As of February 13, 2012
INTRODUCTION AND KEY TERMS:
The Banner system is a web-based, administrative software application developed by SunGard Higher Education. This system provides The University of Toledo with online administrative functionality. The system integrates data from Human Resources, Finance, Student, and Financial Aid areas. This feature enables authorized users to access information existing on other systems. The Human Resources system is a complete employee information and management system within the integrated product.
The Banner Human Resources System consists of two components:
· Banner Admin and
· Self Service Banner (SSB)
Authorized employees access Banner Admin to look up departmental employee information and Employee Self Service Banner to initiate and approve electronic personnel actions (EPAFs). University employees access Employee Self Service to verify, and in some cases update, their demographic, biographic, benefits, and view payroll-related information.
The electronic personnel action form (EPAF) function of Banner allows the University to process paperless personnel actions. EPAF’s are simple, concise, and allow many values or data elements to default into the document without manual data entry. The forms enable the University to achieve our goal to process personnel actions rapidly, through an electronic approval process, providing an audit trail of all approval/disapproval history. Also, it supports the university’s green initiatives.
EPAF Terms:
a) Additional Job – Student employee(s) who has worked in any position anywhere at the University without any breaks i.e. Fall to Spring then to Fall, etc. Will be most commonly used category in classifying a student(s) in EPAF.
b) New Position Job – Student employee(s) whom has NOT previously worked at the University, strictly for a new student that has never had a previous job/position with the University.
c) Rehire Position – Student employee(s) whom was termed from the University and is returning to a position with the University. This position classification will be used only in cases where the student has had a break from the University i.e. Fall semester worked, then did not work in Spring and then returned to UT and wanted to work in the next Fall semester.
d) EPAF: Electronic Personnel Action Form. EPAF’s are applied directly to the BANNER database to create and change employee records.
e) Originator: The individual who creates the EPAF.
f) Approver: The individuals who are authorized to approve personnel action forms. Several approvers may be defined on each EPAF.
g) Approval Queue: The virtual location in BANNER that holds the EPAF awaiting action. It is extremely important to process the approval queue documents at least once daily in order to ensure that the EPAF’s are progressing through the approval process and to avoid missing deadlines.
h) Proxy: An individual authorized to take action on an EPAF in place of the defined user. Each user must have at least one Proxy identified. The Proxy is used as backup to aid in keeping the flow moving through the individual queues. The Proxy will access the queue using individual passwords and User ID's. An assigned Proxy must have completed EPAF training.
i) Approval Level: There are various levels of approval available and/or required for each approval category code. For example: Dean/Director, Department Head/Chairman, Budget Office, Human Resources. Check with your department to determine the correct individual for each level.
j) Approval Category Code – The six-letter code identifying the specific action being taken. Proper code selection is CRITICAL to creating an EPAF. Careful consideration must be given in choosing the correct category to report accurate information.
k) Query Date – MM/DD/YYY is defaulted to the current date.
l) Personnel Date – Date student employee physically begins active work in a position at the University of Toledo. Every effort should be made to apply these EPAFs within the pay period the employee actually starts working in order to avoid the need to enter retroactive pay, benefits, etc.
m) Job Begin Date – Must be the same as Job effective Date.
n) Job Effective Date – 1st day of the current payroll period that student employee works OR 1st day of employment when EPAF is completed before the actual start date. The date used will be when the EPAF will take effect or be applied in the Banner system. The effective date should be within the current pay period. See 2012 Pay Period Schedule (http://www.utoledo.edu/offices/controller/payroll/pdfs/fy12payrollschedule.pdf)
o) Routing – The path an EPAF travels from originator to completion. It allows the originator to define User ID’s for each approval level. Each approval category has required approval levels. You may insert additional levels as needed for approval or just an FYI. The routing must be done for each EPAF. Some are preset and will automatically insert the needed USERID (example: Budget Office).
p) Transaction Status – Refers to the status of the EPAF, not the status for the particular approver.
1. Waiting: Still sitting in the originator’s queue. If the EPAF still has a status of WAITING, it will need to be submitted. When the EPAF has been submitted, the transaction status will change from WAITING to PENDING.
2. Pending: The EPAF has been submitted and is in a queue.
3. Approved: The EPAF has completed the queue for approval but has not been applied by Payroll yet.
4. Return/Correction: An error has been found and returned to the originator for correction. Look in the COMMENTS section for information on what needs to be corrected.
5. Completed: The EPAF has been applied by Payroll to the system.
6. Queue Status: Represents the status of the transaction for the individual logged on as an approver; not necessarily the status of the document itself. Indicates what action this user must take – not what action the document is waiting for in general.
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