iLab is fully integrated with Penn State’s financial system so that you and your lab members can easily use your existing valid funds for equipment time and core services at one of Penn State’s many shared research core facilities. Below is a list of our most common questions about fund management in iLab.
How do funds get into iLab?
Every night, the iLab Core Facility Management system receives a file from Penn State’s financial system that includes all valid accounts and cost centers. This includes restricted (sponsored) and unrestricted (non-sponsored) accounts and cost centers.
If you are a PI and listed as the primary contact for the fund within Penn State’s financial system, the fund will automatically appear within your lab. All unrestricted or non-sponsored accounts must be requested to appear within your lab.
As only accounts that have not expired are sent from Penn State to iLab each night, if you notice that you can no longer use an account/cost center, please verify with your financial representative that it has not expired.
If you want to use a newly created fund, please note that due to the nightly upload scheduling, it may take up to 24 hours for your fund to appear within iLab.
What if my funds do not show in my lab within iLab?
If a fund is not appearing within your lab one of the following scenarios may be occurring:
- The fund has expired.
- The fund is a restricted/sponsored fund and you are not listed as the PI on the account in the Penn State Financial system. In this case, you may be a co-PI. For you or your lab members to be able to use the fund, you would first need to request that the fund is added to your lab.
- The fund is an unrestricted/non-sponsored fund. For you or your lab members to be able to use the fund, you would first need to request that the fund is added to your lab.
Can I control which lab members have access to my funds?
Yes! For each fund that appears in your lab, you can grant and remove access of the fund to any of your lab members. Additionally, the fund can be manually disabled (or re-enabled) in your lab to quickly remove access to the find from all of your lab members. This may be useful, for example, if you know that the fund remains valid, but you are planning on using all remaining funds for an equipment purchase and do not want any lab members or yourself to accidentally charge it to a service in iLab.
I’m going on travel. Who can manage my funds for me?
Your Lab Manager/Financial Contact can manage all aspects, including fund management, for you. Please see the previous section in this course to learn how to assign a Lab Manager/Financial Contact.
I’m an external user. How does this work for me?
As an external user, your view may be different than a Penn State user.
If your institution is implemented in iLab, you are able to manage your funds in a similar way when using cores at your own institution. Check with your institution for details about their integration. If your institution is not implemented in iLab, you likely do not have a funding tab similar to Penn State’s Membership Requests & Accounts/Cost Centers tab.
All External users are required to have an agreement with Penn State prior to performing work at our research cores. Please discuss these requirements with the core you are working with. You will not be able to pay with your internal funds in the same manner as Penn State users do as there is no integration between Penn State’s financial system and your institution’s financial system.