Post-Award Management

BA is a departmental management accounting system licensed from Priority Software, in Birmingham, Alabama.

The software was originally licensed at the University of Maryland College Park by the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the Department of Physics in the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The Center for the Advanced Study of Languages joined the original license agreement during the first phase of the project.

Other campus Colleges and Departmental units expressed interest in using the software and the Division of Research assumed project management responsibilities in May 2005. The software is managed by a campus Governing Group and a Functional Users Group. It is now available to interested campus units on a fee basis.

The primary use of BA is to provide departments a useful tool for managing all different types of accounts to include state, DRIF, contract, grant, foundation, etc.

Employees in Colleges, Major Administrative Units, and Departments who want to gain access to BA must review and sign the BA account request form agreeing to the basic principles of system use and have their unit head/fiscal officer agree and sign. The Priority Director will grant access and a follow-up email confirming access will be sent. The user must connect to the campus GlobalProtect, open a web browser, and log into BA by going to:

The current license cost is $414 per year. The BA Functional Users Group decided that we will bill two times per year. The first billing will take place to coincide with the Purchase Order from June through November and the second billing will occur from December through May. Half of the annual fee will be charged each billing period for each user that uses BA during that billing timeframe. The vendor increases the cost by 2.75% each year and that increase will be reflected in the license fee each year. There is no additional cost for Principal Investigators and Administrators that view reports on the web site. The Memorandum of Understanding also requires that licensed users attend a vendor provided training session. Training costs are charged per hour for any vendor led training.

Facility Billing System (FBS) provides a digital means by which to recover the cost associated with the operation of an institution’s internal facilities/service centers and provides oversight of the daily operation and insight into rate development.

Contact the Director of Priority Software at UMD to schedule a demo and access will be granted once agreed upon that a license will be purchased.

The current cost to use FBS is $2,426 annually per facility. The vendor increases the cost by 2.75% each year and that increase will be reflected in the license fee each year.