Increasing the Capacity of Individuals, Families and Communities

Managing Public Grants

The Grant Award Process | Meeting Goals and Objectives

Developing an Operational Plan

Your organization's compliance with the terms of your grant agreement entails familiarizing project staff with Federal program requirements, participating in technical assistance workshops and implementing the proposed project as planned and within budget. This guidebook provides information specific to financial and program-related reporting generally required by Federal funding agencies. (For information about other critical program implementation issues, please see the Designing Sub-Award Programs, Delivering Training and Technical Assistance, Establishing Partnerships, Identifying and Promoting Best Practices and Measuring Outcomes guidebooks, part of the National Resource Center's Intermediary Development Series.)

Your operational plan will be based on information presented in your application narrative and the required reporting schedule detailed in your award package. When you developed your application for funding, you described who, what, when, how, where and why specific activities will take place to achieve desired outcomes and project objectives.

The evaluation section of your proposal described how you know if the program objectives have been accomplished. Data collection, monitoring and reporting are critical since project staff may be required to produce evidence of program performance through an examination of stated objectives during a site visit by the Federal grantor agency and/or grant reviews that may involve peer review committees.

Create a Reporting Calendar and Assign Responsibilities

Using information you provided in your application narrative and reporting requirements specified by the Federal funding agency in your award package, develop a document that relates goals, objectives and activities to implementation and reporting timelines. This document is called an operational plan or work plan document. Set intervals that are appropriate to your project and reporting requirements. The following table provides a sample operational plan format.

Sample Operational Plan Format Goals Activities Responsible Member Year 1 Timeline       Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

In this sample format, reporting deadlines can be entered as activities with due dates indicated in the timeline. This format also allows you to indicate who is responsible for completing each of the activities detailed.

If the complexity of your project necessitates, similar work plans can be developed for each separate project component. An operational plan should be a working document, allowing you to gauge progress and success and outline next steps. However, it should also incorporate feedback and changes derived from the evaluation process. Your organization's strategic plan may serve as an operational plan if it details specific activities, outputs and timelines for accomplishing project objectives and goals.

Ensure Timely Payments

Payment to your organization may be tied to reporting schedules, so it is critical to submit completed required reports on time and as specified by the Federal awarding agency. Payments to your organization may be withheld if one of the following situations occurs:

• Failure to comply with the project objectives, terms and conditions of the award or Federal reporting requirements
• A recipient or subrecipient is delinquent in a debt to the United States as defined in OMB Circular A-129

The Division of Payment Management (DPM) oversees all payments to funded organizations. Within the Department of Health and Human Services, electronic payment is the required payment method, meaning grant funds will be deposited directly into your organization's bank account.

Electronic Payments⁴
The Division of Payment Management (DPM) operates the Payment Management System (PMS)—a full-service centralized grants payment and cash management system selected as one of the two grants payment systems for the entire Federal government. The fully automated system receives payment requests, edits them for accuracy and content, transmits the authorization to either the Federal Reserve Bank or U.S. Treasury for payment and records the payment transactions and corresponding disbursement transactions to the appropriate account(s).

Keep in Mind The Division of Payment Management (DPM) offers Payment Management System User training classes for new grant recipient organizations. For information about registering for the training or obtaining a CD of the training, go to www.dpm.psc.gov.

The Payment Management System Grant or Cooperative
Agreement Process is as follows:

DPM establishes a recipient account in the PMS System. When a recipient requests funds, DPM initiates payments through the Federal Reserve Bank in Virginia, which provides next day payments of funds (via ACH Direct Deposit) to the recipient's bank accounts.

Recipients complete 1199A Direct Deposit Form, available online at www.dpm.psc.gov, in order to register banking data within the Payment Management System. Recipients request funding via an assigned payment method through Payment Management, which is (generally) paid on a next day basis and completes quarterly reports (PMS 272) which certify the disbursement of the funds.

Other Payment Methods⁵

Most Federal awarding agencies utilize electronic payment as their only payment method. However, exceptions may be made based on extenuating circumstances. Other payment methods include: cash advances, reimbursement and working capital advances.

Cash advances to a recipient organization are limited to the minimum amounts needed and are timed to be in accordance with the actual, immediate cash requirements and disbursements of the recipient organization in carrying out the purpose of the approved program or project.

Reimbursement is the preferred payment method when the recipient organization cannot meet requirements for accounting standards or payment procedures. When the reimbursement method is used, the Federal awarding agency will make payment within 30 days after receipt of the billing.

If your organization cannot meet the criteria for advance payments (and reimbursement is not feasible because of insufficient working capital), the Federal awarding agency may provide cash on a working capital advance basis. Your organization will receive cash to cover its estimated disbursement needs for an initial period generally geared to your disbursing cycle. After the initial working capital advance, all subsequent payments to the organization are reimbursements for actual cash disbursements. To receive working capital advances, you must be willing and able to provide timely advances to your subrecipients to cover its actual cash disbursements.

The Grant Award Process | Meeting Goals and Objectives