Tips for Getting Started

​Gathering Needed Information

To input information in the UCM Excel Spreadsheet, the following documentation will be needed:

  • Payroll documentation: to support salary expenses of staff claimed in the UCM

  • General ledger statements, paid invoices, receipts, vouchers, logs/journal entries, vendor contracts, etc.: to support supplies and services expenses

  • Log of volunteer hours: to record value of volunteer time

  • Itemized donation list and receipts: for donated supplies

Each topic in the Personnel_Inputs and Support_Outputs section reviews supporting documentation needed to support costs.

​Tips for Entering Data on the Excel Spreadsheet

  • The Excel Spreadsheet is separated into inputs and outputs for Personnel and Support expenses. Data should only be entered into the Personnel_Inputs and Support_Inputs tab, where the cells are colored in Green. The Personnel_Inputs tab is to input staff wages and benefits costs. The Support_Inputs tab is to input expenses for supplies and services. The Personnel_Outputs and Support_Outputs tabs auto-calculate additional fields based on values entered in the Personnel_Inputs and Support_Inputs tabs. The Outputs tabs should be locked based on the services for the proposal. The locked spreadsheet should not allow added lines or columns. Note: If it does, please contact the Area Agency on Aging to obtain a locked spreadsheet. This will help assure that no formulas will be erased or corrupted.

  • If a provider is proposing less than 25 services, they may hide the additional service columns in the Personnel_Inputs and Support_Inputs tabs if they like. If more lines for listing staff are needed, please request assistance from the Area Agency on Aging staff to unlock the spreadsheet and add rows.

  • Color coding where data is to be entered (or not):

    • Green – Enter data here

    • Blue – Instructions for entering data (or not) on spreadsheet

    • Black – Do not enter data – the spreadsheet will automatically calculate

  • Use the following chapters of this manual on the Personnel_Inputs and Support_Outputs tabs for specific instructions on how to complete each column and row.

  • Any other questions from providers will be e-mailed and answered by the assigned staff at the Area Agency on Aging.

  • The Excel Spreadsheet has certain checks throughout to help verify that your spreadsheet is in balance:

    • The Percent of Total Wages and Benefits and Percent of Total Hours must equal 100% for the UCM Personnel Spreadsheet to balance.

    • The UCM Spreadsheet Check (Support_Outputs Line 96) and Total Allowable Cost (Support_Outputs Line 97) must equal so that the UCM spreadsheet is correct, and all costs have been either allocated to a cost pool or assigned to a service.

    • The Cost Pools (Support_Inputs Columns D-G) will show an over-allocated notation if more money is allocated to a service than inputted as the total in Support_Inputs Column B.

    • The spreadsheet will show as “Out of Balance” in Column B of the Support_Outputs tab if the Total Actual Costs by Service (Support_Outputs Line 116) does not equal the Total Allowable Costs (Support_Outputs Line 97).