September 2019

Please review SPARs in your area to remove effort on disabled accounts prior to October 2 to prevent the creation of 0% federal effort lines in ECC, necessitating PI certification for the September - December 2019 period.

We would like to call your attention to several topics related to September –December SPARs:

1. The SPAR Create Process for the September – December 2019 period will run the weekend of September 5-6th. These SPARs will be created as follows:
   • For 12-month employees, the September-December lines are created from nonzero SPAR lines that comprised 100% of the employee’s Actual and Distributed
     percentages at August 31.
   • For less than annual employees, the September-December
2. Cap Eligible employees with active Cap Accounts in September will require special SPAR treatment to account for MCS related to the retroactive salary increases. View Instructions and Cost Sharing templates for proper treatment of retroactive cost sharing are available on
   our website.
   Please join us on October 15, 2019 as we conduct a one-hour workshop dedicated to this topic. Register for this workshop
3. FY 2020 Annual Salary Increases will be loaded to PRISM on August 30, 2019 with an effective date of July 1, 2019. Any subsequent modification to a Cap Eligible SPAR affecting one or more CAP accounts in the months of July or August will be calculated using the employee’s new salary rate, resulting in a higher MCS.
    
   To request a salary cap override:

   - Email: SPARhelp@cfo.pitt.edu
   - Include a copy of the completed MCSTemplate with your request.

A Faculty Effort Reporting workshop will be held on October 10, 2019 from 9:00 am to 10:30 am in the Dining Room of O’Hara Student Center. The workshop targets PIs with federal effort reporting responsibilities, particularly new federal PIs. Please encourage any faculty member in your area who is new or has questions about the certification process to attend. Light refreshments will be available.

Register for this Workshop