Are you using percentage points or percent of the committed effort?

I was at a Compliance conference last week in Austin and sat in on a
discussion regarding Efforts.  There was talk regarding a "generally
accepted variance of 5%" of the committed effort amount, but nowhere is
that generally accepted variance documented.  Of course the difference
between 5% of committed effort and 5 percentage points could be a fair
amount of money, especially if the individual is at, near or over the
salary cap.

Laura R Hemrick, CRA
Research Compliance Officer
University Compliance Office
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Winston-Salem, NC 27157
336-716-4403  Fax:  336-777-3039

CONFIDENTIAL & ANONYMOUS HOTLINE - 877-880-7888

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-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On
Behalf Of Lori Johnson
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 2:07 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Time and Effort Policy

Hi Kim,
 We are investigating the same issues when it comes to a tolerance
threshold.  We currently use a 10% variance as our academic period is 9
month and the circular says a fluctuation of 1 to 2 months is allowable.
1/9 equals 11 %, so we went with the 10% variance.
 I am very interested in what other institutions are allowing!
We ask the faculty member to certify actual effort, then compare that to
actual payroll.  If it is within the 10% variance for the entire time
period, we leave it alone.  Our internal audit teams is asking us to
consider the academic period as one semester and cut the tolerance to
5%.  Any ideas from anyone on that?
 We don't (at this time) have a policy on how much effort can be
charged.  We have some research faculty at 100% effort on sponsored
projects.  We apply our T & E policy to federal and non-federal
sponsored projects alike.
 We do allow re-certification, but only with permission and
documentation of extenuating circumstances or error.
 Hope this helps.
Lori Johnson

Kim Dunbrook-Babbie wrote:

>I have the following policy questions related to time and effort.
>
>1. OMB Circular A-21 allows for a degree of tolerance for allocation of

>costs and effort
>
>   a. What tolerance thresholds does your Institution use for time and
>effort?   I have seen many that use 5%.
>
>    b. How is the tolerance threshold trained to staff?  For example if

>a time end effort report lists the PI effort at 25% and the PI believes

>their effort is 25-30% would you have the PI change the effort listed
>or leave it unchanged as it is within a 5% tolerance?
>
>    c. If a time and effort report for a research tech or a PI has
>payroll at 100% charged to a grant but the research tech/PI knows that
>their effort for the time period was only 97% to the grant and 3% was
>administrative time is it your policy to correct the payroll charged to

>97% or is the 3% variance within the threshold and therefore no
>correction is made?
>
>
>2. Do you have a policy regarding the maximum amount of effort that can

>be charged to a sponsored project for faculty members or any group of
>employees?
>
>3. Does your effort reporting apply to both Federal, (including federal

>pass through) and non-federal sponsored projects or only Federal?
>
>4. Under what circumstances do you allow changes to be made to the
>certification of effort form after it has been certified?
>
>Thank you for your help
>
>Kim Babbie
>(518) 262-5496
>
>
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--
Lori Johnson
Fiscal Officer
Grants & Contracts Accounting
Campus Box 8219
Idaho State University
282-3899

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