New electronic time sheet will track COVID-19 efforts

Business and Finance and IT have launched a new electronic time sheet to be used to track UNMC employee efforts related to COVID-19.

The new form replaces the Excel spreadsheets that have been used to this point, said Susan Kraft Mann, assistant vice chancellor and director, UNMC Budget & Fiscal Analysis.

Employees are asked to begin using the electronic format immediately. Those who have not yet submitted their time via Excel sheets can use the form to record their time since Feb. 26.

“Ideally, we want employees to complete this form on a weekly basis and enter their work for the preceding week,” Kraft Mann said. “It’s easier to track these types of expenses as we go through the pandemic, than retracing our steps once more normal operations resume.”

During any emergency or incident on the UNMC campus, it is the finance team’s primary responsibility to track all costs. Personnel salaries and wages would be the No. 1 expense.

“Tracking time is of the utmost importance to understand the financial impact of COVID-19 for our campus and possibly obtain reimbursement from FEMA, other government agencies or additional legislation that may be made available to us in the future,” Kraft Mann said.

UNMC is launching the tracking application in collaboration with the other University of Nebraska campuses and Central Administration, which is tracking how this pandemic has impacted operations.

What to track:

  • All COVID-19 work — outside your normal duties — since Feb. 26 when the full Incident Command team was placed on standby. On March 10, UNMC’s Incident Command was fully activated and, since, has met daily.
  • Track time spent on COVID-19 only if it is outside your normal job (meetings, conference calls, college/dept/unit planning, etc). NOTE: The Emergency Administrative Leave reported in Firefly does not need to be reported on the COVID-19 time sheets as this already is being tracked in the payroll system.
  • The tracking application applies to UNMC employees only. Nebraska Medicine has its own time tracking mechanism.
  • Do not include costs that already are covered by Sponsored Programs (ie: Camp Ashland, TSQC, etc) or other federal agencies (ie: FEMA or other grant funding).
  • If you have any questions, contact Michael Hrncirik at mhrncirik@unmc.edu.

Access the electronic form and/or read the User Guide.