Roles and Responsibilities

Academic Unit Administrative Staff

Please see the definition of key terms, such as provide, monitor, etc.

A unit administrator (regardless at what level, department, dean's office or serving multiple units) provides financial, human resource, reporting and other administrative support services for Principal Investigators. Unit administrators should have a general understanding of federal and other sponsor policies and regulations, University policies and procedures, and college guidelines as they pertain to University grants and contracts.

Specifically, a unit administrator has the following responsibilities:

• Assists Principal Investigator in preparation of grant budget proposal and other administrative tasks related to proposal submission

• Confirms chart strings for cost share commitments

• If award documents are delayed, assists PI in preparation of guaranteed funding request

• Upon award notification, meets with Principal Investigator to make necessary setup entries

• If necessary, sets up cost share chart string with budget entry

• Determines who will be working on grant and makes necessary salary distribution changes for both sponsored and cost share activities

• Sets up automatic monthly expenditure reports

• Assists Principal Investigator with any recruitment efforts for personnel

• Enters requisitions for purchases

• Assists Principal Investigator with pur-card reallocations

• Assists Principal Investigator with travel and expense reports

• Makes any necessary journal entries to correct expenses on grant

• Resolves budget checking errors on sponsored projects

• Meets at least quarterly with Principal Investigator to review grant expenditures and effort reports and make any necessary distribution or other changes

• Monitors cost share commitments and assists Principal Investigator to ensure commitments are met

• Ninety days prior to grant expiration, meets with Principal Investigator to review spending plans to avoid any last minute changes or transfers

• Thirty days prior to grant expiration, runs Close Out report and assists in resolving any outstanding issues

• Makes necessary notifications to change any default chart-strings or move pur-card to new chart-string

• Twenty to thirty days after grant ends, runs close out report and correct any errors

• Thirty days after grant ends, lets Grant and Contract Administrative Services know the grant is ready for the final financial report

• Serves as resource to PI for any financial or human resource issue

Last modified June 07 2011 05:48 PM