FAQ: ERS Roles

Department Coordinators are generally the Department Administrator or Assistant Department Administrator who is ultimately responsible to make sure all effort forms are complete in their department.  They have the authority to predetermine the path each effort form must take. In addition, they have the ability to delegate this authority to other individuals in their department. Once they delegate this authority they retain the ability to change the path and be able to perform any of the duties they have delegated.

The Sub Department Coordinator (Sub DC) is a person who is responsible for monitoring the completion of effort forms for their Sub Department. The Sub DC has the access to Pre-Review and Post-Review all effort forms in their Sub Department, even if someone other than the Sub DC has been assigned as Pre-Reviewer or Post-Reviewer. The rights set up by the Departmental Coordinator determine whether or not a Sub DC can change the assignments for their Sub Department.

The ERS Departmental Coordinator/Sub-Department Coordinator decides whose reports require a pre-review and who is the pre-reviewer. These reviewers adjust the payroll percentages for known differences between the actual payroll distribution for the period and the awarded effort for the period. These differences are quantified and entered into ERS either during Pre-Review or at Certification.

All effort forms must be pre-reviewed before the certifier reviews the Effort Form.

The JHU policy requires that faculty certify their own effort using the Effort Reporting System (ERS) except in limited circumstances. For all other employees, effort reports must be certified by the individual employee, or by a responsible supervisory official having first hand knowledge of all of the activities performed by the employee. 

Direct supervisors can certify effort on behalf of non-faculty employees who work for them in recognition of the requirement that the person certifying the effort has knowledge of all the employee’s professional activities. Examples of employees for whom the supervisors can certify include lab technicians, students, research assistants and support staff.

The Post-Reviewer is assigned to Post-Review the effort forms for the individuals in the Sub-Department. The Post-Reviewer cannot access these forms until the Certifier has applied their effort to the system. Post-Review is mandatory if the Certifier modified their effort. Initially, the Department Coordinator is set as the default Post-Reviewer. Users assigned to this function, review differences between payroll effort and certified effort. Once the differences have been identified (defined) the form is official.Not all forms need post review. If the certifier does not make changes from the pre-reviewer and there is no need to define differences, the form is official after certification.