UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY NO. 70

Subject: Policies for Effort Certificate Reporting

Responsible Office: Office of Sponsored Programs

Table of Contents
I. Scope
II. Purpose
III. Policy
IV. Amendments and Additions
V. Effective Date

I. Scope

These policies provided herein apply to all George Mason University Faculty, and Graduate Assistants of the University. This Administrative Policy applies to all George Mason University locations, owned and leased, including Fairfax Campus, Arlington Campus, Prince William Campus, and George Mason University at the Center for Innovative Technology.

II. Policy Statement

George Mason University's effort certification reporting policy complies with the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-21, Principles for Determining Costs Applicable to Grants, Contracts, and Other Agreements with Educational Institutions. As a condition of receiving federal funding, institutions must maintain an accurate system for reporting the percentage of effort that employees devote to federally sponsored projects. Audits of Effort Reports under the Single Audit Act substantiate that a responsible person confirms the distributions of salary costs. The confirmation is essential to the integrity of both financial statement and cost accounting reports by maintaining a uniform policy with respect to documenting the expenditure of personnel effort rendered during the period of performance under sponsored agreements. The effort certification reports reflect personnel service costs for each academic term. Compliance with this policy protects the University against penalties and funding disallowance due to inaccurate, incomplete, or untimely effort reporting.

III. Policy

The University uses the "Plan-Confirmation" method of payroll distribution for Effort Reporting as defined in the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-21. Under this method, the distribution of salaries and wages of professorial and professional staff applicable to sponsor agreements is based on budgeted, planned, or assigned work activity, updated to reflect any significant variances in actual work. Compensation for personnel service, i.e., effort expended, covers all amounts paid by the institution for services of employees rendered during the period of performance under sponsored agreements. The Effort Reports are based on the University's payrolls documented in accordance with the generally accepted practices of colleges and universities.

It is recognized that, in an academic setting, teaching, research, service, and administration are often inextricably intermingled. A precise assessment of time spent on each activity is not always feasible, nor is it expected. Reliance, therefore, is placed on estimates in which a degree of tolerance is appropriate. Payroll costs for faculty and graduate research assistants should reflect the allocable budget costs established by the principal investigator and/or project director. The payroll distribution system reflects salary and wage costs of sponsored project accounts expressed as a percentage of total activities not to exceed 100%. The apportionment, whether it is 100% or less, of employees' salaries and wages which are chargeable to sponsored agreements is initiated by the principal investigator and/or project director using the appropriate University personnel services authorization format. Whenever it is apparent that a significant change in work activity which is directly charged to sponsor agreements will occur or has occurred, the principal investigator and/or project director initiates new personnel authorizations.

The Office of Sponsored Programs approves the authorizations and the new transactions are forwarded to the Human Resources Department where the payroll distribution system is updated to reflect the change in the sponsored project effort. Non material fluctuation between workload categories need not be considered as long as the distribution of salaries and wages is reasonable over the longer term, such as an academic term. The Office of Sponsored Programs will distribute and collect signed Effort Reports for inclusion in the University's records of sponsored programs that are maintained for audit review. The employee, principal investigator, or responsible official(s) who has knowledge of the work and can verify that it was performed signs the reports. Changes and corrections are noted on the report. That person's signature confirms those salaries and wages charged to the sponsored agreements, as direct charges, are reasonable in relation to the work performed.

Effort reports are generated three (3) times during the University's fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) to capture the distribution of charges for personnel services of professorial and professional staff that are charged to sponsored program accounts. Reports are produced according to the following schedule: Month Category Period of Certification August staff with twelve month contracts Prior fiscal year effort October staff with nine-month contracts Prior spring and summer and graduate students semesters effort March staff with nine-month contracts Prior fall semester effort and graduate students

IV. Amendments and Additions

All amendments and additions to Administrative Policy Number 70 shall be reviewed and approved by the Office of Sponsored Programs, Fiscal Services, the Provost, and the Senior Vice President.

V. Effective Date

The policies herein confirm practices in effect at the University. This Administrative Policy shall be reviewed and revised as required to accurately reflect changes that occur in policies that are applicable to effort certification reporting.