Effort certification for principal investigators


KU applies Uniform Guidance requirements to all sponsored projects, regardless of the funding source.

Therefore, effort must be certified for all individuals who receive salary support from a sponsored project or who expend effort on a sponsored project (even if they do not receive salary support from the sponsor).

The ecrt system ensures that all certification can be completed electronically and that records of effort certification are available.

eCRT training video

View this training from April 2020.

Quick reference guides

  1. Log into ecrt using your KU ID and password.

  2. In the section titled "Effort Statements," you will find any statements requiring certification and those statements that are in a building status (“In Progress For Certification.") Statements requiring your action will typically be in a “Not Certified, Not Processed” status. You will want to click the hyperlink for the statement in the not certified status.
  3. Now, you will see your individual statement that needs to be certified. Review the effort in the certified effort column and make any updates to the certified effort percentage you deem appropriate for the given reporting period. Next, click the certify box. You can do this line by line or by clicking on the green star icon. After you have clicked one line or more, the green certify box will appear. You will click the certify box once you have finished reviewing the effort statement.
  4. The next step will be a pop-up message from the system, simply click "OK."
  5. You will now see the attestation statement. Click "I agree" if you agree that the effort statement is a reasonable estimate (within 5%) of how you spent your time during the reporting period.
  1. Log into ecrt using your KU ID and password.

  2. In the section titled "Project Certification Instructions," you will find any project statements requiring certification. You will want to click the hyperlink for the statements in a “Ready for Certification” status.
  3. Now, you will see your project statement that needs to be certified. Review the effort in the certified percentage column and make any updates to the certified effort percentage you deem appropriate for the given reporting period. Next, click the certify box. You can do this line by line or by clicking on the green star icon. After all lines have been clicked, the certify box will appear. You will click the certify box once you have finished reviewing the effort statement.
  4. You will now see the attestation statement. Click "I agree" if you agree that the effort statement is a reasonable estimate (within 5%) of how the employees spent their during the reporting period.