My Accounts User Guide
My Accounts. A tool for PIs where they and their administrators can view all their Stanford accounts in one place. Funding, commitments and expenditures are updated daily!
Jump To:
- How to Access My Accounts
- Overview of the Page
- The Show Balance As Filters
- The Show Account #'s Filters
- The Allocations to Other SU Faculty Filter
- Cost Share
- Referesh With Above Settings Button
- The Data
- About the Budget Column
- Example 1: Direct Dollars Remaining Filter
- Example 2: Direct Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments Filter
- Example 3: Total Dollars Remaining Filter
- Example 4: Total Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments
How to Access My Accounts
Login to sera.stanford.edu.
From your SeRA Dashboard (default landing page) select the far right tab labeled My Accounts.
Overview of the Page
Section 1 Filters and Button
My Accounts allows you to filter data for the results you are looking for by using the drop down menu's in section 1. Filters are for:
- PI (default is to administrator's name)
- Show Balances As. This allows you to select Total or Direct cost as the basis, and inclusive or exclusive of known commitments.
- Show Account #s. This allows you to view the award account numbers for currently open accounts, both open and closed accounts, or the default setting of hiding the account numbers.
- Allocations to Other SU Faculty. This allows you to include or exclude any funds the lead PI may have allocated to other SU Faculty members.
- Cost Sharing Accounts. Allows you to view financial data for cost sharing accounts or to exclude financial data.
Use the Refresh with Above Settings button to activate the filters you select.
Section 2
Clarifies the filters for Direct Costs which are explained in detail.
Section 3
Data you filtered in section 1 is displayed in the appropriate funding category when you click the Refresh with Above Settings button. Categories are:
- Sponsored: Any sponsored research that does not fall to either Clinical Trials or University Funded.
- Clinical Trial: Any projects marked as Clinical Trials.
- University: Any projects where the source of funds is internal to Stanford.
The Show Balance As Filters
Select from one of the four calculation filters. See the examples below to see how the data is calculated.
The Calculation Filters
- Direct Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments (default) [includes outstanding commitments]
- Direct Dollars Remaining [does not include commitments]
- Total Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments [includes commitments]
- Total Dollars Remaining [does not include outstanding commitments]
About Minus Commitments (filters 1 &3 )
Commitments are expected costs associated with future transactions. The main types of commitment data included in My Accounts are salary, student aid, and purchasing commitments. For more information about what is considered a commitment and what is not, visit Fingate.
About Direct Dollars (filters 1&2)
Direct Dollars are estimates only. They are calculated after any indirect costs or overhead charges are subtracted. For precise projections please contact your Research Administrator.
If you would like to see the exact commitments being accounted for you will be able to open the individual transaction lines in the Faculty Financial Inquiry Tool, FFIT.
Cost Sharing
Whether you show or hide account numbers Cost Sharing amounts are included in Total Budget Awarded, Spent to date (with or without commitments) and Funds Available. You can tell a cost share account number as it has a 700 in the middle segment. See example below.
The Show Account #'s Filters
There are 3 filters for displaying account numbers.
Hide Account#s (default)
The data for all accounts for a specific project is summed up and displayed. Account numbers are hidden. Cost sharing account totals are included in the hidden accounts.
Show Open Account#'s Only
Open accounts only are displayed. Cost sharing accounts connected to a research project are displayed alongside the accounts funded by the sponsor.
Show Open and Closed Account #'s
The account numbers for both open and closed accounts are displayed. Depending on the age of the account the detailed expenditures may be available through the link to the FFIT page. Like Open Accounts any associated cost sharing is included.
Cost Sharing
If you want to view your cost sharing accounts you must set show account number to "current open"
The Allocations to Other SU Faculty Filter
Select from 2 filters for Allocations to Other SU faculty: Include (default)/Exclude. If you are a PI and have allocated funds to internal collaborators who have their own account numbers you can view the data with or without their portion included in your totals.
Cost Share
If you want to see your cost share accounts select "include" from the drop down menu. You must also select "Current Open" from the drop down menu next to Show Account #s. Cost sharing account have a 700 in the middle segment of the account number
Referesh With Above Settings Button
Click the Refresh with Above Settings button to activate the filters you select. Don't forget to refresh or you might be looking at the wrong data!
The Data
| Number | Title | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SPO Number | Specific to each project. The SPO number is a hyperlink to the summary SPO page |
| 2 | Sponsor Number | Sponsor abbreviated name. If a subaward, it will show the prime sponsor with the subaward provider in parenthesis eg: NIH (UC Berkeley) |
| 3 | Agreement Number | Only for NIH Projects |
| 4 | Account Task Name | As setup by your research administrator |
| 5 | Type of Award | Grant, Contract, Training Grant, etc. |
| 6 | Your role on the project |
PI, Co-PI, Co-I, Mentor, etc. Only the PI will be shown the Remaining Anticipated Funds column (18) |
| 7 | Project Name | Truncated project name |
| 8 | Individual account numbers |
Hyperlinks to FFIT pages for more details. Open accounts appear in blue link text and, if selected, closed appear gray |
| 9 | End date | Grant or Contract end date |
| 10 |
End date (task) |
End date of each individual account, may differ from #9 |
| Show Balance Filter for a Search with no commitments | Total Requested Funds | Total amount proposed (requested )of the sponsor for the project |
| 11 | Total Budget |
Sum of all amounts budgeted to each underlying account number |
| 12 | Total Budget Awarded (task) | Amount budgeted to each individual underlying account. |
| 13 | Spent to Date |
Sum of total dollars spent to date. |
| 14 | Committed Amount |
Outstanding commitments in the Oracle System. |
| 15 | Est. Direct Funds or Total Funds Available |
Sum of all Total or Direct Funds available. |
| 16 | Remaining Anticipated Funds | Sum of remaining anticipated funding to be (but not yet) received from the sponsor |
About the Budget Column
Contracts
Available Funds is calculated against the Total Budget.
Clinical Trials
Available Funds is calculated against Received to Date amount. All Received to Date funds will show only on one task. If multiple tasks are present the remaining will default to $0. This is because when funds are received they are allocated to the general award and are not associated with individual tasks.
Overdraft Cost Sharing
Displays the funds transferred into the account. Available Funds is how much money is available.
University Research
The budget column represents the amount awarded by the Stanford organization funding the project. Funds Available is how much has been spent against what the Stanford organization has awarded you.
Example 1: Direct Dollars Remaining Filter
Direct Dollars Remaining filter results are displayed Column 4 where it only displays Direct Funds Available. Columns 1,2,3 and 5 displays both direct costs and indirect costs.
Remember the Direct Dollars Remaining calculation is only an estimate. They are calculated after any indirect costs or overhead charges are subtracted. For precise projections please contact your Research Administrator.
More on The Direct Dollars Remaining Calculation
Remember the Direct Dollars Remaining calculation is only an estimate. It is calculated by taking Total Costs Available and dividing them by the 1.x where x is the Indirect Cost Rate. My Accounts does not take into considerations those cost that do not accrue indirect costs such as tuition, equipment and subawards with expenditures greater than $25,000 or costs which have additional burdens such as fringe benefits. For precise projections please contact your Research Administrator.
Example 2: Direct Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments Filter
Direct Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments results are displayed in column 4. The amount includes outstanding commitments, which decreases the amount available in Column 4. Compare the amount in Column 4 on this screen with Column 4 above.
Commitments are expected costs associated with future transactions. The main types of commitment data included in My Accounts are salary, student aid, and purchasing commitments. For more information about what is considered a commitment and what is not, visit Fingate.
Direct Dollars Remaining are estimates only. They are calculated after any indirect costs or overhead charges are subtracted. For precise projections please contact your Research Administrator. If you have a cost sharing account it will only be included in the data if you select to include Cost Share Accounts in the filters.
More on Direct Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments Calculation
Remember the Direct Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments calculation is only an estimate. It is calculated by taking Total Costs Available Minus Commitments and dividing them by the 1.x where x is the Indirect Cost Rate. My Accounts does not take into considerations those cost that do not accrue indirect costs such as tuition, equipment and subawards with expenditures greater than $25,000 or costs which have additional burdens such as fringe benefits. For precise projections please contact your Research Administrator.
Example 3: Total Dollars Remaining Filter
Total Dollars Remaining filter results are displayed in column 4. The amount does not include outstanding commitments. which decreases the amount available.
Using this filter the Total Funds Available column calculation includes both direct cost and indirect costs. This excludes outstanding commitments. If you have a cost sharing account it will be included in the data!
Example 4: Total Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments
Total Dollars Remaining Minus Commitments filter results are displayed in column 4. The amount includes outstanding commitments. Using this filter the Total Funds Available column contains both direct cost and indirect costs.
Compare the amount in Column 4 on this screen with Column 4 above.
Commitments are expected costs associated with future transactions. The main types of commitment data included in My Accounts are salary, student aid, and purchasing commitments. For more information about what is considered a commitment and what is not, visit Fingate.
If you have a cost sharing account it will only be included in the data if you select to include Cost Share Accounts in the filters.
