FASOM - Section 10: HRIS Payroll Processing Calendar and Related Issues

Transcription

1 FASOM - Section 10: HRIS Payroll Processing Calendar and Related Issues Section 10: HRIS Payroll Processing Calendar and Related Issues The content of this policy is current, although it has not yet been transitioned to the new Fiscal Policy format. This will be accomplished as time and resources permit. Index I. Pre Payroll Processes A. Validation of Compliance with OUS Standards II. B. Identification of Employees Working at Multiple Institutions Payroll Processing Calendar A. Eighth Business Day Prior to Payday - Payroll Processing Begins B. Fifth Business Day Prior to Payday - Payroll Verification and Aggregation 1. Garnishment Calculations 2. Payroll Verification 3. PHPDOCM - Payroll Final 4. Data Aggregation C. Fourth Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Payroll Manager's Certification 2. Direct Deposit (ACH) File Transmission to Controller's Division 3. Other Payroll Processes

2 D. Third Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Aggregation of Pay Data Completed & Centralized Reporting Begins 2. Direct Deposit (ACH) Deletes E. Second Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Direct Deposit (ACH) File Transmission to State Treasury F. One Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Tax Payments Completed G. Payday 1. Checks and Direct Deposits Available 2. Posting to Finance and Reconciliations Completed III. Processing Assumptions A. Payroll Priority B. Institutional Schedule C. Payroll Check List D. Payroll IDs E. Payroll Adjustments IV. Contingency Planning A. Contingency Planning Matrix B. Notification to the Controller's Division I. Pre Payroll Processes

3 A. Validation of Compliance with OUS Standards On a weekly basis, the Controller's Division will run scripts on each instance to validate that payroll rules, tables, programs, and employee data are in compliance with OUS standards. Running these scripts is tentatively planned for weekends which should minimize conflicts with other institutional processes. Exception reports will be printed at both the institutional payroll office and the Controller's Division. The Controller's Division staff will review these reports and work with the institutional Payroll Manager to resolve any differences. The institutions will have their own copies of these scripts to run as necessary such as when changes have been made to institutional tables. This will help safeguard the central tables from inadvertent or unauthorized updates. B. Identification of Employees Working at Multiple Institutions On a daily basis, a duplicate employee report will be generated in the Controller's Division which will identify employees working at more than one institution. This information will be extracted from the aggregate payroll data warehouse. The Controller's Division will contact the employing institutions to let each institution know who to contact in order to coordinate employment details (W 4s, benefit eligibility, tax deferred maximum, FICA maximum, etc.). The duplicate employee report is an "after the fact" report. The Chancellor's Office is developing a form, which will enable institutions, by entering the SSN and name, to search against the aggregate payroll data warehouse prior to establishing the employee on their instance. This form will respond with limited person detail in the event the person is already an OUS employee. Eventually, the Controller's Division plans to provide to the employing institutions a report showing employees working at multiple institutions. II. Payroll Processing Calendar A. Eighth Business Day Prior to Payday Payroll Processing Begins Normally, the institution will begin payroll processing no later than three days prior to the PHPCALC deadline. This is a flexible time frame which allows for institutional variables such as the number of employees that require positive time entry, time and attendance systems, and centralization or decentralization of input. This process may begin very early depending on some institutional business decisions. There is a trade off as to whether to start payroll late after all personnel records are updated, or to start payroll early and "re extract" each person who had a record entry or change. Institutions will run the PDPLIFE process and PHPTIME

4 and begin time entry. When time entry has been completed, a backup will be made. In the event, an operator mistakenly does a "recreate" instead of an "initial" extract during PHPCALC, all time collection will be saved. The "calc" iterations begin with the institutions reviewing the disposition and error reports, then re extracting individuals to fix their records and re enter them into the payroll process. During this time period, the institutions will review and audit their payroll results by running their version of the payroll verification report. B. Fifth Business Day Prior to Payday Payroll Verification and Aggregation 1. Garnishment Calculations 6 a.m. Fifth Site: At 6 a.m. on the morning of the fifth day prior to payday, the Fifth Site institutions will be finished with their final PHPCALC. At this point, the Controller's Division will access their databases and enter, review, or change any garnishment deductions. A re extract of these individuals will be done and PHPCALC will be run for the final time by 8 a.m. OSU, PSU and UO will have staff trained by the Controller's Division to enter garnishments for employees at their institutions. These can be entered at any time after an initial calc computation accumulates all gross pay. A backup will be made when the final calc iteration is completed. The Controller's Division will monitor the accuracy of the garnishments at these three institutions during the payment and reconciliation processes. 2. Payroll Verification 8 a.m.: Each institution will initiate a Payroll Exception Listing. This report will identify errors and anomalies to assist in validation of the payroll. A copy of this institutional report will be printed at the Controller's Division. 3. PHPDOCM Payroll Final After the institutional Payroll Manager determines that the payroll is acceptable, s/he will complete back up procedures and then initiate PHPDOCM (the process that finalizes the payroll). When PHPDOCM is completed, institutional personnel will proceed with the other payroll processes such as printing checks and direct deposit advices, creating the direct deposit (ACH) file, control reports, payroll register, etc. 4. Data Aggregation When PHPDOCM is completed, the Controller's Division will begin data aggregation procedures. Monthly payroll data from the institutional

5 payroll instances will be exported to the aggregate payroll data warehouse. All centralized vendor reporting and tax reporting will be made from this warehouse. It will also contain a master record of combined pay information for employees who are employed by more than one OUS institution. Certain detailed information, such as leave balances, labor distributions, etc., will not be maintained in this warehouse. At this point the Controller's Division will also pull into the aggregate warehouse any adjustments, such as manual checks, voids, reversals, refunds, etc. This will be done based on the effective date in order to only include adjustments processed since the last data aggregation. The Controller's Division will need information from each payroll instance in order to compare pay totals from the "aggregate load" to the individual instances. The Controller's Division will write a process that will compare year to date totals from the aggregate to the individual instances. C. Fourth Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Payroll Manager's Certification As a part of each payroll the institutional Payroll Manager will certify that certain distributed payroll processes have been successfully completed. The processes covered by the certification will be established by the Controller. This certification will be submitted to the Controller at the same time the direct deposit file is transmitted to the Controller's Division. 2. Direct Deposit (ACH) File Transmission to Controller's Division 12 noon: The institution will FTP their direct deposit file and associated reports (PHPTREG) to the Controller's Division. The Controller's Division will aggregate the files and generate new totals and transmit one file to the State Treasurer. Payroll instances will need to either fax or FTP copies of the direct deposit summary (PHRTREG) to the Controller's Division to use as a control when building the new file. Due to the sensitive nature of the direct deposit files and the related security needs, the Controller's Division will develop file controls such as encryption, secured directories, etc. The institution will back up the direct deposit and check files in the event

6 of transmission or print problem. These files can also be a "last resort" in the event of a disaster (e.g., the previous month's pay is re deposited, or an accounts payable advance is generated). 3. Other Payroll Processes The institutions will continue other payroll processing steps such as printing checks, direct deposit advices, reports, check registers, and the PHPUPDT update process. D. Third Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Aggregation of Pay Data Completed and Centralized Reporting Begins The Controller's Division will begin centralized reporting and payment processes for applicable vendors once reports are available from the aggregated data warehouse. The Controller's Division will continue processing all vendor payments which are currently processed centrally. These include garnishments, health/dental premiums, tax deferred investments, retirement contributions, tax deposits and government reporting (Employment Division, Risk Management, etc.) and others. This process includes creating magnetic tapes and reports, requests for accounts payable checks, and the inter institutional journal vouchers to move the deductions amounts out of the institutional withholding funds. 2. Direct Deposit (ACH) Deletes Adjustments, ("pulls," or "bank deletes"), to the direct deposit files may be called into the Controller's Division until 5 p.m on the third business day prior to payday. A bank delete is a made when an employee was incorrectly paid and the direct deposit transaction is stopped rather than trying to recover the funds from the employee. After the transaction is "pulled," a corresponding pay reversal adjustment is required on the payroll system. The Controller's Division will continue performing this function by virtue of aggregating the direct deposit data. E. Second Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Direct Deposit (ACH) File Transmission to State Treasury On the morning of the second business day prior to payday, the Controller's Division and ITS will make final adjustments to the direct deposit file by

7 processing the deletes. By 11 a.m., the Controller's Division will transmit the aggregate file to the State Treasury. The State Treasury has set 11 a.m. as the latest "drop dead" transmission time. The Treasury has provided the Controller's Division with a copy of their file audit routine which may be used on each institutional file to ensure that each file will transmit correctly. If one direct deposit record has a blank (zeros) account number, the entire file will not post. The Controller's Division will also audit the "master" aggregate file with this same file audit routine. In the event of a problem with a particular institutional file, the Controller's Division will aggregate all available files and transmit them on the scheduled day and time. This will help to minimize the number of employees affected by the problem. F. One Business Day Prior to Payday 1. Tax Payments Completed The Controller's Division will make electronic payment of aggregated Federal tax withholdings. Settlement date (electronic payment) is designated for the day after payday. A check for state withholding is requested through the accounts payable system to be issued and mailed on payday or the day after. The Controller's Division will continue with the payment and reconciliation processes, including moving funds at the Treasury from the institutional accounts to cover the direct deposits and checks. G. Payday 1. Checks and Direct Deposits Available Checks and direct deposits are available to employees at 8 a.m. The OPEU Contract allows for "early release" of checks. Past practice at some schools has been to have the checks available the day before payday. 2. Posting to Finance and Reconciliations Completed By this time the Institution will have posted to finance and reconciled the payroll. The reconciliation will track the dollar amounts from the final PHPCALC process through posting to finance. A copy of this reconciliation and the institutional payroll check list will be sent to the Controller's Division. (See Processing Assumptions below.)

8 III. Processing Assumptions A. Payroll Priority Payroll processing will be competing for machine time with the FIS, and SIS systems. It is critical that payroll processing receives the priority needed to meet the required deadlines. These dates are a "starting point" with realistic time allotted for all processes. The time line may be refined as more experience is gained. B. Institutional Schedule Each institution will develop their own schedule in order to meet the Controller's Division deadlines. These schedules will vary as each university has different systems and operational requirements. C. Payroll Check List The Controller's Division will provide a payroll processing checklist that will be used to document completion of essential processes and protocols. Each institution may include additional jobs to satisfy their unique institutional needs. The checklist will include run times for each process. Recording processing times of each job will assist if a specific routine needs to be rerun. Documenting processing times will also be useful in refining the time line, determining whether deadlines will be met and determining whether processes have completed within the usual time frame. The payroll checklist will be completed by the institutional Payroll Manager. D. Payroll IDs In an effort to spread time entry efforts, the Standards committee authorized two payroll "IDs" (the HR payroll for hourly employees with positive time entry, and the MO payroll for salaried employees with "exception based" time entry). The HR payroll calendar includes pay from the 16 th of the previous month through the 15 th of the current month. The MO payroll is pay for the 1 st through the 30 th of the month. Both groups are paid on the last working day of the month. For the HR payroll, PHPTIME (the process that permits time entry) can begin on the 16 th of the month. Time entry for the MO may begin on the eighth business day prior to payday, or earlier (in enough time to complete the necessary data entry). By the fifth business day prior to payday (payroll verification day), both payroll IDs will be at the same stage of processing. The only difference between these two payroll IDs is the extra input time is permitted on the HR payroll. Institutions may

9 elect to use both payroll IDs, or to use only the MO payroll. If an instance has a time and attendance system capable of getting the institutional time records into banner within the three day window on the MO payroll, they will not be required to have a HR payroll. This will simplify their processes and reports. Institutions using two payroll IDs will have to run each payroll process separately for each payroll ID. For example, PHPCALC will need to be run for the HR payroll, then the MO payroll. Each payroll ID creates its own set of reports and its own direct deposit tape. There will be two check runs and two direct deposit advice runs. Institutions developing reports may need to address combining the two pay IDs in most reports. E. Payroll Adjustments Payroll adjustments may be made at each institution's discretion. The Controller's Division will not "batch" adjustments to simulate an additional payroll. There are numerous complications in doing "supplemental" adjustment runs. An additional calendar would be needed to synchronize the processes of the campuses and the Controller's Division. Additional extracts and reports may be burdensome to campus computer operations. The adjustment processes would need to be modified to permit some pay events to process through PHAADJT for mandatory payments, (terminations/dismissals, meeting the BOLI 35 day rule), and yet leave other adjustments "in suspense" until the batch process is completed. The Controller's Division would need to do additional aggregation and reconciliation processes after each adjustment batch in order to meet the statutory requirement for tax deposits. As an alternative, each campus can run adjustments individually as needed. This will avoid the complications listed above. The Controller's Division will develop an audit report similar to the payroll verification report, that will review the manual checks and refunds and, possibly, tie the adjustment back to the original pay event. Since this is an "after the fact" report, it can be run for a date specific time period at any time during the month. An "after the fact" review is acceptable in this situation as the adjustment process (PHAADJT) can be manually overridden using the manual calculation feature instead of the actual PHPCALC routine making it a difficult process to audit. The payroll adjustment data will be aggregated to the payroll data warehouse each month with the monthly payroll data and be included on those reporting/payment processes. IV. Contingency Planning

10 A. Contingency Planning Matrix The original contingency planning matrix is currently being discussed and revised by the contingency planning committee. B. Notification to the Controller's Division There are certain critical deadlines within the payroll processing schedule. If an institution is unable to meet these deadlines, intercession by the Controller will be required. If problems arise which could impact the accuracy or timeliness of the payroll the institutional Payroll Manager will immediately notify the Controller's Division. The Controller's Division will work with the institution to resolve the problems.