1. Understanding the PI Dashboard
NEW
September 2017

2. Based on feedback from PIs
The new PI Dashboard
Based on feedback from PIs
Snapshot of financial activity for a PI’s grants
Info pulled from ConnectCarolina
Thoroughly tested
Based on feedback from principal investigators across campus, the ConnectCarolina and InfoPorte teams have updated the PI dashboard.
The new PI dashboard provides a snapshot of a principal investigator’s (PI’s) financial activity, both funding and expenses, at the award and project level.
The information on the dashboard is pulled directly from ConnectCarolina and RAMSeS, so it’s an accurate reflection of what is in the system.
Over the last few months, the ConnectCarolina team has thoroughly tested the new dashboard. They’ve had PIs, research administrators, business managers, as well as OSR staff, ConnectCarolina and InfoPorte team members involved in the testing.

3. 1 2 3 4 Four Things You’ll Like about the new PI Dashboard
You can see the same view your PI sees. 1
The salary projections are accurate. 2
The numbers come from the General Ledger so they’re more stable. 3
As research administrators, here are four things you’ll like about the new PI Dashboard:
You can see the same view your PI sees.
This means you can have access to the same information when looking at projects.
The salary projections are accurate.
We’ll discuss salary projections in greater detail in a minute.
The information comes from the GL Actuals ledger which means the numbers won’t go up and down during the month when budget checking happens and encumbrances are relieved.
It more closely matches the numbers that OSR sees when they’re reporting and billing
OSR can see the same view you can see
This means it’s easier to troubleshoot because you’re both talking about the same numbers.
OSR can see the same view you can. 4

4. Seeing the Same View Your PI sees
All PIs who are listed as a lead PI on a project will automatically have access to the PI Dashboard. When he or she logs in to InfoPorte, the Dashboard is automatically displayed.
As a research administrator, an InfoPorte Administrator can give you access to use the dropdown box to see the same view your PI sees. InfoPorte Administrators can grant access to the dashboards of any PIs who are in their school or division. In other words, they’re not granting access based on the research administrator’s home department but on the PI’s home department. For example, if you are the InfoPorte Administrator for the School of Medicine and the PI’s home department is in the School of Medicine, only you can give a research administrator access to see that PI’s dashboard. It doesn’t matter where the research administrator’s home department is.
It is important to note that because you’re essentially mimicking what your PI sees, you can only see information for one PI at a time.

5. Reading the Dashboard
The Dashboard is divided into 3 main sections on the first page:
The top section has a list of current awards with financial information. This shows information such as the UNC Project ID, award title, Sponsor ID and name and the beginning and end dates for the project.
You also see totals for the direct budget, direct expenses, salary projections and the direct balance.

6. Reading the Dashboard
The second section is a list of employees paid by projects – in a nutshell, this area shows the salary projections for employees paid from the projects listed above.

7. Reading the Dashboard
And finally, the third section is a list of Programs and Cost Codes that your PI has access to. Any program or cost codes that have been assigned to the selected PI in InfoPorte show in this list. Departments use cost codes in different ways, so it’s best to check with your departmental business manager to see how your department uses them. This section drills down to the Program/Cost Code tab in InfoPorte.

8. Reading the Project Level Project Report
If you click on the Project ID link, a more detailed project report opens. You’ll see information about the project in the top section…

9. Reading the Project Level Project Report
And summarized financial information in the middle section. The columns here match the columns on the page before, but is broken down by categories, which come from the OSR billing tree, which is accounts organized by how OSR can bill our sponsors.

10. Reading the Project Level Project Report
And finally, you’ll see employee information on the bottom – this is all employees who are paid by the project. You can click on the monthly detail link.

11. Salary Projections
And it opens the salary projections for all employees paid by the project, broken down by month.

12. Total Award Amount Reading the Award Level Project Report,
MACTRAIN, MICHAEL
Total Award Amount
On the first page of the dashboard, you can also click the Award link which opens a report showing details for all projects that roll up to the award. The only difference on this screen is that you can see the total award amount
MACTRAIN, MICHAEL

13. Reading the Award Level Project Report
And the amounts that make up the total award and the effective dates.

14. 2 Salary Projections The salary projections are accurate.
In the spring, we improved salary projections in the system
Recalculated nightly
Projections calculated for all employees EXCEPT:
SHRA temporary employees
EHRA student employees on short work break
One of the biggest corrections was to OSR funds
Now, let’s talk a bit about salary projections.
You may remember back in the spring, the ConnectCarolina team improved salary projections in the system.
Now, they’re calculated nightly, during the work week.
And projections are calculated for all employees except SHRA temporary employees and EHRA student employees on short work break.
One of the biggest corrections was to OSR funds. Now, the projections use the project end dates as one of the factors for projections.

15. Spotlight on the Data
With the new dashboard, PIs and research administrators have seen numbers and dates they didn’t expect and we’ve not seen some information that people expected to see. During the PI testing, one researcher didn’t see his own name in the projections list. It turned out that his salary had been moved to suspense at the end of the budget year before and the ePAR to move his funding back to the grant hadn’t yet been fully executed.
So in essence, what’s happening is the PI Dashboard is bringing data into light that PIs haven’t been easily able to see before and it’s bringing up questions about the data.

16. Ccinfo.unc.edu More Resources
Currently, there are two quick reference cards for the PI Dashboard posted on ccinfo.unc.edu on the “For Research Administrators” page.
Working with the Principal Investigator Dashboard is a numbered guide that shows each column on the dashboard and a description.
For Research Admins – Working with PI Dashboard is directed to research administrators and has more specific information about what you can do if you notice something that needs to be changed in the system.
For a better understanding of salary projections, you can find the Understanding Salary Projections reference card posted on ccinfo.unc.edu as well.