Transcript Effort Reporting

Effort Reporting
What is it and how is Effort
determined?
Presented by
Sponsored Programs
Accounting
What is Effort Reporting?
Required by OMB Circular A-21:
Section J(2).
 It is the process of confirming that an
employee’s salary distribution reflects the
actual effort of that employee on all
university activities.
 Effort should be calculated based on a
reasonable estimate of the percentage of
effort expended over the course of the
reporting period.

How is Effort determined?

Starts with the translation of Salary
expenses into percentages.

Examples will be provided later.

Covers all Institutional activities.

Total Effort always equals 100% ;
regardless of hours worked.
(Exceptions:
Wage payroll, teaching external courses (including summer
courses)).
Who is an appropriate certifier
Generally the employee being paid by the
university.
 Also may be the Principal Investigator or
the Supervisor of the employee.
 MUST BE someone that has a “suitable
means of verification that work was
performed”.

How is it determined? (Example 1)
A 12-month JMU employee, is paid an
annual salary of $50,000 (4167/month).
 From May 16 – Aug 15 (3 months), he/she
works on a Sponsored Award and receives
$8300 of their salary from the grant.
 Summer effort would be 66% Grant
($8300/12,501) ; 34% JMU ((12501-8300 / 12501))
under this salary distribution.

How is it determined? (Example 2)
Assume the same data as the previous
slide: A 12-month employee, paid $50,000
 From May 16 – Aug 15 (3 months), he/she
works on a Sponsored Award and receives
an additional $8300 from the grant.

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
Note this is very rare, but does occur.
In this case, Summer effort would be 40%
($8300/20,801) Grant; 60% JMU ((20801-8300 /
20801)).

Note the total % remains 100% even with the increase
total salary.
What about Academic Year Faculty?
For Effort Reporting purposes, an
academic year contract is defined as “9
month”.
 While paid over a 12 month period, their
“institutional base salary” (IBS) is based
on 9 months of effort.
 ERS recalculates earned payroll so the IBS
is recognized in the Fall, Spring semesters
only.


That is, no Departmental (IBS) salary will be
shown on the Effort Forms for these employees
in the summer.
9-Month Faculty (Example 3):
A 9-month (academic year) JMU
employee, is paid an annual salary of
$50,000 (4167/month).
 From May 16 – Aug 15, he/she works on a
Federal Grant and receives $8300;
 Summer effort should be 100% Grant;
since no effort for university activities
were required over the summer.

Why does this matter?

Sponsored Program budgets are calculated on the
percentage of time an employee will apply to the
sponsored project. The employee is then
obligated to meet the time commitment
expressed by this percentage, regardless of the
other commitments they may have with the
University. Accordingly, using examples 1 and 2;
if the employee promised 66% of their effort to
the grant, they would have not met that
commitment in Example 2 even though the grant
paid the same amount of salary. (The sponsor
did not receive what they were promised).
How does the Effort Reporting System
(ERS) work?
ERS is loaded with salary data for the
semester (Spring, Summer, Fall) from the
Payroll System.
 This data is then manually adjusted by
Sponsored Programs Accounting (SPA) to
reflect other relevant accounting entries

(ATV’s moving salary to another DeptID, Retro-pay, etc.)

ERS then converts this adjusted salary
data to percentages based on Department
ID’s used for salary.
How does ERS work? (cont’ed)



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
Once the certifications are released by SPA, any
JMU employee that received salary from a grant
receives an email with link to ERS.
This person logs into ERS with their JMU
eID/Password (same one used for email).
Person then determines if the percentage(s)
listed reasonably represents actual effort
The Employee certifies the percentage(s); or
enters a correction.
SPA then completes a post review of modified
certifications.

This post review generally requires accounting entries to
adjust salary data to match the percentages entered.
Is there anything else captured by ERS?
Yes - MATCHING!
(Also called Cost Sharing)
Committed Cost Share (Matching)
Cost Share is given to the sponsor as a
contribution to the grant.
 If this contribution is employee time
(effort), the in-kind value should be
captured by ERS.
 While this effort will not be reflected as
salary expense from the grant, it must be
tracked in the University’s records so it
can be documented to the sponsor.

Matching Example:
A 12-month JMU employee, is hired with
an annual salary of 50,000 (4167/month).
 From May 16 – Aug 15 (3 months), employee
pledged 2/3rds of her time on a grant.
 Effort recorded for the employee should
be 67% Grant; 33% JMU.
 The in-kind value of that contribution to
the grant would be $8,375 (4167 * 3 months *
67%).

What should you really take from this
presentation?
1)
2)
It is important to document the amount of time
you spend on your JMU activities so you have
basis to support your effort certifications.
It is important to submit any paperwork (PAR
forms or ATV’s) promptly to ensure all salary
adjustments are included in the ERS
calculations.
What should you really take from this
presentation? (cont’ed)
3) If you provided Match to a grant (but no
salary from a grant), you may contact SPA
and request a Certification to document
this match for that semester.
4) Someone with ‘suitable means of
verification’ must certify. (They should
keep records as well!)
Questions

Contact Sponsored Programs Accounting:


Kyra Shiflet ([email protected]) 8/7108
John Hulvey ([email protected]) 8/3725