Time and Effort Reports

No. 4-30    Rev.    05-25-16   Date  11-08-05     

 

 

I. PURPOSE

 

 

To outline the responsibilities for generating, approving and utilizing the time and effort report as required by federal government agency audit regulations.  This Policy is in concert with 2 CFR 200 (Uniform Guidance).  OSP tasks shall not be in conflict with the regular faculty workload as set forth in 91¶ÌÊÓƵ Policy 4-6.

This policy assists University Payroll and Accounting Services in ensuring the proper allocation/distribution of faculty/ administrator/staff time and effort and with accurate reporting of such activities.

This policy facilitates proper administrative management of grant/contract awards and ensures compliance with sponsoring agency regulations and federal guidelines with respect to charges for work performed on sponsored agreements.  

II.  REFERENCES

III.  DEFINITIONS

Personnel Action Form (PAR) - Form issued by Payroll to authorize and activate employment and pay.  PARs are also used to reflect any change in an individual's employment status.  Examples include department transfer, promotion, termination, temporary employment, change in account number, job title, or classification.

Time Sheet - Form completed by employee to document time worked.  

IV.  PROCEDURE

A.  Time and effort reports will be generated through Accounting Services at a time interval required by federal regulations and contain a minimum of information required by OMB A-21.

B.  Time and effort reports will be signed by the employee, principal investigator, or responsible official(s) using suitable means of verification that work was performed.

C.  The time and effort report is returned by the supervisor to the Office of Sponsored Projects, where the changes in time or effort will be correlated to the changes in percent of salaries or wages being paid from the specific project on an ex post facto basis.

D.  The Office of Sponsored Projects will make certain that there is a reasonable relationship between the coding of the certification of effort report and the coding of the cash flow.  The percent of effort identified for each cost code on the certification must be the same as the percent of payment unless such difference can be justifiably explained.

E.  The Principal Investigator will be responsible for initiating PARs to reallocate payments to comply with the certifications within 60 days of the end of the month being certified.  The PARs must e processed through OSP.

F.  A copy of the time and effort report will be made available to the Office of Sponsored Projects as requested and as required by future audit regulations as the custodians of the prime audit file.