Managing Department Relationships (RAs and Central Administration Only)

A department, grant, or account could have several roles beyond the faculty and principal investigator (PI).

Each department has research administrators (RAs) who are responsible for managing their departments. Each department with sponsored accounts must have one Primary RA, who is shown in their department list highlighted in yellow.

You can also assign the following relationships.

Restricted Access Payroll Coordinator
Primary RA Override
Grant Manager
Grant Manager Override

Note: If you'd prefer to view the below information as a PDF, click here for the Managing Department Relationships PDF.

Differences between an RA and a Primary RA

A department can have multiple RAs, but only one primary RA may be assigned at any time. The primary RA receives all system-generated tasks and email notifications for their assigned departments, whereas the RA only a subset.

This table breaks down the differences between the two for email notifications.
Note: If a person is assigned to a specific PI or an account, they will receive emails as a Primary research administrator would expect.

Receives system generated emails	Primary RA	Non-Primary RA
Pre-review Period Opening - Payroll Statements	X	X
Pre-review Period Opening - Project Statements	X
Certification Period Opening - Payroll Statements	X
Certification Period Opening - Project Statements	X
Certification Summary Emails - Payroll Statements ONLY	X	X
Certification Reminder Emails - Payroll Statements	X
Certification Reminder Emails - Project Statements	X
Project Payroll Reconciliation Task Email	X
Get Help button on Statements	X

This table breaks down the differences between the two for work list responsibilities.
Note: If a person is assigned to a specific account, their work list will appear the same as a Primary research administrator would expect.

Work List	Primary RA	Non-Primary RA
Responsible for Pre-reviewing all statements associated to Dept ID(s)	X
View Payroll Statements from Work List	X	X
View Project Statements from Work List	X
View/Process Payroll Adjustment Reconciliations Tasks	X

Restricted Access RA

An employee with the Restricted Access Payroll Coordinator relationship can only view payroll statements for those employees to whom they are assigned. They will not have full access to view payroll statements for anyone else in a department.

Primary RA Override

The Primary RA is responsible for employees within their department. The override relationship allows you to assign a primary RA to a different employee. The person assigned as an override will be responsible for all primary RA tasks for their respective certifiers.

Select the Primary RA Override section if the person should be reviewing/processing any PAR tasks associated to that Certifier (see the Post Certification Payroll Tasks page).

Grant Manager

A Grant Manager relationship allows an RA to be assigned for a group of PIs or for a project or account. When using the Grant Manager functionality, the Primary RA, by default, is assigned as the Grant Manager for all projects in the department.

Note: Assigning a Grant Manager will automatically create a Restricted Access RA relationship.

Grant Manager Override

By default, the Primary RA is assigned as the grant manager for all projects in the department. If another RA is required to manage a project within the department, they need to be assigned as the Grant Manager Override. This can be achieved by overriding the current Grant Manager using the Grant Manager Override assignment.

The Grant Manager Override is a one-off assignment where a specific project is assigned to another RA. The PI to Grant Manager relationship is one to one (a PI can only have one Grant Manager), but on a project-by-project basis, another RA can have oversight.

A Grant Manager Override can be assigned from the Project Certifications Tab on the Department Dashboard page.

Note: If there is a Grant Manager assigned to a PI and a Grant Manager Override assigned to one of the PI’s projects, both the Grant Manager and Grant Manager Override will be able to view the tasks related to the project.

Assigning or Removing a Grant Manager, Restricted Access Payroll Coordinator, or Primary Access Payroll Coordinator Override

To assign a relationship to an employee:

Choose Administration from the top navigator, then click Manage Users.
Search for the user you’d like to change a relationship of. As you search, after you enter 3 characters, there will be drop-down autofill options.
Switch to the Relationships tab under the user information table.
Under the first section describing existing relationships, click Add Department.
Search for and select from the dropdown the department you wish the relationship change to be in.
Department certifiers will be listed within each section.
You can create multiple relationship types as needed.
1. In any section, in the Unassigned (PI)/Certifier List pane, click the name of the certifier to assign.
2. Use the right arrow buttons to move the selected certifier to the right Assigned PI/Certifier List.
3. Continue using the arrow buttons in each section to move Certifiers between lists until all desired assignments for this department are complete. Note: All certifiers in a list in any left or right panel can be moved to the corresponding left or right panel by clicking the double right arrow button.
4. Click Save when all desired assignments have been made.