Semi-Annual Confirmation

Job Aids

Overviews, instructions and tutorials for people in the roles of Department contacts or PI's/Confirmers

Expense and Payroll Detail Reports

At the end of each month, standardized expense and payroll detail reports are made available to units. Units are to provide each Principal Investigator with a copy of their standardized reports, or a unit-specific report containing the same information. The information on the reports is used to determine if salaries charged to each sponsored project are reasonable in relation to the work performed and other direct costs are reasonable in relation to the benefit received. In completing the semi-annual confirmation of expenses, the Principal Investigators confirm that they have reviewed all direct costs charged during the confirmation period and initiated any necessary corrections.

Contributed Effort Cost Sharing Commitment File

A cost-share file is periodically uploaded to the Activity Reporting System where cost-share commitments are distributed on eligible payroll information lines.  The contributed effort cost-share commitments are also part of the semi-annual confirmation reporting process.  Principal Investigators review and confirm the contributed effort commitments for the reporting period.  Any necessary corrections should be communicated to the SPA Award Management contact for that award.

Semi-Annual Confirmation

For the six-month periods ending December and June of each fiscal year, each Principal Investigator is responsible for completing an after-the-fact confirmation of direct charges and contributed effort cost-sharing for their sponsored agreements.

For federally sponsored projects, the semi-annual confirmation must be completed by the Principal Investigator.  In circumstances where the Principal Investigator is no longer with the University, is incapacitated, or is absent for an extended period of time (not temporary leave or sabbatical), an approved Alternate Confirmer may complete the confirmation.

External auditors review the semi-annual expenditure confirmations for federally sponsored projects to determine if the University's internal controls are compliant with federal regulations. Failure to have a confirmation completed may result in having the project’s expenditures for the reporting period disallowed.

Any necessary corrections must be initiated promptly and must be supported by documentation justifying the cost transfer. Completing these confirmations without knowledge of their correctness can be interpreted as a fraudulent action on the part of the Principal Investigator (or responsible official) and the University.  The documentation required to support sponsored project cost transfers is described in Section 16: Grants and Research Contracts –Sponsored Project Cost Transfers; Process Cost Transfers for Sponsored Projects.

Semi-Annual Confirmation Statement

By completing the semi-annual confirmation, the Principal Investigator/Confirmer is confirming to the best of their knowledge certain conditions have been met as outlined in the following statement:

I confirm each of the following statements to the best of my knowledge:

Salary and Wage Payments

• That the salary and wage payments in the above report(s) are for individuals whose names, percentages of effort and payments have been recorded in Banner for the associated six month period;
• That I have reviewed each of the Banner transactions for the six month period; That each transaction with any subsequent correction is complete and accurate;
• That the salaries and wages charged to each of the above sponsored projects or federal formula grants reasonably reflect the work effort or activity for each individual who was compensated during the period;
• That for all federal funding (including pass-through), administrative salaries are allowable under University policy and federal guidance;
• Statement immediately below applies to sponsored projects only; does not currently apply to federal formula grants:
  • That without prior approval of the sponsor, I have not reduced the effort committed to (any of) the above sponsored project(s), either as a direct charge or as cost-sharing, by more than 25% of the effort committed in the approved budget(s), and I have not been disengaged from the project for more than three months.

All Other Direct Costs

• That any and all direct costs charged to each sponsored project or federal formula grant were directly related to each sponsored project or federal formula grant and were incurred in accordance with the provisions of the award document and University policies.

Cost Transfers

• That any necessary cost transfers are reflected in the report(s); and

Cost Sharing

• That cost-sharing (as applicable and when shown), corrected as necessary, reasonably reflects the work performed.

Other federal funding, not sponsored projects:

United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (UDSA, NIFA) capacity/formula grants are also subject to after-the-fact confirmations of direct charges.  However, matching or cost-sharing requirements for the capacity/formula grants are managed by unit program administrators and are not included in the semi-annual confirmation process.