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HOW TO CERTIFY HEALTH SCIENCE EFFORT CERTIFICATION REPORTS: GENERAL

 

Grants and Contracts Accounting

Virginia Commonwealth University

730 East Broad Street, VCU Box 843039

Richmond, VA  23284-3039

(804) 828-8104

IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS, INCLUDING THE ATTACHED DEFINITION OF TERMS, IN THEIR ENTIRETY, BEFORE COMPLETING YOUR EFFORT CERTIFICATION. THANK YOU.

EFFORT CERTIFICATION REPORT INSTRUCTIONS (General)

EFFORT CERTIFICATION REPORT INSTRUCTIONS (Individual)

(For Faculty and Professional Staff)

General Information:

Federal government regulations require effort certification for all Professorial and Professional University employees whose costs are charged either to (1) federally sponsored grants and contracts or (2) two or more cost activities used for purposes of allocating indirect costs to federal programs. The federal regulations require that this certification be done for each academic term. The attached Effort Certification Report, accordingly serves to index for the distribution of your total effort (100%) among the activities listed in the Definition of Terms.

WHEN TO COMPLETE THE REPORT:

Please make every attempt to complete and sign the Effort Certification Report within a few days after receipt. Forward the completed report to your department chairperson immediately upon completion. Make a copy for your records. Your department chairperson will review the report to ensure that the distribution of effort reported represents a reasonable estimation of the actual effort expended by you during the term being certified.

HOW TO COMPLETE THE REPORT:

Step 1 -CERTIFY TO EFFORT ASSOCIATED WITH DIRECT COSTS BY COMPLETING THE UPPER HALF OF THE REPORT:

Information:
  1. The upper half of the report permits you to certify to the direct costs associated with grants and contracts.
  2. The upper half of the report lists, by category and index, the total salary charges generated during the reporting period. These charges, presented for informational purposes only, appear under the "REPORT PERIOD-SALARY CHARGES" column. While compensation received by faculty for services rendered, an overload or consulting capacity will be reflected on the effort reports, these figures appear below the "Total Regular 100% line and do not require certification. Only those percentages comprising the "Total Regular 100%" require certification.
  3. The "REPORT PERIOD-EFFORT" column presents a percentage distribution, by index, of the total "SALARY CHARGES" for the reporting period. This distribution is presented as guidance with the understanding that these percentages may have correlation to the distribution of your actual effort.
  4. Percentages listed under "ACCOUNT PERIOD-EFFORT" are included only for information purposes. This column lists, by index, the percentages of total salary charges effective for the period during which the index was active.

REQUIRED ACTION:
  1. Ensure that every index to which your salary was charged during the reporting period is listed. If accounts have been omitted, please list the index name(s) and number(s) on the report under the appropriate category. If the salary data shown is incorrect, please write "Salary Data Incorrect", cross through the incorrect data, note the correct amount(s), if known. In addition, please attach copies of available supporting documentation, Personnel Action Form, (PAF) to facilitate the processing of the required adjustments.
  2. Review, for each separate index, the percentages listed under the column "REPORT PERIOD-EFFORT" to verify that they represent the actual percentages of effort expended by you during the reporting period. Should the pre-printed percentages differ significantly from your actual effort, (plus or minus 5% of total effort), cross out the pre-printed percentage and write the correct percentage to the right of the pre-printed percentage.

NOTE: (1) SPONSORED PROJECT CHARGES IN EXCESS OF EFFORT EXPENDED - Should you indicate on the effort report that the actual effort expended on a specific sponsored program was less than the pre-printed percentage, an adjustment must be made by the University to reduce the salary charges recorded against the program.

NOTE: (2) COST SHARING - If you expended effort on a sponsored project from which you received no direct salary (i.e., cost sharing), special accounting is required. List the sponsored FRS index number, and % of effort expended for mandatory and voluntary committed cost sharing. 

  1. You are required to certify to 100% of your total effort. Consequently, any change by you to a percentage pre-printed on the effort report must be accompanied by a change(s) to a pre-printed percentage in another category. Percentages certified must total to 100%. Percentages should be rounded to the nearest whole percentage point.

STEP 2- CERTIFY TO EFFORT ASSOCIATED WITH INDIRECT COSTS BY COMPLETING THE "EFFORT SUMMARY SECTION" AT THE BOTTOM LEFT OF THE REPORT:

Information:
  1. The Effort Summary Section of the report permits you to certify to the distribution of effort associated with the indirect costs of grants and contracts, which costs are included under the category "ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES".
  2. The pre-printed percentages listed under the column "EFFORT" are the same percentages as those listed in the upper half of the report as category sub-totals.
  3. The four-digit numbers to the left of the cost categories are data-entry codes and should be ignored.

REQUIRED ACTION:

  1. If you change any of the category sub-totals in the upper half of the report, cross out the corresponding pre-printed percentage listed under the "Effort" column in the Effort Summary Section of the report, and write the correct percentage sub-total to the right. Re-compute the 100% total.
  2. The percentage in the sub-total for the category of "ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES" must be allocated to the listed sub-categories (i.e.-Instructional, Administration-Instruction, etc.) These percentages should be written in the provided blanks next to each sub-category heading, including those under "HOSPITAL DUTY" (Health Science Campus only), and should total to the percentage in the "EFFORT" column for the category entitled "ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES".
  3. THE EMPLOYEE SHOULD INDICATE THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF HOURS PER WEEK ASSOCIATED WITH THE EFFORT REPORTED ABOVE OR 100% EFFORT CERTIFIED.

STEP 3 - COMPLETE CERTIFICATION

REQUIRED ACTION:

Please sign and date the certification on the lower, right hand side of the effort report. Forward the completed and signed effort report to your department chairperson. Please note that, in the event that a faculty member or employee is absent, the principal investigator, where applicable, or the Department Chairperson is to complete and sign the Effort Certification Report.

QUESTIONS:

All inquiries regarding the Effort Certification Report should be directed to your department chairperson. The Fiscal Administrator for your school or division may also be consulted.

DEFINITION OF TERMS:

The attached Definition of Terms is an integral part of the Effort Certification Report Instructions.

COST CATEGORY

DEFINITION

EXAMPLES

Organized Research

Effort spent on specific research projects that are separately budgeted and accounted for by the institution. This includes the administrative effort directly related to participation in those specific projects.

Federal, state, city or private foundation sponsored, contracts, grants or research projects supported by either Restricted or Unrestricted University funds where such projects are controlled through the establishment of a separate project or special purpose index.

Research Cost Sharing

Cost Accounting Policy

Cost Accounting Salary Cap

Accounting for Cost Sharing

 

If there is cost sharing (mandatory and voluntary committed), the employee must list the grant number where the cost sharing was incurred and the amount of the cost sharing applicable to that grant. University policy requires that the cost sharing be recorded in a cost sharing index.  Mandatory cost sharing must be recorded in a specific index for the grant. Voluntary committed and salary cap cost sharing may be recorded in a cost sharing pool with mandatory and a detailed analysis is maintained.  All effort, including cost sharing, must total 100%.

Educational Service Agreement

Effort spent on specific sponsored training projects that are separately budgeted and accounted for by the institution.

  • Summer institutes

  • Special training programs for selected participants
  • Development and introduction of new or expended courses
  • Special research training programs
  • Instructional-oriented undertaking

Educational Service Agreement Cost Sharing

If there is cost sharing (mandatory and voluntary committed) which must be reported, the employee must list the grant number where the cost sharing was incurred and the amount of the cost sharing applicable to that grant. All effort, including cost sharing, must total 100%.

 

Other Sponsored Activities

Effort spent on programs and projects financed by Federal and non-Federal agencies and organizations, other than Organized Research and Educational Service Agreements.

Public Service activities

Capitation

(No longer used)

Professional Allocations. Effort associated with direct salary charges against capitation grants. Individuals receiving salary support from capitation grants should disregard the effort percentage that has been pre-printed for those grants. Distribute the pre-printed rate of effort to another cost category where you’ve received direct University salary support. 100% capitation salary support should be allocated to other sponsored project cost categories "1000 research" or "1200 Educational Service Agreements".

Re-distributed capitation support is direct salary and therefore cannot be cost shared to another sponsored project.

  

Academic Department Activities

Instruction/Department Research

Effort expended on instruction related activities dedicated to:

General Academic Instruction

Instruction-Medicine

Instruction-Dentistry

Off Campus Academic Instruction

Summer Sessions

Community Education Programs for which Continuing Education Units (CEU’S) is awarded.

Effort spent pursuing one’s own professional interests through research, writing, etc. where such pursuits are not directly related to specific course instruction nor course preparation. This effort is neither separately budgeted nor accounted for and is supported by departmental funds not specifically designated as research.

  • Teaching

  • Course and curriculum development
  • Academic advising
  • Those occasions when residents and interns are in attendance with medical students. (Does not include effort expended in the supervision of residents and interns).
  • Scholarly Activities, such as:
  1. preparing papers
  2. delivering papers 
  3. attending seminars
  4. professional society meetings

 

 

Administration - Instruction

Administrative effort expended at the departmental and school level that exclusively benefits instruction.

  • Committee assignments in professional societies

  • Preparation of self-instructional materials
  • Department, school or academic committees addressing such topics as:
  1. curriculum
  2. admissions
  3. faculty candidates

Administration - Sponsored Projects

Administrative effort at the departmental and school level that exclusively benefits organized research.

(Does not include direct administrative effort which benefits non-sponsored research)

  • Counseling of personnel assigned to research projects
  • Editing and publishing of research reports
  • Completion of reports required for compliance with Federal research regulations
  • Staffing research activities
  • Participation in on-site visits by Federal sponsors

(Does not include direct administrative effort related to participation in specific organized research projects)
Administration - Students Administrative effort expended at the departmental and school level in performing activities related to student affairs and student services.

  • Support for student counseling and career counseling

  • Student admissions

  • Student activities
  • Student health
Administration - Departmental Effort expended at the departmental and school level that cannot be discretely assigned to specific activities such as instruction or research but benefits all departmental activities.

  • Participation in departmental and University-wide committees (other than instruction)

  • Administrative functions, such as financial management
  • Maintaining supplies and equipment
  • Budget preparation and financial accounting
  • Report preparation
  • Scheduling and room assignments

 

HOSPITAL DUTY

a)   Supervision - Residents and     Interns

Effort expended by faculty physicians in the supervision of residents and interns excluding that time when the faculty physician is, at the same time, treating patients as an "Attending Physician" and is providing personal identifiable medical service to patients.  This category includes effort expended while visiting patients during patient rounds.  Also included are those occasions when medical students may be in attendance with residents and interns.       

b)  Aadministration/Professional Services

 

 Effort expended in supervising hospital departmental personnel, including personnel such as nurses, technicians, and other professional and non-professional support staff.  This category includes effort that results in a general benefit to patients.  

Effort expended in performing supervisory, managerial, or administrative activities related to overall hospital administration.

 

Activities related to committees or task groups established to deal with hospital-wide concerns.

 

Effort expended in participation on the Hospital's medical care review committee, the Quality Assurance Committee.

Effort expended in the direct medical or therapeutic care of patients by non-physician faculty or professional staff.
  • Supervising hospital departmental personnel
  • Department-level quality control activities 
  • Attending conferences
  • Preparation of the Hospital's overall budget
 
  • Participation in Hospital's overall budget process
  • Planning
  • Administering personnel policies
 

 

  • Gathering institutional data

  • Long-range planning activities 

 

  • Institutional budget activities

  • Governance committees

 

 

  • Nursing care
  • Physical Therapy
  • Audiologist
  • Speech Therapy
  • Psychologist
  • Occupational Therapy

CLINICAL PRACTICE (Faculty Only)

 Effort Expended:

a. in treating patients as an "attending physician", and

b. in providing personal identifiable medical service to patients.

c. Includes inpatient and outpatient patient care provided under the auspices of the VCU Health System.

d. Does not include patient care provided at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC)

Includes effort for services rendered in accordance with the workload assignment agreement between the reporting individual and the University, or under the agreement governing MCV Physicians. This category also covers some occasions when residents, interns, and/or medical students may be present.

Public Service

Effort expended on University-directed activities that are established to provide non-instructional services, services beneficial to individuals and groups external to the institution. In general, these activities are separately budgeted and accounted for by the institution, and include community service programs and cooperative extension services for which no academic or continuing education credit is awarded.

University-directed activities directed to particular sectors of community such as:

  • conferences
  • institutes
  • general advisory services
  • referencing bureaus
  • consulting
Other Institutional Activities Effort expended on activities are not defined above.

Exhibits:

Effort Certification Log - Health Science 

Effort Certification Report - Health Science

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Date Last Modified: December 17, 2007