Before an SoA can be submitted to the relevant granting agency it must be approved by both the researcher and the Business Officer or (where applicable) the Network Administrator. Business Officers' Assistants, unless they have been authorized by the Business Officer when they register to use the FDSR system, cannot approve SoAs.
Institutions may choose to ask their researchers to approve their SoAs online in the FDSR system, or they may prefer that the researchers approve their SoAs on paper.
If the researchers approve online, the Business Officer approves online in the FDSR system for the institution. Note that in this case, the researcher’s online approval is considered an official electronic signature and eliminates the need for physical signature of a paper SoA.
If the researchers approve on paper, the Business Officer approves online in the FDSR system on behalf of the researcher and for the institution. The institution retains the signed paper SoA approvals from the researchers and the councils retain the right to request these papers at a future date.
To find the total number of SoAs submitted to a Council from your institution, add the total records that have been approved online by a Business Officer on behalf of researchers and the total records that have been approved online by researchers and the Business Officer.
Granting agencies can only see records that have been approved by the Business Officer. You may upload any number of records to the FDSR system, but they will be inaccessible to the granting agencies until you have approved them.
Review the instructions for online approval by researchers so you can help the researchers with the online approval process if necessary.
Review the topic If you edit or delete approved records after the submission deadline.
Remember! There is no separate Submit function in the FDSR system. A Statement of Account record is considered to be Submitted to the relevant granting agency when it is approved in the FDSR system by the Business Officer.