eCertification System: Briefing for Administrators
This briefing is for Administrators with Task Manager Authority who will use the eCertification system quarterly to document their monthly review of sponsored project expenditures. This briefing is required prior to using this system for the first time.
The Administrator's Responsibilities are Detailed in Stanford Policy
These responsibilities are detailed in The Research Policy Handbook (RPH 3.2.5 Fiscal Responsibilities of PIs).
Sponsored project and cost sharing account expenditures must be reviewed and certified by the PI quarterly in the eCertification system to confirm that they are reasonable, allowable and provide benefit (allocable) to the project. These expenditures are the basis for cost reimbursements to Stanford. Although PIs may delegate the monthly review of expenditures for accuracy, they may not delegate certification.
Sponsored project and cost sharing account expenditures should be reviewed monthly by a knowledgeable individual i.e., the PI or designee typically the research administrator (the Task Manager).
- This review is documented quarterly by the research administrator in the eCertification System and is expected to be completed before the quarterly certification by the PI. The eCertification system records this review for PIs to see.
- Any questionable charges must be brought promptly to the PI's attention, and, if needed, corrected by an appropriate transfer.
- Transfers should be initiated as soon as possible after a need has been identified. Procedures governing transfers of expenses are defined in RPH 15.8 Cost Transfer Policy for Sponsored Projects.
The review and certification process must be completed within approximately 75 days after the end of each academic quarter.
The following award types will be marked as Review Not Tracked/Certification Not Required. Stanford policy requires all PTAs, including non-sponsored PTAs, to be reviewed monthly. However, the policy does not require an administrator to document their review in the eCertification system for the following projects.
- Joint Personnel Agreement (JPA)
- Intergovernmental Personnel Act Agreements (IPA)
- Personnel Services Agreement (PSA)
- Fellowship awards
- Financial Aid Office Sponsored funded Student-Aid
- University Research
- Cost-Sharing Overdrafts
- Non-Salary threshold +/- $100
- Project with no transactions
The Data in the eCertification System
The data source is the same as for all other Stanford financial systems. It is refreshed every two days until the close of each quarter.
The system displays confidential salary data. Stanford takes seriously its commitment to respect and protect the privacy of its faculty, students, alumni, and staff, as well as to protect the confidentiality of information important to the university's academic and research mission.
By certifying the principal investigator confirms: to the best of my knowledge, salary and wages charged to this project are appropriate in relation to work performed on this project. All other costs charged to this project are, to the best of my knowledge, appropriate. Where required, corrections have been or will be made through the accounting system.
While not required, we encourage you to use the Quarter-to-Date functionality within the eCertification System as part of your monthly review process.
How to use the eCertification System
- Use Firefox or Chrome as your browser. Do not use Internet Explorer (IE).
- Use your SU Net ID and password to log in
- Data is role specific. Roles: faculty, principal investigator, individuals with a principal investigator waiver, research administrator, school overseer. Review and certification status is available to PIs. Review status is available to their research administrators.
- Progress is automatically saved and can be completed in multiple sessions.
- Review and certification of project expenses is retained in the eCertification system.
- The default view is data for the active Certification Quarter. You can change the period to view quarter-to-date data or previous certification quarters from the left hand navigation menu.
How to initiate an ijournal adjustment from within eCertification:
Task managers can initiate ijournal adjustments for most non-salary and non-capital transactions to which they have access within eCertification.
1. From any Account Details page, open the left-hand menu by clicking the Hand icon.
2. Click Search & Adjust to view all transferable expenditures
3. Select the expenditures you wish to adjust by clicking the checkbox on the right
4. Select PTA Adjust by Line(s) or PTA Adjust All. PTA Adjust by line(s) allows you to adjust each expenditure to a unique PTA. PTA Adjust All enables all selected PTAs to be adjusted in mass to one receiving PTA.
5. Enter the Destination PTA to which to transfer the expenditure(s). Begin to type the first three letters of the award to prompt the system to search for available awards that match. Select the correct award from the list of options. Then select the correct project and task from each drop-down list.
6. Allocate by % or $
7. Prepare and enter a complete justification for the adjustment and click Create ijournal
8. You now must go to the ijournal module in Oracle to route each transaction individually
9. Adjustments you have created within eCert can be monitored from Monitor Journals in the left-hand menu
Launch the eCertification System
Self-Certification
To respect and protect privacy faculty can view their own 100% salary distribution.
Faculty who do NOT serve as a principal investigator on any sponsored projects and work on other PI’s project(s) must review and self-certify their own 100% salary distribution via the self-certification functionality within eCertification each quarter as per Stanford’s Research Policy Handbook 3.2.
The Office of Research Administration (ORA) - Research Administration Policy and Compliance (RAPC) team will send a dedicated email to Self-Certifiers each quarter to remind them of their responsibility to review and certify their payroll distribution.
Need further eCertification assistance? Have questions, feedback, or are experiencing other issues? Please submit a HelpSU ticket to the eCertification Support Team and an eCertification Support Analyst will contact you shortly.