Balances
Use the Balances available in the PI Dashboard to help answer questions about the financial aspects of your research.
Sponsored Projects
Balance: the project balance. This is based on the balance available to you in the Web Financials (WebFin2) dashboard. The balance in the PI Dashboard is the sum of all included accounts as of the date in the upper-left corner.
The default calculation includes all project accounts where you are the account manager. You can change the list of included accounts.
Outstanding commitments, such as salary or large capital purchases, are not included at this time. The PI Dashboard team is planning to address this in a future release.
Direct Balance: calculated by the PI Dashboard. It is the sum of all expenditures in direct categories on project accounts subtracted from the budget in direct categories. To see the budget and spending for the C&G (contract and grant object codes) categories, click any account number.
Note: The direct balance calculation uses budgeted indirect amounts. If your actual expenses deviate from the budgeted plan, the direct balance calculated in the PI Dashboard will be inaccurate. This may happen, for example, if you budgeted for a grad student, but actually funded a post-doc.
Non-sponsored Accounts
Balance: For non-sponsored accounts, the balance is calculated as starting balance + income - expenses. These accounts are based on the fiscal year, not since the beginning of the project. The total balance for all your non-sponsored accounts is displayed at the bottom of the list.
Budget and Expenses
Click the Account Number to see more information about the account, including the Budget to Date and Expenses to Date listed by C&G / object code category.
The Budget is the one loaded in KFS and is based on the one negotiated in your award. (On the Finances page, click the Project row to open the Project Details panel. The project documents are all stored there).
Projects with modular budgets may only show Direct and Indirect Expenses instead of having the budget broken down into more categories.
Finances Page Graphs
Used together, the three graphs on the Finances page help you understand your project spending and budget. Framed by dates and dollar amounts, the graph gives you a quick answer to questions including:
Am I on track to spend all of my money in the correct timeframe?
Am I over budget or under budget?
Project Timeline: The project start and end dates. Overview of your project timelines at a glance.
Spending/ Project Timeline: Shows % of budget spent over the % of time elapsed in current budget period. If you are spending evenly and at a pace to spend all money by the end of the budget period, these should be about the same.
Spending Trend: Your Spending Trend graph illustrates spending vs. budget on a project or account. It provides insight into your spending rate and offers a more nuanced view than the Project Time Line.
Note: The default view shows all project accounts where you are the account manager. You can change the list of included accounts.
Spending Trend Graph Details
Date first account created. The baseline starts when the first project account is opened.
End of current budget period. Almost always the termination date on the account(s) as well.
Dark gray shows cumulative spending. Spending may start after accounts are set up, creating white space at the beginning of the chart as in the example.
Light gray shows the budget increments, which may be added after accounts are set up or even after spending starts. (Pre-award accounts, for example.)
Budgets can have a stair step pattern, reflecting a new increment arriving in each period.
Budgets can show a decrease, for example, if a budget increment is logged to the main account and then transferred to another account not included in the Spending Trend graph.
The red line shows the “Idealized” spending trend if spending were evenly spaced across the life of the budget period. It's meant as a reference because projects can have uneven spending patterns. The red line begins at the start date of the project and extends to the budget value on the budget end date.
NOTE: When the budgeted amount doesn’t match the budget period the line can be misleading. For example, the red line will be above normal spending if a multi-year project budget is loaded in the first year, but the budget period reflects only one year.
Spending graph ends on the current month.
Choose Accounts Included in Balances
You can change the accounts included in the Spending Trend graph and the Balance calculations. Click the blue pencil icon and add or remove accounts from the list. The graph and balances change as you edit the My Project Accounts List. This can be useful to get a focused view of a single account or to remove accounts you don't want to monitor, such as sub-awards.
The default view shows all accounts for this project where you are the account manager.
Personnel
You can see people funded through salaried or hourly positions on projects on the Personnel page. Other people working on your projects funded through fellowships or as TAs are not included on the Personnel page.
Sort by project to scan quickly for information.
Filter the page to focus on particular people, projects, or accounts.
Answer other common questions about personnel.
Filter or sort by Name to see how a particular person is funded, for example their effort allocation across multiple projects.
Click a row to see the amount a person was paid on a project to-date, since July 1, or in the prior month. (In a Personnel Details panel.)
Tip: If you're looking for fellows or TAs, they are most likely not paid from an account you manage and so will not appear on your Personnel page. If you're looking for a post-doc, you may find them listed on the Transactions page. The Personnel page only displays salaried and hourly positions.
PI Dashboard Compared with Other Cornell Dashboards
Targeted for Faculty
Financial, labor, and proposal data
Access control based on being PI or account manager on the account, or being able to act as someone.
Searching functionality limited to personnel and transactions.
Mobile and modern browser friendly
Targeted for Research Administrators
Financial, labor, proposal, and award information
Access Control is rich, allowing people to see some or all accounts and some or all labor, and some or all project information.
Rich searching functionality
Generates Current and Pending report for any faculty member
Not mobile friendly
Legacy portal targeted for Research Administrators
Provides data about research proposals, awards, and negotiations (no expenditure or staffing cost data)
Is the only solution for the following:
Submitting project change requests for: Compliances, No Cost extensions, Budget Revisions, Change in Scope, Change in Personnel, Change in Committed Effort, Other Changes, and Attaching Files (e.g.: technical or financail report)
Submitting the date a deliverable was submitted to the sponsor
Requesting a Subaward
Requesting a change order for Subaward
Targeted for Faculty
Provides financial data similar to the PI Dashboard. Currently provides more data
Not as easy to use as the PI Dashboard and not mobile or modern browser friendly
Targeted for Financial Administrators and, to a lesser extent, Faculty
Financially focused dashboard similar to the RA Dashboards
Targeted for Financial Administrators
Large range of financial dashboards
Let us know what you think! We're continuing to refine the PI Dashboard, especially as we look ahead to adding forecasting/projections. (See the Roadmap for more information.) If you have feedback or questions, send a message through the PI Dashboard (click the Help icon at the upper-right) or send email to pidash@cornell.edu.
Accessibility
If you have a disability and are having trouble accessing information on this website or need materials in an alternate format, contact rais-help@cornell.edu for assistance.