Time & Effort System

Texas A&M UniversityResearch Services

Karan WatkinsEffort Reporting Administrator

kwatkins@tamu.edu

Why is Time & Effort Required?

• Federal Regulations require universities to document the distribution of activity on federal projects.

• Each year Texas A&M receives millions of dollars from the federal government, State of Texas, and other organizations that sponsor research. As a recipient of these funds, we agree to the required terms and conditions.

• Research Expenditures – Texas A&M UniversityFY 2008 $585 million FY 2009 $631 million

• FY 2008 TAMU ranked 20th in NSF’s annual report of top academic research institutions. The goal for 2020 is to be ranked in the top 10.

When is it Required?

• Required for individuals working on federal, State of Texas, and certain other non-federal sponsored projects.

• Required for employees paid directly from a sponsored project - Budgeted

• Required for employees paid from other non-sponsored funds - Cost Shared

What is Effort?• Effort is the amount of time spent on a particular

activity, expressed as a percentage of all the time you spend on your A&M job duties.

• Examples of typical job duties include:

• Instruction

• Administration (meetings, committees)

• Public Service or Extension

• Research activities – Internal (funded by department or college)

• Research activities - External (sponsored projects)

Activities NOT Included in Effort Certification

• Consulting for extra pay through a non-University consulting agreement

• Supplemental or overload pay for teaching continuing education courses

• Extra activities (i.e., working at an athletic event as a ticket taker)

• 100% Effort = Total time estimated for ALL University activities Exempt Employees ≠ 40 hours ≠ 60 hours ≠ 10 hours

• Example: If an employee works on average 60 hours per week, and devotes 40 hours a week to a sponsored project and 20 hours a week to instruction, the employee's report should reflect 67% effort devoted to the sponsored project (40 hours divided by 60 total-effort hours) and 33% to instruction.

$5,000/month (Institutional Base Salary) $5,000 X 6 months = $30,000 (100% IBS for the reporting period)

$21,000 to the sponsored project – 67%

$9,900 to instruction – 33%

100% Effort = 67% + 33%

100% IBS = $30,000

How is Effort Determined?

Determining the Committed Level of Effort

• A minimal commitment is required on the part of the PI and other key personnel during the project. The University’s minimum commitment is 1%. The minimum requirement does not apply to:• Equipment grants• Dissertation support• Student augmentation grants (i.e.

dissertation support, scholarship/fellowship grants, etc.).

• Limited-purpose grants such as travel grants or conference support

How precise do we have to be?

• Distribution of effort is based on payroll data from the University’s payroll system.

• Federal guidelines state that the payroll distribution system should reasonably reflect the activity for which the employee is compensated.

• TAMU policy allows for a 5% variance when certifying T&E reports. As a general rule of thumb, a change applicable to a given project or activity of 5% or more of an employee’s total effort would warrant a payroll correction.

What about Cost Sharing?

• Cost-sharing represents that portion of the total costs of a sponsored agreement that are not paid for by the sponsor.

• Cost-sharing of effort represents a contribution of institutional resources to support sponsored agreements.

• Any commitment of effort stated in the project proposal or the award document must be performed and reported in the effort reporting system.

Time & Effort Red Flags!

• Late effort reports – Must be certified within 45 days from the date the report is made available to you (will usually be the first week after the end of the reporting period)

• Effort certified by someone without first hand knowledge (suitable means of verification)

• Payroll corrections after the time and effort report has been initially certified

• Percent of effort for non-sponsored activities is not credibly sufficient (i.e., teaching load, admin. duties, other research grants)

Who will certify effort?

• Faculty members and employees with PI eligible job titles are required to certify their own time and effort reports.

• Effort reports for other employees including graduate students and other student workers will be certified by the employee’s supervisor.

• Employee Confirmation is an optional feature of the Time and Effort system that allows non PI-eligible employees to agree that their report is correct prior to certification by their manager. 

How often are T&E reports certified?

Texas A&M faculty and personnel that are paid monthly (exempt employees) will certify their effort bi-annually based on the calendar year using the web based Time and Effort System through Single Sign-On (https://sso.tamus.edu/logon.aspx).

I. January – June will be certified in July

II. July – December will be certified in January

Employees Paid from TimeTraq

• Beginning January 2010, supervisors of non-exempt TAMU personnel paid via the TimeTraq system will certify effort bi-weekly during the time approval process.

• Employees will still receive a paycheck even if the time and effort cannot be accurately certified at the time a supervisor approves the timesheet.

• Time and Effort not certified during the bi-weekly approval process will require certification during the bi-annual period via the SSO Time and Effort System.

Certification Statement

• “I certify that this report reasonably reflects the activities for which I have been compensated, during this period.  If I am certifying on behalf of one of my employees, I certify that I have knowledge of this person's work activities and that this report reasonably reflects those activities for which this employee has been compensated.”

Example of Effort Document

Departmental Administrator Role

• Initial point of contact for time and effort questions is your departmental business administrator.

• Contact your departmental business administrator when:• Effort report does not appear to be accurate

• Payroll corrections are necessary

Texas A&M University Research Services

Karan Watkins

Effort Reporting Administrator

kwatkins@tamu.edu

(979) 862-1765

https://sso.tamus.edu/logon.aspx