Data Guide
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General Guidelines
Timing
Financial, salary and proposal data comes from the university data warehouse, which loads new data once a day. For example, if SR makes a change to a CERES record on Monday, it will appear in the portal on Tuesday morning.
The portal also keeps a copy of each report it fetches for up to 8 hours, so a page you opened earlier in the day may not yet show the newest load. Project pages show Data as of, the last time the warehouse loaded data for that project.
Protocol information comes directly from eIRB+ and eIACUC and is refreshed at least every 4 hours.
Unless otherwise noted, data viewed after 7am Central Time is as of 5pm Central Time the previous calendar day (except on Mondays, when data is as of 5pm Saturday).
Transaction Age
Sponsored project transactions go back five years from the current date. Non-sponsored project transactions cover the current and prior fiscal year, and People pages cover the last three years. Older information is available via Cognos reports.
Salary Dates
The Salary Detail drill-through shows expenses based on the date the expense hits the project. The People pages show expenses based on the earnings dates (when the person did the work). These may be different. For example, a researcher might work 50% on a project in May but be paid incorrectly, requiring a correction journal in June. The corrected charge would show up on the Salary Detail as a June expense and on the People page as 50% May salary.
For the People pages, biweekly employee pay is allocated to the time period when the person worked, not when the paycheck was issued; pay from a single two-week period may be partially allocated to two different months.
Excluded Funds
For non-sponsored projects, the below fund codes will not appear in the portal:
- 330, 410, 420, 431, 433, 460, 471, 481, 482, 510, 520, 530, 540, 812, 820, 830, 831, 840
For sponsored projects, information about cost sharing exists at a summary level (total budget, expenses, and encumbrances by account) but transactions are excluded. This means that if your project only includes funds from the following list, it will not appear in the Research Portal:
- 191, 192, 193
Excluded Accounts
The following Restricted Budget categories used on Sponsored Projects are excluded from the Research Portal and will not appear in the Expense Categories list, although they will be included in the Restricted category under Financial Overview:
- 78811, 78830, 78831, 78840, 78841
Note that if the only account(s) open on your project are on this restricted list, the project will not appear in the portal at all.
Excluded Salary Details
Within the salary details, names of students receiving federal financial aid (e.g. work-study) are not available due to privacy concerns.
Clinical Trial Balances
Clinical trial balances are available for industry clinical trials that have cash received or expenses. The total is calculated as cash received less expenses. Until one of these transactions occurs and there is a non-zero total, the balance will use the maximum budgeted amount for the balance calculation. The clinical trial also appears in the Sponsored Project section until a cash transaction occurs.
Pending Proposals
Overview
The Pending data comes from CERES, our sponsored proposal and award management system.
It is limited to submitted proposals (pending sponsor review) that have an expected start date no more than 90 days in the past. Proposals that were submitted in InfoEd and are declined or withdrawn after the transition to CERES will remain in the Submitted status because the InfoEd data is locked.
All proposals where an investigator has one of the following CERES roles are listed in their Pending portfolio: PI, PD/PI, Co-Investigator, Co-I, Co-PD/PI, Financial Account PI, Faculty, Fellow, Senior Personnel.
Data
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Lead PI | Some sponsors allow more than one person to have the role “PI” or “Principal Investigator”. Only one person can be designated the Lead PI for administrative purposes at Northwestern. Other people may become Financial Account PIs if the proposal is awarded. |
| Proposal # | This is the internal reference number assigned by CERES. |
Sponsored Projects
Overview
In general, the Sponsored data comes from NUFinancials, our financial management system.
Projects that have a status of “Active” in NUFinancials appear here, regardless of whether the project period has started or ended. All projects where an investigator has one of the following CERES roles are listed in their Sponsored portfolio: PI, PD/PI, Co-Investigator, Co-I, Co-PD/PI, Financial Account PI, Faculty, Fellow, Senior Personnel.
Data: Summary Level
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Your Role | Your role on the project. This comes from CERES data. |
| Project PI | This is the person listed as the PI in NUFinancials. |
| Project ID | This is the internal project reference number assigned by NUFinancials. |
| Balance | The project budget, excluding amounts in the Restricted budget categories, minus anything that has already been spent or encumbered. |
| Clinical Trial Balance | Shown only for clinical trials. Instead of the budget minus expenses and encumbrances, it is the payments received minus expenses and encumbrances. |
| Project Period | The project's start and anticipated end date. There may also be another end date in NUFinancials, the Activity End Date (not shown in the portal), at the end of the current budget period or other authorized period. This will prevent expenses from processing even though the project end date is further in the future. |
Data: Project Header
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| ASRSP GCFA | ASRSP is Accounting Services for Research and Sponsored Projects. The GCFA is the Grant and Contract Financial Administrator. This person helps to submit required financial reports and perform other central accounting functions. |
| Research Administrator | This information comes from a field in NUFinancials called RADM. Only one RADM is set for each unit, so there may be other people assisting with the management of a project besides the person listed in this role. |
| Award ID | This is the Award # from CERES. It’s used as the Award ID or Contract ID in NUFinancials. |
| Sponsor Reference # | This is the reference number that the sponsor assigns for the award. |
| Total Payments Applied | This is the amount of money (“cash”) that Northwestern has actually received from the sponsor. For most awards, your authorized budget is not tied to these payments, so it’s okay to rely on your balance; ASRSP will manage the cash flow. Payment details are on the project's Payments tab. |
| F&A Rate | F&A is Facilities and Administration, the overhead costs of conducting research. This rate has been assigned based on the sponsor and/or the specific type of award. |
| Carry Forward | Most projects automatically allow you to carry forward unspent funds from one period into the next, but if this is restricted you will see “No” in this field. |
| Data as of | The last time the data warehouse loaded new data for this project. |
Data: Financial Overview
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Direct Cost Total | These are the direct (non-overhead) research costs, such as salaries and supplies. |
| Total Direct Cost & F&A | This is the total of the direct and any indirect (F&A) research costs. |
| Projected Expenses | Entered directly in the Research Portal and does not feed anywhere else. You can enter projections to see how different plans would impact your balance. |
Data: Payments
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Invoice # | This is the internal reference number assigned by Northwestern for the invoice or payment request. |
| Date Created | For outstanding invoices, this is the date that Northwestern created the request. |
| Deposit Date | This is the date that Northwestern deposited the payment. |
| Posted Date | This is the date that the payment posted to your project. |
| Payment ID # | This is Northwestern’s internal reference number associated with the payment. |
Data: Subcontracts
Subcontract budget information (the amounts SR sets up in CERES for each subcontract, for each year) is not currently shown in the portal.
Actual amounts for subcontracts paid by wire or online voucher, rather than via Purchase Orders, will not display in the Research Portal.
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Vendor ID | This is the internal Northwestern reference number associated with the subcontract institution, which is set up as a “vendor” in NUFinancials. |
| Vendor Name | This is the official name associated with the subcontractor’s vendor profile in NUFinancials. |
| Contract Amount | This is the amount currently authorized for the subaward in NUFinancials. There may be additional funds in process or planned for future years. |
| Expenses ITD | This is the amount that Northwestern has paid the subcontractor to date. |
Non-Sponsored Projects
Overview
In general, the Non-Sponsored data comes from NUFinancials, our financial management system.
Projects that have a status of “Active” in NUFinancials appear here, regardless of whether the project period has started or ended.
Data
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Revenue | If used, this is the actual funding that has come into the account so far this fiscal year. |
| Revenue Budget | If used, this is the expected revenue. It may be higher than the current revenue if additional funds are expected later in the fiscal year. |
| Budget Carryforward Balance | This is the amount of carryforward that was rolled over from previous fiscal year(s). It may be available for you to spend now. |
| Total Expense Budget | This is the total budget that your department expects you to spend on the project during this fiscal year, assuming that it’s okay to spend your carryforward. |
| Total Obligations | This is the total of any expense and encumbrances so far this fiscal year. |
Protocols
Overview
The IACUC Protocols data comes from eIACUC, and the IRB Protocols data comes from eIRB+.
Data
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Protocol ID | This is the internal reference number assigned in the protocol system. |
| Expiration Date | This is the date that the study currently expires. Renewals may be possible beyond this date. |
| Status | This indicates whether the study has been approved. |
| Initial Approval Date | This is the first date that the study was approved. |
| Last Approval Date | This is the approval date for the most recent amendment to the study. |
Salary Details and People
Overview
The data in the Salary Details drill-throughs and the People pages comes from myHR.
The People pages show monthly payroll charges and the percentage of base salary those charges represent.
Details are available for the following salary categories: Academic Personnel, Non-Academic Personnel, Non-Academic Temp, Work Study, Salaries Restricted, and Stipend. Percent salary is the payroll amount divided by the monthly earned salary. For faculty with 12 month appointments and for exempt staff, the calculation uses annual salary divided by 12. For faculty with 9 month appointments, it uses academic base salary divided by 9. For non-exempt employees, the calculation uses hourly rate times number of hours scheduled per week divided by 5 times the number of weekdays in that month (this equals the total expected pay for this employee for the given month).
Data
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Job Title | This is the official myHR title associated with the person’s primary role. |
| Current Department | This is the person’s primary department. |
Cognos Crosswalk
Most of the data in the Research Portal is also available in Cognos reports. Here are some of the places where the reports tie out to portal data.
| Report | Research Portal Area |
|---|---|
| GL005 | Non-Sponsored (project level) |
| GL008 | Sponsored (transaction detail), Non-Sponsored (transaction detail), Salary Details |
| GL068 | Non-Sponsored (summary level) |
| GM044 | Sponsored (summary level) |
| GM045 | Sponsored (project level), Salary Details |
| GM060/GA401 | Sponsored (summary level) |
| GM085/GA402 | Pending |
| GM092 | Sponsored (subcontracts) |
The list of Sponsored projects in the portal is slightly more restrictive than the GM060/GA401 (Current Awards report), which lists all projects where an investigator has any role (key or non-key). The portal restricts this to key personnel roles.
General Definitions
Budget
These are the amounts that have been entered into NUFinancials as the budget for the project. Most sponsored projects are budgeted at a detailed level with specific amounts appropriated to different categories like travel and supplies. Most non-sponsored projects either have a general budget or no budgeted amounts.
Actuals or Actual Expenses
Actuals are expenses/charges that have been completely posted to the project. They can still be reversed or moved, but otherwise they are final.
Encumbrances or Encumbered Expenses
Encumbrances are expenses/charges that are in process but not finalized. For example, a supply order that is pending approval may appear as an encumbrance, or payroll that has been set up in myHR for a future month.
Projected Expenses
This data is entered directly in the Research Portal and does not feed anywhere else. You can enter projections on a sponsored project to see how different plans would impact your balance.
Direct Sponsor
This is the sponsor from whom Northwestern directly receives the funds. For example, if Northwestern receives NIH funds through a subaward from University of Chicago, University of Chicago is the Direct Sponsor.
Sponsor or Originating Sponsor
This is the sponsor who originally provided the funding. For example, if Northwestern receives NIH funds through a subaward from University of Chicago, NIH is the Originating Sponsor.
Chart String
This is the “string” of numbers that represents your project in NUFinancials. It includes the fund code, department ID, and project ID.
Fiscal Year
This is the university’s financial reporting period. It begins each year on September 1st and ends August 31st.