SeRA Closeout: Online Award Closeout

Stanford’s sponsored research project closeout process is now online  SeRA!  The new SeRA Account Closeout transaction went live in the SeRA Glacier release on September 26, 2026. 

The financial closeout process will be transacted and completed online through SeRA.  Closeouts which were in progress prior to September 26, 2026 will be completed outside of SeRA.  The new Account Closeout transaction brings the process online by converting checklists into assigned tasks for both department administrators and OSR accountants.

If you are an Oracle Award Manager and have sponsored awards ending between September and December 2026, you will begin to receive Account Closeout transactions on your SeRA My Actions dashboard.  Award Managers will receive SeRA advanced closeout notification emails ahead of Oracle Award end dates, giving lead time to start reviewing, reconciling and working with PI's, collaborating administrators and researchers to finalize the award financial position well in advance of the closeout report deadline.

New SeRA Account Closeout transactions have an “AC” prefix followed by a 6-digit number such as AC123456.  AC transactions will be recorded under the SeRA Project commonly called the SPO (Sponsored Projects Office) record.  

The AC transaction provides online checklists, real time information, built-in validation, comments/notes and inline attachment functions. Like other SeRA transactions, closeout tasks can be reassigned and tracked in real time to manage progress and verify completed steps of the closeout process. Digitizing the process also provides more data for reporting and managing of closeouts and staff portfolio workload management.

Closeout tasks will be assigned to the SeRA dashboard of staff responsible for the award closeout in the same way they receive SeRA advance closeout email notifications. For example, an award with a December 29, 2026 end date will create a closeout task to be assigned to the Oracle Award Manager and appear on their SeRA dashboard on September 30, 2026. Oracle Award Managers will be assigned the Award Closeout (AC) task in SeRA and receive a SeRA closeout email notification. Task Managers will receive a SeRA closeout email notification, i.e., information only, no action item unless the Award Manager reassigns the closeout task in SeRA.

Additionally, the Department Pipeline report in SeRA can be run by anyone with an active SUNet ID to view all in-progress SeRA transactions within a selected department. For example, a department administrator could run the Department Pipeline report to view all in-progress closeout transactions and to whom the task(s) are currently assigned.

What to expect when SeRA Closeout comes online

Upon go-live, some users may notice a temporary increase in closeout tasks on their dashboard. This is a one-time occurrence due to the system's initial closeout task creation process.

• At Go-Live: Dashboards will populate with initial closeout tasks for awards ending between 09/01/2026 and 12/25/2026
• Standard Process: Moving forward, standard closeout tasks will only be assigned to award managers 90 days before an award ends

• Awards with end dates of Aug 31, 2026 or earlier will be completed using the previous closeout process.

   

Wonder what it looks like?

Not an Oracle Award Manager or have not been assigned a SeRA Account Closeout transaction yet, but want to take a look?  Check out a quick video demo the of the new SeRA Closeout transaction from a department research administrator's perspective!

Have questions? Technical assistance?

If you have research administration concerns about a specific award/agreement closeout, contact your department/org assigned Office of Sponsored Research accountant who can address research administration closeout concerns.

If you have technical issues with a SeRA Account Closeout transaction, submit a Stanford Services help ticket.  Tickets are fielded by the Client Advocacy and Education (CAE) systems support team.

If research administration input or specific agreement terms and accounting treatment is required, CAE will loop in the relevant OSR accountant.

Join OSR for SeRA Closeout Open Office Lab Sessions 

Using new features and updated processes naturally bring questions.  Once SeRA Closeout goes live, OSR will host Zoom office and lab sessions for Q&A, additional information, support and discussion. Check out the office lab session schedule.

Stay up to date

If you haven’t subscribed to the ORA-Updates email distribution listserv, subscribe to receive announcements about ORA web content and other updates on Stanford sponsored research administration topics.