Video 1: Getting Started - Overview

and How to Access FAST Research

In this video, you’ll learn about nine important FAST elements and how to access FAST on campus as well as off campus.

Video Instructions

Click the play icon to watch the video.
Watch in full screen by clicking the full screen icon on the bottom right corner of the video.
Use the chapters in the video to help you quickly find what you are looking for.
Use the content below, which summarizes the information in the video, for quick reference.

View time stamps and chapters covered in the video.

0:00 Video Start

00:07 What You’ll Learn

0:33 What is FAST Research?

1:02 MRU: Externally vs. Internally Funded Projects

1:57 Nine Important Aspects about FAST (Start)

2:07 1. FAST Access - PI & Banner Access Form

2:27 2. You Don’t Need To Memorize Your FOAP to Use FAST

2:57 3. Budget Managers Don’t Have FAST Access

3:20 4: FAST Defaults to Show Project Start to Current Date

3:38 5: PI Access after Project Completion

3:53 6: FAST Budgets are Difficult to Change Once Entered

4:10 7: Keep a Separate Record for Real-Time Tracking

4:29 8: PI View-Only access, Can’t Make Changes in FAST

4:40 9: Tasks You Need to Contact ORSCE For

5:16 Two Ways to Access FAST at MRU

5:35 1) Accessing FAST On Campus: Step-by-Step

6:25 2) Accessing FAST Off Campus: Step-by-Step

7:43 Video End & Video Library Link

What is FAST Research?

It's a self-service financial reporting software that allows you to drill down into your project details, including actuals, commitments and budgets, showing where project money is spent as well as a comparison between your budget and actual project expenses.

Getting Started Part I: Nine important aspects of FAST

To view a project in FAST Research, you need to be a Principal Investigator & ORSCE needs to complete a Banner access form.
You don’t need to memorize your funds, organizations, accounts and programs (FOAP) number to find your project in FAST.
Budget managers of their home department cannot have FAST access.
Funds in FAST Research are shown as 'Project to date', as a default when Finance Reporting opens. This means that fund balances will show a cumulative total from the beginning of your project to the current date you are seeing the numbers in FAST.
Once a project is completed, the Principal Investigator has access to the project in FAST as long as they are an MRU employee (and is not archived).
Once ORSCE enters a project budget in FAST, the budget is difficult to change. If you receive permission from your funding agency to amend or reallocate your budget, email ORSCE at orscefinance@mtroyal.ca.
Keep a separate record of project expenditures, even if you have FAST Research access and especially if you require real-time expense tracking.
In FAST Research, Principal Investigators have view-only access. This means you can’t make changes to numbers in FAST.
There are some tasks that you won’t be able to do yourself in FAST and you’ll need to contact ORSCE to do, including:
1. 1. 1. 1. Making a change to an entered budget.
        Not finding your project FOAP.
        Reviewing revenue or expenses that don’t seem correct or don’t belong to your grant.

Getting Started Part II: How to access FAST Research

There are two ways you can access FAST Research:

Onsite access – on campus
Offsite access – off campus

For onsite (on campus) access to FAST Research:
1. Go to myMRU and log in.
2. Select the Financial tab in myMRU menu.
3. Scroll down to Financial Services Heading.
4. Choose the 'FAST - on site campus access only' link.

For offsite (off campus) access to FAST Research:

Go to myMRU and log in.
Select the Financial tab in myMRU menu.
Scroll down to Financial Services Heading.
Choose the 'FAST - off site access through Global Protect' link.
In the MRU Virtual Private Network menu, select FAST.

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