Do You Have Any Advice on Reporting Expenditures in the Final Federal Financial Reports (FFR) When Our NIH Grant is About to End?

Here are some tips to avoid potential problems when submitting final federal financial reports (FFRs) at the close of your grant:

• Be sure the final FFR contains a statement of expenditures reflecting the exact balance of unobligated funds; it may not reflect any unliquidated obligations.

• Verify that the total expenditures reported on the final expenditure FFR match the total federal cash disbursements (e.g., cash drawdowns) reported in the HHS Payment Management System (PMS). In PMS, the total federal cash disbursements amount shown is derived from the cumulative cash disbursements based on your organization’s last quarterly cash transaction report.

• Coordinate the timing of your organization’s submission of a final cash transaction report to the PMS with the final expenditure FFR. This would help ensure these totals correspond with one another and preempt the need to reconcile discrepancies that would prevent NIH from accepting the final expenditure FFR.

• Remember that unobligated funds must be returned to NIH or must be reflected by an appropriate accounting adjustment in accordance with instructions from your NIH Grants Management Officer (GMO) or from PMS.

This does not apply to grants awarded under PMS B subaccounts (commonly used for payment of grant awards to foreign and federal institutions). For more information on these types of accounts please see the frequently asked questions on Payment/PMS Subaccounts.  For more information about grants closeout visit our frequently asked questions on grants closeout.