Post-Award Financial Administration

Mary Ward House, Tavistock Place, London

23 November 2011

Target Audience

New or fairly new research administrators and accounts staff, especially those based in central offices, with responsibility for post-award financial administration of live research accounts. Participants will include those working in post-award-only sections and in broadly-based research offices, as well as some faculty/departmental staff.

Prior knowledge required

Participants will be expected to have basic accounts experience in a university environment and understand financial terms such as ledger, journal and accrual. Please note that this is an introductory level course particularly suitable for those who are new or fairly new to post-award research administration.

The programme is aimed at financial administrators and accounts staff responsible for the day-to-day administration of research accounts and will take a cradle-to-grave approach. The seminar will take a detailed look at the reality of research accounts, especially under the fEC regime, but will aim to contextualise the work of financial administrators as part of both the wider research administration sphere and of non-research finance more generally.

The day will include a mixture of presentations and exercises/discussions in small groups. A comprehensive delegate pack will be provided.

Objectives

To provide delegates with a broad understanding of post-award research administration in the context of the overall environment of research management and administration and university finances, and a specific and practical understanding of the processes for post-award financial administration.

Members' comments:

Delegates who attended this course last year commented:

"Clarified the mystery - which is what I had hoped!"

"I am still relatively inexperienced but this has certainly broadened my knowledge and given more more confidence in many areas."

"Raised a number of questions for myself, my office and my institution. A great learning experience."

"Exceeded my expectations in that the discussions were more useful than I expected."

Course Team:

Andrea Tinson, Research Development Manager, School of Social Sciences, City University London

Jenny Graham, Research Finance Manager,Institute of Education, University of London

Programme
Price
Venue
Travel
Queries
Booking

Programme

09.00	Coffee, Registration, Introductions
09.30	Post-award finance in context How research is funded in the UK, including the dual support system, QR and fEC (and TRAC)
10.00	Workshop Session 1 - Grant Scenarios In groups, delegates will be given post award finance scenarios to work through and discuss the issues and problems involved.
10.15	Post Award Finance - Cradle to Grave Covering the whole lifecycle of project finances from the award letter to final reports and project closure. Including: setting up budgets, reporting DI and DA costs, profile payments, time sheets, salary costs, estates and indirects, income/expenditure budgets, monitoring budgets, virements, ineligible expenditure. DA in project adjustments, accruing/deferring, internal reports (what can a PI spend?), external reports, cash-flow, debt chasing, end dates and deadlines, foreign exchange and VAT.
11.00	Coffee
11.30	Post Award Finance - Cradle to Grave (continued)
12.15	Effective post-award finance teams How do we know if we're being effective? what are our performance indicators and what do our service level agreements promise? Ideas and experiences will be shared and compared.
12.45	Lunch
13.30	Institutional Context It can be difficult to relate individual project accounts to the university's overall accounts. This session will look at institutional accounts and reports, forecasting and policies to ensure the financial sustainability of research.
14.30	Workshop Session - Further Grant Scenarios In groups, delegates will be given further post award finance scenarios to work through and discuss the issues and problems involved.
15.15	Tea
15.30	Audit The requirements and issues for different types of audit: internal, external, research council and EU.
16.00	Summary of the day and a further opportunity for questions and discussion.
16.30	Close

Price

ARMA members: £220
Non-members: £289

The higher rate for non-members includes annual membership of ARMA for the period until 31st March 2012. For tax reasons, ARMA events are open to members only. If you are not yet a member, you will be able to join in the course of making your booking. If you are already a member, please log in before when booking.

Before registering, please be aware of our Terms & Conditions of booking

Venue and Travel

The seminar will take place in London on 23rd November at Mary Ward House Conference Centre, Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SN. The venue is only a few minutes walk from both Euston and Kings Cross mainline stations or from Russell Square Underground station.

Queries

For general queries: enquiries@arma.ac.uk

For specific queries relating to the event, please contact Andrea Tinson

Booking

ARMA reserves the right to limit the number of participants from any one institution. If you wish to make a large number of bookings, please contact us before doing so.

Terms & Conditions of booking

THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED. If you wish to be added to the waiting list please click here.

Site credits | Accessibility