Manage my budget

Expenditure against a grant is only possible once the project is live on the Awards Management System (AMS) and Finance have set up a budget code known as a WBS element. Your research support team will provide you with this.

At the Project Startup Meeting, you’ll have the opportunity discuss the awarded budget, budget items, eligible costs, spend profile and any expected peaks in expenditure (and timesheets if applicable) with the research manager and faculty finance contact.

It is important to regularly monitor spend and forecast future expenditure. Expenditure is recorded on the SAP system. Your research support and/or finance team may be able to provide reports for you at agreed intervals (usually quarterly). Alternatively, to access SAP cloud analytics and run reports yourself, contact your faculty finance team who will be able to arrange access via an IT service request. For forecasting future spend, you will be expected to confirm what is likely to be spent in the next quarter/remaining academic year.

• Training is available (internal link only).

The research support team (or project manager) will collate and prepare information required for claims and invoices. These will be reviewed by Finance and Business Services (FBS) prior to being issued. FBS will provide advice as needed and can provide additional data e.g., staff costs. FBS may on occasion complete a claim if it is for a complex grant where the faculty requires additional support.

Funder requirements and timing of claims, including evidence and timesheets, can be discussed at the Start-Up and Review meetings.

Once the project is complete, all claims made and final payments received, Finance will close the budget code (WBS element) and the Research Manager will mark the project complete on the Awards Management System.

If your project is due to be audited either whilst live or after closure, Finance and your research support teams will provide support.

Travel and accommodation need to be booked by individuals registered with the OU approved travel management company Click Travel. Your research support team will be able to tell you who this is in your Faculty/School.

In exceptional circumstances when it’s not possible to book through Click Travel, contact your research support team who will be able to advise on alternative options and the approval process needed for these.

If you are travelling overseas, you will also need to complete an International Travel and Assignment Approval Form and be aware of the University international travel policies. If travelling for fieldwork, you'll need to complete a fieldwork risk assessment, and depending on the risk level of the country you're travelling to, you may also need to complete a general risk assessment. These forms should be completed and approved before travel is booked, so it's advisable to complete these forms and give notice of any travel as early as possible.

More details can be found in the University’s travel insurance cover and risk programme (internal link only) which also covers how to plan a trip and frequently asked questions.

You can find travel policies, travel rates, travel vaccination request forms, and risk assessments (including for fieldwork) on the People Services intranet pages (internal link only) under Travel.

The University’s online Expense System is SAP Concur.

Finance and Business Services provides advice and guidance (internal link only), including details of what can be claimed and a demonstration of how to make a claim.

As PI you are responsible not only for submitting your own claims but also for approving any expense claims submitted against your project budget. It is the responsibility of PI when approving claims to ensure they are compliant with funder and university rules to ensure that the university would pass any internal or external audit e.g., alcohol is usually not an eligible cost.

Evidence

You will need receipts to submit or approve any expense claim. You may be asked by your research support team to send pdf or hard copies of receipts to them which they will archive. To comply with funder regulations and to pass an audit the university must provide the relevant evidence against all research project expenditure. Failure to provide evidence may result in your expenditure becoming ineligible, in which case your department will have to cover the cost.

Purchasing equipment and consumables or organising events and complicated trips as part of your research grant is the responsibility of the PI but can be delegated to a member of your research team or a Project Administrator/Manager.

The Procurement (internal link only) team in Finance and Business Services (FBS) can provide advice and support with all aspects of procurement activity. This includes guidance on key thresholds e.g., the number of quotes required for purchases of a certain value and single source justification forms.

Your faculty research support team will advise you what support is provided within your School/Faculty and what you need to do e.g., details of local holders of Procurement Cards (P-card) which can be used for infrequent low value purchases such as transcription and participant vouchers.

In most cases, your funder will expect grant expenditure to have been procured following the University’s Procurement Policy (internal link only). Failure to do so may result in your expenditure becoming ineligible, in which case your department will have to cover the total cost.

If outsourcing work to an external company, a Purchase Order will need to be set up prior to them invoicing. If the company has not provided a service to the OU before they will need to be set up as a new supplier on the Ariba system. This takes a minimum of 10 days. Seek advice from your faculty research support team if this is relevant to your grant.

If your grant involves either a lot or large complex events, it is important that you discuss at these at pre-award stage with the Research Manager so that appropriate administration support can be built into your budget.

If additional support was not deemed necessary and/or the event wasn’t anticipated at the point of submission, support can be provided but please give as much notice as possible. Schools/Faculties can provide support by booking rooms, catering and travel but they are not event organisers, so do not take responsibility for delivering an event.

If you are planning an event with more than 50 people, general public attendance (including schools or large volumes of people), specific accessibility requirements, out of hours attendance, experiments, installations on site or erection of marquees, a three-month lead time is recommended to ensure adequate planning and preparation.

A risk assessment (internal link only) will be required if you event is non-standard (as above) or has over 50 attendees. If your event is out of business hours e.g., before 8am or after 6pm, an Out of Hours Health and Safety form (internal link only) will be required

The University has produced a Code of Practice for Events (internal link only) which includes an event checklist and worked example of an event risk assessment form.

Event income

The Open University’s official solution for managing Conference and Event Income (internal link only) is Eventbrite

Eventbrite is widely used internationally for managing conferences and events and has many features that are beneficial and efficient. The Income team in Finance manage the solution, facilitate the initial creation of events and allocate income received. Finance manage the contractual relationship with Eventbrite.