PTA Manager

Early Account/PTA Request Guide - Use when a sponsored award has not yet been fully accepted by Stanford, but an investigator wants to begin working on and charging expenses to the project.

New Account/PTA Setup Guide - Use when Stanford has fully accepted a new sponsored award.

ORA-2223: SeRA New Sponsored Account / PTA Setup - 1 hour Zoom Webinar

• ORA-2223 Recording & ORA-2223 Slides

Account/PTA Amendments Guide - Use when Stanford has received a sponsored award amendment that affects the PTA of an ongoing award e.g. when incremental funding is received.

Extended Account/PTA Request Guide - Use when a No Cost Extension request is pending sponsor approval and the investigator wants to continue working on the project in the interim.

Sponsored PTA Setup Matrix - Identifies under what circumstances new projects, tasks, and awards are required to be created for sponsored project PTAs. At a high-level, tasks are used to separate expenses on sponsored project PTAs, and awards are used to separate sponsor billing/invoicing.

Note: Matrix assumes projects are being directly awarded from prime sponsors and are NOT subawards.

Need to make a change to an existing Sponsored PTA?

From within SeRA prepare and submit the appropriate Central Office Request Form

Note: Schools and departments can within PTA Maintenance update themselves the Project Manager, Task Manager, and/or Award Manager attributes for existing sponsored accounts through either the PTA Maintenance Single PTA Update or Mass Update options.

Sponsored PTA Roles

Project

Project Owner (PO)

[Lead] PI of the project

Project Manager (PM)

Administrator. Units vary on who they assign for this.  Some list the same person as the award manager; some list the department manager or DFO, and for URAs; some URA sponsors request that a financial admin from the URA sponsor be listed for this. PMs have full reporting visibility for the entire project = across all tasks and awards associated with the given project.

Task

Task Owner (TO) 

PI or Other Stanford Investigator (OSI). Listed on the associated SeRA SPO record and is a member of the academic council, University Medical Line faculty, or has a PI waiver (reference RPH 3.2.5). TOs have FFIT visibility for their task. They are responsible for reviewing and certifying all expenditures on their task quarterly in the eCertification system. 

• Tasks are used to separate expenditures.

Task Manager (TM)

Research/finance administrator for the PI or OSI. TMs have reporting visibility for their task. They are responsible for reviewing all expenditures on their task monthly and recording their review quarterly in the eCertification system. 

Award

Award Owner (AO)

[Lead] PI.  AOs have FFIT visibility across all tasks for the given award. They receive SeRA system emails and notifications related to the award e.g., award amendment Notices of Award, closeout notifications, etc. 

• Awards are used to separate sponsor billing and invoicing.

Award Manager (AM)

Typically and recommended, Research/finance administrator for the PI. AMs have reporting visibility across all tasks for the given award. This individual receive SeRA system emails and notifications related to the award, e.g., award amendment Notices of Award, closeout notifications, etc. 

When Projects Include Multiple Investigators

It is HIGHLY recommended to establish separate tasks for each investigator to...

1. Facilitate award management
2. Ensure task expenditure review and certification is done by the individuals with the best firsthand knowledge
3. Appropriately allocate indirect costs, especially when collaboration occurs between two or more departments

For example, when a project includes a PI and/or Co-PI(s) and/or Co-I(s), or a lead PI and other non-lead PIs i.e., a Multiple PI (MPI) project (NIH).  For each PI, Co-PI, MPI, or Co-I Task:

• Task Owner = the specific PI, Co-PI, MPI, or Co-I
• Task Org = the Org of the specific PI, Co-PI, MPI, or Co-I
• Task Manager = Research administrator or financial administrator for the specific PI, Co-PI, MPI, or Co-I

In the School of Medicine this is codified in their SoM Indirect Cost Crossover Policy

• “if requested by the department of the collaborating investigator/staff, all crossovers must be documented with the establishment of a separate project task assigned to the requesting department.”

NOTE: For Sponsored PTAs, because task owners are responsible for the management and certification of funds, task owners are limited to the PI and Other Stanford Investigators (OSIs) listed on the associated SeRA SPO record that are members of the academic council, are University Medical Line faculty, or have a PI waiver. (Ref RPH 3.2.5).

For example, a project has a PI and two Co-PIs:

Task 100 – Lead PI: Prof. Fear The Tree of the Radiology Dept

• Task Owner: Fear the Tree
• Task Org: Radiology Org
• Task Manager: Res admin for Fear the Tree

Task 200 – Co-PI 1: Prof. Albert Von Brainstorm of the Physics Dept

• Task Owner: Albert Von Brainstorm
• Task Org: Physics Org
• Task Manager: Res admin for Albert Von Brainstorm

Task 300 – Co-PI 2: Prof. Ricardo Shilly-shally of the ChemE Dept

• Task Owner: Ricardo Shilly-shally
• Task Org: ChemE Org*
• Task Manager: Res admin for Ricardo Shilly-shally

*Note: The School of Engineering has created org codes for each SoE faculty and usually uses these in lieu of higher dept level orgs when creating sponsored PTAs .  Please reference the Stanford University Org Code Hierarchy.

Award Ranges

Sponsored awards are setup with five-letter award numbers in the range of PAAAA-WZZZZ.  For a complete listing of five-letter award numbers applicable to different classifications of awards (e.g., GENERAL FUNDS AAAAA-ABZZZ and COST SHARING WAAAA-WBZZZ), covering both non-sponsored and sponsored awards, refer to the Award Range tables.

Need further SeRA assistance? Have questions, feedback, or are experiencing other issues? Please submit a HelpSU ticket to the SeRA Support Team and a SeRA Support Analyst will contact you shortly.

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