Two new tools—Grants Forecasting (Planning & Budgeting Cloud Solution or Oracle PBCS) and Fiscal Panther (Tableau)—are available for grants administrators, financial approvers, department administrators, and responsibility center business managers.

Grants Forecasting gathers data from General Ledger, PittWorx, Purchasing, RPA, and SPAR/TEAM. The tool lets you see the potential impact of future grant expenses, including compensation and non-compensation costs. Fiscal Panther gathers data from Concur, PantherExpress, PERIS, Pitt Worx, and PRISM which includes General Ledger, Payables, PCard, Purchasing, RPA, and SPAR. Fiscal Panther provides a 360-degree view of financial data with a convenient dashboard that gathers detailed grant transactions, from multiple source systems in one platform. Development is underway to incorporate Grants Forecasting projections into Fiscal Panther in the coming months.

Key Benefits include:

• Automated daily updates to data sources that collectively promote process efficiency and allow you to centrally manage both current grants-related data and projections without additional data entry
• The convenience of a 360-degree view of financial data with a convenient dashboard that gathers transaction level details from multiple source systems in one platform
• A set of complimentary tools to assist you in generating grant forecasts, analyzing grant trends, and compiling reports

The initiative represents a collaboration between the Budget and Financial Reporting Office and Pitt Information Technology and is based on department requests for centrally-supported grants management tools.

These tools are the first to be made available in a larger plan to develop forecasting applications and financial dashboard offerings. The next collaborative effort will focus on developing a forecasting module and dashboard for non-grant funds. New project planning for that next effort will begin soon and additional communications will be distributed to gather information, collect feedback, and engage with the user community.

We encourage you to start using these grants management tools today. Please visit Pitt IT’s Grants Forecasting and Fiscal Panther webpages for additional details. Information about requesting access and other resources is available on the Grants Forecasting SharePoint site. These tools provide you with an alternative to department purchased grants management software.

Please contact the Technology Help Desk at 412-624-HELP (4357) if you have any questions regarding this announcement.