Follow-up Report

Lake-SumterCommunity College

Follow-up Report for February 6 – 9, 2006 HR/Payroll Consulting

2/10/06

Account Information

Project name: / Lake-SumterCommunity College
Prepared by: / Heather M. Germano
HR Consultant

1-800-541-5330 x 4197

Distribution

SunGard SCT / Anne Ceccato / Account Manager
Lake-Sumter CC / Tim Kane / HR Director

Objectives

The objective of this trip was general HR/Payroll consulting. On a planning call prior to this trip, the topics discussed to be covered included payroll, benefits, position control, tracking and posting leave time, self service, web time entry, applicant tracking and electronic approvals.

Progress Report

Accomplishments

This was an extremely busy and productive visit. I commend the Lake-Sumter team for their participation and attention during four very busy days. Many topics were discussed, all of them documented below.

PDPLIFE

Lake-Sumter inquired about running PDPLIFE more than once during the payroll process, if it had been run early and new hires had then been entered into Banner afterwards. SSCT advised that PDPLIFE can be run as many time as you would like, and then PHPTIME would need to be run to pull the new hires into the payroll that has already begun to be processed. Also, with the new deduction (explained in detail later in this report) for supplemental life insurance, PDPLIFE will calculate the coverage amount and premium – versus the flat amount deduction that Lake-Sumter has now that requires much manual maintenance.

PTRLCAT (Leaves)

The team examined the leave category form, and the following problems were identified and corrected in the test system using the leave category F1, and the SICK leave code (for reference when making changes in production).

  • The cut off day was changed to the 31st, given the fact that no matter when an employee is hired during the month, they are entitled to a leave accrual.
  • A discussion was had regarding the “base date”, and it was decided to change it to “current hire date” after all PEAEMPL records have been corrected (see below).
  • Also, the minimum % field was populated to reflect that an employee must work 51% of the pay period, in order to receive the full accrual.
  • The accrual date on the Librarians for their 150 extra hours was changed to August in order not to interfere with the 7/31 roll of balances forward.

The team also talked about setting up leave priorities (under options on PTRLCAT) to prevent from having to contact employees when they do not have the leave time accrued that they have reported.

A discussion was also had regarding whether or not there was an easier way to shut off accruals for faculty for the summer, and librarians for one month in the summer. SSCT indicated that the way that LSCC is currently doing this (by unchecking the accrue leave box on NBAJOBS) is the best way to do this.

Currently, personal time is accruing every year in July. However, all other time is rolled and begins again in January. A discussion was had to why personal time accrues in July and not January. HR was going to look into possibly changing this policy.

It was also discussed that the Sick Leave 6/1/01 banks would be eliminated and the time would be tracked on PPACMNT for the few employees that have this type of leave. The workers compensation bank was going to be eliminated as well, and time would be processed through payroll using the workers compensation earn code. Total time used can be determined using PEIJTOT.

Personal Time

Personal Time is now currently being manually imputed into Banner by Payroll, since people can only take personal time if they have the time available in their sick bank – up to 30 hours per fiscal year. The time is deducted from both the personal and sick banks.

SSCT suggested that instead of manually entering in the personal time (and the corresponding sick time), that when entering information on PHAHOUR (which is already being done), that personal time and sick time are both entered. PTREARN was changed on the PERS earn code by unchecking the “reduce base” button, and attaching the earn code to the personal leave bank.

By entering the information on PHAHOUR, it would prevent having to manually adjust PEALEAV for all employees who have taken personal. It was discussed that the timesheets would be changed to indicate to employees that when they take personal, they should report the same amount of sick time. This would then get them into the habit of doing this, and then that would continue when Web Time Entry is implemented.

PEAEMPL

PEAEMPL was reviewed and the various dates recorded on the form were discussed. Particular attention was paid to the “Current Hire Date” which is currently being changed every time a person changes an assignment on NBAJOBS. After much discussion, it was decided that this date should represent the current hire date to the college, and not be changed during the employee’s tenure at the college. A review will need to be completed of all employees and the information currently in that field, and corrected. Once that has occurred, the base date on PTRLCAT for the appropriate leave categories and leave codes should be changed to “Current Hire Date”.

SSCT also demonstrated that by entering in the termination date and reason on PEAEMPL, but not changing the status to “Terminated”, will prompt the system to change the status once that date entered as a termination date has passed if all assignments on NBAJOBS are terminated. This happens automatically when the payroll that includes that termination date is run.

Paying Faculty in December

Currently, the administrative staff and the faculty are on the same payroll (M1). This presents an issue in December, when faculty are to be paid two days earlier than the staff. Currently, they are processed through a supplemental payroll, by manually entering in the population. SSCT presented three options for processing this payroll.

  • Continue processing these employees through the supplemental payroll by using a population selection (see Population Selection section on this report). This would prevent payroll from having to manually enter the population. This population selection can also be used for the supplemental summer payrolls that are processed in the summer to pay overloads, etc.
  • Establish a new pay ID for just the faculty. This will allow you more flexibility with timing and delivery, without impacting the administrative staff.
  • Process the December payroll (PHPTIME) and delete out the administrative staff. Run PHPTIME at a later date to bring in the administrative staff for payroll processing.

Regardless of which option is chosen, SSCT recommends that secondary assignments be created for any additional duties that are paid over multiple payrolls (for example, a chairmanship) with the appropriate default earnings setup to drop into PHPTIME and avoid manual entry. Any overloads processed only once can still be entered in PHAHOUR.

Payroll Adjustments

Payroll adjustments were examined and demonstrated. On each adjustment, you must choose a calculation method and a print method. You can choose either a computer calculation method or a manual calculation method. If you choose computer, Banner will run the calculations for you; if you choose manual, you have to calculate the earnings and deductions manually. If you choose the manual print method, no check will be printed through Banner payroll. If you choose computer, you can print checks using the Banner check printing process.

There is an erase feature on PHAADJT. This allows a site to view pay events without committing any unwanted pay events to pay history. This feature can be used anytime before PHPDOCM is run (when the record is at disposition 40 or below).

Payroll adjustments do not alter leave accrual and leave usage. You must manually correct this information on PEAEMPL.

Using PHAADJT, the following types of adjustments can be processed:

Void:This action allows you to void/nullify a paycheck given in error.

This might be used if an employee should have not been paid but somehow a paycheck was given to them. For instance, if an employee should have been terminated but the Payroll office did not receive notification from the Manager. Even if the direct deposit notification was sent to the bank this has to be done.

Reissue:This action automatically voids a paycheck and produces a manual check for a particular pay event. This action is most often required when an original paycheck is lost.

Manual:This action allows you to generate a manual pay event for an employee who was not included on the original payroll run. This type of adjustment could also be used to produce an “advance check.”

This might be used if an employee entirely missed a payroll check due to late paperwork.

Adjustment:This action allows you to produce a check for an employee who was not paid correctly on the original pay cycle. This could be because of unreported hours, incorrect hour entries, or excessive deduction amounts.

This might be used if an employee was overpaid or underpaid. Negative earnings can be put in but this is not officially supported by SSCT. (We demonstrated this during the visit – using a manual calc method and manual check to negatively adjust taxes).

Duplicate:This action allows you to completely duplicate a past issued pay event in a new pay cycle.

If issuing an adjustment to an employee who has terminated, the history date must reflect a date when the employee had an active job record, and the adjustment needs to be paid on a payroll number when the employee has an active job record. Employees who have been terminated on NBAJOBS can only be paid via an adjustment, or by reactivating the NBAJOBS record.

While processing adjustments, we discussed in detail the use of the history date, which needs to be completed for the month in which you want the adjustment to show in the totals. For instance, if you are making an adjustment in March, for a pay from January, you will want the date to be in January so that they payroll history is accurately adjusted. This is especially important when you are crossing calendar or fiscal years. The team also went over in detail how to establish earnings for an adjustment, and how to exclude deductions that they do not want taken within an adjustment. SSCT strongly recommends following a checklist of how to process each type of deduction when processing adjustments since they vary according to adjustment type and calculation method. Common to all adjustments is the balance and approve processes, as well as continuing to process the payroll as normal, starting with PHPDOCM for computer printed checks, and PHPUPDT for manual issued checks.

While processing adjustments, the totals on the PEIETOT (employee totals), PEIJTOT (job totals), and PEIDTOT (deduction totals) were tracked to see how the totals are affected by the adjustments.

NOTE: SSCT recommends that LSCC recompile the PHAADJT form and then try to run PHPCALC directly from the form. The GJBPRUN window that displayed during the training should no longer appear. If it does, please contact me since the form is not working as designed.

Benefits

Creating new supplemental life deduction

A new deduction (SPR) was created for the supplemental life insurance in the test system. Every time PDPLIFE is run, Banner will automatically change the calculation of the premium according to any changes in salary. This will eliminate the manual changes made every time a salary changes.

The following forms were completed:

  • PTRBDCA – this deduction was created as a calculation rule 50, with the appropriate deduction type (taxable or non taxable). The appropriate coding was entered in the options and amounts block, as well as the creation of the plans. Make sure that the priority fits in with where your taxes are calculated and taken since you will be creating one for pretax coverage and another for post-tax coverage.
  • PTRPREM - The premium rates (per $1000) were entered onto PTRPREM. Only one entry per plan is needed, since the premium does not change based on age.
  • PTRBDFQ - On PTRBDFQ the payroll frequencies were established. Since the deduction should only be taken once a month, one entry for each month for each deduction was entered, with a frequency of 1.
  • PTRLIFI - Using PTRLIFI, the life insurance rules were completed for the deduction - created to be employee paid, calculated only on primary jobs, and to round up to the nearest thousand. An entry is needed for each plan.
  • PTRLIFE - The codes were also entered onto PTRLIFE, which is changed monthly before the PDPLIFE process is run, to indicate which salary (and age if necessary) to use to calculate the monthly premium
  • PTRBCAT – Lastly the benefit was added to the listing of eligible benefits for the appropriate benefit categories.

The new deduction was then assigned to several employees and then tested. The premiums calculated correctly.

PTRBDCA

  • PTRBDCA was reviewed, and it was discovered that the labor distribution overrides are incorrect. The correct funding will need to be determined, and changed in Banner.
  • Associating deductions was discussed. SSCT indicated that the limits must be the same on associated deductions for Banner to adhere to the associated limit (example, enrolling in multiple 403b plans, but adhering to the overall $15,000 limits).

PTRBCAT/PDABDSU

  • PTRBCAT was reviewed and the setup for the quick setup form (PTRBDSU) was discussed. Default values can also be established, as well as making some of the common to all employee deductions “auto” so that minimal data entry is required.

Position Control

The team spent some time looking over the NTRPCLS, NBAPOSN, and NBAPBUD forms. LSCC has recently completed a reclassification for many of its positions, and the new position classes have been created on NTRPCLS. SSCT advised that the new position classes and salary table information can be added to the NBAPOSN form, without affecting the payroll. SSCT also advised that the salary table information be changed on NBAJOBS every year at salary increase time, thus preventing all records from having to be touched twice. However, it is recommended that LSCC make the changes resulting from the classification study on NBAJOBS, since salary changes will not occur again until next January.

LSCC expressed concern that positions could not be used more than once. Once on campus, it was discovered that the problem really does not exist. However, there were problems on NBAPBUD with labor distributions – some due to missing program codes (which will need to be loaded via SQL in order to make any changes) and some due to inactive funds and accounts. SSCT recommends that some form of communication be developed between the Finance office and HR in order to prevent this from happening. HR needs to move all positions and assignments out of FOAPALs that are no longer going to be active. In order to make the changes to the records currently in NBAPBUD, the various FOAPAL components will need to be activated or the records need to be updated via SQL.

Applicant Tracking

The applicant tracking module of Banner was demonstrated. SSCT noted that in order for applicants to be tracked through Applicant Tracking, they must be entered into PPAIDEN. The team had a discussion regarding this, resulting in the solution of only entering in final candidates into the system. This would enable LSCC to track requisitions, vacancy times, and applicant information without significant new data entry. There are many rule and validation tables in the system that Applicant Tracking uses. LSCC should look at these forms and tailor them to their needs. These forms are listed in detail in the training workbook provided during the visit.

The main forms demonstrated to the team were:

  • PAAREQU: Position Requisition Form (approvals and vacancy dates can be tracked on this form)
  • PAAAPPL: Applicant Information Form (all applicants must be entered into PPAIDEN in order to use this form). You identify the applicant and requisition to which they applied on this form, as well as application source and any activities associated with this applicant (interviews, hiring, etc).
  • PAAAPOS: Applicant Entry by Requisition/Position Form – this allows you to view and maintain information by requisition.

Electronic Approvals

SSCT briefly demonstrated Electronic Approvals and the forms needed for setup. These include: