The following guide is intended to overview the process of creating a sponsored capital project. These are capital projects that are funded by grants and will be created/managed by URA. This process will start when URA creates a sponsored award and associated capitalizable project record (this will be part of the AURA integration). Upon completion, the sponsored capitalizable project record will be routed to the Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator for approval to ensure the project has been setup correctly from a Capital Projects perspective. Upon approval, URA will complete the remaining award creation and submittal steps. At this point, the sponsored award and capitalizable project will be ready to be transacted against. During the lifecycle of the project, transactions can be incurred until the project is materially complete and is ready for capitalization. When this occurs, the Capital Projects Central Administrator can begin the capitalization process and the Asset Accountant can place the asset into service.

 

• URA/Sponsored Award Responsibilities (Note: While these steps are listed in the QRG to reference the end-to-end process, refer to Sponsored Awards QRG’s for any specific details regarding these steps – see prerequisites section)
  • Create a Sponsored Award
  • Create and Associate a Sponsored Capital Project to a Sponsored Award
  • Add and Allocate Sponsored Funding to a Sponsored Capital Project
  • Create Initial Budget on Sponsored Capital Project
  • Submit an Award/Contract for Approval
    
    
• Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator Responsibilities
  • A Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator Approves a Sponsored Capital Project to Change the Status from Draft to Active

 

• • • • Award: An award is the umbrella record that contains comprehensive demographic and financial information for a sponsored research agreement.
      • Project: A primary unit of work that can be broken down into one or more tasks containing demographic and financial information at a more detailed level than an award. Multiple projects may exist to differentiate among funding years, departments, PIs, physical locations, F&A rates, or purposes such as capitalizable & non-capitalizable.
      • Task: The lowest level of a project used to organize project work into smaller, more easily manageable/reportable, units of work such as subawards and participant support.
      • Sponsor: A sponsor is an organization that provides funding for a sponsored research agreement.
      • Project Budget: An estimate of planned expenses.
      • Award Personnel: The key members associated with an award.
      • Principal Investigator: The person leading and managing the research agreement.
      • Contract: A record incorporating the necessary billing attributes and revenue attributes for the generation of invoices and revenue recognition to occur for an award.
      • POETAF: POETAF is an acronym that represents the most granular level of detail of a project. It is a combination of project segments that describe an expenditure item, including Project, Expenditure Organization, Expenditure Type, Task, Award, and Funding Source.
      • Expenditure Item: A cost transaction that includes POETAF attributes along with a transaction date and other attributes.
      • Capital Projects: The Capital Projects are designed to plan, manage, and track capital investments, and are commonly utilized by businesses that make investments in capital assets.
      • Capitalizable Task: A Capitalizable Task refers to a task that is associated with capitalizable transactions/costs for capital projects.
      • Non-Capitalizable Task: A Non-Capitalizable Task refers to a task that is associated with non-capitalizable transactions/costs for capital projects.
      • Capital Asset: A Capital Asset is an asset that is constructed based on costs that can be capitalized, specifically for capital projects.
      • Capitalization: Capitalization involves transforming the costs or expenses associated with a project into capital assets for that project.
      • Project number:  A number that uniquely identifies each project. 
  • Each project is assigned a 3-letter prefix depending on the type of project.
    • UFP - Facilities eBuilder capital project.
    • SCP - UCMC shared construction project.
    • UCP - All other capital projects.
    • USP - All sponsored capitalizable projects
  • For capital projects converted from FAS (added prior to 7/1/2024), the last 5 digits of account number is used with the 3-letter prefix (listed above).
    • Ex: For the Uchicago Center in Paris project, the FAS 8-ledger account is 881121. The converted Oracle project number will be UFP81121).
  • For capital projects added in Oracle after 7/1/2024, the project number will be autogenerated starting with 1000000 with the 3-letter prefix (UCP, UFP, or SCP).
  • For sponsored capitalizable projects converted from FAS (added prior to 7/1/2024), the project number will be autogenerated starting with 1000000 with the 3-letter prefix (USP)
    • The converted FAS account will be imbedded in the sponsored capitalizable project name.
  • For sponsored capitalizable projects added in Oracle after 7/1/2024, the project number will be autogenerated starting with 2000000 with the 3-letter prefix (USP)

 

• • • • For any URA/Sponsored Awards responsibilities (as listed above), reference the following QRG’s:
  • Set Up Awards, Projects, and Contracts (Sponsored Awards) QRG
  • Modify Awards, Projects, and Contracts QRG

 

• • • • For the Capital Projects Central Administrator and Asset Accountant responsibilities to capitalize sponsored capital projects and place them into service as assets, reference the following QRG’s:
  • Capitalize and Close a Capital Project QRG
  • Managing Fixed Assets – Asset Addition (CP/Constructed Equipment) QRG

 

Once URA creates the award & associated capitalizable project record, and completes the appropriate project setup, they will update the project status from Draft to Submitted. This will kick off a workflow notification to the Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator, who will review the project record to ensure it has been step up correctly for capital activities.

 

1. Login to Oracle by selecting the Company Single Sign-On button     

 

2. Select the Bell (notifications) icon

3. Verify that the workflow notification has been sent
   1. Note: The Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator should review the project to ensure it is set up correctly from a capital projects perspective. If set up correctly, the workflow notification can be approved. If not, the workflow notification can be rejected. If rejected, the Award Setup Specialist can make the appropriate changes and re-submit the project for approval        

4. Select Projects
5. Select Project Financial Management
   1.            You can also use the navigator to get to the same place (3 parallel lines in the top left-hand corner next to the UChicago logo)
   2. Navigator > Expand Projects > Project Financial Management

6. Expand the Search pane

           

7. Populate the fields with the previously created project details and select Search
8. Select the Project Name hyperlink 

 

9. Select the Taskbar
10. Select Manage Financial Project Settings

 

11. Select the Additional Information tab       

12. Verify the Construction/Renovation DFF
    2. Note: The Construction/ Renovation DFF is a very important field that drives accounting. For Sponsored Capital Projects (projects involving construction or renovation), this DFF value will be Yes. While URA update this field when creating the project record, it is good practice to verify this information
13. Select Done

           

14. Select the Taskbar
15. Select Manage Financial Project Plan

           

16. Verify the project task structure
    3. Note: For Sponsored Capital projects, there will be at least two tasks – Capitalizable Costs & Non-Capitalizable Costs. While the appropriate tasks will be created when URA creates the project record, it is good practice to verify this information (especially the chargeable and capitalizable flags on the tasks)
17. Select Save and Close

18. Select the Bell (notifications) icon  

 

19. Select the notification hyperlink

           

20. Select Claim
    4. Note: Central F&A will have multiple users designated as the Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator. Since all these persons are included in the underlying approval group, the approval can happen on a “first come, first serve” basis – the user in the approval group that views the approval notification first can approve it

21. Select Approve

           

22. Enter any comments (if desired) and select Submit

           

23. Verify the project status is Active once approved
    5. Note: As the Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator, you can verify the status change after approval. You may have to refresh the screen to see the project status change. This workflow approval will also route to URA (and they will be able to see it on the Award record), so they can complete the remaining Award setup steps
    6. The Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator should notify the URA Award Steup Specialist of this project approval

           

You have now completed the process  for a Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator Approving a Sponsored Capital Projects to Change the Project Status from Draft to Active

 

Once the Sponsored Capital Projects Administrator has verified and approved the capitalized project record, URA can complete the remaining Award setup steps. Once this occurs, and the Award is submitted & is active, expenditures can be incurred against the award and project. Over the lifecycle of the project, expenditures can continue to be incurred. Upon the project being materially complete, the Capital Projects Central Administrator can begin the capitalization process to transfer the asset from PPM to Fixed Assets and the Asset Accountant can place it into service (reference the Capitalize and Close a Capital Project QRG and the Manage Fixed Assets – Asset Addition (CP/Constructed Equipment) QRG for these activities).