Guide, Scope of Work & Specifications

These documents are built from the same rules the report uses — page names, section list, Workday columns, thresholds and the salary cap — so they change whenever the app changes.

1. Get started

• Open Data & Setup and enter the award, budget period and monthly reporting dates and the F&A rate. The cartoon wizard starts in the bottom-right corner and stays available on every report page. Drag it with a mouse or finger to move it, even when minimized; it stays within the screen. When focused, arrow keys move it too. Select it to expand Guided Setup; the minus control minimizes it without removing access. Closing or minimizing the setup window keeps your current step and entries.
• Load the three Workday reports — paste the table or drop the file. The side panel shows a green check for each report once it is loaded; click any report there to replace it.
• Everything saves in this browser only. Use Download backup in the side panel to keep a copy or share it.
• To try the app with a fake sample award, open grantwizard.app/demo; it adds the demo award next to your own reports. Every refresh resets only the fake award with current dates: a 12-month budget period starting six months before the current month, this month's reporting window, historical sample expenses and future planned costs. Your own awards stay unchanged. Other fictional samples: /demo?award=transfer (transfer from another institution with 22 subawards, some under and some over the exemption threshold, plus equipment), closeout (final period, everything posted, ready for the FFR), nsf, dod (Department of War), doe and ed (Education, 8% restricted F&A). /demo?all=1 loads every sample into the report picker.
• Notices & amendments log: every Notice of Award upload records its notice number, issue date, type (initial, continuing-resolution or incremental funding, supplement with the same FAIN/document number, revised notice, reduction, non-financial amendment such as a PI change, or correction), the budget periods it covers, a note, and each budget cell's before and after amount. The budget period comes only from box 19 (Budget Period Start/End Date); box 26 (Project Period) is the whole award period and never decides where dollars go. Each notice is matched to the Monthly Expenses budget period its box 19 dates fall in, so a supplement that starts mid-year (for example 10/01 – 06/30) lands in that year. If the Monthly Expenses periods don't match the notices, "Set budget periods from these notices" sets each year's dates from box 19 (overlapping supplements merge into the parent year; a partial first year after a transfer stays partial). Dollars are read only from the "Cumulative Award Calculations for this Budget Period" table: Salaries and Wages → 001 Personnel, Fringe Benefits → 002, Materials & Supplies → 005, Travel → 003, Other (including publication and consulting) → 006, Subawards/Consortium/Contractual Costs → 010, Federal F&A Costs → 013. Personnel Costs (Subtotal), Federal Direct Costs, Approved Budget and award totals are not line items. Because the table is cumulative, a later notice for the same award number and budget period (box 19 dates) replaces the earlier one, using the issue date printed on the notice ("Generated on") or in the file name; a supplement with its own number (for example -05S1) is added. A per-year check compares the included lines with the sum of each counted notice's Approved Budget and shows "Matches" or the difference; boxes 20a/20b are only the amount of that action and are not used for the check. "Download review report" saves a CSV listing each file, its award number, issue date, box 19 and box 26 dates, matched budget period and status, plus every reviewed line with its box 19 dates. The Import history (kept on this device) shows each NOA file, its assigned budget period, upload date and whether its budgets were applied. NOA files can be dragged onto the Upload NOA button or the upload area. Nothing is deleted: a mistaken entry is marked "entered in error" with a reason, and only its own dollar change is reversed.

2. Pages

The report has separate pages, ending with a dedicated Next Steps page. Primary tables start open; secondary reviews start collapsed. Shaded section headings and accent rules separate each section. Section details and guidance stay under Details & guidance. Use the tabs at the top, or tick All sections for one long page. Expand all and Collapse all are always visible beside the page tabs and control report section disclosures across all pages. Table sizing remains under Display settings. New reports, Guided setup, instructions, Excel and PDF are under Report tools; the side file panel still offers downloads. The setup checklist lives on Data & Setup. Monthly Expenses keeps its period totals visible while date editing, reset, sizing and bulk controls are under Budget period dates & settings. Undo, redo, setup and page arrows sit below the report rather than floating over its figures.

Optional tools & award resources

Use Add tools at the top to select any combination of Salary Cap Calculator, Person Months Calculator, RPPR & FFR Participant Effort, and Subrecipient Expenses. The three personnel tools start hidden. Subrecipient Expenses appears automatically when subaward budget or actual costs are present in Budget vs Actuals, yearly budgets, or Details View; you can also select it without costs or uncheck it to hide it. In the Person Months Calculator you can type any appointment base in months (for example 5) or pick a common one.

Selections are saved for each report in this browser and included in backups and undo/redo. Hiding a tool does not delete its entries or change calculations. Only selected tools appear in the section navigation and PDF / Print choices; Excel keeps its existing report content. Award resources at the top opens the federal resource links and UAMS Grants Portal in a separate window within the app, without taking space in the report.

3. Re-budgeting quickly

On Indirect & Subawards, Budget Redistribution follows Indirect Costs and Exemptions, so the F&A review appears before the redistribution plan.

Before rebudgeting: calculate F&A first now lives on Next Steps under the initially collapsed Rebudgeting guidance & approval review section. It contains the current F&A warnings, suggested planning order and federal sources without competing with the Summary table or expanding the one-page Next Steps printout.

Monthly budgets from a Notice of Award

Choose Upload NOA at the top of any report page, beside Award resources, or Import Notice of Award inside Monthly Expenses. Choose one notice or several at once (for example each year's NOA plus revisions); each text-based PDF or text file is read on your device and matched to its own budget period, and all lines are reviewed together, labeled by file name. You can also paste a notice's budget table. Later notices can be added any time: periods not in a notice stay unchanged, and you choose to replace or add to matched cells. Review the detected dates, confirm each budget period and match each dollar amount to a cost category. Use Unmatched only, search (including by file name), or Assign shown lines to period to finish without scrolling through the report. Exclude totals, duplicates and non-budget amounts; add missing category lines manually. Scanned PDFs and notices that provide only totals cannot supply category-level budgets automatically.

Confirm the award and included amounts before applying. Replacing changes only matched period/category cells and preserves other budgets; adding increases those cells. Multiple included lines for the same period/category are summed. Summary budgets, actual expenses and award dates are not changed. Use Undo or a backup to restore previous entries. The original notice is not saved or uploaded anywhere.

Auto restores that period's dates from the project start (or award start/current budget-period start if no project start is entered), even after resetting dates. It does not fill budget dollars. Extensions require the award end to extend beyond the preceding period; the app explains when dates cannot be generated.

• Next Steps has its own page, accessible from the final report tab. It shows a brief table of each Re-Budget change with its before/after balance and an optional reason, a short “Why” list (exempt ↔ non-exempt shifts, shortfalls covered, both or neither), and numbered suggestions. These are advisory suggestions for the PI or the PI's department to consider and manage with Grants Accounting and the Sponsor, not mandatory actions; this clarification also appears in the printout. Moving money between exempt and non-exempt categories suggests discussing the changes with Grants Accounting, who can coordinate with the Sponsor to determine whether rebudgeting approval is required. Categories with expenses but no budget get a warning; patient care, equipment, student support, participant support and subawards may require Sponsor prior approval under 2 CFR 200.308. Award terms and applicable approval requirements still govern.
• You can still type amounts or formulas (=OC001+OC003, =R2*-1) in the Re-Budget column.
• Moves into or out of Equipment and Other Capital, Participant Support (Non-Research Subject), Subawards, Patient Care, Student Support may need sponsor prior approval (2 CFR 200.308).

Calculate F&A before finalizing transfers

The Re-Budget Totals section includes a compact, live MTDC (Modified Total Direct Costs) calculation. It shows the revised total budget, exclusions, MTDC = (total budget − exclusions) ÷ (1 + F&A rate), calculated F&A = MTDC × rate, and the remaining adjustment = calculated F&A − revised F&A budget. It holds the revised total budget fixed and updates with Re-Budget entries; exemptions use revised fully exempt budgets and posted subaward amounts above the per-recipient threshold, so future subaward plans still need review.

1. Confirm the Notice of Award, sponsor restrictions, applicable F&A rate and base, subaward threshold, and expected costs with Grants Accounting.
2. Calculate F&A redistribution before choosing transfer amounts. For moves between exempt and non-exempt costs, split the available dollars between direct costs and F&A; do not allocate the entire exempt amount to non-exempt spending.
3. Review the proposed split with the PI, Grants Accounting and the Sponsor before processing it. Obtain Grants Accounting clearance and the Sponsor's prior written approval when required by the award or federal rules.
4. Enter the approved proposed direct-category changes and matching F&A change together. Recalculate F&A whenever the exempt base changes; the rate itself does not change.
5. Then check that net Re-Budget is $0.00, F&A adjustment remaining is $0.00, and projected shortfalls are resolved. Document the reasons and PI actions; Grants Accounting processes approved changes in official records.

Exempt-to-non-exempt changes are flagged for approval review with Grants Accounting and the Sponsor both before the move and in the PI summary. Obtain Grants Accounting clearance and the Sponsor's prior written approval when required by the award or applicable rules. None of these actions grants approval.

This is a recommended planning sequence, not a federally prescribed button order. Grants Accounting clearance is an institutional workflow, not a blanket federal approval rule. A balanced calculation is not approval; award terms and agency rules control.

Federal review: a scope/objective change requires prior approval even without a budget change. Under 2 CFR 200.308(i), an agency may restrict cumulative direct-category transfers above 10% of the last approved total budget (including cost share) when the federal share exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold; this is not an automatic approval rule for every award. NIH significant rebudgeting uses a single-category deviation greater than 25% of total costs awarded as a possible scope-change indicator, not an aggregate-transfer safe harbor. Confirm the applicable award terms with Grants Accounting.

• 2 CFR 200.308 — budget revisions and prior approval
• 2 CFR 200.1 — MTDC exclusions
• 2 CFR 200.414 — indirect costs
• NIH Grants Policy Statement — rebudgeting

4. Personnel projections

• Personnel and Fringe Benefits are projected at this month's amount × months remaining (the current month counts).
• People with a Costing Allocation End Date on their current allocation are not projected — their row shows “Ends … — not projected”.
• People Workday marks (Terminated) or (Retired) are also left out of projections.
• Next month projected payroll above the Personnel table shows salary, fringe benefits, and their combined total for the next calendar month. It carries the displayed monthly charges forward once for eligible workers, excluding allocation end dates and terminated/retired workers. It shows zero outside the current budget period or award dates. This payroll run rate excludes planned costs, commitments, new hires, raises, and Re-Budget transfers.
• Effort Variance (pts) = allocated − approved effort. A change of 25% or more relative to approved effort turns red (NIH notification).

5. Meetings & printing

• Planned subaward invoices: pick 010 Subawards in Planned Costs and enter the subrecipient name. The wizard shows how much of the invoice stays in MTDC, how much is exempt under the per-subrecipient threshold, and the F&A it is expected to draw. The exempt part also counts in the Exemptions table, F&A redistribution and Excel. Unnamed invoices stay fully subject to F&A. If an invoice is already an open commitment, leave it out of Planned Costs to avoid counting it twice.
• Meeting view on the Summary hides Commitment, Obligation and Planned Costs columns.
• PDF / Print lets you choose which parts to print. Balance at a Glance, Status at a Glance, and the Summary table each fit together on their own single landscape page, shrinking as needed. Longer reports move whole tables or panels onto additional pages without splitting a piece.
• Use Print Next Steps or select Next Steps in PDF / Print. The explanation, entered reasons, measured effects, suggested actions, and agreed next steps print together on their own single page without splits.
• Excel downloads a working workbook with live formulas.

© 2026 Anna Evatt and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). All rights reserved.