EConfirm ECC Glossary

Glossary of Terms for EConfirm (ECC)

Academic 10-Pay Appointment: Academic employees appointed for an academic year and paid on the basis of ten equal payroll checks (five for each semester) from August 1st through May 31st.

Approved Practice Plans: Those private practice plans approved by Indiana University to recover salary costs related to sponsored programs conducted under the auspices of Indiana University. For Approved Practice Plans, IU School of Medicine faculty may include the fixed component of practice plan salaries as part of their Institutional base salary (IBS) allocated to awards, in addition to the portion of IBS paid directly by IU. In such cases, the percent of effort on the Project Statement shall apply equally to both sources of compensation allocated to the award. IUHP is an approved practice plan.

Auto Approved (): Project statements are generated in ECC for IU non-sponsored awards and/or accounts that do not have federal or federal pass-through IBS charges. These project statements are automatically confirmed in (ECC) and do not require confirmation. The statements are confirmed on March 1st.

Calendar Year: The calendar year (CY) (January 1 to December 31) is the period for which IU performs an annual confirmation of Institutional Base Salary (IBS) charged to federal and federal pass-through sponsored projects (Awards).

Calendar Year Effort View Report: A Research Administration Dashboard report that displays summarized Institutional Base Salary payroll expenses and effort information by Award and Account PI for a given calendar year by Award (Project) or account. A single person view is also available showing calendar year and month distributions of effort for that employee.

Central Effort Administrator: Persons within the ORA office responsible for the ongoing oversight, maintenance and updates to the ECC system as outlined in the ECC Central Administration Guide. The role responsibilities include, data loading, data reconciliation, oversight of roles and rights assignments, monitoring of project statement approvals, and regular maintenance tasks. The Central Effort Administrator may be contacted by emailing iueffort@iu.edu.

Confirmed Effort: The total percentage of IBS effort charged to a federal or federal pass-through project confirmed by the Award PI (Confirmer) on the annual project statement.

Confirmer: The Award PI who is responsible for confirming Project Statements.

Confirmer Designee: A Confirmer who is not the PI for a project but is assigned to the Confirmer role in ECC for this project. This role may only be assigned by Central Effort Administrators.

Cost Share: The portion of project or program costs that is not funded by the sponsoring agency. In ECC, the percentage of IBS Cost Share and Unallowable Salary over the NIH Salary Cap Rate charged to federal and federal pass-through projects are reported together on the project statement. More information is available at the ORA Cost Share webpage for additional information.

Over Salary Cap: An awarding agency may require a limitation on the amount of salary individuals may charge to issued awards requiring salary charged over the stated limitation to be recorded as unallowable. Reference the ORA Salary Cap webpage for more information.

Cost Transfer (CT): A change to a previously approved and recorded expense to a sponsored project. Salary Expense Transfers affecting IBS charged to a federal or federal pass-through award will affect the confirmed effort on that project. More information is available at the ORA Cost Transfers webpage for additional information.

Department: Corresponds to KFS Chart-Organization (IN-PSYC, BL-BI, etc.) Each Project belongs to a Department which is the same as Lead Unit in KC that owns the Award.

Direct Payroll: Payroll (Institutional Base Salary) charged on an IU account. IBS payroll charged to a federal or federal pass-through award will require confirmation in the ECC system.

EConfirm Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC): The system used by Indiana University to generate annual project statements to confirm Institutional Base Salary (IBS) charged on federal and federal pass-through awards reasonably reflects employee activity.

Effort Coordinator: An administrative role in ECC that exists at the Department (Chart-Organization) level. This role is to collaborate with the Confirmer to ensure that the effort is confirmed by March 31st They are also responsible for completing any salary transfers required and ensuring Revision Requested and Revision Pending Tasks in ECC are processed.

Expiring Accounts with Labor Report: A Research Administration Dashboard report that provides information regarding salary paid to employees on expiring accounts. The report may be filtered to provide information by organization, accounts or individuals.

Institutional Base Salary (IBS): The base annual salary received for a payroll appointment. At Indiana University this is defined as base pay applicable to an appointment. This includes, if appropriate, compensation from both Indiana University and an Approved Practice Plan. IBS does not include overload or supplemental payments. Additional information regarding IBS may be found on the ORA webpage How IU defines Institutional base salary (IBS).

Institutional Base Salary Payroll Summary Report: A Research Administration Dashboard report that provides detailed information regarding salary paid for employees across all appointments and pay types. The report may be filtered to include IBS payroll for persons on federal awards.

Labor on Continuation Accounts: A Research Administration Dashboard report that displays labor detail that was originally intended to post to a Contract & Grant account that posted to a non-C&G continuation account instead.

Late Cost Transfer (LCT): Cost transfers occurring more than three months from the month of initial expense require additional justification and approval of the Late Cost Transfer Committee. Cost transfers to or from accounts awarded under federal funds receive additional scrutiny. Salary Cost Transfers affecting IBS charged to a federal or federal pass-through award will affect effort on the Project Statement. Transfers of expenditures to federal cost reimbursable awards where the cost transfer document is initiated and routed to ORA more than three months after the month in which the cost was incurred will be deemed a Late Cost Transfer. Cost transfers affecting a project statement in the confirmation period must be fully routed and approved by March 20th. See the policy, Cost Transfers on Cost Reimbursable Grants and Contracts for additional information.

Lead Unit: The IU Chart-Organization (IN-PSYC, BL-BI, etc.) under which a proposal is submitted and the corresponding award is made. Multiple units may be involved in a proposal or award, but one must be identified as the "Lead Unit" in Kuali Coeus (KC). The Lead Unit of an award determines the Department in ECC responsible for the Project Statement associated with that award.

Manually Confirmed Status (): A project statement that has been manually certified. This is usually initiated for terminated PI’s (Confirmers) or on the rare occasion when an effort confirmation was incorrectly confirmed. These project statements will be initiated by the Central Effort Administrators.

Re-Opened by Payroll Adjustment, Not Confirmed (): When additional labor entries equal to or greater than the 2% threshold post to a previously confirmed project statement, Central Administration reviews the resulting Payroll Adjustment Reconciliation task. If they determine re-confirmation of the statement is required, the statement moves to this status. Statements in this status appear on the Confirmer’s work list in ECC, similar to statements in Ready for Confirmation status.

Payroll Adjustment (PAR) Task: Payroll data loaded in ECC may affect project statements that have previously been confirmed. In order to reconcile those changes, Central Administration will use the Payroll Adjustment Reconciliation (PAR) task. Central Administration will review the change reflected on the task and determine if the statement must be re-confirmed. Their action on the task will either return to the statement to its previous confirmed status (if no re-confirmation is required) or move it to Re-Opened by Payroll Adjustment, Not Confirmed status () indicating re-confirmation is required. Additional information regarding PAR tasks is provided in the Effort Coordinator Guide.

PI Leaving IU Report: The PI Leaving Report on the ORA Departmental Management Dashboards provides information about Principal Investigators on KC Awards to help identify PI’s who have left or may be preparing to leave IU.

Primary Effort Coordinator: Similar to the Effort Coordinator role, the Primary Effort Coordinator is an administrative role in ECC that exists at the (Chart-Organization) level. Every award must have a Primary Effort Coordinator. Revision Requested Tasks in ECC will route to all Effort Coordinators for processing. Only the Primary Effort Coordinator will:

• Receive an email when the PI uses the "Get Help" button on a project statement,
• Receive an email about the confirmation period opening and deadline reminder emails, and
• Have statements in Ready for Confirmation status appear on the Project Statements Tab.
• Additional information regarding Primary Effort Coordinators is provided in the Effort Coordiniator Guide.

Project: Projects correspond to KC Award Families. All the KFS accounts associated with a single award are considered part of the same Project. Identifying information for a Project (PI, Sponsor, Project Title, etc.) is taken from the A Node award of award family.

Project Statement: The annual statement generated in EConfirm (ECC) based on the Calendar Year through which effort confirmation is completed on a project basis, with a single project defined as all the IBS activity related to the same Kuali Coeus (KC) Award Family.

Project Statement Attestation Statement: The statement that is electronically signed by the Award PI (Confirmer) that the effort appearing on the project statement reasonably reflects the total effort expended on the award for the calendar year.

Project Statement Status: The workflow statuses of project statements in ECC. The most common statuses encountered by project confirmers and department effort coordinators in ECC are Building, Ready for Confirmation, Revision Requested, Revision Pending, and Confirmed. A listing and definitions of all project statuses in ECC is provided in Appendix B of the ECC Effort Coordinator Guide.

Project Statement Review Period: IU uses January and February as a review period as the statements remain in Building Status. A project statement stays in Building status in EConfirm (ECC) after the calendar year and before the statement moves to Ready for Confirmation.

Revision Pending Status (): A project statement status in ECC after a PI (Confirmer) has requested a revision and additional labor entries have loaded for that statement. When a statement moves to this status, the effort coordinator receives a Revision Pending Task and determines if all adjustments are completed and the statement is ready to return to the PI (Confirmer) for confirmation. If so they take the “Post” action on the Task, which moves the statement to Ready for Confirmation status and returns it to the Confirmer. Or if additional adjustments are still pending, the Effort Coordinator can take the “Post & Maintain” action on the task, which returns the statement to Revision Requested status. Reference the Effort Coordinator Guide for a detailed process outline.

Revision Pending Task: When labor adjustments are loaded into EConfirm (ECC) for a project statement currently in Revision Requested status, a Revision Pending task will be created for all Effort Coordinators and the impacted project statements will be moved to the Revision Pending status. Effort Coordinators are responsible for insuring the Salary Transfer needed gets initiated and for reviewing and verifying that the adjusted payroll for each employee is now reasonably allocated. Reference the Effort Coordinator Guide for a detailed process outline.

Revision Requested Status (): The status associated with the task generated by the PI (Confirmer) when requesting a revision to an employee’s effort on a Project Statement which is in the ready to confirm status.

Revision Requested Task: A Task generated by the PI (Confirmer) requesting a revision to an employee’s effort on a Project Statement which is in the ready to confirm status. Revision Requested Tasks route to all Effort Coordinators for the Department associated with the Project, and Effort Coordinators should collaborate with the PI (Confirmer) to complete. Reference the Effort Coordinator Guide for a detailed process outline.

Salary Cap Dashboard: A Research Administration Dashboard Report that provides payroll information by person, award, and account for employees subject to Salary Cap Limitations. Amounts over the allowable cap limitation are tracked in special "INSxx" cost share sub-accounts. This report shows how much salary is currently charged to these "INSxx" sub-accounts, how much should be charged to "INSxx" sub-accounts and displays the difference (positive or negative). Negative differences must be corrected to maintain compliance.

Salary Charged to Grants Report: A Research Administration Dashboard report that displays summarized salary information by fiscal year and various funding categories (Non-Contract & Grant, Contract & Grant, Cost Share etc.). Provides a list of employees associated with a given Responsibility Center or Organization, their salary and funding source. Also provides detailed salary information for selected individuals breaking down their salary charged across specific accounts or fund groups.

Summer Salary: Salary received from sponsored program accounts by faculty on academic year appointments for work performed during the summer period. The total summer salary on grant accounts is typically limited to a maximum of 9 weeks in order to provide the faculty member with vacation time as well as time to prepare and submit new proposals. Please reference the IU Policy – Summer Salary from Sponsored Program Accounts SPA-11-015.

System Administrator: See Central Effort Administrator.

Tasks: Action requests generated within EConfirm (ECC) that must be acted upon by either an Effort Coordinator or a System Administrator.

Two (2%) Threshold: If additional IBS labor adjustments post for an employee to a previously confirmed project statement, and the total adjustments exceeds 2% of the total employee IBS, the labor adjustments will be reviewed by the Central Effort Administrator. The Central Effort Administrators will collaborate with the effort coordinator to determine if the associated statement needs to be re-confirmed or if the new charges should be removed from the project. IBS labor adjustments of less than 2% of confirmed effort for an employee will not require re-confirmation.

Total Project Effort: The total percentage of IBS charged to a federal or federal pass-through project reported on the annual project statement.

Workflow: The flow of a project statement in EConfirm (ECC) from one status to another, based on project statement actions, actions on tasks and incoming labor entries. See Appendix II: Project Statement Workflows for a diagram of the project statement workflow, including PAR tasks.