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Understand the importance and process of effort reporting and certification, cost-sharing, compliance requirements, and consequences of non-compliance at University of North Texas Health Science Center. Learn how to certify effort accurately.
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Effort Reporting Certification System (ERCS) University of North Texas Health Science Center
What is Effort Reporting? • Effort Reporting is the method of certifying the effort required as a condition of the award has actually been completed • Effort is defined as the amount of time spent on a sponsored research project in which salary is directly charged or contributed (cost-share) during a specified period of time
What is Effort Reporting? - Continued • 40 hour/week IS NOT the definition of 100% effort from which percentage of research effort is certified • 100% effort is an employee’s total time actually spent completing all aspects of their position • Effort certification should reflect the distribution of activities and are a reasonable representation of actual work performed
What is Cost-Sharing? Cost-sharing is the portion of the total sponsored project’s costs paid by the institution, rather than by the sponsor. There are 2 kinds of cost-sharing: Mandatory Committed is required by the sponsor and documented in the proposal. NIH, CDC, DOJ, HHS Voluntary Committed is not required by the sponsor but was included in the proposal narrative.
Why is Effort Reporting Necessary? • Compliance • Comply with the State of Texas requirements – Uniform Grant Management Standards (UGMS) • Comply with federal regulations – Uniform Guidance(UG) • Effort Reporting Certification System (ERCS) is the tool we use to facilitate and document compliance
What is Effort Reporting Certification System (ERCS)? • Part 1 – Project Commitment Reports • Tracking system within EIS used to capture salary expenditures, committed effort, cost sharing and salary cap data. • Management tool used to recap the % effort committed, actual amount of salary paid on a project, % committed cost share. • Part 2 – Effort Certification Process • Certify Effort Report
The Effort Certification Process Certification process is complete PI logs ins to review the report for accuracy ePar processed to charge salary to projects • PI reviews Project Commitment reports for accuracy End of semester rolls around System generates email notification PI “agrees” PI “disagrees” submits comments PI certifies online
Part 1 - Why use Commitment Reports? • Track payroll activity by project or by employee for amounts paid by sponsors (direct charge) and institution (cost share) • Easy way to identify people paid on wrong project or paid at the wrong percent • Track burn rate of committed effort on projid and deptid, if cost share was committed
EIS Tab Search by Project ID Required
EIS Tab Search Employee ID Required
Part 2 - When do we have to certify? • Three times per year • Fall • Spring • Summer • Effort reports should be certified within a reasonable amount of time. • Reminder emails will be sent after 10 working days to PI and after 20 working days to PI and Department Chair.
What happens if we don’t complete the certification? • Failure to complete the effort report leaves the university in jeopardy of disallowance of the salary costs on Sponsored Agreements. • Erroneously certifying effort can be viewed as fraud and subject to penalties.
Who has to certify Effort? • Effort report must be signed by a person having direct knowledge of the work was performed and is consistent with the overall distribution of the employee’s compensated activities • Principal Investigator • Certification by a department administrator or other staff member is NOT permitted. • When you are not available to make your effort certification in the appropriate time frame, you should designate a delegate for signing
Questions? Point of Contact Office of Sponsored Programs Brenden Perfect UNT Health Science Center Senior Post Award Analyst OSPeffortreporting@unthsc.edu (817) 735-5138
