Rule 3349-20-18 | Effort reporting.
(A) Purpose
The university must ensure payroll costs, example, salary, wages, stipends and fringe benefits, that are charged to sponsored programs adhere to the effort reporting requirements in the office of management and budgets ("OMB") uniform guidance 2 C.F.R. 200 Section 200.430.
(B) Scope
This rule applies to all faculty, staff, students, and fellows with payroll charges or effort commitments on sponsored programs if they are paid directly by the sponsored award or cost shared from other funding sources.
(C) Definitions
Consult rule 3349-7-01 of the Administrative Code.
(1) "Actual Effort" is the actual effort expended on a sponsored program; and is usually expressed as a percentage of total effort.
(2) "Cost Sharing of Effort" is the portion of total effort not paid by the sponsor. For example, twenty per cent effort commitment with a request for fifteen per cent salary support results in a five per cent cost sharing commitment.
(3) "Effort Commitment" is the proportion of effort proposed by faculty, staff, students or fellows to carry out their stated role on a sponsored program. This can be expressed as a percentage or in person months. The terms "effort commitment" and "committed effort" are interchangeable.
(4) "Institutional Base Salary" is the annual compensation paid by the university for an individual's appointment, whether that individual's time is spent on research, instruction, administration, or other activities. Institutional base salary excludes any income that an individual earns outside of duties performed for the university.
(5) "Principal Investigator" refers to the faculty or staff member designated by the sponsor to have the appropriate level of authority and responsibility to direct the project or program supported by the grant.
(6) "Person Months" is a method of expressing effort percentage by normalizing an individual's effort percentage compared to their appointment length, which may be a partial year appointment. For example, an individual with a twelve month appointment devoting twenty per cent effort would be working 2.4 person months (calculated by multiplying twenty per cent times twelve months equals 2.4 person months). Many federal sponsors require effort commitments to be proposed in person months.
(7) "Significant Reduction in Committed Effort" is defined as a variance greater than twenty five per cent between committed effort and anticipated actual effort. For example, a personal investigator with a twenty per cent effort commitment who anticipates only being able to devote ten per cent effort would have a significant reduction in committed effort, calculated by the following: (effort commitment less anticipated effort) divided by effort commitment or numerically: (twenty per cent - ten per cent) / twenty per cent equals fifty per cent reduction in effort, which is greater than twenty five per cent and may require sponsor approval prior to reducing effort.
(8) "Total Effort" is the sum of all effort expended or planned to be expended for a period of time; this includes all activities for which an individual is paid their institutional base salary. The total effort calculation is based on the time necessary to fulfill one hundred per cent of activities for which an individual is compensated, regardless of the number of hours worked; it is not based on a forty hour work week.
(D) Rule statement
(1) Effort commitments are expressed in percentages or person months when proposed to the sponsor. Once the proposal is awarded, those effort amounts become effort commitments that must be met within a reasonable variance (example, +/- twenty-five per cent change between committed effort and actual effort).
(2) Key personnel, which includes the principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or other individuals named in the notice of grant award or contract, are typically required to request prior written approval from the sponsor when they anticipate a significant reduction in effort (example, a twenty-five per cent reduction in effort or a twelve week absence).
(3) University employs an after-the-fact effort certification method as described in the Legacy OMB Circular-A-21, Section J.10, which requires payroll distributions to be updated on a continual basis to account for new awards or changes in effort with actual effort being certified on a semi-annual basis on time and effort certification reports.
(4) Sponsored programs will be separately identified on the time and effort certification reports with payroll charges expressed as percentages of payroll charged to the sponsored program in relation to all institutional base salary during the certification period.
(5) Cost sharing of effort will not be displayed on the time and effort certification reports. When applicable, the employee must list all cost sharing of effort for the certification period. In the event effort is separately identified where the sponsored program is listed as payroll charges and also has cost sharing of effort, the total of the two combined funding sources is representative of the total effort for the project requiring certification.
(6) Time and effort certification reports must be certified by an appropriate individual.
(a) Faculty who are principal investigators may certify their effort for their own awards.
(b) All other individuals must have their effort certified by
(i) The named employee on the time and effort certification report; and
(ii) The principal investigator(s) for the sponsored program(s) that appear on the time and effort certification report.
(c) In special circumstances where an individual has terminated, is on an extended leave of absence, or not accessible, the following individual(s) may be appropriately certify that individual's time and effort certification report:
(i) The principal investigator(s),
(ii) Named employee's supervisor, or
(iii) Department chair, or
(iv) Another responsible institutional official who has suitable means to verify the work was performed during the certification period. Proper documentation must accompany the time and effort certification report to justify the appropriateness of the alternate certifier.
(7) The certifier is responsible for reviewing all payroll lines on the time and effort certification report and certifying that the payroll percentages charged to each sponsored program (paid and cost-shared) and all other activities reasonably agree with how the employee devoted their actual effort during the certification period.
(8) Supplemental earnings for duties outside of an individual's primary appointment (or job duties) for which they are paid an institutional base salary are not included on the time and effort certification report.
(9) All sponsored program activities must be reported on the time and effort certification report--even if those activities are not identified on the report prepared by grants accounting. This includes all cost sharing commitment and situations where the notice of award has not been issued, an index number has not been established, or payroll distributions have not been updated in time to be reflected on the time and effort certification report.
(10) An individual's payroll distribution must be promptly updated to agree with the certified time and effort certification report when changes are made.
(11) The time and effort certification report cannot be adjusted once certified, unless the adjustment is to reduce overstated effort.
(E) Responsibility
(1) Principal investigator is responsible for adhering to this rule in its entirety.
(2) Office of research and sponsored programs is responsible for evaluating effort commitments at the proposal and award stages.
(3) Grants accounting is responsible for generating and tracking time and effort certification reports.
Last updated November 18, 2021 at 3:40 PM
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