Cost Accounting Services
Costing Policies
- Cost Policy on Sponsored Agreements
- Cost Transfer UOP (effective 1/1/2013)
- Effort Management & Reporting Policy
- Movable Equipment Policy
Q & a
Quick links
- OMB Circular A-21
- OMB Circular A-110
- Direct vs. F&A (Indirect Costs)
- Direct Cost Allocation Examples
- F&A Rates
- Benefit Rates
- Cost Accounting Standards Disclosure Statement
- Rates Agreement with Federal Government
- Major Functions
- Space Usage & Equipment Inventory
- Effort Mgmt & Reporting Tutorial
- UVM Financial Management Operations Manual
Work with our office
Is there any
web
based training available on effort certification?
Yes. A web
based tutorial covering effort management and reporting topics
including effort certification may be found at the following web
site. Encourage your departmental faculty and staff to review
the information prior to certifying their effort.
What is effort management and
reporting?
- Effort
management is the budgeting, planning and
monitoring of someone's effort for a specific period of time
such as a budget period. Effective effort management ensures
that effort commitments to sponsors within the context of
all activities included in someone's 100% effort.
- Effort reporting is the federally-mandated process by which the salary charged to a sponsored agreement is certified as being reasonable in relation to work performed on the sponsored agreement. The details of this federal requirement are outlined in section J.10 of OMB Circular A-21, Cost Principles for Educational Institutions - Compensation for Personal Services.
What is committed effort?
Committed effort is that proportion of an individual’s institutional effort that will be devoted to a sponsored activity. Effort proposed for a PI or other key personnel in a grant application, typically in the budget and/or budget narrative, becomes a commitment (or obligation) the university must fulfill unless explicitly modified during award negotiations with the sponsor. The cost associated with committed effort may be borne by the sponsor (charged to the grant or contract) or by the institution (cost-sharing).
What is the significance
of certifying an effort report?
Signed effort reports are the equivalent of sworn statements about the correctness and substantial accuracy of your commitment of labor to each project. In recent years, federal funding agencies have greatly increased their scrutiny of these reports. Our ability to justify these time records could be the source of preventing serious difficulties for both the University and individual researchers.
Who is required to certify
effort?
May someone certify effort for someone else?
Yes. A Principal Investigator or responsible official may certify for someone. Keep in my that these individuals are required to have first hand knowledge or suitable means of verification to certify for someone else. If the employee is available, the preference is to have the employee certify their effort.
How often do I need to certify my effort?
- For semi-monthly paid employees, a Peoplesoft report (job-aid) is reviewed, signed and dated once a year. Typically, the certification of effort occurs during the August/September time period subsequent to the end of the fiscal year. Certified effort reports must be submitted to the Cost Accounting Services department by the subsequent September 30 of each fiscal year.
- For bi-weekly paid employees, the submission of hours process signifies the certification by the employee.
If a change
is warranted, what action do I need to take?
If a change is made on an effort report,
then a salary distribution form must be revised,
signed by the employee, and forwarded through the proper
channels. Per the University’s cost transfer policy,
thorough and documented justification is required for any cost
transfer request.
What happens if someone does not sign or approve their effort?
Effort
reporting is a federal requirement and is the key source
document for salary and benefit charges to a sponsored
agreement. The University of Vermont must be in compliance
with the Federal Regulations. Otherwise, the University
may face risks such as audit findings, refunds, fines, and
losing future federal funding. The individual faculty
member may face risks such as losing an award, being debarred
from receiving federal funding, and possible civil and criminal
charges if fraud is involved.
When an effort report is not certified or not certified on time,
Cost Accounting Services will email the delinquent effort
reports to the appropriate responsible official. After
five business days of the communication, any remaining
delinquencies will result in a cost transfer of each person's
salaries and benefits from all sponsored agreements to the
department/unit general fund chart string. 100% compliance
is required.
Where can I access my effort report?
Contact
the HR rep or designated effort administrator of your home
department. A Peoplesoft report can be generated for by employee
or department at any time.
Where do I
send the completed effort reports?
Mail to or drop off certified effort
reports to:
Cost Accounting Services
Is there a new effort system being implemented at UVM?
Yes. The
University has purchased a web-based effort management
and reporting system (ERS) to further mitigate compliance risk
on sponsored agreements. Recent financial settlements involving
effort compliance underscores the importance of implementing a
robust effort compliance solution. The ERS system will provide
an integrated solution for faculty and their respective
department administrators to plan, track and certify their
effort. Key benefits for faculty and staff will be:
1) A prospective view of existing and proposed effort
commitments on sponsored agreements
2) Effort compliance alerts and notifications with real
time feedback
3) Effort views which allow easy comparisons of effort
commitments with actual effort
4) Drill down capability to obtain a monthly view of actual
effort and related payroll
transactions
The ERS
solution from MAXIMUS was selected through an extensive RFP
evaluation process by a committee sponsored by the University
Business Council. Other Universities currently using ERS are
Yale, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania and John
Hopkins.
Does the new version of the effort management and reporting policy (version 4.3.14.3) affect FY12 certifications?
No. The
effective date of the new effort management and reporting policy (version 4.3.14.3) is August 1, 2012. A key difference
between the policy versions is what is included in
someone's 100% effort. The FY12 effort reports should reflect a
person's effort for all
University compensated activities during FY12. For
FY12, the certifier should assume that all of their University
compensated activities equals 100% of the effort and should
ensure that all of the effort is reasonably reflected on their
effort report in relation to the work performed on those
compensated activities.
The new effort management and reporting policy (version
4.3.14.3) does not include temporary
compensated activities such as continuing education in someone's
100% effort.
Last modified August 28 2012 03:39 PM