Research Foundation to OMNI FAQ

Goals established for this project were to:

• Align project setup, billing, receivables, and disbursement processes for grants managed by Sponsored Research and FSU Research Foundation (FSURF).
• Control spending of FSURF project funds in OMNI at the department, fund, and project level.
• Allow FSURF staff to maintain approval authority for requisitions, travel authorizations/expense reports, payment request forms, departmental journals, and HR accounting transactions via applicable workflow.
• Enhance University reports and queries by allowing visibility of FSURF project revenues and expenses in OMNI and BI.
• Support processes that adhere to applicable statute, regulation, and policy.
• Eliminate the need for secondary project IDs for salary companion accounts.

Project inclusions (transactions/activity brought into OMNI at this time) are:

• Contracts & Grants
• Royalty Acounts
• PI Support Accounts
• Departmental Indirect Cost Accounts
• GAP Awards
• Krafft Awards (formerly known as Eppes Awards)

Project exclusions (transactions/activity NOT brought into OMNI at this time) are:

• FSURF project activity detail, prior to the go-live date of July 1, 2020, will not be brought into OMNI. Departments will need to continue to use the existing reports found at https://reports.foundation.fsu.edu/reports.
• The operational activity of FSURF will remain in Financial Edge. All FSURF activity related to their business/operations will continue to be handled by Research Foundation Accounting staff.

FSURF contract and grant activity will use existing University department IDs. No new department IDs will need to be created to record these funds.

FSURF contract and grant activity will continue to be recorded using the existing Fund Code 545. Historically Fund 545 has been used to record only the salary activity of the Research Foundation projects. As of July 1, 2020, all revenue and expense transactions for external contracts and grants will be recorded in Fund 545.

A new Fund Code, Fund 544, was established for all internal FSURF activity. This new fund will include activity for PI support accounts, departmental indirect cost accounts, royalties, GAP accounts, etc.

• Fund Code – 545, external contract and grant activity
• Fund Code – 544, internal contract and grant activity

FSURF contract and grant activity will utilize all of the available OMNI functionality, including SpearMart, Concur, Payment Request Forms (ePRFs), Personnel Action Forms (ePAFs), etc. When entering requisitions and/or other transactions in OMNI Financials and other systems for Research Foundation projects, you will identify the respective accounting string for the Research Foundation Project, including Department ID, Fund (545 or 544), and the project ID.

The PC Business Unit for all FSURF activity is “FSRF1”.

All FSURF projects that are active on July 1, 2020 will be setup in OMNI as part of the project implementation process. New projects needed after July 1, 2020 will follow the same request and setup process as Sponsored Research Administration with proposals being submitted for external contract and grant activity through RAMP Grants and an SRAD Project Request form submitted for internal contract and grant projects.

Workflow will not work correctly if funding is split in SpearMart or on internal requisitions. If there is a need to record payments across multiple funds in these systems, it should be done using one request for each funding source.

Split funding can be done in Concur and by using the electronic Payment Request Forms (ePRFs) in OMNI.

Expense and revenue transfers utilizing Research Foundation funds should be initiated through a Departmental Online Journal Entry, just like any other transfer between any University departments/funds.

Yes. WHAT you can buy with your Research Foundation funds has not changed, only HOW you buy. Research Foundation funds will continue to be governed by the FSURF Business Manual.

As for the HOW of spending Research Foundation funds, you would use all the same mechanisms that you would use to spend E&G or other University funds – unencumbered purchases would use an electronic Payment Request (ePRF) or a departmental PCard; you can issue a PO by submitting a requisition in SpearMart; all travel will go through Concur, including guest travel; and non-travel reimbursements.

If you have specific questions about utilizing any of these processes/systems, please check out the existing training classes offered by Disbursement Services , Procurement, etc. or contact those departments directly.

Expenditures to external entities made using Research Foundation funds do not require a Purchase Order. However, we strongly encourage you to use a Purchase Order to avoid using personal funds for university business. A Purchase Order is required for purchases made to internal, auxiliary departments.

Please note, purchases using any combination of University and Research Foundation funds must comply with the Research Foundation’s policies AND with University policies and procedures.

Research Foundation projects will be available in OMNI and SpearMart on July 1, 2020. You will be able to enter a Purchase Order on Research Foundation projects according to the year-end calendar published by Procurement.

A Travel Request is required for ALL travel, regardless of funding, in the Concur travel system.

Unless a specific exception is requested at the time of the payment request, all payments out of OMNI are processed on the normal terms established for University vendors. Generally, these terms are net 40.

Yes. If there are any vendors that your department pays regularly from Research Foundation funds that are not setup in OMNI, they will need to be established as a Supplier in OMNI. If your department plans to issue a PO to any of these vendors, please follow the procedures for new supplier setup on Procurement Services’ website. If all purchases from these vendors will be made unencumbered, please complete the appropriate Vendor Authentication form located here.

Yes. Charges on FSU PCards and TCards are allowed on Fund 544 and Fund 545. The normal restrictions placed on University PCards will be applicable for Fund 544 and Fund 545 spend, unless a waiver has been requested and granted.

Yes, budgets on FSURF projects will be established through the grant proposal and award process currently in place for other sponsored projects. As of July 1, 2020, this will originate in RAMP Grants.

These funds do not have to be budgeted in Hyperion.

Budget checking will be performed via the same mechanisms currently in place for other sponsored projects.

Approvers are maintained at the Project level. In this sense, workflow will work the same way that existing workflow is setup in the various systems for other sponsored projects. Additional approvals are required from Research Foundation staff (similar to the additional approvals required for C&G funds by Sponsored Research).

Please note that the exact workflow setup varies based on the system/process (OMNI HR, SpearMart, Concur, etc.). Additionally, the usual mechanisms to update project roles and workflow approvers are available for FSURF projects.

The workflow has been setup to automatically route to all of the approvers required to approve transactions on Research Foundation funds, including approvals based on the dollar amount of the request. While no additional approvers are required, departments can ad hoc in approvers if they choose.

Project level approvers on FSURF projects can be updated/changed by submitting a Personnel Change Request from to FSURF. Departmental level approvers can be updated utilizing the respective system’s (HR, SpearMart, Concur, etc.) process for updating approvers.

Yes, existing reports and queries will include Research Foundation funds.

The best way to monitor Research Foundation activity and balances is to use BI financial reports such as the existing Budget & Transaction and Transaction Details dashboard reports. Additionally, you can find Fund 544 and 545 activity on the BI Departmental Ledger C&G.

Departmental OMNI queries will generally return Research Foundation data, just as they do all other financial data in OMNI.

Daily automated feeds to and from the Research Foundation’s financial system and OMNI will begin immediately following conversion, which should ensure the expenditure data captured in OMNI can also be viewed from Research Foundation online reports that were historically used prior to OMNI integration.

Salary companion projects will no longer be utilized starting July 1, 2020. ePAFs will need to be processed for all individuals who are currently appointed on Research Foundation projects and are expected to continue to be funded on Research Foundation projects after June 30, 2020. Projects will be available in OMNI starting on June 1, 2020. Departments will have until June 26, 2020 to have the ePAF processed through final approval.

Appointments on the new projects should begin June 26, 2020 and the appointments on the existing salary companion projects should be ended on June 25, 2020.

If the contracting party is the FSU Research Foundation then the contract does NOT need to route through the contract module. However, if the contracting party is the university, and you just happen to be using FSURF funds, then it will need to route through the contract module.

Note: It is quite common that we request the contracting party be changed to FSURF when using FSURF funds, so you should contact FSURF to determine if it is appropriate to change the contracting party if you have a contract that will be paid from FSURF funds and names the university as the contracting party.

Yes. The FSURF to OMNI integration doesn’t impact the use of RAMP (Research Administration Management Portal) because FSURF agreements are already being routed through RAMP for the following agreement types

• Clinical Trial Agreements
• Data Use Agreements
• Equipment Lease Agreements
• Master Agreements
• Material Transfer Agreements
• Memorandum of Understanding (w/ external party)
• Non-Disclosure Agreement
• Outgoing Subawards
• Reliance Agreements
• Teaming/Collaboration Agreements
• Sponsored Research Agreements