1. Effort Reporting Certification System (ERCS)
University of North Texas Health Science Center

2. What is Effort Reporting?
Effort Reporting is the method of certifying the effort required as a condition of the award has actually been completed
Effort is defined as the amount of time spent on a sponsored research project in which salary is directly charged or contributed (cost-share) during a specified period of time

3. What is Effort Reporting? - Continued
40 hour/week IS NOT the definition of 100% effort from which percentage of research effort is certified
100% effort is an employee’s total time actually spent completing all aspects of their position
Effort certification should reflect the distribution of activities and are a reasonable representation of actual work performed

4. What is Cost-Sharing?
Cost-sharing is the portion of the total sponsored project’s costs paid by the institution, rather than by the sponsor.
There are 2 kinds of cost-sharing:
Mandatory Committed is required by the sponsor and documented in the proposal.
NIH, CDC, DOJ, HHS
Voluntary Committed is not required by the sponsor but was included in the proposal narrative.

5. Why is Effort Reporting Necessary?
Compliance
Comply with the State of Texas requirements – Uniform Grant Management Standards (UGMS)
Comply with federal regulations – Uniform Guidance(UG)
Effort Reporting Certification System (ERCS) is the tool we use to facilitate and document compliance

6. What is Effort Reporting Certification System (ERCS)?
Part 1 – Project Commitment Reports
Tracking system within EIS used to capture salary expenditures, committed effort, cost sharing and salary cap data.
Management tool used to recap the % effort committed, actual amount of salary paid on a project, % committed cost share.
Part 2 – Effort Certification Process
Certify Effort Report

7. The Effort Certification Process
PI logs ins to review the report for accuracy
ePar processed to charge salary to projects
PI reviews Project Commitment reports for accuracy
End of semester rolls around
System generates notification
Review EIS Project Commitment Reports on a monthly basis for accuracy
Process any payroll redistributions (EPar’s) in a timely manner
Review the effort certification report generated online at the end of each semester (fall, spring and summer)
PI “agrees”
PI “disagrees” submits comments
PI certifies online
Certification process is complete

8. Part 1 - Why use Commitment Reports?
Track payroll activity by project or by employee for amounts paid by sponsors (direct charge) and institution (cost share)
Easy way to identify people paid on wrong project or paid at the wrong percent
Track burn rate of committed effort on projid and deptid, if cost share was committed

9. Navigate to Grants and Select Time and Effort Reports
Make sure you have EIS Financial System (FS) security access. If not, contact Office of Sponsored Programs.
Select Grants
Select Time and Effort Reporting
Select Concurrent Commitments
Select Project Commitment Reports to view management report for the entire project or
Select Employee Commitment Reports to view management report for a particular employee
Project Commitment Report tab displays a recap of all the employees paid on the project for the fiscal year
Employee Commitment Report tab displays individual detail
Used to review and confirm the amount of commitment and effort are accurate

10. EIS Tab Search by Project ID
Required
Must enter Business Unit and enter one of the following search items:
Project ID Gxxxxx, Pxxxxx, Rxxxxx or
Fiscal Year (2019) or Fiscal Month (03) or
PI Name (Last name,First name) or (Note: Sherlock contains a detail list of all active PI’s sorted alphabetically
Project Department Dxxxxx, Nxxxxx, Hxxxxx or
College Axxxxx, Mxxxxx, Hxxxxx or

11. Sample Project Commitment Report
“Employee” Project Commitment Report displays a recap of all the Salaried Key Personnel employees paid on the project and the effort committed.
“Committed Percentages” Percent of Effort Committed as outlines in the scope of work. This information is entered by the OSP.
“Actual Percentages” % charged for all Salaried Employees on the project. The percentage should match the budget builder and EPar processed.
“Actual Percentages Cost Shared ” The project cost share percentage paid by other sources should match the scope of work and budget builder.

12. EIS Tab Search Employee ID
Required
Must enter Business Unit and enter one of the following search items:
Project ID Gxxxxx, Pxxxxx, Rxxxxx or
Fiscal Year (2019) or Month (03) or
PI Name (Last name,First name) or (Note: Sherlock contains a detail list of all active PI’s sorted alphabetically
Project Department Dxxxxx, Nxxxxx, Hxxxxx or
College Axxxxx, Mxxxxx, Hxxxxx or

13. Sample Employee Commitment Report
Employee Commitment Report displays the committed effort on all projects and the salary charged to all funding sources.
“Department/Project” – Detail of all sources of funding by project and depitd
“Percentage Committed” Percent of Effort Committed as outlines in the scope of work. This information is entered by the OSP.
“Actual Percentage” Actual percent effort charged to projects and dept id’s. The percentage should match the budget builder and EPar processed. “

14. Part 2 - When do we have to certify?
Three times per year
Fall
Spring
Summer
Effort reports should be certified within a reasonable amount of time.
Reminder s will be sent after 10 working days to PI and after 20 working days to PI and Department Chair.
OMB only requires effort to be certified twice year. University preference is three times per year.
You will start to get “reminder” s from the OSP office if not completed timely usually after 15 days. Those s will escalate up the chain.

15. What happens if we don’t complete the certification?
Failure to complete the effort report leaves the university in jeopardy of disallowance of the salary costs on Sponsored Agreements.
Erroneously certifying effort can be viewed as fraud and subject to penalties.
PI could have to cover any unallowable costs.

16. Who has to certify Effort?
Effort report must be signed by a person having direct knowledge of the work was performed and is consistent with the overall distribution of the employee’s compensated activities
Principal Investigator
Certification by a department administrator or other staff member is NOT permitted.
When you are not available to make your effort certification in the appropriate time frame, you should designate a delegate for signing
The federal requirements also allow for certification to occur at the employee level of responsible official
It is not acceptable for a departmental administrator to sign
This delegate should be someone who, according to Federal guidelines, “has suitable means of verification” of your effort like a project manager.
Typically that person would be your direct supervisor such as your department chair. It should NOT be your subordinate.

17. Effort Report Notification

18. Navigate to Campus Self-Service and Select Grants
Select My Pending Reports

19. Detail list of all Effort Reports pending certification.
Select View to review each Effort Report Detail.

20. Project Team Members – List of all Salaried Employee paid on the project during the “Certification Period”.
Drill down options available for Employee, Payroll %, Salary Cap Cost Share %, Cost Share Pledged%, or Total Effort %.

21. Project Team Member Employee Drill Down Detail
Select the “Projectid” or select “Return to Effort Report Page” to return to the previous page
Employee Effort Summary has three sections:
Pledges:
Allocation of Effort – Sponsored
Allocation of Effort – Non Sponsored

22. Pledged Cost Share Details Effort Percentage Pledged during the Certification Period

23. When complete click the “Notify” button and the ECM (effort certification manager) will receive an indicating a comment has been added to an effort report and that will be the flag for our office to research and respond.
The PI will also receive an notifying them that they submitted a comment in the ERCS.
In addition, when the ECM addresses the concerns and responds back with a comment in the system, the PI will receive and indicating that.
These are system generated s so they are generic in nature but should be your alert to log back into the system and complete the certification process.

24. Project Team Members – Employee with Payroll Directly Charged to the project

25. Sample of Payroll Detail Direct Charge - Sponsored
Payroll Effort Details (Sponsored) details the payroll paid on the project each month during the certification period.
Averages: Automatic system calculation divided by the number of months during the certification period.

26. Project Effort Certification with Salary Cap Cost Share %

27. After reviewing the project effort certification and you are ready to Certify
Check Ready to Certify for each Employee listed
Click the Certify Button

28. Sample of Certified Effort Report
Sample of Certified Project Effort Report

29. Printable Copy of Certified Effort Report

30. Office of Sponsored Programs
Questions?
Point of Contact
Office of Sponsored Programs
Brenden Perfect
UNT Health Science Center
Senior Post Award Analyst
(817)