Tag Archives: SAGE Budget

December 20, 2023 SAGE Suite Release Notes

Contents

Features and Fixes

SAGE Awards

New Data in the Award Request List

The following data has been added to the Award Requests List, for quick, at-a-glance context around each request:

  • Short title (added for Modifications; already exists for Awards)
  • eGC1 (added for Modifications; already exists for Awards)
  • Cost Center ID (added for Award Setup Requests; may not appear for Modifications)
  • Principal Investigator
  • Workday Award ID
  • Sponsor Name
  • Prime/Originating Sponsor Name

Filter Enhancements in the Award Requests List

The following enhancements for filtering the Award Requests List improve performance and provide more filter-by options:

  1. Award Filter Buttons
    • To improve performance when selecting award filters, users now need to select the new “Apply Filters” button at the top of the Filter Requests sidebar in order for the filtered results to display. Users can also remove all filters by selecting the new “Clear Filters” button
    • awards filter apply and clear buttons
  2. Filter by Award ID
    • Users can now filter the Award Requests List by Workday Award ID to see all Award Setup, Modification, or Advance Requests (ASRs, MODs, and ADVs) for a given award. This is helpful in confirming if a request has already been started, or to quickly monitor outstanding items for a particular award. (Note that ADVs only display on the Award Requests List in SAGE Central).
    • Note: When filtering by Award ID, users will only see items that they have permissions to view per the “Access and Roles” section. When searching for a given award, users will see all results, though they will only be able to view items they have access to.
    • Note: There is a known bug where recently processed ASRs may not display the Workday Award ID in the Award Requests List.
  3. Filter by Principal Investigator (PI)
    • Users can now filter the Award Requests List by PI. This allows users to view all requests (ASRs, MODs, and ADVs) for the selected PI.

filter by award id or principal investigator

Workday Awards Now Sync to SAGE

Workday awards are immediately available in SAGE for users to create subaward and MOD requests once the new ASR or ADV is processed in SAGE. The data sync also backfills data from converted awards and awards processed prior to this release.

SAGE Advances

Update: Status Filter for Processed Advances is Reactivated

The “Processed” status filter found on the Advance Tasklist is now reactivated for users. To protect system stability, the filter had been temporarily deactivated while performance improvements were pending.

SAGE Budget

Budget Export Fields Added

Cost Center, Security Grant Hierarchy, and worksheet-level Principal Investigators have been added to SAGE Budget exports. When budget exports are attached to MODs, these details will help GCA with the required setup in Workday.

November 30, 2023 SAGE Suite Release Notes

Contents

Features and Fixes

SAGE Awards

Search Award Request List by eGC1 or Request ID

Users are now able to search for Award Setup, Modification, and Advance Requests from within the Awards section by either the Request ID (ASRxxxx, MODxxxx, ADVxxxx) or the Application (eGC1) ID (Axxxx) associated with the request. This is an exact-match search, so the full ID is required.

award request tasklist search results

Note: For modifications, searching by Request ID is more accurate, since the eGC1 associated with the request may not always be populated.

SAGE Advances

Fix: Advance Extension Requests Budget Selection

Advance Extension requests no longer require selection of a budget number or sub budget, and can proceed with submission to GCA.

SAGE Budget

Fix: SAGE Budget Contacts and Access Caching Issue

An issue has been resolved where SAGE Budget contacts and access were not refreshing properly when navigating between budgets. The system now refreshes as expected, and users no longer have to do a manual refresh to see the accurate list of individuals.

Infrastructure and Performance Improvements

Improved Load Balancing Across Production Servers

In order to better handle the volume of users in SAGE and improve system stabilization, a change was made on 11/20/2023 to modify the approach used to balance users and system calls across the multiple production servers that support SAGE. ORIS and UW-IT have collaborated on the solution and are jointly monitoring its success and stability.

Optimized SQL Server Settings for Improved Stability and Performance

In order to improve performance of the SAGE Suite applications, a review of the SQL Server has been performed, and settings have been modified per best practices. Indexes have also been added to support improved performance.

Improved Error Handling for Award Request Workflow Status Delays

When the event handling service does not return the new status for a request that is returned, denied, or approved within a reasonable timeframe, the system will only retry a specified number of times before the user will get a message to try refreshing later. This will prevent possible system issues if retries continue indefinitely.

Note: This update will go out independently of the other updates, shortly following the release.

Refactored Approach to Search and Future Filters

The technical approach to award search and filtering was refactored to address past performance issues. This refactoring supports the search feature and will yield significant improvements for users with the additional filtering coming in the December release.

November 9, 2023 SAGE Suite Release Notes

Contents

Subawards

Award Lookup Now Used for Subaward Setup

Subaward requests can now be submitted using SAGE. With the transition to Workday, subawards are now associated with Awards, rather than Funding Actions (FAs). To set up a new subaward, users will search and select their award, and the eGC1 data will default based on the award selected.

subaward request award lookup buttonsubaward request award lookup resultssubaward request award details

Funding Action (FA) Validation and Lookup Removed

Since subawards are now associated with awards, the subaward FA lookup is no longer active or needed, and the validation has been removed. For legacy subawards, the FA fields will continue to display for reference.
subaward request details with F A data

Holds on Award Setup (ASR) and Modification (MOD) Requests

OSP and GCA Can Apply Holds to ASRs and MODs

OSP and GCA can now set and remove holds on ASR and MOD Requests. A new Holds section is available in the left navigation. After saving holds, an entry will display in the Comments & History section of the ASR/MOD.
A S R and MOD holds section

History of Holds Added to Comments & History Section

Campus, OSP, and GCA can view the history of holds activity on the Comments and History section of the ASR or MOD request.
holds data in comments and history section

Holds Banner Displays on ASR and MOD Requests

When holds are applied to an ASR or MOD request, users will now see a banner at the top of the request, alerting them to the hold. The campus banner will be informational only, and highlighted in blue. The OSP and GCA banner will be red, and indicate any action that may be needed before moving the item forward in the workflow.

Campus banner
SAGE holds banner

OSP & GCA banner
SAGE Central holds banner

Required Fields on Award and Budget Setup

Required Fields on SAGE Budget Worksheets

The SAGE Budget worksheet settings have been updated to show an asterisk next to fields that are required for ASR and MOD requests. These fields support the Workday award data needs.
sage budget worksheet settings required fields

In the SAGE Budget Salary and Benefit Costs section, additional help text has been added to remind campus that a person must be entered with the Principal Investigator role to provide the necessary grant PI data to Workday for award setup.
additional heop text for principal investigator requirement

Required Fields on Award Setup Requests

Required fields on the Award Setup Request now display an asterisk next to the field label. When the user clicks in a required field and navigates away, additional red highlighting will draw their attention back to the fields required.
award setup request required fields example

Miscellaneous Maintenance

eGC1 Status Updated to “Awarded” When Awards Are Processed

When awards are set up in Workday and the award setup request is marked as “Processed” in SAGE, the associated eGC1 status will now change from “Approved” to “Awarded.”

OSP Ability to Change the Linked eGC1 on Award Setup Requests

When OSP initiates an ASR and while it is in “OSP Setup” status, OSP can now change the linked eGC1 if an error has been made, prior to sending the ASR to campus. OSP will need to refresh the “Access & Roles” section after changing the eGC1 to see updated eGC1 data.

Modification Start and End Dates Display for Schedule Changes

On Modification Requests, when users select the Schedule Changes category, the “Current Authorized Spending Start Date” and “Current Authorized Spending End Date” fields will be visible and enabled for users to enter the dates. Existing MOD requests already processed with the Schedule Changes category will display the date fields without any dates populated.

Removal of Deny Reason for Requests

An issue was preventing the deny reason on requests from saving properly. Until a full fix can be completed, in the interim, the deny reason field has been removed and OSP or GCA will now enter the reason as a comment instead. The denial reason field will be added back into a future release.

Advance Extension Requests No Longer Show Former Budget Numbers

The former budget numbers no longer display for users on new Advance Extension Requests.

Award Request List Default Set to 25 Rows for OSP and GCA

In order to improve performance and reduce load on systems, the defulat setting of the Award Request List for OSP and GCA will initially show 25 rows instead of 50 rows. Users can still set it to up to 50 rows if needed, for now, but with dome deteriorated performance expected.

Fix: Truncated Comments on Requests with URLs

ASR and MOD request comments with URLs in them now show proper alignment without truncation.

Fix: SAGE Budget Personnel Side Panel Freezes

The SAGE Budget TBD personnel entry has been updated to prevent side panel freezing when users clicked out of fields quickly, prior to SAGE saving the data.

Update: Missing PI Validation Message on Award Setup Requests

The language used on the Award Setup Request Review and Submit page when the SAGE Budget worksheet PI is missing has been updated to direct users back to SAGE Budget to add a worksheet PI.

Fix: Cannot download previous version of attachments on Requests

Users can now select the current or prior version of attachments on ASRs, MOD, and Advance requests.

Fix: Animal Use Protocols Not Always Saving Country Data

An issue with the saving of “Country” data when a new institution was added to Animal Use protocols on the eGC1 has been fixed.

Temporary Change: Advance Tasklist “Processed” Filter Deactivated

Due to performance issues, we have temporarily deactivated the “Processed” status filter on the SAGE Advance Tasklist. While we work on improvements, this temporary solution will protect system performance and mitigate risk. In the meantime, if campus users need to locate a processed advance, they should use Advanced Search and search by either the Advance number or the eGC1 number to find an item.

Please note that SAGE Central filters will not change, but we recommend avoiding filtering for all “Processed” advances until we patch the issue next week.

User Interface Design Component Updates

A required Angular Material version upgrade has been completed, which has slight impacts to the SAGE user interface. The design changes of note include the following:

SAGE Budget, Advances, and Awards Sections: Excess table spacing has been reduced, small font sizes have been increased, and all capital letters on buttons and table headers have been removed to improve readability and accessibility.

SAGE Budget Icons: Subaward and Fabrication worksheet icons have been updated in the left navigation and the Budget Summary section within the Other Costs table. The More Actions menu (three dots) has been replaced with a Delete Worksheet button for Internal, Subaward, and Fabrication worksheets in the left navigation.

user interface design components example

September 2023 Awards Updates and Grant Runner Forms-H

New Features & Completed Updates

  • Search in Award Requests List: Users can now search in the Award Requests list by eGC1 ID or Request ID (Advance, Award Setup Request, or Modification Request).
  • Change the Linked SAGE Budget from an Award Setup Request: Users can now disconnect a mistakenly connected SAGE Budget from an Award Setup Request in “Composing,” “Returned,” or “Withdrawn” status.
  • Required Field Validations: The Award Setup Requests will now show a validation message if the worksheet/award line PI or Security Grant Hierarchy are missing. Users will be guided back to the SAGE Budget worksheet settings to make those updates.
  • Cost Centers in Copied eGC1s: When an eGC1 is copied, the Cost Centers from the original eGC1 will now flow to the copy and be added to the approval graph automatically. Only active Cost Centers will be copied.
  • Error Message Improvements: Award Setup Requests and Modification Request error pages will now display additional information to assist with troubleshooting.
  • Grant Runner Updated with FORMS-H
    • FORMS-H Research Plan Form Now Available in Grant Runner: The updated PHS 398 Research Plan form is available for National Institutes of Health (NIH) applications. This update will support the high volume opportunities due early October, such as R01, R03, and R21 types. For more information, review our previous NIH FORMS-H announcement.
    • Legal Names on Forms: As a result of the SAGE changeover to display preferred name on eGC1s, an adjustment was made to Grant Runner forms to instead show Legal Name by default for the PD/PI, since this is most often the name that matches the eRACommons account. The legal name will now sync across SF424, Key Persons, and RR Budget forms for the PD/PI. In the future, we will add a feature to allow users to explicitly identify what their eRACommons name and login is to further reduce discrepancies and allow submissions to go through more smoothly.
    • Future FORMS-H Releases: The PHS 398 Career Development Award Supplemental form and PHS Fellowship Supplemental form are targeted for release in Grant Runner later this fall.
  • Budget Visibility on Award Setup Requests: An issue was resolved where budget detail on Award Setup Requests was at times not showing for items that were in a read-only state for the user, such as “Processed.”