STATE COMPTROLLER
As discussed in the August webinar, OMES will be gathering
information to report early payment discounts taken by agencies and
institutions of higher education. Most agencies are indicating discounts
taken within PeopleSoft, either at the PO level or the voucher level.
However, entities that use the "Vouchers from Remote" process must provide
information on discounts taken another way. These entities must submit a
spreadsheet or file showing the voucher number and the amount of the discount
taken. Only list vouchers for which discounts were taken. These
entities should start tracking discounts beginning with January 2018 payments
and report discounts taken for the first quarter of calendar year 2018, no
later than April 30, 2018. Spreadsheets may be e-mailed to earlypaydiscount@omes.ok.gov.
To All Federally Funded Agencies:
OMES recently received a correspondence from the Dallas
office of DHHS Cost Allocation Services of which you should be aware. The correspondence addresses two separate but
related issues:
Difference in the
Actuarially Required Contribution vs. the Statutory Contribution Rate
For a great many years, the state’s actuarially required
contribution to OPERS was more than the contribution for employees required by
statute. However, several years ago that
reversed and the statutory contribution rate of 16.5% is greater than the
actuarially required rate (currently 10.07%).
The Dallas office has sent us a notification that the
difference between the statutory rate and the actuarial rate is an overcharge
to federal programs. We strongly disagree
with this position and we are appealing to the Dallas CAS office.
This notice is to make you aware that the issue exists and
that amounts charged to the federal government over the actuarially required
rate of 10.07% may result in a payback to the federal government if our appeal
is unsuccessful. This issue is being
addressed centrally with the Dallas CAS office.
9.5% - 10.5% of the
Statutory Contribution Rate for New Employees Remitted to a Separate Plan
For employees on the new Pathfinder plan, agencies are
responsible for 16.5% of salary.
However, only 6% - 7% is remitted to the Pathfinder plan and the other
9.5% - 10.5% funds the OPERS defined benefit plan. The federal government maintains that the amount
used to fund the defined benefit plan is an overcharge to federal programs.
Agencies may have contracts that specifically state that the
entire amount paid is allowable. Those
agencies may have the best case for appeal.
Other agencies should stop charging federal programs for the 9.5% -
10.5% of the statutory contribution for employees on the Pathfinder plan that
is remitted to the defined benefit plan.
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PAYROLL
Enterprise
Business Services (CORE) sets up pay calendars according to the following
schedule:
Monthly
main calendars will be set up by the end of the day on the 15th of each
month.
Monthly
off-cycle and supplemental calendars will be set up by the 1st of the following
month.
Bi-weekly
calendars are set up by the end of business Friday (pay day) before the payroll
processing begins the following week. Since Bi-weekly payrolls are in
arrears, off-cycle calendars are only set up when requested (via helpdesk
case).
Please
do not submit a helpdesk case before the published deadline listed above. If
your pay calendar is not available after the scheduled set up date, please
create a case to have the calendar created.
For
agencies with pay calendars other than those listed above, please contact Carol
Barton at carol.barton@omes.ok.gov for
your set up schedule.
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Payroll Budget Checking
reports are no longer being accepted with cash deficits in the 7xx funds. Cash controls were placed on 7xx funds back
in September 2017. Agencies need to review the budget checking report and
correct any deficits before finalizing and sending to Transaction Processing.
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The IRS released the 2018 Form W-4 on Feb. 28,
2018. They have also updated the Withholding Calculator to help employees check
their 2018 tax withholding. The withholding calculator is designed to help
employees make changes in response to the new law or based on their personal
financial situation and gives them the information needed to fill out a new
Form W-4. The new withholding tables released earlier this year are designed to
produce the correct amount of tax for those with simple tax situations. People
with more complex financial situations may benefit from using the withholding
calculator. Employees should speak with a tax advisor for advice on completing
the Form W-4. Agency personnel should not advise on personal tax matters.
Since the 2018 Form W-4 is available, agencies need to be mindful of the
deadlines for accepting 2017 W-4s:
-
Employers may continue using the 2017 Form W-4 that was in effect
for existing 2017 income tax withholding exemptions until Feb. 28, 2018;
-
The deadline for employees to claim an exemption for 2018 has been
extended to Feb. 28, 2018.
-
Employees may claim an exemption for 2018 by submitting a 2017
Form W-4 until 30 days after the 2018 form is released.
o
This must be a new 2017 form (as opposed to a continuation of the
form used for 2017).
o
Exemptions filed after that date must use the 2018 form.
o
It is not necessary to replace the 2017 form with a 2018 form.
-
In order to use the 2017 form for a 2018 exemption, it must be
done in one of the following ways:
- modifying the 2017 Form W-4 by striking
“2017” in the text on Line 7 of the Form W-4 and entering “2018” in its place
and signing the form in 2018;
- modifying the 2017 Form W-4 by entering
“Exempt 2018” on Line 7 of the 2017 Form W-4 and signing the form in 2018;
- using the 2017 Form W-4 without modification
and signing the form in 2018, provided that the employer establishes and
communicates to employees a procedure under which an employee signs and
furnishes the 2017 Form W-4 in 2018 to certify both that the employee incurred
no income tax liability for 2017 and that the employee anticipates that he or
she will incur no income tax liability for 2018 and thus claims exemption from
withholding for 2018; or
- any method substantially similar to 1 – 3
that clearly conveys in writing an employee’s intent to certify his or her
exemption from withholding for 2018.
- The requirement for
employees to furnish a new Form W-4 within 10 days of changes that result
in fewer allowances has been temporarily suspended. Employees are not
required to furnish employers with a new Form W-4 until 30 days after the
2018 Form W-4 is released.
If you receive an exempt W-4 after Feb. 28, 2018, do not process a tax
refund to the employee or submit one to OMES for processing. The W-4 will take
effect on the next pay cycle; it is not retroactive to the beginning of the
year. The PeopleSoft HCM query: GO_PY_TAX_EXEMPT_STATUS - Fed or State
Tax Exemption can be run by agencies to see who currently is claiming an
exemption from income tax withholding.
Please refer to the Guidance on Withholding Rules, Notice 2018-14 and News Release IR-2018-36 on the IRS website.
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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 being entered is exactly as it appears on the employee’s Social Security card. This is critical in 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 possibly 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.
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 that their paycheck will continue to reflect the same name as in
the past but the employee record and W-2 information should match the social
security card.
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When entering a new employee or dependent's name and Social
Security number (SSN) or updating an individual's name, please verify the name
and Social Security number being entered is exactly as it appears on the
employee's Social Security card. Benefit coordinators should ensure
employees are aware of this when providing dependent information. The health
insurance plans offered by the OMES Employees Group Insurance Division must
also submit reporting to the IRS for the Affordable Care Act. Incorrect
information will cause the insurance plans to receive errors when submitting
health coverage information and could result in an IRS letter to the employee
for possible lack of health coverage on an individual.
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Public
query ‘GO_PY_DED_RUNID_BY_CONFIRM_DT’ is available to assist with the
reconciliation of agency 633xxx accounts. The query contains useful information
such as deduction codes and descriptions for payee identification, the number
of employees with a specific deduction, the total amount deducted for those
employees and the general ledger 633xxx accounts to which the deductions were
posted. The query is driven by payroll confirm dates, and system prompts allow
the user to select a time frame for payrolls processed. Access to the query is
included in the payroll processor role. Agency finance personnel will need to
coordinate with payroll personnel to have this query run for them. For
questions or more information, please contact Courtney Cowart at 405-522-4179
or courtney.cowart@omes.ok.gov or Lisa
Raihl at 405-521-3258 or lisa.raihl@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 time sheet 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 correcting the time sheet
by 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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Agencies are reminded that employee bank deposit slips should NOT
be used to get the bank routing/transit number for setting up direct deposit
information. A voided check from the employee is the most reliable method. If
the employee does not have a voided check or wants to deposit into another type
of account, have the employee call the bank directly to get the routing/transit
number. A bank routing/transit number should never start with the digit “5”.
This indicates a branch of the bank and will cause the direct deposit to fail
and not leave the state. A direct deposit that fails will not leave OST to
be paid and additional processing by the agency will be required to pay the
employee.
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In addition to bank routing number errors, an incorrect bank
account number could cause significant delays in the employee’s receipt of his
or her paycheck. Many banks do not reject bad account number deposits until
after the pay date. This means the deposit for the rejected deposit may not be
returned to the state for several days after the pay date. A replacement
warrant cannot be reissued until the money is returned to the state. Please
check and double check when entering employee direct deposit information into
the HCM system.
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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 the wrong person. Please review the search
results carefully to ensure the correct individual is found. The navigation
is: Home > Workforce Administration > Personal Information > Statewide
Employee View (0491).
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If an incorrect Social Security number has been entered into the
HCM system, please contact the OMES Service Desk to have the number
corrected. DO NOT create another employee in the system; this will only
compound the issue. Employees with multiple EmplIDs must have data
combined onto the one correct record and requires many corrections and changes
in the HCM system.
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HIGHER EDUCATION
Validate PFT Funding reports
are no longer being accepted with cash deficits in the 7xx funds. Cash controls were placed on 7xx funds in September 2017. Agencies need to review the PFT funding report and correct
any deficits before finalizing and sending to Transaction Processing.
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When completing OMES Form MWC to cancel a warrant from the 789
Fund, please be sure to complete Part C of the form. The overall objective of
Part C is to assist institutions in keeping the 789 fund balanced. If Part
C is not completed, the form and warrant will be returned to the institution
for completion which will delay the cancellation of the warrant.
Part C lets us know if the warrant was reissued or not. The
information related to the reissuance allows us to verify the reissuance
totaled the original warrant. If the warrant was not reissued, the information
related to the PFT Reversal that was processed helps to identify and process
the PFT Reversal file. If the warrant was not reissued and a PFT Reversal
file was not processed, please include a statement explaining how the funds are
being removed from the 789 fund.
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FINANCIAL REPORTING
Ordinarily, capital assets would
be reported by the agency that holds the title for the asset, and barring a
title, the owner is the party that maintains the asset. However, a question was
recently raised regarding the assets that are purchased using funds from bonds
issued by the Oklahoma Capital Improvement Authority (OCIA). In those
circumstances, the assets are held and maintained by one agency who make lease
payments to OCIA who retains title to the assets.
In our research, we found that
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) call for the maintaining agency
to be the agency that should report ownership of the asset.
Since GAAP conversion packages (packages H & Y) do not require detailed information about the assets being reported, OCIA will be reaching out to agencies that have assets built or acquired with OCIA bond funds to confirm that these assets are being reported by the agency.
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P-CARD
Cardholders who have not activated or used their p-card
prior to the expiration date printed on the card will not receive a renewal
card from the bank. Agency administrators should review their cardholder
list at least annually and require justification for the inactive cardholders
to continue to have a p-card. Generally, if a card is not used for a long period
of time it indicates that the employee doesn’t have a true need for the
card. If justified for the employee to continue as a cardholder, the
agency administrator must close the old card and re-order a new
card for that employee.
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ACCOUNTING
There are no accounting articles this month.
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