Effort Certification Training Guide September 2010
This training guide explains the process for certifying effort reports in the University s effort reporting application, housed in the PAWS system (PeopleSoft). This effort reporting application was written and designed by CedarCrestone and various versions of it are in use by universities such as, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Florida State University, and Arizona State University. The purpose of this effort reporting application is to provide the required certification of effort expended by University personnel, demonstrating compliance with Federal A 21 requirements. A certification system of this type is a Federal requirement when the University receives Federal funds for research and sponsored programs. Auditors will use this system as the official certification of all effort expended by University personnel involved in research and sponsored programs, to verify that the University s committed obligations are being met in regards to personnel time and the related expenditure of funds for that time. Effort for faculty members and graduate assistants is certified three times a year on a semester basis (Fall, Spring, and Summer). Effort for exempt staff (salaried employees) is certified twice a year. Effort for non exempt staff (hourly employees) and students is certified 13 times per year (every other pay period). All certifications are based on the actual periods that the work was performed, not the periods in which personnel were compensated. Faculty (including graduate assistants) and exempt staff reports are self certified by the employee. Nonexempt staff and students will be certified by a knowledgeable person (usually the PI). Page 2 of 11
1. The Effort Reporting System is housed within the PAWS system. You may log into PAWS by navigating to the Frostburg State University homepage at www.frostburg.edu and clicking on the PAWS link at the top of the page. 2. Once you click on the PAWS link you should see the following login page. Enter your User ID and Password and click on the button. Page 3 of 11
3. Select Effort Reporting from the menu on the left side of the page. 4. Select Effort Certification 5. Then select Certify Effort Page 4 of 11
6. The effort reporting search page will be displayed. To search for reports that require your action, make sure the box is checked and click the button. If the box is left unchecked, you will be able to view all reports that you have access to, even if they don t require your immediate action. You may want to uncheck the My Queue Only box to check the status of your effort report during the effort certification cycle or to review previously certified effort reports. Page 5 of 11
7. A list of available reports should now be displayed. In this example, there are four efforts reports that are awaiting Bob E. Cat s certification. Note: For Faculty and Exempt employees, there should normally only be one effort report at a time requiring certification. In this case, clicking the search button will take you directly into your effort report. For employees that are listed as PI s on sponsored projects, you will be responsible for certifying the effort of the non exempt employees and students working on your sponsored projects. Click on the hyperlink for the report you want to retrieve. Page 6 of 11
8. The selected effort report will be displayed: 9. You should then distribute 100% effort in the actual effort column using reasonable estimates of the amount of effort applied to each activity on the effort report. If a sponsored project that you worked on is not present on the effort report, you may manually add it by clicking the button on the page. 10. The following subpage will appear where you can enter a project ID if it is known, or you may prompt from a search list by clicking the icon. Page 7 of 11
11. The icon allows you to search on a variety of fields shown below: 12. Click the desired project to return to the previous page: 13. And click the button to add the selected project to the effort report. 14. Once 100% effort is distributed to the effort report and all errors have been resolved, or overridden with an explanation, you may click the display the certification subpage. button to Page 8 of 11
15. Click the Certify radio button to view the certification statement and complete certification. 16. You must acknowledge the certification statement above by clicking the to indicate your agreement. Your certification is a legally binding statement and there are consequences, including fines to the institution and the certifier, loss of grant funding, and jail time for making false effort statements for sponsored projects. 17. Finally click the button. Effort Report Functionality, Structure, and Layout The effort certification statement is organized into 3 main areas explained below: Report Header The report header contains summary information about the employee, and the effort report. Each employee will receive one effort report for each defined effort period that encompasses all of his or her responsibilities to Frostburg State University. The icons are clickable links that represent important information about an effort report. A summary of what each of these links indicates is below: Represents an error condition on the effort report that must be resolved or overridden before the report may be certified or approved to the next individual in workflow. Not all errors have the ability to be overridden and the underlying condition must be resolved in this case. Indicates a warning condition that should be carefully examined by the individual acting on the report. A warning generally indicates that a value or condition present on the effort report is Page 9 of 11
outside of the expected range. Conditions that create warnings may be completely correct in many instances, and an effort report with a warning present may be certified and approved through workflow after careful consideration. An informational message indicates that there is additional information that may be of value to the individual certifying the effort report. This indicator usually requires no additional action on the part of the certifier. A cancel error is the most severe error in the effort reporting system and indicates that an effort report cannot be saved until the error is resolved. An example of a cancel error would be when an employee has distributed more than 100% effort or has entered a negative effort percentage. When the button is clicked, the effort reporting system opens a subpage that allows an employee to either certify the effort report, or to reject the effort report back to general accounting if adjustments are needed. Appointment Header Report Detail Page 10 of 11
Federal A 21 View The page where employees enter effort is simplified for end user use. The link provides a view of the report broken down into the categories required for federal compliance. Your effort administrators use this information to determine when adjustments to payroll distributions and/or commitments are required based to the distribution of effort on your effort report. From time to time, you may need to review warnings that are present on this page to be aware of conditions where salary transfers may need to be made, but action to resolve these conditions is done by the effort administrators. Page 11 of 11