Effort Reporting/Personnel Activity Report (PAR)
Key Contact
If you have questions, please contact your Department Administrator or Department Grant Support Staff.
Applicability
PARs are used to meet federal effort certification requirements. They are required for all faculty, staff, students, postdocs, and anyone else who receives part of their salary from federally sponsored grants or contracts, or who contributed effort to federally sponsored projects as part of a documented cost sharing commitment. See Grant Accounting Office’s PAR Distribution.
Policy Purpose and Description
CLAS follows the Grant Accounting Office’s Effort Reporting Policy and information regarding certification of effort and Personnel Activity Reports (PARs) may be found on their website.
Definitions
The Personnel Activity Report (PAR) is a web-based process for personnel with effort on federally-funded awards to certify their effort distribution across their various activities, including their federal projects.
Procedure
CLAS follows the procedures outlined on the Grant Accounting Office’s Effort Reporting webpage.
CLAS Roles:
The Director of the Grant Support office serves as the CLAS Org PAR Administrator. This role is responsible for the general oversight of the effort certification process. This includes, but is not limited to, assuring departments are distributing and certifying PARs promptly and complying with the various regulatory requirements of federal sponsors and the University as they apply to effort certification.
The Department Administrator serves as the Department PAR Administrator. This role is responsible for direct oversight of the effort certification process. The responsibilities of the Departmental PAR Administrator are:
- Serve as departmental liaison to University PAR Administrator.
- Verify and/or reassign individual PAR Certifiers. In the absence of a faculty member, the Dept PAR Administrator may assign either the DEO or Dean as the Certifier for a Faculty PAR.
- Distribute effort certification information and instructions to faculty and PAR Certifier staff as needed.
- Assist faculty and staff with questions about effort certification and PAR forms.
- Track PAR completion status and alert Org PAR Administrator, faculty, PAR Certifiers of delinquent PARs.
The Departmental PAR Administrator is responsible for ensuring that all PARs for their department are completed by the deadline. Department PAR Administrators help distribute information and instructions to faculty and staff and are responsible for assigning access to PARs for supervisory staff.
Forms
N/A
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I have to complete a PAR?
The completed forms are used to certify individual effort on federally sponsored grant and contracts and are subject to audit by federal agencies. In addition, data retrieved from PARS are summarized and used to prepare reports for the Board of Regents and central, collegiate, and departmental administration. PAR reports are audited annually by the State Auditor’s Office.
Who should complete/certify the PARs?
Faculty should submit their own effort certifications. If a faculty member is unable to submit their PAR, the DEO or Dean can be designated by the Department PAR Administrator. Individuals completing and/or certifying PARs for non-faculty personnel must have access to firsthand knowledge of the employee's effort and should fully understand the instructions for completing a PAR.
Is this the same as PTEAP?
This is different from PTEAP, which only looks at Tenure-Track faculty and whether there is a change to the research/teaching/service allocation.
Related Information
ORG and Department PAR Administrator Guide
Revision History
Last updated 9/14/22