Effort Reporting Glossary

Assignments: A module that allows the department coordinator, sub department coordinator or central administrator the ability to assign responsibilities for pre-review, certify, and post-review processes

Central administrator: The person who oversees the effort reporting system including importing source data, exporting results. The central administrator has access to all rights and all tables.

Certification Time Period: The time period(s) for which Effort is being certified such as spring, fall, summer.

Certification Window: The timing of when Effort Reporting is open to campus for the pre-review and certification functions to be completed. This will be published in advance of each certification window.

Certify: A module that allows an individual to certify his/her effort, or the effort of someone for whom s/he has been delegated the authority to certify and has suitable means of verification of the work performed

Certifier: A system user who has the authority to certify certain effort report

Cost sharing: A portion of total sponsored project costs not funded by the sponsor

Department: Refers to the department level of Syracuse University’s organizational table; departmental coordinators can assign responsibilities to sub department coordinators at the leaf level (xxxxx-xxxx)

Departmental coordinator (DC): The person responsible for overseeing the completion of effort reports for their department. The DC has the authority to delegate responsibility to a sub department coordinator, as well as assign the responsibilities of pre-reviewer and certifier. The DC may be the pre-reviewer for the department over which s/he has authority.

Division: A level above department in Syracuse University’s organizational hierarchy to which many departments belong

Division head (DH): The person who is responsible for overseeing multiple departments. This person will have authority to run reports and send notifications to users within their division.

Domain: The subset of departments or sub departments over which a department coordinator or sub department coordinator has authority. Domain is referred to in the assignments module.

Effort: Effort is the time spent on any activity by an individual, expressed as a percentage of the individual’s total University effort

Effort report: The effort report form documents the proportion of time devoted to sponsored projects, teaching, research, and other activities, expressed as a percentage of total University effort. The denominator of the effort percentage must always be total University effort, irrespective of the total number of hours worked during the effort reporting period.

Effort certification: Effort certification is the affirmation by the individual completing each effort report form that the percentages of effort reported on the form are accurate

Mandatory cost-sharing: Funding, either required by the terms and conditions of the award or by federal statute, that requires Syracuse University to contribute toward the project as a condition of receiving the award

Minimum proposed effort: Faculty are expected to propose some level of activity (1% or more) or the minimum required by the program on proposals on which they are listed as principal investigator or key personnel unless specifically exempted by the sponsor. If an award is accepted, the faculty member and key personnel are committed to providing this level of effort over the annual budget period of the award unless sponsor policies permit otherwise.

Notification: A module through which a central administrator, department head, departmental coordinator, or sub departmental coordinator can send emails to other system users

Pre-review: The process in which an effort report is reviewed prior to release to the certifier. A central administrator, department coordinator, or sub department coordinator designates the pre-reviewer through the assignments module

Pre-reviewer: The pre-reviewer is the person assigned to pre-review the effort reports for individuals in the sub department. Until the effort forms are pre reviewed, the certifier will not have access to the effort report

Role: A designation that determines the user’s authorities within the effort reporting system. Examples of roles are pre-reviewer, certifier, sub department coordinator and department coordinator

Sub department: Refers to the sub department level of Syracuse University’s organizational table (xxxxx-xxxx)

Sub departmental coordinator (Sub DC): The sub department coordinator is responsible for monitoring the completion of effort reports for the sub department. The sub DC will have the access to pre-review all effort reports in the sub department, even if someone other than the sub DC has been assigned as pre-reviewer. The rights set up by the department coordinator determine whether or not a sub DC can change the assignments for the sub department.

Voluntary committed cost sharing: A cost associated with a sponsored project, which was identified in the proposal, but was not required or funded by the sponsor

Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing: A cost associated with a sponsored project and not funded by the sponsor, which was not committed in the proposal or in any other communication to the sponsor. Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing can be recorded on the effort report by the certifier in the notes area.