Shift in Funding Source

Effort Web Content has moved to PAFC

Effective 1/1/2023, the effort reporting compliance team within Sponsored Programs Finance moved from Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA) to Post Award Fiscal Compliance (PAFC). This encompasses a change in where web content for effort reporting is housed. Moving forward, it will be on PAFC's website (https://finance.uw.edu/pafc/) under the Effort Reporting menu tab. Continual updates will be made throughout the rest of the calendar year (2023) to rebuild web content to reflect new systems and processes.

Shift when Effort is Reported to the Sponsor

Shift when Effort is Not Reported to the Sponsor

A Shift is when Faculty is being paid by an Award but the Faculty wants to Shift the funding (payment) of this effort from the Award to another funding source.  The same level of effort is being provided to the Award, just the funding mechanism has changed.  

Note: this is NOT considered Cost Share, see below for more information.

A Shift is when either of the two following scenarios occurs:

Managing a Shift when Effort IS Reported to the Sponsor

Per the terms of the Award, the Faculty's effort must be reported to the Sponsor.  A Shift occurs when the same level of effort is being provided to the Award, just the funding source has changed.  There is no need to notify or obtain approval from the Sponsor as the agreed upon level of effort is being provided on the Award.  

The actions to be taken depend upon different scenarios:

  1. All of the effort for the entire FEC cycle needs to Shift from being paid by the Award and this is known prior to the start of the FEC cycle:
  • Payroll coordinator removes Award from the payroll allocation so no effort will be paid by the Award.
  • Department completes a Cost Share Addendum for the amount of effort (%) or value ($) that will not be charged to the Award.
  • Department submits Cost Share Addendum via Grant Tracker to GCA who will enter the information into the Cost Share Summary system as a Shift (“S”) type of Cost Share.
  • Once in the Cost Share Summary system, the Award budget number will appear on the Faculty’s FEC.
  • PI records effort on FEC as Cost Share Shift.

 

      2. Only a portion of the Faculty effort needs to be Shifted during an FEC cycle OR direct salary charges have already been        posted against the Award during the FEC cycle.

  • to adjust the effort, FEC Coordinators use the “Adjust/View Cost Share” function on the FEC to record how much effort was performed for this Award and will now be shown as Short Term Shift cost share.
  • to adjust the cost of the effort, department completes a Salary Cost Transfer to move the direct salary charges off of the Award and onto the other funding source.

Managing a Shift when Effort is NOT Reported to the Sponsor

Faculty may expend effort on an Award but the effort does not need to be reported to the Sponsor.  This is in cases where there is no written commitment to the Sponsor for this particular Faculty to expend effort on the Award, so this is not Cost Share.  This can also be used if a department wants to internally track effort committed to an Award.

The action taken depends on if there needs to be a record of this effort:

If neither the Award PI nor the Faculty see a need to have an internal record of the Faculty’s effort on the Award, then no action needs to be taken.  The Faculty does not need to record his/her effort expended on the PI’s Award.

  1. If the Award PI or the Faculty want an internal record of the effort, then the Award Budget Number needs to be available on the Faculty’s FEC.  In order to be available, the Budget Number needs to be added to the Faculty’s FEC (or an FEC created with the Budget Number if the Faculty does not already have an FEC for the cycle).  The following actions need to be taken:
  • An appropriate “Cost Share Addendum” is completed to record the amount of effort (% or $) for the specific period. The form is completed using the Budget that receives the benefit of the donated effort.
  • The Cost Share Addendum is submitted to GCA via Grant Tracker under the benefitting budget number.
  • GCA enters the information into the Cost Share Summary as a Shift (“S”) type.
  • Once in the Cost Share Summary the information is then available on the Faculty’s FEC.   

In the event that the Faculty wants to Shift the funding of their effort after an FEC has been Certified, they will need to Recertify their effort.   

 Point of Confusion – Shift in Funding Source is NOT Cost Share

The different scenarios for a Shift in funding source as described above do NOT represent a Cost Share Commitment.  This is because these scenarios are not a written commitment for Cost Share to the Sponsor.  However, there is confusion regarding this as the above actions require use of Cost Share Systems (the Addendum and Summary system) and are recorded in the FEC and Cost Share Summary systems.  These systems are only used because it is the only way to get the Cost Share Budget Number on the Faculty’s effort certification (FEC).  Because the effort is recorded as a type “S” in the Cost Share Summary system, it is not considered to be Cost Share and is not reported to the Sponsor as Cost Share.

 

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