The following communication was sent on May 14 to department preparers with active funds.
As many of you know, since the launch of BruinBuy Plus, several issues with assignments of fund managers (FMs) and principal investigators (PIs) in the subaward and subcontract invoice approval workflow have been identified. Since discovering these issues, the Ascend 2.0 program team has collaborated with leaders of the research community to pull refreshed data and update BruinBuy Plus approvers accordingly. Now that fund managers and PIs are correctly assigned as approvers, they can log in to the system and approve the subaward invoices assigned to them. Thank you for your patience as we made these corrections and worked to incorporate all feedback to date.
Review the Updated List of Subaward/Subcontract Invoice Approvers & Report Discrepancies
A list of the FMs and PIs currently assigned as approvers as of May 8th for subaward/subcontract invoices in BruinBuy Plus has been compiled and published on the BruinBuy Plus hub. To learn how the team compiled this updated list, please review the tab labeled “Logic and Sources” in the spreadsheet linked above. If you notice any discrepancies with the FM and/or PI assigned to review and approve invoices for a particular Fund, please submit the Subaward/Subcontract FMs & PIs Approving Invoices in BruinBuy Plus form by Tuesday, May 21. The BruinBuy Plus team will correct the error within three (3) business days.
Limit to One FM and One PI Approving Each Subaward/Subcontract Fund No.
For the first release of BruinBuy Plus, workflow is driven by Fund number. As such, there must be only one FM and one PI assigned as an approver for each subaward/subcontract Fund number. If there is more than one FM or PI approving these invoices on a single Fund, campus departments will need to identify the correct approving FM by Fund # + Account + Cost Center. Please work together in your departments to identify the appropriate approving fund manager for each subaward Fund and use the form above to submit corrections.
New Subawards and Subcontracts Requisitioned via BruinBuy Plus
The FM and PI information submitted by campus departments for new subawards and subcontracts requisitioned via BruinBuy Plus will be used to populate the approving FM and PI in the workflow moving forward. Using this data, the Ascend 2.0 team will post an updated list of the FMs and PIs every week on the BruinBuy Plus hub.
Again, we appreciate your partnership and your patience as we work to address these issues. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to the program team at ascend2@ucla.edu.
