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Feature of the Month - March 2011
Using Projected Expenses in Account Reports
A major challenge for research administrators is helping control grant spending so that investigators don’t run out of money before budget periods expire. This can be especially difficult when an institution’s financial system does not help adequately manage encumbrances or future spending. Historically, IT Works has led the way in helping researchers track known non-personnel (OTPS) encumbrances and project and encumber the personnel costs of their research teams. Recently, a new feature was added to our accounting module that uses historical OTPS expenditure data to project future spending. The result is an easy way to determine if current spending patterns will result in overspending.
IT Works updated the Accounting Module report criteria window to create a report that allows you to easily project future non-personnel expenses based on your actual spending history. This new feature calculates a daily average expense cost based on your non-historical expenses, and then it multiplies that average by the number of days remaining in the reported period. This number replaces values in the encumbrance column on reports. The projected expense costs is not saved as part of the accounting record; it simply adds the calculated dollar amount to your reports. This can provide a more accurate picture of the projected expenses for the life of a grant. Learn more...