Effort Reporting
Chapter 7080
Revised July 18, 2007
Table of Contents
.010 General Information
.020 Effort Reports
.030 Certification of Effort Reports
.040 Importance of Accuracy and Timeliness
.050 Questions
Sample Forms:
.100 Effort Report
.010 General Information
Federal regulations (Office of Management and Budget Circular A-21, Section J.8) require that educational institutions prepare and maintain documentation to verify the faculty and staff time devoted to a sponsored project whenever the payment for such time is directly charged to a sponsored project or claimed as cost sharing for a sponsored project.
Time directly charged to a sponsored project is the amount of an employee's time spent working on a sponsored project where payment for that time is from that project's funds.
Time claimed for cost sharing is time spent working on a sponsored project during the project or program period, but where the payment for that effort is from KSU funds (non-project, non-federal funds). Cost sharing is defined by the Federal Government in OMB Circular A-110, Subpart A, paragraph 2.i. as follows "cost sharing and matching means that portion of project or program costs not borne by the Federal Government." Additional information can be found in A-110, Subpart C., paragraph 23, which can be found on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a110/a110.html.
.020 Effort Reports
Effort Reports are prepared for each employee which had cost sharing reported and/or had salary directly charged to a sponsored project during the reporting period. The reporting periods coincide with academic semesters and will approximately match the following schedule: January through mid-May, mid-May through mid-August, and mid-August through December.
The Controller's Office will send Effort Reports to departments approximately three weeks after the end of the last payroll period and cost share period in a semester.
.030 Certification of Effort Reports
The Effort Report identifies which sponsored and non-sponsored activities funded an employee, which should reflect how an employee spent their time during the reporting period. Detailed instructions for verifying Effort Reports is located on the Sponsored Projects Accounting web site at https://www.k-state.edu/controller/spa/effortrptg/index.html .
If any information on this form is incorrect, the department should either contact the Controller's Office, Sponsored Projects Accounting Section, to make cost share corrections or contact the Division of Human Resources to make payroll corrections.
A sample of this report can be viewed by clicking this Effort Report.
Each Effort Report must be certified by the employee or the individual responsible for that employee's time. OMB Circular A-21, Section J.10.c.(2)(c), states "Reports will reasonably reflect the activities for which employees are compensated by the institution. To confirm that the distribution of activity represents a reasonable estimate of the work performed by the employee during the period, the reports will be signed by the employee, principal investigator, or responsible official(s) using suitable means of verification that the work was performed." Personnel Specialists, Accountants and other Administrative Officers are not considered responsible for employee's time and therefore, their signatures are not acceptable. Federal auditors have also indicated that stamped or initialed signatures are not acceptable.
Certified Effort Reports should be returned to Sponsored Projects Accounting by the due date printed on the report.
.040 Importance of Accuracy and Timeliness
Federal auditors will use Effort Reports and statistics prepared there from to audit and approve or disapprove federal payments to Kansas State University. Therefore it is very important that the reports be prepared and reviewed carefully, accurately, and on a timely basis.
.050. Questions
Questions on this chapter should be referred to the Controller's Office, Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA) Section at 532-6207.
