Labor distribution and effort certification

Labor distribution is used to distribute all types of pay to general ledger accounts, grant accounting awards, and projects. Effort certification is used to verify that salaries that are charged to a project are for work that is performed on that project.

This table shows the labor distribution and effort certification process flow:

Process Description Reference
Preliminary payroll setup Set up these items outside of FSM:
  • Employees in your HR system
  • A payroll distribution process through which payroll salary and wage records are posted to GLTransactionDetail records
n/a
Set up project labor assignments Create project employees and assign projects. Labor records for the project assignment are automatically created for each labor period based on the labor schedule assigned to the employee. See the Financials and Supply Management Setup and Administration Guide
Encumber salary Use salary encumbrance amounts to track commitments for labor before it is incurred:
  • Add a planned percent for a labor period for an employee.
  • Optionally, add fringe benefits.

The salary and fringe encumbrance amounts are calculated based on the planned labor for the open and future labor periods for a project assignment.

See Salary and fringe encumbrances
Create labor distribution Add the actual labor to distribute for each project assignment for the labor period. The labor distribution is approved or submitted for approval. See Override and default rules for the labor distribution finance structure

See Labor distribution record approval

Distribute labor Run the Distribute Labor action.
  • Approved labor distribution records are processed.
  • Salary and fringe encumbrance records are removed for the period.
  • GLTransactionDetail records for payroll salary and wage records are updated to processed.
See Distributing labor
Redistribute labor Optionally, update the actual labor on labor distribution records that have been processed. When you redistribute labor, the original labor distribution records are reversed and new adjustment records are created. See Redistribution of distributed labor
Certify effort Optionally, certify effort to verify that the effort that is reported for employees reflects the actual work performed. An effort report can then be printed and submitted to sponsors of the project. See Effort reporting and certification

Salary encumbrance and labor distribution are included in project labor. A portion of the total award amount from a sponsor can be used to pay employees. The employees must be assigned to complete the work that is funded by the grant.

Create labor assignments to create salary encumbrances for amounts that are paid to an employee over the life of the grant-sponsored project. Labor assignments can be created for amounts that are paid to an employee for non-sponsored projects. Salary encumbrances are part of Global Ledger commitment records. You can use labor distribution assignments to create distributions of actual salary expenses to grant-sponsored projects and non-sponsored projects for employees.

Labor distribution can be set up for approvals before labor is approved. Approvals go through Process Automation before labor distribution is approved when it is selected on the enterprise project structure. The action to submit for approval changes the status to pending approval. After the record is submitted for approval, the approver can approve or reject the record. When labor distribution is approved, the record status is changed to approved. When labor distribution is rejected, a Comments window is displayed. The approver must provide an explanation for the rejection. This explanation is displayed in the body of the email that is sent for the record. Rejecting a record changes the status to entered. The record can be corrected and resubmitted for approval.

Before using labor distribution, you must set up project employees. See the Financials Setup and Administration Guide.