Effort Reporting
The Administrative Support Team (AST) will pull Workday reports to ensure reporting is completed for each grant and work with both the unit and central offices to ensure any issues are resolved. If an adjustment to the effort reporting is needed, we will work with units to ensure this action is completed.
AST's Grants Team is here to answer questions and assist with the University's effort reporting system, Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC). We will fill gaps in the ECC process when the department has an empty role.
Award Close
As awards close and are reconciled, AST will verify appropriate steps have been taken prior to Grant & Contract Accounting (GCA) performing the final close of the grant.
On this Page...
- Resources
- Award Close Separation of Duties
- Duties of Departments with Grants
- Duties of AST
- Duties of Central Offices
- AST Responsibilities for Effort Reporting and Closeout of Award
- Effort Reporting
- Closeout of Award
- Other Applicable Support
- ECC Statement Cycles
- Award Close Separation of Duties
- Workflows
- Effort Reporting Processing Time and Workflow
- No workflow
- Award Close Processing Time and Workflow
- No workflow
- Effort Reporting Processing Time and Workflow
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How to find effort and project reports in ECC?
- What is the AST schedule around closeout reviews?
- How to locate the journal lines?
- There are incorrect payroll charges that are reflected on my effort or project statement in ECC. How do I correct these incorrect payroll charges?
- Who is responsible for completing the ECC if the grant is cross-unit?
- What additional resources are available to me? Who else can I contact for help?
Resources
Back to TopTasks associated with the award close process are distributed between the unit, AST, and central offices. The following outline details the separation of duties at each of these levels.
Duties of Departments with Grants
- Proposal and Budget Development
- Effort Certification
- Analysis/Review of Grant Reports/Forecast
- Analysis and Reporting
- Clinical Trial Invoicing
Duties of AST
- Perform Journal Entries
- Award Closeout Guidance
- Effort Reporting Review (both faculty and non-faculty reporting)
Duties of Central Offices
- Pre-Award Administration
- Post Award Set-up
- Manage Sponsored Program Spend and Billing
- Manage Sponsored Program Reporting and Compliance
Effort Reporting
For both Faculty Effort Reporting and Non-Faculty Effort Reporting:
- Ensure certifications are completed in a timely manner
- If re-certifications occur, ensure proper documentation regarding the circumstances and cause of re-certification is in place.
- Review for any salary transfers on certified effort reporting.
- Ensure committed cost share and effort is accounted for and certified.
- Ensure online salary expense transfers (OSETs) are properly documented per GIM 15
- If K award, ensure PI has at least 75% effort for the period, and cost share requirements are met
Closeout of Award
- Coordinate with department to ensure closeout requirements are met.
- Review award terms and conditions for final documentation requirements and deadlines and incorporate into checklist
- Review award expenditures and ensure allowability
- Ensure allowable project costs have posted to the grant, including any subaward invoices
- Ensure open balances and encumbrances are cleared
- Ensure all reoccurring recharges have, or will, cease at or before award end date
- Track status of final progress report and/or proof of submission for when it is sent to closeout@uw.edu.
Other Applicable Support
- Ensure cost share commitments are met and posted, interim cost share reports if gap in effort reporting cycle and the program income is spent in full.
- Work with department to report Intellectual Property to UW CoMotion
- Review and confirm equipment inventory and any related journal entries are submitted
- Ensure subaward closeouts occur within the appropriate time period, including closeout of any associated BPOs and confirm final invoices has been received and paid.
ECC has two statements types which follows the following periods:
- Effort reporting: completed every six months
- January 1 - June 30
- July 1 - December 31
- Project reporting: completed every three months
- January 1 - March 31
- April 1 - June 30
- July 1 - September 30
- October 1 - December 31
Workflows
Back to TopEffort Reporting Processing Time and Workflow
The turnaround time for effort reporting is 1-3 business days.
No workflow at this time, keep an eye out for website updates via AST’s Newsletter.
Award Close Processing Time and Workflow
The turnaround time for award close guidance is 1-3 business days.
No workflow at this time, keep an eye out for website updates via AST’s Newsletter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Back to TopView our steps to running departmental reports to monitor ECC tasks.
AST's standard is usually 2-3 weeks prior to final reporting to allow for UW’s Grants & Contact Accounting (GCA)/Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) review.
For a visual of this step-by-step guide please refer to the Finding Transaction IDs page.
In Workday search Find Journal Lines, this will open the report parameters. Input the following fields:
- Company: Input UW1861
- Year: Select FY2024 from dropdown
- Period: Select Period (by month), then select the actual month of the transaction
- Other additional fields, although not required, will be instrumental in narrowing down your search:
- Accounting Date On or After and Accounting Date On or Before: If you have the exact date input in both of these fields or if possible narrow down the time frame.
- Worktags: Input the driver or other identifying worktags. Note: Directly input worktags instead of selecting from the dropdown menu.
- Amount Equal To, Greater Than or Less Than: If possible input the exact transaction amount or the approximate amount. ProTip: Save frequently used parameters by entering a Filter Name, then saving before you run the report.
Select OK to run the report. If the results are unsuccessful you can edit your filter parameters by selecting the change selection button on the upper left side of the screen. After you have located the desired transaction, hover your mouse over the magnifying glass and an "..."/twinkie will appear on the right side of the magnifying glass. Select the "..." to open the Actions sub-menu, there you will see the journal information. By selecting the magnifying glass will open to the journal with all identifying information. Note: You are able to download this report or journal as a excel file or pdf.
ProTip: We recommend saving a department copy of journals after running reports or reconciling, or completing transactions, to refer to when needed later on.
Payroll Accounting Adjustments (PAAs) are used to adjust worktags for historical salary expenses, and adjust direct charges reflected on an effort or project statement. PAAs are completed in Workday, and ECC is integrated with Workday to receive all PAAs the Monday after they are posted. If a PAA is needed:
- AST HR/payroll supported departments: Submit your PAA request to our HR/Payroll team.
- Non-AST HR/Payroll supported departments: Please submit your PAA requests to the individual in your department with that role.
In general, it is typically recommended the department where the payroll resides should complete the pre review. However, in cases where the grant is in another CAS department or another university department, there may be a need to communicate and coordinate about the cross-unit grant.
Since the faculty is certifying in the end, that is the main action under scrutiny in the case of an audit, so the pre review step is more so to avoid any obvious inaccuracies or identify changes that need to be made prior the certification. This means it isn't a requirement for both departments to review, but if it makes sense and helps ensure the statement is accurate before getting to the faculty/PI to certify, it is a best practice.
Recommended actions:
- Communicate between units on information and which unit is completing each step.
- If it is determined another individual should be listed as effort coordinator, see job aid on Managing Coordinator Assignments and Authorizations (including how to identify a primary Effort Coordinator).
- One department can be listed as primary and the other as secondary, but it will allow both to participate in the pre review action.
- In some cases, this means receiving information in a restricted access to the specific faculty that has grants in two different departments or downloading the effort statement into pdf to share with the grant manager in the second department to give their input.
The Effort Reporting website is full of information! Check out the following subpages on:
- Effort Reporting Schedule
- Effort Compliance Topics
- Effort Reporting System/Processes
- Job Aids and Tools
- Training
- ECC Office Hours
You can also contact the following emails for additional support:
- Post Award Fiscal Compliance email: gcafco@uw.edu
- For questions and issues relating to Effort Reporting, email: effortreporting@uw.edu
For Further Support
Back to TopReach out and we will route your questions, comments, and/or ideas to the appropriate subject matter experts on our team and keep an eye out for monthly updates via AST's Newsletter.
Last Updated: Thursday, May 08, 2025