Announcing FRED: the Financial Research Expenditure Dashboard

Hosted by Sponsored Programs and CIDA.

We are pleased to announce a new tool developed to aid Department Administrators in managing sponsored research funds – the Financial Research Expenditure Dashboard (FRED). FRED will be released on Thursday, October 19th, along with best practice and training guides. Two live virtual information sessions will be held on Thursday, October 19th, one at 9am and one at 12pm. Please register for the information session to receive the calendar meeting invitation via zoom. These sessions will be a high-level training overview to instruct Department and Grant Administrators on how to use FRED.  Both sessions will be recorded so if you cannot attend either session, you can review the recording when convenient.

View Information Session Recording (Kerberos log-in required)

About FRED 

Monitoring expenditures on grants and forecasting spending is a key but complex responsibility for Department Administrators. This tool, developed by and for Department Administrators, with technical aid from CIDA and Sponsored Programs, simplifies this process. 

FRED provides DAs with an at-a-glance view of all the grants they manage, allowing DAs to quickly check status, note upcoming financial-related deadlines, view salary cost distributions, transaction and commitment details. FRED has a robust system to perform salary and expenditure projections for DAs to forecast grant spend with their PIs to make educated decisions.

Why Use FRED? 

  1. Standardizing processes across the University: A University-wide tool will help with ensuring best practice management and reduce duplication of effort around sponsored funds oversight.  
  2. Time Savings: Having an automated dashboard should remove hours of work for the DAs every month who may be manually updating spreadsheets (shadow systems).  
  3. Proactive Grant Management: Reviewing projected spend with actuals against the budget will make grant management easier. DAs will also be able to research any discrepancies all in the same tool and receive helpful alerts.  

Information Session Registration and Training 

Two virtual information sessions will be held on Thursday, October 19th, one at 9am and one at 12pm. During this information session, FRED developers will demonstrate how to use the tool, and Sponsored Programs staff will discuss best practices around using the tool for expense monitoring and forecasting. The information session will be recorded and posted to the FRED information webpage, along with pre-recorded video demonstrations, written training guidance, and best practice guides. 

Watch the FRED Information Session Recording

 

Office Hours 

Representatives from CIDA and Sponsored Programs will be available to answer any questions you have about using FRED. Department Administrators will receive an invitation to join these office hours and can choose which days to attend.  

Office hours will be hosted on: 

Questions about FRED 

If you have any questions around how to use the tool or best practices, please use our FRED Contact Form and we will respond as soon as possible. 

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