[Plsfaculty] FW: Approval Needed: Effort Certification Reports Due 9/24/25

Mon Oct 6 08:50:46 MST 2025

Hi ENVS and SPLS,

As part of the federal uniform guidance and PI requirements, effort certifications are created twice a year to certify the effort on individual federal projects.

It's highly important that effort certifications are approved on time. There are many outstanding effort certifications from the prior period (and previous years) that need approval. We have heard from central that unapproved effort certifications were captured in an audit finding and could have impacts on future awards and reporting. We also may not be able to re-open any past effort certifications going forward so it's imperative they are reviewed immediately and either approved or corrections made at the time of their release.

I will be emailing those directly (with the appropriate Unit Head copied) who have outstanding effort certifications and ask they are approved quickly. If they are not, we will need to escalate to the appropriate parties.

Please see attached for information on how to locate these in financials and how to approve.

Thank you for your attention to these.

[The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.]
Kevin K Teres
Manager, Finance and Administration
Environmental Science/Water Resources Research Center,
School of Plant Sciences
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Shantz, 429F
PO Box 210038 | Tucson, AZ 85721
Office: 520-626-5881 |
kteres at arizona.edu<mailto:kteres at arizona.edu>
environmentalscience.cals.arizona.edu/<https://environmentalscience.cals.arizona.edu/>
[Integrity, Compassion, Exploration, Adaptation, Inclusion, Determination]<https://brand.arizona.edu/signature>

From: Holan, Tabatha M - (tholan) <tholan at arizona.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2025 11:07 AM
To: SPCS-financialcompliance <SPS-financialcompliance at email.arizona.edu>
Subject: Approval Needed: Effort Certification Reports Due 9/24/25

This is a reminder notice from Sponsored Projects Services that, as of yesterday 9/23/25, there are electronic effort certification reports in your UAccess Financials action list that need approval from you. Below you will find information about what the effort certification process is, how to approve the reports, and who to consult for questions and training.  As well as attachments on how to guide, how to clear multiple FYIs and how to set up system generated emails for effort report approval emails. There may be important changes on the effort reports that need to post this current fiscal year.  The current cycle of effort certifications was due Wednesday, September 24th. A report is generated for every employee paid on a federally funded award you are named PI on. There may also be effort reports in your actionlist from prior effort report cycles.

How to approve reports
A guide with screenshots of how to approve the reports is attached to this email in PDF format. Alternatively, written instructions are below.

  1.  Login to UAccess Financials at: https://financials.uaccess.arizona.edu
     *   If you are off-campus, use the UA VPN (https://vpn.arizona.edu) to log in to UAccess Financials.
     *   If you have difficulty logging in from off-campus or cannot use the VPN on your device, please see Common Technical Issues section and/or contact your business officer and ask them to send you screenshots of the reports via email. You can then reply to your business officer stating you approve the reports. They will then contact Sponsored Projects to have the reports finalized.
  2.  Click on the "Action List" button on the top left corner of your screen.
  3.  The system will ask you to log in with your UA NetID and password.
  4.  In your action list, we recommend filtering by action selection.
     *   The filter button is in the top right section of your action list.
     *   The third column is Action Requested parameter; select approve from the drop down options and click the filter button on the bottom to return to the action list.
     *   Scan the list for Effort Certifications, as well as any other document needing your approval in your action list.
  5.  To review a document, click on the Document ID numbers (leftmost column) to open the individual reports.
  6.  In the individual reports, you will see the effort report showing pay distributions for that individual. The top of the report shows the time period of the report. If the distributions match the effort the individual worked for your account, please scroll down and click the approve button.
  7.  If the distributions do not match what you expect to see - do not approve the report. Please instead contact your business officer for assistance in changing the distributions on the report to match what was worked.
     *   Please also ensure any cost share effort is listed on the effort report.

Common Technical Issues

  *   Accessing when Financials is down, after 7 pm MST. If you are currently working in a different time zone you may have difficulty logging in a working with your department for email approval might be a better solution in extreme differences in time.
  *   Retired or no longer employed with the University of Arizona. You will not be able to access UAFinancials and will need to approve via email. Please contact your business manager or SPS Financial Compliance for assistance in the process. DCC employees require an access request.
  *   Being off campus and not using VPN before trying to sign in. I know some employees have several VPN networks; they need to be in the UA SSL VPN.
  *   Cross site tracking is enabled on your browsers. Most common with Safari and Chrom users. You can use a private or incognito mode. We can try disabling the cross-site tracking on your browser (especially if you are using Safari).  You can do that by following these steps depending on your browser:
On Mac:

     *       Go to Settings > Safari.
     *   Then below Privacy & Security.
     *   Disable the option Prevent Cross-Site Tracking.
On Chrome browser:

     *   Go to Settings.
     *   Click Cookies and other site data under the Privacy and security option.
     *   Turn Send a "Do not track" request with your browsing traffic off.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please reach out to SPCS-financialcompliance at arizona.edu<mailto:SPCS-financialcompliance at arizona.edu> or directly to a team member.

Effort Certification Process
Effort certifications are reports required by the federal government for University of Arizona individuals who receive a portion of their pay from federally sponsored grants and contracts. The reports show the individual's pay distribution over a six-month period and serve as after the fact confirmation that the percentage of pay charged to the federal projects is a fair representation of the time worked on the project. The University completes this process electronically within the UAccess Financials system.
University and federal policies require effort report approvals from principal investigators and business officers. As business staff approve the effort reports, the system routes them to principal investigator action lists. Therefore, more than one log in may be needed to complete all approvals. We ask business officers to expedite their approvals to maximize the number of times principal investigators must log in to the system.

Our federal auditors regularly review the reports to ensure approval in a timely matter, so we appreciate your attention to them.

All active faculty and staff have automatic access to the system.

Questions and Training

  *   For questions about a particular report, please contact your department or college business officer.
For questions about the effort reporting policy and system, please contact the SPS Financial Compliance Services, which consists of:
Tara Gonzales, Senior Manager - tgonzale at arizona.edu<mailto:tgonzale at arizona.edu>
Tabatha Holan, Grant and Contract Analyst, Principal- tholan at arizona.edu<mailto:tholan at arizona.edu>
Nathalie Zepeda, Grant and Contract Analyst, Principal - nathaliez at arizona.edu<mailto:nathaliez at arizona.edu>

  *    Phone: 520-626-6000
Effort reporting procedures online:

  *    http://research.arizona.edu/administration/managing-projects/effort-reporting
  *   Interactive training for using the electronic system. Please login using your UA NetID and password, and select the Effort Certification topic:
https://upktraining.uits.arizona.edu/odstrack/content/financials/toc0.html

Thank you for your compliance with this federally mandated process.

Thank you,
Tabatha Holan  [paw]
Grant and Contract Analyst, Principal, Financial Compliance Services
p. 520.626.6442 |e. tholan at arizona.edu<mailto:tholan at arizona.edu> | Hrs: M-Th 8 -5:30 & F 1:30-5:30
Sponsored Projects Services<https://research.arizona.edu/administration/sponsored-projects-services> | The University of Arizona<http://www.arizona.edu/> | Ethics & Compliance Hotline<hotline.arizona.edu> | 866.364.1908
Save the date: Jan-June 2025 Effort Report are due September 24th .
Upcoming OOO:

Land Acknowledgment<https://click.comms.arizona.edu/?qs=54f04291fd12444332ba4c96370cab681d1e8a1a5f911832346d91fd58219e8c5cb864a29c41f7d751d589f0ebbe6f25a3eca3d7ad6e8695>
We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O'odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

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