Financial Affairs

Research Accounting
A-21 Certification Documents

The A-21 Certification Reports reflect an after-the-fact reporting basis for the percentage of activity for each employee. Each report accounts for 100% of the activity for which the employee is compensated and is required in fulfillment of the employee's obligations to the University.

Each certification document must include payroll distribution percentages, pay amount, and the company cost center number(s) stating where the compensation originated. These percentages will equal 100% of the distribution even if the employee is not full-time in that department. It is a distribution of 100% of the employee's compensation, not the percent-time of employment.

Certification is required for all personnel employed on F&A functions distributed at less than 100% and all personnel employed on restricted ("research or special project") funds.

The person certifying labor distributions should be the responsible official who is most familiar with the work and duties of the employee(s), such as the Department Head, Director, Dean, Principal Investigator, or the Project/Program Coordinator.

After the payroll distributions are checked and verified as accurate, it is certified. Any changes or corrections should be processed as a retroactive labor change. Retroactive labor changes require certification when applicable.

It is not appropriate to proxy certification responsibilities to any individual who is not the responsible official most familiar with the work and duties of the employee(s).

If there are any questions relating to the completion of the A-21 Certification Report forms, please call the Research Accounting Office at (479) 575-4853.

A-21 Labor Certification Requirements

GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA
(Federal) Office of Management & Budget
Extracted from A-21 Circular, Section J.8.

  1. The distribution of salaries and wages, whether treated as direct or Facilities/Administration (F&A)* costs, will be based on payrolls documented in accordance with the generally accepted practices of colleges and universities.
  2. The payroll distribution system will (i) be incorporated into the official records of the institution, (ii) reasonably reflect the activity for which the employee is compensated by the institution, and (iii) encompass both sponsored and all other activities on an integrated basis.
  3. The payroll distribution system will allow confirmation of activity allocable to each sponsored agreement and each of the categories of activity needed to identify F&A costs and the functions to which they are allocable.
  4. Practices vary among institutions and within institutions as to the activity constituting a full workload. Therefore, the payroll distribution system may reflect categories of activities expressed as a percentage distribution of total activities.
  5. The system will provide for independent internal evaluations to ensure the system's effectiveness and compliance with established standards.
  6. After-the-fact activity reports will reflect the distribution of activity expended by employees covered by the system. These reports will reflect on after-the-fact reporting of the percentage distribution of activity of employees.
  7. To confirm that the distribution of activity represents a reasonable estimate of the work performed by the employee during the period, the reports will be signed by the employee, principal investigator, or responsible official(s) using suitable means of verification that the work was performed.
  8. The system will reflect activity applicable to each sponsored agreement and to each category needed to identify F&A costs and the functions to which they are allocable.

05/01/1997

*F&A (Facilities & Administration) Costs

How to Process A-21 Certifications On-Line

  1. Sign onto your CICS I.D. and select the Natural Production System.
  2. Type "LABOR" in the application I.D. field as the BASIS module. Press <ENTER>.
  3. Type in MLDM (Menu of Labor Distribution Sub-Menus) in the Command field. Press <ENTER>.
  4. Type MA21 (Menu of A21 Certification Commands) in the Command field. Press <ENTER>.
  5. Type LPAB (List Pending A21 Certifications for a Budgetary Unit (BU)) in the Command field. Press <ENTER>.
  6. Type U (for Update) in the Action field. Tab to next field.
  7. Change the date in the "Date Pd" field to the earliest date that there are outstanding payroll/labor distributions for certification. Tab to the next field.
  8. Type the BU code in the BU field.  Press <ENTER>
  9. Tab to each line and mark the "blank ____" underscore field with an "X" to select that line for review and certification.
  10. Suspend to the A21 Certification distribution screen by pressing the PF2 key.
  11. Review the payroll/labor distribution.

If the payroll/labor distribution is correct:

  1. Depress the PF9 key to view the certification statement and certify the distribution.
  2. Type an "X" in the "blank ____" underscore field at the beginning of the certification paragraph.
  3. Press the PF10 key to save the completed certification statement.
  4. Press the PF8 key (scroll or page forward) to the next distribution (if it does not scroll automatically to the next  selection).

If the payroll/labor distribution is not correct:

  1. Prepare a corrected labor distribution via the retroactive labor correction actions.
  2. Press the PF3 key (exit certification statement)
  3. Press the PF8 key (scroll or page forward) to the next distribution.

05/01/1997

Proposed Selection Criteria

  1. Select the payroll distributions from the regular salaries, only (RG).
  2. Select all employees whose payroll distributions include the following:
    1. A cost center from one of these restricted companies:
      • 0402 Fayetteville, Research
      • 0403 Agriculture, Research
      • 0406 Criminal Justice Institute, Little Rock
      • 0412 Fayetteville, Other Sponsored Programs
      • 0132 Cost Sharing; Fayetteville, Research & Other Sponsored Programs
      • 0133 Cost Sharing; Agriculture, Research
      • 0136 Cost Sharing; Criminal Justice Institute, Little Rock
    2. A cost center from any other company on which the employee is paid less than 100% for one or more of the following functions:
      • 40 Academic Support
      • 41 Libraries
      • 44 Other Academic Support
      • 50 Student Services
      • 51 Student Services
      • 60 Institutional Support
      • 61 General Administration
      • 62 General Institutional Expense
      • 70 Operation & Maintenance of Plant
      • 71 General Operations
      • 72 Utilities
      • 73 Repairs & Alteration
  3. Documents are generated on the last day of each month and should be completed by the 25th day of the following month.

05/01/1997