Effort Certification Procedures

Arkansas State University-Jonesboro participates in effort certification each semester. The following roles are utilized in the online module:

• Certifier:  the person who certifies the effort report.  In most cases, a full-time employee should certify his/her own time.  The principal investigator/project director (hereafter referred to as PI) of the project is responsible for certifying for part-time staff and students.
• Alternate certifier:  a person other than the employee that is allowed to certify the effort report.  The PI can certify any employee effort tied to his/her project.  The department chair and/or dean may be additional alternate certifiers. This individual must have suitable means of verification for the employee’s reported time.

Email notifications will be sent when the records are available for review and will be sent on a daily basis to the certifiers until the records are locked. A reminder email will be sent to the alternate certifier at the end of the second, third, and fourth weeks after the period is open if the employee has not certified. The deans will receive email notifications after the third and fourth weeks with an attached spreadsheet of employees who have not certified within their colleges Lastly, the FYI reviewers (Dr. Dockter, Marie Dockter, and Dr. Jones) will receive an email notification after the fourth week with an attached spreadsheet of all employees who have not certified. Certifiers have the option to request a labor redistribution.

Salary and expenses may be transferred to the department when the employee fails to certify. More information is provided in the Procedural Document.

Training may be requested through Nikki Turner. Please review the training guide for additional information.