Personnel Activity Report Information and Instructions

The Personnel Activity Report (PAR) is an after-the-fact means of verifying that salary expenses charged to sponsored projects are appropriate, and that personnel effort commitments to sponsored projects have been met.

Why is the PAR important?

Educational institutions receiving federal grant funding are required by Federal regulation (OMB Circular A-21, section J.10 -compensation for personal services) to use an effort reporting system. Effort reports must be completed for all staff supported fully or partially on federal funding, or if cost-shared to a federal project. The reporting schedule is available on the RSP web site. Compliance with this requirement is vitally important; effort reports must be completed accurately, in a timely manner and certified (signed) by appropriate staff (an individual with suitable means of verification of all of the employee’s activities). A salary transfer should not be done after an effort report for that period has been certified.

What is 100% effort?

100% effort in this context is defined as the time required to meet one’s professional obligations, including teaching, research, and service/administration. For this reason, effort should equal, but never exceed, 100% regardless of the number of hours worked. Effort is expressed as a percentage of your time. It is NOT based on the concept of a standard 40-hour workweek. An individual’s effort to meet their University obligations totals 100% regardless of whether they work full time or part time. Only federally funded effort and mandatory cost-sharing is printed on the PAR and requires certification; however, total effort should be considered when certifying the PAR.

Commitments

Commitments are made to sponsors when awards are accepted. These are often based on the effort listed for key personnel in the grant proposal. Even when salary is not charged to a grant, the effort commitment must be met, and the percent time indicated for an individual project must be considered as a part of 100% effort (this is referred to as voluntary committed cost-sharing.) For faculty, commitments are also made to teaching and service, and these must also be considered when determining the effort available for sponsored projects.

Effort vs. Salary

If effort on a project exceeds the salary requested, the additional effort is cost-sharing. (Alternatively, expressed as a formula: Effort = Salary Requested + Cost Sharing.) Definitions of voluntary committed and uncommitted cost sharing are available on the RSP web site. The percentage of voluntary cost sharing should be considered when distributing your 100% effort across your various professional obligations.

Form Instructions

Carefully review the information in Section I and verify that the funding sources and effort are reflected accurately. Section II, “Percent Committed Effort,” is a combination of payroll and cost-sharing for each federally sponsored agreement.

If the percentages in Section II correspond to actual effort, the PAR should be signed by the employee or an individual with suitable means of verification of the employee’s effort, and returned to Research and Sponsored Programs, 400 Peterson Building. If the percentages in Section II do not correspond to actual effort, they should be changed to reflect actual effort. Any changes to the PAR require changes to the payroll and/or cost sharing percents in Section I in order to determine if a salary payment transfer or cost sharing adjustment is necessary.

More Information

This information is printed on the back of each PAR form. More information about the PAR system is available on the RSP web site. You may also contact your PAR coordinator with specific questions.