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Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is a Personnel Activity Report (PAR)?

The University of Iowa Personnel Activity Report (PAR) is a Web-based survey used to identify how faculty and selected staff effort is distributed to a broad variety of activities. Federal guidelines (OMB Circular A-21) and Board of Regents directives govern who is surveyed, how frequently they are surveyed, effort categories and the time frame in which surveys must be distributed and completed. Data retrieved from PARs are summarized and used to prepare reports for the Board of Regents and central, collegiate and departmental administrators. Effort reports are also used to verify individual effort on federally sponsored grants and contracts and are subject to audit by federal agencies. The PAR system is audited annually by the State Auditor's Office.

The first section of the form lists current distribution of University salary. If an individual has a joint VA Medical Center appointment, this salary will be listed as well.

The next section is for reporting effort on organized research activities and other sponsored activities. Sponsored activities are those which are funded by external sponsores. Organized research includes externally sponsored research and University funded research. To be included as organized research, University funded research projects must have their own accounts, budgets, specific goals and reporting requirements.

The final section of the PAR is for reporting effort to general University activities, including instruction, departmental research, administrative activities, and other University activities including community service and patient care. If an individual has a joint VA Medical Center appointment, a foil is added to the end of the PAR to report this effort.

Who gets a PAR?

The Board of Regents requires that PARs be completed by all Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors and Instructors.

To meet federal effort certification requirements, PARs are also required for all Professional and Scientific (P&S) staff members, Graduate Research Assistants, Post-Doctoral Research Scholars and General Service (Merit) staff members who receive any part of their salary from federally sponsored grants or contracts or who contribute effort to federally sponsored projects as part of a documented cost sharing commitment.

When are the PARs distributed and when are they due?

PARs are created quarterly for Merit staff members selected for survey.

PARs covering the entire fiscal year will be created after final closing in July for all other staff members selected for survey.

The PARs should be completed within 60 days of the end of the reporting period. The end of the reporting period for annual PARs is final year end closing, usually in late July. Quarterly Merit PARs are created when salary accounting processes are completed, about one month after the end of each calendar quarter.

How are the PARs distributed?

Departmental PAR Coordinators will be notified by e-mail when the PARs are available on the Web. In addition, each faculty member will be notified directly by e-mail when a PAR is created for them. The link to an individual faculty member's PAR and to the departmental list of PARs will be located on the Human Resources Employee Self Service Web Page.

Who appoints Departmental PAR Coordinators?

The Departmental PAR Coordinator is an important link to the effort reporting process. They help distribute information and instructions to departmental faculty and staff and they are responsible for assigning access to PARs for supervisory staff. The departmental executive officer can appoint any administrative support staff member as departmental PAR coordinator. The University Business Office will provide instruction as needed for anyone who is assigned this duty. The PAR System could not function without the help and perseverance of the departmental coordinators.

Who actually fills out the form?

Faculty should submit their own effort certifications. Supervisory staff should complete the PARs for non-faculty staff members. The individual completing the PAR must have frist hand knowledge of the employee's effort and should fully understand the instructions for completing a PAR. If a faculty member is unable to submit their PAR, the DEO can be designated by Central PAR Administration to submit on behalf of the faculty member.

What if someone has appointments in two departments?

A single PAR will be created for a faculty member whose appointment is split between two or more departments. The faculty member's Primary Appointment designation will determine which department has administrative oversight of the faculty member's PAR.

Non-faculty employees with separate appointments, either concurrent or sequential, will receive a separate form for each appointment with federally funded salary. If a non-faculty employee has a single appointment, but the individual's salary is funded by several departments, a single PAR will be created and the department responsible for the position will have administrative oversight of the individual's PAR.

100% of what?

Except for individuals who have joint VA Medical Center appointments, effort included in the survey refers to those activities considered to be a part of the individual's University appointment, funded by salary paid by the University.

The PARs cover all (100%) of an individual's effort for the entire period covered. If a person works half time, and spends two hours every day teaching and two hours every day on research, his/her effort would be reported as 50% research and 50% instruction (totaling 100%).

Non-faculty staff members who have separate appointments in two or more departments will get a separate form for each appointment with federally funded salary and should report each appointment's effort separately. For example, if a secretary has a half-time position working mornings in Internal Medicine and a second half-time position working afternoons in Pediatrics, one PAR will cover 100% of Internal Medicine activity and the second PAR will cover 100% of Pediatrics activity. If a non-faculty staff member has a single position which is funded by more than one department, a single PAR is created and the department responsible for the position has administrative oversight for the PAR.

Faculty and staff are not expected to be keeping detailed records of their daily workload. Most of the data gleaned from the PARs are summarized and used for statistical analysis and reporting. It is important, however, that a reasonable estimate of actual effort be made when completing the PAR report.

What about retroactive adjustments to salary sources?

Each PAR includes detailed salary information, which is displayed as percent distributions to specific accounts. The salary information is current at the time the PAR is created. If salary distribution is changed after the PAR is created, and if this change affects the distribution of federally funded or cost shared salary, the PAR will be reviewed by University PAR Administration. If the PAR has not been submitted yet, the salary distribution will be corrected to match the latest distribution. If the PAR has been submitted, the University PAR Administrator will reopen the PAR and correct the salary distribution. The person signing the original PAR will be notified that the PAR has been modified and needs to be reviewed and resubmitted.

Who posts effort to "Institutional Review Boards"?

This category is reserved exclusively for individuals who serve on any of the Research Regulatory Committees, including Institutional Review Boards, Institutional Animal Care and Use, Institutional Biosafety Committee, Radiation Safety Committee and Conflict of Interest in Sponsored Programs Committee. Any administrative effort related to a specific sponsored project should be reported under the project in the sponsored activity section of the PAR.

What is Mandatory/Voluntary Cost Sharing?

Several sponsored projects require that some effort be expended on the project without direct compensation from the sponsoring agency. This effort must be subsidized by other unrestricted University funding sources and is referred to as mandatory cost sharing. Voluntary committed cost sharing is effort that was not required by the sponsoring agency in order to receive the award, but was offered in the project proposal and accepted by the sponsoring agency. Both of these types of cost sharing must be funded through unique accounts that are identified as cost sharing and are linked to the sponsored activity. Effort on a project that is over and above the effort committed in the proposal documents is considered voluntary uncommitted effort, and usually should be reported as departmental research.

The funded cost sharing activities will be identified as sponsored activity on the PAR, and effort posted to these accounts will be automatically linked to the sponsored project.

What is the effect of NIH Salary Cap on Effort Reporting?

If a faculty member's total salary is greater than $183,500 (effective January 1, 2006) and he or she receives salary support from NIH projects it may be necessary to report a higher percentage of effort on the projects than the percent salary distribution shown at the top of the PAR. These individuals will be identified when the PARs are produced, and information will be attached to each PAR instructing the faculty members how to factor in salary cap when posting effort to NIH projects.

How is VA Medical Center effort reported?

Several faculty members hold joint appointments with the University and the VA Medical Center. The combination of these activities is currently considered to be the individual's full professional appointment, and for the purpose of computing salary cap, the combined salary of these two organizations is considered to be the individual's institutional base salary. VA salary will be listed at the top of the PAR with University salary. The University does not require any detailed accounting of the VA component of the individual's appointment, so a single foil at the bottom of the PAR is provided to report all VA activity. The total effort on the PAR, including the VA component, should equal 100%.

Can a PAR be filled out incorrectly?

The Web application will provide warning messages when effort posted to federally funded activities, including cost sharing, do not match salary funding. Although the PAR can be submitted regardless of these warnings, an edit list will be sent to University PAR Administration and these PARs will be reviewed to determine if the variance is acceptable. The University PAR Administrator will work with Grant Accounting, departmental administrators and the surveyed individuals to resolve variances.

A PAR can be saved as draft if effort does not total to 100%, but a PAR cannot be submitted as final until effort totals to 100%. Effort should always be reported in whole percentages.

Submitting a PAR date stamps it, locks the data, and stores and electronic signature of the individual completing the PAR. If the PAR was submitted in error, the University PAR Administrator should be notified and the PAR can be unlocked. The PAR will retain the original signature and will be designated as "in progress" until it is resubmitted.

What happens if a PAR is not completed?

Collegiate administrators, Departmental PAR Coordinators and the University PAR Administrator can view the list of incomplete PARs on the Web application at any time.

Many of the PARs are created to provide a means to certify effort on federally sponsored projects. When salary is paid from these federal funds, the lack of effort certification can create an audit exception, which may require that these funds be repaid to the federal government. In addition, statistical data pulled from the effort reporting system are weakened when PARs are not completed. The University PAR Administrator will make every effort to utilize departmental contacts to see that all effort reports are submitted. When this is not successful, appropriate collegiate officials will be notified.

How long are PARs kept on file?

When a PAR is submitted, the data is locked and the PAR is stored electronically. The PAR can be reviewed through the Web application by authorized personnel at any time. Faculty members will be able to see their own historical PARs from FY2004 forward at any time. An individual PAR will remain viewable for at least five years, at which time it will be moved from the Web application to archive data storage.

Who has access to completed PARs?

Selected collegiate officers and administrators will have access to the PARs of their collegiate employees. Authorized departmental administrators and supervisors will have access to the PARs of their departmental employees. Faculty will always have access to their own PARs. Occasionally, selected PARs are requested by state, federal or internal auditors primarily to verify that apporpriate effort has been posted to specific federally funded projects and to ensure that PARs are being submitted in a timely fashion. These individuals will usually receive printed copies of the Web PAR.

Current PAR Contacts:

University PAR Administrator: Kirby Tenhulzen
4H Jessup Hall
335-0083
kirby-tenhulzen@uiowa.edu

Grants & Contracts Administration: Audra Haddy
B5 Jessup Hall
335-0827
audra-haddy@uiowa.edu