Record Keeping
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Each PI must keep internal accounting records of purchases and encumbrances made during the project.  The Grant Accounting office is responsible for official University accounting records and for the preparation of financial reports to the sponsor.

A monthly PeopleSoft (PS) detailed transaction listing (UGLS1074) is available for the Principal Investigator (PI) or to his/her designee for each cost center which has incurred expenditures during that month.  This report lists each transaction by date.  All cost centers should be reconciled monthly per PS 05.A.14.

Cost Sharing

Sometimes, cost sharing is required by a sponsor.  OMB A-110 defines cost sharing as that portion of a project's total cost not borne by the federal government.  It may include cash, services provided, or real or personal property.  Cost sharing must be verifiable in the recipients' records and the basis for determining the value of non-cash items must be documented.  In addition, cost sharing must be necessary, reasonable to the program and approved at proposal submission by the Vice President for Administration and Finance.  Each cost documented as cost sharing must be an allowable expense, as if had been incurred on sponsor funds.

Effort Reporting for Employees Devoting Time/Effort to Sponsored Projects

You may visit: http://www.uh.edu/about/hr/PS02A02.pdf for more detailed information.

A.  The time sheet constitutes the primary basis for reimbursement to the university by the federal government of salaries applied directly to sponsored research, sponsored instruction, and other sponsored activities, as well as the basis for certain costs that are reimbursed as indirect cost.  The time sheet also provides the means of reflecting activity devoted to sponsored projects while the individual is being paid from institutional (I.e., non-sponsored project) funds (i.e., cost sharing).

• Federal Regulations stipulate that time sheets will reflect the nature of activity on which each employee covered by the system expends effort.  While most employees will make a single entry, employees who devote effort to many institutional functions, i.e., teaching and work on sponsored projects may be required to complete more complicated reports.
• Each report will reflect after-the-fact certification of 100% of the activity for which the employee is being compensated and which is required in fulfillment of the employee's obligations to the institution.  The report will reflect reasonable estimated of the percentages of effort devoted to instructional activities, contract and grant activities, cost-sharing, and in some cases to departmental administration, as defined in provision B below.
• The effort report must represent, in percentages totaling 100%, a reasonable estimate of an employee's University compensated effort for the period.  Faculty must sign their own individual effort reports.

B.  Definitions to be used to report efforts, if effort is expended on more than one activity and one is a sponsored project:

• Instructional activities include time expended in the support of instruction.  For the reporting of time and effort, instruction means teaching and training activities other than research training (which is classified as organized research), including the following:

1. Instructional teaching assignments, including direct student contact teaching assignments, special problem and research courses, and other equivalent direct instructional duties.
2. The development of new course syllabi for current courses or for new courses within the department or college.
3. Departmental advising.
4. Unsponsored research/professional development, including effort devoted by faculty to research projects that are not supported by some type of sponsored project agreement or separately budgeted or accounted.

• Sponsored project activities include those activities for which time and effort is directly charged to a sponsored project accounts(s), and which are budgeted and accounted for separately.  Included in this category are sponsored projects funded by external sponsors, as well as those that are funded the university.  The activities include sponsored research, research training, public service, and educational service.
• Cost sharing includes time and effort contributed (devoted, but not directly charged) to sponsored projects that are funded by external agencies, while the individual is being paid from institutional funds.
• Departmental administration includes time expended on those administrative and supportive services that benefit common or joint departmental activities.  They exclude expenses directly identified with an instruction function or an activity classified as sponsored research or other sponsored activities.

C.  Each employee paid from a sponsored project cost center or devoting effort to a sponsored project must know the cost center(s) from which paid and/or to which effort is devoted, since projects are represented only by the budget number on time sheets.

D.  The time and effort of an employee will be reported as the activity for which the cost center is budgeted, unless the time sheet (Section IV - TAE% Effort) provides a different distribution.

• A faculty member paid on a state instructional cost center during the academic year is budgeted as instruction.  Therefore, if the faculty member devoted effort to a sponsored project, the percentage of effort must be indicated in section IV of the time sheet.

  Example:

  • Cost Center: 1040-D0017-A100-NA
  • TAE% Effort:
  • Instruction: 80%
  • Cost Sharing: 4001-D0017-C123-NA 20%

• Time and effort of an exempt staff employee paid from a state cost center is normally recorded as departmental administration, and by definition, is not generally allowable as a cost-shared effort to individual sponsored projects.  However, if the exempt staff employee is paid from a non-state cost center and effort is devoted to a sponsored project account, a distribution must be indicated in section IV of the time sheet as cost sharing.

Example:

• Cost Center: 2040-D0017-A0000-NA
• TAE% Effort:
• Dept. Administration: 90%
• Cost Sharing: 4001-D0017-C123-NA 10%

• A non-exempt employee paid from a non-sponsored project cost center who devoted time to sponsored project shall report the distribution of effort made to the sponsored project account as cost sharing in the "Remarks" section of the biweekly time sheet.

Example:

• Cost Center: 1040-D0017-A100-NA
• Remarks:
• Dept. Administration: 60%
• Cost Sharing: 4001-D0017-C123-NA 40%

• The departmental administrator should be consulted when the activity (as defined in B above) for which the cost center is budgeted is not known and when direction in reporting cost sharing is required.

E.  The percentage of effort reported must always total 100%, regardless of the employee's total percentage FTE.  Even where the number of hours of effort the individual expends each week exceeds the "normal"work week of 40 hours, effort percentages must be based on total effort, not hours.  The fact that a salaried individual may work more than a normal 40-hour week does not alter this rule.  For example, an individual who spends 40 hours a week on sponsored research and 40 hours a week on instructional activity would report an effort percentage of 50% for each category, totaling 100% effort for the report period.

F.  Effort and payroll distributions are not the same thing.  Payroll distributions are initial estimates of how effort is anticipated to be expended.  Individuals ar not always paid from individual sources in direct proportion to the amount of effort provided to support that sponsored project.  If an employee is paid from more than one cost center, and effort actually expended does not match the budgeted distribution, the proper effort distribution for that budget must be furnished for each assignment on the time sheet.  Employees that are paid monthly should record the effort percentages in Section IV of the time sheet.  Employees paid bi-weekly should record the effort percentages in the remarks section of the time sheet.

G.  To confirm that the distribution of effort represents a reasonable estimate of the work performed by the employee during the period, the time sheets shall be signed by the employee ad the principal investigator.

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