Departmental Procedures

Effort Reporting Departmental Procedures 

Purpose

The Effort Reporting System (ERS) is the University’s mechanism to document how individuals who work on sponsored projects spent their time.  Effort reporting is required by federal regulations, specifically the Office of Management and Budget Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements, for Federal Awards, 2 CFR 200 (Uniform Guidance) that governs the spending of federally sponsored funds.

All employees whose salaries are charged in whole or in part to sponsored agreements (including land grant funds), or are used in meeting cost sharing or matching requirements on such agreements, are subject to effort reporting.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why is effort reporting so important?

• Who is required to complete an effort report?
• How often will employees receive effort reports?
• What exactly is effort? 
• How are percentages calculated?
• What if the salary distribution data is incorrect?
• What if the effort report I’ve received is incorrect, should I still have it signed?
• How is UHA effort reported? 
• What if an effort reporting form is lost or destroyed?
• What happens if an effort reporting form is not returned?
• Who should sign the effort report?
• What elements are not included on the effort report?

Departmental Responsibilities

Effort reports will be distributed to EBOs and individual departments for further appropriate distribution.  The salary distribution data needs verified with departmental records.  Once the data is verified, the effort reflected on the report needs reviewed and signed by the person with suitable knowledge about how the effort was expended. 

As a general rule, full-time employees should understand how their salary charges are being distributed, and should verify for themselves that there is a reasonably close relationship between that and the actual proportion of their effort devoted to the functions and projects being charged.  If the employee is not available, a person with first-hand knowledge of the effort expended should certify.  For student workers and graduate students, these allocation decisions are often made by faculty Principal Investigators or managers, who are assumed to be most knowledgeable about the relationship between effort devoted and benefit received.  Therefore, the certification for student workers and graduate students should be from the person most knowledgeable about this effort or the student themselves. 

If a Labor Distribution Adjustment needs completed, this is the department’s responsibility.  If your departmental records do not agree with the salary distribution data on the effort report (usually due to retroactive appointments, changes in status, or incorrect Labor Distribution lines), please update Oracle so that it matches your records.  If after the LDA has been successfully processed and the employee still qualifies to receive an effort report, a new effort report will be generated by Effort Reporting, thereby superseding the first effort report and making it obsolete.  It will no longer be necessary to manually update the effort report by making changes to it and submitting it to Effort Reporting.  Only significant changes in effort must be adjusted in Oracle.  A variance of 5% or more between paid effort dollars and actual effort dollars is defined as significant. However, the values on the effort report and in Oracle should match.

If you have any questions regarding the effort reporting certification process, please contact one of the following Cost/Compliance Associates:

• Jaime Bunner, Director: 304.293.3539
• Martha Spransy, Senior Corporate Accountant: 304.293.8439

Signed Forms

Please return the signed and dated original effort report to:

Financial Services  
Attention: Effort Reporting
One Waterfront Place, Fourth Floor
PO Box 6207
Morgantown, WV  26505-6001