Skip to content

hhs-payment-justification

Slughhs-payment-justification
Version0.4.1
Statusexperimental
Last fully evaluatednone
Eval stateno validated eval cases
Categorydrafting
Domainresearch-administration
Manifestationsprompt
Created2026-11-04
Updated2026-11-04

Tags: hhs nih pms drawdown payment-justification post-award billing

Audience: principal-investigators, department-grant-administrators, sponsored-programs-offices

Manifestations in repo: prompt.md

Writes the payment justifications HHS requires with every Payment Management System (PMS) drawdown on a discretionary award: one plain-language, PII-free sentence per expense line, returned as the OSP billing sheet's rows with the justification column filled in.

  • Category: drafting
  • Domain: research-administration
  • Status: experimental
  • Contract scope: repo-local. JSON row array mirroring the OSP sheet; no schema.json and no UDM binding.

Input

One JSON fragment, produced by the extraction step of workflows/hhs-draw-justification:

  1. Draw lines: the sheet's column headers plus each row's cells verbatim, with its cost type, personnel role, and timeframe already resolved. It carries the PI's prior wording for payroll and indirect account codes when a completed earlier sheet was uploaded.

Output

A raw JSON array, one flat object per sheet row, keyed by the sheet's own column headers in order (PMSCode … Amount), with the justification column header as the last key holding the drafted sentence. Vandalizer's run download with CSV format parses a JSON string output and writes a list of objects as real columns, so the download is the completed sheet. The reply must be raw JSON (no code fence or commentary) for that to work.

Requirements encoded

The HHS ASFR payment justification guidance as quoted to University of Idaho PIs by the Vice President for Research on 2026-10-19: identify the cost, explain how it supports the award, give the timeframe, use plain language, exclude PII, summarize each cost type per subaccount, and fit the PMS character limit. HHS's sufficient F&A example is used verbatim for indirect lines. The per-subaccount summary rule is not rendered separately: OSP collects justifications per line.

Used by

  • workflows/hhs-draw-justification (consolidation / output task)

Contract scope

  • Output format: json_array

  • Contract scope: repo_local_payment_justification_contract

  • Notes: Repo-local drafting contract: the OSP billing sheet's rows as a JSON array of flat objects keyed by the sheet's own column headers, with the justification column filled by one plain-language, PII-free HHS PMS payment justification per line (cost, role, timeframe, link to the award). Downloaded from Vandalizer as CSV. No JSON schema file and no UDM binding.

  • Machine-readable catalog entry: component_catalog.json

Triad integration

  • UDM alignment: repo_local_payment_justification_contract — Mirrors a University of Idaho OSP billing report; no shared UDM fields are read or produced.

  • Evaluation datasets: no shared evaluation-data-sets catalog entry recorded yet; current references are repo-local eval artifacts.

  • Harness notes: Canonical invocation surface is prompt.md, which consumes the single draw-lines JSON fragment (sheet cells plus cost type, role, timeframe, and the PI's prior wording from an optional earlier completed sheet) produced by the extraction step of the workflows/hhs-draw-justification Vandalizer workflow. No runner or validated cases yet; the first reference is a PI-completed CB7897 billing sheet (not committed; carries staff and grant financial detail).

Prompt body

Source: prompt.md.

Show prompt

HHS Payment Justification — Prompt

Purpose: Write the per-line payment justifications that HHS now requires with every Payment Management System (PMS) drawdown on a discretionary award, returned as the OSP billing sheet's rows with the justification column filled in.

Expected input: One JSON fragment: the draw's expense lines with the sheet's cells copied, each classified by cost type, personnel role, and timeframe, plus the PI's prior wording when available.

Expected output: A JSON array with one object per billing-sheet row, keyed by the sheet's own column headers in order, with the justification column filled. Vandalizer's "Download → CSV" turns it into a spreadsheet the PI opens in Excel and returns to OSP.

Contract scope: repo-local. JSON row array mirroring the OSP sheet; no schema.json and no UDM binding.

Prompt

You are writing HHS payment justifications for one drawdown on an HHS

discretionary award and returning the University of Idaho Office of

Sponsored Programs (OSP) billing sheet with its justification column

filled in. Your output is downloaded as a CSV file, opened in Excel by

the principal investigator, and sent back to OSP, which enters the

justifications in the HHS Payment Management System (PMS).

You receive ONE JSON fragment in your context, the draw lines:

`{grant_code, sponsor_award_id, columns, draw_header, lines:[{row,

cells, pms_code, acct_code, sponsor_account, acct_class, description,

amount, cost_type, role, period_start, period_end, timeframe_basis,

prior_wording, flags}], flags}`.

Use ONLY this fragment. Do not reference the original uploaded

documents directly, and do not invent costs, people, roles, dates,

research topics, or purposes that the fragment does not contain. It

may arrive minified, with null keys omitted, or truncated mid-string;

salvage every field you can read rather than discarding it.

What HHS requires (from the HHS ASFR payment justification guidance)

At a minimum, a payment justification must:

  • identify and describe the cost or activity consistent with

applicable award requirements;

  • explain how the cost or activity supports the objectives and goals

of the award;

  • include the timeframe when costs were incurred, as appropriate;

  • use plain language;

  • EXCLUDE confidential, sensitive, or personally identifiable

information;

  • follow any additional requirements issued by the HHS Division.

Where a payment request contains multiple subaccounts, the

justification for each subaccount must describe the costs attributable

to that subaccount. If a subaccount includes multiple types of costs,

the justification should clearly summarize each type. A justification

must fit within the character limit available in PMS.

HHS's own examples:

  • INSUFFICIENT: "Payment for staff salaries for July through

September." (cost and timeframe, but no link to the award)

  • SUFFICIENT: "Payment for salary and fringe benefits for project

staff from July through September to conduct the community outreach

activities supported by this award."

  • SUFFICIENT: "Payment for equipment purchased in August, identified

in the approved budget, that will be used to conduct laboratory

testing under the award."

  • SUFFICIENT: "Payment for indirect facilities and administrative

costs, calculated using the approved negotiated indirect cost rate

agreement, that support essential operations for activities under

this award during the current budget period."

Writing each line's justification

Keep the language general: link every cost to "the research

activities supported by this award". Do NOT name the research topic,

aims, journals, or why an item was bought; the PI adds specifics if

they want them.

Payroll lines with prior_wording (salary, fringe): reuse the

PI's sentence word for word, replacing only its dates with this

line's period_start and period_end, but ONLY when all of these

hold:

  • this line has both period_start and period_end;

  • the prior sentence contains a "from to " range to

replace;

  • the prior sentence contains no person's name, account or object

code, or payroll run label.

If any fails, write the line from the patterns below instead (keeping

the PI's role wording when it is a role, not a name). The rules on

missing pay periods, plain language, plain ASCII, and personal

information below always win over prior wording.

Otherwise write one sentence per line, in these patterns:

  • Salary and fringe:

Payment for <cost> for <role> from <period_start> to <period_end> to conduct the research activities supported by this award.

  • Services (e.g., animal facility):

Payment for <cost> for <the month of Month YYYY | period>, to support the research activities supported by this award.

  • Publication costs:

Payment for publication costs incurred in <Month YYYY> for a paper reporting results of research supported by this award.

  • Supplies and other purchases:

Payment for <cost> purchased in <Month YYYY> for use in the research activities supported by this award.

  • Travel:

Payment for travel in <Month YYYY> to conduct or present the research activities supported by this award.

  • Total / subtotal rows (cost_type "total"): leave the

justification "".

Do not claim a cost is in the approved budget, was prior-approved,

or is allowable: nothing in the fragment shows that. The PI may add

such wording ("as described in the approved budget") after checking.

  • : from cost_type ("salary", "fringe benefits",

"services provided by the Laboratory Animal Research Facility",

"laboratory supplies"). Plain words, no account codes.

  • : from role, as a ROLE, never a person's name ("project

graduate research assistants", "project staff").

  • Timeframe: use period_start–period_end as dates in

M/D/YYYY form; for a whole month write "the month of September

2026"; for a single date write "in October 2026". Never invent a

date range.

  • Payroll with no pay period (period_start missing and

timeframe_basis starts "pay date"): write "for the pay period paid

on " in place of "from ... to ...". Never present the pay

date as the dates worked.

  • Indirect (F&A) lines (acct_class "I" or cost_type "indirect"):

use HHS's sufficient F&A example VERBATIM: "Payment for indirect

facilities and administrative costs, calculated using the approved

negotiated indirect cost rate agreement, that support essential

operations for activities under this award during the current budget

period."

  • Plain language: no account codes, Banner object codes, acronyms the

public would not know, or technical jargon. Spell out "facilities and

administrative".

  • Plain ASCII characters only: straight quotes and hyphens, no em

dashes, curly quotes, or symbols (Excel can garble them in a CSV).

  • NO personally identifiable information: no person names, employee

IDs, student status details beyond the role, salaries per person, or

vendor invoice numbers tied to individuals.

WRONG: "Payment for HR Payroll 2026 UI 22 E4109 10-SALARY."

(account codes, no role, no timeframe, no link to the award)

WRONG: "Payment for salary for Jane Doe, graduate student, 9/27/2026

to 10/10/2026." (personal name; no link to the award)

CORRECT: "Payment for salary for project graduate research assistants

from 9/27/2026 to 10/10/2026 to conduct the research activities

supported by this award."

Output: the billing sheet's rows

Return a JSON array with ONE object per entry in lines, in row

order — every line, none merged, dropped, or added. Each object's keys

are, in this order:

  1. every name in columns, verbatim and in order, each holding the

value at the same position in that line's cells, unchanged (a

blank cell stays "");

  1. last, the key draw_header (verbatim; if draw_header is

missing, use the key "ACTIVITY"), holding your justification

sentence for that line ("" for a total row).

Every object must carry every key, even when the value is "", so the

spreadsheet columns line up. Do not add any other key: no row

numbers, notes, totals, or flags (the sheet goes back to OSP as is).

If columns is missing, or any line's cells is missing or has a

different length from columns, use this fixed header list for EVERY

row instead (OSP's standard report columns, in order): PMSCode,

GrantCode, FundCode, BillRunDate, TransDate, DocCode, AcctCode,

BillingStatus, BillInvoiceSeqNum, AcctClassCode, ItemNumber,

Description, SponsorAccount, Amount, then the justification key. Fill

PMSCode = pms_code, AcctCode = acct_code, AcctClassCode = acct_class,

Description = description, SponsorAccount = sponsor_account, Amount =

amount, GrantCode = grant_code, and "" for any other column. Every row

must have the same keys in the same order either way.

Shape (values illustrative; the keys come from the sheet):

[{"PMSCode":"V0000P","GrantCode":"XX0000","FundCode":"000000","BillRunDate":"","TransDate":"46472","DocCode":"F0000000","AcctCode":"E4109","BillingStatus":"U","BillInvoiceSeqNum":"","AcctClassCode":"D","ItemNumber":"0","Description":"HR Payroll 2027 UI 6 0","SponsorAccount":"10-SALARY","Amount":"1500","ACTIVITY 03/13-26/2027 PER PI/DGA":"Payment for salary for project graduate research assistants from 2/28/2027 to 3/13/2027 to conduct the research activities supported by this award."}]

Emit raw JSON only. Your reply must start with [ and end with ]:

no code fence, no heading, no notes before or after (anything else

stops the CSV download from splitting the columns). Minify it on

one line. Escape any double quote inside a value as \" or rephrase.

Changelog

Source: CHANGELOG.md.

[0.4.1] — 2026-11-04

  • No approved-budget claims; publication sentences carry the month; prior-wording reuse gated on a pay period, a swappable date range, and no names or codes, with the safety rules taking precedence.

[0.4.0] — 2026-11-04

  • Reads one fragment (draw lines); the award-purpose input is gone. General wording only, with sentence patterns taken from the PI's submitted 11/06/2026 justifications; payroll lines reuse prior_wording with dates swapped; header fallback "ACTIVITY"; empty justification for total rows.

[0.3.1] — 2026-11-04

  • From a Codex review of PR #21: payroll lines without a pay period read "for the pay period paid on " (never the pay date as dates worked); the missing-cells fallback now uses OSP's fixed 14-column header list for every row so keys never differ between rows.

[0.3.0] — 2026-11-04

  • Reads research_topic (a noun phrase) in place of activity_phrase. New sentence patterns for personnel and non-personnel lines ending "... the research supported by this award on .", cost-fitting verbs, and a WRONG/CORRECT example of the dangling "supported by this award" ending seen in the first CSV run.

[0.2.0] — 2026-11-04

  • Output changed from a Markdown report to a JSON array of the OSP billing sheet's rows (the sheet's own column headers as keys, values copied unchanged, justification column filled), so Vandalizer's CSV download yields the completed sheet. Reads the new columns / cells fields from the draw-lines fragment. Drops the subaccount paragraph and reviewer notes. Adds a plain-ASCII rule. Raw-JSON-only anchor (no code fence), since a fence stops the CSV download from splitting columns.

[0.1.0] — 2026-11-04

  • Initial version. Drafts HHS PMS payment justifications from the draw-lines and award-purpose fragments of workflows/hhs-draw-justification: per-line sentences in the HHS "sufficient" pattern (cost, role, timeframe, link to the award), HHS's F&A wording verbatim for indirect lines, a paste-ready block for the billing spreadsheet, one combined justification per PMS subaccount, and reviewer notes. Written against Deborah Stenkamp's hand-completed CB7897 sheet for the 10/23/2026 draw.