Federal Financial Report (FFR) Module
A Federal Financial Report (FFR) is used to submit financial information about individual awards. Recipients of federal funds are required to report the status of funds for awards or assistance agreements to the sponsor of the award using the Federal Financial Report (SF-425).
The FFR module lets recipients search for and initiate the FFR from within eRA Commons.for HHS awardees the system redirects them to the federal Payment Management System to complete the submission. Grantees can also check on the status of submitted FFRs, view the PDF of submitted FFRs, and view the history of activity for an FFR.
Beginning January 1, 2021, HHS grant recipients are required to submit the SF-425 long form in the Payment Management System (PMS) instead of the eRA Commons FFR Module.
Guide notices:
NOT-OD-20-127 - Announcement of transition https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-20-127.html
NOT-OD-21-046 - Additional Implementation details https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-21-046.html
Register with PMS (https://pmsapp.psc.gov/pms/app/userrequest) and obtain PMS log in credentials prior to submitting an FFR. Familiarize yourself with PMS using the documentation provided by PMS (see https://pms.psc.gov/pms-user-guide/federal-financial-report.html). The PMS Help Desk can help with system problems; see https://pms.psc.gov/support/help-desk.html.
Agency-Specific Instructions: Department of Commerce Internal Staff ONLY. eRA training materials can be found on the following DOC webpage: https://connection.commerce.gov/collection/grants-enterprise-management-solution. NOTE: This page is accessible only by DOC internal users.
Report Submission Due Dates
The FFR is prepared and submitted by organizational administrators on behalf of the Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI). The schedule for submitting required financial reports is generally specified in the award documents of a grant or contract. Different due dates exist for FFRs depending on whether the report is an annual report or the final report.
Annual Federal Financial Report
Except for awards under SNAP, Multi-year funded and awards that require more frequent reporting, the FFR is required on an annual basis. When required on an annual basis, the report must be submitted for each budget period no later than 90 days after the end of the calendar quarter in which the budget period ended. The reporting period for an annual FFR will be that of the budget period for the particular award; however, the actual submission date is based on the calendar quarter.
This translates to the dates in the following table:
| Reporting Period/Budget Period Ends in: | FFR Due Date |
|---|---|
|
January, February, March |
June 30 |
|
April, May, June |
September 30 |
|
July, August, September |
December 31 |
|
October, November, December |
March 31 |
Except for awards that are Multi-year funded and awards that require more frequent reporting, the FFR is required on an annual basis. When required on an annual basis, the report must be submitted for each budget period no later than 90 days after the end of that budget period.
Except for awards that require more frequent reporting, the FFR is required on an annual basis. When required on an annual basis, the report must be submitted for each budget period no later than 90 days after the end of that budget period
Semi-Annual Federal Financial Report
Except for awards that require more frequent reporting, the FFR is required on a semi-annual basis. When required on a semi-annual basis, the report must be submitted for each reporting period no later than 30 days at the end of the reporting period. Reporting periods are from October to March and April to September. Due dates are April 30th and October 31st of each year.
Final Federal Financial Report
For awards requiring a final FFR, the due date and status for a final FFR are based on the Project Period End Date (PPED) as follows:
- Pending: If the FFR is not submitted and it is within 90 days of the PPED
- Due: If the FFR is not submitted and it is between the PPED and 120 days past the PPED
- Late: If the FFR is not submitted and it is over 120 days past the PPED
FSR Role in Commons
A user who needs the authority to view, enter, and submit an FFR on behalf of an organization must possess the FSR role in eRA Commons to access the FFR module. An organization's Signing Official (SO) or Account Administrator can add this role to a user's account.
A Signing Official (SO) or Business Official/Administrative Official (BO/AO) can have the FSR role.
NOTE: A user who possesses only the FSR role can perform only those tasks associated with FFRs; however, an account can include multiple roles, including that of FSR.
Features of FFR
If you have the FSR Role, you can use the FFR module to perform multiple tasks. Available options vary depending on the status of the FFR associated with the award.
- Search for awards within your organization having associated FFRs
- Initiate a FFR by clicking Manage FFR.
- For HHS awardees this action redirects you to PMS to fill out and submit the FFR
- View an FFR as a PDF
- View the submission history of an FFR
With the FSR role, you can also access the FFR module from the Closeout Status screen. For more information on Closeout, please refer to the Commons online help topic titled Refer to Closeout Status.
NOTE: HHS requires all financial expenditure data to be submitted via PMS. This includes all initial FFRs being prepared for submission and any revised FFRs being submitted or re-submitted to an HHS agency.
The Commons Online Help contains detailed information on the FFR module. You can access the FFR topics by clicking any of the help icons ('?') on the FFR screens. If you prefer a PDF format user guide, refer to the Federal Financial Report (FFR) Expenditure Data User Guide at https://www.era.nih.gov/files/ffr_user_guide.pdf.
Accessing FFR
The FFR module is part of eRA Commons.
- Navigate to eRA Commons on the internet at https://public.era.nih.gov/commonsplus/.
- Log into Commons.
- Select the FFR module from Commons navigation.
