Table Structures and Columns with Data Types

• Employee ID (Text): Unique identifier (e.g., EMP-001)
• Name (Text): Full legal name
• Position (Text): e.g., Research Assistant, Postdoc, Lab Manager
• Hire Date (Date): Date of employment commencement
• Hourly Rate ($) (Currency): Pay rate per hour based on role and experience
• FTE Status (Text): Full-time, Part-time, Contractual, Grant-funded
• Primary Project ID (Text): Links to Research Projects sheet (e.g., PRJ-2024-01)
• Funding Source ID (Text): Links to Funding Sources sheet
• Tax Status (Text): Exempt / Non-exempt / Foreign Contractor

• Project ID (Text): Unique code per project (e.g., PRJ-2024-01)
• Title (Text): e.g., “Neural Network Modeling for Early Cancer Detection”
• Principal Investigator (Text): Name of lead researcher
• Start Date / End Date (Date): Project timeline limits based on grant or internal funding cycle
• Funding Source ID (Text): Links to Funding Sources sheet
• Total Allocated Budget ($) (Currency): Total funds awarded for this project
• Cumulative Payroll Cost ($) (Currency): Auto-calculated from Time Tracking Log via SUMIFS
• Budget Remaining ($) (Currency): Formula: Total Allocated Budget - Cumulative Payroll Cost
• Project Status (Text): Active / On Hold / Completed / Overdue
• Compliance Notes (Text): e.g., “IRB Approved”, “NIH Guidelines Followed”

• Source ID (Text): e.g., NIH-2024-R01, NSF-CBET
• Agency Name (Text): e.g., National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust
• Funding Type (Text): Grant / Contract / Internal Seed Money / Donor Funded
• Total Award ($) (Currency)
• Reporting Deadline (Date): Required submission date for financial reports to funder
• Cost Allowable? (Boolean): Yes / No — indicates whether payroll is an allowable expense per funding terms
• Overhead Rate (%) (Percentage): e.g., 20% indirect costs applied to salaries in grant accounting

• Date (Date)
• Employee ID (Text)
• Project ID (Text)
• Hours Worked (Number): Decimal format, e.g., 7.5 for 7 hours and 30 minutes
• Description of Activity (Text): e.g., “Data collection from MRI scans”, “Literature review on CRISPR”
• Payroll Cost ($) (Currency): Formula: Hours Worked * Hourly Rate (linked from Employee Records via VLOOKUP)
• Billing Status (Text): Billed / Pending / Not Billable

Essential Formulas

• In Research Projects, “Cumulative Payroll Cost” uses: =SUMIFS(TimeTracking!E:E, TimeTracking!B:B, [Project ID])
• In Time Tracking Log, “Payroll Cost”: =VLOOKUP(B2,EmployeeRecords!A:H,4,FALSE)*D2
• In Funding Sources, total project cost allocation: Multiply each payroll cost by overhead rate if allowable.
• “Budget Remaining” formula dynamically updates based on cumulative costs.

Conditional Formatting Rules

• Budget Remaining < 10%: Red fill — triggers warning for under-budget projects.
• Project Status = “Overdue”: Bold red text.
• Hours Worked > 50 in a week: Yellow highlight (flag potential overtime without approval).
• Funding Source: Cost Allowable? = No: Row shaded gray — prevents accidental payroll inclusion.

User Instructions

1. Enter all employees in the “Employee Records” sheet first, including their hourly rate and linked project/funding source.
2. Define each research project with its budget, dates, and associated funding source on the “Research Projects” sheet.
3. Log daily hours worked per employee per project in “Time Tracking Log”. Use dropdowns for Employee ID and Project ID to prevent errors.
4. Update funding sources with grant terms under “Funding Sources” — this governs whether payroll costs can be charged to grants.
5. The Dashboard & Charts sheet auto-generates visuals: monitor payroll spend per project, compare budget utilization across funding sources, and track hours by role.
6. Run monthly reports using the dashboard to prepare grant renewals or audit documentation. Export PDFs for funders via Excel’s “Save As PDF” feature.

Example Rows

Recommended Charts & Dashboards

• Bar chart: “Monthly Payroll Spend by Project” — compares costs across active research initiatives.
• Pie chart: “Funding Source Allocation of Payroll Costs” — shows % of salary spending funded by each grant or donor.
• Gauge meter: “Project Budget Utilization Rate (%)” for the top three projects.
• Line chart: “Cumulative Hours Logged vs. Budgeted Hours” — identifies potential overstaffing or underutilization.