Why an Effort Reporting System?
In recent years, the federal government and its auditors have become more active in their review of compensation charges on federal research projects (and related effort reporting certifications). There have been several whistleblower cases at major institutions that have resulted in a number of universities receiving large audit disallowances or agreeing to make significant settlements to address alleged overcharges. In fiscal year 2004, federal awards represented approximately 69% of the total $3.83 billion in contract and grant award activity within UC. Given the increased scrutiny on the adequacy of effort reporting systems and processes and the significance of these dollars, the University of California embarked on a project to develop a state-of-the-art Web-based effort reporting system, which interfaces with the UC Payroll Personnel System (PPS) and campus Cost Share Tracking system, and is replacing the paper-based Personnel Activity Report (PAR) system.Benefits of the Effort Reporting System
The new online system offers streamlined processes, time and cost savings, and better compliance with federal effort reporting requirements.
ERS offers the following benefits over the Personnel Activity Report (PAR) system:
- Compliance Improvements
- Effort Calculation Improvements
- Interfaces with other existing enterprise systems (e.g. Payroll, Cost Share Tracking)
- Ease of use with Web-based application
- Online editing and edit checks
- Use of current campus security and access controls
- Reports and certifications distributed and captured electronically
- Web-based briefing/compliance component
- Superior reporting capability
- Ad hoc and management reporting capabilities
- Maintain historical information and audit trail
- Tracking of payroll changes against effort reported
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