Effort Reporting Initiative _______________________________ ECRT Training Fall 2007

Effort Reporting Initiative_______________________________

ECRT Training

Fall 2007

http://www.columbia.edu/

Effort ReportingECRT Training

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Outline

• Faculty Responsibilities

• ECRT Access and Navigation

• Self-Certification in ECRT

• Certifying Research Staff in ECRT

• Monitoring Effort Using ECRT Reports


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Module 1:Faculty Responsibilities


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Faculty

Who:

• Officers of Instruction and Officers of Research (other than Postdoctoral Officers of Research), including those who are Principal Investigators

Effort Responsibilities:

• Monitor and certify own effort

• Monitor and certify the effort of their project staff.

ECRT Tasks:

• Notify Effort Coordinator any time there is a significant and long term change in workload due to new or expiring grants, additional non-sponsored responsibilities (committee assignments, departmental leadership roles, additional teaching load, etc.), or other changes in sponsored effort.


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Faculty ECRT Tasks

Tasks to be performed throughout the year• Review own Effort Certification Form and, for PIs, Effort

Certification Forms for project staff

• Promptly report and regularly communicate with Effort Coordinator to ensure that salary is charged correctly

• Promptly inform Effort Coordinator if card does not accurately reflect all activities

• For PIs and project directors, contact Research Administration if actual effort will be significantly reduced (i.e. 25% or more) from effort committed in proposal

• Work with Effort Coordinator to verify accuracy of cost sharing information reflected on Effort Certification Form

• Print, sign and provide effort coordinator a year-to-date Effort Certification Form prior to leaving the University


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Faculty ECRT Tasks (continued)

Tasks to be performed once a year (during certification period)

• Review Effort Certification Form

• If salary associated with computed effort on a sponsored project exceeds salary associated with actual effort, contact Effort Coordinator to process a salary adjustment*

• Certify Effort Certification Form

*Note: The Columbia Cost Transfer Policy has been revised to require salary adjustments of $1,000 or more to be processed when salary associated with computed effort exceeds salary associated with actual effort. This is a revision to the Policy and Process Training.


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Module 2:ECRT Access and Navigation


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Effort Reporting Website – ECRT Tab:http://www.effortreporting.columbia.edu

On the Effort Website, select the “ECRT Tool” tab and click on the icon (see below).

Additionally, certifiers will receive an email notification when the certification period begins if they have sponsored activity to certify. The email will contain a link to the ECRT system.

ECRT Access


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This login page will be displayed.

To enter the ECRT system, you must enter your UNI and password.

ECRT Login


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On the left side of the screen there are “Helpful Links”. These links are hyperlinks and will take the user to the sites referenced when they are clicked. They are displayed on every page within the application.

The user will select the ‘Continue’ button to enter the application. The user may have to scroll down to see the button.

We will update this picture again when we finalize the links to be shown.

ECRT Welcome page


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The various functions that a user can perform are shown around the circle. Clicking any of these links will take the user to the page related to the function.

The links a user can see are limited by security rights within the system. Rights are bundled together and associated with Roles.

Faculty Homepage


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The navigation squares at the top are present on every screen within the system. When the cursor is positioned over one of the squares a drop down menu appears. The drop down menu contains the same links as appear in blue around the circle.

As with the blue links, the choices in the drop down menu that a user can see are limited by security rights within the system.

Faculty Homepage


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Module 3:Self-Certification in ECRT


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A certifier has a limited number of links on the Welcome screen when logged into ECRT. In general, a certifier can use ECRT to monitor and certify his/her own effort and the effort of project staff that works for the certifier. A certifier can also see reports related to his/her projects.

To start the effort certification process, select the Certify/View My Effort link.

Certifying Effort


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This screen shows the Effort Certification Form. The certifier will review the Effort Certification Form and certify his/her salary distribution effort on this screen.

Detailed payroll information, including the dates salary charges accrued, can be viewed by selecting the Certification Payroll Report. An example of the report appears on the next slide.

The Effort Card PDF will provide a printable PDF of the Effort Certification Form.

Certifying Effort


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When the Certification Payroll Report link is selected from the Effort Certification Form screen, the system opens a new browser with the report in it.

The details of the report are discussed on the next slide.

To return to the Effort Certification Form, the user will close the browser showing the report.

Certifying Effort


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This screen shows the details of the Certification Payroll Report.

The report shows the payroll transactions that comprise the percentages displayed on the Effort Certification Form.

The report shows the pay period, the account, the amount of salary charged to the account during the pay period, and the percentage of the total for which this account and amount are responsible.

This report can be exported to four formats shown at the bottom for further manipulation.

Certifying Effort


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Returning to the Effort Certification Form, we see that the certifier’s activity is divided into two categories – Sponsored and Non-Sponsored. Sponsored activity appears in the top part of the card and the Non-Sponsored activity appears in the bottom part of the form.

Each sponsored project that was charged salary for the certifier or that had cost sharing recorded by RA is displayed. The Computed Effort column displays the sum of the Payroll and Cost Sharing and should represent the total effort devoted to the sponsored project.

If a faculty member believes a project is missing, or the cost sharing information is incorrect, contact Research Administration.

Certifying Effort


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The Non-Sponsored activity is reported in one line. The total institutional support, whether for teaching, administration, or clinical duties, and whether funded by one or more non-sponsored FAS accounts, is consolidated on this single line.

There are subtotals for the Sponsored and Non Sponsored areas and a Grand Total at the bottom of the screen.

Certifying Effort


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After reviewing all of the information on the form, the certifier will enter percentages in the Certified column. The percentages will reflect the proportion of the certifier’s time that is spent on each activity.

If the amount to be entered in the ‘Certified’ column differs from the ‘Computed Effort’ amount, the certifier should contact his/her Effort Coordinator to determine whether a salary adjustment must be processed. The salary adjustment should be processed before the certifier certifies the Effort Certification Form.

An email to the Effort Coordinator can be generated by selecting the Effort Coordinator’s name from the top of the form.

Certifying Effort


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Although ECRT was designed to display Payroll and Cost Share percentages at the two-decimal level, faculty are not expected to certify their effort using this level of precision.

The certifier will enter percentages in whole numbers. There may be minimal rounding differences between the two numbers. To account for rounding, the Certification Form may total 99%, 100%, or 101%.

As percentages are entered, ECRT updates the subtotals accordingly. If the Grand Total is red, the amount is below 99% or above 101%. The Effort Certification Form cannot be certified if the Grand Total is red.

Certifying Effort


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In this example, the certifier has entered 8% for the first sponsored project and 21% for the second. The total Sponsored Activity is 29%.

The certifier has entered 71% for the Non-Sponsored Account.

The Grand Total is 100% and has turned from red to green to signal that the Effort Certification Form can be certified.

Certifying Effort


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To complete the Effort Certification Form, a certifier will verify that the salary allocation reasonably reflects the effort expended on each sponsored award, the non-sponsored total is reasonable and that the checkbox next to each line is marked.

The certification process cannot be completed if the checkboxes are not marked. The checkbox must be marked even if the certified amount is 0.

When all effort has been accounted for, the researcher clicks the ‘Certify’ button below the totals.

Certifying Effort


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After selecting ‘Certify’, the certifier is then presented with a confirmation screen.

After a final review of the information on the page and the certification statement at the top, the certifier will click the ‘I Agree’ button under the message.

After this, the user is returned to the Home Page.

The effort card is electronically routed to the Effort Coordinator for processing.

Faculty

Certifying Effort


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After selecting ‘I Agree’, the certifier is presented with a final confirmation. The user will select ‘OK’ and is returned to the Home Page.

The effort card is electronically routed to the Effort Coordinator for processing.

Faculty

Certifying Effort


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When a Change is Needed

• If a change to the percentages that appear on the ECRT screen needs to be made for certification, contact the EC before you actually certify your effort.

• The EC can make any needed salary adjustments promptly.

• Once the adjustments are processed, they will be reflected in ECRT.

• Review the adjustments to confirm the accuracy and that no other adjustments are necessary.

• Certify your effort on the Effort Certification Form.

• If the Effort Certification Form is certified before the salary adjustment is made, the Effort Coordinator will reject the form and the certifier will have to complete the form again.


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Module 4:Certifying Research Staff in ECRT


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PIs are responsible for certifying the effort of the non-self-certifiers working on their awards.

To begin this process, the PI will select the ‘Certify My Researcher Staff’ link from the Home Page.

Certify My Researchers


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The Certify My Researchers page lists all project staff that charge salary to the PI’s awards. To certify one of the project staff, the PI will select the name from the list. The certifier will select either the current Effort Certification Form or any of the staff member’s historical cards.

Selecting ‘View Current’ is necessary to certify the researcher’s current Effort Certification Form.



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The Effort Certification Form that is displayed to the PI is the same format as his/her own Effort Certification Form that was seen in the “Certify My Effort” process.

The procedure here is also the same – the PI must enter percentages in the Certified Effort column, select the check boxes, and select the ‘Submit’ button.

As with their own certifications, PIs should notify the Effort Coordinator for the person being certified (shown in the biographical data above the form) if the effort being certified is less than the salary associated with the Computed Effort. As with their own certifications, salary adjustments may need to be made before the certification can be completed.



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If the staff member being certified worked for multiple PIs over the course of the year, each PI will enter the percentage for his/her own sponsored project.

This process may require communication among the PIs that have accounts to certify, the Effort Coordinators for those PIs and the Effort Coordinator of the individual being certified, and possibly the individual, to determine the individual’s Total University Effort and appropriate effort on each project.



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If the Effort Certification Form is incomplete and the percentages do not add up to 100%, the PI will select ‘Save’. This stores the percentage that was entered on the form until the remaining accounts are certified.



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If the Effort Certification Form is complete and all percentages total 100%, the PI will ensure that the checkboxes are marked and select ‘Certify’ to proceed to the next screen and finish the certification.



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To finish the certification, the PI who completes the form must press the “I Agree” button.

Once that is completed, the effort card is electronically routed to the Effort Coordinator of the individual's home department for processing.



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Module 5:Monitoring Effort Using ECRT Reports


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Certification Payroll Report

The Effort Certification Payroll Report shows the payroll transactions for an individual within a specific date range.

The user will set the following parameters: Date By: Employee Type; select ‘Annual’ from Employee Type drop down; select the appropriate period from the drop down; enter an employee’s name and then select ‘Run Report’.


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The ECPR report is generated in HTML format. In this example, we ran the report for a researcher for the FY07 certification period.

The Default format sorts the transactions by account. It displays the account name and shows the amounts charged to each account per period, the total amount charged to each account during the period, and the percentage of the total amount charged for each account.


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The Alternate format sorts the transactions by pay period. It shows subtotals for each pay period and the certification period. It is useful for reconciling ECRT payroll with the Payroll system reports.

The report is generated in HTML format but can be exported to several other formats, including Excel and PDF.


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Certifier Salary Activity Report

The Certifier Salary Activity Report shows all of the salary activity for a PI’s project staff for a given 12-month period. This report can be used to monitor the activity of the research staff over the course of the year.

For FY 2007, as with the Effort Certification Payroll Report, this report will not show a month-by-month breakdown. Starting in Nov. 2007, you will be able to see monthly breakdowns for FY 2008.

To run the report, the user will enter the start month and year and the name of the PI.


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Certifier Salary Activity Report

The report displays the salary charges for the selected 12-month period by person for each researcher associated with the PI.

The table is a fixed size, but can be scrolled to see additional information. The highlighted accounts are the PI’s accounts.


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If you have any questions, please contact:

•your Effort Coordinator,

• send an email to ‘[email protected]’, or

•Contact the Help Desk via email or phone.

Documents

Effort Reporting Initiative _______________________________ ECRT Training Fall 2007