node includes the organization’s name, ID, and status.
The SFI review status is either Ready for review or Review complete.
In the Organization Reviewer node, select the See All Reviewers link to view a list of reviewer names and NetIDs, as shown in the image below.
Next is the GCA Reviewer node with a status of Not yet ready for review. Last is the Processed node, which will turn green when all other nodes are complete. See the example image at the end of this article.
Note: if PI delegation is selected, the Principal Investigator node will not display, and the PI delegate chip will be added to the Organization Reviewer node, as shown in this image.
After reviewing the advance, you can approve it or return it for modification by the PI and/or advance preparer. The following image shows the return and approve buttons.
Approve
When you select Approve Request, a dialog will display with an optional comments box and assurance text. The text varies depending on whether you are the PI or an organization reviewer. The PI’s dialog is shown below.
Check the box to indicate you have read and agree with the certification text. This will enable the Approve Request button, allowing you to complete the process. You also have the option to Cancel.
If you are an organization reviewer, you will see similar menus as the PI. The dialog may differ as certain elements like Human Subjects only apply to the PI.
Note: If PI Approval is delegated and the research involves Human Subjects or Animals, the organization reviewer will be providing assurance on behalf of the PI that spending will not occur until an approved IRB or protocol is in place.
Return
If you select the Return Request button, a dialog displays, as shown below.
To complete the process, enter the required return reason and select Return Request. The PI and Advance Preparer will be notified.
SFI & FCOI Review
The Office of Research will approve the SFI status and the approvals section will reflect this update.
NOTE: If an investigator’s disclosure status updates from “Waiting for JIT” to “No Review Required” the investigator’s name will no longer appear on the SFI Review node.
The following describes the possible statuses for the Office of Research approval node, each with an example image.
SFI Review 1: Displays on approvals prior to routing the advance.
SFI Review 2: Displays once advance is routed.
SFI Review 3: Displays after system process runs to update Just-in-Time (JIT) status.
SFI Review 4: Displays after Office of Research reviews disclosures.
SFI Review 5: Displays when system process updates all disclosures to “No Review
Required”.
Add/Remove an Ad Hoc Reviewer
If you can edit the advance, you can add an ad hoc (i.e., for a particular purpose only) reviewer to the approval flow. These manually-added reviewers could be a person that needs to review and approve the advance in addition to the Principal Investigator and Organization Reviewer.
You can add a person by clicking on one of the plus signs (+) that appear on the approval flow. Once you submit the advance, the group nodes will be ready for review, and you will no longer have the option to add someone before the group. Similarly, once the advance is ready for review by GCA, the plus sign before GCA will no longer display.
The following image shows this state of the approval flow.
When you click on the plus sign, an Add Reviewer dialog will display. Enter a comment for this reviewer, which is required. Then search by name or NetID for the person you want to add. The Add Reviewer button will then be enabled for you to select. The approval flow will update to show the added node, and the reviewer will be notified when their node is ready for review, like the other approvers. The following image shows the Add Reviewer dialog.
To delete the added reviewer, click on the 3-dot menu icon in the node and select “Remove reviewer”. A confirmation dialog will display. The following image shows the Remove Reviewer dialog.
Processed Approval Flow Example
The following image shows an example of the approval flow for an advance in processed status.
The Advanced Search link on the My Approvals page displays the search criteria which you can use to find specific eGC1s or Advance Budget Requests.
You can search on any single field or a combination of the criteria to locate items. More specific searches will return fewer results.
Search Field
Description
Item Number
Enter the entire eGC1 or Advance number with the prefix. For example, “A12345” or “ADV12345”.
Short Title
Enter any of the words or string of letters contained in the title. You must enter at least three characters.
Full Application Title
Enter any of the words or string of letters contained in the title. You must enter at least three characters.
PI name (last, first)
Enter the last name, or the last name plus first initial, or the last name plus first name. For example: Smith; Smith, J; or Smith, John. You may also enter just the beginning of the last name as long as you enter at least two characters.
Sponsor Name
Enter any of the words, string of letters contained in the sponsor name, or the sponsor’s acronym. You must enter at least two characters.
Date Approved After
Enter a valid date (mm/dd/yyyy). For example, enter 6/1/19 to display eGC1s that you approved after that date.
Date Approved Before
Enter a valid date (mm/dd/yyyy). For example, enter 6/1/19 to display eGC1s that you approved before that date.
My Approval Status
Choose an approval status from the drop-down menu. eGC1s in the selected status will appear on the display list. Choices are:
Approved
Returned
En Route
Waiting Approval
Watching
Watched
Item Status
Choose an item status from the drop-down menu. Only Items in the selected status will appear on the display list. Some of the statuses only apply to eGC1s or Advances, as noted. Choices are:
Routing
Withdrawn
In OSP (only applies to eGC1s)
Approved (only applies to eGC1s)
Returned
In GCA (only applies to Advances)
Processed (only applies to Advances)
Awarded (only applies to eGC1s)
Denied by Sponsor (only applies to eGC1s)
Permanently Withdrawn (only applies to eGC1s)
Select Search to display the results list, which displays the following information:
Attachments to the new Advance request tool can now be replaced with new versions of the document after the Advance has been routed for review. Prior to this update, once an Advance had been routed, you could only upload attachments as additions without a clear relationship to the existing attachments they replaced. This update brings attachment functionality in line with the eGC1, making it easier to maintain attached documents and identify the latest versions.
When there are multiple versions of an attachment, the latest version will display at top and click the expand arrow to see prior versions.
Warning on Advances Related to Award with Automatic Carryover
When an award includes automatic carryover, and a department would like to begin spending on a future period that is not yet fully authorized, a temporary budget extension is more often the appropriate choice rather than a renewal advance request. To help inform users, a new warning will display after clicking to create an advance when SAGE detects that the advance is related to an award (funding action) that includes automatic carryover. You can choose to either proceed with an advance, or, be redirected to the temporary budget extension form.
Notification of Advance Extension to Reviewer from Organization Receiving Funding
An email notification will now be sent to the Advance Reviewers for the Organization Receiving Funding on Advance Extensions when the advance is routed to GCA. This will keep campus reviewers informed, while not requiring direct approval in SAGE.
Advance Reviewers Now Display on Advance Approval Graph
The names and NetIDs for the people designated in ASTRA to approve for an organization will now display on the Advance approval graph. This will make it easier for Advance Preparers to identify who to coordinate with when needed.
Improved Visibility to Cost Share and Compliance Updates
The Cost Sharing and Non-Fiscal Compliance sections of the new Advance request will now display an “Updated” indicator to make it easier for reviewers to identify when the responses in the Advance have been altered from what was listed on the related eGC1.
SERA
Add Link to Cycle View from Advances in SERA
GCA will now be able to navigate to the associated cycle from within Advance requests in SERA. This will make it easier for GCA to quickly reference information about how the advance fits within a broader award.
GCA can Replace Cost Share Addendum with New Version
GCA can utilize the new attachment versioning functionality to replace Cost Share addendums when an Advance is in “In GCA” or “Processed” status. This will allow GCA to ensure the Advance request record contains the latest version of the Cost Share Addendum.
SPAERC & SERA
Advance Extensions Display on FAs and in Cycle View
Advance Extension requests will now display alongside New and Renewal type requests on the Funding Action and Cycle view in SPAERC and SERA. This will provide OSP and GCA with visibility to how Advance Extensions fit within the broader award.
Funding Action:
Cycle:
FIDS
Priority Review Indicator Now Displays for All Disclosures Related to Advances
All SFI disclosures that are triggered for review by a routed Advance will display in FIDS with a “Priority Review” flag. Previously, this flag was only set for Advance-related disclosures that went to “Review Required” status. Now disclosures that resolve to “No Review Required” will also be flagged for priority review. This will provide ORC with an easy way to identify all disclosures with a related Advance in routing.
To delete a new or extension Advance Budget Request:
You must be an owner or have permission to edit the Advance Budget Request.
The Advance Budget Request must be in Composing status.
See note below about Advance Budget Requests in other statuses.
Start by selecting the “more options” menu icon to the far right of the Request Status in the advance header. The menu icon is three, blue vertical dots.
From the menu, select Delete request. The following image shows this menu.
When you select Delete request, a confirmation dialog displays, stating the advance with be permanently deleted, as shown below.
To cancel deleting the request, select either the Cancel button, the blue X in the upper right, or click outside of the dialog.
When you select Delete Request, the system will remove the advance and will display your list of advances.
Note: Advance Budget Requests in a status other than Composing
Currently, SAGE does not allow you to delete or remove an Advance Budget Request that is not in Composing status. The SAGE Team is aware of the need and is developing the ability for campus and GCA to “Permanently Withdraw” Advances that are no longer needed. This will better align with the eGC1 processes, and allow users to filter and view the advances in the future if needed. Until that option is available, leaving an Advance Budget Request in a Returned or Withdrawn status does no harm.
Based on user feedback, we have made updates that streamline the SAGE Advance Budget approval process and Advance Reviewer role setup in ASTRA.
Advances with financially responsible division or sub-division level organization codes can now be approved by either a division OR department level ASTRA-authorized Advance Reviewer.
If no division level Advance Reviewer is set up, the advance will automatically forward to the department level Reviewer, if one is authorized in ASTRA.
Need Both Division and Department Level Reviewers?
If you need to assign someone the Advance Reviewer role at both the division and department level, make sure to assign division-level authorizations first, before department-level.
Reminder: An Advance Reviewer is Required
The Advance Reviewer role is required to approve advance budget requests in SAGE. If there are no Advance Reviewers authorized for your organization in ASTRA, the advance will be blocked from routing, and a notification will be sent to sagehelp@uw.edu.
What if I already authorized Advance Reviewers in ASTRA at the division level?
If you already authorized Advance Reviewers in ASTRA at only the division level, you can either keep your authorizations as is or you can remove the division level reviewers and replace them with a department level reviewer.
Please keep in mind, if there is no division level reviewer, a department level reviewer is required.
A type of New is assigned when the eGC1 selected for creating the advance is in a cycle without a processed FA.
An exception to this rule is when the eGC1 selected is a Competing Renewal, the advance type assigned will be Renewal even if it’s in a new cycle without a processed FA.
A type of Renewal is assigned when the eGC1 selected for creating the advance is in a cycle with a processed FA.
For a Renewal, the General Information section will display an additional section showing the associated budget(s).
The following image shows an example of the budget information.
The data shown includes:
Budget Number
Start and End Dates
Short Title
Sponsor Award Number
Any sub-budgets associated with the parent budget will also display. You can select the ones you want to also be renewed.
The budget number for a Non-Competing Renewal is from the most recently processed Funding Action in the same cycle as the selected eGC1. For a Competing Renewal, the budget number is from the most recently processed Funding Action in the related cycle previous to the cycle of the selected eGC1.
By default, if there is only one budget listed, it is selected and cannot be changed.
The Non-Fiscal Compliance section of the advance will include any Compliance updates from other advances assigned to the award number.
Once you submit a renewal advance, it will go directly to GCA. It does not need approval by any campus reviewers.
The Advance Budget Request process has been revised, in order to introduce streamlining and address pain points in the current process. Below is a comparison of current state to future state process.
Current-to-Future Streamlining
Release Highlights
Advance eligibility determined by system, streamlining processes through
Deprecation of Advance Eligibility web form
Elimination of OSP role in Advance Request process
New design for ease of entry
Electronic routing replaces paper approvals and expedites SFI reviews
Streamlined business unit processes
Prepares for future Workday forms and processes
GIM 9 alignment with new process
Advance Eligibility Determination Automated
With this release, users will go directly to SAGE as Step 1 of the Advance Budget Request process. SAGE will systematically determine if your eGC1 is eligible for an advance, based on the following business rules:
Advances will be allowed if:
The eGC1 is in “Approved” or “Awarded” status
The eGC1 is not a Non-Award Agreement or a Pre-Application
The eGC1 does not have a related Funding Action that has made it to GCA for processing
As a result of this automation, two major streamlining shifts are introduced:
OSP will no longer be involved in the eligibility determination process. This allows requests to go directly to GCA once campus approvals are complete and any compliance issues are resolved.
The Advance Request Eligibility web form will be deprecated. Users will complete the entire advance request process from within SAGE.
The system eligibility check will not cover whether a sponsor allows pre-award spending. Advance preparers will still need to verify pre-award eligibility before proceeding.
New design for ease of entry
The advance request form is redesigned for a more intuitive and streamlined entry process. Design features include:
Left navigation panel contains sections to be completed or reviewed, with status symbols indicating when sections are considered complete
Data collected at time of proposal defaults from the eGC1 for reduced entry
Key eGC1 details are visible in a collapsible right side panel for reference
Helpful alerts indicate when SFI disclosures or PHS Training requirements are not met.
Easy review and update of Non-Fiscal Compliance responses from the original eGC1. Users are prompted to update missing protocol information at time of Advance. This allows the SAGE system to connect to Zipline and Hoverboard, and expose the protocol status and details within SAGE over the life of the Award. Users will be asked to confirm that they have reviewed the non-fiscal compliance questions to further ensure accuracy and completeness.
Electronic routing for approval and SFI reviews
Approvals of advance budget requests will now happen within SAGE, eliminating the former paper process. A new ASTRA role is available for departments to use in designating their Advance Reviewers. Preparers will also be able to include ad hoc approvers on Advances.
Streamlining Business Unit Processes
By taking a holistic approach to business process reengineering for advance requests, three of our business units will experience time savings and improved processes.
OSP removal from review role for advances. By automating the eligibility checks for advances, and systematically confirming when SFI reviews have been completed, OSP no longer needs to be a part of the advance request process. The time savings realized can be applied to other areas. OSP will still have visibility into advances through SPAERC, and will be alerted to their presence in a more prominent way when setting up Funding Actions.
Office of Research SFI alerts. The Office of Research will now receive notifications of only the relevant SFI reviews associated with the advance request, upon submission of the Advance Request. FIDS reviewers will also benefit from improvements to their tasklist that call special attention to reviews required for advances, to aid prioritization of work.
GCA SERA updates. Grant and Contract Accounting will no longer need to print paper copies of key documents like approvals, and will have more relevant SAGE and Finance system data in their request view, reducing the number of systems/views they need to hop between to complete processing. The SERA user interface will also have a more modern and user friendly layout.
GIM 9 Alignment with advance request process
The GIM 9 policy updates will reflect business process changes introduced in conjunction with this release, to add clarity, bringing policy and system behavior in sync, including providing flexibility on the length of the request, and contributing to overall streamlining of advance processing.
Helps Prepare for Future Workday Forms and Processes
The redesign and technical infrastructure work in this release are significant in laying the groundwork for the SAGE Finance Transformation work to come. The improvements that will directly support the FT efforts include:
New design patterns will be used in future post-award intake forms. Users will benefit from a familiar data entry experience across advance, award setup, and award modification requests when Workday goes live. This will allow them to navigate easily within and between forms, and simplify training and onboarding efforts. The new design patterns will also allow ORIS to develop the new FT intake forms more quickly, as they leverage the existing work done on Advances.
Creation of a new Approvals and Workflow engine. With this release, a new Approvals and Workflow engine has been developed using more modern technologies and a configurable design that will scale well for the FT work to come. Eventually this new engine and approvals design will replace the eGC1 approvals as well.
Development of new Microservices for Advances. The development of microservices for advances lays the groundwork for being able to easily flow data between SAGE and Workday, as well as support data flows to MyResearch and EDW in the future.
The Approvals section of the advance displays the units and individuals that will need to approve the advance. The section appears for all advance statuses and can be used to check the approval progress.
The principal investigator and advance reviewers can access their advances from SAGE Approvals. They can review and then approve or return the request from the Request Summary section.
The approval flow reads from top to bottom. Some approver cards are grouped, and can be approved in any order. When the advance has been submitted for routing, and reviewers are approving it, the card statuses and color will update to show the advance’s progress. When all of the approvals are done, and GCA has completed their steps, the Processed card will change color.
The Comments & History section displays entries for events in the advance request process. You can also add a comment at any time. The entries display in reverse chronological order, so the most recent one is first.
The following image shows an example of this page for a fully processed advance.
The table columns are:
Action Taken – the event that created the entry; described in the following table
Timestamp – the date and time of the event
Name – the user whose action triggered the event or who manually added a comment
Comment – the text of the comment, either system-generated or user-entered
Note: not all actions have comments. For those entries, a dash will appear in the Comment column.
When an advance is editable, you can manually add a comment by selecting the Add Comment button above the table, as shown in the following image.
A dialog will display. As you start entering your comment, the Add Comment button in the dialog will be enabled. Select it to save your comment. You can only delete your own manually added comments. Select the trash can icon to the right of the comment to remove it.
You can also add a comment from anywhere within the advance by selecting the “more actions” (3 stacked dots) icon at the far left of the header, and choosing Add Comment.
Event Entries
The system will add an entry for the events described in the following table. The “comment type” column indicates if there will be any comment text, and if so, whether it is system-generated or user-entered.
History Event
Event Trigger
Comment Type
Created request
Clicking “Select” button next to eGC1
(none)
Submitted for routing
Clicking “Submit & Route” button on Review & Submit page
System-generated
Resubmitted for routing
Clicking “Submit & Re-route” button on Review & Submit page after a return
User-entered and required
Delegated PI Approval
When PI node is approved
User-entered and required
Approved and certified
PI clicking “Approve & Certify” button in approval modal
(none)
Approved
Clicking “Approve” button on Request Summary page of routing advance
(none)
Returned
Clicking “Return Request” button in return modal of an advance
User-entered and required
Withdrawn
Clicking “Withdraw” button
(none)
Added ad hoc approver
Clicking “Add ad hoc Approver” button in add approver modal
User-entered and optional
Removed ad hoc approver
Clicking “Remove Approver” button on the ad hoc approver’s workflow graph node
User-entered and optional
Commented
Clicking “Add Comment” button on the Comments & History page, or by selecting “Add Comment” from the “more actions” menu in the advance header
Displays the responses from the associated application at the time the advance is created. You have the option to edit those responses, as described below. This tab is selected by default.
Displays a read-only view of the responses from related items.
Current Responses
This tab displays two expandable sections: Human Subjects and Animal Use. You can expand one section at a time by clicking on the blue caret to the left of the section name. Each section shows the questions and current responses from the associated application’s Non-Fiscal Compliance page.
When a section is expanded, there is a Close link at the lower left, and a Next or Previous Section link at the lower right for navigating between the two sections.
The Human Subjects section displays the current responses from the associated application for the HS-1 question, with HS-1A and HS-1B (if HS-1 was answered Yes), and the HS-2 question. You can add IRB Application Details, if known, which OSP will be able to view.
The Animal Use section displays the AU-1 question and current response. You can add protocol details, if known, which OSP will be able to view.
At the bottom of the page, below the Current Response sections, there is a check box and the statement “I have reviewed these responses and confirm they are accurate and up-to-date.” You must check the box to fully complete the Non-Fiscal Compliance section of the advance.
Editing Responses
At the far right of each section is an Edit link. Select this link to update the responses. The section will become editable, displaying the current response. When you make a change, messages will appear at the bottom of the screen: first “Updating your responses – this might take a moment…”, then “Finished updating responses”.
When you change a response, a “Reason for change” text box will display. Use this to explain the changes you are making. In some cases, when you change a value from No to Yes, you will see additional questions that need to be answered. You may also be prompted to add IRB Application (Human Subjects) or Add Protocol (Animal Use).
When you first select the Edit link, the link changes to Done. Select Done to save any changes you have made and return to the read-only display. You can leave the section as editable, and select the Done link at another time. Your changes will need to be saved in order to complete the section.
Responses from older eGC1s & advances
The second tab for this section displays the responses from related items.
The associated eGC1 displays in an expandable section. Selecting the eGC1 number will open the application in a new tab/window. The text (Original Responses) follows the eGC1 number. Below the number is the text Item last edited with the date.
Use the blue caret to the left of the application number to expand/collapse the section. This will display five collapsed sub-sections, one for each of the eGC1 Non-Fiscal Compliance question sets:
Human Subjects
Animal Use
Environmental Health & Safety
Equipment & Materials
Data & Technology
You can expand each section to see a read-only view of the responses.
Note: For a renewal advance request, the most recently updated award compliance responses will display.
The following image shows the application section expanded, displaying the compliance sub-sections.
