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Multi-stakeholder institutional decisions where academic mission, student outcomes, and financial sustainability converge.
SmartSimple
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Foundant Technologies
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Inside this journey
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Pre-Discovery
Align the room on outcomes, decision process, and constraints before deeper discovery.
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Stakeholder Alignment
Confirm decision roles, timeline, success criteria, and required approvers across sponsored programs, finance, and PIs.
Alignment Questions
Getting Comfortable — Who’s in the Room?
- Who from your institution will be actively involved in evaluating and implementing a post-award platform (names and roles ok)?
- Which of these roles best describe your core evaluation team?
- Who will be the primary day-to-day owner of the platform on your side?
- How do your stakeholder groups prefer to communicate during an evaluation (e.g., weekly demos, working sessions, email summaries)?
- What would make a conversation with our team immediately useful for your stakeholders?
If Alignment Breaks, Who Feels the Heat First?
- When post-award processes fail or misalign, which office at your institution faces the greatest immediate consequences?
- Tell us about a recent incident where misalignment caused extra work, audit exposure, or sponsor friction—what happened and how long did recovery take?
- Roughly how often do you see issues that require cross-office reconciliation (e.g., finance vs. sponsored programs vs. PI) per quarter?
- When those issues occur, what is the typical business impact you track (select all that apply)?
- How does the possibility of a single-audit finding influence your priorities for process or system change?
Lines of Authority — Who Signs, Who Can Stop Progress?
- Is your procurement/approval model centralized or distributed across colleges/departments?
- Which offices must provide formal approval before a commercial contract is signed?
- What are your institution’s contract approval thresholds or gates (dollar amounts, data access, IT security sign-off)?
- How long does it typically take to get all required approvals once a vendor is selected?
- How are approvals documented and stored (e.g., email threads, procurement system, shared drive)?
The Hidden Gatekeepers — Who Really Moves the Needle?
- Which informal influencers (people or groups) often make or break adoption of new post-award tools at your institution?
- Share an example of a PI or department that resisted a previous systems change—what was their core concern?
- What incentives or evidence tend to convince PIs and department admins to adopt new tools (time savings, fewer audit questions, easier reporting)?
- How much authority do PIs have to change budget allocations or approve subaward invoices without central office sign-off?
- If we need a small group of PIs to pilot the platform, who would be the ideal early adopters and why?
Deadlines That Breathe Fire — What’s Non-Negotiable?
- Which upcoming dates are immovable for your team (ERP cutover, sponsor reports, audit deadlines, fiscal close)?
- How soon do you need to see tangible improvements (e.g., fewer audit findings, faster effort certifications)?
- What happens if your target timeline slips by 60–90 days—what business consequences follow?
- Are there fixed external commitments tied to timing (grant close-outs, sponsor deliverables, federal audits)? If so, which ones?
- What缓冲 or contingency do you typically plan for when a project involves ERP integrations and multiple stakeholders?
How We'll Know We're Winning — Defining Success Signals
- If we could guarantee three measurable outcomes from this engagement, what would they be?
- Which of these success signals would be highest priority for you?
- For your highest-priority signal, what specific target would you set (e.g., reduce audit findings by X%, close-outs in Y days)?
- What evidence will your audit/compliance office require to accept the platform as ‘audit-ready’?
- Who will sign off that success criteria have been met (role/title)?
Decision Mechanics — Money, Risk, and Political Tradeoffs
- What is the procurement path this project must follow (e.g., RFP, sole-source, cooperative purchasing)?
- Which budgets or accounts will be used to fund implementation and first-year licensing?
- What non-financial risks worry stakeholders most about adopting a new platform (e.g., ERP disruption, PI resistance, audit exposure during transition)?
- Has your institution required vendor security or privacy assessments before? What level of review is anticipated?
- Who controls the final purchase recommendation—procurement, finance, sponsored programs, or executive leadership?
Enabling Rapid Alignment — Who Must Do What, When?
- If we agreed a 90-day discovery-to-pilot plan, what single dependency would most likely derail it?
- Which artifacts or access must you commit to provide before kick-off (e.g., ERP contact info, sample ledgers, org charts, approval matrices)?
- Who on your side will be assigned as the executive sponsor, technical owner, and operational lead for the project (name + role if known)?
- What cadence of steering and working sessions will keep momentum without burning people out?
- What would you need from our team in the first 30 days to feel confident this will succeed?
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Current State Mapping
Document existing post-award workflows, ERP workarounds, audit pain points, and staffing responsibilities.
Current State
Start Here: Tell Us About Today
- In a few sentences, describe your current post-award operation (portfolio size, ERPs in use, and core team structure).
- How many active awards does your post-award team support right now?
- Which ERP(s) or financial system(s) are you currently integrating with or depending on for award accounting?
- Who is the primary decision owner for post-award systems and change (title/role)?
- Roughly how many full-time equivalent staff are dedicated to post-award financial administration?
What's the One Thing That Keeps Your Team Up at Night?
- What is the single recurring issue that costs your team the most time or exposes you to the highest audit risk?
- How often does this issue surface across your portfolio?
- Tell us about a recent incident where that issue led to extra work, a finding, or senior escalation—what happened and who had to fix it?
- When that problem arises, how does it typically affect PI relationships, staff morale, or leadership trust?
- If you had to quantify the impact of that issue in hours per month or dollars per year, what’s your best estimate?
The Little Workarounds That Add Up
- How many active spreadsheets, manual logs, or ad-hoc email workflows are still essential to your post-award daily operations?
- Which manual workaround consumes the most staff time (describe the spreadsheet, email loop, or one-off process)?
- Who maintains those workarounds and what risk exists if that person is unavailable?
- How long have those workarounds been in place—weeks, months, years—and why haven’t they been removed?
- If we could eliminate one manual process tomorrow, which would create the biggest measurable benefit and why?
When Auditors Knock: What Would You Fear They Find?
- If an auditor pulled three awards at random tomorrow, what specific finding would keep you awake?
- Have you had a single audit finding in the past five years? If yes, what was it and how was it resolved?
- How quickly can your team assemble audit documentation (payroll records, approvals, effort certifications, subaward invoices) when requested?
- What evidence types do you struggle to produce or map back to transactions during an audit?
- Who becomes the point person during an audit and what bottlenecks have you noticed in past engagements?
Who Owns What (Really): Responsibilities and Handoffs
- When a post-award action is needed (e.g., budget reallocation, cost transfer approval), who currently initiates and who signs off?
- Are roles and approval authorities formally documented and accessible to staff and PIs?
- What recurring handoff between teams causes delays or dropped tasks (describe the two parties and the typical failure mode)?
- How confident are you that staff understand escalation paths for high-risk issues?
- If we asked for an org chart and a RACI for post-award processes, how complete would what you have today be?
Data, Integrations, and the ERP Black Box
- Which data element or transaction most often gets lost, changed, or rekeyed between systems, creating downstream errors?
- Which integration pattern do you rely on today (one-way feed, nightly batch, real-time API, manual import)?
- How often do you reconcile system-to-system differences and who owns that reconciliation?
- Have you tested integrations in a sandbox or test environment recently? If so, describe limitations you encountered.
- What data governance or mapping decisions are unresolved (chartfields, cost object design, sponsor-specific tags)?
Outliers & Firefighting: The Exceptions That Eat Your Week
- Which recurring exception or sponsor-specific requirement routinely triggers an all-hands response?
- Walk me through the last time an exception required work outside normal processes—who was involved and how long did it take to resolve?
- What temporary fixes do you apply during incidents that later become permanent headaches?
- How do you capture lessons learned from firefights and feed them back into process changes?
- If we automated handling of your top two exceptions, what percentage of incident hours would that free up?
If This Were Audit-Proof: Your Ideal State
- Imagine a future where your team never faces a disallowed cost finding—what operational controls and evidence would have to exist?
- Which capabilities are non-negotiable for you in a post-award platform (select top three)?
- What acceptance criteria would you require to sign off that a new system is delivering audit readiness?
- Describe what a PI-facing dashboard would need to show to meaningfully reduce PI inquiries and improve compliance.
- If we delivered a pilot that solved one thing immediately, which capability should it prioritize?
What's Stopping the Fix: Real Blockers and Politics
- What are the real blockers—budget, policy, ERP constraints, leadership appetite, or culture—that would prevent you from changing workflows?
- Which internal stakeholders would need to be convinced for a platform change and what would their primary objections be?
- Have you attempted process automation or a systems change before? If so, what stalled and why?
- What timeline would leadership consider acceptable for delivering value from a new post-award tool (pilot to measurable results)?
- What procurement or contracting constraints should we be aware of up front?
Signals That Say 'Go': Readiness, Resources, and Next Steps
- What concrete signs in your organization would tell you now is the right time to commit to a new platform (budget approval, audit pressure, executive mandate)?
- Who would be the sponsor and operational owner for a pilot, and who would be the day-to-day project lead?
- What scope would you consider for a quick pilot that delivers measurable risk reduction (select up to two)?
- What success metrics would you track to decide whether to expand a pilot (example: reduction in audit findings, time-to-close, PI response rate)?
- Realistically, when could your team begin participating in a pilot or integration work?
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Outcome Discovery
Define target outcomes, measurable success signals (e.g., reduced audit findings, faster close-outs), and must-have integrations.
Discovery Questions
Starting with Why: What's a Win Look Like?
- In one sentence, what single outcome would make this post-award program feel like an unequivocal win for you?
- Who would feel that win most immediately (pick all that apply)?
- Describe briefly how achieving that outcome would change your team's day-to-day (focus on tasks, time saved, or stress reduced).
- Which of these tangible benefits do you expect from that outcome (select all that apply)?
- What timeline would make that win feel credible to your stakeholders?
What If Audit Risk Couldn’t Surprise You Anymore?
- When auditors pull a sample tomorrow, what’s the single thing you’re most afraid they’ll find?
- How often do audit findings (federal or internal) surface for sponsored awards at your institution?
- Tell us about the most recent finding: what happened, which award(s) were affected, and what downstream work it created?
- How do audit findings affect your funding relationships or operational posture (e.g., increased testing, sponsor escalations, tighter controls)?
- Which current controls or tools have you relied on to reduce audit risk, and where do they fail you?
Are Manual Workarounds Eating Your Team Alive?
- If you had to name the single clunkiest manual workaround your team uses today, what is it and why does it persist?
- Which routine tasks are still manual or spreadsheet-driven (select all that apply)?
- How many active awards does a typical post-award administrator manage on your team (give a range or number)?
- Roughly how many hours per week does your team spend on reconciliations, corrections, and audit prep combined?
- Give one concrete example where an ERP limitation forced a risky shortcut—what was the result and how did it feel to the team?
What Must Be Non‑Negotiable for You?
- If we said the product could integrate with your systems but still leave you exposed, what non-negotiable capability would make you walk away?
- Which systems must the platform integrate with from day one (select all that apply)?
- What level of data fidelity do you require from those integrations (select one)?
- Which compliance controls are absolute must-haves before you’ll consider moving forward (pick all that apply)?
- If an integration required a two-stage approach (limited scope then full sync), what minimum functionality must be present in stage one to proceed?
What Would Fewer Fires Look Like?
- Imagine 12 months from now: what measurable signals would tell you this platform changed your risk profile for the better?
- Select the measurable success signals that matter to you (choose all that apply).
- What are your current baseline numbers for 1–2 priority KPIs we should measure against? Please include units (e.g., findings/year, days to close-out, % late certifications).
- What degree of improvement would make this project an unambiguous success for procurement and finance (select one)?
- How frequently do you want to review progress against these signals and with whom?
If We Said 'No Surprises', Would You Believe Us?
- What concrete pieces of evidence would convince your auditor, CFO, or sponsor that the system reduced risk (examples: exported audit trail, matched subaward files, timestamped certs)?
- Which specific audit artifacts are most difficult for you to produce today (select all that apply)?
- How long does it currently take to assemble an audit package for a single award when requested?
- What acceptance criteria must be demonstrably true before your team will sign off on go‑live? Please list top 3 (technical, operational, and compliance).
- Which stakeholder groups must provide formal sign-off and what is each group's non-negotiable concern?
Who's Driving This Change — and What Will It Take?
- If implementation stalls, who in your organization has the authority to force it forward—and who will block it?
- Who are the required decision-makers and approvers for commercial terms, integrations, and data access (select all that apply)?
- What level of internal resources can you commit to implementation (select all that apply)?
- What implementation timeline feels realistic to you given existing priorities?
- What are the top three risks internally that could derail the project (e.g., competing IT projects, procurement rules, budget freezes)?
- Are there procurement, security, or privacy constraints we should know now (e.g., required certifications, data residency, indemnity limits)? If yes, briefly describe.
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Solution Experience
Walk through outcome-focused scenarios showing how the platform prevents disallowed costs, accelerates effort certification, and integrates with the ERP.
Experience Meetings
- Experience Readiness & Current-State Alignment
- Scenario 1 — Preventing Disallowed Costs: Live Workflow & Proof
- Scenario 2 — Effort Certification Acceleration: End-to-End Pilot
- Scenario 3 — ERP Integration & Data Flow Proof
- Validation, Acceptance Criteria & Mutual Next Steps
- Customer to provide a mapping file of GL codes and fund/org structures for the pilot awards.
- Admin owner to identify remaining cost categories (GL codes) that require mapping to allowability logic.
- Recap Current Effort Pain & Target Metric
- Demonstrate a clear, measurable reduction in effort certification cycle time using customer sample data.
- Validate that PI workflow and evidence capture meet audit expectations and the customer's acceptance criteria.
- Identify any missing PI roles, training needs, or data gaps before a pilot rollout.
- Customer HR to provide a sanitized payroll/effort export for full pilot population ingestion.
- Seller to produce a before/after cycle-time comparison report for the selected sample.
- Assign a PI champion and a post-award admin to lead the pilot and own adoption metrics.
- Confirm ERP System & Integration Points
- Prove the integration works end-to-end for at least one award and that reconciliations and exceptions are visible and actionable.
- Validate mapping completeness for GL codes and identify any ERP-side transformations required.
- Agree on a test/cutover plan and reconciliation owner for the pilot phase.
- Introductions & Framing
- Seller to run a reconciled transaction report and highlight any mapping gaps within 3 business days.
- Schedule a 2-hour integration test window with customer ERP admin and seller integration engineer.
- Summarize Proofs from Each Scenario
- Get explicit agreement on which acceptance criteria are met and which require follow-up before pilot start.
- Lock down pilot scope, KPIs, owners, and a mutually agreed timeline for the pilot and cutover phases.
- Ensure governance and escalation paths are assigned to mitigate single-audit risk during pilot and cutover.
- Seller to deliver a one-page acceptance checklist with status for each success signal within 2 business days.
- Customer to sign pilot scope and provide formal pilot approval (email or signature) and nominate governance leads.
- Project managers to schedule the pilot kickoff meeting and share the pilot runbook and timeline.
- If any acceptance criteria are 'Partially Met' or 'Not Met', owners to provide remediation plan and target completion dates.
- Customer articulates a crystal-clear one-sentence current state describing where post-award processes are breaking.
- Customer and seller quantify the consequence in operational or financial terms tied to that current state.
- Define a one-sentence future state and 2–4 measurable success signals that will be proved in scenarios.
- Confirm required data, access, and scenario owners are available before any live walkthroughs begin.
- Customer to supply 2–3 representative award IDs/transactions and a sample effort roster for scenario use.
- Customer IT to provide ERP sandbox credentials and a contact for integration questions.
- Seller to prepare a one-page scenario plan mapping each success signal to the evidence that will be shown.
- Assign internal owners (PI, Post-Award Admin, IT) who will join the scenario sessions for validation.
- Recap Current State & Consequence for Selected Award
- Prove that the platform prevents or flags disallowed costs for the chosen award and produces audit-ready evidence.
- Validate the allowability rules map to customer policy and confirm any rule gaps to remediate before pilot.
- Agree on acceptance criteria and sample transactions that will be included in validation checklist.
- Seller to export the audit packet for the demonstrated transactions and share with the customer post-meeting.
- Customer to confirm policy exceptions or sponsor-specific rules that must be encoded for remaining awards.
- One-Sentence Current State
- Walk Through Acceptance Criteria Checklist
- Live Round-Trip: Award Setup to GL Posting
- Data Ingest & Matching
- Scenario Context & Acceptance Criteria
- PI Experience — Dashboard & Certification
- Error Handling & Governance
- Decision & Pilot Scope Confirmation
- Live Walkthrough — Transaction to Validation
- Consequence Quantification
- Assign Owners, Timelines & Governance
- Define Future State (One Sentence)
- Exception Handling & Reconciliation
- Remediation Workflow & Approval Path
- Demonstrate Controls that Reduce Single-Audit Risk
- Proof of Cycle Reduction
- Scenario Scope & Success Signals
- Confirm Cutover & Test Plan Items
- Close & Immediate Next Actions
- Audit Evidence & Reporting
- Pre-Demo Checklist & Data/Access Validation
- Validation with PI/Admins
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Solution Scope
Define modules, integrations, data mapping, responsibilities, and acceptance criteria for audit readiness and sponsor reporting.
Scope Configuration
- Award Account Setup in ERP
- Budget Upload with Sponsor Cost Mapping
- Real-time Expenditure Monitoring and Alerts
- Effort Certification Collection and Reporting
- Subaward Issuance and Invoice Processing
- Cost Transfer Documentation Workflow
- No-Cost Extension and Rebudget Processing
- SF-425 and Sponsor Financial Report Generation
- ERP Connector Deployment (PeopleSoft/Banner/Workday)
- PI Budget Dashboard and Transaction Visibility
- Audit Trail Export and Evidence Packaging
- Subaward Invoice Matching and Reconciliation
Scope Questions
Award Account Setup in ERP
- Do you currently create award-related accounts in your ERP manually or via automation?
- Which ERP is used for award account setup?
- How many award accounts are created or activated per month on average?
- What account structure/segments must be populated (e.g., fund/org/project/task)?
- Who will own or approve ERP account creation (central finance, SPA, departmental admin)?
- Are there ERP security roles or approval workflows that must be honored before account activation?
- What are the acceptance criteria for a successful account setup (correct segment values, budget availability, naming conventions)?
Budget Upload with Sponsor Cost Mapping
- What file formats do sponsors and departments provide budgets in?
- Do you require mapping of sponsor-specific cost categories to institutional chartfields?
- How many unique sponsor budget templates or formats need to be mapped?
- Who currently maintains the sponsor-to-institution cost mapping (SPA, finance, dept)?
- Do you need validation rules applied during upload (salary caps, F&A applicability, direct-cost limits)?
- What tolerance thresholds for budget variance should trigger a review or alert?
- Please describe any sponsor-specific cost categories or constraints that must be preserved in the upload.
Real-time Expenditure Monitoring and Alerts
- Do you require real-time (minutes), near-real-time (hourly), daily, or weekly expenditure monitoring?
- Which events should trigger alerts (over-budget, unallowable cost flagged, cost transfer, subaward variance)?
- Who should receive alerts and by which channels (email, in-app, SMS, ticketing)?
- What SLA do you expect for alert acknowledgement and remediation?
- Should alerts include suggested remediation steps and links to supporting evidence?
- Are there existing monitoring dashboards or tools that must be integrated or replaced?
- How will you measure monitoring effectiveness (acceptable false positive rate, detection rate)?
Effort Certification Collection and Reporting
- Which effort certification model is used at your institution (activity-based, salary distribution, after-the-fact)?
- How often are effort certifications required (monthly, quarterly, annually)?
- Approximately how many certifiers (PIs and other personnel) are in scope?
- Do you require integration with payroll/HR systems for employee data and pay distributions?
- Do you want automated reminders, escalation chains, and compliance reporting for late or missing certifications?
- What audit evidence must accompany certifications (timesheets, activity logs, approval stamps)?
- What are acceptance criteria for effort reporting (timeliness %, completeness %, error tolerance)?
Subaward Issuance and Invoice Processing
- Do you issue fixed-price, cost-reimbursement subawards, or both?
- How do subawardees currently submit invoices (email/PDF, portal, EDI)?
- What percentage of subaward invoices require matching to budgets or deliverables?
- Do you require subcontractor pass-through compliance checks (flow-down terms, audit clauses)?
- Who approves subaward invoices in your workflow (PI, dept admin, SPA, central finance)?
- Do you need 3-way matching (PO/Invoice/Receipt) or custom reconciliation rules for subawards?
- What are your acceptance criteria for invoice processing (processing time SLA, error rate)?
Cost Transfer Documentation Workflow
- How are cost transfers requested today (form, email, ERP journal entry)?
- What justification and approval levels are required for cost transfers?
- What is the allowable timeframe for backdated transfers under your policy?
- Do you require automatic risk flags for high-risk transfers (payroll reallocations, corrections across sponsors)?
- Should the workflow capture supporting documents and maintain an immutable audit trail?
- Who is the final approver for cost transfers and what role-level attestations are needed?
- What are the acceptance criteria for cost transfer documentation completeness and timeliness?
No-Cost Extension and Rebudget Processing
- How frequently do you process no-cost extensions (NCEs) across awards?
- Do sponsors require specific NCE forms or is a free-text justification acceptable?
- Who initiates and who approves rebudget and NCE requests in your organization?
- Should approved rebudgets automatically update ERP budgets or require manual ERP entry?
- Do you need tracking and reporting of NCEs and rebudgets for sponsor reporting and internal audit?
- Are there sponsor-imposed rebudgeting limits that the system must enforce?
- What acceptance criteria should be met for NCE/rebudget processing (timeliness, traceability, sponsor compliance)?
SF-425 and Sponsor Financial Report Generation
- Which sponsor report formats do you need supported (SF-425, custom CSV, PDF, other)?
- How frequently are these reports produced (quarterly, annually, at close-out)?
- Who validates and certifies financial report figures before submission?
- Do reports need drilldown capability to transaction-level evidence for auditors?
- Are there sponsor-specific adjustments (prior period adjustments, cost-sharing) that must be applied during generation?
- Do you require an approval workflow and electronic signatures for report submission?
- What are the acceptance criteria for report accuracy and supporting evidence for audit readiness?
ERP Connector Deployment (PeopleSoft/Banner/Workday)
- Which ERP(s) need connectors deployed?
- Do you have API access/credentials and an established change control process for integration?
- Which data feeds are required (chartfields, transactions, payroll, vendor master, other)?
- Do you require real-time synchronization or scheduled batch updates between systems?
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Mutual Commit
Finalize commercial terms, implementation milestones, SLAs, and governance to mitigate single-audit risk and ensure ERP cutover.
Agreement Modules
- Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
- Master Services Agreement (MSA)
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Order Form & Commercial Terms
- Implementation & Cutover Plan
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) & Support
- Data Processing & Security Addendum (DPA)
- Governance & Escalation Plan
- Acceptance Criteria & Audit Evidence Requirements
- Integration & Data Mapping Statement
- Training & Enablement Commitment
- Change Order & Scope Management
- Risk & Single-Audit Mitigation Addendum
- Subcontractor & Third-Party Services Addendum
- Termination, Data Retention & Renewal Terms
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Deployment
Operationalize rollout with readiness checks, enablement, and outcome validation.
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Pre-Deployment Readiness
Confirm data access, ERP integration points, test environments, owners, and audit evidence requirements are in place.
Readiness Questions
Quick Snapshot: Who’s on the Deployment Roster?
- Who will be our primary day-to-day contact for deployment (name and role)?
- Which ERP does your institution use for post-award accounting?
- Roughly how many active awards will be in scope at launch?
- Who is the executive sponsor or approver we should include in milestone signoffs?
- What is your target cutover date or quarter?
What’s Keeping You Up at Night About Go‑Live?
- If the integration or data migration slips, what’s the single consequence that would feel worst to you?
- Which of these risks worries you most entering deployment?
- How would a federal single-audit finding tied to cutover affect your office politically or operationally?
- Who typically owns escalation when something breaks during financial cutover?
- How would you describe the emotional state of your team about go‑live (confidence, concern, overwhelmed)?
Where Do Your Data Fault Lines Live?
- Which data domains do you consider most fragile for deployment (pick top 3)?
- Who currently owns the canonical version of award and PI master data in your org?
- How often is ERP master data refreshed or changed that would affect mappings (e.g., new funds, orgs, speedtypes)?
- Tell us about one recent example where a data discrepancy caused rework or audit exposure (what happened and how long to resolve).
- Do you have automated data validation rules today (e.g., enforce sponsor cost categories, effort percent totals)?
If Integration Fails, What’s the Real Cost?
- What operational workflow breaks first if the ERP feed is delayed for a week?
- How much manual work (FTE hours/week) would you expect to add during a failed integration week?
- Who bears responsibility for the financial reconciliation and corrective journal entries when integration issues occur?
- What would be the external risk (auditor findings, sponsor penalties, lost awards) if integration produced systematically misclassified expenses for 90 days?
- If this happened before an audit sampling period, how would you want our team to support mitigation?
Who Will Own the Evidence Trail?
- Chances are, auditors will ask for source-to-ledger evidence — who will be the institutional owner of assembling that packet?
- Which pieces of audit evidence are already routinely captured and stored digitally at your institution?
- Where is audit evidence currently stored and how long is retention guaranteed?
- Who needs view or edit access to audit evidence during and after deployment (roles)?
- Do you have institutional policies about producing sampled transactional documentation within X days of an auditor request? If so, what is that SLA?
How Ready Is Your Test Environment to Tell the Truth?
- Is there a dedicated sandbox environment that mirrors production for ERP integration and end‑to‑end testing?
- Which of these test capabilities do you already have available?
- Do you have data masking or anonymization policies that would allow us to use production-like data in testing?
- How many business days of dedicated testing time can your SMEs commit during the joint test window?
- What would you consider a minimum viable test to sign off integration readiness?
What Needs To Be Non‑Negotiable at Cutover?
- If you could force one thing to be perfect at cutover, what would it be (e.g., zero recon diffs, complete effort imports, PI access)?
- Which acceptance criteria must be met before we flip the switch?
- Do you require formal signoffs by specific roles before go‑live? If yes, who and what form (email/signature)?
- What is your rollback or contingency plan if a critical reconciliation fails post‑cutover?
- Which communication channels should be used for incident notifications during cutover (pick all that apply)?
Mapping the First 90 Days After Go‑Live
- What are the top three outcomes you want to see in the first 90 days?
- Which KPIs should we track to measure initial success?
- What level of vendor/partner support do you expect post‑go‑live (hours per week or SLA)?
- Who will run the weekly health review for the first quarter (name/role)?
- How would you like lessons learned and process changes to be captured and shared?
Next Steps: What Would Make Us Move Faster?
- What decision or approval, if secured today, would materially accelerate your timeline?
- Which internal approvals are still outstanding to begin technical work (pick all that apply)?
- Are there any external vendors or integrators we must coordinate with? Please list names/roles and access constraints.
- What would make you feel comfortable committing to a pilot cutover date today?
- Anything else we should know about internal politics, timing pressures (e.g., audit window, fiscal close), or recent incidents that could affect readiness?
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Deployment Enablement
Coordinate tasks, run integrations, train admins and PIs, and execute cutover steps with clear owners and timelines.
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Validation Checklist
Verify acceptance criteria across budget tracking, effort reporting, subaward workflows, and produce audit-ready evidence.
Validation Questions
Start Here: Your Real Post-Award Rhythm
- In one sentence, how would you describe what your post-award team is fundamentally responsible for today?
- How many active awards does your team manage, on average, per post-award administrator?
- Which ERP(s) does post-award need to integrate with for reconciliations and reporting?
- How often do you run a formal single-audit readiness check across your portfolio?
- Tell me about the last time a routine month-end or close was derailed—what happened and how did the team respond?
- Which single operational metric would you say matters most right now (pick one)?
Are You Comfortable With 'Just Good Enough'?
- What manual workaround or spreadsheet are you tolerating today that, if it disappeared tomorrow, would immediately free up the most time?
- How often do you rely on manual spreadsheets or emailed attachments to complete a core post-award task?
- And how long have those manual workarounds been the default approach in your office?
- Give a concrete example of a recent situation where a workaround created rework, audit risk, or PI frustration—what was the downstream impact?
- Which process areas do you feel are being carried by heroic effort rather than a repeatable system?
- How does carrying these workarounds make your team feel—drained, resilient, anxious about audits, or something else?
Where the Audit Sword Really Hangs
- If a single-audit finding were to appear tomorrow, which recurring assumption in your process would you blame first?
- When was your most recent audit with federal findings (if any), and what was the primary finding type?
- Which types of audit requests currently take your team the longest to satisfy (choose up to two)?
- Describe a past audit moment that felt most threatening to your institution—what made it so stressful?
- How confident are you that you can produce an unbroken audit trail from invoice or payroll line to sponsor report within 72 hours?
- If auditors asked for evidence of cost allowability for a high-risk award, what specific documents or workflows would you hand them today?
When People Miss Their Number: Effort & Budget Stories
- How often do effort certifications come in late or require manual correction?
- Tell me about a recent cost transfer that was flagged—what triggered it, and how did you justify it?
- Which root causes drive most of your overspend or misallocation issues (select up to three)?
- How engaged are PIs with their budget and effort data—do they check regularly, on request, or not at all?
- What is your typical elapsed time to produce a sponsor financial report (e.g., SF-425) from request to submission?
- How does a late or inaccurate effort certification feel operationally and politically inside your institution?
What Would True Day-to-Day Relief Look Like?
- Imagine you never had to manually reconcile effort or donor-restricted budgets again—what immediate difference would you notice in daily work?
- If a new system could eliminate one recurring manual task, which would you prioritize?
- Which measurable outcomes would make you declare the project a success at 90 days (pick up to three)?
- What would worry you most about moving away from current workarounds to an integrated platform?
- How would improved transparency (dashboards, alerts) change conversations between admins and PIs?
Who Holds the Keys — Roles, Workarounds, and Ownership
- Who truly owns effort certification, budget compliance, and close-out—are responsibilities clear or blurry?
- Which groups must approve re-budgeting, cost transfers, and subaward payments at your institution?
- Describe the current escalation path when a high-dollar budget exception is discovered—who gets looped in and how long does resolution typically take?
- Which roles are most overloaded and most at risk of turnover because of manual post-award work?
- What training or governance gaps do you see that, if closed, would reduce audit risk immediately?
- Which stakeholder groups would need explicit change management from us to adopt a new platform (pick all that apply)?
Integration Reality Check: ERP, Interfaces, and Hidden Costs
- What would surprise you most about the total effort required to integrate a new post-award system with your ERP?
- Which ERP powers your finance ledgers and payroll today?
- Describe how you currently exchange data between award administration and finance (select one).
- Which data touchpoint causes the most reconciliation headaches (pick up to two)?
- How many FTEs are currently dedicated to managing integrations, mappings, and reconciliation work?
- What access or security constraints would we need to plan for when connecting to your ERP or HR systems?
Deciding Together: Signals, Timeline, and What 'Yes' Actually Looks Like
- If you decided to move forward with a new platform, what internal condition would signal to you that now is the right time?
- What is your decision timeline—when would you expect procurement, and when would you want implementation to begin?
- What approval gates and stakeholders must sign off before a purchase (list titles or offices)?
- Which commercial or implementation terms would be deal-breakers for you (select up to three)?
- If we could deliver one quick win in the first 90 days, what would you want it to be and why?
- What would you like the next step in this conversation to be?
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Success
Confirm outcomes against success signals, review lessons learned, and maintain a shared channel for issues and enhancements.
Success Reviews
- Success Review & Metrics Validation
- Lessons Learned & Continuous Improvement Workshop
- Audit Readiness Evidence Handoff
- Enhancement & Product Feedback Sync
- Ongoing Governance & Operational Escalation Review
Issues & Enhancements
- Create product tickets for prioritized enhancements with acceptance criteria and expected delivery milestone.
- Publish the Lessons Learned report and prioritized improvement backlog to the shared channel.
- Create tickets for the top 3 quick wins with owners and due dates in the project tracker.
- Schedule quarterly retrospective checkpoints to review progress on the backlog.
- Audit Checklist Review
- Confirm the audit evidence package is complete or document specific remediation with owners.
- Ensure evidence is traceable, accessible to auditors, and retained under institutional policies.
- Formalize an audit handoff and single point(s) of contact for auditors.
- Complete and upload any missing evidence items to the indexed repository and update the audit checklist.
- Grant auditor/read-only access to the evidence repository and confirm access through a test.
- Document the audit point-of-contact list and escalation path for audit questions.
- Open Issues & Severity Triage
- Triage and prioritize open issues and enhancements by business impact and audit risk reduction.
- Define clear acceptance criteria and testing expectations for each prioritized enhancement.
- Establish SLAs and a transparent communication cadence via the shared channel.
- Opening & Objectives
- Publish SLA definitions and escalation contacts in the shared channel.
- Schedule the monthly Product Sync to review progress on open tickets and roadmap items.
- Governance Model Recap
- Establish a clear and signed governance charter that assigns operational ownership and RACI.
- Define monitoring/reporting cadence and dashboards to proactively surface audit-risk items.
- Agree escalation procedures and SLAs so high-risk issues are resolved within committed timeframes.
- Publish the governance charter, RACI, and escalation matrix to the shared channel.
- Configure and schedule the automated KPI dashboard deliveries to stakeholders.
- Set recurring governance meetings (monthly ops, quarterly exec) and invite required participants.
- Confirm which success signals have been met with evidence and close them out.
- Identify and document corrective actions for any unmet KPIs with clear owners and deadlines.
- Agree a re-validation cadence for remediated items.
- Publish a validated KPI report with links to supporting evidence and status (met/unmet) within 3 business days.
- Assign owners and deadlines for each corrective action and add them to the improvement backlog.
- Schedule the KPI re-check meeting for any remediated items at the agreed cadence.
- Pre-work Review
- Document a clear list of lessons learned with root causes and evidence.
- Create and prioritize a continuous-improvement backlog focused on audit risk reduction and operational efficiency.
- Assign owners, acceptance criteria, and timelines for the top-priority improvements.
- Baseline & Target Recap
- Evidence Walkthrough
- Timeline Retrospective
- Monitoring & Reporting Cadence
- Enhancement Requests Review
- Roadmap Alignment
- Root Cause Identification
- Gaps & Remediation Steps
- Metrics Walkthrough
- Escalation Pathways
- Contractual & SLA Review
- Access & Retention Controls
- Define Acceptance Criteria
- Improvement Brainstorm
- Gap Analysis
- Decision & Ownership
- Communication & SLAs
- Sign-off & Handoff
- Communication Protocols
- Prioritization & Trade-offs
- Assign Backlog Items
- Formal Sign-off
- Next Steps & Tickets
- Next Steps & Communication