PAYROLL
When entering a new employee’s
name and social security number (SSN) or updating a current employee’s name,
please verify the name and social security number entered is exactly as it
appears on the employee’s social security card. This is critical for reporting
not only the W-2 wages at year end but the Affordable Care Act (ACA) required
health offer/coverage information. If the name and SSN does not match the
Social Security Administration (SSA) records, the employee’s wages may not be
credited to their social security account. Additionally, if the name and SSN do
not match, the employee may not be reported correctly for ACA purposes which
could result in an IRS letter to the employee for possible lack of health
coverage or an IRS letter to the agency for not offering coverage.
Beginning Sept. 8, 2007, the
Social Security Administration updated the social security card. The
number holder’s name will always be printed on two lines, with the last name
printed directly below the first and middle names. If you receive a prior
version from an employee and are unsure, please ask the employee to verify the
first, middle, and last names.
First, middle, and last names can
only contain letters, spaces, hyphens, periods, and apostrophes. Other
characters will cause a mismatch with the SSA and IRS. For suffixes, only
letters or spaces are allowed. Please be sure to enter the suffix in the
correct field, it is not considered part of the last name entry. Titles are not
considered part of the employee’s name and are not to be included. Enter only
the name as it is shown on the social security card.
Additionally, compound names do
not need to be hyphenated. If an employee provides a name with an apparent
compound or multiple last names, ask the employee which name is the beginning
of the last name and which (if any) is the middle name.
Please update the employee’s name
in the HCM system as instructed in the COR301 Part II manual beginning on page
42 (Navigation: Workforce Administration > Personal Information >
Modify a Person). You can enter the name that the employee currently uses
as their paycheck name if desired so their paycheck will continue to have the same
name as in the past but their employee record and W-2 information will match
their social security card.
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The OMES Form PWC should only be
used when an employee is not entitled, in part or whole, to the funds.
All PWC forms received by OMES will initiate the process to retrieve the funds,
if direct deposit, and cancel the warrant in the payroll system. It is
imperative that agencies identify payroll errors and process the Form PWC
immediately upon discovery.
Paper Warrant Cancellations:
The original warrant must be marked “Void”, attached to the completed PWC form,
and sent to OMES Transaction Processing. These requests cannot be processed by
fax.
Direct Deposit Cancellations:
Fax OMES Form PWC (revised 4/2017) to 405-522-2186. Verify the fax was
successful. Requests for cancellation of direct deposits must be made by
completing the PWC form and faxing it to OMES to initiate the cancellation
procedures. To ensure that direct deposit funds are returned, the PWC request
must be received by 12:00 p.m. (noon) three business days prior to the
effective pay date.
Any faxed request for
cancellation of direct deposits after that cutoff will be subject to recall or
reversal procedures which are subject to denial by the employee’s bank. An
employee must be notified in writing of a reversing entry and the reason for
the reversing entry no later than the effective date of the reversing entry.
Please notify the employee no later than the day the OMES Form PWC is submitted
for processing.
The statement below can be
modified by your agency and used to inform your employee(s) of the pending
reversal.
“A payroll item will be posted in
error to your bank account on MM/DD/YY. A reversal has been issued and
will post to your account to pull these funds back to the state. Please
keep the full amount of this deposit in your account. If the state cannot
retrieve the full amount of the deposit, action will be taken in accordance
with applicable procedures to retrieve the funds from you.”
Once the funds have been returned
to the state, OMES will process a cancellation in the payroll system which
returns the funds to the agency. If the funds cannot be recovered from the
bank, the agency is responsible for recovering the funds from the employee.
Please refer to O.S. 74 Chapter 27A, Section 840-2.19 D for proper procedures
for recovering overpayments if needed. The agency should submit the OSF Form
94P for processing if the employee reimburses the funds through a miscellaneous
payroll deduction or cash.
PWC forms received for direct
deposit items that are more than five business days past the effective date
will not be processed in accordance with NACHA rules. If agencies encounter
erroneous entries more than five business days past the effective date, please
contact OMES or OST for consultation on options for recovering the funds.
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The Statewide Employee View
functionality can be used to find any person in PeopleSoft HCM. When
trying to determine if an individual already exists in the system, please
search by “National ID” (social security number).
Searching with criteria other
than National ID can cause an agency to identify a person that isn’t truly the
one they want. Please review the search results carefully to ensure the
individual found is who you need. The navigation is: Home > Workforce
Administration > Personal Information > Statewide Employee View (0491).
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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 or 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.
In the HCM system, process 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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Agencies are responsible for
going to the timesheet and removing the time that is processing through payroll
when a replacement check is processed before a reversal is 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.
A replacement check should not be
issued until the reversal has been processed. This allows wage balances to be
updated and 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.
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HIGHER EDUCATION PAYROLL
Deposits should never be made
into the 789 class funding. The use of this fund is restricted and should
not be used for any purpose other than that for which it was created. The
only transactions allowed in the 789 class funding are Payroll Fund Transfers
and the payments to applicable individuals/entities from money in the 789 class
funding. OMES DCAR is checking these funds periodically and agencies will
be notified to create a deposit correction for any amounts deposited there.
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Class funding 78900 was set up
during the payroll transition in late 2015. Specialized accounts were set
up to allow for ease of balancing and tracking. Due to the restricted
uses and the structure of the 789 class funding, reconciliations on it should
be relatively simple and clean. Detail instructions on how to reconcile
the fund were provided during the transition. The link to the
reconciliation tips is provided below. Agencies which have not reconciled
this fund should do so as soon as possible. If payments from the 789 fund
have been processed with incorrect account codes, corrections should be made
using a journal voucher. If payments that should have been paid from the
789 fund were processed from a different class funding, a journal voucher must
be processed to keep the 789 fund reconciled. Agencies should have processes
in place to ensure that the correct account is used and that the fund is
reconciled monthly. Any balance remaining in the fund should be
identifiable to a specific vendor.
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FINANCIAL REPORTING
Upcoming GAAP Package deadlines:
August 10th
K – Insurance Claims Liability
Y – Infrastructure Assets
September 7th
C – Accounts Receivable and
Deferred Revenue
D – Federal Grants/Entitlement Receivables and Deferred Revenue
E – Taxes Receivable
F – Due from Other Funds
I – Accounts Payable and Encumbrances
M – Lessor
R – Interagency Payments
X – Miscellaneous
Z – Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards
October 5th
N – Litigation
Q – Medicaid
Please consult the GAAP
conversion letters sent to your agency in June to verify that all necessary
conversion packages are completed. If there are any questions, contact your
agency’s Financial Reporting Analyst.
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For fiscal year 2017, the State
of Oklahoma must implement GASB statement 77 Tax Abatement Disclosures in the
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). In order to be in compliance with
the new requirements, the Financial Reporting Unit (FRU) has been gathering
information about programs that meet the definition of tax abatement.
In order to qualify as tax
abatement, three criteria must be met:
-
An agreement must be
in place between the government and a tax paying entity in advance
-
A specific action
must be taken on the part of the tax payer
-
Revenue must be
reduced as a result
Any incentive that meets these
criteria will have information that must be considered for disclosure in the
CAFR.
The FRU has already approached
agencies that are believed to administer programs that could be considered tax
abatements. However, if you are aware of an incentive program that may meet the
definition of a tax abatement that may not have been detected by the FRU,
please contact Matt Clarkson at 405-521-2759.
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GASB Statement 72, Fair Value
Measurement and Application, which added disclosure requirements for deposits
and investments, was implemented during fiscal year 2016. It was noted during
the CAFR audit that many agencies that prepared GAAP statements failed to
include some required information.
As fiscal year 2017 statements
are being prepared, consider that all investments (including derivatives) must
include the valuation approach and level of fair value hierarchy used.
There are three approaches that
can be used for valuation:
- Market – uses prices and other relevant
information generated by market transactions involving identical or
similar assets, liabilities, or groups of assets and liabilities. An
example would be quoted market prices for stocks.
- Cost – reflects the amount that would be
required currently to replace the present service capacity of the asset.
- Income – converts future amounts (such as cash
flow) to a single current amount. An example would be valuing the
investment at present value.
The fair value hierarchy defines
inputs by the following categories:
- Level 1 – Unadjusted quoted prices in active
markets for identical assets.
- Level 2 – Quoted prices for similar assets, or
inputs that observable, or other forms of market corroborated inputs.
- Level 3 – Pricing based on best available
information, including primarily unobservable inputs and assumptions
market participants would use in pricing the asset.
- Net Asset Value (NAV)– If a nongovernmental
entity does not have a readily determinable fair value, NAV can be determined
in a manner consistent with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s
measurement principles.
Information on how the valuation
was determined should be provided by the broker of the deposit or investment,
and should be disclosed as part of the footnote for deposits and investments.
If it is not included in the financial audited financial statements, this
information should be sent to the OMES Financial Reporting Unit in a
supplemental report by the October 31st deadline.
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ACCOUNTING
Work is in progress to activate
cash controls on 700 funds. The Budget and Cash Balance Report (ABC
Report) is being modified to include all 700 funds. Agencies need to be
reviewing these funds to be sure that they are not showing a negative
balance. It is anticipated that the cash controls will be put on
the funds the weekend of September 2nd, and funds that have a negative balance
will not be able to process vouchers against the fund until the balance becomes
positive.
Class 789 Reconciliation Tips can
be found here.
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When submitting an OMES Form
20R–Warrant Replacement Request, be sure to include a contact name and phone
number (space located at the bottom of the form below Approving Officer
signature). The contact information is for any questions concerning the request
and when sending out the replacement warrant.
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O.S. 74 § 500.9, Subsection E.,
reads: Reimbursement for meals and lodging on out-of-state trips shall not
begin more than twenty-four (24) hours before the meeting, workshop, conference
or other objective of trip begins and shall not continue more than twenty-four
(24) hours after said meeting, workshop, conference or other objective of trip
ends. This twenty-four-hour limit shall also apply for in-state travel
when the agency determines that travel is of duration where overnight travel
prior to or after the trip objective would be necessary.
Agencies are not consistently
applying this 24-hour rule. Often travel claims for per-diem have started
two or more days prior to the event. These claims will be denied unless
there is a documented business purpose for arriving early at the
location. For example, special business-related meetings prior to a
conference. Activities that are provided primarily for the entertainment
of participants, such as sightseeing tours, athletic events, etc. are not
appropriate for claiming per-diem. Proper documentation of the business
purpose for any time claimed outside the 24-hour rule is required.
There may be other appropriate
situations such as limitations on flight times requiring an earlier flight.
This is an appropriate exception only in cases where flight choices are
severely limited, and is not appropriate if based on employee preference.
Documentation of the situation must be included with the voucher. We have
seen many vouchers where the traveler left earlier than 24 hours prior to the
event quoting limited flight availability, but upon audit, we find other
flights available. In these instances, the 24-hour rule will be enforced.
Appropriate documentation:
Conference or meeting agenda or other documentation showing the starting and
ending time of the conference or meeting along with written justification of
any time outside of the 24-hour rule.
In order to confirm compliance
with the 24-hour rule, OMES has the following procedure in the Office of
Management and Enterprise Services: Statewide Accounting Manual.
50.30.03 Travel Reimbursement
Guidelines
A. General Provisions
3. Commencement/Termination of Travel Periods for Reimbursement of Meals and
Lodging
(a) Standard 24-Hour Travel Rule. Reimbursement for meals and lodging expenses
shall not extend more than 24 hours before and/or more than 24 hours after the
date/time the object of travel (e.g., meeting, workshop, conference, etc.)
begins and/or ends.
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AGENCY NEWS
The state will transition to a
new payroll card service during the next few months. The existing contract with
KeyBank expires September 30, 2017; and as a result, KeyBank will not be
accepting direct deposit payments to state employee paycard accounts after
9/30. Conduent (formerly Xerox) was awarded the new paycard services contract.
Conduent is also the state’s debit card services provider for income tax
refunds and unemployment insurance benefits. Paycard participants will receive
information regarding their new cards towards the end of August and will
receive Mastercard branded cards for all payroll deposits effective on or after
10/1.
By mid-August, agency paycard
contacts will receive correspondence from the Office of the State Treasurer
(OST) regarding next steps in the conversion process. If you don’t receive
information from OST and believe that you have active employees on the paycard
program or if there are any questions regarding the details, please contact
Kiranmaye Nallayahgari at 405-522-6860 or Kiranmaye.Nallayahgari@treasurer.ok.gov.
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On September 15, 2017, an amendment
to the NACHA Operating Rules will become effective enabling same-day ACH
debits. This amendment will expand the options available to financial
institutions to originate certain same-day ACH debits and credits and mandate
all receiving financial institutions to receive same-day ACH transactions. ACH
credit and now debit transactions, except for international transactions (IATs)
and transactions above $25,000, will be eligible for same-day processing.
Initially same-day ACH payments
will be significantly more expensive to process than future dated entries to
allow financial institutions to recover their costs for enabling and supporting
this function. The Office of the State Treasurer (OST) will only originate
same-day ACH transactions on an emergency basis. Agencies should NOT begin
sending same-day effective dates in their files, the entries will continue to
be processed on the next valid, future effective date. If your agency
anticipates a need for same day ACH transactions please contact the Director of
Banking and Treasury Services at OST, Kiranmaye Nallayahgari Kiranmaye.Nallayahgari@treasurer.ok.gov
405-522-6860.
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