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The last piece of the puzzle. Brenda Harrell Manager, Cost Analysis Finance and Accounting. Agenda. System Overview. Comprised of 3 Modules Faculty Assignment Report Commitments Effort Certification. Why is Effort Reporting Required?. Why is Effort Reporting Required?.
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The last piece of the puzzle Brenda Harrell Manager, Cost Analysis Finance and Accounting
System Overview • Comprised of 3 Modules • Faculty Assignment Report • Commitments • Effort Certification
Why is Effort Reporting Required? Effort reporting is required for all federally sponsored research projects, based on OMB Circular A-21, Revised - “Cost Principles for Educational Institutions.”
Why is Effort Reporting Required? At the state level, effort reporting is used to demonstrate compliance with the 12-hour law through reporting to Board of Governors. “Each full-time equivalent teaching faculty member at a university who is paid wholly from state funds shall teach a minimum of 12 classroom contact hours per week…” “Any full-time faculty member who is paid partly from state funds…shall teach a minimum number of contact hours in proportion to…12 contact hours.”
Institutional Penalties for Non-compliance There can be severe penalties for non-compliance to the institution. • Repayment of external funding, direct costs • Fines • Stricter federal monitoring of grant transactions (potential loss of expanded authorities and spending flexibilities) • Loss of public credibility – Adverse publicity and its potential impact to funding, endowments, and financial gifts
Individual Consequences of Non-compliance There can be severe consequences for non-compliance to the individual researcher: • Reduced current and future external funding for research • Inaccurate reporting of activities for annual evaluations and promotion & tenure • Loss of professional esteem and credibility • Fines • Imprisonment
Approval Path – CERT_EMPLOYEE Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator
Approval Path – CERT_EMPLOYEE Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator The Effort Coordinator reviews the individual’s courses, commitments, payroll, etc. to allocate the effort to be ready to certify
Approval Path – CERT_EMPLOYEE Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator The Effort Coordinator reviews the individual’s courses, commitments, payroll, etc. to allocate the effort to be ready to certify The Employee reviews if the information is correct, makes any changes that are needed and then certifies the effort once reviewed
Approval Path – CERT_EMPLOYEE Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator The Effort Coordinator reviews the individual’s courses, commitments, payroll, etc. to allocate the effort to be ready to certify The Employee reviews if the information is correct, makes any changes that are needed and then certifies the effort once reviewed If no changes are made by the employee, the system automatically finalizes the certification report!
Approval Path – CERT_EMPLOYEE Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator The Effort Coordinator reviews the individual’s courses, commitments, payroll, etc. to allocate the effort to be ready to certify The Employee reviews if the information is correct, makes any changes that are needed and then certifies the effort once reviewed If no changes are made by the employee, the system automatically finalizes the certification report! If changes are made by the employee, the report will route back to the Effort Coordinator for finalization.
Approval Path – CERT_PI Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator
Approval Path – CERT_PI Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator The Effort Coordinator reviews the individual’s courses, commitments, payroll, etc. to allocate the effort to be ready to certify
Approval Path – CERT_PI Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator The Effort Coordinator reviews the individual’s courses, commitments, payroll, etc. to allocate the effort to be ready to certify The PI/Supervisor reviews if the information is correct. If the information is not correct, the PI must deny the report and send it back to the Effort Coordinator. The PI cannot make changes at this step.
Approval Path – CERT_PI Effort Initiator (Cost Analysis/OIPR) releases the Effort Certification to the Department Effort Coordinator The Effort Coordinator reviews the individual’s courses, commitments, payroll, etc. to allocate the effort to be ready to certify The PI/Supervisor reviews if the information is correct. If the information is not correct, the PI must deny the report and send it back to the Effort Coordinator. The PI cannot make changes at this step. Once certified, if there are no overrides to errors, the system will automatically finalize the report and advance it to Cost Analysis/OIPR.
HR Account Code/Job Code • Old System: • Each HR Account Code and Job Code combination created a line for allocation. • New System: • The grouping is by active/applicable Job Record, not by HR Account Code.
Holistic View • Old System: • The old system featured one holistic view for all HR Account Codes and Job Records to certify. • New System: • The new system will show all effort at the Job Record.
Allocation Percentages • Old System: • The total allocation percentage that was listed in effort was based on FTE. • For example, if an individual was 1.0 FTE or full time, then he or she had 100% effort to assign. However, if the individual worked .5 FTE then they would have a max of 50% effort to assign. • New System: • 100% is reported per each active/applicable job record. If an employee has 2 job records, then the employee will have 100% to report for each job record.
Loan/Borrows • Old System: • Loans and Borrows were done to give credit for class room teaching when: • Courses taught in other departments • Where the pay was from another account code • New System: • Loans and Borrows are no longer needed. • The Instructor Workload files (IWF) should be accurate. • Courses from the IWF will be loaded into Effort Reporting. • Some effort is expected in each course, and if it is left blank the system will issue an error.
Loan/Borrows • Old System: • Loans and Borrows were the preferred method of recording salary used to meet Cost Sharing commitments that were required by Grants. • The department would Loan and Borrow from a state or other fund to a grant project. • New System: • Loans and Borrows are no longer needed. • For Cost Sharing, commitments should be loaded in the Commitments Module to reflect any cost sharing required.
Salary Dollars Paid • Old System: • Drill through was done through the HR Account Code to show the total dollar amount paid. • For each HRAC to which you had security access, you click on the link and see a detail screen where you could review the amount paid with report activities. • Total included both salary and fringe. • New System: • New A-21 View. • The data presented lists total amount paid by HRAC and then percentages of Payroll Paid and Expected Effort. • Detail of payroll charges by pay period end can be viewed by clicking on the Paid Amount hyperlink and lists a detail of payroll. • Amounts are salary only.
Instruction Reporting • Old System: • Instruction was reported at the course-section level and course level (G1, G2) in the department’s state account. This was reported in funds 101, 102, and 103 with program code 1100. • You had to Borrow/Loan the funds from one of these in order to report teaching effort if the employee did not receive funding from them. • New System: • Loans and Borrows are no longer needed. • Instruction is reported at course-section level or Other Instructional Activities (OIA). • Starting the Fall Term, there will be a process that will reconcile the Instructor Workload File (IWF) and the FAR up to the close of the IWF. • A discrepancy report will be available and departments can address the issues up to the closing date.
Instruction Reporting • Old System: • No method of comparing the courses assigned on the FAR and the courses reported on the IWF existed. • Departments saw the Max Effort allowed and took that into consideration when assigning effort. • New System: • Going forward the IWF should be 100% accurate at the time we close it. • Only those courses will be on the Effort Certification. • Some effort must be entered for each course. If left blank, the system will display an error. • If the Effort exceeds the calculated Max Effort, it will automatically be reported as Other Instructional Activity (OIA).
Over the Cap • Old System: • There was no method to notify the department if someone was over the salary cap according to NIH guidelines. • New System: • Over the Cap is now addressed in both Committed and Certified Modules. • The new system calculates the over the cap (OTC) percentage and displays it for the employee. It also shows the amount of effort that is expected due to the salary cap.
Certification of Students • Old System: • Everyone certified his/her own effort unless there was a proxy assigned. • New System: • All Faculty and PI’s will continue to certify for themselves. • However, any employee that works for a PI on a project will no longer certify their own effort. • The PI will certify their effort for them.
Proxies • Old System: • The request was done electronically through the system for an employee with suitable means of verification. • Core Office approval was needed for any Proxy other than Terminated or House Staff employees • New System: • The Proxy request is still electronic and will be approved or denied by the central office. • Proxy must be a person with suitable means of verification. • If an employee works for more than one PI, then there would be more than one proxy required.
Proxies for Terminated Employees • Old System: • Every terminated employee had to have a proxy assigned. • This meant that a lot of proxies had to be requested. • New System: • A lot of the terminated employees are students that worked on grants • Since the PI will be certifying for these employees now, the proxy will not need to assigned. • This will greatly reduce the number of proxies that will need to be requested.
Warning & Error Messages • Old System: • Limited feedback was provided by the system to help the users identify where there may be required changes or review of effort. • New System: • There are improved info messages that provide feedback when other actions may need to take be performed.
Authorizing Effort • Old System: • All departments’ effort had to be authorized by a Dean, Director, or Department Head. • New System: • No authorization is required, only certification by a person with suitable means of verification that the effort was performed as presented.
Simplified Certification Form • Old System: • Every person saw a similar certification form to review. • There were three different forms, but everyone saw the same categories and activities. • Nothing was hidden and much needed to be explained. • New System: • The final certification has been simplified. • Many activities will not appear unless the employee reported effort for that activity • For Example, Advising and Auxiliary Effort will only appear if chosen.
Effort Allocations • Old System: • Effort allocations could only be input and updated by the Department Effort Coordinator. • New System: • If the approval path of the certification is CERT_EMPLOYEE, the individual will have the opportunity to correct the allocations of effort themselves. • They will not need to contact the Effort Coordinator to do so.
Retro’s • Old System: • Retro’s were only captured in the system once during the term. • Retro’s outside of the dates of a closed term or after the retro upload required a re-certification on paper. • New System: • When a retro is input into the system, it is interactive with the effort system. • Even if the deadline has passed for a closed term, a retro will force the effort system to create a new effort certification to re-certify their effort electronically.
Paper Certifications • Old System: • Paper certifications were required if there was a change needed by the PI after the term closes, or if the PI/Faculty member does not certify in time. • The paper certification were also required if there was a retro that did not make it in the effort system in time by the retro deadline. • New System: • There will be no need for paper certifications. • Even when the deadline to certify has been passed, the PI/Faculty member can still certify on-line.
