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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Introduction and Overview
Roles & Responsibilities
Access
Presentations
Training
Searches
Cost Sharing
ERC (Effort Report Coordinator)
Effort Report
Reviewing/Certification of Effort Reports
Introduction and Overview
What is Effort Reporting?
What are the steps of the ERS Effort Reporting Process?
Who certifies the Effort Report?
How should Effort Reporting Revisions be handled?
How often are Effort Reports generated?What is Effort Reporting?
Federal regulation OMB Circular A21 requires that the University of California certify the effort of each UC employee who expended effort on a Federal sponsored project.
What are the steps of the ERS Effort Reporting Process?
- UCOP generates Effort Reports
- ERS notifies ERCs and Viewers that Effort Reports are available in ERS
- ERC reviews Effort Reports and follows the department’s process for notifying Reviewers
- Reviewers review Effort Reports and modify reports as needed
- PIs review Effort Reports for everyone on their sponsored funds, and certify those Effort Reports or which they have first hand knowledge of the work performed
- Other Self Certifiers certify their own Effort Reports
- ERC and the Controller’s Office Extramural Funds Department (EMF) monitor compliance.
Who certifies the Effort Report?
Certification is done by the Principal Investigators and other faculty in Professorial, Professional research, and Management titles. Also, PIs and other professionals must certify their own report.
How should Effort Reporting Revisions be handled?
Changes to certified Effort Reports should be done with a payroll cost transfer and other extenuating circumstances. These revisions are subject to a “facts and circumstances” review and should be processed within the federal regulations and University policies.
How often are Effort Reports generated?
Effort Reports are generated quarterly: May, August, November, and February.
UC policy dictates that Effort Reports be generated no more than 45 days after the close of the reporting period and certified within 30 days of their issuance. There are six reporting periods, two for Academic, and four for non-Academic employees. Reporting period are defined as follows:
Academic Fall: July – December
Academic Spring: January – June
Non-Academic Summer: July – September
Non-Academic Fall: October – December
Non-Academic Winter: January – March
Non-Academic Spring: April – June
Roles & Responsibilities
What is the role of the Effort Report Coordinator (ERC)?
What is the Viewer’s role?
What is the Reviewer’s role?
What is the Principal Investigator’s (PI) role?
What is the role of the Other Self Certifiers?What is the role of the Effort Report Coordinator (ERC)?
The ERC is the department’s representative for the effort report certification process, follow-up, and compliance issues. The Effort Report Coordinator manages the certification process for the department, ensures that the Reviewers know what they are supposed to do, directs Reviewers to on-line training, works with the Access Administrator to modify access to departmental ERS users, etc. The ERC is the point of contact for Extramural Funds (EMF) when question arise concerning certification of Effort Reports.
What is the Viewer’s role?
Viewers do not directly support the PIs, but have overall responsibility for supporting the PIs and department administrative staff. The person with the Viewer role can monitor the department’s certification process and can act as back up to the ERC as needed.
What is the Reviewer’s role?
Reviewers are directly responsible for assisting a PI’s in using ERS to certify Effort Reports. The person with this role will typically also support the PI in the financial management of their contracts and grants. The Reviewer looks at all Effort Reports in a PIs portfolio BEFORE the PI reviews them.
What is the Principal Investigator’s (PI) role?
The PI is responsible for Effort Reports associated with a Fund or Fund-DPA. If the PI is not correct in the AFP (the accounting database of accounts that defines who is the PI, then ERS will not associate Effort Reports with the correct PI and the PI will not see the Effort Reports that he/she is responsible for.
What is the role of the Other Self Certifiers?
Other Self Certifiers includes other Academics and staff in the MSP classification who receive Effort Reports on the Academics Schedule. Departments must decide who among this group should certify their own reports and whose can be certified by the PI.
Access
How do I Activate/Deactivate/Modify an ERS user?
Complete and submit the ERS User Request Form on the Controller’s Office website. http://acctg.ucsf.edu/ers/system_access/index.htm
Presentations
Where can I find the ERS communications and presentations?
All ERS presentations and campus communications can be found on the Link website, under Effort Reporting System>Communications. http://ucsflink.ucsf.edu/ef_comm.htm
Training
How do I enroll in ERS training?
Is ERS training open to everyone?
Are PIs required to take the online training course?How do I enroll in ERS training?
The ERS training is an online course in WebCT (hyperlink) Click the Add Course button, then select Staff Training from the drop down list and click Update. Then select ERS Training Course from the list of available courses. entitled “ERS Training Course”. For complete instructions on how to enroll for a course on WebCT, click on the following link: http://ucsflink.ucsf.edu/ef_training.htm
Is ERS training open to everyone?
Yes, anyone with a Galen Account can take the training. You do not have to be in an ERS role to take the training.
Are PIs required to take the online training course?
No. There is a separate online course available for PIs and other Self Certifiers on the UCSF Link website. The course is optional, but provides information about certification of effort and how to certify effort using ERS.
Searches
How do I create a Search?
Can I create a search to retrieve Effort Reports for my department?
How can Saved Searches from the Effort Report List page be selected?
Where can I find my Saved Searches?How do I create a Search?
There are two ways to create searches:
From the Search Effort Reports page, create a list of Effort Reports based on People, Departments, or Award. It is typically a good idea to use this page to create a list of Effort Reports based on your DeptCode(s).
From the Managed Saved Searches page, subscribe to all of the Effort Reports associated with a PI.
See Job Aid “Setting Up Searches in ERS” for detailed instructions on creating and saving searches.
Can I create a search to retrieve Effort Reports for my department?
Yes, you can create searches based on Department, PI or Awards. For detailed, instructions please refer to Job Aid “Setting Up Searches in ERS”, pages 1-7
How can Saved Searches from the Effort Report List page be selected?
ERS allows you to execute any of the searches that you have created by selecting it from a drop down menu at the top of the Effort Report List page.
Where can I find my Saved Searches?
On the upper left hand corner of any ERS page, there is a drop-down menu where it can be selected. For detailed instructions, please refer to Job Aid “Setting up Searches in ERS”, pages 9-10.
Cost Sharing
What is cost sharing?
Does voluntary cost sharing need to be certified?
How do I enter Cost Sharing into an ERS Effort Report?
I entered a Cost Sharing %, but now I get an ‘Out-of-Balance’ error. What should I do?
Can I cost share from a non-federal project sponsor to a federally sponsored project?What is cost sharing?
Cost sharing represents that portion of the total project costs of a sponsored agreement that are not borne by the sponsor of the project. In terms of effort, cost sharing can be considered committed or voluntary.
Committed cost sharing is effort that you promised to a sponsor for which you did not request funding. For example, a PI may offer 5% effort without salary, or may offer 10% effort, but only ask for 5% salary. In both of these cases, you have committed the effort in the proposal and you must certify that you actually expended the promised effort toward that project, and show that the salary was paid from another source.
Voluntary cost sharing is not committed in the proposal, but happens when you find that you work on a project more than anticipated and you are not getting paid by the sponsor for this increased effort; this effort is covered by other funding sources.
Does voluntary cost sharing need to be certified?
No, only committed cost sharing requires certification.
How do I enter Cost Sharing into an ERS Effort Report?
Enter the percent effort in the Cost Sharing % column for the project where you expended the effort; likewise, enter the same cost shared effort percent in the Cost Sharing % column for the non-sponsored activity that actually paid for the effort.
I entered a Cost Sharing %, but now I get an ‘Out-of-Balance’ error. What should I do?
When adding a Cost Sharing % to a Sponsored Project requiring certification, you must subtract an equal amount from Non-Sponsored Activities so the result is an Effort Report that shows 100%.
Can I cost share from a non-federal project sponsor to a federally sponsored project?
Yes. It is unusual for a sponsor to be willing to pay for the effort you put toward a sponsored project requiring certification, but if you encounter this situation, please refer to the ‘Module 5 – Other Report Options‘ Job Aid (pg.4) for detailed information about how to record this.
ERC (Effort Report Coordinator)
What is an ERC’s primary responsibilities?
Will an ERC receive notifications from ERS?
Does a PI receive any email notifications from ERS?
Can an ERC or Viewer modify an effort report?
Are the Reviewers notified when Effort Reports are available?
Are PIs and Self-Certifiers notified of certification deadlines?
How do I create an ERS search to retrieve all Effort Reports for a specific dept code? a PI?
What is the Administrative Tasks page used for?What is an ERC’s primary responsibilities?
Manage the overall departmental certification activities to meet deadlines and ensure compliance.
Serve as a contact for the EMF Compliance team for all certification, monitoring and compliance issues.
Will an ERC receive notifications from ERS?
Yes, ERS sends email notifications to ERCs as well as Viewers to alert them of Effort Reporting issues, including:
An announcement that Effort Reports are ready for processing.
A reminder 15 days prior to the certification deadline,
An announcement that a certified Effort Report has been re-opened due to a payroll transaction.
Does a PI receive any email notifications from ERS?
Yes, the PI may receive two email notifications. If the PI has not certified the effort reports in his/her My Projects list, he/she will receive an email reminder 10 days prior to certification deadline. The PI may also get an email notification if the Effort Report needs to be re-certified.
Can an ERC or Viewer modify an effort report?
No, they can neither modify an Effort Report nor view payroll detail, unless they also have the additional role of Reviewer.
Are the Reviewers notified when Effort Reports are available?
Yes. Although ERS does not automatically notify the Reviewer, the ERC has the responsibility to notify them when Effort Reports become available.
Are PIs and Self-Certifiers notified of certification deadlines?
It is the responsibility of the ERC to notify PIs and Self-Certifiers of their responsibilities and certification deadlines.
How do I create an ERS search to retrieve all Effort Reports for a specific dept code? a PI?
See Job Aid “Setting Up Searches in ERS” for detailed information on creating and saving ERS searches.
What is the Administrative Tasks page used for?
Although Effort Report Coordinators are given permission to execute several tasks from the Administrative Tasks page, they are advised to NEVER access the links on this page without the direction of the UCSF Compliance Officer (Extramural Funds office and the ERS Security Administrator.
See Job Aid “The Effort Report Coordinator” (pg.3-12) for detailed instructions and explanations of the different Administrative Tasks available to the ERC.
Effort Report
How do I Print the Effort Report List?
How do I view payroll activity for a specific project?
Can I view payroll activity for all of an individual’s projects?
What is the Adjusted Payroll % column?
When should Reviewer prepare the required Payroll Expense Transfers (PETs)? Does the Original Payroll % need to be an exact match of the actual effort?
When is a Comment required?
Will the comments be saved on the new version of the Effort Report?
What if a project seems to be missing from the Effort Report?
How do I delete a sponsored project that I mistakenly added?
Does donated effort need to be certified?
I am working on several projects and need each supervisor to certify my effort, how do I enable multiple certifications?
How do I certify an effort reporting containing multiple certifications?
How do I view different versions of the Effort Report?
Can the Effort Report be re-opened once it has been certified?How do I Print the Effort Report List?
In the top right-hand corner of the Effort Report List, click on the Print List button. Users are also given the options to Export List and Send List.
How do I view payroll activity for a specific project?
Click on the hyperlinked number to open the payroll activity for that project for the Effort Reporting Period. You may find it more useful to click on the View Payroll Details button to see all payroll activity for the individual for the Effort Reporting Period.
Can I view payroll activity for all of an individual’s projects?
Yes, use the View Payroll Details button in the upper right or lower left corners of the Effort Report page to view all of an individual’s payroll activity for the Effort Reporting Period.
What is the Adjusted Payroll % column?
This column is pre-populated with the same numbers as the Original Payroll % column. For projects that require certification, these numbers should reflect the effort that the sponsor was asked to fund. Any change to this column will require a Payroll Expense Transfer (PET) to correct the Original Payroll % so it reflect the effort that the sponsor agreed to pay.
When should Reviewer prepare the required Payroll Expense Transfers (PETs)?
PETs are needed when any of the numbers in the Original Payroll % column do not match the numbers in the Adjusted Payroll % column. If you submitted a PET before reviewing the Effort Report, make sure the changes made to the Adjusted Payroll % column reflect this change. Otherwise, PETs should be prepared after an adjusted Effort Report is certified.
Does the Original Payroll % need to be an exact match of the actual effort?
No, UC policy allows the effort for any grant/contract to be certified within +/-5% of the actual effort expended on the project. So if the Original Payroll % says 23% and the PI says he puts in 25% effort, you do not have to change the Adjusted Payroll% to 25%; you can have the PI certify at 23%.
When is a Comment required?
It is required when any of the following modifications are made to the Effort Report:
A change is made to the Adjusted Payroll % column
A change is made to the Cost Sharing % column
The Multiple Certifications functionality is activated
The Cost Sharing from Other Sponsored Projects functionality is activated
Changes to Effort Reports with K-Awards
Will the comments be saved on the new version of the Effort Report?
No, they will only be saved on the current version of the Effort Report. Saved comments can be viewed on the View/History page and on the Comment Log page of the Effort Report, but will not appear on the version that will later be certified
What if a project seems to be missing from the Effort Report?
First, remember that ERS only requires certification of Federal contracts and grants, and some special state appropriations. Many of the projects that your PIs are used to seeing on their PARs are not grouped under Other Sponsored Projects; these do not require certification, so you do not need to deal with them individually. If your PI has expended effort toward a federal contract or grant and it does not appear on the Effort Report, then he/she was not paid from that fund source. Please see the ‘Module 5 – Other Report Options’ Job Aid (pg.7) for examples of when a sponsored projects needs to be added, as well as detailed instructions on how to add a sponsored project.
How do I delete a sponsored project that I mistakenly added?
Click the X next to the name of the added project to delete a sponsored project. You can only delete projects that you have added using the Add Additional Sponsored Project button.
Does donated effort need to be certified?
If the employee is cited on the awarded proposal, the employee must certify that the effort was expended on the project.
I am working on several projects and need each supervisor to certify my effort, how do I enable multiple certifications?
To activate multiple certifications, click the “Report requires multiple certifications,” check box in the Report Options section. Once enabled, ERS requires that effort on each sponsored project line be individually certified.
How do I certify an effort reporting containing multiple certifications?
Click the check box in the new Line Certified column to the right of each sponsored project. Then click the Save button. For an Effort Report that requires multiple certification, the Certify button cannot be used to certify the Effort Report.
How do I view different versions of the Effort Report?
Under the View/History tab under Report Version, you can click on any of the previous versions to see the effort report prior to modification.
Can the Effort Report be re-opened once it has been certified?
In most situations, it is inappropriate to “un-certify” a report that has already been certified. However, in some situations it may be necessary to do so. There are two ways that a certified Effort Report can be re-opened:
the individual who certified the report re-opens it using the Reopen button on the View/History page.
ERS re-opens the report because of new payroll information
Note: Recertification of previously certified reports should be on an exception basis.
Reviewing/Certification of Effort Reports
Who should be logged into ERS when Reviewer works with PI during certification process?
Can a Reviewer certify an Effort Report?
Are there any notification reminders concerning deadlines?Who should be logged into ERS when Reviewer works with PI during certification process?
PI must be logged into ERS under their User Name during this process. PI modifications to Effort Reports should be made with the knowledge of the Reviewer.
Can a Reviewer certify an Effort Report?
No, a Reviewer does not have the ability to certify a report. Only PIs and Self-Certifiers are able to certify Effort Reports.
Are there any notification reminders concerning deadlines?
Reviewers, ERCs, and Viewers all receive an email reminder 15 days before the quarterly certification deadline. At this point, the Reviewer should complete all certification meetings with PIs and other Self Certifiers as needed. PIs receive a 10-day reminder before the quarterly certification deadline if they still have open effort reports.
This page last updated on: Monday April 09 2007