Effort Reporting Requirements

The Federal government requires periodic review and certification that the distribution of faculty salaries represents a "reasonable" reflection of effort. For the UW this is accomplished through the Faculty Effortⁱ Certification (FEC) report. The FEC reports provide the supporting documentation for salaries charged to sponsored projects. Without FEC reports, the salaries are considered unsupported and therefore unallowable.

Roles and Responsibilities

The individual faculty members, with assistance from departmental FEC coordinators, are primarily responsible for accurate completion of Faculty Effort Certification reports and for making any necessary adjustments to salary charges and cost sharing required to reflect actual effort.

Management Accounting and Analysis is responsible for oversight to ensure compliance with federal regulations.

FEC Cycles

FECs are created semi-annually and reflect salary and effort for the prior cycle. Depending on the College, FECs are generated by either Academic or Calendar cycles

• Calendar Cycles: School of Medicine (SOM), Public Health, Dentistry, Pharmacy
  • 1-1 to 6-30
  • 7-1 to 12-31
• Academic Cycles: (All Schools except those listed above under Calendar Cycle)
  • Autumn/Winter: 9/16 to 3-15
  • Spring/Summer: 3-16 to 9-15

FECs are typically released to campus for review and certification approximately 25 days after a cycle has ended. Faculty required to certify have 60 days from when an FEC is released to certify their effort for the prior cycle

Criteria for Receiving an FEC

eFECS creates the FECs for faculty members with a faculty job code in the range of 0001-0147 and 0151-0199 and who satisfy at least one of the following criteria for the FEC reporting cycle:

• have been paid institutional base salary on a grant or contract (budget type 05),
• have a mandatory cost share agreement,
• have committed cost sharing where effort is shown on the sponsored project proposal budget or budget justification with no corresponding funding requested or awarded,
• have a long term shift in funding source cost sharing documented in eFECS Cost Share Module.

 Note: Budgetⁱ type/class 05-57 (royalty), 05-52 (clinical income),  05-45 (staff assignments and service contracts) and 05-34 (fixed price surplus) are not considered sponsored activity and do not in themselves qualify for printing an FEC. However, these budgets will appear on effort reports in the "Other Salary Sourcesⁱ" section when the faculty member is paid on sponsored agreements or has a cost share pledge or commitment.

Once faculty members are selected, the system collects information for each FEC from

• FIN (budget name, budget type, organization code, salary information)
• eFECS Cost Share Module (cost share pledges)

Release and Access

• eFECS emails department personnel who are set up in ASTRA as FEC contacts when the FECs are ready for online review and certification. FECs should be reviewed and certified by faculty within 60 days from the day they are released to departments.
• Departments may access FECs one of two ways:
  • MyFinancial.desktop - From the "More Systems" drop down menu, choose "Effort Reports"
  • eFECS Online Help -  "Getting Started with eFECS"

Notification and Review

• Department coordinators are provided 40 days to review the salary and cost share data on the FECs.
  • Required changes should be made in either MyFinancial Desktop (salary transfers), Payroll (retro pay, overpayments) or eFECS Cost Share Module (cost share).
  • MyFinancial Desktop and the Cost Share Module changes are processed overnight.
  • Changes made through Payroll will not appear until payroll is posted for the next pay period.
• Notifications are automatically sent to faculty members required to certify and FEC coordinators from efecs@u.washington.edu using the email address contained in the Employee Self Service directory.

Notification Schedule

• Day 1 - FEC Coordinators are notified:
  • Employees assigned the FEC coordinator role in ASTRA receive email that FECs are ready for review.
  • FEC coordinators consult, review and update FECs with faculty.
• Day 33 - FEC Coordinators Are Reminded:
  • eFECS will email FEC coordinators advising them that faculty will receive an automated email in 7 days advising them their FEC is ready to be reviewed and certified.
  • The department should contact faculty individually if changes are still in process and thier FEC is not ready to be reviewed and certified.
• Day 40 - Faculty are Notified:
  • Faculty who have not yet certified receive an email advising them to log in and certify their FEC.
  • Faculty review and certify their FEC to ensure it reasonable reflect their effort.
  • If the FEC is not a reasonable reflection of effort performed, faculty work with their FEC Coordinator to resolve any discrepancies they may have discovered.
• Day 57 - Faculty are Reminded:
  • Faculty who have not yet certified receive an email advising them they need to certify by day 60.
• Day 60 - All FECs Should be Certified:
  • Certified FECs are due 60 days after release to campus.  MAAⁱ will monitor compliance.

Certification and Suitable Means of Verification

The faculty member whose name is on the form certifies the FEC. In exceptional circumstances the Chair, Director (of an organization or department level program), Division Head or Dean may certify when they have suitable means of verification that the work was performed. In these cases, the department FEC coordinator should always advise the faculty member to log in to review the certified FEC.  

Note: It is not permissible for the Chair, Director, Division Head or Dean to delegate signature authority for FECs.

Suitable means of verification includes participation in or close supervision of the faculty member's activities or a written confirmation from the faculty member, either in an email or memo, that the effort was performed as documented on the FEC.

Follow Up Process

Management Accounting and Analysis will follow up on deliquent Faculty Effort Certification (FEC) reports. Deliquent FEC reports are defined as those not certified by the "Complete By" date established for each respective FEC cycle.

1. The day after the "Complete By" date displayed on the FEC, a notification will be sent to the faculty member whose FEC is deliquent as well as to the FEC coordinator responsible for reviewing the FEC.
2. If, after two weeks from the date the first notification was sent, the FEC is not certified, notification will go to the department administrator with copies to the faculty member, FEC coordinator and the department chair person.
3. If, after two weeks from the date the second notification was sent, the FEC is not certified, a third and final notification will go to the department administrator with copies to the department chair person, faculty member and FEC coordinator noted above to remove the "unsupported" salary charges from any grants reflected on the uncertified FEC report.

MAA is unable to grant extensions on the due date for FECs. It is therefore critical that review is timely to avoid overdue reports.

Records Retention

• eFECS retains electronic copies for one year after the end of the sixth fiscal year (3 biennia plus the current fiscal year) per the University General Records Retention Schedule, UW-GC7, Research and Grant and Contract Records. 
• Recertified FECs should be copied and retained within the department for one year after the end of the fiscal year per the same General Records Retention Schedule UW-GC7 Research Grant and Contract Records.
• MAA retains recertified FECs for one year after the end of the sixth fiscal year (3 biennia plus the current fiscal year).