basics of effort reporting

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Basics of Effort Reporting

Updated: 04/30/2009Questions?Contact Jennifer Wei [email protected]


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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 programsLabor represents ~ 75% of direct research costsCost Sharing (Mandatory and Voluntary Committed) was performed as promised


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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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Risk of Non-compliance…


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Northwestern – Audit Finding in 2003

Agency - NIHInstitutional 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 awardTypically, 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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Key Principle

Principle Principle DetailAt NU, effort reporting is certified on a quarterly basis. In a given quarter, the certified % of effort must be equal to or more than the % of salary charged and cost-shared to the grant

If salary charge is greater than the Effort certified for a sponsored project, the sponsored account must be credited to ensure that the 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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Key Topics100% 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 departmentSalary 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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Key TopicsCommitment and salary charges on sponsored accounts

Most faculty responsibilities would preclude one being paid 100% from sponsored projectsCompetitive proposal writing (new or renewal) and regular administrative duties cannot be charged to sponsored awardsNon-competitive, continuation award proposals (progress reports) – can be included as part of sponsored projects effortSpecial 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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Key TopicsSummer 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 periodExample: 35% charged and 5% committed cost share (CCS) effortReduction 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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Effort Reporting System (ERS)

ERS is the system NU utilizes for Effort ReportingWeb 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 AdministratorCentral Administrator (CA)(CA)Initializes new Effort Reports quarterlyInitializes new Effort Reports quarterly

Sends notification to Departments for pre reviewSends notification to Departments for pre review

Pre Reviewer (Business Administrator)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

Certifier (Faculty)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)Post Reviewer (Business Administrator)• Administrator Post Reviews the effort forms if the Certifier

made changes to the effort percentages reflected in Pre Review

Effort CertificationProcess in ERS

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Certification


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Example: Certifying an Effort FormTotal % = 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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Example: Certified Effort Report


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Effort Reporting System Support & Project Contact

NetID and password support1-4357 (NUIT)NetID and Password Security:http://www.it.northwestern.edu/netid/security.html

Effort Reporting Operational SupportJennifer Wei (Oversees Effort Reporting, 7-2473)

• Kathleen Doherty (Chicago, 3-0857)• Tina Mete (Evanston, 1-6755)


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ReferencesERS 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 Instructionhttp://www.northwestern.edu/finsys/ps/forms

ORI Training Materials (including Effort Reporting 101) Download:http://www.research.northwestern.edu/guide/trainingClick on Research Administration Training Seminar Materials

Effort Reporting System (ERS) Logon Page:https://ersweb.itcs.northwestern.edu/GenericERS

*Note: URLs are case-sensitive

basics of effort reporting

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