Frequently Asked Effort Reporting Questions

Conversely, when viewing a report in ERS, click the Export button in order to download the report to a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet can either be saved to your computer or sent as an e-mail attachment.

The person who sent the search remains the owner. If the owner makes changes to the search, others who have been granted access to the search will automatically see these changes.

If you decide to make changes to a search that was shared with you, you will be given a private copy and will no longer be associated with the original shared search. Likewise, if you delete a search that was shared with you, other copies of the search will not be modified or deleted.

• making a change to the data in the Adjusted Payroll % field
• reopening a report that has previously been certified
• checking or unchecking the Report Options Report requires Multiple Certifications and Report allows for Cost Sharing Offset against Other Sponsored Projects
• unchecking a line item certification (removing the certification) when in Multiple Certification mode

1. Clicking on Edit Report tab
2. Clicking on Add Additional Sponsored Project button
3. Clicking on the search icon and using any of the search criteria to find the project to add to the report

• Unrecognized Earnings - These are payroll transactions that contain an account number, or full accounting unit (FAU), that has not been defined to ERS. When ERS cannot identify an FAU on a payroll transaction, it cannot include the earning in the effort report calculation because the system cannot properly categorize the earning as belonging to a sponsored project or not. Reports that contain unrecognized earnings will generally be placed in an exception status and will have to be resolved by the ERS Help Desk.
• Excluded Earnings - These are payroll transactions that were not included in the effort calculation. Policy and business rules specify that payroll transactions for vacation, sick leave, stipends and certain other types of payments should not be included in the calculation of effort.

When users add comments, change effort, and/or certify reports in ERS, those changes are immediate. Any user looking at reports in ERS will see the changes as soon as they have been saved. System reports, currently under development, will reflect up-to-the-minute information in the system. These reports will be available later this Spring (2007).

Decision Support (DS) reports will also be available soon. The DS database will be updated overnight, so changes in ERS will be available in DS the next business day.

• Employee termination
• No report was generated because there were no payroll charges or cost share for federal funds, but there should have been

Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Circular A21 recognizes this fact and states: "A precise assessment of factors that contribute to costs is not always feasible, nor is it expected. Reliance, therefore, is placed on estimates in which a degree of tolerance is appropriate."

The current practice in the University of California is to certify effort within +/- 5 percentage points.

For example, if the effort report shows 30% effort for a project, either directly charged or cost shared, and the actual effort determined is 28%, the report can be certified because it is within the tolerance range.

For example, PI Li has a cost share commitment of 5% from August 2005 to July 2006. The effort reporting period is July 2006 to December 2006. The effort report in ERS will show 5% cost share for the entire period of July to December. PI Li worked 5% of her time on the project during July only, so she must adjust the percentage on the report to 1% as shown below :

1 month worked / 6 months on the report * 5% = .0083 or 1%.

• 2.5 summer months + 9 month appointment = 11.5 months worked
• 2.5 months on project / 11.5 months worked = 22% for the year

• 2.5 summer months + 4.5 month appointment = 7 months worked
• 2.5 months on project / 7 months worked = 36% for the 6 months

For projects with a total award of less than $25,000, a minimum of 1% commitment is required. For projects with total award of more than $25,000, a minimum of 2% commitment is required. These are minimum levels of committed effort -- a higher minimum percentage of effort may be required by the sponsor. If this effort is not charged to the sponsor, it must be captured as cost sharing.

Notify the other department by forwarding a copy of the report to them using the Send button. Work with the other department to determine the employee’s effort percentage on all projects, as it isn't possible to know what percent of time was spent in one department without knowing the total time spent. Each department should certify only their own projects. The home department should have the employee’s information that shows the additional funding department.

The PI in the other department automatically has the ability to view and certify the report. However, it may be necessary to allow other employees in that department to view the report. If so, contact your department ERS Security Administrator to give permissions for viewing the report.

• Suspension or termination of awards
• Disallowances and repayments
• Additional oversight by the federal agency
• Administrative sanctions
• Civil/criminal violations
• Suspension and/or debarment
• Submission of corrective action plans
• Loss of future funding
• Negative publicity (for individuals and the campus)
• Erosion of public trust and confidence

For other employees, if they have first-hand knowledge of their activities, they should certify their own reports at termination. If the employee does not have first-hand knowledge or is not available to make the certification, a lab supervisor or other manager who has knowledge of the employees' time should certify the effort reports. If there is no person with first-hand knowledge, then someone up the employee's chain of command should use the available documentation (e.g. timesheets, logs, task checklists) as the suitable means of verifying the effort. For staff, an appropriate certifier would generally be the Lab Supervisor. An MSO or other administrator should not certify for lab staff unless they directly supervised the employee.

It's likely that the certifier will need special permissions set up in ERS to certify the reports. Complete the Certification Permission Request Form to request this access.

If the effort certification is incorrect, the faculty member should re-open their effort report using the Reopen Effort Report button, make the appropriate changes and re-certify the report. In some cases, the PI will have certified only the project line for his/her project. The faculty member can use the Certify button to certify the entire report, which will prompt him/her to remove the line certification.

The following example of an employee who has a 50% appointment at the institution and who is working 25% on a sponsored project and 25% on other non-sponsored activities demonstrates the concept of 100% total effort:

Employee A - paid 50% time for the period:

% of Time / % of Appt = % of Effort

• 25% / 50% = 50% sponsored project
• 25% / 50% = 50% non sponsored project
• = 100% Total Effort

Employee B - paid 100% time for the period

• 50% / 100% = 50% sponsored project
• 50% / 100% = 50% non sponsored project
• = 100% Total Effort

In addition, there is online help built into the ERS. Click on the ? icon in the header bar to retrieve a help screen which provides information on the specific screen or report type that you are using. Some of the help screens contain links to training modules that provide a more detailed overview of a specific process.