Frequently Asked Questions

All financial reports (FFR, SF 425, quarterly financial disclosure, cumulative invoices) MUST be prepared, endorsed and submitted by the RF Central Office.  Some sponsors require periodic reports to contain both technical and financial information.  In these limited situations, you should coordinate with your Grant Manager to obtain updated financial information before submitting the combined report.

Effort reporting is required as part of The Research Foundation for The State University of New York’s (RF) process to ensure and document that individual effort directly charged to FEDERALLY FUNDED sponsored programs is accurate and reasonable in relation to the actual effort dedicated to the sponsored program.

The semi-annual EFFORT STATEMENTS must be certified in a timely manner after the statements have been reviewed by campus effort reporting administrators and released to certifiers. Certification should occur no later than 120 days after the end of the period of performance (i.e., the base effort dates), unless EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES exist. If EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES exist so that an effort statement cannot be certified in a timely manner campus effort reporting administrators must document the reason that certification required additional time.

Certain sponsors limit the salary rate that can be expended and reimbursed from their awards. This is known as a "salary cap." When a person's salary rate exceeds the salary cap (limit), only the amount up to the limit (prorated for the effort) can be charged for reimbursement to the sponsored award. The difference is charged to a non-federal or RF Funded award.