TFMC Session 1: Charting Your Pathway to Success (OVC-TFMC) Recording
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Welcome to Session 1 of the Journey in Grants Financial Management Essentials training entitled Charting Your Pathway to Success.
We're glad you can join us today. My name is Natalie Johns, and I'll be supporting today's presentation with
the Zoom.gov technical support. I'd also like to thank my colleagues, Gloria McLean and Pam Webull,
for supporting us behind the scenes as our producers for this event. Now it's time for me to turn the presentation over 00:00:26:07 - 00:00:29:01
to April Bird. Good afternoon. We are excited that you all are here to join us today. We just want to extend a warm welcome
to our special guests who are joining us for today's session. And that includes,
OCFO, great manager partners, and then members of our Tribal Advisory Council.
so I want to say we have our, project director, Lanisha Bell, pictured up here.
So let's see if Lanisha has a few words to share with us. Thank you. April. I just wanted to welcome everybody to, our first essentials session. Just excited to
have everyone here. Looking forward to a great session today with you all. And to
have, some of your feedback. So thank you so much for joining. And back to you guys.
All right. Thank you. Lanisha. So we'll give you a little bit of information about the, Tribal Financial Management Center. It launched in the fall of 2018. So we've been going
for a while now, and we support nearly 300 tribal entities with over 800 OJP awards. And of course,
we collaborate with programmatic, TA providers, the grant managers, the OVC grant managers.
We work with them as well. And we offer training and technical assistance to Native American or American Indian and Alaska
Native grantees and applicants at no cost at all to you. We are here to help. We're here to provide
assistance. So just reach out to us if needed. And our team, includes financial TTA and evaluation
specialists with expertise in tribal communities, victim services and financial management.
Our staff use a trauma informed, culturally humble
approach, and TFMC helps build strong foundations for community victim services programs.
And now, it's time for formal introductions. Alright. So, ᏏᏲ, ᏕᏨᏯᏓᏂᎸᎦ. My name is April Bird,
and I'm a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. And I'm joining you from the foothills
of the Great Smoky Mountains in Cherokee, North Carolina. I have been with the Tribal Financial Management Center, or TFMC, for a little over five years now.
I've done a lot of work as a financial specialist, lead financial specialist, and I'm currently the
assistant project director. I am super excited here for this launch of this new training, and I can't wait to
share some great information with you. Now I'll turn it over to Alisha for her introduction.
Gooday I'm Alicia Abdulla. I'm located in South Florida. I bring my experience of being a
financial specialist at TFMC to our conversations today. I also bring in my background, which I
administered around 150 grants and contracts, a mix of state, federal and private grants.
so I understand the nuances of financial reporting and budgeting. I'm so happy to be
here with you. As a member of the TFMC Technical team. And I've actually been here two years today,
so I'm very excited for that. congratulations on your anniversary, Alicia. You're super glad to have her.
So our goals for today are to help clear up some questions around grants financial management. And we want to provide you with easy
to use tools and resources that you can share with your entity, take back to your teammates,
etc. and to establish a partnership between you and our TFMC TTA center by giving you a safe place
to ask questions with the experts. Thanks. Thanks again for taking your time to be here with us today,
and let's get started. As we begin, I want to mention that this program is not a certification training,
but it's intended to provide a pathway for grantees who have completed the required grants,
financial management certification training with an opportunity to learn best practices
from trained subject matter experts to gain access to tools and resources, and allow you
to seek additional knowledge as we support you with grant financial management of your award.
Alicia. In this section, we will begin with a recap of the pre-learning videos which laid the foundation for what we will cover today.
We share links to several resources that helped guide the content for this session. You'll be able to interact with me and other advanced
financial management subject matter experts, and you'll engage in fund knowledge checks and
peer sharing opportunities. Also, as we conclude with information about next steps in the Essential Series journey,
00:05:41:04 - 00:05:50:24 the pre-learning videos emphasize the importance of being a good steward of funding by complying with OJP requirements and your grant
specific award conditions. And guidance was given on how to access your award details,
how to view your award conditions and how to locate reporting requirements and due dates. It was recommended in the videos to take some time to
explore the JustGrant's website. It's always super important or, other helpful information and resources.
on the screen is a picture of the DOJ Grants Financial Guide cover sheet. And if you're not familiar with the DOJ grants financial guide,
it is a critical resource that's used by the, it's useful for administrators, financial and
grants management specialists, accountants and auditors. Super helpful tool. And it's the primary
reference manual for the OJP award recipients to ensure day to day management of the awards.
And this guide is essential on your. It's an essential tool on your journey. Now you can save the PDF version to your desktop,
print it, or access it through the ojp.gov web page, and we recommend that you visit
the JustGrants Training page to find out about additional support issues.
to enrich your learning experience. Today we prepared you a special resource packet filled with practical tools and templates.
and you can print those out. Some of you may choose to like open them electronically. Just make sure to have the resource packet open throughout the
session as we refer you to the specific pages that to follow along as we cover,
just different topics throughout. right now, if you will, please go ahead and locate page 14. And that page should say
notes and takeaways from session one. And there's a picture of it on the screen.
Now this is going to be the page where you can jot down notes and other key takeaways for your personal use. Or you can just record
reminders that you want to share with others at your entity. And your notes from today's session
can help drive discussions when you meet with your grants, financial management team. Now let's look
at another resource in your packet. All right. Please locate the Key Terms to Know worksheet. And that's on page nine.
This worksheet is a resource to help us with the development of a common language for discussing grants financial management topics, and
having a shared vocabulary is going to ensure that we're all on the same page during the discussions,
and it's going to help build capacity within your entity through mutual understanding.
The terms we're focusing on in this session are current terminology, as referenced in
the latest revision to the two CFR 200, and that was last updated on October 24th.
And these terms are going to appear in alphabetical order on the worksheet. Now you'll see a purple callout appear in the
bottom right corner of the slides. When a new term is discussed. And we're going
to provide you with the definition. So you can record it in your worksheet. All right Alicia that was a lot. Do you
want to take over from here for a minute? Thanks, April. To give further clarity on how this handout works,
you will notice that we have filled out the word conditions term as an example of, on the slide,
a work conditions was referenced in the pre learning video. It means requirements attached
to funding awards to ensure compliance. Remember this includes high risk conditions that may lead
to withholding of funds. We will share this definition in the chat. Now please take a moment to
record it on page eight. Let's fill in our two other terms. While we're on this page, locate the word entity on your page.
Entity, grantee, grantee, recipient and nonfederal agency are commonly used interchangeably,
so we have included them together. They refer to an organization that receives federal grant funds.
Please record this definition. Budget clearance we will record next. This item refers to the process of
obtaining approval for the financial plan associated with a federal award.
As we proceed throughout this session, we're going to circle back to this document to allow you to fill in the information
related to additional terms. Back to you, Alicia.
Let's begin with a review of the OJP model for the Financial Lifecycle of a grant,
which is the guide for our content. This module includes the five phases of application budget,
review, award, grant administration, and closeout. The five phases occur during
pre-award and post-award. Jessica will be dropping the definitions of those here. Pre-award includes
the OJP phases of application. The financial management system requires a recipient to account for each award separately,
ensuring accurate records and maintaining auditable accounts. The next one is budget review.
This process ensures your budget is a rational estimate based on historical expenses and future
forecasts. Remember to allocate funds for different budget items like personnel,
travel supplies, and all of this is based on historical costs.
Cost must be necessary, reasonable, allowable, and applicable a tip your budget detail narrative should match the budget line items. April,
back to you. All right. Thanks for the pre-award information. Let me give you a little information
about the post award, which in includes phases OJP phases of award which is. Before accepting
the award, ensure your grants account is set up that you're enrolled in the Automated Standard
Application for Payments (ASAP) Most of us know that as ASAP and that you have assigned a financial manager, a grant award
administrator, and an authorized representative. Those three are important that those are assigned.
Then the next phase is grant administration. And this includes the availability of funds,
program income, payment of grant funds, again of ASAP, award modification or exam reporting
requirements, single audit report requirements monitoring and for first of reporting.
And the next phase is closeout. This phase includes the Final Federal Financial Reporter FFFR, the Final Performance Report,
and a Refund of Excess Cash. One of the first key takeaways that we want to emphasize is the importance of importance
of each entity establishing their own grants, financial management system A system, of course,
is a set of things working together as part of a mechanism or network. I think that's the,
Merriam-Webster Webster's definition. And it can also refer to a set of principles or
procedures for doing something. Now, in this training, your grants financial management system is going to refer to the overall
process of policies and procedures that work with your project planning roles and responsibilities
and sources for reporting data and documentation. How you establish your grants financial management
system determines how your entity operates. Alicia. So we will provide you with recommendations and best practices for creating a personalized system
that works for your unique entity. Grant financial management is not one size fits all and this training is designed with that in
mind, having a system in place to outline how your internal structures will function allows
your entity to comply with all the requirements with ease. We will zoom in on how to establish
clear roles and expectations internally and externally, how to find and organize and
maintain crucial award documentation, and how to avoid stressors that many entities
experience due to staff turnover, and how to easily apply these skills on the job.
Thank you, April. Right. Let's dive into our first topic. And that's roles and responsibilities. So just a thought,
to get you thinking, why is it important to have clearly defined roles and responsibilities
within your entity? So we all know that establishing internal controls is a government requirement,
and it must be included in your entity's policies and procedures.
people move, they retire, they are promoted. So having clear roles will help your entity
manage those unexpected situations, such as staff turnover or family emergencies. And
it's crucial to clearly define things such as who will authorize and review payments,
which can be challenging for entities with a small group of people managing the grant.
So keep in mind that even with small entities, they must ensure that different people have different roles. That's crucial. So to elaborate
on roles and responsibilities, let's look at a case study, and just consider some of the tools
and procedures to help assist with this task
We'll begin each section of this training with a case study to set the stage for our learning
journey. The purpose is to help relate the topics we are discussing by sharing common situations
that many grantees face. These case studies help us to recognize how to put best practices with
grant financial management into place. Let's begin with hearing about our friend roles.
All right. Works in a small loan set with three employees. They just received their first federal or federal grant from the
Office for Victims of Crime, or OVC. Financial grant management processes must be assigned. She's also a little nervous.
Rose knows that there are several federal systems that require role assignments.
Financial responsibility within the organization that need to be divided up, and data that must
be tracked and reported. She keeps hearing terms like internal controls or separation of duties, but she's not sure what
these terms mean or how to make it work for her organization. The organization has decided to
use an outside vendor to serve as their grant administrator. However, the external grant
administrator that Rose was working with left unexpectedly. She is unsure of how to move forward
with roles and system access. Where can she go? For more information on internal controls and separation of duties, and where can
she determine roles for system access? Let's see what this entity did for their solution.
All right. First, congratulations to Rose. And the organization on their first
federal grant. It's an exciting opportunity to expand on the important work that they're doing.
And being a good steward of funds is something the organization already does. Well. And now
there are some new expectations to incorporate into their practices. Being a small entity does
not have to be a barrier. In fact, there are several advantages, such as direct interaction between employees and cross
training. Lots of variety of functions. So setting, setting their systems up for
success is a good first step. And specific requirements can be found in none other
than the DOJ Grants Financial Management Guide section 2.3 on Financial Management Systems.
Alicia as Rose and her colleague gets to make decisions about who does what, she can keep in mind that separation of duties simply means no
one person should do the entire process alone. For example, there's a role for authorized purchases,
a role for completing the purchase, and a role for reconcile payments. This practice will be captured
in a policy and procedure in order to ensure compliance with federal rules and regulations.
This is internal control in action. To learn more about internal controls, see the Green Book by U.S
Government Accountability Office. Remember, your TFMC TA center is happy to look at roles and responsibilities with you. And once
again, this is a free service provided by OVC.
There are several things to keep in mind when establishing roles and responsibilities for your entity. A grant is managed throughout its entire period of performance, with that in mind,
there are three main roles involved in managing federal grants. Let me provide you with a high level definition of each. The first one is program role. This role ensures that the
goals of the grants are met. Milestones are reported as required, source documentation is maintained and ensure
programmatic reporting requirements are complete. The next role is financial. In this year,
revenues are tracked. S2 expenditures retract throughout the grant period. Ensure the financial
reporting requirements are completed, and ensure that contract and procurement requirements are
followed. And the third is the administrative role. This role makes sure develops required
policies for the entity, submits federal reporting that is required, and tracks the grant throughout
the entire life cycle or period of performance. April,
let's take, to locate these terms in managing a grant planning document in your workbook.
So look in on page ten, This template can be used to help your entity define its roles and responsibilities. As
you can see on this slide, the financial, programmatic, and administrative personnel
must work together to work together closely as they're all interconnected, and they require a
coordinated effort to ensure compliance with grant guidelines and achieve the project's goals. This
entails establishing a communication schedule such as bi weekly, monthly or quarterly to discuss the
milestones, and staff responsible for each area must collaborate to monitor progress, report accurately, accurately,
and address any potential issues that may arise across all aspects of the grant.
The establishment of internal roles in your entity helps to play a part in identifying federal system responsibilities. The federal
government has several websites to help you all to help grantees. They input and submit required
documentation for your financial grant management. And I'll give you an overview of the four key
systems which are listed on your screen. And those are JustGrants, ASAP, SAM.gov, and Grants.gov.
Now take a moment to locate your Federal System Responsibilities Entity Planning Worksheet to map out who is going
to be responsible for each row in it's located on page 12 of your packet of your resource packet.
Just know that we strongly encourage everyone in your entity or your entity to define a backup person for all of the system,
roles and responsibility that we're discussing. And that's to make sure,
continuity of grant management and will help when things like staff turnover happen. Backup
staff names should be documented in an accessible place for your entity, as well as the primary.
Designees should train their backups, and that's to make sure that they're ready in, in case they're needed to ensure record continuity
of grant financial management processes and procedures. All right. Let's begin with just
grants. So it is the DOJ Grants Management System, which provides resources and support for grant
applications and award management processes. In the just Grant section of your worksheet,
you can see that there are six foundational roles to be created to ensure your entity
users have authority to conduct specific requirements and tasks related to the role.
Similarly, we recommend that you record the names of the staff responsible for the six roles, as well as determine a
backup for each one of those. Aleesha I'll be speaking a little bit about ASAP. ASAP is the automated standard application for
payments. This system allows entities to drawdown or requester awarded funds. In the ASAP section of
the worksheet, you can see we have provided you with a high-level definition of the system.
Along with detailing the names of the seven role assignments required during the enrollment process. The names of the
seven roles are listed in the key information column. Use this worksheet to record the names
of who will be responsible for each role in a sale. Under the Who is Responsible column.
On your screen said this that I'm going to talk about, and it's the system for the award management. And you'll
just hear people refer to it as Sam and it's, registry for entities to verify that any vendors
or sub recipients contract, etc. are approved to do business with the federal government. On
your worksheet, you can see. That a SAM account is required to apply for funding on Grants.gov. And SAM requires three
roles for system management. Grants.gov is our next website. It's a centralized website where federal
agencies publish award opportunities, and entities can find and apply for them. Page 13 of your packet allows you to
record three core roles of this system. Core roles are defined as a or R or authorized organization,
representative roles that serve as EBPCs or electronic business points
of contact for the entity. Core roles cannot be modified. Core roles come with a custom set of privileges, but they may
not be fully. They may not fully meet the needs of what your entity may need to do in the system.
Grants.gov allows the staff in three core roles to establish additional custom roles as needed.
April. A legal summary of the four systems.
We want to mention one additional system that you may have heard reference to, and it's called DIAMD and it's spelled D.I.A.M.D and that's
an acronym in JustGrants. That means Digital Identity and Access Management Directory.
And that is the Secure User Management system. It is where the entity administrator, one of the roles that should be assigned,
identifies who should be an entity user and what roles that users should possess,
and enables all users in your entity to log in and take actions in the interest.
Grants or other systems. this system is also listed in
your resource packet on page 11. Please take a moment to view that worksheet, and we highly
recommend that you document who is responsible for this role, as well as to identify a backup
I would like to share a few additional takeaways in relation to federal system management, but you may want to take a note of these. We have provided
additional notetaking space for you at the bottom of page 13. You should. Your entity should always
update the point of contact information. Some systems pre-populate role assignments information update the Point of Contact or POC information immediately in each federal system.
If there are changes in staff, consider including reassignment roles as part of your entities exit interview process to take a
proactive approach to avoid potential issues, policies and procedures. Develop and maintain
written policies for handling staff changes. You can do this by identifying a backup administrator
for all system roles, especially for the entity administrator to prevent operating fund issues.
Funding issues include steps for changing roles in JustGrants, Grants.gov, SAM.gov, and ASAP in your written policies and as stated. If you know
someone is retiring, moving or have has won the lottery and does not want to come back to work,
include reassignments of roles as part of your ETS. These process to update system assignments
before the employee's last day occurs. All right, hope we are winning the lottery. All right. So some key takeaways are always
have a backup person with access. Do not rely on just or rely on just one person and have
a contingency plan in place for any issues that may arise. So remember without a backup
grant award administrators, the entity could experience operational funding issues which
are related to drawdowns. And we don't want that to happen. We have supporting resources on our website that you may
wish to view. If you need additional information about any of the.gov systems we've discussed.
Now let's delve deeper into our next topic, which is award details. Having a central understanding plays a significant impact
on successful grants. Financial management. And we'll we're going to return to our case study.
About Rose. So Rose managed to find some quiet time at work and is setting up the grant file for
the entities new award from OVC. And the award is one of the largest two words they've received, and it spans multiple years.
She wants to make sure the entity does everything that they said they would, and Rose helped inform
the original project proposal, but did not actually write the grant application. Now she's
wondering where to find the award information so she can just jot down some key details.
She's aware of something called notice of award. An award conditions, but she's not sure what it means or where to find it. Where should
she look and what should she take notice?
All right, so what did they want? So she wanted Rose wanted a cover sheet at her fingertips.
This is such a good way to locate key information quickly. She has a lot of support when it comes
to the grant funded project. In addition to her, grant manager, Rose has both programmatic
and financial technical assistance providers as well as online resources to leverage.
With assistance, she was able to locate, download, and read the award package. The entity signed off on important assurances
and certifications, and there are a lot of award conditions. After reading the documents,
Rose takes notes that the organizations plans to hire a contract to purchase a security system
and travel to a training conference. She also sees that there's a requirement provided to
provide a cost sharing match for a project and complete a grants financial management
training. Back to you, April. So Rose developed a To-Do list, which includes working with her team to establish a written
policy and procedure for procuring goods and services with federal funds,
including OJP prior approval for sole source contracts. Over 250,000. She also plans to
update the travel policy to make sure employee reimbursements have required documentation. She's
going to create a new timesheet template that captures all the details needed to accurately
reflect the work performed with a place for employee and, supervisor certification.
So for their signatures, they see internal entity system for equipment management to make sure thorough inventory is done at least every two
years. Very important. She's also going to develop a procedure for drawing down federal funds,
including minimizing time between receipts and disbursements to within ten days, and create a
mechanism for tracking and reporting cost sharing or match which with a place for type, source,
date, amount and location of source documents. And finally, she's going to ensure that all team member members of the grant team complete
the required DOJ online grants financial management training. Within three months,
you have 120 days to send the to certificates of completion to your grant manager. As you listen to
Rose's story, remember your TFMC grants financial management technical assistance provider is happy,
happy, happy to look at your entity's policies and procedures with you.
So take a moment to locate your next resource. If you'll turn to page two, you'll see
that the instructions reiterate what we're sharing in case you want to share this with others.
And it includes a sample of, what a completed document could look like. Just for reference. Now, if you'll turn to page three, you'll see
where an actual template begins. This could be printed, scanned, emailed, whatever you would
like to do for easy sharing. And there's several sections to fill in on this sheet. The top section
is where you can document award details found in the award letter that your entity has received.
If you need support on how to fund that information, you can reference our pre learning video, which provides an easy to walk, easy to
understand walk through. And it outlines the steps from just the just grants federal system. And if
you look at the slide we're displaying this is the top section outlined in purple. The bottom
section of this page has several sections where you can indicate yes or no if they apply.
As we said, there's no one size fits all model, so feel free to that. This resources, resources needed. And look at the last
two pages of the packet. We have an enlarged version of the sample cover pages for using
fictional information, of course, but to serve as a reference for how to use this resource.
So, as April said, the cover page template is a very useful, item.
I actually in my pre TFMC days had used one of these also, and I modified it to fit my needs. I
also found it helpful to put in important dates for our due dates, progress report due dates,
and drawdown dates --some grants have specific drawdown dates -- things like that. So as we said, you could modify this to fit your entity.
Let's go to the second page of the blank template. This would be page four. You'll see that there's a
sub awards section that I want to specifically call out. If your grant includes a sub award,
which is defined as when the recipient of a federal award gets part of its federal
funds to another entity to help pay out a portion of the federal project use.
Which is to say it easier, more plain language. It's when we're saying we want a survey completed and we're going to pay
a company to complete a survey, because that is part of our program scope. That's what a sub award
would mean. Okay. If you put "yes" in that field and include a brief mention of the entity handling
the contract, remember that several awards do not include payments to contractors, consultants,
or individual beneficiaries of the program. Another example of a sub award is if a territory receives federal funds to help
victims with housing, it could pass these funds to a local housing agency via a competitive process to support the best ideas for providing the service.
Let's move on to our final concept topic, which is reporting and documentation. These are crucial elements of the grant management process.
The pre learning video covered where to find report due dates and submission locations. Keeping track of documentation from application to closeout is vital for a successful
grants financial management. Let's look back at our story with Rose, but now with the with the loss of their external
grant administrator. She's been juggling many roles, and when working with the bookkeeper,
she notices that it's time for the FFR. It's going to be due soon,
and she's aware that the FFR needs to be complete, accurate, and it needs to be submitted on time.
But she's not able to get a hold of the previous grant award administrator.
She's heard of backup documentation and record retention, but she's not sure
exactly what those terms mean. Where should she start? Let's see what this entity did as a solution.
Rose decided to lay out the steps to start, to take starting with the FFR due date and utilizing the entity's internal financial
procedures to partner with the financial POC to obtain copies of the needed documentation.
the backup documentation is simply the financial statement Rose used to fill out the federal financial report. This document contains details
that confirm the numbers reported. It is a list of transactions specific to grants to the grant,
called a ledger or sub ledger. The financial statement needs to be saved with a copy of the final submitted for Federal Financial Report.
In the grant file. The accounting system that produced the financial statement has
a capability of supporting source documents such as paid bills, canceled checks, contract invoices,
etc. these source document documents do not have to be kept in the grant file, but need
to be remain available upon request. Saving the file for an annual report, financials and
financial statements, and source documentation for at least three years after the end of the award
is record retention enacted in. And remember, your grants financial
management technical assistance provider at TFMC is happy to look at your FRR with you.
As we reflect upon this case, let's review a few key terms that play an important role in ensuring accountability and appropriate documentation of funds for federal
reporting. Let's go back to the main resource pack to locate the key terms to know about
To avoid misuse of funds, there are a few important things to avoid.
Let's review these terms and definitions. Co-mingling combining funds from multiple
resources into a single account, which can create challenges and legal obligations. Supplanting
using federal grant funds to place nonfederal funds previously allocated for a specific
activity, which is generally prohibited, and the other one is duplication, receiving multiple
sources of funding for the same purpose, leading to inefficiencies and misuse of resources.
So just to summarize, some best practices, it's important to track funding sources for every cost and activity, ensure compliance
with applicable statutes, regulations and work terms, and clearly define roles for also for
rising reviewing and sending out payments and the goals to have a smooth, transparent process
of the grant funding to manage.
So one key takeaway from this session, and not mentioned in the DOJ Grants Financial Guide,
is the importance of establishing a well organized Grants Financial Management File
System. Always try to keep backup copies of your information in a binder or on a electronic copy,
and that just make sure you have everything that you need, and you can access the necessary documents, and it'll lend a hand to minimize disruptions to financial procedures.
And this is one way to establish a framework for success. Alicia. As we progress through this section,
we will provide you with tools and tips for entities' centralized documentation system.
Keep in mind that our technical assistance team is here to support should you need assistance.
Just remember it's there's not a one size fits all method for document oriented, organization. Use your own judgment and make
sure that you're keeping as much documentation is ready. I mean as possible so you can be ready for,
audits and compliance. So in your resource packet, let's locate the resource entitled Grant File
Management Planning Worksheet. Please locate the Backup Documentation Planning worksheet on page four of the
resource packet we have an example on the screen. What this page looks like. In a moment, we'll be sharing
document names and organizational ideas for establishing best practices for maintaining backup copies of documentation related to the life cycle of your award.
We encourage you to use this page to follow along and jot down ideas to share with your entity.
For organization of essential records, please consider using your notes to help drive future discussions with your event management
team about how to improve your success. Our model of organization corresponds directly to the five
phases of the OJP life cycle. So start looking at the pre-launch phase documents that you would want to maintain
for getting started when creating your backup system and you just take notes.
Report whatever you would like to report on page four of your planning sheet so you can discuss it with your entity later. And on this
slide you can see section two indicated in the blue folder. Visuals that represent file sections
or categories to place application documents to the right of the sections, we have a bulleted list
of possible documents you include, and you can tailor your backup documentation system files to,
meet your needs. For additional information related to application phase documents,
we recommend that you review the JustGrants application submission training resources.
the links. Also at the bottom of page four in your packet. So the next slide, we have it.
This corresponds to the page in your packet. Page five, it will say budget review phase at the top.
As part of your budget review backup documentation you may want to include an agreement Documents
file section. This can include such items as your award package, pre-approval documentation,
award conditions, and more. If you're unsure where to sign your work conditions, there are located in your award letter and our pre-learning video covers how to locate them.
You can also see that we included a budget section. Take a moment to view that what could be organized under that section,
including the approved budget, budget modifications and record retention files,
confirm deliverables to stay compliant and to keep backup copies of your documentation.
So, referring to page five in your packet, which is contracts. In this category you can include copies of all of your procurement
files, contracts, invoices and modification documents. For additional budget information.
I always like to use a fresh, budget detail worksheet (BDW), which the link is going to take you there.
And it's an important document that all grantees should be aware of for your convenience. This same link is also at the bottom of page five
as your packet, in your packet. Just a quick tip. It's always good to start with a fresh,
BDW whenever you are starting a new budget. So you won't have any issues with the spreadsheet.
Our last document for this section is page eight of the end, which is the closeout phase when it comes to close off phase documentation for
the award, it is important to understand that the liquidation period is 120 days after the award
period ends, during which all allowable financial obligations incurred by the end of the period of
performance must be liquidated. Before closeout occurs, entities must submit a final financial report, financial report,
and a final performance report ensuring all award conditions are met. So we're looking at, right now
the grant award administration says and this slide is on page seven in your packet. Be sure to create
documentation sections that meet your entity's needs. So sub recipients may be an example of one
of the things that you would like to include. And the majority of tribal grantees that we serve do
not have sub recipients, only direct awards. So it's important to understand that a vendor is different from a sub recipient. And this slide
suggests they sub grantees section is applicable to your grant. And for your convenience, this
same link is at the bottom of page seven in your packet. And monitoring visits or audits will occur
throughout your grants life cycle. Be prepared to ensure these events are smooth and stress free.
So maintaining final reports and supporting documents like closeout letters, property reports, final performance reports
and final federal reports, FFR is crucial for compliance with grant requirements,
and these documents provide evidence that all bridge activities have been completed as
In summary, keeping detailed records of final reports and supporting documents can serve as a valuable reference for future
grant applications and management. It helps in understanding what worked well and what could be improved in the future projects. In addition, proper documentation demonstrates accountability
to entity collaborators, including funders, partners, and the community. It shows that
your organization is committed to transparency and responsible management of grant funds.
We hope this you found this helpful to take some time to share how you can consider organizing your backup documentation system.
Back to you, April. Thank you, Alicia. For those of
you that have not been through the development monitoring process, let me give you some tips
for key information on what you can expect. So all OJP grantees are monitored by the
program office or CFO. And monitoring includes reviewing programmatic reports and financials to
identify costs that are allowable or unallowable, and CFO monitors conduct or CFO monitor.
Let's see, how am I going to put this? monitoring
visits conduct in-depth reviews. So it's almost like an audit, but not exactly unless it needs to
be happening. So one of the main challenges grantees face during monitoring is digging
through numerous files to find the necessary information. I've seen it happen many times.
So if you've got a note or a folder, a file folder, binder, with everything in one file,
it simplifies the process. It keeps everything in one place. And if you follow our tips by having a well-maintained
backup grant management file, then you've already done the work. So the government notices will
inform grantees which documents are required, and they may ask you to pull some policies and
procedures. It could be a website link where your policies and procedures are kept.
The FFR submitted in just grants a chart of accounts, a list of employees. There are many things that they could ask for,
but they will send that to you. You may want you may additionally want to consider conducting a mock monitoring
visit with your entity. Let everyone know the types of documents you may be asked for.
So the last ten minutes, we're going to allow all of you to ask the experts any outstanding follow up questions that you have
may have based on the topics covered we'll also extend a warm welcome if any of our OCFO and grant manager partners
would like to answer as well. So if we had a question on cost, the definition of cost sharing and match.
So Jessica put the, answer in the chat, but I'll cover it. Cost sharing is also called matching refers to the recipient share of the project's
cost that is not paid by federal funds. That means a portion of the project cost is covered by nonfederal funds, usually
expressed as a percentage of the total award. Then there's cash cost sharing. This includes
cash spent on project related costs, and then there's third party in-kind cost sharing. This
includes evaluation of non-cash contributions provided by third party, such as services,
supplies, property and equipment. Brooke has put in a little bit more information as well. Brooke said, "cost sharing or matching
for the tribal victims set aside program refers to the portion of project costs not
covered by federal funds." And James says excellent.
All my definitions are complete. Now. Good news. Thank you for your question, James.
Alright. Does everyone in JustGrants have to take the financial training.
The financial manager and the grant award administrator both have to have this on each full training. That is
a requirement. And you have 120 days to complete that requirement. We do have several, options.
TFMC has the tribal grants,
financial management training, and then there's also a online version that you can do through,
the Department of Justice. The entity administrator does not have to take the, training, but it does not hurt. So that
would be great, especially if the entity award administrator may sometime have to step in as the
grant award administrator or financial manager. What about the assistant grant award administrator? We've got so many good
questions coming in. The assistant grant award administrator is not required. But again,
it's best if they take it because as the backup grant, award administrator or alternate sorry,
assistant, alternate grant award administrator, they do have to step in sometimes, so it's best
if they take it as well. And as Ana mentioned in the chat, it is these are the two that are assigned in JustGrants,
the grant award administrator and the finance manager that are assigned in JustGrants are required to take the training.
The training is good for three years. So, if you want to pass the training and get your certificate, your certificate is good for three years.
That's the best news I heard when I took the training.
Kidding. I love the finance piece. I love it. Right. Any other questions?
There is a question. Another one. Yes. If it's good for three years. So after you three years is expired, you take it again. It's
good for another three years. All right. Feel free to. Let's see. Another one is the online training certificate in place of these
webinars or in addition to so the online training certificate for the grants, financial management
training is not in place of these webinars or it's for in addition to the grants financial management
training, has to be completed by the grant award administrator and the finance manager.
In the first 120 days, and you have to have that specific certificate.
So this training is actually in addition to this, that can come after just to help
you manage your award. Thank you, Mary Ellen, for your question. And there's one more. All right. We have time for one more question but continue
to put those questions in the chat. I'll go ahead and answer the last one. But we will
email you with the answers to the questions. If you continue putting them in the chat.
We'll be happy to get back with you. Will we be covering the specifics of unethical side obligations in a future training?
That is a great question, We definitely
will keep that in mind. And we do have, some more sessions coming out. So that is
something that we will definitely try to touch on in a future training.
good transition question. James. Thank you. So, in today's sessions,
we covered topics related to getting started with managing your grant. And,
Alicia, do you want to close us out on this slide? Sure thing. We hope that you can join
us for the next three sessions of the four part Journey in Grants Financial Management series.
For session two, we'll cover topics related to navigating OJP grants with confidence.
We'll take a deeper dive into common challenges grantees faced when managing their OJP grants and information. What specific session dates
will be coming soon? In the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out with any help you need.
Just a couple of things. Let me read over what has changed, but did you know that tribes have increased flexibility when it comes to prepare it?
We have some, information under what has changed. And then just some key takeaways
is tribal governments have the same flexibility, it states, when it comes to procurement. And both states and Indian tribes only need to follow their own rules.
So, whatever's in your policies and procedures that your rules and plus a few specific federal requirements like preference for small
minority and women owned businesses, preferences for domestic products, use of recovered materials
and certain contract provisions.
Here is a copy of the links that we will be providing to you.
thank you for attending our session today. We hope to see you soon in the next ones. And please go ahead if you have any questions. Continue putting
them in the chat, and, we'll email out a response to you. And if you need to sign up for the TFMC
listserv, there's a link in the chat. And this is where you'll get all upcoming events and webinars that we have. And so you
can stay aware of everything. We appreciate all the time you took with us and being here with us. April,
do you have anything else? Just want to say to thank you all for attending session one of the Journey in Grants Financial
Management Essentials series. And remember that our training and technical assistance team is here to
assist you at no cost at all, and we look forward to connecting with you soon.
Thank you all very much and have a great day.
Disclaimer:
Opinions or points of view expressed in these recordings represent those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Any commercial products and manufacturers discussed in these recordings are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute product approval or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Justice.