Manage my funds

Account set up & process

To set up a new account, email the following documents with a request to open a new FAST account.

• notice of award letter/notice – if the sponsor (granting agency) sends the letter/notice to you directly, please send it to Research Services
• copy of your research application – all required signatures should have been obtained through RAIS
• ethics and safety approvals – if your research involves human participants or biological materials, animals or bio-hazards
• conflict of interest declaration and management plan – if applicable

Other documents may be required based on the nature of your research grant.

• ORS will create a ticket and assign it to a reviewer
• a project account is created for the Principal Investigator (PI) once all required documents are received
• Research Services sends an open account memo (OAM) through RAIS to Research Accounting and notifies the PI by email. All the above documents are attached to the RAIS record and can be viewed and downloaded at any time

Common delays for account set-up

• Research Services did not receive notice of award, so they are not aware that the grant has been awarded
• if sponsors do not specify what the fund request or cheque was intended for, it may take time to reach Research Services
• if the award is received and appropriate ethics requirements are not in place (noted as pending in the application), the PI will be contacted
  • if ethics approvals are received after the award is granted, the PI is responsible for notifying Research Services
• negotiation of grant/clarification of terms is unacceptable to UVic, there are unreasonable or risky terms and conditions or conflicting UVic/sponsor policies
• potential financial risks are found with the sponsor or the terms of the contract
• other conditions required by the sponsor, such as receipt of matching contribution 

How to check account balances

In RAIS

The "post-award" page shows funding awarded for current and past projects. You can monitor the balance and view predicted installments for your projects.

You can also access:

• RASF and application materials
• award notice
• open account memos
• deferral and extension memos

In FAST 

Although RAIS provides a summary of the FAST account budget and balance, you need to access your account in FAST for full functionality and details of all transactions.

Grant amendments

You may have to make amendments during the lifespan of a grant, depending on the needs of the project.

Example amendments:

• extensions
• budget amendments
• additional funding requests
• deferrals
• change in PI requests
• any type of grant amendment where the granting agency needs to be notified

There are different ways to request an extension. In most cases, Research Services submits the grant amendment on the behalf of the PI. Due to exceptions, it’s important that Research Services is notified to update our records and minimize processing delays.

Email us for any type of extension or amendment to your grant. Please include the following details:

• RAIS ID
• type of amendment (extension, deferral, additional funding request)
• explanation as to why you need a grant amendment
• dates (if applicable)

Transferring funds – subawards

When a researcher collaborates with a partner at another institution and sends funds for that purpose, a subaward agreement clarifies each organization's obligations and intellectual property rights.

Eligibility

Not all funders allow sub-granting of their awards and transfers are sometimes only permitted under specific circumstances. If you have questions about eligibility, please contact Research Finance.

There must be sufficient funds in the researcher’s account to cover the transfer amount.

Timeline

Processing times will vary depending on the nature of the request. A simple Tri-agency transfer to a Canadian university can often be completed in three weeks. More complicated transfers such as NSERC Alliance and international subawards can take months to finalize.

Fund Transfer Process 

1. The researcher prepares an Outgoing Funding Request Form and emails it to Research Finance. The request is reviewed to determine whether the funds can be transferred and the appropriate UVic office to prepare the documentation.
2. Research Finance determines whether there are sufficient funds in the account to cover the subaward and whether regulatory approvals have been met.
3. Research Finance or the Contracts office prepares the agreement and obtains the necessary signatures from UVic and the receiving institution.
4. Research Finance processes the payment upon receipt of the fully executed agreement.
5. The recipient institution sends a financial report to Research Accounting annually verifying the project expenses during the previous fiscal year (April 1 to March 31). Additional funding installments will not be sent until reporting is received.
6. The researcher sends an additional Outgoing Funding Request Form to amend the subaward agreement (extend the term, add funding, etc.).

Award closure

As a project nears its end, the PI and Research Accounting have several closeout responsibilities:

PI

• review financial reports prepared by Research Accounting
• prepare and submit any required progress/scientific/technical reports or deliverables to the sponsor
• provide Research Services with the confirmation of the final account balance, completion of all contractual commitments and submission of all reports required by the sponsor
• ensure that all project requirements are completed

Research Accounting

• review all costs and remove those that are ineligible
• provide the PI or department with the account reconciliation for review
• coordinate with the PI to ensure that all expenditures are finalized and adjustments are processed to reach a final balance
• prepare and submit the final financial report to the sponsor
• submit any required invention/property reports to the sponsor
• close sponsored award fund sources in the financial system

Research Services account closure checklist

• PI has submitted the final technical report – all milestones and deliverables have been met
• all funding has been received from sponsor
• all inter-institutional advances to partners have been received and accounted for
• all payments to sub-awardees and vendors have been made
• outstanding commitments are cancelled
• outstanding travel advances are reconciled
• all financial reporting and invoicing is complete
• balance is at $0 

Residual balance

Residual balance refers to unspent funds on a research grant or contract that has terminated or expired.

If you have unspent funds in your project account by the end date and need to access these funds, contact Research Services and request an extension. Failure to request an extension may prevent access to the remaining funds.

For SSHRC and NSERC programs, please follow the no-cost extension of Tri-Agency programs procedure under research finance's No-cost extensions section.

• if your remaining balance is more than 50% of your original budget, the funds will have to be returned to the granting agency, and no extension will be granted
• if the grant expired more than a year ago, you will not be eligible to access them through the General Research Fund

For CIHR grants, any funds remaining at the end of the authority to use funds period must be returned to the agency. For other programs, please check the specific sponsor guidelines.

Some sponsors will not release the last portion of the budget until the final reports are received, so please ensure reporting timelines are met.

Final financial report

A final financial report is required for most sponsored projects. Research Accounting prepares the financial report with the PI and submits the report to the sponsor. For final financial reports:

• outstanding commitments must be cleared
• unspent balance must be addressed
• over-expenditure must be cleared 

Final progress report

The PI is responsible for preparing and submitting the final progress report to the sponsor. Please check the deadline to submit the final progress report.

Need help?

Contacting these finance emails will create a ticket and notifications to which you can reply.

• post-award support, grant amendments, extensions, installments
• general questions/inquiries, sub-grant requests, partial funding releases
• ChromeRiver expenses, travel award expense claim