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Time & Effort System
Texas A&M University
Research Services
Karan Watkins
Effort Reporting Administrator
[email protected]
Why is Time & Effort Required?
•
Federal Regulations require universities to document the
distribution of activity on federal projects.
•
Each year Texas A&M receives millions of dollars from the
federal government, State of Texas, and other organizations
that sponsor research. As a recipient of these funds, we agree
to the required terms and conditions.
•
Research Expenditures – Texas A&M University
FY 2008 $585 million
FY 2009 $631 million
•
FY 2008 TAMU ranked 20th in NSF’s annual report of top
academic research institutions. The goal for 2020 is to be
ranked in the top 10.
When is it Required?
• Required for individuals working on federal,
State of Texas, and certain other non-federal
sponsored projects.
• Required for employees paid directly from a
sponsored project - Budgeted
• Required for employees paid from other nonsponsored funds - Cost Shared
What is Effort?
• Effort is the amount of time spent on a particular activity,
expressed as a percentage of all the time you spend on
your A&M job duties.
• Examples of typical job duties include:
• Instruction
• Administration (meetings, committees)
• Public Service or Extension
• Research activities – Internal (funded by department or college)
• Research activities - External (sponsored projects)
Activities NOT Included in Effort Certification
• Consulting for extra pay through a nonUniversity consulting agreement
• Supplemental or overload pay for teaching
continuing education courses
• Extra activities (i.e., working at an athletic
event as a ticket taker)
How is Effort Determined?
•
100% Effort = Total time estimated for ALL University activities
Exempt Employees ≠ 40 hours ≠ 60 hours ≠ 10 hours
•
Example: If an employee works on average 60 hours per week, and
devotes 40 hours a week to a sponsored project and 20 hours a week
to instruction, the employee's report should reflect 67% effort devoted
to the sponsored project (40 hours divided by 60 total-effort hours) and
33% to instruction.
$5,000/month (Institutional Base Salary)
$5,000 X 6 months = $30,000 (100% IBS for the reporting period)
$21,000 to the sponsored project – 67%
$9,900 to instruction – 33%
100% Effort = 67% + 33%
100% IBS = $30,000
Determining the Committed
Level of Effort
• A minimal commitment is required on the part
of the PI and other key personnel during the
project. The University’s minimum commitment
is 1%. The minimum requirement does not
apply to:
• Equipment grants
• Dissertation support
• Student augmentation grants (i.e.
dissertation support, scholarship/fellowship
grants, etc.).
• Limited-purpose grants such as travel
grants or conference support
How precise do we have to be?
• Distribution of effort is based on payroll data from the
University’s payroll system.
• Federal guidelines state that the payroll distribution
system should reasonably reflect the activity for which
the employee is compensated.
• TAMU policy allows for a 5% variance when certifying
T&E reports. As a general rule of thumb, a change
applicable to a given project or activity of 5% or more
of an employee’s total effort would warrant a payroll
correction.
What about Cost Sharing?
• Cost-sharing represents that portion of the
total costs of a sponsored agreement that are
not paid for by the sponsor.
• Cost-sharing of effort represents a
contribution of institutional resources to
support sponsored agreements.
• Any commitment of effort stated in the project
proposal or the award document must be
performed and reported in the effort reporting
system.
Time & Effort Red Flags!
• Late effort reports – Must be certified within
45 days from the date the report is made
available to you (will usually be the first week
after the end of the reporting period)
• Effort certified by someone without first hand
knowledge (suitable means of verification)
• Payroll corrections after the time and effort
report has been initially certified
• Percent of effort for non-sponsored activities
is not credibly sufficient (i.e., teaching load,
admin. duties, other research grants)
Who will certify effort?
• Faculty members and employees with PI eligible job
titles are required to certify their own time and effort
reports.
• Effort reports for other employees including graduate
students and other student workers will be certified
by the employee’s supervisor.
• Employee Confirmation is an optional feature of the
Time and Effort system that allows non PI-eligible
employees to agree that their report is correct prior to
certification by their manager.
How often are T&E reports certified?
Texas A&M faculty and personnel that are paid
monthly (exempt employees) will certify their effort biannually based on the calendar year using the web
based Time and Effort System through Single SignOn (https://sso.tamus.edu/logon.aspx).
I. January – June will be certified in July
II. July – December will be certified in January
Employees Paid from TimeTraq
• Beginning January 2010, supervisors of non-exempt
TAMU personnel paid via the TimeTraq system will
certify effort bi-weekly during the time approval
process.
• Employees will still receive a paycheck even if the
time and effort cannot be accurately certified at the
time a supervisor approves the timesheet.
• Time and Effort not certified during the bi-weekly
approval process will require certification during the
bi-annual period via the SSO Time and Effort
System.
Certification Statement
• “I certify that this report reasonably
reflects the activities for which I have
been compensated, during this
period. If I am certifying on behalf of
one of my employees, I certify that I
have knowledge of this person's work
activities and that this report reasonably
reflects those activities for which this
employee has been compensated.”
Example of Effort Document
Departmental Administrator Role
• Initial point of contact for time and effort
questions is your departmental business
administrator.
• Contact your departmental business
administrator when:
• Effort report does not appear to be accurate
• Payroll corrections are necessary
Texas A&M University Research Services
Karan Watkins
Effort Reporting Administrator
[email protected]
(979) 862-1765
https://sso.tamus.edu/logon.aspx