In order to establish a grant in the Statewide Financial System (SFS), there is certain mandatory information that agencies must enter and attach documentation to in SFS for review by OSC Bureau of State Accounting Operations (BSAO) via the Federal Grant Request Guide.

This information is essential to facilitate compliance with the federal Cash Management Improvement Act (CMIA), federal single audit reporting requirements, and for New York State agencies as well as OSC to report grant activity completely and accurately. Failure to provide this information will prevent the grant award from being approved in the SFS.

Establishing a grant in the SFS requires the use of three integrated modules: Contracts (CA), Project Costing (PC), and Grants (GM), all of which are set up by the cognizant agency via the Federal Grant Request Guide and later reviewed by BSAO.

ESTABLISH PROJECT

In order to establish a federal grant, a project must first be established with the appropriate Federal funds’ distribution. See Chapter XIX.2 Establishing a Project of this Guide for project setup instructions and Project Guide related details.

ESTABLISH CUSTOMER CONTRACT AND GRANT AWARD

The Federal Grant Request Guide is used to establish Customer Contracts and Federal grant awards in the SFS. (Navigate to: Customer Contracts > Federal Grant Request Guide)

BSAO has prepared a Federal Grant Request Guide Agency Walk-Through document to assist agencies in creating a Federal Grant: Federal Grant Request Guide Agency Walk-Through.pdf

SFS has prepared a SFS Coach Training Material, JAA-GCC101-029 Request a New Federal Grant using the Federal Grant Request Guide.

GRANT AWARD

The Grants module is used for award management and to store the grant award’s key data elements to be used for processing and reporting. This is essential for many statutory reports as well as other reporting needs. The Grants module primarily interfaces with the Contracts and Projects modules. Every grant will be established with a grant type of “Federal Grant”.

CUSTOMER CONTRACT

The Contracts module is used to facilitate billing the Federal Government and for revenue recognition. A contract is necessary to identify related project(s) and to create an award profile for the grant. The contract links the grant to the project(s).

The contract identifies the project’s sponsor (federal agency), while billing parameters are also specified for OSC-managed grants. The designation of a sponsor is required for accounts receivable and receipt posting.

The agency establishes the contract using the SFS Federal Grant Request Guide and submits when completed, which sets the contract status as PENDING_OSC_APPROVAL.

OSC will run a query for any contracts awaiting their review. After OSC completes the contract review and confirms the federal grant is available on the federal draw system, OSC BSAO will change the contract status to ACTIVE for OSC cash-managed grants; the status remains PENDING for non-OSC cash-managed grants.

Contracts with a status of ACTIVE will allow all expenditures (made to date and future) to be pulled into Billing and be eligible for reimbursement (up to the Billing Limit) by the federal government.

Contracts with a status of PENDING do not generate any billing activity in the SFS. Non OSC-managed grants will be changed to ACTIVE once an agency onboards and OSC performs the drawdown.

If OSC BSAO requires additional information to approve the contract, OSC will change the contract status to RETURNED_FOR_INFORMATION. A follow-up e-mail will also be sent informing the agency of the corrections required. The agency will be required to amend the contract via the Federal Grant Request Guide or Project Guide.

Contract Maintenance Due to Federal Award Changes (Amendments)

Immediately upon notification of an award change by the federal agency, state agencies are required to submit an AC3286-A to notify OSC of any changes to the funding amount or status of federal programs. Such changes include, but are not limited to, an increase or decrease in federal funding, award date changes, and expired federal grants.

For projects cash managed by OSC, BSAO will maintain the Customer Contract billing limit. State Agencies should review project budgets and adjust them to ensure they do not exceed the billing limit. Any change that will/has cause(d) expenditures/disbursements to exceed award authorizations must be IMMEDIATELY addressed by the cognizant state agency. Failure to properly decrease the customer contract billing limit and/or project budgets timely would permit state expenditures that cannot be drawn or reported to the federal government as a reportable expenditure. Failure to properly increase the customer contract billing limit and/or project budgets may prevent additional program State expenditures from being charged and/or reimbursed.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 05/01/2023