www.grantsolutions.gov 

GrantSolutions 

Grantee Training Series

Federal Financial Report FFR 

 User Guide

 August 2012

The Grants Center of Excellence

www.grantsolutions.gov
www.grantsolutions.gov 

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Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 4

Post Award Management - Reporting............................................................................................. 4

Reoccurring Reporting..................................................................................................................... 5

Federal Financial Reports (FFR)....................................................................................................... 5

Reporting Requirements............................................................................................................. 5

Federal Financial Reports List...................................................................................................... 6

Processing a FFR Report.............................................................................................................. 9

Training and Support..................................................................................................................... 19
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Introduction

The Grants Center of Excellence (COE) serves as one of three consortia leads under the 

Grants Management Line of Business (GMLoB) E-Gov initiative offering governmentwide grants management system support services. GrantSolutions.gov is a 

comprehensive grants management system provided by the COE. As an interactive 

input and retrieval system, GrantSolutions allows users to perform grants management 

functions and maintain information related to applications and grants. Through 

GrantSolutions, users can maintain applicant information, recommend and award funds,

and view the status of pending applications and approvals. Users can also perform

award-funding calculation release and print awards, submit award data to external 

systems, and facilitate changes in data such as the recipient’s address or the contact 

information of a Grants Management Officer (GMO).

GrantSolutions consists of four modules: 

• Pre-Award 

• Award 

• Post Award 

• Administration 

Each module provides independent functionality that can be used to manage a specific 

grant business process or combine individual modules to provide a complete grants 

management solution. 

Post Award Management - Reporting

The Post Award Module supports key management functions between the Federal and 

Grantee Staff. In addition to executing amendments and/or non compete applications, the 

Grantee Staff can track and manage certain reports. 

One of the more common reports is the Federal Financial Report or FFR. The Grantor 

staff can enable this report feature so the Grantee can track and submit these reoccurring 

reports. The following guide will discuss and illustrate this report tracking tool in 

GrantSolutions.
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Reoccurring Reporting

Historically, active grant reporting requirements were manually tracked and monitored 

subject to specific Program and/or Grant Office policy. From the Grantee perspective, 

the reporting requirement was not an integrated process which provided for the tracking, 

creating, editing and final submission of required Federal reports.

GrantSolutions currently provides comprehensive management of reoccurring reports for 

General Reporting and Financial Federal Reports. These reports cycles can be 

configured and scheduled by the Federal Grants Staff either during the award process or 

added later to existing grants. Should this option be enabled by the Federal Staff, the 

Grantee will be able to view, manage and electronically submit required reports for each 

active grant which requires this reporting. The added bonus of this feature is that the 

Grantee will have a report task list which will provide automation to the tacking and 

submission of their required reports Both the Grantor and Grantee staff will see the same

report task list for the specific grant.

Federal Financial Reports (FFR) 

One of the most common reoccurring reports is the Federal Financial Reports or FFR. 

Depending on the grant, the Grantee is required to submit a FFR report subject to the 

reporting schedule as depicted in the terms and conditions of the grant award; or if it has 

been added to an existing grant.

Reporting Requirements

The submission of interim FFRs will be on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis, as 

directed by the Federal agency. A final FFR shall be submitted at the completion of the 

award agreement. The following reporting period end dates shall be used for interim 

reports: 3/31, 6/30, 9/30, or 12/31. For final FFRs, the reporting period end date shall be 

the end date of the project or grant period.

Quarterly and semi-annual interim reports shall be submitted no later than 30 days after 

the end of each reporting period. Annual reports shall be submitted no later than 90 days 

after the end of each reporting period. Final reports shall be submitted no later than 90 

days after the project or grant period end date. A Grantee can submit a report as long as 

the Reporting Period End (RPE) Date has passed.

FFR Reporting cycles can be established during the creation of the grant award; or 

through the post award management of existing grant.

Since the FFR has fixed reporting periods and due date requirements, the only time a 

reporting period or due date may change is if the Project Period end date has been 
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

changed. In this case, the system controls the FFR reporting cycle, and will 

automatically adjust any pending reporting cycles.

The next section of this guide will illustrate a typical report cycle and executions

Federal Financial Reports List

Log into GrantSolutions with your User ID and Password.

Figure 1- 1 GrantSolutions Log In Screen

From the My Grants List screen, select the Reports menu dropdown and then select the 

Federal Financial Report submenu.

Figure 1-2 My Grants List
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

The System will generate a list of all active grants which can be managed. In this 

example three grants are subject to FFR reporting for the Grantee.

Click the drop down arrow to the left of the grant program to open the entire tickler file 

of the reoccurring Federal Financial Report List. 

Figure 1- 3 Federal Financial List for all Grants

The Federal Financial Report List will generate a complete summary of past, current and 

future report periods. Depending on configuration, the summary will list all quarterly, 

semiannual and annual reports. Each grant will possess the key data columns including 

Report Period, Due Date, Type, Status, Workflow Status and Action. 

Figure 1- 4 Federal Financial List for all Grants
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Reporting Periods include: 

• Reporting Period Start Date

• Reporting Period End Date

• Reporting Period Due Date

• Report Type (Quarterly, Annual, Final)

For each reporting period there will be a specific Report Status:

• Due

• Past Due 

• Pending

• Not Reported

The Workflow status will reflect the status of a started FFR during an actual workflow 

approval cycle. These states include:

• Not Started

• In Progress

• Withdrawn

• Rejected

• Accepted

Actions on the FFR pre-submission:

• Start - to start working on the FFR

• Edit - if the report has not been submitted, the user can continue working on the 

FFR

• View PDF - PDF version of the FFR

• Print - HTML version of the FFR

• Cancel - to delete the report that the user is working on

• Re-start - on cancel, the user will be able to re-start the FFR

Actions on the FFR post submission:

• View Submission

• View PDF

• Withdraw - if the report has not been accepted by the grantor, the user has the 

ability to withdraw. The withdrawn report will appear on the 'withdrawn' and 

'returned' list of reports.

The Federal Financial Reports List allows the user to monitor the entire FFR reporting 

cycle (if one exists), as well as view and process FFRs for each grant. If an FFR 

reporting cycle has not been established for a grant, then this screen would indicate that 

the Grant is not subject to FFR reporting Federal Financial Report or has not has enabled 

by the Grants Staff.
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Processing a FFR Report

As best practices, the user should review the last accepted report to confirm accuracy and 

note the cumulative amounts submitted. 

To view, click the View PDF Link for the most recently accepted FFR.

Figure 1-5 Federal Financial Summary List for Specific Grant

Upon review of the FFR, close out the PDF image and return to the summary screen.

Figure 1-6 FFR PDF Image
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

As a review, it is a good idea to become familiar with the history link since it will provide 

a sample of the workflow history of the previously accepted, rejected or withdrawn FFR. 

Click the History link to review the workflow.

Figure 1-7 History Link

When executing the History link, the Award Workflow History will be displayed.

Figure 1-8 Award Workflow History
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Upon the confirmation of the prior FFR, the user can now begin to start processing a new 

report. Typically, a report can be crafted and submitted when the report is in the Due and 

Past Due state. A FFR can be drafted during the pending state but cannot be submitted. 

Thus, a user can submit a report as long as the Reporting Period End (RPE) Date has 

passed.

If a report has not been submitted by the required Due Date, the status will appear as 

"Past Due". The user can still craft and submit a past due report as long as it is submitted 

before the due date of the next reporting cycle. 

However, if the report is not submitted by the next Reporting Period End Date, it will be 

marked as "Not Reported" and locked down. No further changes can be made to the 

FFR.

The process is the same for a Due or Past Due report, and the following exercise will 

illustrate a Past Due report. 

From the summary, screen scroll down to the first reporting cycle which allows the user 

to start the report process. In this example, the FFR will be due on 7/30/2012. Click the 

Start link to open the FFR electronic form.

Figure 1-9 Start FFR Process
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

GrantSolutions will provide a simple prompt to confirm the user wishes to proceed.

Figure 1-10 Confirmation Start Popup 

Upon selecting OK, a pre populated form with active grant information will appear. The 

appropriate financial officer can then proceed to enter the required financial data with the 

blank data fields such as Cash Receipts and Cash Disbursements.

Figure 1-11 Blank Electronic FFR form 
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Figure 1-12 Completed Electronic FFR form 

Upon completion of the FFR, scroll to the bottom of the screen and check the certification box. 

At this point, it is recommended the user save the FFR by clicking the Save Link. Should the 

Grantee need to update or edit the form, they can do so easily since it will remain in a Work in 

Progress state.

It is important to note that should the FFR be in the Pending Report cycle, he or she will not be 

able to submit the form until it is DUE

Figure 1-13 Submission Link for FFR form 

Upon closing the FFR screen, the user can return to the Financial Report Summary by 

expanding the specific grant. 
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

By scrolling to the report cycle, the Grantee can select links to view History, Submission: 

and to Print form.

Figure 1-14 Action Links for submitted form 

Figure 1-15 Award Workflow History 
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Figure 1-16 View FFR Form 

Figure 1-17 Print PDF View 
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

If the form is in the Submitted state, the user can still withdraw the report should an error 

or mistake been made in the FFR drafting. 

Upon selection of the Withdraw link, the system will prompt for continuance.

Figure 1-18 Withdraw FFR Submission 

After selecting OK, GrantSolutions will provide a Comments Screen for the FFR action. 

It is required to enter information in the Comment field.

Figure 1-19 Comments Screen 
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

The user will be required to enter a reason for the withdrawal which will be added as a 

correspondence grant note. A new report workflow should be created for that reporting 

period. The due date remains the same.

The pulled report will be moved to a new Workflow Status labeled Withdrawn.

Figure 1-20 Withdrawn State 

If the due date is expired, there is no impact. The user can still complete and submit the 

report until the RPE date. The status of the report is displayed as "Past Due".

The new report should be pre-populated with all information from the withdrawn report.

The grantor staff assigned to the grant will be notified by email about the withdrawal,

which includes the standard language as well as the reason entered by the user. The 

withdrawn report is stored for historical reference and is always viewable by the user.
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Figure 1-21 Status of Withdrawn FFR

Figure 1-22 History with Withdrawn Action 
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

Once a FFR is finally submitted to the Grantor, it will remain in the submitted state until 

approved by Federal Staff. Upon approval, the Grantee can easily view the current final 

workflow status by expanding the appropriate Grant under the Federal Financial Reports 

List.

Scroll to the appropriate reporting cycle and confirm the accepted state on the workflow 

status column.

Figure 1-23 Accepted Status on FFR Summary 

Training and Support

The COE Partner Education Services provides Training and Mentoring with ongoing 

Help Desk Support for GrantSolutions. Support team personnel are available at 

(help@grantsolutions.gov) Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST to assist in 

support issues.

COE provides Grantee training on a periodic basis. Students are encouraged to 

participate and inquire of scheduled classes and registration via the help desk contact 

above.

COE further provides specialized functional training such as budget worksheet and other 

new features depending upon product development cycles. In addition, the group 

provides specific partner training negotiated through the Education Group. Information 

on either of these training opportunities can be accessed via the help line above. 
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NOTES
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Reoccurring Reports – Federal Financial Reports

The Grants Center 

of Excellence

Contact us: 

www.grantsolutions.gov

1.866.577.0771 

202.401.5282