Our PIs receive monthly hardcopy reports (print-outs) on
the financial status of their grants and contracts.  Various
PIs feel that the reports are not frequent enough, or are too
frequent, that they contain too little information, or too
much, and that they should be available on-line, or are best
provided in hard copy.

I imagine that others of you are responsible for providing
financial information to PIs that is timely and useful (i.e.,
understandable by someone trained to do science rather
than accounting).  Seems to me it would help us get a grip
on what's desirable/feasible if we knew more about the
state of the art at other institutions.

Would those of you interested in this issue post answers to
these questions?

1.  What is the name and size ($M/yr in grants and/or
 contracts) of your organization?

2.  How often do PI's receive financial reports?

3.  Do PI's have access to financial data on their projects
 via computer?  If so, do they see static images of
 reports, or do they see a database that they can
 query?

4.  Would you describe the PI's satisfaction with the
 financial reports as generally high, medium or low?

5.  Do you plan to change financial reports provided to
 PIs?  If so, what changes do you hope to implement?

 I'll post information for my organization, and a summary
of all responses.

================================================================

Daniel H. Snyder                            Internet xxxxxx@say.acnatsci.org
Administrative Director                     voice: 215-299-1065
Patrick Center for Environmental Research   FAX: 215-299-1079
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA  19103-1195