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 The go-live date for the PeopleSoft upgrade is tentatively planned for mid- to late-November. With the upgrade and holidays occurring in November, it is imperative that payrolls processed for all paydates in November be processed timely and submitted in accordance with the existing policies. Agencies cannot rely on any extension of that due date. The five business days prior to the payday deadline should be considered the ‘drop dead’ date. The deadline for submission for the Friday, Nov. 14 (11/14), payday is 3 p.m. on Thursday Nov. 6. The deadline for submission for the Friday, Dec. 5 (12/5), payday is 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26. Please plan now and make sure that employees know how critical it is to get their time entered early.
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PAYROLL
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 begin 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 then sent to OMES Transaction Processing. These requests cannot be processed by fax.
Direct Deposit Cancellations:
Fax OMES Form PWC (08/13) to (405) 521-3902. 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 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 940-2.19 D for proper procedures for recovering overpayments if needed. The agency should submit the OSF Form 94P for processing if the employee pays back the funds through a miscellaneous payroll deduction or cash.
PWC forms received for direct deposit items that are more than business five days past the effective date will no longer be processed in accordance with NACHA rules. Please see the article "EFT Stop Payments, Reversals and Reclaims" published from the Treasurer’s Office below.
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Pursuant to the National ACH Association (NACHA) Operating Rules the State Treasurer’s Office will not process a reversal on an ACH/EFT item that is more than five business days past the effective date. Furthermore, reclamations of benefit payments (pensions, annuities, etc.) will only be processed if initiated within five business days of the notification of death. Stop payments on EFT items will still function as they have in the past. Items will be stopped if the request is received more than two business days prior to the effective date of the entry. If agencies encounter erroneous entries more than five business days past the effective date please contact OST for consultation on options for recovering the funds.
For questions related to this notice or other ACH processing inquiries please contact Diedra O’Neil at Diedra.oneil@treasurer.ok.gov or (405) 522-4256.
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Agencies are responsible for going to the timesheet 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.
It is recommended that a replacement check should not be issued until the reversal has been processed. This 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.
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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, 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.
PeopleSoft State Agencies: 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.
Higher Education Interface Agencies: Process the gift card amount using earnings code “GFT”. The amount will be included as taxable income and will be taxed on the paycheck.
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When an employee chooses to pay back an overpayment using annual leave, the amount of annual leave reduced should equal the gross amount of overpayment. In the past there have been instances where agencies have incorrectly reduced the annual leave by the net amount of the overpayment.
If an employee pays back an overpayment using terminal leave, an OMES Form 94P must be submitted to correct the retirement amounts reported on the check which included the overpayment. Terminal leave is not included in retirement wage calculations; therefore, a payroll earnings adjustment is required.
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We have just completed the first two quarters of the 2014 tax year; it is time for ALL agencies to run the Miscellaneous 1099 Tax Information Report which will include all transactions from Jan. 1, 2014, through June 30, 2014. The path for this report in PeopleSoft Financials is: Accounts Payable>Reports> Payments> Misc Tax Information Report. With this report please review the following:
- The Name and Tax ID number (TIN) must match the information on the vendor’s W-9, which designates the way the vendor reports their taxes to the state and IRS.
- Pay attention to the 1099 Flag: Y means the vendor should receive a 1099, and N means the vendor should not receive a 1099. A vendor does not need a 1099 if it is registered as a corporation, non-profit or government entity (the exception to this is when the payment is for a legal or medical payment). State employees in most cases should have an N 1099 flag. All other vendors should have a Y 1099 flag. If you have any questions about a vendor’s 1099 status please request an updated W-9 from the vendor.
- Please note that address 1 in the vendor file is the designated address for 1099 reporting. If the vendor’s 1099 Flag is N, any new addresses provided will be added as a different location, and Address 1 will not change.
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Review all warrants processed for each vendor to ensure that the correct amount is listed for the proper vendor. (All warrant corrections will need to be made at the agency level.)
Please send any corrections on this report to the Office of Management & Enterprise Services (OMES) by Friday, July 25, 2014. If you have any questions contact Beth Brox at (405) 522-1099 or by e-mail at Beth.Brox@omes.ok.gov.
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In July, OMES will be IRS TIN matching for all vendors who have received 1099 reportable payments for the first half of tax year 2014. By doing this we hope to provide more correct information on the original 1099 that the vendor receives as well as cut back on the amount of corrections required at year end when time is limited. We will notify individual agencies of vendors that don’t match with the IRS asking for them to provide the necessary correcting information. Please be ready to respond promptly if/when you are notified. Please contact Beth Brox at (405) 522-1099 or by e-mail at Beth.Brox@omes.ok.gov if you have any questions.
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ACCOUNTING
The FY 2015 interest rate applicable to late payments to vendors has been set at 0.04% per annum, or $0.00011 per $100 per day, which will be in effect July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015. This interest rate is provided by the State Treasurer based on the average interest rate for thirty day time deposits of state funds during the last calendar quarter of the last preceding fiscal year. (62 O.S. § 34.71 & 34.72 and 74 O.S. § 840.16A and OMES Prompt Payment Rules/Regulations)
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We have made changes to the "Agency Direct" payment account codes to distinguish between in-state and out-of-state costs for transportation and meal/lodging. The existing codes have name revisions to reflect them as being for out-of-state expenses since the majority of expenses under these codes were for out-of-state travel. We have established two new codes for the in-state expenses and they are coded by replacing the ending "0" with a "1" in the existing account fields. These code changes are effective July 1, 2014.
Revised Codes:
CODE TITLE AND DESCRIPTION
522110 OUT-OF-STATE PURCHASE OF TRANSPORTATION COSTS-AGENCY DIRECT
Payments for direct-purchase of commercial airline tickets as authorized and direct-purchase of other public transportation carriers (e.g., train and bus fares) for out-of-state travel by state employees, state officials, and other persons traveling on authorized official state business.
522130 OUT-OF-STATE PURCHASE OF FOOD AND LODGING-AGENCY DIRECT
Payment for direct-purchase of food, lodging and related expenses for out-of-state travel by state agencies authorized to contract for such travel related purchases for employees, state officials, and other persons traveling on authorized official state business under 74 O.S. § 500.2, or other edict (e.g., grant or contract).
New Codes:
522111 IN-STATE PURCHASE OF TRANSPORTATION COSTS-AGENCY DIRECT
Payments for direct-purchase of public transportation carriers (e.g., train and bus fares) for in-state travel by state employees, state officials, and other persons traveling on authorized official state business.
522131 IN-STATE PURCHASE OF FOOD AND LODGING-AGENCY DIRECT
Payment for direct-purchase of food, lodging and related expenses for in-state travel by state agencies authorized to contract for such travel related purchases for employees, state officials, and other persons traveling on authorized official state business under 74 O.S. § 500.2, or other edict (e.g., grant or contract).
Splitting these codes were made at the request of Central Purchasing to allow them to pull more detailed spend information for the different direct purchase travel. For any in-state expenses that may already be coded as FY15 under the original codes, please do adjustment vouchers them so that all your FY15 in-state expenses are coded the same.
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ENTERPRISE BUSINESS SERVICES (EBS) formerly CORE
 Any queries -- public or private -- created, modified, copied, etc., after Aug. 29, 2014, WILL NOT be available in the new 9.2 version when it goes live.
This means:
- If you create a query in September and copy it to 25 people -- that query will not be there for any of you the day we Go-Live.
- If you use a public query -- and you modify it and save it in October -- it will not be there the day we Go-Live.
- If you receive a copy of a query from someone on Aug. 30, 2014, it will not be available for you to use again once the new system is up.
The EBS Team has to have a current copy of the production environment data -- the PeopleSoft you work in every day -- to move to the new 9.2 environment. This is latest possible date we can allow them to take it and still have time for proper testing and to meet our deadlines for you.
The easiest thing to do is just say "no" to new or modified queries after Aug. 29. However, we know that is not realistic for everyone, so here are some ideas to assist you:
- Mark your calendar NOW! "Aug. 29 - Query Freeze".
- Do NOT build, modify, or copy queries after Aug. 29.
- Understand that any queries you build, modify, copy, or receive after Aug. 29 will not be available once we Go-Live.
- For Query Managers, if you must build, edit, or copy, decide how you plan to handle those queries after Aug. 29.
- Notify people you regularly assist with new queries -- let them know how you, as a Query Manager, plan to handle your queries after Aug. 29.
- Do not wait until Aug. 29 to develop a plan or to execute a plan.
If you MUST build, modify, copy, or receive a query after Aug. 29, record as much information as possible about it.
For Query Managers, make sure you make note of what data you used to build the query. Do the same with public queries you modify and save. Keep information about queries you provide to others -- especially their names and contact information.
Queries you provide to others after Aug. 29 will have to be rebuilt and tested thoroughly by you, as the Query Manager, once we are live.
Because private queries, are just that -- private -- EBS is limited in what it can do to assist individual users with private queries.
It is important to note that some tables may change as a result of the upgraded software, so testing a query for validity before you redistribute it will be paramount.
REMEMBER: Public Queries that exist prior to Aug. 29 will be carried over into the upgraded environment, so keep notes on modifications and distribution you may do after Aug. 29.
How is EBS attempting to address private queries that currently exist -- see below. For a more detailed explanation, see the June 12 Financials Buzz.
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When it comes to queries and the 9.2 Financials Upgrade – there are some important things for you, as users, to do to prepare. There is no way to guarantee that all queries will work after the upgrade. However, there are steps that the EBS Upgrade Team is taking to mitigate this issue. There are also steps users will need to take as well.
EBS, working in cahoots with the vendor, is attempting to validate all the existing Public Queries so they will be ready to go post Go-Live.
It can only be called an attempt at this stage because there are still a lot of unknowns in the project. There are several components that come as part of the delivered software upgrade that will impact some of things that take place behind the screens you see. Some of those could potentially impact whether or not an existing query will work properly once the upgrade is complete. EBS will test the Public Queries and rebuild them prior to Go-Live.
This is for Public Queries only.
If you are a Query Manager and you have accessed a Public Query, made changes to it, and saved it or shared it, it is no longer considered a Public Query. Once it is modified, it becomes a Private Query. If someone has created a query and shared it to you -- that query is also a Private Query.
Because there are literally thousands of private queries in the system and because, by their very nature, they are “private” -- it is not possible to test and validate them all before Go-Live.
This is where you, as users, come in.
If you are a Query Manager or you have received a copy of a query from a Query Manager, you have or are going to receive an e-mail from the EBS Financials Upgrade Team.
This e-mail will include a list of the queries that have been copied to you. From this list, we want you to identify queries that are MISSION CRITICAL to your operation. What we receive from you will determine the next steps in the process to move this news from "bad" to "not-so-bad" and perhaps, move it all the way to good news. What will impede this process is responses that say "all are mission critical" or no reply at all.
Your call to action is to review your queries now and have your list ready when you receive the e-mail.
We want to provide the best response to as many users as possible, so your cooperation in the thorough review of your queries will help us help you.
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