Research: SIMSreports - Research Accounting Dashboard

The Office of Research Accounting's Dashboard receives notifications of log records that have been distributed by the Central Processing Offices (CPO) of Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), College of Medicine Office of Research Affairs (COM), and the Applied Research Laboratory Grants and Contracts Office (ARL).  Records appear on the Research Accounting dashboard only when a distribution activity has been done from the Negotiation Manager Distribute Tab.

The Research Accounting Dashboard was released September 2013. The Accountant Review column was added in summer 2024.

Accessing the Research Accounting Dashboard

Who can Access?

• Research Accounting user role in SIMS 
• There are not separate user roles in SIMS for Master Data Team and Accountants.  All Research Accounting staff have the same role in SIMS.

How to access?

• The dashboard can be accessed directly from the sims.psu.edu and appears upper left corner of the SIMS entry page.

• The dashboard can also be accessed by clicking on "Dashboard" from the Research Accounting Navigator  in the upper left corner.

Viewing the dashboard

When do records appear on the dashboard?

Records appear on the Research Accounting dashboard only when a distribution activity has been done from the Negotiation Manager Distribute Tab.

The dashboard provides a breakdown of counts for multiple categories outlined.  Each count displayed on the dashboard is also a hyperlink that will transfer user to the appropriate results. 

Example, when clicking on the hyperlink in Column "New", row "Federal", the results returned will be for "

Row Details

The rows on the dashboard represent the sponsor type for the records in the columns. The sponsor types are listed as follows:

• Federal
  • Federal Agencies
  • Federal Laboratories
• State 
  • Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Other
  • Associations, Institutes, Societies and Voluntary Health Agencies
  • Corporations
  • Foreign Governments and International Agencies
  • Hospitals
  • Industrial Sponsored Research Organizations
  • Local Governments (other then Pennsylvania)
  • Local Governments (Pennsylvania)
  • Miscellaneous Other
  • Nonprofit Foundations
  • Quasi Governmental and Independent Agencies
  • States (other then Pennsylvania)
  • University and colleges

Column Details

Advance 

• Records listed under the "Advance" column include OSP numbers of Internal Approval Forms (IAF) which have "yes" indicated for "Request Advanced Account?" and have had an Internal Order number created in SIMBA. Note: An Internal Order (IO) will not be created until all compliance approvals, if any, are obtained. 
• Records will remain under the Advance column until the Central Processing Office (CPO) has completed distribution from the Negotiation Manager Log record.  The OSP# will then appear under the appropriate column based on sponsor type (Federal, State, other) and agreement action (New, Incremental, NCE, Other).
• After “Set Up Completed” is indicated for the OSP #, the record will not leave the Research Accounting dashboard until the award has been processed by the Central Processing Office. 
• Record will remain on dashboard until Research Accounting completes an activity of "setup complete" or "complete without setup".
  

Action Processing Types

• New 
  • New or Competitive Renewal
  • Incremental Funds
  • Continuation
• Incremental 
  • Additional Funds
• NCE 
  • No Cost Extension - Approval
• Other 
  • Decrease in Funds
  • Administrative Change
  • Budget Revision-Approval
  • For Billing Purposes Only
  • Stop Work Order
  • Other Modifications- Approval
  • Termination
  • Non-Financial if the agreement type is "settlement agreement". 

 Accountant Review

• The Research Accounting - Master Data Team reviews records and performs SIMBA Account Setup. If a record needs to be sent to an Accountant Review, an activity is added from the Account Setup Detail screen to 'Send to Accountant Review".
• Records "Sent to Accountant Review" no longer will be included in the counts for the other columns. (New, Incremental, NCE, Other) 
• Record will remain on dashboard until Research Accounting - Accountants completes an activity of setup or complete without setup.

Navigating to the Results

The dashboard provides a breakdown of counts for multiple categories outlined above.  Each count displayed on the dashboard is also a hyperlink that will transfer user to the appropriate report of information. 

Example, when clicking on the hyperlink in Column "New", row "Federal", the list of agreements returned will be for "New Financial Agreements for Federal Sponsors Ready for Account Setup".

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