Reporting and Oracle FMS Navigation

Time and Effort Reporting
As mentioned before, one of the major expenses in most project accounts are personnel costs. To comply with federal regulations, OHIO has implemented an after-the-fact time and effort-reporting system to verify that all personnel costs charges to project accounts are appropriate based on the actual time and effort spent on the project. The purpose of the time and effort report is to verify that payroll is distributed appropriately to grant accounts. If the PI/PD has a number of projects underway, the effort of individual staff members on a specific project may vary from month to month. Because the PI/PD is responsible for certifying all time and effort charged to the project account, the PI/PD must have a system in place that allows him/her to determine the actual percent effort for each person on each project each month and submit the information to GCA monthly. For those with only a few projects, the time and effort is currently summarized annually (and will be quarterly in the near future). These forms must be certified by the PI/PD.

TIP: All time and effort reports must be certified by the PI/PD.

If the time actually spent on the project differs from the time for which the staff person was paid from the project, the PI/PD must correct the percent effort shown on the time and effort report before returning it to GCA. In addition, the PI/PD must prepare and submit, or directly supervise the preparation and submission of a Payroll Expense Accounting Correction form to correct the payroll distribution.

Cost Sharing Reporting
A major PI/PD responsibility is the documentation of all cost sharing associated with the project. This includes timely submission of time and effort reports if the cost share is staff time and effort. The PI/PD must provide GCA with the Oracle document reference number for all university cost sharing committed to the project. If the cost sharing includes contributions from third parties, non-profit agencies, state agencies, and/or private individuals, the PI/PD must obtain written documentation regarding the contribution and submit it to GCA. Cost sharing must be documented by the PI/PD as it occurs – the PI/PD should not wait until the project is ending to start documenting cost sharing.

Financial Reporting (Oracle FMS Reports)
The GCA Office maintains detailed fiscal records for all sponsored projects in accordance with the requirements of the sponsor agreement and University requirements. Each month a copy of the financial statement is provided to each PI/PD giving the current status of project funds via the portal. Project financial statements include: FMS-M210-Project Account Summary, FMS-M200-Project Account Expenditure Detail, FMS-M910-Open Purchase Orders by Cost Center (Project Number), PAY-M940-Payroll Expense Distribution Detail – Cost Center by Employee and PAY-M941-Payroll Expense Distribution Detail – Cost Center by Natural Account.

Distribution of the financial statements are usually available on the sixth workday of each month and an email notification is sent as a reminder with the web address to access the reports.

Oracle FMS Navigation
Oracle Financial Management System is the software utilized for the financial management of OHIO. It is based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). OHIO has implemented seven modules: Purchasing, Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Project Accounting, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, and Payroll/HR. PI/PD’s are given view access only. Access is obtained once basic training is completed. The prerequisite for all training is an OAK ID and password.

To register online for the various classes, go to:
http://www.ohio.edu/finance/training/index.cfm

The FMS Training Manual is available at: http://www.ohiou.edu/finance/FMS/manual/index.htm

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