Help: Effort Certification Report Page

This page is used by Faculty/Staff Members and Graduate Student Assistants (GSAs) who are required by federal regulations to certify their effort. Effort is the expenditure of physical and mental energy to perform and/or support the objectives of the university’s mission. Generally, individuals who are required to certify their effort complete the process using the Effort Certification page in Wolverine Access: Employee Self Service > Employment Information tile.

Effort certification is a self-attestation of university activities for a stated time period. The federal government requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to maintain a system of internal controls that provides reasonable assurance that charges to federal awards are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated. As part of the effort certification process, individuals who must certify their effort electronically are required to review the effort certification education and complete the mandatory effort certification education quiz.

Faculty/Staff Members and GSAs are required to certify effort if they:

• Perform sponsored activities, or
• Are compensated by cost sharing related to sponsored activities, or
• Are a Medical School faculty member who holds a MD

The Effort Certification Report page serves as the official Effort Certification Report. If you are required to certify your effort, use this page to review your effort percentages across short codes. This page allows you to indicate whether you agree or disagree with your effort report by selecting YES or NO. By selecting YES, you certify that the effort percentages shown in the report are reasonable in relation to the work performed for the stated time period. If you select NO, you will be prompted to email your administrator and describe your concerns.

To validate your effort percentages across short codes:

1. Verify that you are viewing the correct employee record and fiscal year or term.
2. Verify that the Certified Effort percentages and Total Appt Effort percentages are correct for each short code listed.
• Definitions of Certified Effort and Total Appt Effort are provided below.
3. Verify that the information associated with each short code, especially the Class Code/function, is correct for the stated time period. To view details, click the blue short code.
4. If the information displayed on the report is correct, click YES to electronically sign your effort certification report. Then click OK to submit your report. You have now certified your effort for the specified time period, and no further action is required.
5. If you are unsure whether your report reasonably reflects your effort, click NO. The system automatically creates an email to your administrator. In the email, describe your concerns and click SEND. Your administrator will contact you to assist with the certification process. Sending this email does not certify your effort.

Effort Certification Report Page

Letter	Field/Button	Description
A	Certified Effort	Employees certify to the Certified Effort column. The effort certification system adjusts percentages in the Certified Effort column for FTE’s less than or greater than 100% so that the total equals 100%. The effort certification system also includes overload effort when calculating Certified Effort. The numbers in the Certified Effort column are for effort certification purposes only.
B	Total Appointment Effort	The Total Appt Effort column reflects an employee's FTE (Full-Time Effort) and the allocation of funds. The Full-Time Effort (FTE) that is associated with this short code, expressed as a percentage. FTE refers to the amount of time a person spends working in a particular appointment. It is equal to the standard hours divided by 40 and has a maximum of two decimal places. The sum of the FTE for each short code is always equal to the FTE for the entire appointment. For example, if you had a 20 hour appointment, funded equally by two short codes, the total appointment FTE would be .50 (.25 for each short code). The Total Appointment Effort would be 25.00 (25%) for each short code.
C	Short Code	A six-digit number and text description that represents the source of funding and activity for the position.

Related Topics

• Help: Effort Certification (Available Fiscal Years/Terms) Page
• For more information about effort reporting and effort certification, please read U-M’s Policy on effort certification. For detailed information and procedures about effort reporting and certification, visit the Financial Operations website.