Why eFECS?

The federal government requires periodic review and certification that the distribution of faculty salaries paid on sponsored agreements represents a 'reasonable' reflection of faculty effort. The UW uses FEC reports to meet this requirement to ensure:

• Effort commitments are met, both direct charged and cost shared.
• Committed and actual effort is based on institutional base salary (IBS) as defined in GIM 35.

Bottom Line: Without FEC reports the salaries are considered unsupported and therefore unallowable. FECs represent areas where Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA) and internal/external auditors focus their attention.

 Where does the information come from?

The data displayed in eFECS is derived from FIN and reflects how salaries were charged in the financial accounting system.

The percentages displayed on the FEC represent the salary charged to each budget of a Faculty’s total UW Institutional Base Salary (IBS) for a reporting period. This is referred to as direct charged effort. Direct charged effort percents represent the portion of IBS directly charged per budget divided by the total IBS earnings.

How does eFECS decide who must certify?

For a given FEC cycle, the Online FEC system checks for the following attributes when determining which faculty must certify for the FEC cycle being reviewed:

• The faculty member was paid UW Institutional Base Salary (IBS) from a qualifying Job Class (job class code between 0001-0147 or 0151-0199.)

AND one or both of the following conditions applied during the FEC cycle:

• The faculty was paid on a sponsored budget as defined by the Budget Type Code of 05 (except when the Budget Class Code is 34, 45, 52 or 57)
• The faculty member had a cost share commitment in the eFECS Cost Sharing System

How is it calculated?

Calculations on the FECs are done using the simple math approach (dollars paid on the budget divided by the total IBS dollars paid).

For example:
Faculty 'A' earned $85,000 in qualifying IBS during the 6/30/2009 – 12/30/2009 FEC reporting period.
Faculty 'A’s IBS is funded by two research grants (A and B) and one department budget (C).
 
Budget 'A' IBS = $25,000
Budget 'B' IBS = $50,000
Budget 'C' IBS = $10,000
       Total IBS = $85,000
 
Determining Faculty A’s direct charged effort for each budget is a simple calculation:
 
Budget 'A' effort = $25,000/$85,000 = 29%
Budget 'B' effort = $50,000/$85,000 = 59%
Budget 'C' effort = $10,000/$85,000 = 12%
       Total effort = 100%

 Let's take a look at an FEC where the avg. paid FTE is less than 100%

The federal government requires that effort reports reflect 100% of the faculty members’ compensated effort.  FECs reflect UW effort as 100%  to alleviate auditing challenges with federal regulations. Here's what an online FEC looks like for faculty whose avg. paid fte is less than 100%:

Avg. Paid FTE may be less than 100% in the following situations:

• Retired/separated faculty who left during this FEC cycle
• Faculty paid on A/B compensation program who do not have full research funding
• True part time faculty
• Anyone who is not earning their full time rate
• Faculty with VA and UW appointments