Award Setup

After receipt of a new sponsored award or non-competing continuation from a sponsor, the SPA Financial Analyst (FA) will prepare the award for spending.  The FA will work with the academic department to finalize the sponsored project budget.  Once finalized, the project is set up in the grants management system, InfoEd, where the information is then fed to Accounting & Reporting at Columbia (ARC).  This page describes what is needed for account setup.

To learn more about ARC, there are many job aids, web-based and instructor-led trainings offered by Finance. See https://www.finance.columbia.edu/content/training.

The following documents are necessary for account setup. Your SPA Financial Analyst will contact you if any of the following items are missing:

New Awards, Competing Awards and Contracts

  • Notice of Award (NOA) or fully executed contract
  • The original application
  • The Finalized Rascal Proposal Tracking (PT) Record – electronically signed by relevant parties, with up-to-date FCOI disclosure and certification and approval information
  • FCOI certification from subcontractors or consultants (if applicable)
  • Notice of IRB approval, IACUC approval, or other related compliance office (if applicable)
  • Detailed Budget

Non-competing Multi-year Awards and Contract Amendments

  • Notice of Grant Award (NGA) or fully executed Contract Amendment
  • Updated list of personnel on the study
  • Updated Rascal PT Record –electronically signed by relevant parties, with up-to-date FCOI disclosure and certification and approval information
  • FCOI certification from subcontractors or consultants (if applicable)
  • Copy of Progress Report
  • Notice of IRB approval, IACUC approval, or other related compliance office (if applicable)

We need the following information completed on the Department Award Setup Form:

  • Level 8 Department Number
  • Initiative
  • Segment

You should provide your SPA Financial Analyst with a completed Department Award Setup Form. Please reference this example completed Award Setup Form.

ARC Project: captures transactions associated with a specific funding source for the purposes of billing and reporting. It must have a start and end date and is owned by a specific department. All projects are set up with activities to further define a budget period or scope of work. A project number will remain the same for the life of a competitive segment of an award.

ARC Activity: At least one activity is required for each sponsored project in ARC. The activity further defines a budget period or scope of work and helps researchers and administrators manage their funding over the life of a project. Unlike projects, multiple activities may be created throughout the life of a project, depending on its complexity and any restrictions and carryover funds from year to year.

The SPA Financial Analyst will set up awards in InfoEd as projects and activities, which can be accessed in ARC the next business day.

There are two types of access to sponsored projects in ARC – by department or by role:

  1. Access to all sponsored projects in a department. A request for this type of access needs to be initiated by the Departmental Authorization Function (DAF) Administrator through the Financial Systems Security Application (FSSA) in Service Now.
  2. Access to a specific project or activity.  Certain roles on a project or activity team have automatic access to the reports in ARC. These include the PI on the project team or the Scope-I on the activity team. To request access to a specific project or activity for other individuals, the DAF must submit a Financial Inquiry Application in Service Now. The Report Access or Activity Report Access role is then assigned to the individual. Any role which provides report access at the project level allows the user to see reports for the project and all associated activities.

Please note:

  • Roles allowed on the Project team ONLY are as follows: PI, Report Access, Fellow, Co-I, and Other Key Personnel.
  • Roles allowed on the Activity team ONLY are as follows: Scope-I and Activity Report Access.