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HR Release 10 schedule and changes top
The next scheduled upgrade of the PeopleSoft HR, payroll, and benefits systems (Release 10) will begin on Friday, May 6 at 2 p.m., when all of these systems (including Time & Labor) will be brought down.
This will require that all hours for the workweek ending Saturday, May 7 be entered before the system is taken down (earlier local deadlines may apply). The system is expected to come back online on Monday, May 9 at 8 a.m. If any unanticipated problems occur, a message will be posted on the UIS Systems Status page.
HIRES will be prevented from transmitting forms to PeopleSoft during the HR Release 10 weekend. The "transmit" button will be grayed out at 2 p.m. on May 6 in conjunction with the PeopleSoft access buttons. All other HIRES functionality will continue to be available during this period.
Earnings object code sweep top
Currently, it is possible for payroll transactions to end up being charged to incorrect expense object codes. This can occur for a few reasons:
- A user enters a time reporting code that is not associated with regular earnings. The user then does not enter costing for that row and the employee does not have default costing for earnings other than regular on their job record.
- A user enters regular hours in Time & Labor with a costing override. In the process of running time administration, some of those hours may be converted to overtime. If an adjuster does not make subsequent adjustments to the costing, those overtime hours will be charged to the regular earnings object code.
- An employee changes employee class, FICA status, or job code (to or from an LHT job) during the year, but subsequent entries are not made on the Department Budget pages to update the costing for this change.
- A request is made to change the object code for a particular earnings code. This change is made on the configuration table, but not on every individual employee record already created in the system.
Some of the potential implications of these erroneous transactions are that inappropriate object codes are charged for expenses and/or that an expense may be inappropriately fringed.
After the payroll is confirmed and before the general ledger file is produced, a new process will be run to identify and correct any incorrect object codes for the current payroll based upon the person and type of earning being paid. These changes will be included on the file that is sent to the general ledger and will also appear on the confirmed payroll registers.
This change is expected to lessen the data entry burden on local administrators for employee default costing and Time & Labor entries, reduce the number of correcting journal entries, and improve overall data quality in the general ledger. The process will be used for all payrolls run after May 6, 2005.
Department-level default costing top
Currently, when a new department is created, a default costing record is also created for that department. This serves two purposes:
- If an employee does not have valid appointment-level costing, the department costing will be charged for payroll transactions.
- A department record must be created in order to create appointment records each fiscal year.
Generally, costing is entered at the appointment level for each employee within a department. The object code for the department default is currently hard-coded to object code 6050 and the activity is always set to 799599. This results in the salary expenses using the default being charged to the wrong object code as well as a generally inappropriate activity.
Starting in fiscal year 2006, tubs will be able to specify the entire seven-segment account coding string to be used for their department defaults, based on the appropriate costing for the majority of employees in the department. Appointment-level costing may still be entered for employees who are exceptions to the department-level costing. Here are the implications of this change:
- Costing will no longer be required on Quick Hire pages
- If there is no appointment-level costing, the Job Data Change form will not display anything in the current costing section.
- New department requests will continue to be processed by Apps Admin. However, tubs will be able to provide the seven segments and earnings codes they wish to have associated with this new department.
- The tubs can now maintain ongoing department-level costing. These changes may be the result of:
- tub/department reorganization
- additional costing – new earning codes, split costing, % changes
- inactivation of an account code
- availability of new funding sources
- The same pages that are used to create new department defaults are used to maintain them.
The objective of this change is to reduce the data entry and maintenance burden by eliminating the need for appointment-level costing for every employee. Changes need only be done in one place (department default). When a new employee joins a department, they are charged to the same costing string as all other employees in the department (if this is appropriate).
Viewing appointment and costing data via the costing link on the Job Data page
The costing link on the Job Data page can be used to link to an employee's costing record. If the employee does not have appointment-level costing, when a user clicks search, no results will be returned. To view costing for the department default, modify the following on the search page:
- Select the appropriate fiscal year
- Change the Budget Level from “Appointment” to “Department”
- Delete the Employee ID and Employee Record number
- Click the “Search” button
- The default costing for the department should be returned
Report modifications associated with department-level default costing
Here are the two reports you can use to monitor salary costing:
- Funding Summary report - This PeopleSoft report (parameter screen depicted below) shows appointment-level costing. Currently, the data returned shows employees with no costing, inactive costing, or valid costing by department and/or paygroup. Changes to this report will allow a search for data at the appointment level, department level or both, as well as active, inactive, or both. Records with no costing can also be obtained by department and/or paygroup. The object code returned on the report may not necessarily be what earnings are charged to, as the new object code sweep will adjust for any incorrect object codes. (As a result of these modifications, the Inactive Costing Audit and No Defined Costing Audit reports will be eliminated effective July 1, 2005.)
- Disable Impact Listing - This CREW report shows any employee who currently has an appointment level or additional pay costing row containing the value entered. This report is used to identify anyone who would be affected should an account code be inactivated. This report will be modified so that it can return either appointment- or department-level data on the impact of disabling one of the seven segments.
Of note to ad hoc reporting users: There is a table in the HDW that will display costing for every employee and will indicate whether it is appointment or department level. This table is OHR_JOB_COSTING_CURR_V.
Annual costing copy process top
The annual costing copy process will copy all department defaults and appointment-level costing records forward from FY2005 to FY2006. The target is to run and complete this process by 10 a.m. on Monday, June 13.
After 10 a.m. on June 13, you may start entering/uploading costing data for FY2006. Any new hires or transfers that occur after the costing copy process is run with an effective date prior to 7/1/2005 will need to have their costing data manually entered or uploaded to the FY2006 fiscal year.
The costing extract process as well as the Funding Summary report can aid in determining which employees do not have costing records in the FY2006 fiscal year.Additional pay modifications top
Transactions for potentially taxable gifts, reimbursements, etc. require Tax Office approval prior to being paid in PeopleSoft. In order to limit this compliance risk, the following types of transactions will no longer be allowed on the Additional Pay forms, pages, uploads, or quick hire forms:
- MVN - Nn-qual Mov to ee
- MV3 - Nn-qual moving to 3P
- MOV - Qual Mov pd to EE
- MVI - Qual Move pd to 3P
- GTX - Gift Taxable
- GTP - Gift Reimbursement Third Party
- GCC - Gift Cert Csh
- GNT - Gift Nn Tax
Reconciling paycheck hours to Time & Labor hours top
Payable time is the approved time in Time & Labor that was actually paid on a given paycheck.
Beginning on May 9, time reporters can access the detail of their payable time through employee self-service in PeopleSoft. They will need to follow this menu path: Home > Self Service > Employee > View > View Paycheck. A link will appear at the bottom of the earnings section on the View Paycheck page. Clicking this link will bring the employee to a separate page displaying the payable time details by date and time reporting code for that particular check.
In the same release, local payroll and HR administrators will also get online viewing access to this data by following this menu path: Compensate Employees > Manage Payroll Process > Inquire > Paycheck Data. A second tab on this form (called Payable Time Detail) will show the breakdown by day of actual hours paid in a given check. You will need to have one of following roles to gain access to this tab:
- PS^HR^ALL^Customer Serv w/Cor
- PS^HR^ALL^Customer Service
- PS^HR^ALL^EE Info Coor Correct
- PS^HR^ALL^Empl InfoCoordinator
- PS^PY^ALL^Tub Payroll Processor
- PS^HR^TUB^Data Viewer
A PeopleSoft report will also be available that can be run for a single or group of employees or a single or group of departments for a particular pay period. The report will provide the payable time details associated with each check in that pay period for the population selected. The menu path for the report is:
Compensate Employees > Manage Payroll Process > Report 2 > Paycheck Payable Time Dtl (HUC). Tub users with the following roles will have access to this report:
- PS^HR^ALL^Customer Serv w/Cor
- PS^HR^ALL^Customer Service
- PS^PAY^TUB^Reports User
- PS^PY^ALL^Tub Reports User
Employee self-service — check and advice printing enhancements top
Further modifications have been made to let employees print their checks via employee self-service on a single piece of paper. The following changes will be appear in PeopleSoft on May 9:
The sections on the check labeled “Employee Info” and “Taxes” will be modified to make them expandable or collapsible. If the paycheck is printed with these sections collapsed, it will (in most cases) easily print on a single page. Employees will still have the option to expand these sections and print all of the information if they choose to do so.New Payline Transaction Request form implemented in Release 10 top
Payline transactions are the transactions most often submitted for payment on an off-cycle payroll to make a gross-up payment, a retro payment due to late paperwork, etc. The current payline transaction form used to make these transactions in Microsoft Excel and is not enabled by PeopleSoft. As a result,
- it performs very few automatic data audits;
- it cannot be tracked electronically; a paper form has to be matched to a payroll register or to paycheck data in PeopleSoft;
- transaction form paperwork has to be delivered or faxed to Central Payroll; and
- hand-written forms can be difficult to interpret and process.
Beginning with Release 10, there will be a new online form and business process available to conduct these transactions. The transaction form may be used for both on- and off-cycle requests. They should not be used in place of an Additional Pay form or upload. As with the Job Data Change form, the process will entail three roles.
- Preparers – these tub-based users will create payline transaction forms and forward them on for approval.
- Approvers – these tub-based users can perform all functions of the preparer, and have the added ability to approve and electronically route a form to Central Payroll (printouts of the forms should not be sent to Central).
- Submitters – these users in Central Payroll will perform the following functions:
- Retrieve forms that have a status of “submitted to Central Payroll”
- Modify forms with a status of “submitted to Central Payroll”
- Reject forms and send them back to the approver if they are deemed unacceptable
- Save and print forms; give printed forms to processors for entry into PeopleSoft
- Close the form when the off-cycle check is cut, and fill in a field with the check date (which can be viewed by the preparer and the approver)
Users can do a number of things to prepare for the new form.
- Utilize the online tutorial and the quick reference document that will be available on ABLE on Monday, May 2. Links will be added to the What's New box on the ABLE home page at that time.
- Try to use the new form as soon as possible. Don't wait until July 1 to begin your transition.
- Determine which users should have the role of “Payline Form Preparer” and which should have “Payline Form Approver.” Send your role requests to your authorized TUB requestor
Here is the implementation timeline.
| Friday, April 15 |
Authorized requestors will receive a role request form for “Payline Form Preparer” and “Payline Form Approver.” |
|
Friday, |
Deadline for authorized requestors to submit role requests. Any requests received after this date will be put on hold until after the release, and then queued like any regular request. |
| Monday, May 9 |
Payline Transaction form is available in PeopleSoft for immediate use. |
| Friday, July 1 |
Central Payroll will no longer accept paper transaction forms. Form will be removed from ABLE and sent back to the preparer if received by Central Payroll. |
What are the expected advantages of these changes?
- Online tracking — all of the roles will be able to use a PeopleSoft search page to look up forms submitted in the past, and those that are en route to be processed. The form tracks the name and phone number of the preparer, approver, and submitter. Users may track the status of the form online. A comments box is available for use by all three of the roles.
- Less data entry — the form will default certain data based upon the empl_id and record number.
- Cross validation — earnings codes are limited to those that can be used with the empl_id and record number. The costing string is validated when the form is saved.
- Improved controls and security — the preparer role may create forms outside their department security, but may only view forms that they created. The approver role may only approve forms within their PeopleSoft department security. None of the roles allows users to prepare, submit, or approve a form for themselves.
Job code updates to be made automatically based on student status top
Beginning May 9, 2005 — as part of HR Release 10 — a weekly process will run to automatically update certain job codes on employees' records based on the student status of the employee. This new process has two main benefits. It will:
- reduce the administrative burden of monitoring changes in the student status of employees, and
- improve compliance with our benefit plans, union agreements, and other HR policies that require or allow Harvard students to be treated differently than other employees.
Affected jobs
The jobs affected are those where a different job code is used for a Harvard student than for a non-student, specifically:
| Harvard student job code [empl class] | non-student job code [empl class] | |
|
700030 Temporary Harv Student OT Elig [D] |
 |
700010 Temporary OT Eligible [ T ] |
| 700030 Temporary Harv Student OT Elig [D] |  |
700035 Temporary HS Student OT Elig [D] |
| 700030 Temporary Harv Student OT Elig [D] | |
710010 LHT OT Eligible [S] |
| 700030 Temporary Harv Student OT Elig [D] | |
710030 LHT Services/Trades [S] |
| 000902 Fellow, Teaching [G] | |
018102 Teaching Assistant [ I ] |
| 069123 Intern, Museum (Hrv Grad Stud) [G] | |
061141 Intern, Museum [ I ] |
| *069572 Fellow, House [G] |  |
019300 House Associate [O] |
Potentially benefits-eligible jobs are in bold.
* For starred job codes, only paid jobs will have their job code updated.
For example, if a non-student has a job in job code 700030, his job code will be changed to 700010. If a Harvard student has a job in job code 700035, his job code will be changed to job code 700030.
Note: There are other job codes specific to students or to non-students that are not affected by this process. For example, there will be no auto-update when someone in job code 061202 (student research assistant) graduates from Harvard, because it is not obvious which of the several dozen non-student research assistant job codes she then belongs in.
Appointment end dates
In addition, jobs moving into job code 700010 Temporary OT Eligible as a result of this process will have their appointment end date set for 90 days from the date the process runs, unless the job already has an earlier appointment end date. (Appointment end dates will not be changed or removed in any other case.)
Benefits impact
In certain cases, the job code updates will affect an employee's benefits. Specifically, teaching assistants, museum interns, assistant senior tutors, and house associates are eligible for benefits if they have at least 17.5 standard hours per week or a projected annualized salary of at least $15,000 per year (even if they don't work the entire year *). Non-student LHTs with an annual rate of at least $15,000 are also eligible for benefits. However, the Harvard student versions of these jobs are not eligible for benefits.
* There are some differences among these jobs in exactly which benefits employees are eligible for.
Definition of a student
Harvard students are defined as students currently registered in a degree or certificate program, studying abroad, on leave paying the GSAS facilities fee, or pending, as reflected in the SIS or DCE systems. Students must also have at least a half-time course load (as determined by the student's registrar).
As a result, certain people who carry HUID cards that say “student” — for example, students with less than a half-time course load — will nonetheless be put in a non-student jobcode. Doing so is necessary to abide by our benefit plans.
Please note that student status for the purpose of job code updates is not affected by the time of year (unlike the FICA exemption, which, depending on the school, may apply only from September to May).
Which job code should I use for a new hire?
Hiring procedures are not changing. Please continue to use your existing process, and use the job code that seems correct based on the student information collected from the employee.
When hiring a teaching assistant, museum intern, or LHT, if you aren't sure whether or not the employee qualifies for a student job code, err on the side of calling her a student. If you hire a Harvard student into a benefits-eligible job code affected by this process, she will immediately be notified of her benefits eligibility based on the job code you've selected, only to lose that eligibility when the auto-update process runs the following weekend.
What if I know the employee is a student, but the process puts him in a non-student job code?
If this occurs, either he doesn't meet the benefits definition of a Harvard student (see above), or else the SIS or DCE computer system has incorrect or incomplete information about him. If it's the latter, please contact the student's registrar to have his registration information brought up to date; his job code will then be automatically updated the following weekend.
How do I determine which employees have had their job codes updated?
The auto-update process inserts a new effective-dated job row with a Data Change action and ADM reason (administrative change made to job code). CREW users can run the HRJOBDP005 Departmental-Action Report and Job Group Movement Analysis report with the following parameters:
Dept ID(s): [your departments] Action Code(s): DTA Ethnicity: [leave blank] Employee Classification Code(s): A, D, I, O, S, T Pay Group Code(s): [leave blank] Job Function Code(s): [leave blank] Union Code(s): [leave blank] Date Range: [as desired; note that job code updates will occur on Sundays]
Employment Status: All FLSA Status: Include All Select Report: Action
Once the report is run, users must manually filter out actions that do not have reason ADM. The DTA/ADM action-reason combination is also used in other cases where job codes change en masse, but in most cases the student-related updates should be readily identifiable.
New Web Voucher functionality for reimbursements effective May 2 top
The February 18 e-News described new functionality for processing Web Voucher reimbursements entitled Combined Reimbursement/GE Direct Pay. The release of this feature was temporarily delayed, but is now scheduled for release on May 2, 2005. Please look for more information on the Web Voucher splash page during the week of April 25.
HIRES changes top
This memorandum was sent to all HIRES users earlier this month to explain changes in the application that began on April 6. It is provided here for anyone who missed it.
About the e-News top
The Office of Human Resources publishes this monthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard University's financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies, and procedures.
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: admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu