University of Kansas Medical Center

eCRT Training

August 2019

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eCRT Statement Pre-Review Period

Department Dashboard Common Issues and How to Resolve

Access IssuesMissing InformationIncorrect AssociationsEfforts and Payroll DO NOT MATCH

Cost ShareSalary Cap vs. Committed Cost ShareWhen is a cost share memo needed?Cost Share Errors

The certification period will open on August 19th.The pre review period is the time to reconcile planned and committed effort with actual payroll. 

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Effort Coordinator Guide to eCRT

Please refer to this guide for a walk thru of the certification process

https://www.kumc.edu/kumcri/sponsored-programs-administration/effort-reporting-(ecrt)/ecrt-training.html

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Department Dashboard

Project Statements

Review statements indicating Ready for Pre Review

People – Faculty Statements

Review statements listed under Sponsored

Look for & review statements that indicate Base period of Dec 16 2018 to June 16 2019

For AUDIT also Please Review Jun 17 2018 to Dec 15 2018

Project statements:• View all payroll – summarized amounts• Run payroll Report – detailed transactions only for the project

• Click on Pre‐review button to update status to Pre Reviewed• If effort is skewed (lower or higher than anticipated), consider adding a note for the PI 

indicating additional information• For example, Personnel Name left the project early• Notes should not be used to indicate errors – if there is an error or you are 

unsure, please reach out to ecert@kumc.edu.• Cost shared effort for non‐key personnel is not documented in eCRT but is 

reported in the progress reports.  This is because project effort reporting is the method for certifying additional non‐key personnel payroll expenditures on the grant.

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Common Issues and How to Resolve Them

Access Issues

Missing Information

Incorrect Associations

Efforts and Payroll DO NOT MATCH

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Access Issues

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Loading

Accessing eCRT Recommended browsers are Firefox and Chrome Best practice: Bookmark the URL for easy access

prior to logging in: https://ecrt.kumc.edu/ecrt/

When encountered with the forever loading status….Use a different browser – Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer

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Access Issues

Contact eCert@kumc.edu to update User Access.

Do you have faculty who have left KUMC?

Contact eCert@kumc.edu to update Proxy. The faculty’s academic department chair will be granted access to certify.

Faculty may encounter this error message when the certification period opens.  Although new personnel are added with data loads – user access has to be manually updated to grant Faculty role and Project certifier status, as needed.

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**RESTART REQUIRED

example

Finally, when all else fails – RESTART your computer

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Missing Information

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Missing Commitment

RI12345

RI67891

SPA123 90.00%

90.00%

90.00%

90.00%

SPA ID is missingCommitment amount is missingOnly payroll appearsContact ecert@kumc.edu to update the GrantsMod (GM) PeopleSoft Effort entries.

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Missing Payroll

88.50%

88.50%

RI67891

SPA123

Learning about eCRTRI32156

SPA45611.50%

11.50%

100.00%

100.00%

Learning about eCRT

0.00%

0.00%

88.47%

88.47%

Was payroll to be charged to this grant? or was this effort cost shared?If payroll has not yet been charged, please email ecert@kumc.edu for direction on resolution, especially at the start of the fiscal year.  Retractive adjustments greater than 90 days require SPA review and approval.

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Incorrect Associations

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FUN FACT

Sponsored Projects listed on the faculty statement have 2 essential pieces of information:

SPA ID - Project Title [Commitment]

This information originates from the GM PeopleSoft Database with proposal submission

Speedtype(s) - Speedtype Description [Payroll]

This information originates from the payroll entries for the speedtype set-up for the award in the FIN PeopleSoft Database

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Missing PayrollAwards with Commitment and no active accounts

Commitment failed to load due to missing account association.Please e‐mail ecert@kumc.edu.In most cases, FIN Peoplesoft requires an update to associate the speedtype with the correct SPA ID from GM.

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Speedtype with Incorrect SPA ID Associated SPA ID - Project Title [Commitment]

Speedtypes - Speedtype Description [Payroll]

PI ‐ 1

PI ‐ 2

PI ‐ 3

PI ‐ 1

Here are a few additional examples of projects with the incorrect SPA ID associated.These errors are a bit more difficult to identify, so here is what you can look for:1. Again, you might see the Awards with commitment and no active accounts.  In this 

case, the payroll for the project is incorrectly associated to the wrong SPA ID (possibly a related/parent project)

2. Several speedtypes with payroll appearing under one SPA ID.  You may have to do a little bit of researching.

• What is the project title for the speedtype?• Who is the PI?

If you are unable to figure it out, email ecert@kumc.edu

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Efforts and Payroll DO NOT MATCH

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If efforts are not aligning with payroll….

Review payroll totals on the statement.

Review payroll detail.

Common issue: Clinical payroll is missing.

Clinical Salary is usually the main reason for discrepancies in efforts

If payroll has not yet been charged, please email ecert@kumc.edu for direction on resolution, especially at the start of the fiscal year.  Retractive adjustments greater than 90 days require SPA review and approval.

If key personnel had a higher payroll ...is the to make up for missing payroll? Or did they actually contribute more effort ....if so then an effort change form is needed for an increase in commitment. NIH prior approval is not needed, however the higher effort should be reported and supported by the progress report.

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If efforts are not aligning with payroll….

Did the employee term off the project early? If so, payroll amounts may appear inflated as percentages.

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If efforts are not aligning with payroll….

UPDATE

Did the investigator have a non-key role on the project?

Were payroll adjustments made to account for missing payroll on a previous period.

Additionally, if payroll is higher than the commitment, you may need to research if the investigator had a non‐key role on the project OR if payroll is inflated to make up for payroll not previously charged.  Please use the notes to provide additional detail, as needed.

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If efforts are not aligning with payroll….

Review the commitments.

Total commitment will include paid and cost shared effort.

ADD COST SHARE

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Cost ShareSalary Cap Vs. Committed Cost Share

When is a cost share memo needed?

Cost Share Errors

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Cost Share - DEFINITION

The portion of the costs of a federally assisted project or program not borne by the Federal Government and also includes the value of third party in-kind contributionsm

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Salary cap vs. committed effort

Salary Cap Cost share

- Over the NIH Cap: If a faculty member’s Institutional Base Salary (IBS) exceeds the NIH Cap, the excess amount in proportion to the effort will be Cost Share in ECRT.

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Salary cap vs. committed effortCommitted Effort: Types of Cost Sharing:

Mandatory Cost Sharing occurs when a sponsor requires cost sharing to be added to a project. (Sponsored Driven)

Voluntary Cost Sharing occurs when the university commits funds toward a proposed project in order for the proposal to be more competitive. (PI Driven)

Voluntary Cost Sharing may occur when a sponsor does not fully fund the proposed project.

In Kind Cost Sharing occurs when supplies, services or other non-cash contributions are made to the project. The monetary value of these supplies, services or other non-cash contributions will be based on current fair market value at the time of the contribution.

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When is a cost share memo needed?

Salary Cap? No

Voluntary? Yes

Whether planned or unplanned due to funding limitations or additional effort being needed (NCE)

Mandatory? Yes, for acknowledgment only

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Cost Share Manual

Please refer to the cost share manual for a walk thru of the process for adding cost share.

https://www.kumc.edu/kumcri/sponsored-programs-administration/effort-reporting-(ecrt)/ecrt-training.html

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Cost Share Errors

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eCRT Not adding Payroll and Cost Share Correctly

Non-sponsored Account

Sponsored Project with Cost Share

This will occur when a cost share is added when the statement is on HOLD.Be sure to remove the HOLD from your statements before adding cost share.

If by chance, you add the cost share while on hold – feel free to contact ecert@kumc.edu in order to updated the certified amounts prior to faculty certification.

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Remove the HOLD

Be sure to remove the HOLD from your statements before adding cost share.

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Cost Share Errors

Certified effort should, at minimum, equal the committed effort (or be within a 5% variance).

Be sure that funds are available in the account from which the cost share is being drawn.

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Cost Share Report

Cost share report can be accessed by selecting cost share report from the reports menu at the top of the statement

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Cost Share Funding Source

Cost share to and from the same account*Remember: cost share cannot be funded from another sponsored account.

Also be sure that your cost share entries are for the correct Period of performance (Effective PoP).

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Review Activity

What items can be addressed on this statement? Clue – 3 items

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Ready – The Mission

Review

Add Cost shares

The statements are READY for certification

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Set – The Plan

Credits: Thank you to Erin Powell for providing this guide.Prior to the certification period opening, I will post this one page guide to eCRT training website for faculty to reference.

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Go – The Challenge

100% Certification

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Questions? Suggestions?Need additional information?

Contact: Rita Suarez, 913-588-5724E-mail: ecert@kumc.edu

Training Materials:https://www.kumc.edu/kumcri/sponsored-programs-administration/effort-reporting-

(ecrt)/ecrt-training.html

**One-on-one sessions available**

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