Weinberg College
of Arts & Sciences

Subcontracts: Post-Award

The following is an overview of the post-award subcontract process for outgoing subawards. The subaward recipient is not awarded grant funds directly. Once a subaward agreement is signed,  the NU administrator creates purchase order and the subaward recipient will send invoices to NU in order to receive reimbursement for project expenses.

Initiating the Subaward Agreement Process

1.  Award Notification. The standard award notification for a grant is via email from OSR. This email contains Project Account Summary and usually the award notification, along with notes on the award guidelines. Once the award is set up, you can begin the subaward process.
2.  Submit an InfoEd Change Request to initiate the subaward agreement. The request type is either  "Subcontract - Request to Issue New Subaward" if the award is new, or if it's an outyear, "Subcontract - Subcontract Amendment". Please note that for a subcontract amendment you must upload a progress report from the subrecipient for the previous year.
3. When the routing is complete, the request goes to the subcontract officer at OSR who will contact subrecipient. The subaward agreement negotiation is between OSR and subaward recipient. The OSR officer may reach out to the PI or Research Administrator if there are any questions. You can check on the negotiation on the GM055 Negotiation Status report.

Creating the Purchase Order

1. Once the negotiations are complete and the subaward agreement is fully executed, you will get email from OSR w/subject line “Fully Executed Subcontract Agreement: Notice to Establish a Purchase Order”. This email contains instructions on the next steps in the process, along with contact information and helpful links.
2. At this stage, the department administrator must create a requisition in NUfinanicals for the purchase order. 
   
   1. Grant Subcontract REQ Job Aid - guide to creating a grant subcontract requisition in NUFinancials
   2. Sole Source Justification Form - with prompts. You will need to upload this document to the requisition.
   3. Weinberg Subcontract Requisition Checklist - an additional guide for the requisition.
   4.  Award outyear? - be sure to close the previous year's purchase order in order to free up any encumbered funds that remain unspent.

Managing the Subaward

When the purchase order is ready, the subrecipient can begin invoicing for reimbursement of project expenses:

1. Subrecipient sends invoice to ASRP as per agreement
2. ASRP logs the invoice, then sends to department administrator
3. Department administrator reviews invoice (see subcontract invoice checklist)
4. PI signs, department administrator sends back to ASRSP
5. Department creates receipt on purchase order (NUfin)
6. ASRSP sends payment to subrecipient

 Helpful Links

OSR subcontract overview

 ASRSP subcontract Information

ASRP presentations:

 Subcontracts (Nov 2017)