Grants Accounts Receivable

The Grants AR team collects on outstanding grants invoices. The team determines the validity of an outstanding AR balance and then monitors accounts receivable aging to determine when the invoice has reached a past due status. The team contacts the sponsor to collect the valid balances >61 days past due. The team also works with Research, Grants, and Contracts (RGC) and individual departments/RAS units as necessary in the collections process.

To aid in the collections’ efforts, the Sponsored Research AR Aging Report is available for use in EBI by Grants AR or any department with sponsored AR. It allows the user to track the aging of Grants Accounts Receivables. Any department team member with access to EBI can run an aging report by filtering with their department or operating unit. This will allow them to see all open accounts receivable for their areas. For assistance in running the report, use the following job aid: How do I Run Sponsored Research AR Aging Report?

The Grants AR team manages letter of credit draws. These electronic draws relate to cost reimbursable awards identified as letter of credit for government sponsors such as NIH, NASA, NSF, and HHS. An invoice is generated in Compass based on expenses on the award. If LOC draws are rejected by the Payment Management System (PMS), Research, Grants, and Contracts (RGC) will be notified by email.

The Grants AR team processes RBT requests. These requests are initiated by the department/RAS unit when the award is ready for closeout. The RBT is processed to move any remaining funds on the award to a department/Principal Investigator (PI) discretionary speedtype. If the department is within the School of Medicine (SOM), the funds are moved to a SOM central finance speedtype first for further processing before being sent to the department/PI speedtype. The usual turnaround time for an RBT is 10 business days from the date it’s received in the Controller’s Office after the approval from RGC. This includes review, approval, and AR maintenance. Additional processing by SOM can add additional time.

Any RBT requests received in the Controller’s Office within three business days of the end of month will be reviewed after the fourth business day of the following month. All Residual Balance Transfer Request forms are completed electronically in Compass Grant Forms. For assistance in submitting a residual balance transfer request, use the following job aid: How do I Request a Residual Transfer? To ensure your request isn’t delayed or denied, follow these tips.

The Grants AR team processes refund requests. Requests can be initiated by the department/RAS unit/RGC/Controller’s Office. There are several reasons for requesting a refund, including overpayment by a sponsor, payment for expenses that have been removed from an award, and payments received in error. The refund is processed to send funds back to the sponsor. The payment can be sent by check, but the preferred method is ACH. Checks are only mailed out one time per week, while ACH payments go out several times per week. The usual turnaround time for a refund is 10 business days from the date it’s received in the Controller’s Office after the approval from RGC due to approvals, AR maintenance, and additional processing. For checks, postal service delivery adds time.

Any refund requests received in the Controller’s Office within three business days of the end of month will be reviewed after the fourth business day of the following month. All Refund Request forms are completed electronically in Compass Grant Forms. For assistance in submitting a refund request, use the following job aid: How do I Request a Refund? To ensure your request isn’t delayed or denied, follow these tips. Additional forms required for domestic supplier/sponsor and international supplier/sponsor refund request are below.

Domestic Supplier/Sponsor Refund Forms:

• W-9 Form
• Supplier Information Form (SIF)

International Supplier/Sponsor Refund Forms:

• Foreign Source Statement
• W-8 Form
• Supplier Information Form (SIF)

The Grants AR team creates AR maintenance worksheets used to write off small balances on awards due to short payments, overpayments, bank fees, foreign exchange rate fees, and other reasons. In addition, AR maintenance worksheets are used to offset invoice balances when necessary.

TOP is a federal program that collects past-due debts that people and businesses owe to state and federal agencies. TOP matches people and businesses who owe delinquent debts with money federal agencies are paying. When a match happens, TOP withholds (offsets) money to pay the delinquent debt. If any department or school under the Emory umbrella owes a past-due debt to a government agency, any payments being sent to Emory for any reason can be offset (taken) to satisfy that debt. Thus, grant payments from federal sponsors are subject to offset by the TOP. When this happens, it leaves an open balance on invoices, preventing the award from being closed out. If you feel a payment that was sent by a federal sponsor was taken by TOP, please notify the Grants AR team by submitting a case through the Finance Support Center.

The clinical trials interface is a link between the Office of Clinical Research’s (OCR) clinical trial system and the Compass Financials system. Invoices created by OCR are sent from OCR’s system through an interface to Compass. Occasionally, invoices will error out and not process in Compass. The Grants AR team works with OCR to ensure those errors are corrected so the two systems match.

Grant payments are processed by the Cash App team in the Controller’s Office. Grants AR works closely with the Cash App team to apply payments to invoices.

Grants Banking Information - EU Letterhead