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Q: I'm having problems logging in. What should I do?
A: If you already have a Single Sign-On account, contact the ACT Help Desk, (858) 534-1853. If you don't have a Single Sign-On account, contact your Departmental Security Administrator or self-register.
Q: What is effort reporting?
A: Effort reporting is the method of certifying to granting agencies that the required effort has actually been completed. All employee salaries charged directly to federal and federal flow-through funds must be certified according to OMB Circular A-21.
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Q: Why do we have to do effort reporting?
A: Salary expenses are the major source of direct charges to federal funds. Improper or incomplete effort reporting can cost the university money in the form of audit disallowances and can jeopardize future federal research funding.
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Q: Who can do the certifying?
A: The person certifying must have first-hand knowledge of the effort expended. Normally, an employee or a supervisor can certify his or her own effort. The PI is ultimately responsible for all effort certification. Non-academics cannot certify for academics.
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Q: Who receives an effort report?
A: Employees who work on sponsored projects for which the sponsor reimburses the University and employees who work on sponsored projects but whose time on the project is funded by the University are subject to effort reporting. The University's contribution to the cost of the project is referred to as cost sharing.
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Q: What does "ECERT" stand for?
A: Electronic Certification of Effort & Reporting Tool
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Q: Why are we switching from PARs to ECERT?
A: ECERT incorporates the following features:
- Online and fully distributed access
- Web-based interface
- Interation with PPS and the data warehouse to gather and pass required information
- Reports and certifications are distributed and captured electronically
- Uses Single Sign-On
- Ad hoc and management reporting capabilities
- Maintains historical information
- Web-based training/ compliance component
- Improved Compliance:
- System maintains audit trail of completed Effort Reports
- Enables tracking of all Effort Reports to ensure timely completion
- Eliminates the potential for lost paper Effort Reports
- System is the "office of record"
- Improved Accuracy of Effort Report Calculation:
- System corrects inaccuracies in current PAR program logic and provides ability to drilldown to detailed payroll calculations.
- Online editing and edit checks will be available.
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Q: What can my department do to get ready for ECERT? ?
A: Your department can:
- Schedule an ECERT information session at your departmental meeting.
- Clean up your data by:
- Making sure your payroll distributions are set up correctly and updated regularly
- Using Chart of Accounts overrides to accurately match up PIs and fund manager to awards
- Open a dialogue with your department head, PIs, fund managers, and HR coordinators.
- Meet with the ECERT Implementation team to prepare a customized training plan and implementation strategy for your department.
- Contact the ECERT implementation team with questions.
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Q: Which departments are involved in the Pilot?
A: Bioengineering, Department of Medicine, Pharmacology, Physics, Psychiatry, Opthalmology, Super Computer Center
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Q: What is the implementation schedule?
A:
| June 2003 |
UCSD joins management and requirements groups |
| Dec. 2005 |
Technical integration at UCSD begins |
| Aug. 2006 |
Planning phase/ ECERT Kick-off |
| Nov. 2006 |
Beta testing begins |
| Jan. 2007 |
Training and communications phase begins |
| Jan. 2007 |
Go-Live — pilot data collected (Jan.-March) |
| July 2007 |
Pilot I certifications due (Jan.-March) |
| Oct. 2007 |
Pilot II certifications due (April-June) |
| Oct. 2007 |
Go-Live campuswide and training begins |
| Dec. 2007 |
Pilot III certifications due (July-Sept.) |
| Feb. 2008 |
Effort reports available to campus (Oct.-Dec.) |
| March 2008 |
All-campus certifications due (Oct.-Dec.) |
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Q: What training will be available for my department?
A: Customized hands-on training, Web-based training, and Staff Ed courses will be provided.
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Q: What types of activities are considered "Other sponsored activities"?
A: Other sponsored activities are projects funded by non-federal sponsors, such as state agencies and private organizations. Employee pay on these projects does not require effort certifications.
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Q: What are "Non-sponsored activities"?
A: Non-sponsored activities are funded by the university and include university-funded research, instruction, departmental research, and administration.
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Q: What happens if I do not certify my effort report?
A: If you do not certify your effort report, you will not be in compliance with OMB Circular A-21. The University is then at risk of losing existing and future funding from sponsoring agencies.
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Q: When would an additional sponsored project need to be added to an effort report?
A: Occasionally, an employee may have no salary charged to a project, but needs to report cost sharing because they have been expending effort on that project. Retroactive payroll charges would need to be processed.
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Q: How can an effort report total 100% when the employee has a less than full-time appointment with the university?
A: Effort is not based on a 40-hour work week; it is based on the total time spent on university activities, no matter how many hours are worked.
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Q: When is a comment required for a report in ECERT?
A: A comment is requied for all changes and should include why the change was made. Once a comment is added to a report, it can't be modified. If additional information is necessary at a later time, an additional comment can be added. Simply adding a comment to a report will not increase the version number of the report.
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Q: What happens when effort changes during the project period?
A: Payroll distributions are used to distribute salary charges based on estimates of employee effort. If significant effort changes occur, it is expected that the payroll distributions will be updated in a timely manner to reasonably reflect the actual effort expended in support of the sponsored project. Department administrators are responsible for making updates to the payroll distributions.
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Q: If an employee is paid on grants outside of my organization, who should certify the effort?
A: The PI is ultimately responsible for all effort certification. Normally, effort is certified by the employee, a supervisor, or someone with first-hand knowledge of the work performed. Occasionally, multiple certifications are required if the employee works on multiple projects, has multiple supervisors, and is not aware of which projects their effort is benefiting. ECERT supports multiple certifications with a checkbox at the bottom of the effort report. When this functionality is activated, individual line certification will be available for certification.
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Q: Will it be necessary or advisable for departments to print out and retain copies of effort reports for faculty?.
A: Because ECERT tracks all certifications electronically and PIs can access the information at any time, there is no need to print out the reports. ECERT will be the official database of record. You can print reports by clicking the Print Report button. For best printing results, set your browser to print in landscape mode, and enable the option to "print background images and colors."
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Q: Is it possible to transfer ECERT data into a spreadsheet?
A: Yes! While viewing a report in ECERT, click on the Export button in the header bar. You can then open or save the file in Microsoft Excel.
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Q: Is it possible to share a saved ECERT search with another user?
A: Yes! You can share a search with another user. Whoever creates a search is the owner of that search. If the owner makes changes to the search, others who have been granted access to the search will automatically see these changes. If you decide to make changes to a search that was shared with you, you will be given a private copy and will no longer be associated with the original shared search. Likewise, if you delete a search that was shared with you, other copies of the search will not be modified or deleted.
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Q: What are the hours of availability for ECERT?
A: ECERT is generally available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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Q: Is there a help desk for ECERT questions and issues? What other help is available?
A: You can e-mail the ECERT help desk or contact a member of the implementation team with questions.
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