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Office of Grant and Research Development

Helping the Eastern Washington University Community secure and manage external funding

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Project Directors/Principal Investigators are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the effort certification.

Introduction

Federal agencies provide funding to EWU for a variety of research, scholarship and service activities. Appropriately certified effort reports provide auditable documentation to demonstrate that the funding agency received the level of effort described and expected by the proposal process, the award process and all subsequent communications with the funder during the period of funding.

Why is effort reporting required?

Since educational institutions employ a variety of staff who are not required to use hourly timesheets, the OGRD prepares a “Personnel Activity Report"  or PAR to be used to document staff's time and effort worked on a federal agreement.

Who is subject to effort reporting?

All employees paid from or contributing compensated or uncompensated time to federal agreements are subject to effort reporting.

Salaried employees, who perform work on federal agreements shall: Expand

(1) certify that information contained in monthly PARs is fair and reasonable. If the information is NOT accurate, the employee needs to revise it to more accurately reflect the activities for which the employee was paid or contributed time.

(2) submit PARs to their direct supervisor and the project director/principal investigator (or their department chair as applicable) for the federal agreement on which they are being paid or to which time is being contributed for approval and certification.

Project Directors/Principal Investigators on federal agreements shall: Expand

(1) review the PARs for accuracy;

(2) sign approved PARs and forward them to the OGRD;

(3) work with the OGRD as necessary to make permanent payroll adjustments to a federal  agreement if an employee has significantly revised the PAR.

How is effort determined for the purpose of federal effort reporting?

Level of effort is based on the total salary for the month and will always equal 100%. It may represent more than one work activity (e.g. research, instruction, service) and more than one source of funding. Level of effort is not the same as full time equivalent (FTE).

How is effort reporting accomplished?

The OGRD prepares the “Personnel Activity Report” or PAR on federally funded projects and sends them out for signature. These reports are generated and issued one to two months after the date payroll was paid.

The reports must be:

  • reviewed and signed by both the employee and the Project Director (PD)/Principal Investigator (PI) working on the project,
  • the PI's report must also be reviewed and signed by the Department Chair or Dean
  • and returned to the OGRD to be retained.

If the time actually spent on the project differs from the time paid from the project, the PI must contact Nancy Miller to determine whether a revision to the distribution of payroll needs to be made before returning the PAR to the OGRD.

What a Personnel Activity Report looks like:

Personnel Activity Report (blank)

Example: Researcher #1

Researcher #1 with both the Level of Effort and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) for the position of 100%.

Personnel Activity Report example 1

Example: Researcher #2

Researcher #2 with the Level of Effort equal to 100% and the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) equal to 110%.

Personnel Activity Report example 2

Example: Researcher#3

Researcher #3 has less than a full-time position.

Personnel Activity Report example 3

Example: Researcher #4

Researcher #4 with both the Level of Effort and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) for the position of 100%.

Personnel Activity Report example 4

Primary Sidebar

Post-Award

  • Project Management
  • Project Personnel
  • Sponsored Project Financial Management
  • Banner Reports In Relation to Sponsored Awards
  • Award Expenditures
  • Project Reporting
  • Level of Effort Reporting
  • Sponsored Project Resources
  • Project Close-Out Activities

Contact your POC

Nancy Miller

 

Marg Rogers

 

Michele Siedenburg
Eastern Washington University
509.359.6200 • Contact Information
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