Accounting Services. Grant Overview. User Guide for Cobb County Employees 7/19/2017. (Program & Budgeting)

Transcription

1 (Program & Budgeting) Grant Overview User Guide for Cobb County Employees Created for: The Cobb County School District 7/19/ Glover Street Marietta, Ga (770) Created by: CCSD Financial Services 440 Glover Street Marietta, GA 30060

2 Revision Chart The following chart lists the revisions made to this document. Use this to describe the changes or additions made to the document each time it is re-published (draft or final). The description should summarize the changes as possible. Date Author Description of Changes 7/11/2013 Kim Coonfield Initial Document Conversion 7/19/2017 Karen Meeks Updates as Needed Grant Overview Page 2 of 9

3 Table of Contents... 1 Revision Chart... 2 Grant Overview... 4 Types of Grants... 4 Grant Responsibility... 4 Current Contracts... 5 Applying for a Federal, State, or Local Grant... 5 Steps to Follow When Applying for a Federal, State, or Local Grant... 5 Additional Important Information for Program and Grant Administrators... 8 Grant Overview Page 3 of 9

4 Grant Overview The Cobb County School District (CCSD) has many grants that provide miscellaneous educational programs for students. With the acceptance and receipt of a grant award comes many responsibilities. These responsibilities include the management and administration of programmatic, financial and reporting aspects of the grant project. Communication and coordination between personnel is essential for a successful grant project. Types of Grants There are two types of grants the Cobb County School District is usually awarded. These are Competitive grants and Flow-through grants. A Competitive grant requires one to compete with other grant applicants for a limited amount of money. Grant reviewers (experts and laypeople who apply to read and score grant applications) review the application and assign points for each section of the grant request. The applications with the highest scores are recommended for funding. The State applies to the Federal government for Flow-through grants on behalf of school districts. When the States receives the grant, they pass the federal monies on to the applicant. Please note, these are Federal funds even though they are distributed by a state agency and require you to follow Federal rules and regulations. Grant Responsibility The Grant/Program Administrator (Program Administrator) is the person ultimately responsible for the successful application and implementation of the awarded grant. These responsibilities include: grant project operations, grant objectives and goals, compliance with Federal and/or State regulations, and monitoring of account expenditures and budgets. Grant Overview Page 4 of 9

5 Current Contracts The following people are the current contacts for various grant responsibilities within the Cobb County School District: Grant Proposals & Application Assistance - Cindy Nichols, Grants Manager Budget Adjustment Preparation Grant/Program Administrator Budget Adjustment Assistance/Review - Kerry O Malley, Budget Analyst Grant Payroll Questions - Lisa Carter, Director of Disbursements Financial Reporting/Reimbursement - Karen Meeks, General Accountant Beth Atkinson, Grant Accountant Financial Training Suzanne Hatfield Manager, Auditing and Assurance Grant Management/Implementation/Compliance Grant/Program Administrator Applying for a Federal, State, or Local Grant Financial Services has developed steps that must be followed when applying for a Federal, State, or Local grant. The steps are documented on the Grant Flowchart displayed on Financial Services University. It is important to emphasize, before applying for a Grant, the Program Administrator must have financial training. This training is available on Financial Services University on the District s internet site under the Financial Services Department. This site will educate you on all aspects of Financial Services procedures. After reviewing Financial Services University, if additional training is needed the Manager of Auditing and Assurance should be contacted. Additional training and/or resources available concerning financial and compliance procedures will be provided before applying for a grant. Steps to Follow When Applying for a Federal, State, or Local Grant 1. Prior to any grant application development and several weeks before the grant submission deadline, the first step in the grant application process is to contact the CCSD Grants Manager. The Grant Manager will assist in the research ensuring all grant requirements and procedures are followed. Grant Overview Page 5 of 9

6 The grant will then be presented to the Accountability Research and Grants Organization for CCSD Strategic Plan alignment approval. 2. If the grant receives approval from Accountability Research and Grants, the Grants Manager will direct the Program Administrator to obtain Financial Grant Training. Once Financial Grant Training has been completed, the Grants Manager and the Program Administrator will work on the development of the grant proposal and collaborate on the grant requirements. These include but are not limited to compliance with Federal, State, and Local Requirements, timesheets/certifications, in-kind contributions and matching funds, legal opinions, monitoring of expenses, etc. Since a budget is required to be submitted with each grant application, the Program Administrator must meet with Budget Services to obtain correct charge codes that will be included in the grant application submission. 3. Some grants require a District Staff Coordination Record. The Program Administrator will work with the Grant Manager to compile the information needed for the Coordination Record along with the financial checklist. The Staff Coordination Record will be submitted to the General or Grant Accountant by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to review before it is considered for approval and routed through the Leadership Team. In the case of missing information, the Coordination Record will be returned by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Local School Accounting should be notified if a grant pertains to the handling of the grant funds by local school staff or within local school student activity funds. After the Coordination Record is approved, the grant application is submitted to the appropriate agency awarding the grant. The Grant Manager and Program Administrator will communicate with the grant award agency as needed throughout the grant award process. If the grant is awarded through the Georgia Department of Education (GADOE), the Program Administrator is responsible for preparing and entering the consolidated application through GADOE portal. 4. The CCSD Budget Services Department provides training on the FS-127 Budget Adjustment form. It is the responsibility of the Program Administrator to contact Budget Services to learn to prepare the CCSD Budget Adjustment form for their grant. Grant Overview Page 6 of 9

7 The Program Administrator will meet with Budget Services to obtain correct charge codes for grant expenses in order to prepare the budget adjustment form. After grant approval, the Program Administrator must submit the fully completed and signed budget adjustment form with all attached pertinent paperwork documenting grant amount, time period, approved spending plan, etc. to Budget Services. At this point, the Program Administrator will implement the grant and ensure that all CCSD accounting procedures related to payroll, budgeting, purchasing, contract services and travel are followed. The General and / or Grant Accountant must also receive a copy of the approved budget adjustment and attached documentation so that the grant is added to the District s Grant listing. The General and / or Grant Accountant will contact the Program Administrator to instruct how to monitor the grant expenditures, meet any applicable in-kind matching costs and explain any deadlines applicable to the grant. The General and / or Grant Accountant will submit monthly expenditure reimbursement to appropriate agencies. It is the Program Administrator s responsibility to ensure grant expenditures match the budget set up in the State grant system or per the grant application. If the expenditures do not match, an amended budget must be submitted to the State for approval. When the amended budget is approved by the State, an amended budget adjustment must be prepared and sent to the Budget Department. At the end of the grant period, the General and / or Grant Accountant will submit the completion or final report detailing how your grant was spent. 5. The Program Administrator is responsible for operation of the grant throughout the grant lifecycle. This includes any grant compliance questions and presentation or answering any questions to the CCSD Board of Education in case of audit findings. As all grants are subject to audits, maintaining adequate records and related correspondence of the grant are the responsibility of the Program Administrators. Budget and Accounting will maintain budget adjustment records and actual expenditures records. 6. One of the main challenges the General and / or Grant Accountant faces is submitting the completion report for Federal and State grants. When the completion report is accessed on the State website, the amount budgeted is posted and matches the most recently submitted budget to the State s consolidated application system. Grant Overview Page 7 of 9

8 The General and / or Grant Accountant enters the expenses incurred during the grant period. The system calculates the variance. If the variance is more than 110% in the overall function, the completion report cannot be submitted to the State. Therefore, the Program Administrator is responsible for providing charge codes to the General and / or Grant Accountant to move the excess expenditures. These expenditures must be moved to another charge code before submission of year-end financial information. Reporting deadlines must be met for each grant. Additional Important Information for Program and Grant Administrators 1. Program and Grant Administrators must keep periodic certifications and monthly time sheets on file for each employee paid by a Federal Grant. With the exception of Title I and Special Education, a signed copy of the periodic certification must be sent to. Periodic Certification Forms can be found on the CCSD Intranet CCSD Portal under Form Bank-Grants. The completed Periodic Certification forms will be verified for Federal Grants selected for audit. 2. For Federal Grants, the Excluded Parties List System on the SAM.gov website must be checked and verified. Federal grant regulations prohibit CCSD from contracting or performing transactions with parties that have a suspended or debarred status if those expenses are paid with Federal money. Merchandise that is contracted or bought from someone on the CCSD bid list has already been verified by Purchasing. It is the Program Administrator s responsibility to check the SAM.gov website when using or contracting with a vendor not already on the bid list. This applies to payments made from POs, check request, or contracts. Documentation of any searches must be obtained and maintained with the Program Administrator s Grant records. If the Federal Grant is selected for audit, the auditors will check to verify the Program Administrator has this information on file. 3. Program Administrators should periodically review payroll reports to ensure that the correct employees are paid out of the grant funds. These can be obtained by contacting the General and / or Grant Accountant. 4. All in-kind expenditures must be calculated correctly to Code of Federal Regulations. Program Administrators need to ensure that all costs are properly documented for grants requiring inkind/matching cost expenditures. Costs and in-kind expenditure documentation will be checked and verified on grants that are selected for audit. Grant Overview Page 8 of 9

9 5. Grant funds should not be used to buy gift cards. Gift cards are only allowable for the purchase of a gift on the procurement card using local school activity funds. 6. Grant funds must be spent by the period specified in the grant agreement. With the exception of specific federal grants, funds not spent will be forfeited. Goods must be both received and invoiced by the specified period of the grant. For grants ending June 30 th : Program Administrators need to communicate to staff all purchase orders must be entered into the system by June 1 st. Doing so will ensure Accounts Payable has time to receive all invoicing for the products ordered. Any outstanding purchase orders not invoiced or received by this June 30th date will be canceled. Procurement card charges must be posted by the end of June 30 th in order to count as grant expenditures in the current grant year. For grants ending September 30 th : Purchase order must be entered by September 1 st for the same reasons as sited above. Procurement card charges must be posted by September 30 th for the expenditures to be claimed in the current grant year. It is the Program Administrator s responsibility to communicate this to their staff. Grant Overview Page 9 of 9