Transcript Research Concepts - Northwestern University

Basics of Effort Reporting
Updated: 04/30/2009
Questions?
Contact Jennifer Wei at
[email protected]
7-2473
Basics of Effort Reporting
Why Effort Reporting ?
As a recipient of significant external funding, the University must assure
Federal and other sponsors that the assignment of time and associated
salary and fringe benefit costs to the projects they sponsor is fair,
consistent, and timely. The University fulfills this responsibility through
Effort Reporting. It is the method by which institutions ensure salary
costs, generally the largest cost component of any grant, are charged
appropriately. Effort reporting is required of nearly all exempt faculty and
staff in departments with sponsored funding.
Effort Reporting is certified by the faculty members/certifier on a quarterly
basis.
Effort Reporting Is Verification That:
Appropriate salary and wage expenses were charged to sponsored programs
Labor represents ~ 75% of direct research costs
Cost Sharing (Mandatory and Voluntary Committed) was performed as
promised
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Effort Certification
Not everybody needs an effort report. Who should have an effort report?
Any person paid (or with a commitment) on a sponsored award must certify that the
salary paid (or the commitment) is reasonable in relation to the effort (activity)
devoted to the award. Non-exempt employees, who are paid hourly, do not have
effort reports as submitting timesheets is an acceptable method of verifying their
grant charges per A-21.
Who should be the certifier?
Effort report may not be certified by the employee him/herself. Per A-21: “Reports
will reasonably reflect the activities for which employees are compensated by the
institution. To confirm that the work performed by the employee during the period,
the reports will be signed by the employee, principal investigator, or responsible
official(s) using suitable means of verification that the work was performed.”
NU Effort Policy #9:
Faculty are required to certify (sign) their own effort reports, and also are required
to certify the effort reports of the research staff working on their sponsored projects
(graduate students, post doctoral fellows, and other similar persons)
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Risk of Non-compliance…
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Northwestern – Audit Finding in 2003
Agency - NIH
Institutional Base Salary and Effort Reporting
NIH Position:
• Clinical practice effort must be included and accounted for on
university effort report
• Clinical practice effort/compensation must be included and
accounted for on university appointment form and paid through
university
• Adequate compliance mechanisms to reconcile proposed
salary and effort commitment with actual experience
K award
Typically, 75% commitment is required (a minimum of 75%
full-time professional effort must be spent conducting
research and research career development)
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Key Principle
Principle
Principle Detail
At NU, effort reporting is certified  If salary charge is greater than
on a quarterly basis. In a given
the Effort certified for a
quarter, the certified % of effort
sponsored project, the
must be equal to or more than
sponsored account must be
the % of salary charged and
credited to ensure that the
cost-shared to the grant
sponsored project is not over
charged.
 Adjustments to salary charges
must be made before Effort
Report is completed.
 Commitments should be met
during the budget period.
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Key Topics
100% Effort ≠ 40 ≠ 60 ≠ 80 hours per week
No fixed work week
100% Effort = Estimated total number of hours worked on University compensated
activities
Full Workload/Institutional Base Salary (IBS)
IBS is the annual compensation paid by an organization for an employee’s
appointments, whether that individual’s time is spent on research, teaching, patient
care, or other activities. Base salary excludes any income that an individual is
permitted to earn outside of duties for the applicant/grantee organization (NIH Grants
Policy Statement, December 2003)
Effort Includes
•
•
teaching, research and administration, and NMFF activity, if applicable
appointments as chair, dean, and/or center director (e.g. object code 0060)
Effort Excludes
•
•
outside consulting activities, activities associated with affiliated entities other than NMFF
VA compensated effort
Faculty must certify their own effort certifications, in addition to those of
their research staff; inappropriate for BAs/RAs to certify effort for the
department
Salary cap for NIH awards
If actual salary is higher than the NIH salary cap for a NIH award, the difference
must be funded by a non-sponsored account, usually a department account
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Key Topics
Commitment and salary charges on sponsored accounts
Most faculty responsibilities would preclude one being paid 100%
from sponsored projects
Competitive proposal writing (new or renewal) and regular
administrative duties cannot be charged to sponsored awards
Non-competitive, continuation award proposals (progress reports) –
can be included as part of sponsored projects effort
Special care in determining if research faculty can be charged
100%; If the research faculty member writes competitive proposals,
his/her salary cannot be 100% charged to sponsored projects.
Faculty members and senior researchers (key personnel) must
commit some effort to the sponsored project within the fiscal
year unless specifically exempted by the sponsor (e.g.,
equipment grants)
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Key Topics
Summer effort (9-month faculty only)
Certification will most likely only be for sponsored activities related to
summer salary received from sponsors
Agency prior approvals are required if:
25% reduction in time devoted to the project per budget period
Example: 35% charged and 5% committed cost share (CCS) effort
Reduction to 30% effort requires agency approval:
(5% CCS and 25% charged effort)
Absence of 3 months or more
Change in key personnel should be communicated to the agency and
OSR
Consistency of reporting effort: Progress reports, current pending &
support pages, effort reports and financial status reports
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Effort Reporting System (ERS)
ERS is the system NU utilizes for Effort
Reporting
Web address (case sensitive):
https://ersweb.itcs.northwestern.edu/GenericERS
Effort reports are generated 4 times a year (on a
quarterly basis)
ERS sends automatic emails to the faculty members
once the effort report is reviewed by the department
administrator and ready for certification.
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Central Administrator (CA)
Initializes new Effort Reports quarterly
Sends notification to Departments for pre review
Effort
Basics of Effort Reporting
Certification
Process in ERS
Pre Reviewer (Business Administrator)
• Pre Reviews commitment and payroll distribution; makes
adjustments (CT or CS) as needed
• When complete, automatic e-mail notification is sent to Certifier
via bulk e-mail
Certification
Certifier (Faculty)
• Certifies actual effort by award in terms of percentages of total
effort expended
• If percentages were updated, an automatic e-mail is sent to the
Post Reviewer
Post Reviewer (Business Administrator)
• Administrator Post Reviews the effort forms if the Certifier
made changes to the effort percentages reflected in Pre Review
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Example: Certifying an Effort Form
Total % =
Payroll % (paid effort) + Cost
shared effort entered by the Pre
Reviewer
Faculty member
enters effort % for
certification. See
Certification
screen-by-screen
guide for details
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Example: Certified Effort Report
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Basics of Effort Reporting
Effort Reporting System Support & Project Contact
NetID and password support
1-4357 (NUIT)
NetID and Password Security:
http://www.it.northwestern.edu/netid/security.html
Effort Reporting Operational Support
Jennifer Wei (Oversees Effort Reporting, 7-2473)
• Kathleen Doherty (Chicago, 3-0857)
• Tina Mete (Evanston, 1-6755)
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Basics of Effort Reporting
References
ERS System Tutorials (screen-by-screen guides)
https://ersweb.itcs.northwestern.edu/GenericERS/tutorial/Tutorial_Certification.html
Effort Reporting Homepage (Effort policies and procedures):
http://www.northwestern.edu/asrsp/effort.html
90-Day Memo Form and Instruction
http://www.northwestern.edu/finsys/ps/forms
ORI Training Materials (including Effort Reporting 101) Download:
http://www.research.northwestern.edu/guide/training
Click on Research Administration Training Seminar Materials
Effort Reporting System (ERS) Logon Page:
https://ersweb.itcs.northwestern.edu/GenericERS
*Note: URLs are case-sensitive
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