Authors: Edwin Bemmel, AVP, (RGC) & Patrick Amihere, Associate Director, Closeout, (RGC)
As part of RGC’s commitment to effectively and timely manage refund submissions to our sponsors, we are changing the refund business process. This change will improve efficiency and outcomes, enhance collaboration, and facilitate compliance with Award management.
What is Changing?
Effective March 03, 2025, all refunds due to sponsors will be initiated by the RGC Award Closeout (ACO) Team through the Compass system, using the Compass Grant Form. This change replaces the current process where RAS units initiate and submit refund requests.
Why This Change?
This business process change is designed to increase efficient and effective award closeout process for compliance, and to achieve the following:
- Ensure timely refunds to our sponsors
- Reduce the administrative burden for our RAS partners by reducing the steps in the process
- Speed up refund processing and approval times
- Ensure our institution is compliant with terms and conditions of sponsored awards, including timely refunds of unspent funds and closeouts of awards.
What This Means to You:
The RAS Units will no longer be required to initiate refunds as part of the award closeout process. Instead, the final award reconciliation, along with the award terms and conditions will be used to determine the refund amount due. RAS Units would receive system notifications of all refunds processed by the RGC-ACO team through the Compass Workflow notification system, including the availability of a report that lists all refunds processed and sent to the sponsors for visibility.
Next Steps:
We are partnering with EFS to modify and test the new process flow and are updating our procedures in anticipation of this change. We will continue to provide updates and reminders about this upcoming change. We are confident that this change will help us achieve greater success and continue to improve our collaboration on effective award management.
Thank you for your cooperation and commitment during this transition. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to RGC ACO at rgcac@emory.edu or reply to this email.