The e-News is a semimonthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard's financial, human resources, and reporting systems.

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System Hours of Operation  top

A new page listing the hours of operation (and planned outages) for Harvard financial, human resources, and reporting systems is available at able.harvard.edu/other/hours.shtml. This page is intended to help you plan your schedule, particularly if you need to work outside the “normal” business week of Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

For information about unplanned outages and system problems, go to www.uis.harvard.edu/ system_status.

New Lists of Codes for Deductions, Earnings, and
Action/Reason Combinations Are Now Available    top

A list of the various deductions that may appear on employee paychecks is now available on both the atwork.harvard.edu/ess and atwork.harvard.edu/hradmin web pages. The list also indicates the order in which deductions are taken, whether they are taken pre- or post-tax, whether they are taken partially or not at all if there is insufficient salary to fund them, and whether missed or partial deductions are put into “arrears” and made up from the next available paychecks. Administrators who are asked to help employees interpret their paychecks may find this information helpful.

In a similar vein, the list of valid PeopleSoft Action/Reason codes has been updated. It appears in the Related Resources section at the bottom of atwork.harvard.edu/hradmin/hiring.jsp.

Finally, a new earnings codes grid, containing updated and more comprehensive information, is now online at atwork.harvard.edu/hradmin. The choice of an earnings code affects pensionability, tax treatment, and FLSA rates. In conjunction with empl class, earnings codes determine object codes and thus fringe rates.

Desktop Standards Updated    top

The desktop standards for AWS3 (the HR-HDW reporting application) have been added to those for other University administrative systems. The information is available on ABLE at able.harvard.edu/other/standards.shtml.

Processing Leaves of Absence     top

A new document summarizing the procedures for processing leaves of absence (LoAs) is now available on atwork.harvard.edu/hradmin under the Hiring and Personnel Actions tab. Here are the key points:

• There are two major kinds of leaves of absence: disability and non-disability leaves. Employees on disability-related leaves of absence (short-term disability, long-term disability, Workers’ Compensation) are managed by the Disability Claims Unit (DCU) of the Office of Human Resources. Employees on other kinds of leaves (non-STD parental leave, military leave, sabbatical, etc.) are managed by local units. Non-disability leaves can be paid or unpaid depending on the kind of leave and the circumstances.
  
  
• File disability-leave paperwork early, if possible. Local human resources administrators and managers, often working in concert with disabled employees, submit paperwork (specified in the procedure) to DCU to start a disability-related leave. DCU stresses the importance of filing paperwork as early as possible, particularly in the case of a planned absence such as a maternity leave.
  
  
• Use a PeopleSoft form to start or stop a non-disability leave. Local administrators and managers should submit a PeopleSoft Non-Disability Leave of Absence form (or the ASPERIN or WASABI equivalent) to FAD Payroll to start or stop a non-disability leave. Updated instructions for completing the form are available on the atwork.harvard.edu/ hradmin website.
  
  
• Hours need to be entered and approved for overtime-eligible employees on paid leave. DCU will assume responsibility for entering and approving hours in Time and Labor each week for overtime-eligible staff on a disability-related leave. Local units are expected to enter and approve hours each week for overtime-eligible staff on a non-disability paid leave. In both cases, leave pay will be generated only if hours are entered and approved. In most cases, a time type of PAL (paid leave of absence) should be used. DCU will take responsibility for moving these employees into their Time and Labor approval group, and back to the approval group of the home department when the disability leave is over.
  
  
• Employees must file a long-term disability claim within one year of the onset of the disability. Faculty are not eligible for short-term disability, and therefore DCU is not aware of a disability-related absence by a faculty member in its early months. Local HR or faculty affairs officers should obtain an LTD application packet on behalf of a faculty member at the three-month point of the disability, or refer the faculty member to the DCU at that time. An application must be submitted within one year of the onset of disability to protect the employee’s claim to this benefit. In the case of a staff member moving from short- to long-term disability, DCU will manage the transition and obtain the needed paperwork from the employee.
  
  
• Harvard’s military leave policy has changed recently. Harvard employees called to active service will now be paid the difference between their base military pay and their base Harvard pay for the balance of calendar 2003, rather than only for 90 days. The policy, including recent updates, is available in summary at: atwork.harvard.edu/b-militaryleave.html.
  

Time and Labor Updates    top

Costing overrides

When overriding costing for meal money or overtime on the Time Adjuster screen, remember to click “Copy Payable Time” before entering costing overrides on earnings codes other than REG. Otherwise, the additional pay will be charged to the wrong object code and fringed at a higher rate. In a recent biweekly payroll, $25,000 in OT and Meal Money was incorrectly charged to Regular Pay object codes.

Here’s the correct procedure if you need to split-code overtime or any other non-REG earnings type:

Excused absences

There is still some confusion about how to record departmentally excused absences (such as weather and building emergencies). For now, time reporters and keepers should use REG and put a note in the Comments field. A specific Time Reporting Code for excused absences may be added to the Time and Labor system in the future.

End Dates for Student Temps  top

More news has surfaced about student temporaries. The bottom line is that student workers will be considered “student temps” until graduation, even during the summer months. Hence, they

• can work more than 90 days in the summer, and
• are not required to have an end date on their hire forms, although end dates are recommended to manage terminations and keep inactive jobs from multiplying.

The enrollment status of student temps does affect their FICA status, and the payroll system will manage the FICA exemption/eligibility of students when their enrollment status changes.

An improved hiring process for student temporaries will be implemented in August. Stay tuned for further details.

New and Enhanced AWS3 Reports   top

Moratorium on Certain Job Actions   top

Between May 14 and the Annual Salary Increase Process (ASIP) upload on June 23, FAD Payroll will not enter the following job actions into PeopleSoft:

• Job data changes (except for reappointments effective-dated for 7/1/2003)
• Paid leaves
• Transfers
• Demotions, promotions, or reclassifications

This moratorium is because certain job actions need to be suspended in order to ensure the accuracy of extracts and for Payroll to do the annual salary increase process (ASIP) uploads.

Forms can still be sent in to Payroll. When processing resumes on June 23, forms will be entered in the order they were received. As of now, Payroll has already stopped processing any forms with effective dates later than July 1. These forms will be processed after June 23. Hires, rehires, terminations, and unpaid leaves can continue to be processed.

Here is a complete spreadsheet detailing Payroll’s blackout dates for particular action / reason combinations for HUCTW and non-HUCTW staff.

e-News for Users of Harvard's Financial Applications   top

Please follow this link for additional news of interest to users of the financial applications.

About the e-News   top

The Financial Administration publishes this semimonthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard University's financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies, and procedures. Generally, the e-News is published on or around the 12th and 26th of each month.

It contains:

• updates on projects underway to build or improve University administrative systems;
• information about new University policies, procedures, and forms;
• reminders about upcoming deadlines and cut-over dates;
• tips and tricks for working more easily or productively.

We welcome questions and suggestions for improvement from readers. If your questions are of general interest, we will answer them in future issues.

Please send comments, questions, or suggestions for improvement by email to us at: fad_communications@harvard.edu