Dear Department Administrators,
This email provides guidance on how to report cost share and/or unfunded effort in Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC) for the reporting period April 1, 2025 – September 30, 2025. Please review the instructions below and contact ECC Help with any questions.
Background:
In ECC, cost share (including unfunded effort) cannot be manually added to project statements. Instead, payroll transactions are loaded through data files. This process strengthens internal controls by ensuring that all cost share reported in ECC can be traced back to payroll subledger transactions.
Process (For awards requiring ECC certification only):
- Go-Live Holds: At go-live, EFM placed project statements with mandatory and voluntary committed cost share on hold. This prevents the Certifier (PI) from certifying the statement until cost share payroll is loaded.
- Previously Submitted Cost Share Reports: ECC Help reviewed cost share reports previously submitted to EFM and will load effort-bearing salaries with earn end dates between April 1, 2025 and September 30, 2025 to ECC. These salaries will appear in ECC on February 2, 2026.
- Submit Signed Cost Share Reports and Backup: Submit signed cost share reports with effort-bearing salaries and applicable backup (e.g. GL and payroll ledgers) to ECCHelp@research.ucla.edu by Wednesday, January 14, 2026. Include the relevant C&G project statement number that the cost share should be applied to in the subject line of your email. ECC uses the same definition as UCPath to determine if salaries are effort bearing. To check if a salary line is effort bearing, run the UCPath ECC Payroll Details Report from the RAPID Tool. More information on this new report can be found here.
- If a cost share form was previously submitted, provide a new form and backup only for additional expenses not included in the earlier submission.
- If cost share has not yet been reported for this period, submit a cost share form and backup covering the entire period.
- If the cost share form does not contain effort-bearing salary, it does not need to be submitted to ECC Help.
- ECC Help Review and Load: ECC Help will verify the submitted forms and load the data into ECC on February 2, 2026. ECC Help will also save these forms in the Notes and Attachments section in PAMS for future reference for financial deliverable preparation and review.
- No Submission: If a signed cost share form and applicable backup is not submitted, we will assume there is no cost share (including unfunded effort) to report for this period. All remaining holds in ECC will be removed on February 2, 2026.
Important Reminders:
- Cost share will only be loaded to ECC for project statements requiring certification (e.g., federal and federal flow-through awards, select non-federal sponsors, and awards flagged as requiring project statements). If the project statement status in ECC is “Certification Not Required,” certification is not required.
- Voluntary uncommitted cost share does not require reporting and will not be loaded to ECC. Departments do not need to submit cost share reports and backup for these awards.
- If a Certifier (PI) certified a project statement before the hold was placed:
- Below Threshold: If the variance between the certified dollars and the new total dollars (payroll + salary over the cap + cost share) is less than 3% of the employee’s total effort bearing payroll dollars for the reporting period , the cost share will load automatically to the statement and re-certification is not required.
- Above Threshold: If the variance exceeds 3% of the employee’s total effort bearing payroll dollars for the reporting period, a Payroll Adjustment Task will be generated. The DA will receive an automated email from ECC, review the task, and click “Post and Reopen.” This action reopens the statement and triggers an automated email to the Certifier (PI) requesting re-certification.
Please note: These instructions apply only to the reporting period April 1, 2025 – September 30, 2025. Additional guidance will be provided in 2026 for future reporting periods.
Katie Cadle | Assistant Director
Research Finance Compliance | UCLA Extramural Fund Management
ECCHelp@research.ucla.edu