Carnegie Mellon University
November 23, 2018

Tips: November 23, 2018

By SPARCS Help Desk

SPARCS Tips

On Wednesday (11/28/18), we will be releasing several updates to SPARCS. Following are this week's tips which will help navigate these changes - 

  • ANCILLARY APPROVERS: We have reached out to the various colleges and have received confirmation of the individuals to be listed with the SPARCS role of Ancillary Approver. When this change takes place, only one person for each org will be responsible for and notified that an ancillary review needs to take place. This notification will only be made when an award has been received. To further assist in managing ancillary approvals for individuals reviews that are outstanding will show up in the integrated inbox (the list of proposals that appears when you initially log into SPARCS) as action items. 
  • COST SHARING: The follow-up questions related to cost-sharing that appeared on the Budget Characteristics smartform will be consolidated to the Commitment of Additional Resources smartform. Once Cost-Sharing is selected on the Commitment of Additional Resources smartform you will be required to identify the type (Cost-Sharing, Matching Funds, or In-Kind Contribution), source of the funds, and amount for Matching Funds. The Budget Characteristics smartform will still have the Cost-Sharing question which will need to be answered “Yes in order to generate a cost-share budget. Please remember in SPARCS the three categories of cost sharing need to be selected according to the SPARCS use of the term: 
    • Cost Share: These contributions should represent costs that will be covered internally by CMU funds (gift, discretionary, etc...) These funds require that a detailed Cost Share budget be created within the same funding proposal. See the attached QuickStart guide on how to enter these funds.
    • Matching Funds: These funds are being provided by an external sponsor in the form of cash (grant award). These funds should be entered into a separate new SPARCS funding proposal. The OSP Specialist should be informed of the relationship between the two SPARCS funding proposals. This additional SPARCS funding proposal can be created either at the time of submission or at the time of an award.
    • In-Kind Contribution: The value of these contributions should be specified in a letter from the organization providing the resources. The letter of commitment should be uploaded to the funding proposal. The source and value of this contribution should also be identified within the SmartForms.
  • COMPLIANCE: Compliance Information will only be collected when we are in receipt of an award or award modification.  The Compliance Review smartform will no longer be available in the proposals module.  If you need to track compliance information on a proposal, there will be a new activity Add Compliance as an Impacted Department activity which can be utilized for tracking and communications purposes. The best thing about this activity is that as you select specific expenditure types in the budget’s general cost grid the system will indicate the appropriate compliance area on this activity as well as on the funding proposal workspace. However, if you do not have specific expenditures that relate to compliance issues you may also execute this activity and manually select the specific compliance areas. Populating this activity is not a requirement and is optional.

Do you have an item/topic you would like discussed in these monthly emails? Is there an area where you would benefit from additional training? Let us know!! Many of these changes were prompted because of feedback from our users. Please keep the feedback coming! 

SPARCS Updates

Maintenance

SPARCS unavailable due to maintenance on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM.