Create, Upload, and Modify Grant Budgets

The final stage of Grant Set-Up is uploading the budget. This process is done by the Business Area and should be completed before any spending occurs to avoid a GM Availability Control (AVC) error when processing transactions. For information on AVCs, refer to Module 4: SIMBA Post Award Lifecycle, transaction controls.

Before the budget is created or adjusted, the following must occur, and takes place during the SIMS integration:

Creation of Internal Orders
Creation of Funded Program (Automatic process)
Creation of Sponsored Programs
Creation of Grant

The grant is then finalized by Research Accounting, and the Business Area is notified via email. The Grant’s status becomes “Award-Active” and the grant budget can now be uploaded using the “GM Budget Upload Tool” Tile.

There are four document types used for budget entry (U=unreleased, B=released):

U1 – Unreleased Sponsor Budget
B1 – Sponsor Released
U2 – Unreleased Cost Share Budget (used specifically for cost share)
B2 – Cost Sharing Released (used specifically for cost share)

Budgets in SIMBA must first be unreleased before they can be released. This allows for the end-user to upload an overall expense budget as unreleased and release a portion of that unreleased expense budget as appropriate. If all of the expense budget can be released, the end-user must still create an unreleased budget. The unreleased and released can be done on the same GM Budget Upload Template and will create two GM budget documents in the system automatically. Additionally, modifications to expense budgets can be processed using the “GM Budget Upload Tool” Tile. Instructions, examples, and definitions are listed on the templates below.

Helpful Tips:

Grants do not run on a fiscal year so the budget version will always be 0 (zero).
Posting date must be within the current fiscal year.
The fiscal year column must be the current fiscal year.
The grant must be in an allowable status with valid to and from dates. For more information, reference What is Allowed During Various Grant Statuses.
Check to make sure the Internal Order and sponsored program master data is accurate.
Confirm the Responsibilities Tab is accurate on the grant and the sponsored programs. For more information, reference Responsibilities Tab for Grants and Sponsored Programs.
Always run the upload in test mode prior to completing the finalized upload.

Based on the Grant Type, the expense budgets are created using the following templates located on the Templates and Tools page on the Penn State SIMBA Support website.

NOTE: The FM budget upload is not permitted to be used for a GM budget.

(To download these templates, select File > Save as > Download a copy.)

Commonwealth of PA GM Budget Upload Template - Excel document download (PSU resource)
Standard (non-ARL) GM Budget Upload Template - Excel document download (PSU resource)

Resources

SIMBA: Budgeting Overview (PSU resource) is an overview of budgeting in SIMBA.
SIMBA: Released and Unreleased GM Budgets(PSU resource) presents information on how to confirm successful unreleased and released budget uploads.
SIMBA: Common Error Messages in the GM Module (PSU resource) provides a brief overview of the common error messages a user might encounter in the SIMBA GM module.

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