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Office of the University Controller

Office of the Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer

Labor & Effort Reporting

When was Effort Automation started at GWU?

In order to improve the effort-reporting system, and to remove the need to circulate, print and scan .pdf documents, a new electronic effort reporting system came into use on September 1, 2020.  All employees who worked on a sponsored project in which salary was directly charged or contributed during the Effort Reporting period will have effort reports in the system.  These reports will be automatically routed for review and certification through the GWeb info system (https://it.gwu.edu/gweb, same location as copies of paychecks).

Where are the process guides for Effort Reporting, Labor Redistributions, and Labor Cost Transfers?

Please use this hotlink to go to the Grants & Contracts web page and the documents are located under "Labor & Effort".

Why do I have to verify my effort?

Under 2-CFR-200 section §200.430 Compensation-personal services it states: Compensation for personal services includes all remuneration, paid currently or accrued, for services of employees rendered during the period of performance under the Federal award, including but not necessarily limited to wages and salaries as well as (i) Be supported by a system of internal control which provides reasonable assurance that the charges are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated. The GW Effort Reporting Policy states that the university will maintain a system for verifying salaries and wages associated with federally sponsored agreements.

What is the definition of Institutional Base Salary?
  • Compensation is based on an individual’s total Institutional Base Salary (IBS). IBS is the annual compensation paid by the University for an Employee’s Appointment, whether that individual’s time is spent on research, teaching, teaching administration, clinical activity or any other activities.
  • IBS is established by each School via their annual appointment which includes regular salary associated with their academic appointment(s). IBS also includes secondary administrative appointments such as department chair, associate deans, etc. IBS does not include items such as:
    • Honorarium payments, incentives/bonuses or other one-time payments
    • Income that an individual is permitted to receive directly from third parties outside of their University responsibilities such as consulting fees.   
I was a part-time employee/faculty on a single sponsored project without additional work efforts. Why does my effort report list 100%? I wasn't working full-time
  • Total Effort is always 100% whether a person is employed on a full-time basis by the University or on a part-time basis.  The work represents 100% of Institutional Base Salary by GW.
  • Effort is defined as the proportion of time spent on any activity expressed as a percentage of the total institutional activities for which an individual is compensated by the University, regardless of part-time or full-time status and/or number of hours worked. Faculty members with multiple appointments consider their combined responsibilities to arrive at their Total Effort. 
I requested a change to correct my payroll distribution on my sponsored project, but the redistribution doesn't appear. Why?
  • There are a number of reasons why this could have occurred:
    • Effort reports are generated with data extracted from the Banner Payroll system. Only those additions, changes, and redistributions that were fully executed and uploaded at the time of the report generation will be reflected.
    • The electronic Change in Status (e-CIS) was not fully executed. The process may have been initiated, but if not approved in a timely manner GW Payroll could not execute the changes and effort calculates on approved transactions only.
    • The effective date of the new distribution was incorrectly listed.
    • The allocation could have been impacted by the organization number. Verify that the correct organization number was used.
The effort listed in one month is incorrect (or doesn't appear at all), but the overall average listed for that particular award is correct. Should I sign the report?

During this process you are confirming that the effort charged during the reporting period reasonably agrees with how an individual actually devoted their time during that period. Percentages listed represent effort charged during the reporting period. Exact percentages are not required monthly but one month should not represent the effort reporting period.  Reports are required to reasonably reflect the activities for which employees are compensated.

Who can verify an effort report?

The effort report must be certified by the researcher, principal investigator or other alternate certifier who can verify the percentage of effort that is charged and has knowledge of the work performed.

How does the NIH Salary Cap appear on the effort report?

The legislatively mandated provision on National Institutes for Health imposing a cap (“NIH Salary Cap”) on the reimbursement of salaries creates a unique circumstance in completing effort reports for highly compensated faculty and staff. Since this agency may not reimburse the University for salaries under sponsored projects at an annual rate that exceeds the Salary Cap, OVPR creates separate cost sharing awards to capture that portion of salary in excess of the Salary Cap. For effort certification purposes, the individual should consider the two awards together: the federal award and its companion cost sharing award.

If an individual holds multiple positions at the University, how are those shown and calculated on the effort report?
  • The definition of Effort includes Total Institutional Base Salary (IBS) which includes all positions, excluding bonuses.  The effort report will include all positions in order to calculate the effort percentage.   Please see detailed example listed below:
  • In GW's payroll system, an individual’s payroll record shows two positions, position #1 a Faculty position and position #2 an Administrative position.  Each position is determined to have 100% labor distribution and therefore a total of 200% for payroll purposes.  Effort is calculated differently than payroll since it combines both positions.  Effort, unlike payroll, will only total 100%.  The system will break down the positions to determine the overall percentage based on total IBS.  In the example below the total IBS salary is $150,000.00, position #1 is at $100,000.00 or 66.67% of the total IBS and position #2 is at $50,000.00 or 33.33% of the total IBS equaling 100%.  So when a faculty member states they are working 30% effort on a sponsored project and the faculty member has multiple positions, please remember to calculate the payroll distribution percentages in a spreadsheet prior to entering into Banner.  (Note: if you have a faculty member over the Salary Cap, the calculation can be made more difficult.)
Effort Distribution Table
How do we handle ‘Admin Supplements’, etc. in our effort calculations when they were not planned for during the proposal stage?

Admin Supplements are included in Institutional Base Salary and the example above should be used to calculate the faculty member’s effort percentage.  If the additional costs cannot be managed within the budgets of the awards, a conversation should be held with your Sponsored Project Administrator and a revised budget may need to be submitted to the sponsor.

How is effort calculated on the effort report

Uniform Guidance requires the grantee to confirm that the payroll costs charged to the project are reasonable in relation to the actual work performed during the period.  Please take a look at the sample below. Assume a Principal Investigator (PI) performs work on non-sponsored activity and research awards throughout the year.  The effort report is based on the salary for each pay cycle.

Effort distribution table salary

 

The University’s current process for calculating effort percentages for each pay cycle takes the weighted average of each month’s salary (i.e., the salary for each activity divided by the total salary). Using the information above, the PI’s effort certification would show:

The University’s current process for calculating effort percentages for each pay cycle takes the weighted average of each month’s salary (i.e., the salary for each activity divided by the total salary). Using the information above, the PI’s effort certification would show:

 

Is Effort Reporting a new process

Effort Reporting is not a new process (the process before was signing off on PDFs) but using the Banner system to review effort started in September 2020.

Why am I being sent an effort report?

You are being sent an effort report because you have worked on a sponsored project for the period that is being reviewed or you are the PI on a project where an individual has worked on a sponsored project and your department requires you to certify those effort reports.

How do I certify my effort report?
  • Be sure you are logged into VPN.
  • Go to https://it.gwu.edu/gweb (login to Current Faculty & Staff).
  • Select the tab Employee Information Menu.
  • Select Employee Information NEW (this will take you to the Employee Dashboard).
  • On the right side of the screen select Effort Certification.
  • Select the tab Certify My Effort (left side of screen). Your report should be displayed.
  • Once you are done reviewing your report simply select certify at the bottom of the page
How do I see the effort reports that I am responsible for?
  • Be sure you are logged into VPN.
  • Go to https://it.gwu.edu/gweb (login to Current Faculty & Staff).
  • Select the tab Employee Information Menu.
  • Select Employee Information NEW (this will take you to the Employee Dashboard.)
  • On the right side of the screen select Effort Certification.
  • Select the tab Review or Certify Reports (left side of screen).
  • In advanced search select Chart of Accounts: Z and Effort Period Code: 2023-01 (or current effort cycle). The reports that you are responsible for will now be displayed.
  • Once you are done reviewing the report simply select certify at the bottom of the page.
If there are more than one pre-reviewer listed in the effort report, do they all need to review before it goes to be certified?

Yes, all pre-reviewers will need to review the effort report before it is sent to be certified.

Does the effort report system send an email alert?

There is a system generated email that is sent once a week to individuals that have an action that needs attention.

Are there any trainings or procedures for effort report that we can review?

Please go to the following link: https://controller.gwu.edu/labor-effort.

Why is my effort report locked?

A locked effort report means that it has already been certified and that no further action can be taken. This will also lock your record in the labor distribution system. If a labor redistribution needs to be processed you will need to begin the labor cost transfer process.

Who can I contact with questions?

You can call the Effort hotline at (571) 553-4117 or e-mail [email protected]. You can also contact Patrick Miller at (571) 553-3523 or [email protected], or Gloria Cruz-Maldonado (202) 994-0875 or [email protected].

Contacts for labor and effort reporting questions:

Effort hotline at 571-553-4117 or e-mail [email protected]  
Patrick Miller at 571-553-3523 or [email protected]
Gloria Cruz-Maldonado at 202-994-0875 or [email protected]