September 2008 Archives

At a recent meeting with administrators the question was raised if the college could use our single payment vendor number for any one-time payments under $600. This question arose because the check request form seemed to imply that we could. When the college investigated this question, we were told no -that the single payment vendor only applied to certain types of one-time payments. The form should have more clearly stated that it applied to:

1. Subject Payment less than $600
2. Refund (any amount)
3. Other (contact Disbursement Services for approval)
   

On a positive note, they will allow the single payment vendor option for reimbursing moving expenses (any amount) for employees with a future hire date. They are considering other exceptions as well and will communicate those decisions once they have been made.

CLA Fiscal Administration and CLA Human Resources is hosting a series of EFS Town Hall meetings open to staff in CLA academic departments, centers and units as well as financial team staff to discuss the pros and cons of our current model, share best practices, and to develop together efficient business process between units and the financial service teams.

The first meeting will be Thursday, October 9 from 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. in the Minnesota Population Center Seminar Room (50 Willey Hall - West Bank).

Please see the attached document regarding important policy information related to background verifications and unpaid personal leave (DOC).

Administrative Policy: Unpaid Personal Leaves for Faculty and Academic Professional and Administrative Employees can be found online at
http://www.umn.edu/ohr/policies/leaves/fpa-persleaves

Administrative Procedures: Requesting/Approving Discretionary Unpaid Personal Leave can be found online at http://www.umn.edu/ohr/policies/leaves/fpa-persleaves/approving

The REPA end-of-year filing start date is September 29th, 2008

REPA filing communication schedule:

• September 29th, 2008: Automatic email sent to all individuals required to file a 07-08 end-of-year REPA.
• October 13th, 2008: Automatic email sent to required filers who as of 10/12/08 have not yet filed.
• October 27th, 2008: Final automatic email sent to remaining individuals that have not filed as of 10/26/08.

The deadline for filing a REPA is November 7, 2008.

September 25
Joint CLA Financial / Human Resources Meeting, 50 Willey Hall, 9:00 am

October 3
CLA Payroll cutoff for the 09/29/2008 - 10/12/2008 pay period, 4:30 pm

October 30
Joint CLA Financial / Human Resources Meeting, Minnesota Population Center Seminar Room, 50 Willey Hall (West Bank), 9:00 am

November 20
Joint CLA Financial / Human Resources Meeting, 140 Nolte Center (East Bank), 9:00 am

There have been questions about what to use for the CF1 Chartfield in EFS for endowments.

First, determine whether the endowment is a University endowment (formerly managed by Asset Management), a U of MN Foundation endowment, or a PUF endowment.

For Foundation endowments, use the format "UMF000xxxx" where "xxxx" is the four-digit Foundation Fund number.

For University managed endowments, use the format "END00Exxxx" (where "Exxxx" is the newly created program code in EFS), and also note that "xxxx" is the last four digits of the newly created participant id.

For PUF endowments, use the format "UMF000xxxx" where "xxxx" is the four-digit Foundation Fund (or gift portion) associated with the endowment. PUF endowments still have an associated University match portion but for consistency Treasury Accounting asks that we use the CF1 that ties to the UM Foundation Fund.

For reference we have placed a CF1 mapping spreadsheet for CLA's University and PUF endowments on the Fiscal Admin website.

Contact Rose Pederson (6-7611, r-kerb@umn.edu) if you have further questions.

The REPA end-of-year filing start date is September 29th, 2008

REPA filing communication schedule:

• September 29th, 2008: Automatic email sent to all individuals required to file a 07-08 end-of-year REPA.
• October 13th, 2008: Automatic email sent to required filers who as of 10/12/08 have not yet filed.
• October 27th, 2008: Final automatic email sent to remaining individuals that have not filed as of 10/26/08.

The deadline for filing a REPA is November 7, 2008.

Please see the attached document regarding important policy information related to background verifications and unpaid personal leave (DOC).

Administrative Policy: Unpaid Personal Leaves for Faculty and Academic Professional and Administrative Employees can be found online at
http://www.umn.edu/ohr/policies/leaves/fpa-persleaves

Administrative Procedures: Requesting/Approving Discretionary Unpaid Personal Leave can be found online at http://www.umn.edu/ohr/policies/leaves/fpa-persleaves/approving

The University Employee Recognition Awards chart, part of the administrative policy: Hospitality and Special Expenses, has been updated. The changes have been made as a result of additional guidance from the Internal Revenue Service. Please follow the revised chart effective immediately to ensure that the University and its employees are in compliance with income tax requirements.

Highlights of the changes:

• University Bookstore's gift cards presented to employees are subject to income tax for the employees, regardless of the gift card value. This is considered a cash equivalent and the IRS requires all cash equivalents to be included in income.
• University Bookstore coupons for specific items of personal property are not subject to tax as long as the value of the item is $75 or less, the coupon is provided infrequently and it is administratively impractical to account for the coupons. This is the equivalent of giving an employee a specific item of personal property.

Please read the requirements carefully and review the examples for additional guidance. If you have further questions, contact the Tax Management Office at taxhelp@umn.edu or 612-624-1053.

See: University Employee Recognition Awards chart (DOC)

The University Budget Office has decided that there will not be TIP charged for October. They are still discussing the TIP process in the new system and they will inform us when further decisions have been made.

A section for PeopleSoft Financials (EFS) Documents and Resources has been added to the Fiscal Administration Web Page. We have several spreadsheets with Chartfield Values, Program Codes, CUFS Area - DeptID equivalents, etc. We will add job aids as they are created and other resources as they are made available.

Many of these resources were taken out of the mapping workbook created during the FY09 budgeting process. If there are documents that you would like to see added please send an email to Deb Ludowese (ludow06) and she will follow-up on your request.

You can find the PeopleSoft Financials (EFS) Documents and Resources by clicking this link http://cla.umn.edu/intranet/fiscal/people_soft.html.

Effective immediately, for Civil Service and Bargaining Unit positions, the "starting hourly rate" on all requisitions submitted to the online employment system will list the minimum wage for that job code followed by the phrase, "commensurate with qualifications and experience".

For professional and administrative positions, you can either state, "commensurate with qualifications and experience", or you can include a minimum annualized amount that you anticipate paying, followed by that phrase. This is a change from listing the minimum and maximum of a range, in an effort to provide applicants with reasonable starting salary expectations, while allowing flexibility to negotiate salary.

Central Human Resources now requires that colleges include additional information in PeopleSoft for their new and rehire employees. In order to help track new and rehire employee information, the CLA HRMS Entry Worksheet has been updated to include the HIRE TYPE information. This new field can be found near the bottom of the new worksheet between the UM Appointment and Employee Data fields. When you fill out this new worksheet for a new hire or rehire for a unit in your cluster, check the appropriate box: NEW (new position in your department) or REPLACEMENT. Use replacement if the new employee is replacing an employee who has left your department, then include the previous employee's ID # in the REPLACEMENT ID # field on our new worksheet.

Do NOT include the HIRE TYPE information for the following employee groups: undergrad students, grad students, temp/causal employees. For more detailed information see the Business Process: Replacement Hire Tracking at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/hrms

Please start using this new entry worksheet immediately (it is dated 08/08/08 on the bottom of the second page) and recycle all previous versions of the CLA HRMS Entry Worksheet. You can find the new form on the CLA Fiscal Administration web site under Payroll Documents - Documents and Information at: http://www2.cla.umn.edu/admin/fiscal/default.html

September 19
CLA Payroll cutoff for the 09/15/2008 - 09/28/2008 pay period, 4:30 pm

September 25
Joint CLA Financial / Human Resources Meeting, 50 Willey Hall, 9:00 am

October 3
CLA Payroll cutoff for the 09/29/2008 - 10/12/2008 pay period, 4:30 pm

A section for PeopleSoft Financials (EFS) Documents and Resources has been added to the Fiscal Administration Web Page. We have several spreadsheets with Chartfield Values, Program Codes, CUFS Area - DeptID equivalents, etc. We will add job aids as they are created and other resources as they are made available.

Many of these resources were taken out of the mapping workbook created during the FY09 budgeting process. If there are documents that you would like to see added please send an email to Deb Ludowese (ludow06) and she will follow-up on your request.

You can find the PeopleSoft Financials (EFS) Documents and Resources by clicking this link http://cla.umn.edu/intranet/fiscal/people_soft.html.

Effective immediately, for Civil Service and Bargaining Unit positions, the "starting hourly rate" on all requisitions submitted to the online employment system will list the minimum wage for that job code followed by the phrase, "commensurate with qualifications and experience".

For professional and administrative positions, you can either state, "commensurate with qualifications and experience", or you can include a minimum annualized amount that you anticipate paying, followed by that phrase. This is a change from listing the minimum and maximum of a range, in an effort to provide applicants with reasonable starting salary expectations, while allowing flexibility to negotiate salary.

It is critical that the PeopleSoft entries made by staff in the CLA Payroll Office are audited once the entry worksheets are returned to your cluster. Let us know immediately if you find an error so that it can be corrected it as soon as possible.

Items to Check in PeopleSoft:

• Missing Short Work Break, Suspension or Termination row that would result in over payments if not entered in People Soft
• Check to make sure the pay rate is correct
• Is the percentage of time entered correctly?
• Make sure the appointment dates are correct
• Are the action/reason codes correct?
• Make sure the account string is correct
• Check to make sure the entity # is correct
• Has work study been placed? (if applicable)

Other issues: If you are submitting a revised worksheet, please write REVISED in large print at the top of the worksheet. If you have a grad student (or undergrad student) being paid from two different accounts but the job code, pay rate and percentage of time are all the same, prepare only ONE worksheet and list both account strings on the same form along with the number of hours to pay from each account.

Also, remember to fill in the "WORKSTUDY EFFECTIVE DATE" field on the entry worksheet if the student you are hiring has been assigned workstudy funds. It will be much easier for us to notice that a student has workstudy if this field is completed.

Remember: Auditing the PeopleSoft appointments we enter for your departments is a crucial part of the payroll auditing process. It is the final step in making sure your employees receive the correct pay on the correct pay day.

Central Human Resources now requires that colleges include additional information in PeopleSoft for their new and rehire employees. In order to help track new and rehire employee information, the CLA HRMS Entry Worksheet has been updated to include the HIRE TYPE information. This new field can be found near the bottom of the new worksheet between the UM Appointment and Employee Data fields. When you fill out this new worksheet for a new hire or rehire for a unit in your cluster, check the appropriate box: NEW (new position in your department) or REPLACEMENT. Use replacement if the new employee is replacing an employee who has left your department, then include the previous employee's ID # in the REPLACEMENT ID # field on our new worksheet.

Do NOT include the HIRE TYPE information for the following employee groups: undergrad students, grad students, temp/causal employees. For more detailed information see the Business Process: Replacement Hire Tracking at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/hrms

Please start using this new entry worksheet immediately (it is dated 08/08/08 on the bottom of the second page) and recycle all previous versions of the CLA HRMS Entry Worksheet. You can find the new form on the CLA Fiscal Administration web site under Payroll Documents - Documents and Information at http://cla.umn.edu/intranet/fiscal/

September 19
CLA Payroll cutoff for the 09/15/2008 - 09/28/2008 pay period, 4:30 pm

September 25
Joint CLA Financial / Human Resources Meeting, 50 Willey Hall, 9:00 am

October 3
CLA Payroll cutoff for the 09/29/2008 - 10/12/2008 pay period, 4:30 pm

The CLA Financial Service Teams are committed to providing the financial reports you need to manage your units and your grants. Please be aware that there are delays in providing these reports to your units due to the EFS conversion. Training and report creation is currently underway and every effort is being made to have the reports you need available as soon as possible. In the meantime, if there is critical reporting that is needed, please contact your Service Team senior accountant and every effort will be made to try to provide this information to you keeping in mind there are currently limitations

We thank you for your patience as the University goes through this challenging EFS conversion.

It is critical that the PeopleSoft entries made by staff in the CLA Payroll Office are audited once the entry worksheets are returned to your cluster. Let us know immediately if you find an error so that it can be corrected it as soon as possible.

Items to Check in PeopleSoft:

• Missing Short Work Break, Suspension or Termination row that would result in over payments if not entered in People Soft
• Check to make sure the pay rate is correct
• Is the percentage of time entered correctly?
• Make sure the appointment dates are correct
• Are the action/reason codes correct?
• Make sure the account string is correct
• Check to make sure the entity # is correct
• Has work study been placed? (if applicable)

Other issues: If you are submitting a revised worksheet, please write REVISED in large print at the top of the worksheet. If you have a grad student (or undergrad student) being paid from two different accounts but the job code, pay rate and percentage of time are all the same, prepare only ONE worksheet and list both account strings on the same form along with the number of hours to pay from each account.

Also, remember to fill in the "WORKSTUDY EFFECTIVE DATE" field on the entry worksheet if the student you are hiring has been assigned workstudy funds. It will be much easier for us to notice that a student has workstudy if this field is completed.

Remember: Auditing the PeopleSoft appointments we enter for your departments is a crucial part of the payroll auditing process. It is the final step in making sure your employees receive the correct pay on the correct pay day.

Central Human Resources now requires that colleges include additional information in PeopleSoft for their new and rehire employees. In order to help track new and rehire employee information, the CLA HRMS Entry Worksheet has been updated to include the HIRE TYPE information. This new field can be found near the bottom of the new worksheet between the UM Appointment and Employee Data fields. When you fill out this new worksheet for a new hire or rehire for a unit in your cluster, check the appropriate box: NEW (new position in your department) or REPLACEMENT. Use replacement if the new employee is replacing an employee who has left your department, then include the previous employee's ID # in the REPLACEMENT ID # field on our new worksheet.

Do NOT include the HIRE TYPE information for the following employee groups: undergrad students, grad students, temp/causal employees. For more detailed information see the Business Process: Replacement Hire Tracking at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/hrms

Please start using this new entry worksheet immediately (it is dated 08/08/08 on the bottom of the second page) and recycle all previous versions of the CLA HRMS Entry Worksheet. You can find the new form on the CLA Fiscal Administration web site under Payroll Documents - Documents and Information at http://cla.umn.edu/intranet/fiscal/

CLA Financial/Human Resources Monthly Meeting

The next CLA Financial/Human Resources meeting will be on Thursday, September 25 in the Minnesota Population Center Seminar Room (50 Willey Hall - West Bank). The meeting begins at 9:00 a.m.

September 5
CLA Payroll cutoff for the 09/01/2008 - 09/14/2008 pay period, 4:30 pm

September 19
CLA Payroll cutoff for the 09/15/2008 - 09/28/2008 pay period, 4:30 pm

September 25
Joint CLA Financial / Human Resources Meeting, 50 Willey Hall, 9:00 am