Effort certification streamlined by moving to two cycles

Effective June 18, 2012 (the start of FY13 for payroll purposes), the University of Minnesota moved to two annual effort certification cycles, rather than three.

Implemented as part of the OVPR risk recalibration initiative, this change will reduce:

• The number of effort statements requiring certification by 10,000 per year
• The time faculty currently devote to reviewing and certifying their effort on sponsored projects
• The administrative time spent tracking and managing receipt of certified statements by more than 300 departmental effort coordinators and two SPA staff

In addition, the change will enable faculty to take advantage of flexibilities available in federal regulations to “average” the way they devote their paid time over each six-month effort cycle. The two effort cycles will be set to include the first 13 payroll periods and the last 13 payroll periods each fiscal year.

The new cycles are expected to reduce audit exposure, and may decrease the number of short-term salary adjustments needed to stay compliant with federal regulations. In keeping with this change, the former U of M policy related to tracking summer effort is now obsolete and has been decommissioned.

See the university’s Effort Certification FAQ for more guidance on how to effectively use the new cycles, including the averaging process.

Contact the departmental effort coordinators or the SPA effort team (effort@umn.edu) with additional questions.