How to Certify Effort Using the Effort Certification and Reporting Tool (ECRT) Office of Sponsored Programs THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT BROWNSVILLE AND TEXAS SOUTHMOST COLLEGE 4/13/2009 1
Contents Purpose... 3 ECRT Navigation Login Screens... 3 Certify My Effort... 6 The Effort Certification Screen... 6 Effort Card... 8 Completing the Effort Certification... 9 Certification Agreement... 10 Processing Certifications (For Effort Coordinators only)... 11 Process Effort Sample... 12 Avoiding Processing When an Error is Found... 13 View the Support Staff of a PI... 14 Certify My Support Staff Group View... 16 ECRT: Help... 17 2
Purpose This manual will guide faculty, project directors and their support staff with how to access the University s new effort reporting system, in order to comply with Federal regulations that govern effort on sponsored projects. ECRT Navigation Login Screens Open the Office of Sponsored Programs Web site http://blue.utb.edu/sponsoredprograms Click the Time & Effort tab to access the ECRT link. Once you access the Time & Effort Web site, click on the Access ECRT link. Click on the Access ECRT link. 3
Select UT Brownsville from the institution drop-down list, and press the Select button. Select UT Brownsville from the institution drop-down list, and press the Select button. Once you access the Shibboleth Gateway Portal, enter your UTB employee ID under User ID and then PIN Number in the Password field and press the Login button to access ECRT. If you don t remember your PIN Number, contact the Help Desk at 882-4357. Here you will enter your UTB employee ID then PIN Number in the Password field and Login into ECRT. If you don t remember your PIN Number, contact the Help Desk at 882-4357. 4
Once you access the ECRT welcome screen, click on the Continue button. Click on the Continue button. You should now be able to access the Effort Reporting Home Page to begin the certification process. You are now logged in and can begin the certification process. 5
Certify My Effort The Effort Certification Screen The certifier is brought to the Effort Certification screen. The screen must be reviewed by the certifier and then approved to move to the certification statement. The Sponsored activity appears in the top part of the card and the Non Sponsored activity appears in the bottom part of the card. There are subtotals for each award as well as the Sponsored and Non Sponsored areas. 6
Scroll to the bottom of the certification screen. You should see content similar to the image below. The total may add to more than 100% because of rounding. This will have no adverse effect on the certification process or statement. The text box at the bottom allows certifiers to enter comments and notes. 7
Effort Card The effort card will compute effort for the six-month certification period based on the following formula: PAYROLL (PAID EFFORT) + COST SHARED EFFORT = COMPUTED EFFORT During the six month reporting period and/or the pre-review period prior to certification, PI/PD will be encouraged to monitor their effort and notify OSP of any adjustments if necessary. NOTE: The revised columns allow for on-the-fly updates should the information in the Payroll and Cost Share columns need adjusting. OSP will follow up on any revisions (that may need cost transfers, for instance) before final certification processing. 8
Completing the Effort Certification To complete an effort certification, a PI will enter percentages of effort for each of his/her listed activities, both sponsored and non-sponsored. A PI enters the percentage of effort in the CERTIFIED EFFORT column, based on the information at his/her disposal as s/he has the best first-hand knowledge and suitable means to verify his/her effort: Computed Effort Revisions Additional info When all effort has been accounted for, the researcher clicks the Certify button below the totals. NOTE: The certifier will see an error message if the total certified effort is either less than or greater than 100%. 9
Certification Agreement The PI is then presented with a certification message reminding them what they are certifying to. 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 sent on to the EC for processing, along with any entered notes. 10
Processing Certifications (For Effort Coordinators only) Note: This section applies to Effort Coordinators only. Once a member of support staff has certified his effort, it is the responsibility of the Effort Coordinator to review what has been submitted. The review is necessary to deal with any significant discrepancies between the computed payroll distribution and the certified effort. In ECRT, the review process is done by selecting the Manage Effort Tasks link on the home page. 11
Process Effort Sample If the support staff member certifies to a percentage that is different than the computed percentages, ECRT calculates the dollars related to the changes and shows them to the right of the changed lines. In this example, $2941.76 has been cost transferred between the two sponsored projects the staff member worked on. Typically, the staff member would include notes in the bottom section if the effort lines were changed. It is the administrator s responsibility to review the appropriateness of the cost transfers and effort that has been certified. After review, the administrator clicks the Process button at bottom of the page. If necessary, the EC can add notes in the box at the bottom of the screen for future reference. After processing, the item is removed from the task list and the status is set to completed. 12
Avoiding Processing When an Error is Found If after reviewing the certification the Administrator believes there is an error, she should indicate the reason why there is a problem in the notes box and click the Do Not Process button at the bottom of the screen. This action causes an email to automatically be sent from the administrator to the researcher telling her that the certification needs further review and to contact the administrator. It also changes the status of the certification from Certified back to In Progress. The researcher would then reopen the certification, review the administrator s notes, and take appropriate action as needed and resubmit for processing. 13
View the Support Staff of a PI It can be helpful as an Effort Coordinator or Central Administrator to see the individuals who are associated with a particular PI. To do this, select View the Support Staff of a PI. Select View the Support Staff of a PI. The View Support Staff of a PI screen needs you to select a specific PI to view. Note that even PI s have access to this screen. However, based on their security rights, they can only view themselves. 14
The result of a selection is to show the information about the PI/Designee, as well as the name, employee ID, department and certification status for the prior four certification periods of each of that PIs associated certifiers. 15
Certify My Support Staff Group View All PI s also have the responsibility of certifying the effort of any non-certifier s working on their awards. In this process, the PI should select Certify My Support Staff Group View, which will display one continuous effort card for all support staff associated with their sponsored projects. Select Certify My Support Staff Group View, 16
ECRT: Help Questions that are better answered by your department, please contact your Effort Coordinator (an updated list is posted on our effort website at http://www.utb.edu/ba/osp/effort) Other effort reporting questions, contact the Office of Sponsored Programs through effort@utb.edu ECRT computer system questions, contact Information Technology, (956) 882-7405. 17