Effort Reporting Federal Requirements

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• Effort Reporting Federal Requirements
• Overview of FIUs Policy and Procedure
• for charging salaries to
• sponsored projects

Presentation to Deans - June 18, 2004 Leyda
Benitez Kelsey Downum Diana Oliva Laurianne Torres
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• Rationale
• Time and effort reporting is a federal
  requirement
• Universities receiving federal sponsored project
  funds must have system in place to certify TE
• Specifics found in OMB Circular A-21 Section J.10

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Federal Effort Reporting Requirement

• After-the-fact confirmation of effort, as a
  percentage of employees total university effort
• Effort based on of total faculty effort (not
  on a 40-hour work week)

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How is effort certified?

• Federal government recognizes exact allocation
  is difficult in academic setting
• In the use of any methods for apportioning
  salaries, it is recognized that, in an academic
  setting, teaching, research, service, and
  administration are often inextricably
  intermingled. A precise assessment of factors
  that contribute to costs is not always feasible,
  nor is it expected. Reliance, therefore, is
  placed on estimates in which a degree of
  tolerance is appropriate.

OMB Circular A-21 J.10.b(1)(c)
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How is effort certified?.......contd

• Charges made and based on initial reasonable
  estimates are allowable
• Short term fluctuations in effort (1 or 2 months)
  need not be considered
• Focus on overall effort during reported period

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After-the-Fact Confirmation System Federal
Requirements

• Effort reports initially contain estimates of
  employees effort before the services are
  performed
• Initial estimates must be promptly adjusted for
  significant differences in actual effort expended
• Effort reports must reasonably reflect
  activities for which employees are compensated by
  the institution

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Federal Requirements.contd

• Effort reports must be signed by the employee,
  principal investigator, or responsible official
  with first-hand knowledge that the work was
  performed
• Effort reports must be completed
• at least once each academic term for faculty and
  professional staff
• monthly for other employees

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FIUs Time and Effort Reporting Procedure
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Who must complete and certify a Time Effort
report?

• Faculty who work some portion of their time on a
  research contract or grant either as a direct
  charge or as cost sharing to the project.
• The Federal Government expects all effort reports
  to be completed by individuals with first-hand
  knowledge of all aspects of the work performed.
  As such, the employee performing the work must be
  the individual to certify effort.
• Certification of Time Effort by other
  departmental staff is not permitted.

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How will an employee certify effort?

• At the end of each semester (3 times per year), a
  TE Report is emailed to each faculty member by
  DSRT for review and certification. Each faculty
  member will be required to print a hard copy for
  retention in their files.
• The faculty member will certify the accuracy of
  the TE Report and return it electronically to
  DSRT.

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THE TIME EFFORT REPORT
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THE TIME EFFORT REPORT
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Instructional Activities
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THE TIMELINE
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TRAINING

• FACULTY Web-based TE certification training
• STAFF ?