Grant Recipient Actions, Roles, Notifications, and Training

Overview

The GrantSolutions Grants Management Module (GMM) will improve transparency for grants management activities by allowing you to see time and date stamps for system activities and the status of your completed actions online. It also serves as a virtual file cabinet of award documents and correspondence associated with each grant and cooperative agreement. When employees leave or change positions, their replacements will still have access to all the important grant files and correspondence. GrantSolutions is a web-based system, accessible from anywhere, and requires no special software to use.

Changing business processes can be challenging, but resources and people are available to help you.

Actions

Grant recipient actions in the GMM are simple, and there is nothing CDC-specific about these functions. You will be using standard GrantSolutions templates and actions.

You can perform these actions for your CDC/ATSDR grants in the GMM:

• Enter Non-Competing Continuation (NCC) information.
  • GrantSolutions is not replacing the Payment Management System (PMS). The reporting required by PMS, lines 10a-10c of the FFR, (formerly known as the Federal Cash Transaction Report) must still be completed quarterly through PMS. The FFR reporting through GrantSolutions is the traditional FFR, formerly known as the Financial Status Report.
• Submit prior approval amendment requests.
  • This document describes the types of amendment requests that can be completed in GrantSolutions.

Document types

You can upload these types of files to GMM:

• MS Office: .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .msg
• Adobe Systems: .pdf
• Image Files: .jpeg / .jpg, .gif, .tif, .bmp
• Other Support File Types: .txt, .wpd

GMM will not accept locked, password protected, or macro-enabled files.

Roles

Grant recipients can have one of three recipient roles in GMM. Each grant is required to have an Administrative Official and a Principal Investigator or Program Director. A Grantee Financial Official is optional.

• The Administrative Official (ADO):
  • Is listed as the Authorizing Official on the Notice of Award.
  • Views, initiates, edits, and submits applications and amendments.
  • Signs the SF-424 and authorizes the organization's commitment.
  • Creates and views Application and Grant Correspondence notes and uploads related files.
  • Has access to all grants for the agency or organization.
  • Should be registered with Grants.gov.
  • Has the most authority in the system.
• Principal Investigator/Program Director (PI/PD):
  • Views, initiates, edits, and submits applications and amendments.
  • Enters and submits Federal Financial Reports (FFRs).
  • Adds and views Application and Grant Correspondence notes and uploads related files.
  • Has access to grants he or she is assigned to as a PI or PD.
  • Is considered key personnel if listed on the NOFO.
• Grantee Financial Official:
  • Views awards.
  • Adds and views Application and Grant Correspondence notes and uploads related files.
  • Is typically the organization's business official.

There can be more than one ADO in each agency. A grant can have more than one PI/PD assigned, but the person listed on the NOFO is considered key personnel.

Notifications

Recipient staff will receive notifications from GrantSolutions based on their role in the system:

CDC staff will receive notifications from GrantSolutions based on their role in the system:

Training

Online training videos are available to all users. The five videos described below will provide you useful information on how to use GrantSolutions and on the Federal Financial Reports.

There are two getting started training videos related to post-award actions:

• Session 1: Introduction to GrantSolutions for Recipients (~10 minutes)
  • Overview
  • Account Management
  • Screen Navigation
• Session 3: GrantSolutions Post-Award Activities for Recipients (~15 minutes)
  • Using My Grants List
  • Managing and Processing Amendments
  • Non-competing Continuations
  • Directed Supplements

The Session 2 video Pre-Award Activities for Recipients does not apply to CDC recipients.

There are three Federal Financial Reports training videos:

• Introduction to the Federal Financial Report (FFR) for Recipients (~6 minutes)
• Modify Submitted Federal Financial Reports (FFR) for Recipients (~3 minutes)
• View the Federal Financial Report (FFR) for Grantees (~2 minutes)

The GrantSolutions Support page has FAQs, and once you have access to the system, you will find these documents within GrantSolutions:

• QuickSheets
  • Federal Financial Report
  • Carryover Amendment
  • Grant Notes –Upload the SF-425
• A Grantees Guide

This guide is standard for all GrantSolutions partners and some information in this guide does not apply to CDC business processes. Here is a brief overview of the differences:

A brief overview of the differences

Training resources

The Policy, Risk, Information and Systems Management (PRISM) Training and Communications Team developed the following resources that non-research grant recipients can use to support their prior approval amendment actions in GrantSolutions. This job aid lists information about the non-research amendment action types that are available for grant recipients in the GrantSolutions Grants Management Module (GMM).

• Overview of Amendment Action Types (Last revised April 2022)
• Budget Revision (Redirection of Funds) Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Carryover of Funds Amendment (Last revised March 2019)
• Change of PI/PD Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Grant Closeout Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Grantee Address Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Key Personnel Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• No Cost Extension Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Notification of Contractor or Consultant Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Organization Name Change Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Other Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• PPHF Budget Period Extension Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Release of Restriction Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Successor of Interest Amendment (Last revised February 2019)
• Summary Statement Amendment/Technical Review Response to Weaknesses (Last revised February 2019)
• Supplement Amendment (Last revised March 2019)