¶
¶ Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Accessing the Research Portal and the Reports
- Report Pages and Titles
- Effort by Individual
- Effort by Project ID
- Key Metrics Used
- Filtering and Interactivity
- Additional Features
- Steps to export reports to PDF, PowerPoint and Excel
- Steps to export data from Visual
- Steps to filter data using a Visual
- Steps to copy visual from the report
¶ 1. Introduction
This document provides an overview and guidance for navigating the new Effort Reporting tools now available in the Research Portal. This tool provides earlier visibility into effort and commitment data, helping departments stay ahead of effort cycles and support compliance with award requirements.
There are two pages included in this new tool: Effort by Individual and Effort by Project ID.
The effort by individual page indicates the sum of the amount and how much an employee’s effort for a specific account compares to their total effort across all accounts for a given end date.
The effort by project ID is designed to track and analyze the level of effort committed and fulfilled by individuals and projects within specified budget periods.
¶ 2. Accessing the Research Portal and the Reports
Step 1: Open your browser and go to https://researchportal.gsu.edu/Home/ReportEffort
Step 2: Log in using your GSU credentials and verify using the DUO app.
Step 3: The page will show the Power BI icon and then load the report after a few moments.
Step 4: You will be redirected to the Reports Landing Page
Step 5: Click on Effort Reporting to view the reports.
These reports are generated for a specific college. When you open a report, it will display only the employees associated with that college.
Note: The report is restricted to personnel who currently have access to PERs within their college. Contact: vbalay@gsu.edu to get access to the report.
¶ 3. Report Pages and Titles
| Reports | Page Titles |
| Effort Reporting |
Effort by Individual Effort by Project ID
|
Make the Selection from the Menu bar in the bottom to switch between the reports
Effort by Individual:
This page dashboard view of Payroll and Effort Percentages by Individual for FY 2024 – Current YTD. The page helps track how payroll amounts and effort percentages are distributed across accounts for each employee over time.
Filters: [Employee Name, Account ID, Employee ID] Allows users to drill down by individual, account, or department. Date Range Slider: Lets users select a specific time frame.
NOTE: Maymester payroll is included in June payroll and August payroll is included in July payroll.
Effort by Project ID: This page is a dashboard view of Payroll and Effort by Project ID dashboard for FY 2024–FY 2026. The idea of this page is to show how much effort (in person months) and payroll has been committed and fulfilled for a specific project and employee during the defined budget period. It helps track effort fulfillment.
Filters: Project ID Allows you to drill down by a specific project(s).
When a Project ID is selected from the filter, the related project details for Project Start Date, Project End Date, and Sponsor Name are automatically populated based on the selected project.
NOTE: The Effort by Project ID report only includes Total Salary Paid starting from July 2023 and onward.
NOTE: The Employee Name column consists of key personnel associated with the project
¶ 4. Key Metrics Used
The report highlights the following metrics.
Key Metrics used in Effort by Individual:
Sum of the Amount ($): sum of the payroll amount of a particular employee for the specific Account ID
Actual Effort (%): This percentage shows how much the amount for one account compares to the total amount for all accounts for a particular end date [end of each month].
Key Metrics used in Effort by Project ID:
Committed Amount ($): The amount committed to a particular employee for a specific Project for a budget period or the Budgeted amount for payroll.
Total Salary Paid (Fulfilled)($): The total salary the employee got paid for a specified project and timeline. (Pay is only considered starting from 07/2023)
Difference ($): The difference between the total salary paid and the committed amount.
Effort Fulfillment (%): Percentage of salary paid vs committed amount, Total salary paid divided by Committed Amount.
Variance (%): Indicates overpayment or underpayment relative to commitment
Person Months: Effort in months committed to the project.
¶ 5.Filtering and Interactivity
The report includes interactive slicers that allow users to filter the data dynamically and perform comparative analysis. Users can apply filters to focus on specific Employee Name, Account ID, Employee ID, or Project ID categories.
The available slicers for the report.
Employee Name: Select one or more employees to view data related only to those individuals.
Account ID: Choose the account(s) you want to analyze. This helps narrow down results to specific accounts.
Employee ID: Choose one or more Employee ID to analyze data specific to those organizational units.
Date Range: Choose the range of dates to view data for a specific period. This helps track effort over time.
Project ID: Filter by project to analyze data related to a particular project or group of projects.
¶ 6. Additional Features
Example with multiple key personnel
The Effort by Project ID report includes a visual alert to help identify unusual payments:
If an employee receives salary for a project after the project’s end date, that total salary paid is highlighted in red.
This makes it easy to spot payments that occur outside the approved project timeline.
Example
In the table, if the Project End Date is 09/30/2025 and an employee is paid on 10/09/2025, the payment amount will appear in red text.
¶ 7. Export Reports to Excel, PowerPoint and PDF formats.
Step 1: In the toolbar at the top, click the Export button. You'll be redirected to Power BI in a new browser tab.
Step 2: Select the desired export format: PDF, PowerPoint (PPTX), or Excel (Excel only works for table or matrix visuals).
Step 3: When prompted, choose whether to export the current page, the entire report, or in the case of Excel, the data format.
Step 4: Click Export.
Step 5: The Reports generates the file in the selected format, and it will be downloaded automatically.
¶ 8. Steps to Export Data from the report visual
Step 1: Open the report page that contains the visual you want to export.
Step 2: Click on the visual to highlight it/hover on the visual.
Step 3: Click the ellipsis (…) / More options at the top-right corner of the visual.
Step 4: From the menu, select Export data.
Step 5: In the dialog box, choose the second file format — .xlsx (Excel) for tables or matrix visuals to preserve formatting, or .csv for charts to get underlying numerical data.
Step 6: Choose the data type — Summarized data to export the data as displayed in the visual, or Underlying data to export all rows from the dataset (availability depends on permissions).
Step 7: Click Export and save the file to your preferred location on your computer.
Step 8: Note that some custom visuals may not support exporting, and the ellipsis (…) will be disabled in such cases.
¶ 9. Steps to Filter Data Using Visual in the Reports
Step 1: Open the report page that contains the visual you want to use for filtering.
Step 2: Identify the visual you want to interact with, such as table.
Step 3: Click on the element in the visual that represents the value you want to filter by.
For example, click a column in a table.
Step 4: Observe that other visuals on the same report page automatically update to reflect the filtered data.
Step 5: To select multiple values for filtering, hold the Ctrl key and click additional elements in the visual.
Step 6: To clear the filter applied by the visual, click on the same element again to revert to the default filter settings of the visuals.
Step 7: If the visual is configured as a cross-highlight, selected values may only partially highlight related data in other visuals instead of filtering all rows.
Step 8: If needed, combine visual filtering with filter pane filters or slicers for more complex filtering logic across multiple fields.
¶ 10. Steps to Copy Visual from the Report
Step 1: Hover over the visual you want to copy and click Copy button in the top-right corner of the visual.
Step 2: Select Copy
Step 3: Paste it to your destination (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, or Outlook) using Ctrl + V or right-click → Paste.
