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PERS

Effort Reporting for Non Profit Organizations and Institutions

Personnel expending effort on work projects funded or sponsored by the federal government are required to certify 100% of their time on a periodic basis in accordance with federal and institution policies. "Effort" is defined as time spent conducting institutional business and is expressed as a percentage of total time worked. This requirement is determined by sponsored agencies, federal policies, and institutional policies & procedures. Typically, labor costs are charged to projects based on estimated time to be expended or budgeted. On a frequent basis established by the institution in accordance with OMB Circular A-21 for higher education or OMB Circular A-122 for non profit organizations such as monthly, quarterly or semiannually, responsible individuals such as the employee, supervisor, or one with direct knowledge of the effort expended must confirm or certify actual effort devoted (at a minimum) to each federal award. At that point, the organization is responsible to ensure that labor charges reasonably reflect the certified effort. Often times administrators must adjust charges to sponsored projects to reflect actual effort expended.

Typically, organizations distribute paper forms to employees who are required to certify their time on each sponsored project based on class of employee and the organization's policies and procedures. The form assumes that payroll charged to projects is expressed as percentages of the employee's total pay for the time period to be certified represents the time expended. If not, the employee and or responsible individual makes the appropriate changes to reasonably reflect the actual percentage of time spent and then certifies. Payroll must then be adjusted to reflect the actual time spent. The form is to also capture cost sharing, which is defined as time spent on a sponsored project not reimbursed by the sponsor. This time is normally funded or paid by the institution from non-sponsored funds.

Once certified, payroll is adjusted to reflect certified effort when appropriate. The completed form is returned in a timely manner to a central office where it is kept as documentation to support the reimbursement from federal agencies. The forms are subject to institution and government auditors and may become the basis for disputes in case of litigation between the institution and its federal sponsors.

Web-based Effort Reporting System

The purpose of the web based Effort Reporting System (ERS) is to provide a means for the institution to distribute paperless effort forms via the web to its employees who are required to certify their effort in accordance with institutional and federal policies. Employees or responsible individuals can update 'payroll effort' to reflect actual effort and the appropriate cost sharing amount. The system is designed to generate 'Cost Transfer' to update the dollars charged to projects to reflect the actual effort certified. The system has four major components:

1. Pre-Review. Users assigned to the role of Pre Reviewer can review and make changes to effort, add accounts, and generate cost transfers(Cost Transfers) for employee effort forms prior to access by the employee. Certification is not possible in Pre Review. E-mail is then generated to the employee that he/she can access the effort form and certify.
2. Certify. An employee and or responsible individual can certify their effort. The certifier will breakdown their institution sponsored effort in percentages spent on each institution function.
   
3. Post Review. If the certifier changes his/her effort from the original calculated amount, the difference resulting from the change must be resolved by an administrator as cost sharing and/or a cost transfer. This will ensure that payroll changed is appropriately aligned with effort certified.
4. Routing/Assignments. Unit Administrators, known as Department Coordinators (DC) in the Effort Reporting System, receive e-mail from Sponsored Projects Administration that Effort is ready for certification and that it is to be completed by a given due date. Unit administrators receive e-mail stating that they must define who has rights in their unit to pre-review and certify effort forms for each employee in their unit. They also can delegate this task to a sub-unit.

Access PERS at https://pers.gsu.edu/GenericERS/custom/index.jsp