The following concepts are essential to understanding the workings of the Time and Effort system.
Accounts that Require Certification
In compliance with federal requirements, the TAMUS Policy applies effort reporting to all federally-sponsored projects, including federal flow-through projects. Many non-federal sponsors also incorporate the requirements of A-21 in agreements. Therefore, a System member may determine that effort reporting…
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Administrative Verification
Departments are referred to in the BPP system as “adlocs” (short for “administrative location”). As each adloc is activated in the Time and Effort System, the department must make a determination about its involvement in the certification process. Departmental Verification Option…
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Anatomy of a Certification Document
This page provides an sample time and effort document 1 – Document ID The document ID is a unique number applied to the document across all TAMUS members and all certification periods. 2 – Status Documents are in various states throughout their life-cycles. This is the current status of the document…
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Certification Document Statuses
Following are the status of certification document and a short description Status Description Open The document is open and ready for certification by the employee or the supervisor On Hold The document has been put on hold by an administrator. Usually this is done if a payroll correction is pending…
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Certification Documents
Certification documents are electronic documents created by the Time and Effort System to represent effort for an individual, for a certification period. In the Time and Effort System, a certification document is created for each unique occurrence of: Person (UIN) Adloc (Administrative location or department..
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Certification Periods
The Texas A&M University System has decided to conduct certifications twice per year. A critical factor in the decision to use two certification periods per year was to provide a balanced mix of summary activities with activities from the spring and fall periods. The certification periods are: January…
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Collecting Status
Beginning with Time and Effort version 1.2 (introduced in the spring of 2011), a new document status was created. The document status is called ” Collecting “. Documents are in collecting status during the actual working period of a certification period. For example, during the spring of 2011…
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Confirmation
Confirmation of Time and Effort documents is the process where by non PI-Eligible employees can participate in the Time and Effort process. A Manager (PI) or an administrator may set up employees so they must also review and confirm the hours on their Time and Effort document. This confirmation step..
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Document Actions
Certification documents have various actions performed on them through the document life cycle. These actions are recorded in the document action log. The table below lists and describes all document actions used in the system. Document actions are not the same as document status – they are related,…
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Managers
Managers (or supervisors) are designated to approve on behalf of employees who are not marked as “Self Certify”. The Time and Effort System uses the “Standard” manager structure that is defined in SSO. This standard structure is shared with LeaveTraq, and can also be shared with TimeTraq…
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Notifications
Once fully implemented, the T&E System will send an e-mail reminder to the employee as soon as a document is ready for certification. If the certification document is not approved within the appropriate number days (usually 45 days), an e-mail reminder will be sent to the individual’s department…
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Payroll Corrections
The effort reporting system will include in the certification process any payroll correction that applies to the certification period. Corrections are associated with the certification period using the original pay period dates that are recorded on the payroll correction. If a payroll correction is made…
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Salary vs Hourly Employees
Employees paid by The Texas A&M University system fall into many categories. The primary category distinction used by the Time and Effort System is whether or not an employee is paid on a monthly (salary) basis, or on an hourly basis. Salary and Hourly Employee differences The Time and Effort system…
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Self Certification/PI Eligibility
Self Certification status is managed by the institution’s HR and/or contract and grant office. Self Certification status is usually granted to employees that are PI eligible (but it can be granted to other employees at the discretion of each institution). PI eligibility simply means that the employee…
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Signature/Certification Process
1) Once the effort reports are made available in the system, individuals have a maximum of 45 days to accept or reject their certifications in the system. 2) Unsigned Effort Reports – If the certification is not signed within 45 days, an e-mail reminder will be sent to the individual’s department…
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Sponsors
The sponsor for an account is the organization from which the source of funding originates. For externally funded sponsored projects (accounts), the sponsor may be a federal, state, local, private, or foreign agency or organization. The sponsor name will appear on the Certification Document under the…
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TAMUS Payroll Included in Institutional Base Pay
Federal Time and Effort guidelines indicate that only Institutional Base Pay is to be included in the Time and Effort certification process. The Time and Effort System determines institutional base pay by obtaining ALL Payroll from the BPP Payroll system and then excluding all pay that is not part of..
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When is certification required?
The federal government requires an effort report when an individual is compensated by, or has agreed to contribute time to, a federally sponsored project. All faculty and staff (professorial, exempt and non-exempt staff, graduate students) who work on sponsored agreements are personally responsible to…
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Where does the effort data come from?
The data on the Certification Documents comes from the Texas A&M University System’s payroll system (BPP). All institutional base pay is collected from that system and loaded into the time and effort system. The institutional base pay help topic has complete documentation on items included and excluded…
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