A Principal Investigator (PI) or Research Administrator (RA) can request authorization to spend in advance of the receipt of an award or the setting up of an award in UW systems. The department must guarantee these expenditures if an award does not come through. The UW authorizes advance spending through the assignment of an advance budget number.
The PI or RA uses SAGE to create the Advance Budget Number Request or Advance Extension. Once approved by the PI, Department Reviewer, and the Office of Research SFI Reviewer, the advance request moves to GCA Assigned status and is available for processing in SAGE Central.
From the Awards tasklist, open the item by selecting either the Request ID or Short Title. You can also search for an item by its Request ID or associated eGC1 number. Selecting the item from the result list will open it in a new browser tab.
The advance request header for an Advance includes (reading left to right):
a blue arrow to return to the tasklist
the text “Advance Budget Request” and the request’s number (ADVnnnn)
a link to the Request Application (eGC1)
the Advance Budget number (if it exists)
the Award Activity number (if it exists)
a link to the Associated Cycle (if it exists)
the Request Status
a more options menu (three vertical dots) which allows you to add a comment
The following image shows an example header for an advance.
When you open an advance, by default the Request Summary section will display.
Within the Request Summary, you can edit the GCA Managed Information section. You will be able to view the remaining sections:
Within the Request Summary, you can also Return a Request to campus.
Once a budget number or numbers are assigned, you can Mark Setup Complete & Notify Campus to complete the process. This will change the advance’s status to Processed, display the budget number in the header, and update the GCA and Processes nodes on the Approval Flow.
Advances move through different statuses as they are created and processed.
Status
Process Stage
In GCA
Received by GCA
Re-sent by campus to GCA after modification
Returned
Advance returned by GCA to campus for modification
Denied
Advance denied by GCA
Processed
GCA selected Mark Setup Complete & Notify Campus which sends an automated email to the PI and the Advance Preparer to let them know the advance has been processed
Once an advance budget request has been processed, campus can request an advance budget number extension.
Advance budgets that are requested for the maximum of 12 months can be extended for up to 6 months.
NOTE: If the advance budget is requested for less than 12 months, the duration of the advance (12 months or less) + extension must be less than or equal to 18 months.
Along with the revised end date and reason for the extension, campus can indicate any sub-budgets associated with the parent advance budget that they also want extended.
Once campus submits their extension request in SAGE, you will see it on the SAGE Central Awards tasklist with the following information:
Request Type: Extension
Request Status: GCA Assigned
Request Status Date: (date value)
Select the Request ID or Short Title to open the Advance Budget Extension Request page.
Once all of the budgets associated with the extension have been updated, you can select Approve Extension.
A dialogue box will appear where you can enter an optional comment regarding the extension, and then select All Set, Notify Campus.
The following image shows the approval dialog:
Once you have approved the extension, the status will update to Processed and notifications will be sent to the parent and sub-budget Principal Investigators (PIs) with the advance preparers copied.
If you select Deny extension, a confirmation dialog will display. Once you enter the required comment, the Deny, Notify Campus button will be enabled. Select it to change the advance’s status to Denied and notify campus.
The following image shows the denial dialog with a comment:
To return an Advance Budget Request to campus for modifications, scroll down to the bottom of the Request Summary page. Below the Delegation of PI Approval section are two buttons: Return Request and Mark Setup Complete, as shown below.
When you select the Return Request button, a confirmation dialog will display, as shown below.
Once you have entered the required Return Reason, the Return Request button will be enabled. To cancel out of the dialog, use the Cancel link or the blue X in the upper, right corner.
When you return a request, the item will move to Returned status and will be read-only. An alert message will display at the top of the Request & Submit/Request Summary page with the date of the return and the reason. The following image shows an example of this.
The GCA view of the Request Summary includes the GCA Managed Information section, shown in the following image.
By default, the following fields are auto-populated based on the associated application or budget details. You can edit each field as needed by clicking within the field or on the drop-down arrow:
Assigned To
Activity Location
F&A Rate
Parent Budget F&A Rate Base Type
NOTE: If you update the Activity Location, F&A Rate, or Parent Budget F&A Rate Base Type within the GCA Managed Information section, the update will automatically appear in the General Information section.
The last field within the section is the Form of Payment, which must be assigned by GCA. To assign the Form of Payment, click the drop-down arrow and select the appropriate form of payment. The following image shows the menu choices.
With the introduction of SAGE Central, all GCA functions are now done there.
This guide has been “retired” but retained for now.
GCA staff use the System for Electronic Research Accounting (SERA) to manage SAGE-related items of the following types:
Advance Budget Number Requests (ADV): Campus users create these to request a budget number in advance of their award so that they can begin spending the award.
Funding Actions (FA): OSP staff create these to manage awards received by the UW.
Post-Award Changes (PAC): OSP staff create these to manage any award changes made after the initial receipt.
Other Forms (OTH): GCA staff create these to record and track forms related to setting up new budgets in addition to Advances, Funding Actions and Post-Award Changes.
You can replace the cost share addendum with a newer version when an advance is in In GCA or Processed status.
In the Cost Share section of the Request Summary, there is a 3-dot more actions menu at the far right of the attachment row. The menu options are:
Replace file with newer version
Delete attachment
The following image shows the menu choices.
To replace a file, select that option from the menu. A dialog will display, as shown below, where you can upload the newer version of your file.
Once you have added the newer version, you can expand the row and add a comment for the revised file. The expanded view will show all versions of the attachment, with the most recently added version at the top. The following image shows an example.
By default, the Prior BN, Short Title, PI Name, and Org Receiving Funding fields are auto-populated based on the associated application and funding action.
The following image shows the Budgets section for a new advance before a budget number is assigned.
Budget Setup For New Advances
Follow these steps to complete the budget setup process:
Click the Type of Budget drop-down menu to assign the budget type. NOTE: Once the budget type is selected, the Biennium and ADV BN will automatically be filled in.
Enter the ADV BN and other required information into FIN.
Click the green Mark Setup Complete & Notify Campus button.
Once you click Mark Setup Complete & Notify Campus, a dialog box appears with a reminder to make sure all budgets associated with the request are set up in FIN before notifying campus. If your budgets are set up in FIN, click the blue All Set, Notify Campus button. If you are not ready to notify campus, click Cancel.
Once you click All Set, Notify Campus , the header will automatically update to include the Advance Budget number and the status will update to Processed.
NOTE: You can navigate away from the Budgets section prior to completing the budget setup. All of the information you have entered will automatically save. The advance request will remain in GCA status, and the last action taken will update to Budget# Assigned/Confirmed.
Edit an Assigned Budget Number
The advance budget number can be updated to any budget number prior to marking the setup complete.
If a different Budget Type is selected, a confirmation message will appear, confirming that you want to change the type and assign a new budget number.
Budget Setup for Renewals
Advance budget renewal requests can be submitted for parent budgets with and without sub budgets.
In this case, the advance budget request for the parent budget is listed first on the Budgets section, and any sub budget requests will follow.
NOTE: The Prior Budget Number details for renewals are listed in the General Information Section.
To set up and edit budget numbers for renewals, follow the same steps (1-5) outlined for setting up new advance budget requests.
The following images shows a renewal with sub budgets selected.
FIX: Unprocessing of FAs/PACs/ADVs Can Cause Errors
Periodically GCA staff need to “unprocess” an item previously completed. When new fields are added to SPAERC and SERA, it would at times cause validation messages at time of unprocessing of an item, that were not able to be corrected by GCA. The system has been updated to suppress validations during unprocessing, to alleviate this problem. The validations will again run when the item is re-processed.
