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In planning your work
for October, it is important to remember that Columbus Day is Monday, Oct. 12.
Although not a state holiday, Columbus Day is a federal/bank holiday. As a
reminder, all payroll documents must be received five business (5) days prior
to the actual pay date to ensure adequate time for audit and processing.
Adherence to this policy will ensure payrolls are processed to pay timely.
Additionally,
supplemental payrolls that normally pay on the 12th of the month
will be set up to pay on Friday Oct. 9, 2015.
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PAYROLL
Employee deferrals and
employer contributions must be remitted to OPERS in a timely manner to ensure
participant amounts are posted and transferred to the selected investment
options within 10 business days of the payday, end of payroll period, or process
date, whichever is later.
OMES processes payments
for SoonerSave amounts on confirmed payrolls on a weekly basis. This payment
schedule far exceeds the requirements set forth in the plan and IRS rules. On
many occasions contributions are posted to employee accounts on or before the
actual pay date. Occasionally, and due to the payroll processing schedule of
agencies, payments may post after the actual pay date.
Please remind employees
that payments not showing on a quarterly statement may be due to the later
processing of payroll and will show in the next quarterly statement. Employees
are also encouraged to use the SoonerSave website to review and receive up to
date information on their account. The following link will take you directly to the SoonerSave
website.
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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 Beth Brox 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 Applicable Services
(formerly EBS/CORE) website under HCM’s Module News for ‘How-to
Documents’.
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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, subsection 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 or sample forms and instructions, 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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Giving gifts to
employees is restricted and should only be given as part of a formal employee
recognition program. See 74 O.S. § 4121 and 4122.
Furthermore, any gift cards, certificates, and coupons given to employees are
to be included in the employee’s taxable income.
These items are
considered by the Internal Revenue Service to be cash or a cash equivalent and
do not meet the requirements to be excludable as a de minimis fringe benefit.
Even when an employer
provides gift cards, certificates, or coupons to purchase a turkey, ham or
other nominal value property, these are considered wages and are subject to
income and employment taxes. This is true even when the card restricts the
items purchased, the time to use the coupon, and any unused portion is
forfeited. Cash equivalents do not meet the de minimis fringe benefit
requirements.
Process the taxable
amount through payroll using the gift card amount using the TRC Code of “GIFT,”
which will show as earnings code “GFT.” The amount will be included as taxable
income and will be taxed on the paycheck.
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If an agency employs an individual that works in a state
other than Oklahoma, please verify the setup of the employee in the HCM system
on the State Tax Data tab (Payroll for North America > Employee Pay Data USA
> Tax Information > Update Employee Tax Data). The State and UI
Jurisdiction should be set up for the state where the employee actually
performs duties. Upon processing of payroll, please review the paycheck to
verify the state withholding and unemployment tax classes are set up as you
expected. For assistance, please contact the OMES HelpDesk and an Application
Services Payroll Team member will be assigned to assist you.
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When
an employee is overpaid and reimburses the agency with a personal check or miscellaneous deduction OMES Form 94P, Overpayment Refund Request must be completed. Please do not provide copies of personal checks. The form
allows the agency to enter the amount reimbursed notifying OMES that
the overpayment has indeed been paid.
Additional back up data is not required.
The
form requires the State EmplID be entered.
This has been changed for the privacy and security of the employee.
Please do not submit with the social security number or any other number.
Please
complete and submit the Form 94P as soon as the employee has paid back the
overpayment to the agency. Timely
submission helps ensure full recovery of OPERS/OLERS retirement amounts. If the retirement system is not aware of an
overpayment and the pending overpayment refund request, payouts to former
employees may be incorrect and result in a loss to the agency. In addition,
retirement calculations may be incorrect if the overpayment is not corrected
timely.
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ACCOUNTING
Central Accounting and
Reporting will be providing training to new finance employees or anyone just
needing a refresher on statewide accounting policy. We will go through the highlights of the
Statewide Accounting Manual and show new employees what they need to be aware
of and where to find it. Training is from 1-4 p.m. Sept. 29 in the Concourse Theater. Please RSVP to Stephanie Brown at stephanie.brown@omes.ok.gov.
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Central Accounting and
Reporting will hold monthly Accounts Payable "brown bag" workshops in the CAR
training room at 5005 N. Lincoln Blvd. the second Tuesday of each month from noon-1 p.m. beginning Oct. 13. Bring a lunch and your
problem transactions, and we will help you through them. Space is limited, so RSVP with Stephanie Brown
at stephanie.brown@omes.ok.gov.
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Effective for travel occurring Oct.
1, 2015, and after, the Federal Standard CONUS per-diem
rate used by the state is $140, broken down as:
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$89 for lodging, and
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$51 for meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) - state’s per diem amount. Employees should understand that this includes taxes and tips for
meals and incidental expenses.
This is an increase from the $83
for lodging and $46 for the state’s per diem (M&IE).
Besides these new rates, several
localities slipped into the Standard Continental U.S. (or CONUS) territory rate.
This is reflected when viewing the CONUS rates on the GSA website.
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Beginning Oct. 1, 2015, the
Rush (SP) pay cycle will run at 3 p.m. rather than 3:30 p.m. As a reminder,
please call Jeannette Pascher at 405-521-6187, Steve Wilson at 405-521-4679 or
Patricia Garcia at 405-522-6855 to obtain approval to process vouchers in the SP
pay cycle.
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The Six Digit Expenditure Detail
by Journal Date, the Six Digit Object of Expenditure and the Six Digit Expenditure
by Fund reports and queries report expenditures when they are recorded in the
general ledger. It has been reported that other public expenditure queries
exist that prompt by accounting date and are not dependent on the expenditure
being recorded to the ledger. Voucher expenditure queries prompting by
accounting date do not report expenditure corrections and closures in the
correct period and require the query to be rerun for past periods when such
transactions occur in different months.
Public Accounts Payable queries
that have been reviewed by the OMES accounts payable team begin with OCP_AP. If
a public accounts payable query begins with a naming convention other than
this, it may not always be reporting correctly. If a current accounts payable
report or query does not offer all the information desired, submit a helpdesk ticket
and ask for it to be assigned to the accounts payable provider group.
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AGENCY NEWS
On
Dec. 26, 2013, the Office of Management and Budget issued Uniform
Guidance to streamline the federal government's guidance on Administrative
Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for federal awards. This
new Uniform Guidance supersedes requirements from
OMB Circulars A-21, A-87, A-110, A-122, A-89, A-102, and A-133; and the
guidance in Circular A-50 on Single Audit Act follow-up. The new guidance consolidates the guidance
from the OMB circulars noted above into a format that aims to improve both clarity
and accessibility. This Uniform Guidance is located in Title 2 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (Title 2 CFR 200
Uniform Grant Guidance)
The
Uniform Guidance applies to all non-federal entities expending federal awards,
whether they receive the award directly from a federal awarding agency or are a
subrecipient receiving the award from a pass-through entity. This Uniform
Guidance applies to all new awards and amendments to add incremental funding on
and after Dec. 26, 2014. It is
highly recommended that the federal awarding agency be contacted in order to
determine if the new guidance applies to specific grant awards.
While
this guidance does not broaden the scope of existing requirements, it may be
necessary to modify existing procedures or implement new procedures in order to
ensure compliance with the Uniform Guidance.
Below
is a listing of a few of the areas impacted by the Uniform Guidance:
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Internal
Controls – Recipients are required to establish and maintain effective internal
controls to ensure compliance with terms, conditions and regulations of the
awards. These internal controls should
be clearly documented in written format and be followed routinely by the
recipient. (2 CFR §200.303 & §200.61)
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Indirect
Costs – For recipients with a negotiated indirect cost rate, there is now a
requirement that all federal awarding agencies accept this negotiated rate
unless otherwise required by federal statute or regulation. New guidance allows
for a one-time extension without further negotiation of a federally approved
negotiated indirect cost rate for a period of up to 4 years. Non-federal
entities that have never received a negotiated indirect cost rate may elect to
charge a de minimis rate of 10 percent of modified total direct costs, which may be
used indefinitely. (2 CFR §200.414)
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Administrative
Costs – Clarification has been given for various types of costs and the
allowability of those costs. (2 CFR §200.420 through 2 CFR §200.475)
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Time
& Effort – The new guidance strengthens requirements for internal controls
over salaries and wages, while allowing flexibility to meet such requirements. Charges
to federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that
accurately reflect the work performed. Payroll allocations among grant awards
cannot be based on budgeted distributions alone. If budgeted numbers are used to allocate
salaries among grant programs, there should be an after-the-fact review with adjustments
being made so that the final amount charged to each grant is accurate,
allowable, and appropriately allocated. Each entity also needs to consider
internal controls over the reasonableness of compensation of employees. (2 CFR §200.430)
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Subrecipient
Monitoring – There is a heightened focus on subrecipient monitoring and what
this entails. The new guidance puts more
emphasis on real time knowledge of subrecipient activities. There
is now a requirement for mandatory risk assessments of subrecipients to
determine appropriate monitoring. (2 CFR §200.331)
These
are just a few of the areas where changes have been made. It is extremely important for each agency
receiving federal awards to review the Uniform Guidance and implement any
changes necessary to be in compliance with this new guidance. The grant award documentation should indicate
whether specific grant awards fall under this new guidance. When uncertainties exist, please contact the Federal
awarding agency for details applicable to the specific grant. You may also contact the State Auditor &
Inspector’s Office (Shelley Fleming at 405-522-6417 or sfleming@sai.ok.gov) for additional
assistance.
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FINANCIAL REPORTING
Now that business has closed for Fiscal Year 2015, all
pension trusts and component units (with a fiscal year of June 30) should be
working with their auditors to complete financial statements. The deadline for
submitting these, and any necessary Financial Reporting packages, to the OMES
Financial Reporting Unit is Oct. 31. Failure to complete these statements in
a timely manner jeopardizes the state’s ability to complete the audit of the
CAFR in time to meet disclosure requirements set forth by bond issuers and the
GFOA. A potential risk of missing the deadline includes a downgraded bond
rating for the state. All component
units are expected to ensure their auditors are aware of the deadline and
complete their final reports in time for you to provide it to OMES no later
than Oct. 31.
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MISCELLANEOUS
This article is not applicable to institutions of Higher
Education.
Representatives
of the Human Capital Management Division are continuing their review of data
for accuracy. The GO_PY_NOT_PAID_SINCE_PROMPT query in PeopleSoft HCM was run
again to see how many active employees in the system have not been paid since
Dec. 31, 2014. The results yielded over 2000 rows still; it has gone down only slightly
since the last review.
In the past,
employees have been left in an active status even when they were not actively
working. Due to new regulations that mandate more accurate reporting, this
practice is no longer acceptable and inactive employees must be terminated.
Please run the
GO_PY_NOT_PAID_SINCE_PROMPT query in PeopleSoft HCM using the date of Dec. 31,
2014 and review the employees on the list from your agency. After reviewing,
enter termination rows for all employees who are not currently active.
The termination
date must be entered retroactively. For example, if the last check for an
employee was November 2014, then enter the corresponding date as the
termination date. If an employee was on leave and never returned from leave,
enter the termination date that corresponds to the end of the leave period.
NOTE: This query should be run on a regular basis (monthly) and
results reviewed to determine if terminations should be entered, or if
additional follow up is needed with employees. The query was run with a date of
06-30-2015 and the results increased by over 400 employees. Please run the
query up to date and review the results to see if termination rows are needed.
Additionally, for
those employees who terminated after Jan. 1, 2015, you must also fill in the
ACA Employee Eligibility page. The employee will need history as of 1/1/2015.
Therefore, if the initial load did not enter data for the employee, enter the
appropriate status as of 1/1/2015 or as of the employees hire date, whichever
is later. Then, enter a second row for the termination.
To
ensure accurate reporting, we ask that you complete these tasks by Sept.
25, 2015. We appreciate your attention to this matter. If you have any
questions, please contact the Human Capital Management Division of OMES at humanresources@omes.ok.gov.
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