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.
SPAERC & SERA
Updates to Post-Award Change (PAC)
In order to improve the data quality, reporting, and analytics around award data, the following changes have been made to the Post-Award Change in SPAERC and SERA:
- Addition of Revised Start Date field, displayed for the PAC Requested Change type “Start Date Change”
- Addition of Revised End Date field, displayed for PAC Requested Change types “Extension”, “Early Termination”, or “Relinquishment”
- Addition of Temporary End Date field, displayed for PAC Requested Change type “Temporary Budget Extension” (formerly called “Advanced Extension”)
- Addition of Modification Number field
- Addition of Originating Sponsor Award Number field, which will pre-populate from the parent FA data, when present.
Updates to PAC Notification PDF
The above new PAC fields will also be displayed on the PDF attachment that is sent to campus when a PAC has been processed.
Updates to Pending Actions Report
The above new PAC fields are also included on the GCA Pending Actions Report
PAC Requested Change Type Updates
The following changes have been made to existing PAC types:
- “Advanced Extension” is now relabeled as “Temporary Budget Extension”
- “Significant Financial Interest” has been removed
- “Create Program Income” has been removed
- “Change of Award” has been removed
- “Change in Authorized Action” has been removed
The removed PAC Requested Change types will continue to display on historical PACs.
Update to Cycle View of PAC Data
When in the SPAERC or SERA Cycle view, the PAC row will now display the new Revised Start Date, Revised End Date, and Temporary End Date fields when populated.
Intellectual Property Provisions validation message update
The validation message that appears when the Intellectual Property Provisions question is not answered will now match the current question label, for added clarity.
SERA only: Future budget biennium selection removed
The Budget Biennium field, updated by GCA in many of the items in SERA, will no longer show future biennium dates for selection. This change will help prevent erroneous biennium selections.
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.
This article describes when and to whom SERA sends email notifications. Select a link in the Email column to display an example of the email contents.
Note: Text in the examples that is in italic represents the specific values that the system adds to an email.
| Email |
Purpose |
Sent When |
Sent To |
| Funding Action (FA) |
To notify owners that a funding action has been processed by GCA. The email includes a PDF of the completed form as an attachment. |
GCA completes the Campus Notify step while processing a funding action. |
PI, Application PI, Administrative Contact, Pre-Award Budget Contact, eGC1 Preparer, and first-level reviewers for the org code receiving funding. |
| Application Has Been Awarded |
To notify EH&S that an awarded application has an EH&S compliance approver or watcher. |
GCA completes the Campus Notify step while processing a funding action, and EH&S appears on the approval graph as a compliance reviewer. |
Appropriate reviewers for the node on the graph |
| Post Award Change (PAC) |
To notify owners of a post award change processed by GCA. The email includes a PDF of the completed form as an attachment. |
GCA completes the Campus Notify step while processing a post award change. |
PI, Application PI, Administrative Contact, Pre-Award Budget Contact, eGC1 Preparer and first-level reviewers for the org code receiving funding. |
| Advance Budget Request Processed |
To notify owners that an advance budget request has been processed by GCA. |
GCA completes the Campus Notify step while processing a budget advance. |
PI, the Advance Preparer(s). |
| Advance Sub-Budget Request Processed |
To notify the sub-budget PI and preparer that an Advance has been processed by GCA. |
GCA completes the Campus Notify step while processing a budget advance. |
Sub-budget Principal Investigator and the Advance Preparer(s) |
| Extension of Advance Budget Request Approved |
To notify the PI and preparer that an Advance Budget Number end date has been extended. |
GCA “Approve Extension” or “Approve Request to Extend Advance” |
Principal Investigator named on the Advance and the Advance Preparer(s) |
| Extension of Advance Sub-Budget Request Approved |
XXXX To notify the PI and preparer that an Advance Budget Number end date has been extended. |
GCA “Approve Extension” or “Approve Request to Extend Advance” |
Principal Investigator named on the Advance and the Advance Preparer(s) |
| Extension of Advance Budget Request Denied |
To notify the PI and preparer that a request to extend an Advance Budget Number end date has been denied. |
GCA denies the extension. |
Principal Investigator named on the Advance and the Advance Preparer(s) |
| Extension of Advance Sub-Budget Request Denied |
ZZZZ To notify the PI and preparer that a request to extend an Advance Budget Number end date has been denied. |
GCA denies the sub-budget extension. |
Principal Investigator named on the Advance and the Advance Preparer(s) |
You can return an action to OSP for changes as long as its status is other than Processed.
Clicking the Return to OSP link on the left navigation menu opens a pop-up window. The read-only section provides information about the action you are working on:
- Admin Action Number or Funding Action Number
- Current Status
- Short Title
- Principal Investigator
- Sponsor
- Budget Number
- Budget Biennium
- Current Location
The following image shows this dialog.
You must include comments when returning an action. They will display on the History & Comments page in SERA, and on the OSP Notes page in SPAERC.
Below the Comments field, the “Item will be assigned to” field displays the OSP person assigned.
When you click the Return to OSP button, the action will close and your tasklist will display. You can click the Cancel link to return to the action without making any changes.
You can change who the action’s assignment by clicking the Reassign link on the left navigation menu. You can do this for an action in any status.
Clicking the link opens a dialog window, as shown in the following image.
The read-only section provides information about the action you are working on:
- Admin Action Number or Funding Action Number
- Current Status
- Short Title
- Principal Investigator
- Sponsor
- Budget Number
- Budget Biennium
- Current Location
The editable fields are:
| Field |
Description |
| Comments |
An optional field; any comments entered will appear on the History & Comments page |
| Assign Item…to Location |
Select the new Team/Desk or location from the drop-down menu |
Click Reassign to complete the process or Cancel to return to the action.
If you answered “No” to the “Is Data Entry Complete” question during the Campus Notify step, then you need to do this step to fully process the action.
When you click on the Complete link in the left navigation menu, a dialog window displays with some basic information about the action, as shown in the image below.
- Admin Action or Funding Action Number
- Current Status
- Short Title
- Principal Investigator
- Sponsor
- Budget Number
- Budget Biennium
The system marks the data entry question “No” by default. You will need to mark it as “Yes”.
You must include comments. Your comments will display in the action’s history (and in the OSP Notes when viewed from SPAERC).
You are required to select an assignment field from the drop-down menu.
Click the Complete button to move the action to Processed status. The Last Action Taken will also change to Processed. Use the Cancel link to return to the action without making any changes.
Note: There is a brief overview of Cycles in a separate article.
Cycle Details Tab
The Cycle Details tab appears on Funding Actions and Post-Award Changes. It works a bit differently from the other tabs. Instead of clicking on it, you hover your mouse over the Cycle Details tab to see the “fly-out” menu. From that menu, you can see all of the items that are accessible from SERA and that are in the same cycle as the item you’re currently viewing.
Note: Items will not display in the fly-out menu if they are not accessible from SERA (either because they haven’t reached GCA, or, because they’re an item type not accessible in SERA).
From the Cycle fly-out menu, you can either click on a specific item to open it or click the “View Cycle Details” link at the top to see the Cycle Details page. If you click on an application, you will see the “printable eGC1” PDF version of it.
Cycle Details Page
The SERA view of the Cycle Details page is a simpler version of the SPAERC Cycle Details page. The Basic Cycle Data section is the same, but in SERA you only see the Hierarchical View.
Basic Cycle Data
On the Cycle Details page, you can see basic details about all of the items contained within the cycle. You can click on the help link (question mark) next to Hierarchy View for a description of the columns displayed.
The Basic Cycle Data includes information common to the competing segment or project: the PI, Sponsor, the Short Title, and the Organization receiving funding. All of this information populates in the Cycle from the first item added to the Cycle.
Basic Cycle Data also includes:
| Field |
Description |
| Cycle ID |
System assigned, unique to each Cycle. |
| PI |
The name of the PI responsible for this Cycle of research. Populates from the first item added to this cycle. |
| Sponsor |
The name of the funding sponsor for this Cycle of research. Populates from the first item added to this cycle. |
| Description |
A brief description of the Cycle that is more detailed than the Short Title. |
| File Location |
As of November 2013, this is always File.
- Cycles created prior to January 2009 may have assignments other than File. Once assigned to File, however, they may not be reassigned. (Cycles created between January 2009 and November 2013 were automatically assigned to e-Shelf. In November 2013, any Cycle assigned to e-Shelf was changed to File via a data clean-up process.)
|
| Related Cycles |
If the Cycle you are viewing has one or more related cycles, a drop-down appears that allows you to change which cycle you’re viewing. |
| Total Awarded |
This displays the total Awarded amount from the Funding Actions in this Cycle with a status of Processed. |
| Total All Related Cycles (Awarded) |
This displays the total awarded amount from all Funding Actions in this and Related Cycles (if any) with a status of Processed. |
| Are all eGC1s or funding actions related to this cycle currently in SPAERC? |
If there are paper documents associated with this cycle that pre-date eGC1s and funding actions, the answer to this question is “No.” |
If there are any related cycles, they’ll be linked to in the Basic Cycle Data section.
Hierarchy View
You can customize the columns you see in this view by checking or un-checking the boxes. You can click on the help link (question mark) next to Hierarchy View for a description of the columns displayed.
Note: Only items that you can access from SERA will display an “Open” link.
In the Hierarchically view, the display column may represent something different based on the Item type. For example, the “Admin Action Types/App Types” column will display the Application type for Application Items, but will display the Requested Change type for a PAC.
The following table summarizes the information that displays for each Column based on the type of item.
| View Column |
| Item Type |
Sponsor/
Subcontractor |
Start Date,
End Date |
Processing
Date |
Amount |
Sponsor Award/UW PO Number |
Admin Action/
App Types |
| Applications |
Sponsor |
Proposed
Dates |
Approved
Date |
Requested Amount |
Sponsor Award Number |
App Types |
Funding
Actions |
Sponsor |
Actual
Dates |
FA in GCA Date |
FA Current Amount |
Sponsor Award Number |
N/A |
| Subcontracts |
Subcontractor |
Period
Dates |
Received Date |
SA Amount |
UW PO Number |
N/A |
Other Admin
Actions |
Sponsor |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Action-specific Admin Action Type (see below) |
Advance
Requests |
Sponsor |
Actual Dates |
Request Date |
Requested Amount |
N/A |
Adv Types |
Each admin action type (PAC, PAN, etc.) defines actions specific to the type. The Admin Action Types column displays this type for each Admin Action Item in the cycle. The table below describes the column meaning for each specific Admin Action type.
| Admin Action Type |
Admin Action Types Column Info |
| PAC |
Requested Change |
| PAN |
Content of Notification |
| NAA |
Agreement Type |
| CO |
Close Out Action |
For all types, multiple selections may be made. When this occurs, the Hierarchically view displays “Multiple Types.”
OSP staff create Funding Actions (FA) and Post-Award Changes (PAC) using SPAERC. Once OSP completes the actions, they send them electronically to GCA for final processing.
You can return an FA or PAC to OSP for any needed changes by clicking the Return to OSP link on the left navigation menu. Once OSP makes the changes, they would resend the action for processing. The following images shows the link.
| Status |
Last Action Taken |
Process Stage |
| In GCA |
Received in GCA |
OSP completed the action and sent to GCA |
| Returned by GCA |
Returned by GCA |
GCA can return an action to OSP for any needed changes |
| Re-Sent by OSP |
Re-Sent by OSP |
OSP has made the requested changes and re-sent the action back to GCA |
| In GCA or Re-Sent by OSP |
Budget # Assigned/Confirmed |
GCA has added a new budget number to the action, or confirmed an existing one |
| In GCA |
Campus Notified |
GCA has notified campus that they completed the budget number set-up. The system sends the email to the PI, the eGC1 Administrative Contact and Pre-Award Budget Contact, the eGC1 Preparer, and the first level reviewers for the organization code receiving funding. |
| Processed |
Processed |
This indicates that all steps, including data entry, have been completed. |
You will see the Assign/Confirm Budget Number link on the left navigation menu. This step allows you to either assign a new budget number to the action, or confirm the budget number automatically assumed by SAGE, based on related items.
When you click the link, a pop-up window displays. The set of read-only fields provides information about the action you are working on.
- Admin Action or Funding Action Number
- Current Status
- Short Title
- Principal Investigator
- Sponsor
- Budget Number
- Budget Biennium
The following image shows this dialog.
The editable fields are:
| Field |
Description |
| Type of Budget |
Select the appropriate budget category from the drop-down menu. Even if the action already has a Budget Number, the type will not display. |
| Budget Number |
When you select the Type of Budget, the system will automatically populate the Budget Number field with the next available budget number of that type. If the action already has a Budget Number, it will display. |
| Budget Biennium |
Once the Budget Number is populated, the system will display the Biennium value. If the action already has a Budget Biennium, it will display. |
Click the Save button to complete the process, or the Cancel link to return to the action without making any changes.
After you add a budget number, the Notify Campus link will appear on the left navigation menu, and the system will set the Last Action Taken to “Budget # Assigned/Confirmed.”
Note: When an item is returned to OSP after the Budget Number Assign/Confirmed step, you will have to repeat this step once OSP re-sends it.
