ePERs & PETs

Find out how fringe benefits are impacted by PETs

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 15:13:22 +0000

Find out how fringe benefits are impacted by PETs Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/02/2025 - 09:13

More Resources

Questions?

For sponsored projects, please contact your Grant Accountant if you need a journal entry completed to correct fringe allocations from PETs. For fringe adjustments to all other projects, please contact Bayley Trego, Cost Accounting Manager

What are PETs?

Payroll expense transfers (PETs) are after-the-fact transfers to move salaries between speedtypes, projects and within awards.

How might fringe benefits be impacted by a PET?

When a regular payroll expense occurs, the charge to the salary account will trigger the fringe rate to be applied and charged to the correct fringe benefit account.

When a PET occurs, the charge to the salary account in the speedtype that pay is moving to, as well as the credit to the salary account in the speedtype the pay is moving from, will trigger the benefits to be applied to the new speedtype and subsequently removed from the old speedtype. However, you won’t see this effect on fringe benefits until allocations are processed at month-end close.

What is the historical process/impact?

Prior to FY26, the system would automatically apply the current year’s fringe rate to the PET but if the payroll that was being transferred was from a previous fiscal year, the system would apply the previous fiscal year's (FY) fringe rate. Because fringe benefit rates change each year, the benefit rate applied to a PET for salary that is two years or older could be incorrect.

For example, the FY23 benefit rate for regular faculty was 29.4%. If $100 salary that occurred in FY23 was moved through a PET in FY26, the system would apply the FY25 benefit rate of 31%. However, this would be incorrect as it would charge the new speedtype $31 in fringe and remove $31 in fringe from the old speedtype, when there was only $29.4 in fringe that needed to be removed and reallocated. When this occurred, a journal entry was needed to adjust the fringe amounts.

What is the new process in FY26?

When a PET is input, the system will automatically apply the current year’s fringe rate to the PET and there will be a “PET adj” line item to adjust the fringe benefit to the appropriate fiscal year’s rate, if the date the salary expense was incurred is within the last 5 fiscal years. If a PET is entered for salary expense aged over 5 years, the benefit rate applied will be incorrect and require a journal entry.

For example, the FY23 benefit rate for regular faculty was 29.4%. If $100 salary that occurred in FY23 was moved through a PET in FY26, the system will now apply the FY23 benefit rate of 29.4% and no additional entries would be necessary.

Payroll expense transfers (PETs) are after-the-fact transfers to move salaries between speedtypes, projects and within awards. Find out how fringe benefits might be impacted by a PET and what happens if you move pay that is over a year old.

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Update on ePER supervisor notifications

Jaclyn Lindabury — Thu, 01 May 2025 15:16:07 +0000

Update on ePER supervisor notifications Jaclyn Lindabury Thu, 05/01/2025 - 09:16

Effective fall 2024, supervisors will receive ePER notifications for overdue employee certifications at 90 days past due, rather than the previous 120-day threshold.

Supervisors are expected to either assist employees with completing their effort reports or certify on behalf of employees who have left the university. Note that the supervisor of record is based upon data in HCM and can be someone other than the PI.

Please reach out to epers@colorado.edu with any questions. Thank you!

More Information �� ePERs

ePERs - Policy & Procedure

ePERs for Separated Employees

Effective fall 2024, supervisors will receive ePER notifications for overdue employee certifications at 90 days past due, rather than the previous 120-day threshold.

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New ePERs notifications for PIs and those new to sponsored research

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:29:37 +0000

New ePERs notifications for PIs and those new to sponsored research Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/03/2024 - 09:29

Wrapping up internal audit recommendations for effort reporting via ePERs, �� Boulder is improving effort reporting accuracy with two new notification programs:

Quarterly email to PIs with uncertified ePERs:

UIS finalized in May 2024 a quarterly blast email that will be sent to PIs with employees on their sponsored projects that have not been certified. These emails will be scheduled to go out March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31 of each year. The email will contain an attachment of the listed ePERs and references to other reports where they can find more information on ePERs.

Important: Overall responsibility for financial and programmatic stewardship of awards is the responsibility of the PI.

ePERs for employees new to sponsored research:

After each ePER semester, an email will be sent out to employees with effort on sponsored projects for the first time or first time in five years. CCO strongly recommends employees new to effort reporting to take ePERs SkillSoft training available in my.cu.edu therefore links to the course plus other training material and information will be provided in this email. In addition, a Q&A ePER meeting link will be included for any questions related to certifying their ePERs.

Important: Regular and routine effort reporting is a requirement for recipients of federal awards as a means of attesting to the appropriateness of salaries and wages charged to the contract or grant. Sponsoring agencies require reasonable assurance that labor costs charged to a sponsored project reflect the actual effort expended on the project.

Questions or comments? Contact epers@colorado.edu.

Wrapping up internal audit recommendations for effort reporting via ePERs, �� Boulder is improving effort reporting accuracy with two new notification programs.

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New Report – ePERs by Project or Award

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 20:39:29 +0000

New Report – ePERs by Project or Award Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/01/2024 - 13:39

We are excited to introduce a new report in mFin (�� Data) called “ePERs by Project or Award” which can view all ePERs on an award rather than running by project!

This should be helpful for awards that have multiple projects since it can be time-consuming to run a report for each one.

What you should know:

Different projects: When running the report, there will be pages in HTML or tabs in Excel that delineate each different project.
ePERs status: At the bottom of the ePERs by Project or Award page, there is an option to select or de-select certain ePERs status. For example, to see outstanding ePERs, you de-select (uncheck) the box for “Y – Certified.” Doing so would produce results that only display ePERs that have not been certified, yet.
Effort reports are generated each semester based upon payroll distribution entered into the Human Capital Management (HCM) system by departmental payroll personnel. Effort reports cover the following periods:
- January 1 - May 21: Spring Semester
- June 1 - August 31: Summer Semester
- September 1 - December 31: Fall Semester

What we recommend:

CCO recommends that department staff and their PIs run the report after each semester ePER period to ensure that the correct individuals are putting effort on their sponsored projects.

Need an update on ePERS statuses?

Status	Meaning
Y – Certified	ePER has been certified and is considered complete
N – Not Certified	ePER has not been certified and is considered outstanding
P – Pending PET Approval/Cancel	The individual entered effort reporting percentage not equal to their effort (paid) percentage and thus a Payroll Expense Transfer (PET) is necessary to adjust their payroll prior to the system allowing them to certify their ePER.
R – To be Recertified	The ePER was certified previously by the individual, however changes were made to their payroll distribution and thus the employee needs to go in and certify their ePER.
H – Hold – Not Certified	The system will not allow ePER certification due to the individual’s payroll distribution not totaling 100%, please reach out to epers@colorado.edu for assistance

Questions?

Email epers@colorado.edu with any questions related to ePERs.

Streamline your ePER review process in mFin (�� Data) with the new "ePERs by Project or Award" report, offering a view of all ePERs for an award, eliminating the need to run individual reports for each project.

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New ePERs tile for principal investigators

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:23:44 +0000

New ePERs tile for principal investigators Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/05/2023 - 09:23

Attention: Please help initiate standard business practice for principal investigators, researchers, department research administrators and fiscal managers to take ePERs training.

Proper effort reporting is a vital process of sponsored research which can lead to negative impacts for principal investigators, researchers and the university if falsely certified or not completed.

Potential impacts could be loss of future funding, fines, penalties and more. The Campus Controller's Office strongly encourages anyone involved in sponsored research to take the ePERs course in Skillsoft.

Begin the ePER - electronic Personnel Effort Reporting course

Looking for more information? Find resources on the ePERs page.

We are pleased to share that University Information Services (UIS) has created a new ePERs tile for principal investigators (PIs).

Our ePERs functionality is as follows:

(1) An ePER tile for individuals to use to certify their own effort.
(2) An ePER tile for supervisors of employees to certify effort.
(3) An ePER tile for PIs to view ePERs associated with their project.

Since the Research Financial Services (RFS) Compliance Team uses the PI as the next escalation point for separated employees after the supervisor, this results in the PI often signing the ePER digitally rather than certifying in the ePER portal.

(06/08/23 Update) The new ePER tile for PIs has view-only access. The PIs will not be able to certify in the system. However, they should use this tile to see the effort of individuals working on projects in which they are the PI. This is useful to ensure that individuals are properly working on the right projects and with the correct quantity of effort. We apologize for the miscommunication earlier.

Additional useful effort (ePER) reports are available in mFin (�� Data) under Team Content -> ePers:

All ePERs by Project: Review regularly to ensure the right individuals are working on the correct projects/awards
ePERs Summary by PI: Review regularly to see the effort of individuals with effort on all the principal investigator's projects
Monthly Uncertified ePERs by Org: Review regularly to ensure your department (org) is completing their ePERs, uncertified effort is considered unallowable

Please contact our team if you have any questions, and we will let you know when we have more information available on a go-live date.

Thank you,

RFS Compliance Team

We are pleased to share that University Information Services has created a new ePERs tile for principal investigators. Also, please help initiate standard business practice for principal investigators, researchers, department research administrators and fiscal managers to take ePERs training.

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ePERs & PETs

Find out how fringe benefits are impacted by PETs

More Resources

Questions?

What are PETs?

How might fringe benefits be impacted by a PET?

What is the historical process/impact?

What is the new process in FY26?

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Update on ePER supervisor notifications

More Information ���������� ePERs

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New ePERs notifications for PIs and those new to sponsored research

Quarterly email to PIs with uncertified ePERs:

ePERs for employees new to sponsored research:

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New Report – ePERs by Project or Award

What you should know:

What we recommend:

Need an update on ePERS statuses?

Questions?

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New ePERs tile for principal investigators

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More Information �� ePERs