TEARS: The Employee Activity Reporting System

As a recipient of federal funding, NC State University is required to comply with the Office of Management and Budget Circular Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for federal awards (Uniform Guidance), as well as other federal requirements for certifying effort expended on sponsored awards. Federal regulations require that employees engaged in sponsored activities periodically review and certify their effort, if costs for labor are charged directly to sponsored projects, cost shared against a nonfederal funding source, or funded from a federal appropriation.

At NC State, we certify effort via TEARS using the Plan-Confirmation method:

• Personnel assignments reflect anticipated work distribution (percentage of effort spent on each sponsored project).

• Your research administrator will work with you to set up your TEARS effort at the start of each new award. College of Engineering policy requires that a PI shows at least 1% cost-share effort for each sponsored project.

• Assignments (and reallocation of funds) are updated timely to reflect any needed changes.

• Effort Reports are certified each September for the previous fiscal year for any employee funded by sponsored projects.

Cost Share

“Cost sharing” refers to the portion of the total sponsored project costs that are not paid by the sponsoring agency. “Matching” is another commonly used term.

There are three primary types of cost share that may occur on sponsored projects:

• Mandatory cost sharing: Cost sharing is required by the terms of the sponsored program and must be included and budgeted for as part of the sponsored award. It is explicitly required by the notice of funding opportunity and must be included in the proposal for consideration by the sponsor.
  • Example: 1:1 cost matching requirement in an RFP.
• Voluntary committed cost sharing: Cost sharing is not required by the terms of the sponsored program, but is included and budgeted for as part of the sponsored award. It is not expected by the sponsor in the proposal, and cannot be considered as a factor of merit review by the sponsor, unless criteria for consideration are explicitly described in the notice of funding opportunity.
  • Example:
• Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing: Cost sharing is not required by the terms of the sponsored program and is not included or budgeted for as part of the sponsored program. It is neither proposed nor expected, but may occur during program administration.
  • Example: 1% TEARS academic cost share effort

Your research administrator will work with you to track any mandatory cost share required on your project.  We strongly encourage using TEARS effort wherever possible to meet cost share.

Please note: if cost sharing is not required by a sponsor, but is included in a proposal, it becomes mandatory at time of award.

Any proposed cost share on the part of MAE must be approved by the Department Head.