X5 training
Online training required for costing creators, and guidance for approvers
This half hour presentation is aimed at new administrators, research facilitators, finance officers or other departmental staff who need to have an understanding of full economic costs (FEC) and who will be creating costings in X5. It is a prerequisite for the 'X5 for costing creators' course below.
After viewing the FEC video, you may find the handout of the slides helpful:
Please note that training videos should not be viewed via Remote Desktop, as this tends to cause sound and quality issues. Please also avoid viewing them in Chrome, as you may not be able to rewind/fast-forward when viewing them via this browser. If you have any other technical problems viewing them please email the X5 helpdesk.
This online course is a hands-on PC-based course with practical exercises. It is a basic course aimed at new administrators, research facilitators, finance officers or other departmental staff who will be creating costings in X5 and need an overview of the costing creation process.
Training is divided into 9 modules, each consisting of a half hour training demonstration, followed by an individual training activity to carry out in a training environment. The training videos are available to view at any time, but you will need to email X5 training to book a week in which to complete the individual training activities, which will be emailed to you upon booking.
- Introduction – overview of course
- Module 1 – navigating and searching
- Module 2 – creating a project and costing
- Module 3 – costing overview and entering DA staff cost
- Module 4 – entering costing details: DI staff, student and equipment costs
- Module 5 – entering costing details: facilities, non-staff and external collaborator
- Module 6 – pricing and completing your costing
- Module 7 – reviewing and submitting your costing into workflow
- Module 8 – processing costings in the workflow
- Module 9 – creating award costings, review and further information
Please note that training videos should not be viewed via Remote Desktop, as this tends to cause sound and quality issues. Please also avoid viewing them in Chrome, as you may not be able to rewind/fast-forward when viewing them via this browser. If you have any other technical problems viewing them please email the X5 helpdesk.
An overview of the collaborative costing process can be found in the X5 collaborative costing information session video which was recorded in November 2020.
The video covers why we have internal collaborative costings, the process from start to finish, and what to do if you encounter problems.
You can also view the X5 collaborative costings overview PowerPoint slides from the session.
For more detail on the internal collaborative costings process – particularly the workflow side of things – please also refer to the X5 guide to collaborative costings
Key documents
- External collaborator or subcontractor (explains the difference between them and where to put their costs in X5)
- FEC FAQs (published by UKRI – useful when doing costings for the Research Councils)
- X5 costing creator checklist (a list of possible costs that could be requested on a grant application – useful when working with new PIs)
- Creating a new project and costing (useful if you are a new or infrequent user of X5 and need to create a new project)
- Editing a draft costing (useful if you are a new or infrequent user of X5 and need to populate a costing)
- X5 and award set-up: FEC and non-FEC awards (an explanation of how research awards are set up on Oracle – useful for new users with both pre and post award responsibilities)
- Guide to collaborative costings (explains the internal collaborative process in X5)
- Current X5 bugs (existing issues and how to work around them in X5)
Approvers, senior approvers and principal investigators
Training for costing approvers, principal investigators and senior approvers is available via the online screencast below.
https://web.microsoftstream.com/embed/video/280bca78-6463-4934-a489-b88524230bf2?autoplay=false&showinfo=false
Guides for PIs and departmental approvers can be found in our quick reference guides section on the 'How to use X5' page.
We encourage all approvers and senior approvers to watch this video and read the guides before they start to use X5. This also applies to any principal investigators who are going to provide approval on X5. Users with these roles may also benefit from
viewing the other training videos under the 'Other online videos' tab on this page, for an overview of the system.
Please note that training videos should not be viewed via Remote Desktop, as this tends to cause sound and quality issues. Please also avoid viewing them in Chrome, as you may not be able to rewind/fast-forward when viewing them via this
browser. If you have any other technical problems viewing them please email the X5 helpdesk.
Please find below some brief training videos that provide a basic overview of the system and how to navigate around it, and also how to perform some specific tasks.
Please note that training videos should not be viewed via Remote Desktop, as this tends to cause sound and quality issues. Please also avoid viewing them in Chrome, as you may not be able to rewind/fast-forward when viewing them via this browser. If you have any other technical problems viewing them please email the X5 helpdesk.
