Time and Effort Information for Key Personnel

1.  Who is Required to Complete a Time & Effort Certification?

Quick Answer:  All Key Personnel.

Explanation:  The federal government allows institutions to charge salary, wages, and staff benefits to federally funded grants provided that the total compensation to individual employees is reasonable for the services rendered, conform to established medical center policy consistently applied regardless of the source of funds, and reflect no more than the percentage of time actually devoted to the NIH-funded project.  However, the law also requires key personnel certify that the salary charges submitted to the grant during the previous month accurately reflect the time and effort that was spent on the project.  45 CFR 74.91 Appendix E (ix)(A)(7)(b).  NIH defines key personnel as those who are involved in the design, conduct and reporting of research.  Essentially, that definition includes those who contribute to the scientific development or execution of a project in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they derive salary or compensation form the grant or contract.

2.  How Often Do I Have To Complete the Time & Effort Certification??

Quick Answer:  As of 10/1/2007 every 6 months. 

Explanation:  BIDMC has received approval from Federal Government to certify Effort Reports every 6 months (twice a year) starting in the 2008 fiscal year.  Federal law requires that key personnel certify that the amount charged to the grant for their salary is accurate and current “no later than 30 days after the period in which the services were performed.”  45 CFR 74.91 Appendix E (ix)(A)(7)(d).  This means that key personnel must certify within 30 days from the start of a new period that the salary charged during the previous period accurately reflected the time and effort spent on the grant. 

3.  What Do the Time & Effort Reports Include?

Quick Answer:  Report of all or your effort spent on hospital activities (i.e. 100%), including a breakdown of effort spent on each organized research project, and a comparison between the total effort spent on organized research and the total effort spent on all other hospital activity.

Explanation:  The Time & Effort Report includes an estimate of the allocation of effort between organized research and all other hospital activities in terms of the percentage of total effort devoted to each of the following categories:

­      Patient Care

­      Organized Research

­      Instruction and Training

­      Administration

Therefore, if 80% of your salary comes from clinical revenue and 20% of your salary comes from an NIH grant, you must be able to certify that during the previous month you spent approximately 20% of your time working on the NIH research grant, and 80% of your time working on “Other Activities.”  You will not see an itemized breakdown of the patient care, organized research, instruction and training, and administration.  These categories will be aggregated into one category entitled “Other Activities.””

4.  Is the Time & Effort Report based on a 40 hour workweek?

Quick Answer.  No, it includes all the time you spend on hospital activities, whether it be 40 or 80 hours per week.

Explanation:  As salaried employees, key personnel are generally compensated not for a standard workweek, but for duties they are expected to perform under the terms of their employment.  Therefore, the federal sponsors are paying for a percentage of the investigator’s total BIDMC work effort, whatever that may be.^[1]

5.  Doesn’t My TEFRA Report Cover This?

Quick Answer.  Unfortunately, no. 

Explanation.  Your TEFRA is only a two-week snap shot in the course of a 3 month reporting period.  Moreover, the TEFRA report only measures your clinical time in terms of hours spent during the course of those two weeks.  The research Time & Effort Report is an estimate of all of the work that you do at the hospital (including research patient care, teaching and administration), but it aggregates all the non-research categories into one lump percentage so that you are estimating the effort spent on your sponsored research projects in comparison to the total effort expended for all hospital based activities.

6.  Can We Simply Rely on the Estimates Included in the Budgets of the Grant Applications?

Quick Answer.  No, the budgets are not “after-the-fact certifications.”

Explanation.  The regulations expressly prohibit this practice.  “Estimates determined before the performance of services, such as budget estimates on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis do not qualify as estimates of effort spent.”  45 CFR Pt 74, App. E IX.A.7.e.

However, the actual effort you devote cannot deviate 25% or more from the effort you committed in your grant application, so you should refer back to your budget from time to time.  You must get prior approval from NIH for any change in effort equal to or greater than 25% of what you initially promised.

7.  Can a Research or Clinical Administrator Sign the Report for Me?

Quick Answer.  No, you must certify your own effort report.

Explanation:  Time & Effort Reports must be certified by an individual “who performed the services or by a responsible individual such as a department head or supervisor having first-hand knowledge of the services preformed on each research agreement.”  45 CFR Pt 74, App. E IX.A.7.d.  Your administrators lack the knowledge required by the law to certify on your behalf.

8.  What Will the Time & Effort Certification Look Like and How Do I Certify?

Quick Answer:  Click where indicated to esign or print out a paper copy to sign and return to your RA.  BIDMC’s preference is that you esign so that we can easily provide the information to our auditors during our mandated annual A-133 audit.

Explanation:  Once the RA has verified that the information on your form correctly represents the split of your compensation between sponsored projects, the Time & Effort online reporting system will send you an email notifying you to certify your time and effort report.

Key personnel have 2 options to certify their reports.  They may either:

­     Option 1:  Print out the following page, sign where indicated, and return the form to their RAs.  The RAs will forward the signed copies to the Research Finance Office so that it will be available during our yearly A-133 audit.

­     Option 2:  Click on the “Esign this Report” button of the page pictured above, and then proceed to the page pictured below and click “Sign Report.”

9.  What Should I Do If I Believe My Time & Effort Report is in Error?

Quick Answer:  The printout you see above is only a breakdown of your compensation and is to be used as a tool to help you complete your effort reporting obligation.  If your effort for the month does not generally match the salary as allocated in the report (plus or minus 5%) you MUST NOT CERTIFY.  Contact your RA to make changes.  He or she will make the changes, including any necessary salary cost transfers between accounts, and cue the T&E online system to send you a new updated T&E Report.

Explanation:  The federal government recognizes that measuring effort is not an exact science.  Therefore, BIDMC has determined, consistent with other universities and hospitals throughout the country, that actual effort can differ from budgeted effort by less than 5% without noting a change.  For example, a correction would not be necessary if an employee’s effort statement shows 25% of effort being expended on a grant and the investigator’s actual effort was 21%.^[2] 

The Time & Effort Report preprints the percentage of an individual’s salary expense distributed to each organized research project for each reporting period.  Preprinting the annual distribution is intended as a guide for completing the report.  You are responsible for reviewing the report and making any changes to the report.  Changing the preprinted percentages when they do not reflect actual effort expended is not only permitted, but required.  Since the preprinted percentages reflect actual salary charges to organized research projects, it will be necessary to do a salary cost transfer to correct the distribution of salary to the affected projects.^[3]

10.  What if I Have to Spend More Time Over a Few Week Period on One Grant Than Anticipated and Less On Another?

Quick Answer:  The report involves your “reasonable estimate” of your effort.  Short term fluctuations from the effort you committed to in your grant are expected as that number represents your total effort throughout the course of the grant period.  Therefore, you do not necessarily have to account for such fluctuations if they last only a few weeks.

Explanationn:  The law only requires “current and reasonable estimates of the percentage distribution of their total effort” be used “in absence of actual time records.”  45 CFR 74.91 Appendix E (ix)(A)(7)(c).  Therefore, if you work more than expected on one project and less on another during a certain period of time, but you know that you will then reverse the trend and work more on the second project in the coming weeks, you may average your expected time and effort over the total period of time.

That being said, if you deviate by more than twenty-five (25%) percent from the effort you committed to as stated in your grant application (e.g. change from 40% to 30% or less effort), you must get NIH’s prior approval.

11.  How Do I Account For Time Away (Vacations, Leaves of Absence, Sabbaticals)?

Quick Answer:  No change, unless away for three consecutive months.

Explanationn:  Amounts charges to an NIH grant are permissibly based upon hospital payroll systems which have been approved and documented in accordance with generally accepted hospital practices.  Therefore, you do not have to specifically account for vacation time in your Time & Effort Certification.

However, if you expect to be absent from the Medical Center for more than ninety (90) days, we must obtain prior approval from NIH.  Please be sure to contact your research administrator so that he or she can make the appropriate arrangements..

12.  What if my Salary is Above the NIH Salary Cap?

Quick Answer:  You can only charge NIH for salary up to the cap and must cost share the remaining salary charge to another non-federally funded account.  The Time & Effort Report takes the cost sharing into account.  You will see both effort percentages and cost sharing information on your report if your salary is above the NIH cap.

Explanationn.  NIH imposes a base salary cap such that no grant may pay more than that amount in salary during the year.  NIH raises the cap each year. 

Anyone whose salary exceeds this cap and who works on NIH sponsored projects must cost-share his or her remaining salary.  However, these funds cannot be cost-shared onto another federally funded account.  It must be cost-shared to a discretionary or other non-restricted fund.  BIDMC is also accountable to the federal government for its cost-sharing practices.  As a result, you will see the % of salary cost shared, and the account to which the excess amounts are charged listed on the Time & Effort Report.

13.  Do I Have to Count Effort I Included in a Grant Application If I Don’t Get Salary For the Effort?

Quick Answer:  Yes, absolutely.

Explanation:  This practice is known as “Voluntary Committed Effort.”  You agree to serve as key personnel for someone else’s study, but do not want to burden the grant by taking salary from grant.  Even if the effort committed in the grant application is as little as 1%, we still must capture this in the Time & Effort Report.  There is no such thing as free voluntary committed effort.  It must be included in the total of organized research.  As a result, an account must be found to which your salary for this effort can be charged.

14.  What if I Receive a New Grant?

Quick Answer.  Be sure you have not over-committed yourself (promised effort that exceeds 100%), or create conflicts with the requirements of the award.

Explanation.  Any time you submit a new grant application and receive a notice of award, you must verify that the effort to which you have committed for all other research and non-research activities does not conflict with the requirements of the award.  The common problem that has resulted in settlements with the government for BIDMC and Harvard University, as well as for Northwestern University to Johns Hopkins, is the K award.  The K awards require that investigators spend 75% of their effort on that award.  As a result, the investigator cannot spend more than 25% on any other research, patient care, teaching, or administrative work.  The federal government is keeping a close eye on the Ks, so know the terms of your grant, and ask questions if you have any concerns at all.

15.  Who Can Help Me With My Questions?

Quick Answer:  Everyone is here to help.

Explanation:  Your RAs and RADs have been trained about Time & Effort reporting and the applicable law and can always help answer your questions.  Also, never hesitate to call the Office of Business Conduct at 617-667-1897 with any questions or concerns you may have.