Summary Explanation of Distribution of Salary Charges for an Effort Reporting Period

Overview

OMB Circular A-21 requires educational institutions to document the distribution of salaries and wages paid to employees performing services on federal, federal flow-through and cost-sharing awards.

The Research Foundation of SUNY has chosen the "after-the-fact activity records" method. This is a system of personnel activity reports that reflect an after-the-fact reporting of the distribution, by percentage, of an employee's total salary received as reportable compensation from the institution. The report must be signed by the employee, principal investigator, or other responsible official to confirm that it represents a reasonable estimate of the compensated work performed by the employee during the period.

OMB Circular A-21 requires reporting of distribution of cost for professional staff each academic term. This report will

• represent an average distribution of the percentage of salary paid to an employee during the reporting period (called the effort period) for compensated activity that they are obligated to perform, which includes direct salary, cost share, IFR, or other institutional activities. 
• show to what Project/Task/Award(s) the salary was distributed as well as the employee's assignment number and time period covered on that assignment.

Reporting Periods

The "after-the-fact" activity records will be created three times a year using a consistent period for all campuses. The spring period will include all activity from January 1st-May 31st, summer will include June 1st-August 31st, and fall will include September 1st-December 31st. Creating reports using a month-end period will allow for the posting of SUNY payroll, which occurs the last calendar day of the month. Use of universal periods (Spring, Summer, Fall) for all campuses will result in some overlap with academic calendars (for example, Spring period would end 5/18/04 and summer would begin 5/19/04), however the effort report will contain only the salary actually distributed during the reporting period.

Example: A SUNY employee who has an appointment from 9/1/03 to 5/14/04 will be processed on one assignment through the SUNY payroll, which will have an expenditure date of 31-MAY-04. If the person has a second assignment on the RF biweekly payroll that starts on 17-MAY-04, they will be paid on 28-MAY-04. For the Spring Effort Reporting Period (1/1-5/31/04), the person will get one "Certification of Distribution of Salary Charges" reports. The percentage reported for each account will be a percentage of both the total RF payroll and the total SUNY payroll earned during that period.

Reading and Understanding the Printed Report

Project PI - The name of the Principal Investigator of the Project to which the majority of the employee's salary or wage was distributed.

Employee #/Name - The Employee # is an Oracle system generated number in the employee's record. The Employee name is the name of the employee tied to the "Certification of Salary Distribution" report.

Project Organization - The campus department of the Principal Investigator.

HR Organization - The department within the University that was entered into the employee's people record for that particular assignment.

Assn# - A person's assignment identifies his or her role and payroll at the University.

Begin Date - The start date of the salary distribution for a particular account within the effort reporting period.

End Date - The end date of the salary distribution for a particular account within the effort reporting period.

Source - This indicates the source of a particular distribution to an account. The item will display as one of the following: Pay (regular RF payroll), SUNY (SUNY IFR/Cost Sharing), or Adj (an adjustment that was processed on the particular assignment).

Project Number - The Oracle number assigned to the Project to which that salary was charged for the employee.

Project Name - An abbreviated name entered into Oracle to identify the Project.

Task Number - The Oracle number assigned to the Task to which that salary was charged for the employee.

Task Name - The name entered into Oracle to identify the specified Task.

Task Manager - The name of the Principal Investigator assigned to a particular Task.

Award Number - The Oracle number assigned to the Award to which that salary was charged for the employee.

Award Name - The title of the research

Expenditure Type - The expenditure category that was charged; e.g., SWG Grad Exempt for Salary & Wages for an Exempt Graduate Student.

Funding Source - The sponsor on the Award.

Distribution of Salary% - The distribution percentage that is calculated by totaling the salaries included in the employee's "Certification of Salary Distribution" reports for the period covered and deriving the percent of the total that each item represents