Grants Accounting

Online Effort Certification

Welcome to the Online Effort Certification site for the University of Toledo.  This is where you will find general information about effort reporting and specific information and instructions on using Online Effort Certification at The University of Toledo.

Effort reporting is a federally-mandated process used to confirm that the salaries and wages charged to each sponsored agreement are reasonable in relation to the actual work performed. Effort reporting consists of effort and payroll certification, as well as various research administration source information like defined faculty and staff appointments, proposal developments, salary charging and cost sharing. It is our procedure at The University of Toledo to certify all effort.

Where can Effort Reports be accessed? The Online Effort Certification system here at The University of Toledo has a web-based user interface.  Therefore it is accessible from virtually any location.  Online Effort Certification is integrated with other existing enterprise systems to gather required information.  It is reachable via the normal campus access control of Self-Service in MyUT.

To sign on to effort certification:

Please use your UTAD Credentials to sign into your myUT portal (myUT - Self Service:  http://myut.utoledo.edu/ ) and take the Effort Certification link to review Effort Reports for yourself and/or others if required:

    • Click on your Employee Tab
    • Find the My Toolkit panel on the left side panel;
    • Under the Employee Dashboard section;
    • Click on the link for ‘Employee Self-Service Dashboard' hyperlink;
    • From the Dashboard Click on the Effort Certification link under My Activities.

Effort Certification Presentation Watch

The following PowerPoint Shows provide an overview of the Effort Certification Module under Banner 9. You may also reference the same information from Effort Reporting Quick Notes also found under 'Useful Effort Reporting Links' below. 

Useful Effort Reporting Links

 

Who needs to certify an Effort Report?

An Effort Report is required for any employee whose salary or any portion of salary is charged to a federally sponsored award, including federal flow-through funds, and for any employees with a cost sharing commitment associated with a federal or federal flow-through fund. However, it is our procedure at The University of Toledo to certify all effort relating to any sponsored projects.  If effort was committed on a sponsored project the report must be certified.

Effort is the portion of time spent on a particular activity, expressed as a percentage of the individual's total activity for the institution. Total effort must equal 100%, no matter how many hours were worked. For purposes of proposing and certifying effort, UT faculty and staff should consider “100% effort” to be the total time spent conducting professional activities for which an individual is compensated by UT (i.e., University effort), irrespective of the normal work schedules.
 
Consistent with the definition of “100% Effort”, Institutional Base Salary (IBS, to be used as the basis for requesting, charging, and cost sharing salaries from/to sponsors) is to include only the component of pay which is intended to compensate the individual for his/her base duties to UT.

Effort reports are tracked in our Online Effort Certification system. The cost share information is also tracked via Cost Share Funds and Cost Share Activity Codes assigned to personnel with committed cost share. Any Effort Certification Period reflects actual work from the previous quarter.

When is Effort Certified?

Effort Reports are issued after the end of each calendar quarter. This allows Effort Reports to be certified after the effort has been expended.  Reports show the actual effort spent on the project. Effort reporting ensures that the effort charged or committed to each research award has actually been met. 

Why Online Effort Certification?

The new online system offers streamlined processes, time and cost savings, and better compliance with federal effort reporting requirements.

The Online Effort Certification System offers the following benefits:

  • Compliance Improvements
  • Effort Calculation Improvements
    • Interfaces with other existing enterprise systems (e.g. Payroll, Budget, and HR)
  • Ease of use with Web-based application
    • Online editing and edit checks
    • Use of current campus security and access controls
    • Reports and certifications distributed and captured electronically
  • Superior reporting capability
    • Management reporting capabilities
    • Maintain historical information and audit trail
    • Tracking of payroll changes against effort reported

 Questions?
EffortReport@UToledo.Edu

Last Updated: 7/15/24