Fiscal Year-End PeopleSoft Outage - Proposal Processing

PeopleSoft Financial System applications will be unavailable June 30 through July 2 for the fiscal year-end. As all accesses to the Grants Module are affected, please refer to the attached instructions for utilizing the Temporary Proposal Form for proposal processing during this period. Should you have questions, please contact your SGCA or any member of the Tiger Team. 

                                                                                                                                                      

FY12 Year-End Close: June 30 - July 2, 2012

Proposal Processing via the Temporary Proposal Form

1    .       Department/Division: Complete the Temporary Proposal Form (TPF) and route for all signatures/approvals just as for any Proposal Signature Routing Sheet (PSRS). Be certain to retain a copy of the completed TPF for your files.

2    .       Department/Division: Provide the signed TPF and all accompanying proposal documents and guidelines to the appropriate OSPA Senior Grants and Contracts Administrator (SGCA).

3    .       OSPA: The SGCA will assign a Temporary Proposal Number (Temp#), if needed, providing this information to you in an email for your records.

4    .       OSPA: The SGCA will review the proposal per standard practice and prepare for University endorsement and mailing or electronic submission.

5    .       Department/Division: When the PeopleSoft Grants Module becomes available on July 3, enter a proposal using the TPF and generate a PSRS. Signatures/approvals collected for the TPF apply to the new PSRS. 

6    .       Department/Division: Provide the PSRS and associated Temp# to the SGCA.

7    .       OSPA: The SGCA will copy all temporary notes into the PeopleSoft Notepad and change the proposal status to “Submitted.”

File-Type Issue in Grants.gov Applications

Please take note of the following file-type issue that has the potential to cause an error upon application submission via Grants.gov. Errors prevent an application from full submission and must be corrected with successful resubmission prior to the application deadline.*

ERROR: Attachment contains formatting or features not currently supported by NIH: 

Though the cause of the error is not fully understood (including by the eRA Help Desk), it seems that “hidden” content in a PDF file is the problem. Please note that in the recent instance, even printing and scanning the pages from the document in question did not alleviate the problem; sophisticated printers and scanners detected and reincorporated the hidden content.  

To confirm whether or not your PDF file has hidden content:

From the Tool Bar, select Document and then Examine Document: 

 

In the recent instance, Selecting “Remove all checked items” did not change the physical appearance of the document. All content, including signatures on letters, was maintained.

With this modification, the application was allowed through to full submission with no additional errors.

*Notes from the PHS SF424 (R&R) Adobe Forms Version B Application Guide:

(1) Please be aware of the distinction between errors and warnings. The word error is used to characterize any condition which causes the application to be deemed unacceptable for further consideration. Generally, errors will indicate significant inaccuracies, inconsistencies, omissions, or incorrect formatting that have been identified in the body of the application. Conversely, the word warning characterizes any condition that is acceptable, at least for the time being, but worthy of bringing to the applicant’s attention. It is at the applicant’s discretion whether a warning condition requires any action, but some warnings may need to be addressed later in the process.  

(2) Applicants should be aware that on-time submission means that an application is submitted error free (of both Grants.gov and eRA Commons errors) before 5 p.m. on the receipt date, local time of the applicant organization. Applicants are encouraged to submit their applications to Grants.gov several days early to ensure enough time to correct any errors and to comply with the deadline.