Introduction to Effort Administrationsalary distribution as it relates to that which the employee...

Introduction to Effort Administration

Audience: administrators with very little or no

knowledge about effort reporting

Presenter: Dawn Yasik, Manager of Effort Certification,

Office of Sponsored Programs

Goals

To understand:

Why we report effort

Who is involved

What is reported & what is not

When it is done

How it is done

http://www.udel.edu/research 1

Agenda

• Watch training video for ECS users

• UD policy (6-5) and procedure

• Nuts & bolts of the process

• Tour the electronic Effort Certification System

• Pitfalls

• Tips and tools


A Brief Introduction to Effort What is it?

Effort is how you spend your time

Work or the proportion of time spent on any activity and

expressed as a percentage of University time. It does

not equate to a 40 hour week or a fixed number of

hours.

Total = all activities for which you earned payment as part

of your primary contract with the University (IBS)


What is the Effort Reporting System?

Effort Reporting System

The Effort Reporting System is an electronic web-based

application, which gathers data from HR personnel data, People

Soft grants data, and the University’s financial reporting system

to produce and route electronic reporting forms after each

reporting period, or as needed.


What does it mean to ‘certify’ effort?

Effort Certification (from UD Policy 6-5)

An employee’s certification of his/her effort report is an affirmation

that his or her percentages of effort are accurately and

completely reflected. Knowingly certifying a false effort report is a

violation of University policy and could potentially result in civil or

criminal penalties for fraud. An effort administrator’s certification

of another employee’s effort report is an affirmation that he or she

believes that the salary allocations are accurately reflected on the

report.



Training presentation for ECS Users

http://www.udel.edu/research/training/effort

Viewing required annually upon log-in to Effort Certification System





UD Policy 6-5, Effort Certification Reporting

http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/policies/research/6-05.html

Latest revision 8/12


I. PURPOSE

To comply with the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Circular A-21 requirements for effort reporting.

(This is simplest answer to the question of WHY we must report effort.)







II. POLICY

Certifications of Effort on sponsored awards are required for every

University employee whose salary or wages are directly charged to a

sponsored program account or whose salary or wages are used as cost

sharing for a sponsored program. An individual must account for 100

percent of his or her activities which are part of their institutional base

salary (see definition of IBS below).

Certifications must be completed in an accurate and timely manner in

order to confirm that percentages of pay allocated were truly in accord

with percentages of effort performed and that effort provided was at

least equal to the level of effort committed (see definition of committed

effort).



Institutional Base Salary

The University of Delaware has defined the IBS as an individual’s total

contractual compensation from the university as is defined in a

standard offer letter. Payments for work outside of the duties for which

one was hired, are not part of the IBS. The following table illustrates

types of faculty activities which are or are not included in the IBS.



Activities included in the IBS Activities outside of the IBS

•Instruction/University supported academic effort – including student training and advisement •Externally sponsored research – including reporting, participating in related seminars, meetings and conferences, and consultations with colleagues, graduate students or other staff supporting the research •Departmental research – includes unfunded research effort, peer review of manuscripts, proposal preparation for competitive awards •Administrative or University service – administrative assignments such as Dept. Chair, institutional committees, advisory boards •Public service on behalf of the University •Unpaid service to professional organizations or societies related to one’s field of work

•Activities over and above the individual's job requirements, such as overtime or faculty overload. •Compensation for external consulting, serving on external boards, and other types of professional work •Volunteering as an individual for public service •One-time, extra payments for special activities •Other activities unrelated to responsibilities for the individual’s primary job



II. POLICY

Certifications of Effort on sponsored awards are required for every

University employee whose salary or wages are directly charged to a

sponsored program account or whose salary or wages are used as cost

sharing for a sponsored program. An individual must account for 100

percent of his or her activities which are part of their institutional base

salary (see definition of IBS below).

Certifications must be completed in an accurate and timely manner in

order to confirm that percentages of pay allocated were truly in accord

with percentages of effort performed and that effort provided was at

least equal to the level of effort committed (see definition of committed

effort).



Committed Effort

Any statement made by an employee operating as a principal

investigator or key person on a grant in reference to the time dedicated

to a project or award is considered a commitment on the part of the

University of Delaware to ensure this time/effort is provided to the

project. This commitment may be direct charged to a grant or can be

borne of university costs. Quantifiable commitments made anywhere in

a grant proposal are binding upon acceptance of a resulting award,

regardless of whether they are included in the budget.



III. EFFORT CERTIFICATION

OMB circular A-21 requires effort certification for the following

employees:

1. Every employee whose salary or wages are directly

charged to a sponsored program account (i.e. contracts or

grants).

2. Every employee whose salary or wages are used as

match/cost sharing for sponsored program account.

The circular outlines different reporting requirements for hourly

wage earners vs. salaried employees.



SALARIED STAFF

(Including, but not limited to, faculty, professional & salaried staff, graduate and

postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and postdoctoral researchers, and all exempt

employees).

The University divides each year into three effort reporting periods. Two of these

apply to all salaried staff who are required to report effort. The third reporting period

applies only to faculty on academic appointments of less than 12 months. The Fall

reporting period covers activities occurring during the fall semester for employees

on 9, 10, or 11 month contracts, or during the six month period from September

through February for all other employees. Likewise, the Spring reporting period

covers activities occurring in the spring semester for 9 month employees, or during

the six month period from March to August for all other employees. The third effort

reporting period captures sponsored effort performed outside of a faculty member’s

contract requirements. This would typically consist of sponsored research

performed in the summer months of June, July or August.



Following the end of each reporting period, the Research Office will use the Effort

Certification System to produce web reports for review. The reports will list effort

commitments made by the individual to individual projects and will provide data to

show how the individual's salary charges were allocated for the reporting period.

Note that commitments and allocations are processed in different systems, and

salary allocations are not directly guided by effort commitments. The actual

distribution of salary payments as shown on the effort report, may or may not be

appropriate for the amount of effort actually performed. If, in retrospect, the salary

allocations do not represent the actual effort provided, the allocations must be

adjusted in order to produce a true report. While it is expected that changes in work

distribution will lead to timely redistributions of salary as a result of regular account

monitoring, in the event that the reported salary allocations are not in line with the

actual effort provided by the individual, a cost transfer must be processed

according to the University's cost transfer policy. A journal voucher (JV) must be

submitted via the Effort Reporting System to correct the allocation of salary and

thereby reflect true percentages of effort.



The effort reported will always total 100 percent, even if the individual was

employed for less than the six-month period, and regardless of the number of

hours worked because the denominator/base is the total effort provided by the

individual as a University of Delaware employee. The report must cover all effort

compensated for by the University as part of the individual's institutional base

salary (IBS), including sponsored research, cost share to sponsored research,

departmental research, instruction, administration/university service, and public

service by purpose and project codes. IBS inclusions and exclusions are listed in

the definitions section below. Effort reports must not be confused with faculty

workload plans, which may have guided the allocation of their salary, but might not

be equivalent to their actual division of effort.



A 5 percent standard or tolerance level has been determined for evaluation of

salary distribution as it relates to that which the employee certifies. It is expected

that the employee will certify to within 5 percentage points of that which is allocated

to the project.

Example: 50% of salary allocated to a project is acceptable for an employee

certifying 45% and 55% effort for that period



HOURLY WAGE EARNERS

(Including, but not limited to, miscellaneous wage and bi-weekly employees).

Hourly wage earners who receive pay from sponsored projects must complete a

time sheet recording their hours of work at least on a monthly basis. This reporting

must include purpose or project codes and requires supervisory signature for

approval. To monitor compliance of this requirement, the Research Office will

perform semi-annual audits on a sample of charges allocated to sponsored

projects.



3. REVISIONS OF COMPLETED EFFORT CERTIFICATIONS

In rare circumstances, a revised effort report may be created to allow an

updated/revised version of an individual report which had already been

certified and completed. Creation of revised reports is limited to Research

Office staff, and requires a written request to the Manager of Effort

Certification, including a valid justification. Reports created for approved

revisions must be completed within 30 days following the date of release

and may be deleted if not completed within that time frame. Revisions

requested to remove unallowable charges from sponsored projects will

always be approved. If a revision is needed in order to remove a salary

cost over-run from a sponsored project, the charges will be required to be

transferred to a non-sponsored account as cost-share.



What effort may not be charged to sponsored programs?

“Note that many activities included in the IBS may not be charged to

sponsored awards. Non-sponsored funding must be used to support the

following effort unless the award documentation clearly allows them:

instruction, course development, and advisement of students if not for a

specific research award, administrative assignments such as department

chair or dean, writing of grant proposals unless for a non-competitive

renewal, service on committees or review boards or as a primary journal

editor, review of peer manuscripts, fundraising, and lobbying. Since most

faculty members participate in activities such as these, it should be

extremely rare for any faculty member to be 100% grant-funded.”



What if the employee has left the University?

DEFINITION

Suitable Means Of Verification

An employee evaluating effort on behalf of a terminated or otherwise

incapable employee must be able to represent a reasonable relationship

to that employee’s work such that validation of time spent on reported

projects is achievable. A faculty advisor, supervisor, or project PI on that

project is such an example. Documentation of verification must be

retained in the department as backup to support the certification by

anyone other than the employees themselves.



5. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Research Office

The Manager of Effort Certification is responsible for ensuring that

the University’s effort reporting system meets the requirements of the

federal government and adheres to University policies. The

Research Office will have ten days following the posting of an

reporting period’s ending salary transactions to produce and release

the reports to the Effort Administrators. Electronic copies are retained

in the Research Office for the retention period required by the

sponsored agreement, usually three years after the closeout or final

payment of the project.




Departmental Effort Administrator

Each academic department or unit which has employees paid from

sponsored funding sources must have one staff member assigned as

the Effort Administrator. The Effort Administrator’s role is to facilitate

the timely and accurate completion of their department’s effort

reports. They are responsible for reviewing reports for errors in

funding amounts and sources, distributing the reports to each

individual for certification, making any necessary adjustments to

salary allocations, and completing the reporting process prior to the

deadline which is 60 days following the end of the reporting period.

They are also responsible for requesting omitted reports when

needed so that required reporting is accomplished for all employees.




Principal Investigators

All faculty who are involved in allocation of salaries and wages to

sponsored projects are responsible for understanding the importance

of effort reporting compliance as it relates to proper grant

management. Faculty members must be aware of their own levels of

effort committed to sponsored projects and ensure that they have the

ability to meet those commitments while simultaneously meeting

their obligations to the University without over-committing

themselves. They must also communicate any substantial changes

in effort to their department or college administrators in a timely

manner. This includes effort changes for themselves as well as any

other employees working on their sponsored research projects.




Internal Audit

The Internal Audit Department will conduct independent evaluations of

the Effort Reporting System required by OMB circular A-21 every three

years.



Background

Policies and Practices: Compensation, Effort Commitments, and

Certification. An invaluable source of information about federal

requirements and how to interpret them, issued in March 2007 by the

Council On Governmental Relations (COGR, of which UD is a member).

Procedures

University of Delaware Effort Certification procedures are available to

guide the effort administrator through the process

http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/policies/research/COGR_EffortPaper.pdf

http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/policies/research/COGR_EffortPaper.pdf

http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/policies/research/EffortProcedure.pdf

University of Delaware

Effort Certification Procedures


Revised August 2012

A. Each department assigns an effort administrator who has the procedural

responsibility to oversee the reports for that department.

B. Reports are required from every employee whose salary is either directly

charged to a sponsored project or used as match/cost sharing for a

sponsored project during a particular effort reporting period.




C. For faculty on academic contracts, there are three effort reporting periods.

Period 1 includes effort provided during the fall semester of the academic

year.

Period 2 includes effort provided during the spring semester, and

Period 3 includes summer research activity performed during the months of

June through August. The following chart describes the three periods for

academic faculty:


Effort Periods for

AY Faculty

Period 1

Period 2

Period 3

Semester

Fall semester

Spring semester Summer

(research only)

Performance Period

Sept– Jan. 15

Jan 16– May 31

June – August

Payments made

Sept-Feb

March-Aug

June- Sept.

(later pay requires

repush)

Accounts Included

121000, 121100,

121200, 121600

121000, 121100,

121200, 121600

(Excludes 121800 &

121900)

121800,

121900

Release date

March 10 Sept 10

Oct 10






Effort Periods for general

employees

Period 1

Period 2

Performance Period

Sept– Feb.

March - August

Payments made

Sept– Feb.

March - August

Accounts Included

All applicable salary accounts,

excluding 121800 & 121900

All applicable salary accounts,

excluding 121800 & 121900

Release date

March 10 Sept 10




D. Following each reporting period, a web based electronic

application will produce web views for review. This application will

allow interaction (via web journal) to modify transactions through

cost transfer submissions. Every certification must be reviewed by a

designated Effort Administrator (each unit has one assigned staff

member for this role) and the employee personally (unless that

employee has terminated or retired from employment with the

University in which case an employee with suitable means of

verification evaluates effort in lieu of the particular employee).

If an employee has an active HR status but is not capable of

certifying their own report, the report may be completed by providing

certifications (with suitable means of verification) from both the

Effort Administrator and the Effort Manager or another Research

Office designee.




E. To facilitate accuracy in initial payroll allocations, the Labor

Allocation Module (LAM) allows for timely changes made to an

employee's payroll distribution plan. A LAM calculator exists to

assist in the accuracy of percentages to distribute.

F. It is expected that all certifications will be in "completed" status

within 90 days of the end of the reporting period. Electronic copies

are retained in the Research Office for the retention period required

by the sponsored agreement, usually three years after the closeout

or final payment of the project.




G. Email notification will be sent to effort administrators listing reports 60

days old in an effort to remind administrators of this responsibility.

Notification of delinquent reports still outstanding beyond the 90 day

certification period and again at 120 days past the last day of the effort

certification period will escalate to the Department Chair, Assistant Dean

and Dean. The effort administrator is responsible for completing these

reports.

H. In the event that an error was made during the routing process, the

research office has the authority to create revised effort reports which

must be completed within 30 days of release. These will be stamped

with '[REVISION]' so as to identify the report as such. In order to request

a revision the effort administrator must have an adequate justification.

Any changes must comply with all other UD policies and federal

regulations.




I. Routing is as follows:

a) Research Office creates the report (in batch three times annually, or one at

a time as needed) (report is now in 'UNSENT' status)

b) Effort Administrator reviews and 'forwards' to employee (report is now in 'IN

PROGRESS' status)

c) Employee reviews and either clicks yes, I agree ('review and certify'), or no I

do not agree ('forward'), and the system will require a comment stating what

is wrong with the report. Either way it is routed back to the effort

administrator.

d) Effort administrator selects 'review and certify' (if approved by employee in

c.) or takes necessary action to correct the errors identified by the employee

(if not approved in c.).

e) If approved in c and 'review and certify' in d, the system will set the

certification report to 'COMPLETE' status.

f) Once action is taken in step 'd', effort administrator will 'forward' back to the

employee until the employee is satisfied that this report reflects the effort

expended during that effort reporting period.

The Process of Effort Certification

1. Commit/budget effort

2. Allocate pay according to plans

3. Report pay allocations as percentages

4. Revise allocations as needed

5. Certify correctness of report


Instruction 40%

Service 20%

Research 40%

Commitments

Commitment = binding promise of effort which must be

tracked and reported

Workload = approved work plan for faculty

may be divided into

instruction/teaching,

service, or research


Commitments

Each piece may include internal & external activities

Commitments to external sponsors fit within the workload


Instruction 40%

Service 20%

Widget grant

Sprocket grant

Whatzit grant

Department research

Research 40%

Commitments

• Proposed effort is added to the proposal budget at submission stage in the Grants System by department administrators

• Committed effort is added to the award budget screens in the Grants System by Research Office staff


Commitments – Proposal Stage

• Data is added to the detail budget screens in UD Grants System for all UD employee whether PI, Co-PI or senior personnel, listed as resources on your grant proposal

• Data should include effort percent and whether it is a summer month(s)

• Data inputted at the proposal budget can be queried in GMQ_EFFORT_BY_PI_PROPOSED


Resource page

Resource page

Resource page

Budget Line Detail

At Award Time

• Once awarded, the Research Office confirms the

proposed effort has not changed and enters the

effort percent on the appropriate Grants System

panel

• Data can be queried in

GMQ_EFFORT_BY_PI_CURRENT









Allocations

All the data from the pay transactions and any Journal is captured in the UOD_Trans_DTL table


Allocations

• LAM distributions payments generated from JED can be direct-charged to grants or cost-shared by entering a project ID on a line with a non-sponsored purpose code Faculty workload is delineated here

• S-contracts some (like fac. Summer research) are included in effort, some (like overload teaching) are not

• JVs affecting sponsored projects require an effort period. JVs with no project are omitted.









Reporting

• Paper SARs (sponsored activity reports) used prior to March 2005

• Web-enabled process effective March 1, 2005

• All certification and adjustments will be handled electronically


Reporting Time

• Effort administrators will receive notification of

release on or about March 10 (for period 1),

September 10 (for period 2) & October 10 (for

period 3)

• Certifications should be routed promptly and

must be completed by 90 days after the end of

the reporting period









Corrections/Revisions

Cost-Transfers (JVs), a.k.a. “Effort Journals”

• Must be appropriate/allowable

• Should be within 90 days

• Not needed if within 5% variance

• Recalculate upon ‘refresh’

• Employee can not certify while JVs are in progress


Corrections/Revisions

Cost-Transfers (JVs) • UD WebForms FINJournal Voucher

• restricts users from submitting a journal for a ‘closed’ effort period

• Forces the use of the effort certification process to manage these corrections

• ‘closed’ effort periods are restricted

• ‘Open’ effort period cost transfers can be handled on the UD WebForms FINJournal








What does it mean to ‘certify’ effort?

Effort Certification (from UD Policy 6-5)

An employee’s certification of his/her effort report is an affirmation

that his or her percentages of effort are accurately and

completely reflected. Knowingly certifying a false effort report is a

violation of University policy and could potentially result in civil or

criminal penalties for fraud. An effort administrator’s certification

of another employee’s effort report is an affirmation that he or she

believes that the salary allocations are accurately reflected on the

report.



The Effort Reporting System

https://cas.nss.udel.edu/cas/login?renew=true&service=https://primus.nss

.udel.edu/effortcert/login.action

https://cas.nss.udel.edu/cas/login?renew=true&service=https://primus.nss.udel.edu/effortcert/login.action



Finding incomplete effort reports


Effort reports in other departments


Enter an employee’s empl ID here

Effort Report – Admin view


XXXXXXXXX





Effort Report – Employee View


Effort Report – Employee View

(bottom half)


Pitfalls

Negative effort values


Reports with negative values always

require a correction by JV

Indicates a credit was applied where it

didn’t belong (ex: wrong purpose or period)

Payroll refunds belonging to previous effort

period must be JVd by Effort Manager

Pitfalls


ABCD

Negative number

indicates a problem

Effort Revisions


Changes to effort reports after employee has certified

Original, completed report is permanent

Revision requests must be approved by Effort Manager

Never a good thing, but some cases are worse than others

Things that prompt revision requests:

Projects overspent or under-spent

Committed cost-share neglected

Late allocation of salary expenses

Corrections to purpose, account, class

Pitfalls

Pending funding sources


What to do if you don’t have a project code for work being

performed now?

Examples: delayed contract negotiations, pending renewals.

Think about consequences of temporary funding allocations

and stay in a safe zone.

Clearing accounts (ABCD17EXXXX) are a safety zone.

You want to avoid transfers from one sponsored account to

another.

Gray areas (i.e. swim at your own risk):

Pending NCEs, renewals

Pitfalls

Un-reported effort


Report must include all the projects in which the

employee provides effort

Report must include both direct-charged salary and

cost-shared salary.

Cost-share can easily be forgotten and come back to

bite you at closeout

GMQ_EFFORT_CURRENT_BY_PI lists all of a PI’s

effort commitments on active awards

Pitfalls Un-informed/careless users


“I guess I should have read it more carefully.”

“I didn’t think it looked right, but somebody

asked me to sign it.”

Translation: “I don’t think this is important.”

System users are directed to a training video and required

to confirm they understand.

Concerned employees = fewer effort revisions.

If employees were more conscientious about making sure

their reports were accurate, it would cut down on the number

of revisions needed later.

Your help is needed to impress upon your employees the seriousness of

effort reporting. Careless users are your biggest liability.

Exceeding salary caps

Some sponsors limit salary

rates (ex. NIH)

Effort commitment can not be

met solely with sponsor funding

Amount over cap must be paid

by another source


Tips


Tips


• Always LOGOUT before ending your session This allows a refresh at next log on which will enable any changes to be viewable

• Be VERY careful where you send screens

This is salary data and in the wrong hands could be embarrassing Research Office can redirect to the correct user Once the WRONG recipient has received it, that person will ALWAYS be able to view it even if redirected

Tips


• Must refresh after a journal is processed to see the

recalculated amounts

• Do not try to open the Effort System in more than one

window at a time

• Use standard udel.edu email addresses, not

secondary email servers (ee.udel.edu)

Query Tools in PS FIRPT


• GMQ_DEPT_EFFORT_ADMIN_ASSIGN List of effort administrators

• GMQ_EFFORT_PROPOSED_BY_PI Effort -proposal budgets buds

• GMQ_EFFORT_CURRENT_BY_PI effort commitments by PI

• GMQ_EFFORT_111_SALARY Effort Pd AY111 (Sept - Feb)

• GMQ_EFFORT_112_SALARY Don't use for academic faculty

• GMQ_EFFORT_113_SALARY 2011 faculty summer research

• GMQ_TRANSACTIONS_SALARY_JV backup to paste in salary JVs

NNNNNN

Getting people to certify their reports

1) Send an email when you forward the report

2) Follow up with reminder email, copy their

supervisor

3) Hunt them down,

hold their hand

4) Request assistance of

Effort Manager


FAQs

What if there’s funding from other departments?


Award administrators should be given the opportunity to review reports

prior to employee certification

Forward report to interested parties, ask for confirmation that funding is

appropriate. If you don’t do it now, you may get stuck doing a revision

later.

Find department contacts under Department Administrator Directory at

http://www.udel.edu/research/about/directory.html

http://www.udel.edu/research/about/directory.html

FAQs

What if the employee is gone?

And what is ‘suitable means of verification’?


Effort reports ‘stuck’ with former employees can be rerouted by the Effort

Manager.

Effort Administrator ‘certifies for former employee’ with suitable means of

verification after HR termination.

Confirmation from someone who had first-hand knowledge of the employee’s

distribution of work effort. (Ex: a supervisor or faculty advisor)

This should be documented and retained in the department as backup in

support of the action, or confirmation may be included in comments field of

report.

FAQs

Why do I get these beastly dunning letters,

and who else sees them?


Result of audit recommendations

3 levels of escalation: reminder, overdue & very overdue

Reminder: 60 days past period end, to rpt holders, effort admin & dept. chair

Overdue: 90 days past period end, to all above + asst. deans

Very overdue: 120 days past period end, to all above + deans

Note that effort revisions are overdue immediately if created after the period

end date

Resources


UD Effort Policy (6-5)


Effort training

http://www.udel.edu/research/training/efforttraining.html

Effort FAQs

http://www.udel.edu/research/preparing/faq.html#effort

Dawn Yasik, Manager of Effort Certification

[email protected] or x4956




http://www.udel.edu/research/training/efforttraining.html

http://www.udel.edu/research/preparing/faq.html

mailto:[email protected]

Date post:	11-May-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	5 times
Download:	0 times

Introduction to Effort Administrationsalary distribution as it relates to that which the employee...

Documents