University of North Carolina Charlotte

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University of North Carolina - Charlotte
NCURA REGION III Spring Meeting May 13, 2008

• Implementing a New Effort Reporting System at a
  Non-Medical School University

Presentation by Stephen E. Selby Director,
Office of Sponsored Programs Karen J. Farley
Manager Cost Analysis
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• UNC Charlotte is one of 16 campuses that comprise
  the University of North Carolinas public state
  higher education system.
• In 2000, UNC Charlotte met the criteria for
  Doctoral/ Research Intensive Carnegie
  classification. UNC Charlotte offers a wide and
  diverse array of liberal arts and professional
  programs to support baccalaureate and masters
  degree programs as well as a number of doctoral
  programs. UNC Charlotte does not currently have
  a medical school. UNC Charlotte forecasts FY09
  student enrollment of approximately 23,200
  students.
• In FY08, UNC Charlotte had 64 or 850 of total
  1,327 Faculty/EPA employees on 9 month salary
  appointment. In FY08, UNC Charlotte had 2,604
  total employees.
• UNC Charlotte forecasts FY09 sponsored project
  expenditures of 35 million, a 17 increase over
  FY08 sponsored project expenditures of 30
  million. UNC Charlotte currently has a Long Form
  F A Rate negotiated with the Department of
  Health Human Services until the end of FY09.

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Motivation to Change Effort Reporting System

• One of our sister campuses Eastern Carolina
  University (ECU) had an audit on 8/3/2004 by the
  National Library of Medicine (NML) that resulted
  in disallowed charges of 565,820 to the grant.
  There was also a large set aside of 1,786,568
  for adjudication by MLS officials. Audit
  findings were that ECU had inadequate internal
  and management controls over effort reporting.
  Auditors concluded ECU had not implemented an
  effort reporting system adequate to comply with
  the requirements of OMB Circular A-21.
• UNC Charlotte transitioned from SCTs Financial
  Reporting System (FRS Plus) and implemented SCT
  Banner Finance as its new enterprise reporting
  software application system in FY 2005. On
  January 1, 2006, UNC Charlotte implemented Banner
  Human Resources Module. UNC Charlotte is
  currently operating on Banner Version 7.3.

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Motivation to Change Effort Reporting System

• The January 1, 2006 Banner HR module
  implementation required UNC Charlotte to update
  and replace our former custom, ITS programmed
  Effort Reporting System. SCT/Banner did not
  offer a functioning Time Effort Reporting
  System Module available for January, 2006
  implementation.
• UNC Charlotte wanted to make sure that the
  former, 18 year old ITS custom paper Effort
  Reporting System was replaced with a continuously
  updated, compliant, online Web based effort
  system with written, well communicated, and
  enforced effort reporting procedures.
• Internal work processes required revamping to
  ensure accurate, timely effort reports were
  issued based on consistent calculation methods
  for timely certification within federal
  regulatory time requirement of 90 days.

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Decision to purchase Maximus Effort Reporting
System as a Sole Source

• A sole source purchase of the Maximus Effort
  Reporting System (ERS) was justified and approved
  on March, 2006 because due to our knowledge UNC
  Charlottes requirements for effort reporting
  could only be met by one vendor - Maximus Inc.,
  for the following three reasons

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Decision to purchase Maximus Effort Reporting
System as a Sole Source

• Software Complies with Federal Requirements (see
  ECU Audit report by DHHS August 2004 which
  approves Maximus ERS on page 5.)
• Software had to be ready to implement for
  immediate use without major customization in
  March 2006.
• Software must be able to interface with Banner
  Human Resources Software Module.

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Major Issues in Implementation

• Reporting Frequency
• Employee Groups to include/exclude in Effort
  Reporting System
• What Effort is Reported
• Cost Sharing
• ERS Cost Transfers
• RCT revised effort forms
• 9/12 conversion for 9 month paid employees in
  Maximus Effort Reporting System (ERS)

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Solutions to Major issues

• Reporting Frequency
• UNC Charlotte reviewed the effort reporting best
  practices of major universities in US. We found
  universities were certifying Faculty/EPA,
  Graduate Assistants, and SPA employees on either
  a monthly, quarterly, or semester basis within
  their automated, on-line effort reporting systems
  like Maximus ERS.
• We found most major research universities
  modified their hourly employees timecard to
  include an effort certification statement. The
  monthly paper time card submitted to payroll
  office served as the effort certification form
  for hourly paid temporary employees. Hourly
  employees were segregated and not included in
  their automated effort reporting systems which
  often were on a longer quarterly or semester
  reporting cycle.
• UNC Charlotte received approval from NC State
  auditors and DHHS Division of Cost Allocation to
  change to quarterly certification from monthly
  certification for employees groups included in
  Maximus ERS.
• UNC Charlotte aligned the effort reporting
  quarters to coincide with Facultys academic
  working year instead of the Universitys fiscal
  financial reporting year.
• UNC Charlotte revised the hourly and temporary
  monthly time card to include an effort
  certification statement and all sources of the
  employee institutional funding.

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Solutions to Major issues

• Reporting Frequency (Quarterly)
• 4 quarterly certifications versus 12 monthly
  certifications an academic year for Faculty.
  Tried to reduce certification administrative
  burden for busy faculty Certifiers as much as
  possible.
• 4 quarterly certifications a year versus 2
  semester certifications a year helps ensure all
  Faculty changes in certification are reviewed and
  cost transfers are exported from ERS into Banner
  HR within 90 days of charge to sponsored funds.
  We felt certification on semester basis may
  result in non-timely cost transfers being
  recorded outside of regulatory 90 day window.
• Quarterly certifications has helped us achieve
  100 certification of issued effort forms from
  campus Certifiers by effort reporting deadlines.
• Quarterly certification has focused more
  attention on accuracy of forms as the forms more
  closely correlate with their research and
  teaching calendar activities versus the
  institutions fiscal accounting year calendar.
• The following Effort Reporting Calendar is posted
  and updated each year online in WEB Maximus ERS
  under Help Tab and online under OSP Effort
  Reporting Procedures for campus community
  reference.

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Solutions to Major issues

• Employee Groups included/excluded in Effort
  Reporting System
• Included all permanent, professional SPA EPA
  employees 9 12 month Faculty Post-Doctoral,
  Graduate Assistants
• Excluded all hourly, non-professional SPA
  temporary and student employees

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Solutions to Major issues

• What Effort is Reported
• OSP reviewed Universitys Policy 99 Additional
  Compensation for Professional Services to the
  University
• Policy defines what constitutes Institutional
  Base Salary for Faculty when working on
  sponsored activities within 9 month contract
  period and outside 9 month contract period
  (summer).
• Policy 99 defines what constitutes Base
  Compensation Supplemental Compensation (Summer)
  and Incidental Compensation.
• OSP mapped all salary account codes for correct
  inclusion or exclusion as Institutional Base
  Salary on effort forms. These inclusion/exclusion
  rules change for 9 month Faculty depending on
  whether they are working on sponsored activities
  inside the contract period or outside the
  contract period. We now joke these rules are the
  Rosetta Stone to 9 month effort reporting.

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Solutions to Major issues

• Cost Sharing
• Maximus ERS reports committed salary cost share
  on a separate column on the employees effort
  form.
• Mandatory or Voluntary Committed Cost Share can
  be imported into ERS to automatically populate
  the cost share column on the effort form if
  budget data is available at the beginning of each
  effort reporting period.
• Cost share can also be added on to an employees
  effort form by the Department Administrator in
  online Pre Review process, or by the Certifier
  as part of the on line Certification process in
  ERS.
• An automated ERS Salary Cost Share Summary Report
  is run by Central Administrator at the end of
  each effort reporting cycle for export to
  Contract Grants Office to consolidate with
  non-salary and third party cost share fiscal year
  to date expenses in cost share data base.

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Solutions to Major issues

• Cost Transfers exported from ERS
• At the end of each reporting quarter, ERS Central
  Administrator runs the automated ERS Cost
  Transfer Summary Report in Export Function
• The ERS Cost Transfer Summary Report is reviewed
  and approved by the Cost Analysis Manager the
  Contracts Grants Manager and then sent to
  Budget Office to record in Banner HR.
• An ERS salary redistribution Banner audit report
  is run after ERS Cost Transfers are posted in
  Banner HR by Budget Office. The Banner audit
  report is returned to Cost Analysis Manager to
  confirm 100 of Cost Transfers are booked in
  Banner. ERS Central Administrator runs Accept
  function in Cost Transfer Export in ERS.
• Slide examples of ERS Cost Transfer Summary
  Report and Effort Form with a Cost Transfer
  certification change follow.

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ERS COST TRANSFER SUMMARY REPORT
8,463.19 Total Debit to 101XXX 8,463.19 Total
Credit to 5XXXXXs Reduction in effort to
sponsored fund from Budget Personnel Action Form.

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Solutions to Major issues

• RCT Revised Effort Forms
• RCT Feature in ERS imports retroactive payroll
  adjustments made in Banner HR so an employees
  current or prior certified effort form can be
  revised if the impact on the effort form is
  material (gt1).
• ERS Central Administrator imports the RCT file
  into Maximus ERS from Banner HR with retro pay
  transactions on a weekly basis. Each institution
  determines own schedule (daily, weekly, etc)
  depending on volume of retro pay transactions
  made by Payroll Office.
• ERS Central Administrator then issues RCT revised
  effort form and sends to Department Administrator
  (DA) to complete online PreReview. DA notifies
  Certifier to recertify effort form due to retro
  pay adjustments.

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Solutions to Major issues

• 9/12 conversion for 9 month paid employees in
  effort reporting
• In FY08, UNC Charlotte had 64 or 850 of total
  1,327 Faculty/EPA employees on 9 month salary
  appointment
• 9 month Faculty employees are paid on 12 month or
  12/12 basis via 24 semi-monthly pay periods at
  UNC Charlotte
• However, Sponsored Awards budget salary dollar
  amounts and effort on a 9 month or 9/12 basis
  to conform with these employees academic year
  appointment period.
• Therefore, payroll dollar amounts imported into
  ERS from Banner HR must be converted from 12/12
  cash basis to 9/12 (aka as accrual basis) for
  certification on effort forms. This is necessary
  to achieve consistency in certification of
  actual effort compared to budgeted effort
  for the sponsored fund activity for 9 month
  employees paid on a 12 month basis.

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Other Issues in Implementation

• Assigning Department Administration and Faculty
  Roles within Effort Reporting System
• Determination of who is allowed to certify effort
  forms at UNC Charlotte
• Training on transition from paper based effort
  certification and reporting to online, WEB based
  effort reporting system
• UNC Charlotte ERS Help Desk for Password resets,
  training and online assistance.

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QUESTIONS ?

• CONTACT INFORMATION
• STEVE SELBY
• EMAIL seselby_at_uncc.edu
• KAREN FARLEY
• EMAIL kjfarley_at_uncc.edu