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 Please note an address change for DCAR including ABS. Please find us at 5005 N.
Lincoln Blvd, Suite 100, Oklahoma City, OK 73105. Please send any and all
correspondence to our new location effective immediately.
The
main number for DCAR is 405-522-5577.
The Division of Central
Accounting and Reporting (DCAR) includes:
- State
Comptroller
- Agency Business Services (ABS) (Suite 200)
- Transaction
Processing
- CAFR
- OMES
Finance (Suite 200)
- ISD
Finance (Suite 200)
- OCIA
- Statewide
Accounting and Reporting
- Vendor
Maintenance
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PAYROLL
Beginning with the first paycheck
of 2015 (pay date of Jan. 9, 2015), employees on biweekly payroll with a
benefit allowance and benefit deductions were transitioned to a 24 period
benefits plan. This only affected state
agencies; institutions of Higher Education were not affected. This only affected state agency employees
paid on a biweekly basis (26 pay periods).
As a reminder, two months during
the year there will be a third paycheck with no benefit allowance and no
benefit deductions. The third paycheck in these ‘three-payday months’ may be
larger or smaller than the previous two checks that month. Employees may also
see a difference in the amount of taxes withheld for Social Security, Medicare, federal and state thereby increasing or decreasing the amount of net pay.
May is the first ‘three-payday
month’ for 2015. The third check to pay
on May 29, 2015, will not have the benefit allowance and will not have any
benefit deductions. Benefit deductions only includes deductions for health,
vision, dental, life options, disability, health savings accounts and flexible
spending accounts (health care and dependent care). Other deductions such as
retirement, garnishments, child support, taxes or voluntary payroll deductions
(i.e.: banks, employee associations, college savings plan) will be withheld as
required on the third check.
House Bill 1107, of the 1st Session of the 54th Legislature, 2013, mandated the payment of the flexible
benefit allowance for employees on biweekly payroll to be credited annually
over 24 pay periods and the benefit deductions to occur over the same 24 pay
periods.
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Agencies that process
unemployment tax through payroll (a covered agency) may have received a
quarterly statement of taxes due from the Oklahoma Employment Security
Commission for the first quarter of 2015. OMES submits to the OESC wage
and tax information for all agencies and pays the taxes processed through
payroll for the covered agencies. For
covered agencies, a statement is automatically generated for taxes due when a
file has been processed and no payment has been posted to the account within seven
days. All tax payments due to the OESC were timely made; however, payments may
not have been fully posted within the seven-day window.
Covered agencies should review
any statements received and disregard if the statement is for the previous
quarter (1st quarter 2015). The statement is a result of the timing issue
discussed above. If the statement is for an older quarter or you have any
questions, please contact Lisa Raihl at 405-521-3258, lisa.raihl@omes.ok.gov or Jean Hayes
at 405-522-6300, jean.hayes@omes.ok.gov.
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The recommended best practice is
that a replacement payroll warrant should not be processed until the incorrect
warrant has been reversed. Processing another payroll before the desired
reversal is complete may cause balance issues for social security, medicare and
unemployment wages and taxes. Additionally, completing the reversal first allows
reversed time to either be processed through payroll again, or if needed, time
can be corrected and then processed again. If time entered was invalid or
incorrect and should not be pulled into payroll again, it should be corrected
on the Timesheet and processed through Time Administration.
If an agency chooses to run a
payroll before the reversal is complete, the agency is responsible for
verifying the social security, medicare and unemployment wages and taxes are
correct on the replacement payroll warrant. The amounts should be manually
calculated, as if the reversal had been completed, and verified to the system
calculated amounts. If different, please contact the OMES service desk and an EBS
team member will assist you.
The agency is also responsible
for going to the time sheet and removing the time that processed back through
payroll when a replacement check was processed before a reversal was
completed. When a payroll check that had time pulled in from Time and
Labor is reversed, the reversal creates offset payable time with status
“Reversed” and an additional row in payable time with “Estimated” status when
the check reversal is confirmed. The “Estimated” payable time will be pulled
into payroll again when payroll is processed if not removed which may cause an
overpayment.
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The Human Capital Management division of OMES has developed a standardized Outstanding Wage
Beneficiary form for agency use. OMES –
FORM HCM 016 (Revised 04/20/15) is available on the HCM website.
Although it is not mandatory to
use the OMES – FORM HCM 016, agencies are advised to include in any internally
developed form all the data elements found in the standardized form.
40 O.S. § 165.3a allows employers
to provide employees the option of designating a beneficiary for wages and
benefits payable upon an employee’s death.
There is no requirement for an employer to allow employees to select
beneficiaries but agencies may want to consider adopting a policy which allows
employees to designate a beneficiary.
Providing the option to employees would relieve stress and anxiety after
the death of the employee on the family members, etc. Also, agencies would have clear guidance on
who is to receive final wage payments and avoid any potential difficulties in
determining who gets the payment(s).
This statute does not include any
longevity payment that may be due as of the date of death of an employee. 74 O.S. § 840-2.18 (H.2) authorizes any
longevity payment to be paid to the decedent’s surviving spouse, or if there is
no surviving spouse, to the decedent’s estate.
For more information, please
contact Lisa Raihl at 405-521-3258, lisa.raihl@omes.ok.gov or Jean Hayes at
405-522-6300, jean.hayes@omes.ok.gov.
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Agencies need to review the PS
Financials Payroll 36 Month Statutory Cancellation Report on a regular basis.
If there is a payroll warrant listed and the employee is entitled to the funds,
please complete the OMES Form 20R and send to Transaction Processing.
This will allow a replacement warrant to be issued to provide the employees
their due pay.
If there is a payroll warrant
listed and the employee is not entitled to the funds, the issuing agency must
notify OMES. (62 O.S. § 34.80) Notification should include the employee name,
warrant number, warrant date, and amount. The notification must be signed
by an agency approving authority. Please send notification to Transaction
Processing stating that the warrant should not be reissued. In addition, the
amounts must be removed from the employee’s earning record. Please contact Lisa
Raihl at 405-521-3258, lisa.raihl@omes.ok.gov
or Jean Hayes at 405-522-6300, jean.hayes@omes.ok.gov
to have this completed.
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The OMES Form DER, Deceased
Employee Reporting, is required to be completed by agencies when an employee
dies and payments are made after the date of death. The form is on the OMES
website under DCAR Forms. Once completed, please send the form to OMES/DCAR
payroll, attention Lisa Raihl or Jean Hayes. Please complete and submit the
form after the employee payments have processed so that year-end reporting will
be correct.
For procedures on processing
payroll after the death of employee, the HCM how-to document titled
"Payroll Processing for Death of an Employee" is on the EBS website
under HCM’s Module News for "How-to Documents."
NOTE: Please remember to
update the date of death on the HR Personal Data Record, update Job Data for a
termination with the reason code ‘SO4’ (deceased), and terminate the employee’s
direct deposit (banks will return direct deposits for deceased customers.
A return of an item will cause a delay to the individual receiving the
payment).
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In planning your work for May, it
is important to remember that Memorial Day is Monday May 25, 2015.
OMES policy requires that all
payroll transactions and paperwork be filed with OMES FIVE (5) BUSINESS DAYS
prior to the actual pay date to ensure adequate time for audit and processing.
Agency staff should plan their work accordingly to meet this deadline.
Payrolls that are received after
the deadline are disruptive to the normal process schedules and put a great
burden on all parties involved. Agencies that do not meet the deadline are
increasing the risk that employees are not paid on time when processing
payrolls late.
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Beginning in FY16 the use of
the Program Code will be required on all transactions that are processed in the
PeopleSoft system. This includes transactions for the new year as well as
transactions processed in the new year for FY15. We have been receiving
several questions regarding when the chartfield will be required. The
new field will be required on vouchers, payroll, purchasing and deposits.
If you have not had the
opportunity to attend any of the town hall meetings, make sure you catch the
next presentation. You may also view information about the programs on the website.
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ACCOUNTING
We have been reviewing
the policy on determining the proper rate of per diem in cases where the
lodging location and the location of the event are in two different GSA rate
areas. Although this is rare, we feel it is necessary to issue new guidance in
determining the correct per diem rate.
Effective immediately, per diem rates are based on the location
of the purpose of travel. The location of lodging will not be used
since there have been questionable selection of lodging locations in order to
obtain a higher GSA per diem rate. Using the location of the event to determine
the rate in all situations will avoid the opportunity of any inappropriate
selection of per diem rates.
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INFORMATION SERVICES
OMES has
created a new subscription topic for Higher Education agencies. Information
will be sent out to assist in the upcoming employer change. Beginning
Jan. 1, 2016, Higher Education institutions will be required to process
payroll and perform reporting for their employees as individual
employers. OMES has started a project to assist Higher Education
institutions in meeting this requirement. Updates will be available and
can be received by subscribing to the topic associated with this project by clicking here:
Once on
the subscription page, select Subscription Type "Email", enter
your email address and click the "Submit" button. At the top of
the subscription page, select the "Higher Education Payroll Processing and
Reporting" topic. Other topics are available and can be subscribed to as
desired. When finished, select “Submit” at the bottom of the page and your preferences
will be saved.
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AGENCY NEWS
OMES, in
partnership with the Office of the State Treasurer, has scheduled an upgrade
of the OST Agency System (formerly referred to as Oracle Imaging and located at the website found here)
for the weekend of June 6. Prior to May 15, users of the system and agency CFO’s
will receive email notifications detailing changes to the system. If you do not
receive this correspondence and are a user of this system or CFO please contact
Diedra O’Neil at Diedra.oneil@treasurer.ok.gov
or 405-522-4256.
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The
Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System, Uniform Retirement System
for Justices and Judges and SoonerSave have moved to a new
location. They are still in the Paragon Building located at 5801 N.
Broadway Extension, but have moved to a different floor. They are now located
in Suite 200. All phone numbers and email addresses remain unchanged.
The new physical address is:
OPERS
5801 Broadway Extension, Suite 200
Oklahoma City, OK 73118-7491
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