Recertifications
Minimizing Recertifications
Every effort should be made to ensure that the original certified Effort Report is correct. Recertified Effort Reports are often the focus of auditors and can become an audit concern.
To minimize the need to recertify, the original Effort Report should be carefully reviewed before it is certified by the faculty member. If the salary distribution presented on the Effort Report does not reasonably reflect actual effort, changes should be made in Workday prior to certifying the Effort Report in ECC.
For retroactive Payroll Accounting Adjustments (PAAs) made in Workday, the department should process the appropriate adjustments(s) and wait for the change(s) to process and post. ECC will display an updated Effort Report reflecting the changes made the following Monday.
Adjustments made in Payroll will be displayed in ECC after the payroll has posted for the next pay period.
When is Recertification Not Necessary
Effort recertifications present an audit risk to the University and should only be processed when absolutely necessary. The following adjustments do not require recertifications, therefore PAFC will not approve/process recertifications received for these occurrences:
Transfers between award lines (or between sub budgets) of the same project
Transfers between continuation award lines of the same project
Adjustments which impact sponsored awards by less than 1% (unless adding a new award line not previously reflected).
Recertification Justification
The recertification justification is an explanation of why the faculty member originally confirmed that the effort was correct on the effort report but is now changing the effort. Simply stating “To correctly reflect effort performed” is not sufficient. The justification must be more specific and should list the sponsored award lines(s) affected by the change and % changes in effort.
The justification should be clear enough that a third-party would understand the plain language as to why the recertification was necessary.
The following instructions apply to the below specific situations:
Changes in cost share commitments: If the recertification is triggered by changes in cost share commitments, please specify the award line(s) affected and why cost share was not set up correctly before the faculty originally certified.
Changes in cost share adjustments: If the Effort Report is being recertified to capture new or corrected cost share or salary cap adjustments, specify the award line(s) affected and why the adjustments were not entered correctly on the Effort Report prior to original certification.
Payroll Accounting Adjustment: If the recertification is triggered by a payroll accounting adjustment, specify the sponsored award line(s) affected by the change and why the transfer happened.
Retro pay or overpayment repayment: If the recertification is triggered by retro salary or overpayment repayment that posted after certification, again, specify all the sponsored award lines affected and explain why the Effort Report was previously incorrect.
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