Business Services
BUSINESS SERVICES POLICY AND PROCEDURE DOCUMENT (BSPPD) # 4
PERSONNEL ACTIVITY REPORTS
Purpose of the PAR
The Personnel Activity Report (PAR) is designed to gather effort-related data as required by the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Circular A-21. These reports are used to document direct salary charges on, and mandatory cost-sharing to, Federally sponsored agreements.
The PAR is an after-the-fact certification of an individual's actual effort. The question that should be asked is: Does this individual's actual effort agree with the payroll information that appears on the PAR? Since the PAR System certifies actual effort after-the-fact, it is inappropriate to use budget or appointment documents to certify effort.
Instructions
- PAR reports are distributed quarterly for classified employees and semi-annually for unclassified employees.
- A review of the PAR and associated Dollar Summary Report should be performed to determine if the payroll information on the PAR is correct. It is helpful to verify the department's payroll records with the Dollar Summary Report. This verification should point out any payrolling errors, regardless of when or where they occurred.
If the payroll information is correct, the person with first-hand knowledge of the individual's actual effort (e.g., the employee, his/her supervisor, etc.) should review the PAR, keeping in mind the following:
The PARs reflect effort rather than time; the PAR System assumes that an individual's total effort equals 100%, regardless of the number of hours worked or whether he/she worked full or part-time. However, PARs only certify Federal effort. If an individual has nonfederal effort, that effort will not be reflected on the PAR and the PAR will not total 100%.
Cost-sharing percentages are prorated over the entire PAR period. If a grant begins or terminates during a PAR period, the cost-sharing percentage will be prorated accordingly.
Federal regulations accept accuracy within plus or minus five percentage points from committed to actual effort.
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If an employee is payrolled in more than one department and does not sign his/her own PAR, it is necessary to take either of the following steps before the PAR is signed:
Contact the other department(s) to verify their portion of the effort, giving them the following information:
- name of employee
- amount paid to employee by their department per the Dollar Summary Report
- dates covered by PAR. Please write on the PAR "effort verified by" and the name(s) and phone number(s) of the person(s) contacted the date you called, and your initials.
or
Explain how an official in one department has the knowledge to certify effort that is not part of his/her department.
PARs must be signed by the employee, his/her supervisor, or the department chairperson. This should be done only when all of the steps outlined above have been completed and the individual's actual effort agrees with the information on the PAR (within the 5% allowed deviation). Original signatures are required, stamped signatures are not acceptable forms of certification. If the employee signs his/her own PAR (on the left hand side), it is not necessary for anyone else to sign as the supervisory official (on the right hand side).
If the PAR does not agree with the individual's actual effort (excluding changes of 5% or less), please identify the appropriate changes required to bring it into agreement before the PAR is signed.
Please send a copy of any Salary Payment Transfer Requests (SPTRs) resulting from changed PARs with the changed PARs.
For further information on the PAR System please contact Jean Storandt (265-6787) or Bill Atzen (262-5975). Thank you.