There is a federal requirement that anyone working on a sponsored program (funding from an external sponsor via grant, cooperative agreement, contract, purchase order, MOU, etc.) must verify that the time charged to each award is correct.

The PAR Report has two purposes:

• To certify that an employee who is being paid from a sponsored program is actually worked on that project for the time indicated.
• To document cost sharing.

Important facts:

• The PAR Report shows the original payroll distribution only.
• The PAR information is pulled from the Banner payroll System. There is no need to match the report to Banner.  The focus should be on determining if the payroll allocation is correct.
• Review your work. Once the submit button is clicked, the PAR record cannot be changed.

First, look at the PAR record in its entirety:

• The pay period indicated near the top left corner. Monthly designations don't match calendar months:  MO1 is Dec, MO2 is Jan, etc.  There is a link to the payroll schedule to assist you with BW (bi-weekly) and SP (student payroll).
• Review the pay source index code(s) for each pay period.
• If you are certifying your record as an employee, you will perform an action, certify, and click submit for each of your pay sources. If you are the PI, you will perform actions for the employee on your projects, including yourself.  You will be able to view the work being certified on projects that have other PIs (no actions can be taken).

As the employee, it is your responsibility to certify the percent of total pay by selecting “Approve” or “Not Approve” for each pay record.

• If the entire PAR record is correct, certify by clicking Approve for each index code, then click the confirmation box.
• If a portion of the PAR record is not correct, click Not Approve only for those index codes where the allocation is not correct, select the appropriate Reason*, and add an Explanatory NOTE:  For those index codes where the allocation is correct, click Approve and click the confirmation box. 

*Reason:

• Non-grant index to non-grant index: explain with a comment.
• Human Resources must adjust payroll: use if HR entered payroll differently than was submitted, explain how the effort was truly spent in the comment box and attach correspondence with HR to show how they are correcting the error.
• Department must process cost transfer: the PAR record shows original payroll only.  If a payroll cost transfer has already been processed (or is going to be processed), the origination index (moving salary out of it) should be marked cost transfer, but the destination index (moving salary into it) should be approved.  This makes sure the amount already in the destination index is certified.  100% of the total must be certified.  The certification language above the signature section of the cost transfer form certifies the amount being cost transferred and any remainder in the origination index.

• You can add cost match as the employee. Talk with your PI(s) to see if there is cost match, which is relatively rare.  Please see the PAR help guide for this process. 

As the PI, you will see whether or not the employee approved their record.

• For each index code where the allocation is correct, click Yes (you agree with the employee’s action) and click the confirmation box.
  • Alternatively, if an index code is correct, but the employee didn't approve it, you can override the employee’s action by clicking No (you do not agree), then choosing Original distribution is correct.
• If an index code is not correct, and the employee clicked Not Approve, click Yes (you agree with the employee’s action) and click the confirmation box.
  • Alternatively, if an index code is not correct, but the employee approved it, click No (you do not agree), choose the reason, and add an explanatory comment. There is also a box you can check if that index (usually a non-grant index) is committed as cost match, so that your ORSP SPS knows to adjust the cost match if there will be a cost transfer.
• You can add cost match as the PI. Please see the PAR help guide.  If the employee entered cost match and you need to edit it, you must first click Yes (you agree with the employee’s action for the certification of their time), then the cost match box will open, and you will be able to edit the cost match and add a comment. 

Common Certification Errors:

• Not knowing which month you are certifying. Remember MO1 is Dec, MO2 is Jan, etc.  There is a link to the payroll schedule to assist you with BW (bi-weekly) and SP (student payroll).  The month is also indicated on the top left of the PAR record, below the employee name and 790 number.
• When only one index is affected by a reason such as a cost transfer (or pending cost transfer), marking all the index codes as cost transfer. When the allocation to an index is correct, that index code should be approved.
• Forgetting to add cost match. We want to keep as much material as we can within the PAR system; however, you can send a UMDW report to your ORSP SPS outside the PAR system.  The SPS will then add the cost match to the database manually.  Do not record cost match in the comments section, because the record will not route to the SPS.