Penn State Service Management (2025)

The myResearch Financials (myFunds) provides faculty members with easy access to information regarding their active Sponsored Grants, Annual funds, and Life-to-Date funds through a user-friendly interface. Each faculty member is provided with a personalized account summary report, enabling them to view account reports, review line items entries, and a method to effectively communicate with support staff about account details.

Access Permissions for Financials (myFunds)

Sponsored Grants (GM) - Access to Financials (myFunds) is managed through SIMBA. Faculty members listed as responsible personnel in either a PI or Co-PI role, as well as support staff with myFunds delegate (MFD) responsibility, can access Sponsored Grant information. A faculty member in a PI role will have full access to a Grant and all associated Sponsored Programs, while a Co-PI and myFunds delegate have access to specific Sponsored Programs and associated totals only.

If you are in a support role that requires myFunds delegation, please contact the Financial Officer in the business area responsible and request the myFunds delegation responsibility. Please note that delegation in myResearch does not permit access to financial accounts.

Annual and Life-to-Date (FM) - Access to Annual and LIfe-to-Date funds is restricted to the responsible principal investigator only.

For more information on the access, please see myFunds Reports - Definitions and Roles and for any account security questions, faculty are encouraged to contact their Unit, Research Office, or Financial Officer.

Click here for more information about myFunds reporting in SIMBA.

Accessing the Financials (myFunds) Summary Page

• Login to the myResearch Portal (http://myresearch.psu.edu).
• Click on the “Financials (myFunds)” card.

Please note that the number displayed on the card represents the total number of Sponsored Grants in an active lifecycle status for the faculty member.

The Financial Accounts summary information is retrieved directly from SIMBA, ensuring up-to-date and accurate account information. The summary page provides the option to refresh account information with SIMBA at the click of a button, with the date and time of the most recent refresh displayed on the button.

If you believe an account listing is incorrect or missing, please contact your Business Area’s Research Office for assistance.

Each Financial Account summary reporting page will indicate the date and time of the last SIMBA refresh with “Account data current with SIMBA as of”. Please be aware that funds are sometimes moved from one account to another and may take some time for the journal entries to appear in the Grant account. Please contact your Business Area’s Research Office for assistance.

Grants/Contacts and Sponsored Programs Accounts (aka GM Accounts)

The summary page will display two separate sections for Grants/Contacts (aka GMs, Sponsored Grants, or Awards), that are in an active and closing lifecycle status.

Active Grants: These are externally sponsored research projects ready to have expenditures applied. The following SIMBA Award lifecycle statuses will appear in myResearch:

Closing Grants: These are externally sponsored research projects in a closing state. The following SIMBA Closing lifecycle statuses will appear in myResearch:

Hovering over a Grant Name will display a tooltip describing the current lifecycle status.

Each Grant summary will list the following details:

* Negative totals will be displayed in red.

Grants may encompass multiple Sponsored Programs, also known as IOs or Internal Orders. Each Grant can be expanded to reveal all associated Sponsored Programs. Sponsored Program types comprise Fabrication (37), Program Income (45), Grants (50), and Cost Share (52). Each Sponsored Program will provide the following information:

Grant Full Summary Report

Each Grant full summary report will have a Grant header that will contain the following details:

The Grant full summary report will contain all line items within the account. Accounts have the following reporting levels:

• Grant (aka GM, Award)
  • Sponsored Program (aka IO, Internal Order)
    • Sponsored Class Category (ex: Salary, Graduate Assistant, Fringe, Capital Expense, Other Expense, F&A)
      • Sponsored Class (ex: Salary-Full Time, Salary-Grad Assist, Capital Equipment, Misc Expense, Tuition)
        • General Ledger (GL)
          • Line Item Details (who or what items are expended to)

Each Sponsored Program will furnish a title, period of performance, and current fringe and F&A rates. It's important to note that fringe rates may fluctuate annually, while F&A rates typically remain fixed at the time of award execution.

The Estimated Available Balance does not take overhead into account. Please contact your Business Area’s Research Office to assist with calculating spending totals.

Sponsored Programs will be listed under a Grant and can be viewed collectively (in a stacked format) or individually by selecting the Sponsored Program dropdown or clicking on the Sponsored Program title. Expanding or collapsing each reporting level will expand or contract all levels under each Sponsored Program.

General ledger entries with zero values for all totals will not be displayed. These entries may include expenses with both incoming and outgoing transactions resulting in zero value totals.

Grant Line Item Filter

The line item filter tool enables the presentation of individual postings constituting a line item entry. To access the line item filter page, simply click on any filter tool icon while viewing a full summary or category summary report.

Using the line item filtering tool, users can refine Grant and Sponsored Program data according to the following criteria:

• Sponsored Program
• Sponsored Class Category
• Sponsored Class
• GL Account
• By Month (within the Grant Period of Performance)
• Posts Between (freeform date entry within the Grant Period of Performance)
• Line Item Description (wildcard search based on line item text)

Users can also reset all filter values and update data from SIMBA. However, due to the large volume of records, the line item filter tool may not display all posts for a Grant. In such cases, all posts for the Grant can be obtained by utilizing the Excel export feature in the Grant header.

Excel export fields include:

Annual and Life to Date Internal Order (aka FM Accounts)

Below the summary of active Grants, you'll find your Annual and Life-to-Date funds, also referred to as FM accounts, IOs, or Internal Orders. Annual funds align with the University's fiscal year (July thru June) and may fluctuate annually. Life-to-Date funds can remain active for multiple fiscal years. An IO with no closing date is represented by a valid-to date of 12/31/9999. Common fund types include RIF Designated for Faculty, Faculty Designated Funding, and Unrestricted Gifts. A full list of fund types can be found at SIMBA: Internal Order Types.

Each Annual and Life to Date fund will list the following details:

Annual and Life to Date Full Summary Report

Each Annual and Life to Date (FM accounts) full summary report will have a header that will contain the following details:

The Annual full summary report will contain all line items within the current fiscal year by default. Annual accounts are funded by fiscal year and can be filtered as such.

The Life to Date full summary report will contain all line items within the account by default. Life to Date accounts can also be filter by fiscal year.

The FM full summary report will have the following reporting levels:

• IO (aka FM)
  • Set (aka expense category)
    • General Ledger (GL)
      • Line Item Details (who or what items are expended to, when available)

Annual and Life to Date Line Item Filter

The FM line item filter tool enables the presentation of individual journal postings constituting a line item entry. To access the line item filter page, simply click on any filter tool icon while viewing a full summary or category summary report.

Using the line item filtering tool, users can refine FM account data according to the following criteria:

• Fiscal Year
• Business Area
• Set
• GL Account
• Exclude Open Commitments
• By Month (within the FM account valid from and to dates)
• Posts Between (freeform date entry within the FM account valid from and to dates)
• LIne Item Description (wildcard search based on line item text)

Users can also reset all filter values and update data from SIMBA. However, due to the large volume of records, the line item filter tool may not display all posts for an account. In such cases, all posts for the account can be obtained by utilized the Excel export feature in the account header.

Excel export fields include:

Faculty are encouraged to contact their Unit, Research Office, or Financial Officer with any account questions.

Please be aware that at present, Revenue category posts are not available.