Effort Reporting

BU receives substantial sponsored funding from the federal government. Uniform Guidance, a government-wide framework for grants management, requires educational institution recipients of federal funding to maintain a system that documents and supports individual distribution of activities and associated payroll charges to sponsored agreements. This is known as “effort reporting.”

To fulfill this requirement, department administrators work with Sponsored Programs to complete personnel activity reports (PARs) twice a year in two unique periods: January-June and July-December. PARs are generated for three distinct groups: exempt staff, non-exempt staff, and students.

This page contains definitions, frequently used resources, and guidance on effort reporting, PARs, and salary caps. Still have questions? Reach out to effort@bu.edu.

Quick Links

PAR Guidelines and Dates

• How to complete the PAR
• July – December 2023 PARs: Important Dates and Guidelines
• Effort reporting period dates

Salary Cap

There are several sponsors that impose a limit or “cap” on the annual rate of salary reimbursement for a given amount of effort (including NIH, SAMHSA, HRSA, CDC, and AHRQ). The difference between the reimbursed salary (“capped amount”) and the un-reimbursed salary is considered voluntary committed cost sharing and must be recorded on the cost sharing section of the PAR.

• 12-month faculty cap worksheet (2024)
• 9-month faculty cap worksheet (2024)
• Wage types
• Salary caps (NIH)

Salary Tool

SP Post Award has created a Salary Tool to help you decipher the appropriate amount to charge to Sponsored Research accounts for those individuals who earn more than the DHHS Cap.  Within this tool are four tabs so it is important to ensure you are using the correct tab based on the employee status.  You should only fill in the yellow boxes; the rest of the sheet will fill in automatically based on formulas.  If you have any questions around this sheet, please reach out to your SP Post Award RA.

Definitions

Effort

Effort is the time spent on any University activity by an individual, expressed as a percentage of the individual’s Total University Effort.

Total University Effort is the sum of all professional activity or effort for which an individual is compensated by the University. Total University Effort is not based on a “standard” work week. If an individual who is being compensated for a 100% appointment works 50 hours in a week, then 25 hours would represent 50% of their Total University Effort. If an individual who is being compensated for a 50% appointment works 30 hours in a week, 30 hours would represent 100% of their Total University Effort.

Total University Effort generally includes externally sponsored research activity, department research, teaching, clinical service, administrative duties, and proposal writing. Activities outside of Total University Effort include personal consulting and other outside compensated professional work as described in the External Compensated Activity Policy, volunteer individual community or public service, and Veterans Administration Hospital compensated activities documented in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Institutional Base Salary

Institutional Base Salary, or “IBS,” is annual compensation paid for a person’s appointment (9 or 12 months), whether that person’s time is spent on research, teaching, administration, or other University activities. This annual compensation is initially based on a University employee’s offer letter and is recorded in the “Info Type 8” field in SAP.

IBS does not include payments from other organizations or income that a person is permitted to earn outside of their University responsibilities, such as private consulting. The IBS rate must be used as the base salary for all grant proposals.

Committed Effort

Committed effort is that proportion of an individual’s institutional effort that will be devoted to a sponsored activity. Effort proposed for a PI or other key personnel in a grant application becomes a commitment (or obligation) the University must fulfill unless explicitly modified during award negotiations with the sponsor.

The cost associated with committed effort may be borne by the sponsor (charged to the grant or contract) or by the institution (documented as cost-sharing).

When committing effort for Faculty to an account that is outside of their Home Cost Center, please work with the other Department to ensure a seamless transition of salary and effort.

Personnel Activity Reports (PARs)

Effort reporting is the mechanism used to confirm salaries and wages charged to sponsored awards are reasonable in relation to the actual work performed, and PARs are the tool BU uses to capture the information.

The University is required by federal regulation to certify effort; so individuals who have had any portion of their salary charged to a sponsored award that certification period will have a PAR generated, this includes faculty, grad students, undergrad students, etc. The exceptions are: students who are paid with weekly timesheets, individuals who are paid with non-PAR eligible wage types and individuals paid from a sponsored program but the percent is less than one half. Duplicate PARs: SAP generates a PAR for each employee group. Therefore if an employee moves between exempt, non-exempt and student employee groups the employee will have duplicate PARs to certify.

Effort Explained

Boston University records and reports Effort to be compliant with Federal Regulations under Uniform Guidance 200.430 Compensation – personal services… (i)(viii)(C) which state: The non-Federal entity’s system of internal controls includes processes to review after-the-fact interim charges made to a Federal awards based on budget estimates. All necessary adjustment must be made such that the final amount charged to the Federal award is accurate, allowable, and properly allocated.

The Effort Reporting process is Boston University’s way of ensuring we comply with this Federal Regulation and is part of a yearly audit.

The PAR system assures external sponsors that funds are properly expended for the salaries and wages of those individuals working on the projects they sponsor. This provides the principal means for certifying that the salaries and wages charged to sponsored projects are consistent, fair, and timely with the effort contributed. Finally, sponsors and auditors must also be able to verify that funds allocated for cost sharing have been provided.

Minimum & Maximum Effort

Most faculty are unable to devote 100% of their time to sponsored activities due to other responsibilities that include teaching, administrative work, patient care, competitive proposal writing, and service. Accordingly, unless the circumstances of a particular faculty member demonstrably warrant otherwise, the total effort and salary of a faculty member should normally not be 100% supported by sponsored projects in a given effort period. Such circumstances might include being on sabbatical, leave of absence, or having relief from teaching and other responsibilities. Salary support for time spent on non-sponsored activities must not be charged to sponsored funding sources.

PIs cannot certify 0% effort on a sponsored project during the entire grant funding period. They must certify at least 1% effort on an effort statement during any one of the effort periods to accurately reflect their leadership of the project, unless specifically exempted by the sponsor. Additional exemptions may include Deans/Assistant Provosts/Associate Provosts with Provost approval, equipment and instrumentation grants, dissertation and training grants and limited purpose grants such as travel grants and conference support.

Effort Percentages

There is no set number of hours that constitute total university effort. All hours spent on work-related university activities (even those over 40 hours per week) must be included in the effort allocation. This normally includes all effort expended on compensated sponsored research, administration, teaching, unsponsored scholarly activity, and other activity. 100% effort is not defined as a single, standard number of hours or days per week, since it will likely be different for each person and may vary during the year. The number of hours implicit in an individual’s 100% effort must be reasonable and supportable to department, school, university and external reviewers, if requested.

Effort percentages on the PAR must total 100% exactly, no more or less. All effort must be accounted for, and is not tied to specific hours per week. For example, an individual who spends 40 hours a week on sponsored research and 40 hours a week on clinical activity would report an effort percentage of 50% for each, totaling 100% for the certification period. If a graduate student has a full-time appointment for a total of 20 hours per week, then averaging 5 hours a week on a sponsored project during the effort reporting period represents 25% of their effort.

Unless the circumstances of a particular faculty member demonstrably warrant otherwise, the total effort and total salary costs of a faculty member should normally not be assigned 100% to sponsored projects in a given effort period. Because of the numerous types of activities performed by faculty (teaching classes, serving on committees, or preparing proposals to seek new funding), in addition to actual work performed on sponsored programs, it would be unusual for faculty to have 100% of their effort charged to externally sponsored projects. All activities such as administration, teaching, mentoring graduate students, and writing proposals must be allocated a percentage of effort, and these cannot be allocated to a sponsored program.

Personnel Activity Reports Explained

PAR Periods

The PAR periods are the (two) time periods SP uses for effort reporting. SP uses fiscal year for the two PAR periods, which are:

• January to June (FYXX P1)
• July — December (FYXX P2)

PARs are typically sent in February for the July – December PAR period and August for the January – June PAR period. All PARs are due back to SP within 60 days.

PAR Calculations

The categories of compensation reflected on the PAR are BU Non-sponsored activity, BU sponsored activity (sponsored agreements and cost sharing) and services provided to Boston Medical Center.

PARs and PAR percentages are generated via SAP for BU employees who are charged to either BU or BMC Sponsored Research. PAR percentages are calculated via SAP using a system of formula’s that is based on Employee Groups (exempt, non-exempt, student exempt). For more information on Employee Groups see “Viewing Employee Master Data using PA20 Transaction” in BU TechWeb resources.

There are certain Wage Types that are “PAR Eligible” and some that are “Not PAR Eligible”. A listing of Wage Types can be found.
Wage type is determined at the department level when processing HCM paperwork. If a wrong wage type is selected it cannot be fixed via the system. Therefore, SP will accept a memo attached to the PAR explaining the reason why the PAR is being certified the way it is even though the printed percentages do not match. This memo will be used for back up if ever selected for audit.

Completing the PAR

The Department must verify that the information that was generated on the PAR is correct, and make any corrections if necessary. The effort column must add up to exactly 100%. The form must then be certified (signed in pen or electronically) by the person performing the effort, or if necessary the PI or supervisor can sign on their behalf and should check the box that they are doing so. See a quick reference guide.

Certification of the PAR represents an employee’s agreement that the salary charges shown on the report reasonably reflect the effort expended on sponsored awards and other activity for which they were compensated for.

If the PAR is for a principal investigator (PI) who has left the University, the Department Chair or Dean may sign on the PIs behalf. The PAR should indicate the PI’s last day at the University.

If PARs are not completed and returned in a timely manner, the salaries and wages may not be supportable because if a fraction of a person’s effort is unknown, then it is impossible to determine the entirety of that effort. Therefore, the costs associated with uncertified sponsored award effort may be removed and charged to a departmental account. Further, certification of PARs that are known to be materially inaccurate may expose the individual who completed the reports to disciplinary action.

Changes and Recertifications

Changes to a certified PAR

In the rare instance where BU employees have to make changes to their certified PAR, they can do so via two ways. (1) via the signed copy the Department has on file or (2) obtain a copy of the certified PAR from effort@bu.edu.

All recertified PARs are also signed by the Assistant Vice President of Post Award in Sponsored Programs.

Returned PAR

The return codes for PARs are the following:

• Additional certification needed: Employee is noted on the PAR as Faculty but did not sign their own PAR. Faculty signature must be added to the PAR.
• Effort not 100%: The total effort for % of effort expended column does not equal 100. The total effort for % of effort expended column must equal 100.
• Incomplete certification statement: The certification of effort expended section is not complete. The certification statement may be blank, not be considered a digital signature, missing the date certified or the Supervisor/Principal Investigator box may not be checked. If the employee does not certify their own PAR then it is acceptable (except for Faculty) for their Supervisor or Principal Investigator to sign but it is not acceptable if the appropriate box is unchecked.
• Missing percent: the percent of effort expended column is blank. The percent of effort expended column must be completed (either by manual or digital is acceptable).
• Over the Cap (DHHS): The PAR is noted as Faculty Over DHHS Cap and there is no cost share listed in Section II. BU Sponsored Activity B. Cost Sharing Activity. If no cost share is required but the PAR is noted as Faculty Over DHHS Cap please add a note with the reason.
• SARF needed: In the II. BU Sponsored Activity A. Sponsored agreement section the percent of effort expended is less than the percent of salary charged. If the percent of salary charged percentages are greater than the percent of effort expended on the listed projects or activities then a Salary Adjustment must be submitted via the Salary Cost Distribution Screen within SAP to support the modified percentages and attached to the PAR.
• Unacceptable signature: Employee is noted on the PAR as Faculty but did not sign their own PAR. Faculty signature must be added to the PAR. Employee did not sign their own PAR and is not Faculty but the Supervisor or Principal Investigator box is unchecked. If the employee is not Faculty and the Supervisor or Principal Investigator signed the PAR then the appropriate box must be checked.
  In the event of extraordinary circumstances where a faculty member is unavailable to certify their effort report, the Associate Vice President for Financial Affairs should be notified to determine the appropriate steps to take to achieve meaningful certification.

Recertification

Recertification is necessary when a salary adjustment is being processed that crosses different grant numbers.

If PARs have been distributed and the adjustment affects an original transaction date for the PAR period the PAR must be corrected. Just write or type in the new effort percent(s). The % of Effort Expended column needs to reflect the accurate salary distribution to match the adjustment. The employee’s recertified PAR must be submitted with the SARF.

If the PAR has been certified and submitted to Effort Reporting then the PAR must be revised to include the adjustment and attached to the Salary Adjustment Request Form (SARF). The PAR must list the revised effort percentages with each change initialed by the employee.

Students on the PAR

The PAR process is the same for all employees, faculty, staff, and students.

However, PARs are not generated for students that are paid on a weekly basis using timesheets. Rather, the weekly timesheet serves as their effort certification. Their direct supervisor is designated as a responsible official using suitable means of verification that the hours worked reasonably reflect the actual effort devoted to the sponsored agreement(s).

Adjustments

Salary Adjustments

PARs that have been distributed to you and/or certified and submitted to Effort need to be submitted with the SARF (if the transaction affects the PAR period). If a PAR has not been distributed to you because it is before the effort certification period has ended then a PAR does not have to be submitted with the SARF. Remember PARs are distributed after the fact and twice a year.

The same guidelines apply to student SARFs as adjustments for exempt and non-exempt employees; except for students who are paid on a weekly basis using weekly timesheets.

Terminated Employees

• Adjustments or cost transfers for terminated, non-student, employees are processed using a paper Salary Adjustment Request From (SARF) to be submitted to SP for approval and routing to Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS)* for processing on the back end as you cannot initiate a PA form for a terminated employee.
• All Adjustments or cost transfers for students paid as graduate students or undergraduate students via the student payroll system are processed using the Student Salary Adjustment Request Form (Student SARF) to be submitted to Sponsored Programs (Effort Reporting) for approval and routing to Student Employment Office.

Cost Share

Cost sharing is a commitment of institutional funding or resources for which the University is not reimbursed by the sponsor. As a general rule, anytime an individual’s level of effort exceeds the amount of equivalent payroll distributed as a direct charge to a sponsored project, the result is cost sharing (i.e., when effort exceeds pay, the University must pay for the difference out of its own funds) because this cost is not paid by the sponsor. There are two types of cost sharing (committed has two components):

• Mandatory – Quantified in proposal, Required as condition of proposal and included in the Notice of Award, Tracked on PARPersonnel Activity Report You can find details about Per...
• Voluntary Committed – Quantified in proposal, Not required as condition of proposal, Strongly discouraged, Tracked on PAR
• Voluntary Uncommitted – Is implied, but not quantified in proposal, Not required as condition of proposal or Award, Not tracked on PAR
  Certain sponsors, most notably NIH, impose a limit or “cap” on the annual rate of salary reimbursement for a given amount of effort. The difference between the reimbursed salary (“capped amount”) and the un-reimbursed salary is considered voluntary committed cost sharing and must be recorded on the Cost Sharing section on the PAR. Please refer to the 12-month faculty or 9-month faculty cap worksheet to assist in calculating cap cost sharing. Use the wage type information to fill out the cap worksheets.

If you are trying to calculate cost share for a previous PAR period and need assistance, please contact effort@bu.edu.

Salary Over the Cap

To determine cost share for effort over the NIH cap, you can refer to the 12 –month faculty cap worksheet or 9-month faculty cap worksheet. Use the wage type information to fill out the cap worksheets

If your PAR is noted “Faculty – Over DHHS Cap,” you must report a cost share percentage in “Category II. Section B. Cost Sharing Activity” on the PAR form and reference the DHHS sponsored program number. The cost share percentage will come from the BU Non-Sponsored Activity. To find the annual “cap amount” for the current PAR period, review the NIH’s Salary Cap Summary.

Example

In the below example the cap was $189,600. Refer to the most recent rates when calculating for your accounts:

Dr. Smith earns $250,000 annually, expended 50% effort on a DHHS program and 50% effort on Non-Sponsored Activities due to the following tasks: clinical, teaching and proposal writing.

Resources

Policies

Training

Training

Learn more about the effort reporting process with our available trainings and webinars.

FAQs

Your specific questions or situations may be addressed in our Effort Reporting FAQs.

Key Contacts

• DA

  Department & Central Research Administrators List

• ER

  Effort Reporting

  effort@bu.edu