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Cayuse 424 Tips and Tricks

04/17/2012 - 14:41

 

Opportunity Retrieval

Federal opportunities are downloaded into Cayuse 424 using the Retrieve Opportunities button on the Opportunities tab. A common question into our help desk is, “Why didn’t my opportunity download?” In the vast majority of cases, the reason is one of the two below.

Reason #1: You have a space or typo in the opportunity number. No opportunity number on Grants.gov contains spaces. The opportunity number you enter must match exactly as it is posted on Grants.gov. One reliable way to enter the correct number is to copy it from Grants.gov and paste it into Cayuse 424.

Tip: Since the opportunity number you enter must match an opportunity number on Grants.gov, try the advanced Google site search feature to ensure you have the right opportunity number. For example, type “PA-11-260 site:grants.gov” into Google to search only Grants.gov for PA-11-260. Then copy and paste the funding opportunity number from Grants.gov into Cayuse 424.

Reason #2: There is no application for the opportunity on Grants.gov. Some grants are listed on Grants.gov but cannot be applied for electronically. You can verify whether the opportunity is electronically submittable by going to the Application section of the opportunity on Grants.gov. If there is no downloadable Adobe package, it is not electronically submittable. If there is an Adobe package for the grant, it is very likely supported by Cayuse 424.

04/17/2012 - 14:52

 

Errors, Warnings, and Info… Oh MY!

The Validation panel in Cayuse 424 show three different types of messages: Errors, Warnings and Info. Here’s summary of what each means.

Errors in Cayuse 424 reflect problems that will impose a hard-stop rejection at Grants.gov or the funding agency. Agency errors display the agency name in brackets to the right of the field in question (e.g., [Research Plan 2.2][NIH]). To ensure that your submission is successful, Cayuse 424 runs a final check on Grants.gov and agency validations before you submit a proposal. Actual agency validations may vary depending on the FOA instructions. Follow this rule of thumb when it comes to agency-specific errors: The FOA supersedes Cayuse error messages.

Warnings pertain to agency validations or may serve as notices from Cayuse regarding missing attachments. For example, Cayuse 424 does not require a budget justification; however, Cayuse 424 displays a Warning, because a budget justification is a common attachment. Warnings do not prevent proposals from being submitted or from being reviewed.

Info tips are Cayuse recommendations. Forgetting to enter a Sponsor Deadline, for example, prevents the Deadline from appearing in your list of proposals. Cayuse 424 will alert you when this happens. Info messages are specific to the software and do not prevent proposals from being submitted or from being reviewed.

04/17/2012 - 14:55

 

The Research Plan Exploder

In Cayuse 424, the PHS 398 Research Plan has a special, “slot zero” attachment point for a Composite PDF.  It looks like this:

The Composite PDF, fondly known at Cayuse as the “Exploder,” enables faculty to prepare the entire Research Plan in a single document.  The Exploder breaks out the Research Plan PDF into the sections and then attaches each section to the correct location in the proposal.  Some customers find this is more efficient than managing separate files for each Research Plan attachment.

If you wish to store the original Research Plan word processor document in the proposal record, you may upload the source file in addition to the PDF file.

04/17/2012 - 14:57

 

Budget Building Tips

Tip 1A:  The Replicate/Escalate staircase   in Cayuse 424 makes it easy to replicate and escalate detailed budgets.  Use “Replicate” to copy selected Budget Categories from one budget period to another.  Use “Escalate” to increase budget line items by a specific percentage across several budget periods.

Tip 1B:  The Replicate/Escalate staircase  also appears on the Manage Key Person window.  You can access this window by clicking the gear icon to the right of any Senior/Key Person budget line.  “Replicate” and “Escalate” in this context affect only the budget numbers for that specific person’s salary.

Tip 2:  Cayuse 424 automatically calculates certain budget fields.  If you type over an automatically calculated number, a red star   appears next to the field.  A red star signifies a field with auto-calculated data that is currently being overwritten by manually-entered data.  To revert the field to its default auto-calculation, delete the current data and tab or click out of the field.  The auto-calculated values will appear and the red star will disappear.

04/17/2012 - 15:00

 

Choosing a Proposal Validation Type

The Cayuse 424 validation engine contains a list of federal agencies that have published a set of guidelines for their electronic proposals.  Cayuse refers to this set of guidelines as the Validation Type.  In nearly all cases, Cayuse 424 automatically selects the correct Validation Type when you create a new proposal. However, there are unique circumstances in which you may need to change the type. To change the Validation Type, locate the drop-down menu to the right of Error / Warning / Info in the Validations panel at the bottom of the proposal as shown below.

If the agency to which you are applying does not appear in this list, Cayuse 424 will apply “Other Federal Agency” validations to ensure the mandatory forms are completed accurately.

Some agencies in the list are suffixed by “Opt Out” or “Minimal.”  These are rarely used and necessary only when the agency’s FOA does not follow standard business practices.  NIH maintains a list of specific opportunities with Opt-Outs.  We aren’t aware of any application currently using “Minimal” validations, but they remain in the electronic guidelines, so we’re keeping this option in Cayuse 424.

The “Other-Minimal” validation should only be used for “Other” non-federal proposals that are not electronically submitted.

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