Funding Rules (ReCaP)

In this topic ShowHide

About this page
Funding Rules tabs
University Level rules
- University Level: Fields
- Consumable and Capital Items Grouping: Fields
Alert Definition File
Change funding rules
Rule precedence
Related topics

About this page

This page and sub-pages are used by RME administrators to configure funding rules so that project costing and pricing can be generated using Research Costing and Pricing (ReCaP).

This page supports ReCaP, available in RME versions since 2018. A new Costing and Pricing Tool was implemented in version 7.7.0 in mid-2021.

Menu path: RME menu > Projects > Funding Rules (ReCaP)

Funding Rules tabs

There are a number of tabs in this Funding Rules page:

• The University Level tab displays by default and includes all the fields used to set rules for the university level, including Consumable and Capital Item groups and items, and the Alert Definition File

• The Project Level -Variations tab displays a grid for the project level rules that have been defined. To add a new one, click New in the toolbar. The details page will display with relevant fields. See: Project level -Variations

• The Fund scheme Level tab displays a grid for fund scheme level rules that have been defined. To add a new one, click New in the toolbar. The details page will display with relevant fields. See: Fund scheme level

• The Pricing Output Configuration tab displays a grid for pricing outputs that have been defined. To add a new one, click New in the toolbar. The details page will display with relevant fields. See: Pricing Output Configuration

University Level rules

Before using ReCaP, you need to define and set up default funding rules used by your institution. The institution used in the tool will be the organisation marked as Primary in the Organisations page in RME. Some fields in the input pages for your users are sourced from these default rules, such as percentages for infrastructure cost, on-cost, contingency and profit.

You can also set the following default options:

• Indicate if the project is to be invoiced based on milestones - applied to all projects unless there is a rule variation

• Set custom-defined activities - applied to all projects unless there is a rule variation

• Set up consumables and capital items - applied to all projects initially but once you initiate a costing, changes will not apply for existing costing records. For details, see: Change funding rules.

To defined university-level rules:

1. From the RME menu, go to Projects > Funding Rules.

2. Use the following field table and sections as a guide when configuring your university-level funding rules.

3. In the toolbar, click Save. To go back to the previous page, click it in the breadcrumb trail or use your browser Back button.

University Level: Fields

Field	Description
Alert Definition File	Use this section to manage alert notifications in the tool: 1. To configure alert rules and message text, click the Download link for a defined MS Excel spreadsheet. 2. Define your alert rules and message text in the spreadsheet and save it. 3. To apply new or changed alert rules, upload the amended MS Excel spreadsheet via the Browse button. For full details, see: Alert Definition File below.
Apply Infrastructure Cost on	Indicates whether to apply Infrastructure Cost - Lab % and Infrastructure Cost - Non-Lab % on either salary or direct cost
Custom Activity List	Use this section to set up custom activities to display by default on the Project Team pages when the FTE or # of Hours field shows as Hours (non-FTE). You can then distribute the hours allocation for non-FTE team members across these fields. Example activities: design, surveys, data analysis, documentation • To add activities, click the plus + button. • Custom activity fields can also be set in project level rules, which override university-level activity fields. Important! If you don't want university-level activity fields to display on Project Team pages, click the cross X next to each to delete them.
Default Contingency % *	Must have a value; if not applicable, leave as 0 Allowance value to factor in the risk of unknown costs
Default Profit % *	Must have a value; if not applicable, leave as 0 Percentage of profit or a specific amount to be used in calculations
Infrastructure Cost - Lab %	Default percentage value for costs related to project activity based primarily in a laboratory, or other intensive research using qualitative or quantitative research methods
Infrastructure Cost - Non-lab %	Default percentage value for costs related to project activity based primarily in a non-laboratory environment, such as desk or secondary research, collecting research data using previously published sources
	Infrastructure field variations that may impact this setting
	Project variation configuration options: • Do not apply Infrastructure Cost This overrides both University level and Fund Scheme level rules • Allow User Override Rules	Fund Scheme variation configuration options: • Infrastructure Waiver Exempted? • Apply Infrastructure Cost Variance (and % fields)
Invoice Based on Milestone	Indicates whether invoicing will be based on specific milestones If invoicing will not be based on milestones, leave blank This is just an indicator, there is no associated functionality connected to it. You can set up project milestones in RME as Significant Events. For eForms in the RPR domain, add a Significant Events RIC to the eForm template.
On-Cost % for Staff > 12 Months	Default percentage of salary to calculate the On-Cost value for those employed for more than12 months "On-cost" represents employment costs that are difficult to define in simple monetary terms, such as long service leave, workers’ compensation insurance and so on.
On-Cost % for Staff <= 12 Months	Default percentage of salary to calculate the On-Cost value for those employed for 12 months or less
Show price including GST?	Indicates whether to include additional totals with GST calculated in the price If Yes, GST will be applied and an additional line with the total price including GST will be displayed in both the Cost and Price output pages in ReCaP. These additional totals are also available in reporting views for reporting purposes.

Consumable and Capital Items Grouping: Fields

In this section, you can create labels for the different groups of consumables and capital items, and define items for each group. Some suggested groups may have been set up for you.

Each group has a separate panel, with a group label and items underneath. Changes are saved in RME automatically.

• To add a new group, click the green plus + icon under the groups panel.

• To add an item to an existing group, select an item from the list at the far right, then click the arrow < to the right of the group label. If you select an item that is not correct for the group, it will be highlighted. Remove it and select another.

Screen shot to show points in text above

Click to view or hide: Add an item to a group

Edit existing groups or items

You can also edit groups and items however once you initiate a costing, changes will not be applied to existing costing records. See: Change funding rules

• To change a group label, place your cursor in the field and edit it directly.

• To remove an item from a group, click the blue cross X next to it. You cannot re-name items.

• You can hid and re-display this entire section by clicking the section heading.

Alert Definition File

You can configure and manage specific alert messages to display on the Output page when specific conditions arise, to notify the chief investigator or project manager that there are issues to fix.

As a summary, the process involves a defined Excel spreadsheet which you download from the Funding Rules page (RME > Projects > Funding Rules). In the pre-defined spreadsheet, you define the rules and corresponding alert message text, and then upload back in RME so that the rules can be applied.

Prior knowledge requirements: This task is intended for those with a good understanding of formulas in MS Excel. If you’re not sure about using formulas in MS Excel, you may need to refer to an in-house expert or to Microsoft Excel help online.

The alert spreadsheet has the following main sections:

• Costing and Pricing Tool Variables: When defining an alert rule, you can select the cell coordinates from these variables to use in your formula. To test the rules, you can also enter criteria in these fields. You cannot edit these fields.

• eForm Questions: Use this section to include responses to questions or core fields from an eForm in the formula. For each question or core field you add, enter the Unique ID.

• Rules: This is where you set the rule for each alert as a formula, and then define the corresponding alert text to display.

Screen shot highlighting sections outlined in the text above

Click to view or hide: Alert definition spreadsheet layout

Define a new alert

1. Go to RME > Projects > Funding Rules (ReCaP).

2. In the top section of the university level rules, click the download link next to Alert Definition File.

3. Save the resulting spreadsheet fie to your file system or PC.

4. Open the spreadsheet and go to the Rules section to make your changes.

5. In the Rule Name column, enter an easy-to-identify name for the rule. Example: Uni led contribution > 30%

6. In the Alert messages column, next to the cell for your formula, enter the text message for the alert. Example: "Uni is providing cash and in-kind in excess of 30% of the project cost."

7. In the Formula and resulting alert text column, define the formula for the alert and save the spreadsheet.
Make sure that your formula references the corresponding alert text from step 6 (F:#). See tips in Options for alert formulas.

8. Test the rule.

9. Save the spreadsheet file.

10. Upload the amended Excel spreadsheet in the Funding Rules (ReCaP) page in RME. Use the Browse button in the Alert Definition File field to find and upload your saved spreadsheet.

11. Click Save. The spreadsheet with all the alert rules and text will be saved in the system and applied. The next time you download the alert definition spreadsheet, it will contain all the rules you previously defined.

Options for alert formulas

You can construct your formula using either cell coordinates or responses to eForm questions or core fields.

Option

Description

Costing and Pricing Tool Variable cell coordinates

Use the cell coordinates from the pre-defined values in the Costing and Pricing Tool Variables section at the top. Example: To use the Total cost variable in your formula, click the cell D7.

Variable types:

• Project status and Project type fields will contain the category eCode.

• The Primary fund scheme ecode field will contain Fund Scheme eCode.

• The Primary fund organisation ecode field will contain the organisation eCode, linked to the primary fund scheme.

• Other cost variables will contain the calculated amount as displayed in the Output - Costing page

eForm Questions section

Use the eForm Questions section to use either question DDAs or core fields. You need to enter the unique ID for the question or field in the specified row. Example for a question DDA: 10000000001 You cannot use date fields, RIC fields or DDAs within a RIC for this method.

The result will contain a text representation of the response from the form. For question DDAs, you can use the following types in the spreadsheet:

• Single-line text

• Multi-line text

• Number (you need to use MS Excel function Value() in your formula to convert numbers into text)

• Dropdown list

• Radio button

You can add as many eForm questions or core fields as you need by adding new content across the spreadsheet in rows 10 and 11. When using more than one, be aware that there cannot be any blank values between columns. The program will look at each unique ID in turn across the columns. Once it hits a blank cell, it stops looking at eForm Question data.

Example formula:

=IF(AND((D12 = "Yes"), (D6="GRANT"), OR((F6="ARC"),(F6="NHMRC")), (M5+M6)/D7 > 0.3), F18, "")
The alert will be displayed if the project is university led D12 = Yes, the Project Type is "grant" D6, the Primary fund organisation eCode is either ARC or NHMRC F6, and the total Cost to the Institution (both cash M5 and in-kind M6) is more than 30% 0.3 of the Project Cost D7.

Edit an existing alert

To change alert text for an existing alert, go to the row for the rule and in the Alert messages column, change the text message. Save the file and upload as outlined above in Define a new alert (from step 10).

To edit an existing rule formula, open the alert definition file from the Funding Rules (ReCaP) page in RME, change the formula and test it. Save the file and upload as outlined above in Define a new alert (from step 10).

Test an alert

You can test an alert rule by entering specific criteria in the Costing and Pricing Tool Variables section and checking what alert will display in the Formula and resulting alert text column. Enter data that will deliberately trigger the alert.

Example: To test the rule ‘Uni led contributions > 30%’, we want to enter details that will result in a total of cash and in-kind provided by the university that is more than 30% of the project cost, which should trigger the alert.

• Project type = grant

• Total cost = 500

• Primary fund organisation eCode = ARC

• Cost to institution - Cash = 100

• Cost to institution - In-kind = 250

• DDA: eForm Questions, ID 10000000001, Response - Yes (in this case, the DDA question is to determine if the project is university led)

Based on the above data, the alert correctly displays in the Formula and resulting alert text column. You can continue to enter different data to see the effects.

Remove an alert

If you want to remove a particular alert, or do not want to use any alerts, follow these steps:

1. Download the alert definition spreadsheet, as for steps 1 and 2 in Define a new alert.

2. Remove the formulas for the alert rule/s and save the file.

3. Upload the amended spreadsheet, as outlined above in Define a new alert (from step 10).

Change funding rules

When you configure funding rules in RME, they are stored as a master copy in RME. When a costing record is created for a project, the system determines the applicable rules based on the project details, project type and fund scheme, as relevant. The rules that are applicable are collated and copied as a kind of “snapshot” from the RME master and saved as an internal copy to that individual costing record in ReCaP. The saved internal rules are then used for all costing and pricing calculations for that project.

Once a costing has been initiated for an existing project in ReCaP, changes to the master funding rules in RME are not updated in the internal copy in the record unless either the Project Type or Primary Fund Scheme has been changed in RME. This is because different funding rules may have been defined for project types or fund schemes, so a different combination of rules may now apply.

• If either of these RME fields is changed, internal funding rules are updated and changes are applied to all existing records, except for changes to Consumable and Capital Items. Changes to the configuration of the Consumable and Capital Items in RME (rename a group, add a new group or item, delete a group or item) will not be updated for existing costing records in ReCaP.

• If there are no changes to these RME fields, changed funding rules will only be applied to new project records in ReCaP.

Rule precedence

When rule variations are set for project types or fund schemes, they may override university level rules. As a guide, refer to the table below to determine which rule may apply in certain situations:

Rule	University Level	Fund Scheme Level	Project Level	Project Level: User Override
		If set, overrides University level rules	If set, overrides University and Fund Scheme level rules	If a user sets a rule, it overrides all other level rules
Infrastructure %	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
On-cost %	Yes	Yes	-	-
Custom Activities	Yes	-	Yes	Yes
Invoice based on milestone flag	Yes	-	Yes	Yes
Contingency %	Yes	-	Yes	Yes
Profit %	Yes	-	Yes	Yes