Upgrade to Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC), Executive Level II salary increase, Explanation of Percentages, and new training workshops.
The University implemented ecrt in January 2013 to facilitate electronic certification of effort associated with federally sponsored research. The volume of data that has accumulated in ecrt since implementation has created some performance issues with this product. The vendor, Huron Consulting Group, has recommended an upgrade to the latest version, called Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC) to take advantage of the latest performance improvements to resolve these issues. ECC brings a new look to the various screens, but the information and functionality will remain much the same.
No additional training will be required. We will share details of the timing of the ECC implementation and user improvements in the coming weeks.
On March 28, 2019, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13866 raising the federal Executive Level II salary to $192,300. Accordingly, please follow the instructions for updating Jan-Apr 2019 SPARs with Mandatory Cost Sharing on DHHS sponsored projects.
Actual Effort, Distributed Percentage, Committed Effort and Certified Effort are interrelated terms expressed as percentages. These percentages record:
- Actual Effort represents the portion of time devoted to a specific activity for the time frame noted. For sponsored projects, this percentage should be a reasonable estimate of the work performed. Budget estimates are not appropriate. PIs are responsible to be aware of the effort performed on their awards and to communicate this to department administrators.
- Committed Effort is the level of effort promised by named, key personnel to a specific scope of work in a research proposal. This is not to be a substitute for Actual Effort recorded on the employee SPAR. PIs and Department Administrators must be aware of all commitments and obtain sponsor approval for instances where Actual Effort devoted to a project deviates by 25% or more of the committed level of effort.
- Distributed Percentage is the portion of an employee’s salary that will be charged to the project based on their Actual Effort less any Cost Sharing recognized. Distributed Percentage should ensure the maximum allowable salary distribution based on the level of Actual Effort devoted to a project within the sponsor budget.
- Certified Effort is the after-the-fact confirmation of Actual Effort performed on a federally sponsored research project.