The Principal Investigator's Responsibilities Quoted from RPH 3.2.5

“Sponsored project and cost sharing accounts must be reviewed and certified by the Principal Investigator (PI) quarterly.  The PI certifies the following:

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.

Project expenditures must be reviewed and certified every academic quarter in the eCertification System. This certification is the responsibility of the project PI (or Co-PI). A PI may delegate the monthly review of expenditures for accuracy, but may not delegate certification of the appropriateness of the charges except as follows. The PI may only delegate review and certification to a participating Academic Council member or PI eligible individual who is responsible for a portion of the statement of work and is identified as the Task Owner in the accounting system.

The purpose of the review and certification is to confirm that all expenses charged to the account are allowable, allocable to the project, and reasonable. The certification of salary expenditures confirms that salaries charged to the account are supported by a corresponding expenditure of effort during the time period being certified. The certification also assures that other expenditures are for items or services purchased and used during the project period as specified by the award.

To be considered timely, the expenditures must be reviewed and certified in the eCertification system within two months of the end of the academic quarter being certified.”

View the Quarterly Review and Certification Calendar here.

About this Briefing

This briefing is for faculty, principal investigators (PI), individuals with a PI waiver who will use the new  eCertification system to review and certify quarterly project expenditures. You are required to read this briefing before using this system for the first time

About the Quarterly Review and Certification Process

The purpose of quarterly review and certification is to confirm that all expenses charged to the account are reasonable, allowable and allocable to the project. Quarterly review and certification is the responsibility of the project PI (or Co-PI).

You should review and certify expenses after your research administrator has completed and documented his/her review. The system will indicate the status of your research administrator’s review.

The review and certification process must be completed within two months after the end of the academic quarter. View the Quarterly Review and Certification calendar here.

eCertification Is a New System for a Familiar Process

Until now, you have documented your quarterly review and certification of project expenditures by signing your name on a printed Quarterly Review and Certification Report. Your research administrator documented their monthly review of project expenditures each quarter on the same report. The report has been digitized in the new eCertification System so you can complete your quarterly review and certification electronically.

The Data in the eCertification System

The data source is the same as the printed Quarterly Review and Certification Report. Data is refreshed nightly 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. To respect and protect privacy only faculty can view their own 100% salary distribution. PIs can view only their own 100% salary distribution, and that of non-faculty employees. Faculty who do not serve as principal investigator but work on a PI’s project must review and certify their own 100% salary distribution in this system.

By viewing your or other employees you manage (non-faculty) salary charges you are providing assurance to sponsors that effort was devoted at a level that reasonably reflects the activity for which you or other employees are compensated by the institution. View Stanford Base Salary inclusions from RPH 3.2.3

The certification of salary expenditures confirms that salaries charged to the account are supported by a corresponding expenditure of effort during the period being certified.

How to Certify Expenses in the eCertification System

• A user guide for navigating through this system is available in the Help Menu.
• Use Firefox and Chrome as your browser. Do not use IE.
• Use your SUnet 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 faculty and their research administrators as well as their school overseers.
• Progress is automatically saved, and can be completed in multiple sessions.
• Faculty and their administrators can submit comments to each other within the system.
• Research administrators can be re-assigned by their school overseer
• Review and certification of project expenses in the eCertification system will be retained by central university staff.

Launch eCertification System

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

eCertification Workshops for Research Administrators in Birch Lab