Monthly to Biweekly Payroll Conversion: The Effect on Grants Management

Payroll Cycles are Changing What is changing Payroll Cycles are Changing What is changing? What does it mean to my grants? All faculty/staff who currently receive their pay once per month will begin receiving their pay on a biweekly schedule in July 2017. Grants have specific start and end dates that will no longer align with most payroll cycles. Prorated retros will be necessary to appropriately pay faculty/staff from grant chartfields. Awareness of the pay period dates and the grant start/end dates will be critical to ensure pay posts correctly.

Retro Distribution Information When entering a prorated retro, you will now need to include detailed information in the comment field. Comments related to prorating are required and will serve as audit documentation to ensure the retro is in compliance with the grant start or end date. Use the Calculating Mid-Cycle Retroactive Distributions guide to ensure the appropriate amount is applied to the grant chartfield. No one will be checking your math. For detailed instructions on entering a retro, please review the Entering Retroactive Distribution guide. Page 6 has information on calculating mid-cycle entries.

Required Comment Information Prorated retros must include detailed information, with project numbers, that explains the changes taking place. Actions will be denied without the statement if there is overlap with a grant start or end date. Example when moving pay from a grant to an unrestricted chartfield: 20% removed from grant 123456 as of 8/31/17 Example when moving pay from one grant year to the next: 10% removed from grant 123456 as of 8/31/17 and 8% added to grant 654321 as of 9/1/17 No exceptions will be allowed. This information is necessary to clearly document when the changes are effective and ensure compliance with the start or end date of grant funding.

What is the Calculation? While a biweekly pay period includes 14 calendar days, only the 10 business days are used for all calculations. No holidays are excluded. If Monday is a holiday, it’s still 10 business days, not 9. The holiday is still part of the pay. A grant ends 7/31/17 and the new year starts 8/1/17 (which is during the 7/23/17-8/5/17 pay period). 60% of the salary belongs on the grant ending 7/31/17 40% of the salary belongs on the grant starting 8/1/17 This matches the mid-cycle retro calculation guide.

Who/What is Affected? All faculty/staff who currently receive their pay once per month This change does not affect annual salaries used for proposals but you may need to think through the timing of the grant start and end dates with your budget periods

When Will the Change Happen? Final monthly payroll for period June 1 – June 30, 2017 Salaried employees receive first biweekly check for June 25 – July 8, 2017 All employees will be paid every other Friday June 26, 2017 July 14, 2017 Beginning July 14, 2017 See payroll schedule on Intranet> HR>Payroll> Payroll Calendar 2017

Overlap in June Faculty/staff will be paid for the full month of June as a monthly paid employee. The first biweekly pay period starts 6/26/17 so it appears that you will be paid twice for that week. Am I getting paid too much for June? Not exactly. Half of the annual salary will be paid over 6 monthly pay dates in January – June 2017. Half of the annual salary will be paid over 13 biweekly pay dates in July – December 2017. The full annual salary will be paid during 2017.

The 2017 Payroll Calendar JUNE 26, 2017 Final monthly payroll for period June 1 – June 30, 2017 JULY 14, 2017 Salaried employees receive first biweekly check for June 25 – July 8, 2017 These dates were determined by payroll. 6/26/17 is the beginning of FY18. If you have a 7/1/17 grant start date you will be using 6/26/17 pay period and indicating that you have pro-rated the pay for the 7/1/17 grant start date.

Things to Consider Since the pay period dates will no longer align with grant start/end dates, there will be more retros to process with each pay cycle. Set aside time each week, or even twice a week, to process the items in your worklist to ensure actions meet the approval deadlines. Please consider the cost/benefit of changing distribution by less than a full percent (retros or EARs). For most people, a 1% change in effort per pay period is roughly 30 minutes per week. Is that 0.05% needed, knowing that there are more items to review and the approval window is shorter?

Effort Certification Impact Effective with the first pay period in FY18, all employees will move to semi-annual effort certification (2 effort certifications covering13 pay periods each) This is a change for monthly from every 6 months and a change for biweekly from every 4 weeks Current biweekly employees will complete FY17 on the existing schedule (certifying every 4 weeks) Remember, certification lags actual pay periods so full completion of FY17 is anticipated late July/early August

Related Effort Updates An effort policy update will be coming to address the monthly to biweekly changes and other recommendations by Huron A new effort system is being purchased due to the upcoming Cloud conversion

Frequently Asked Questions   1.  What is the approval deadline to ensure an HR action (retro or EAR) is processed with a particular pay cycle? Actions approved by the Friday before the pay date should be picked up. Example: An action approved by 7/7/17 for the 6/26/17-7/8/17 pay period should be included with the 7/14/17 paycheck. Payroll sends an email with the actual approval and timekeeper deadlines for each pay period. Please contact WakePayroll@wakehealth.edu if you’d like to be added to the distribution list. 2. What happens if my EAR is not fully processed by the approval deadline? You should ask for this action to be denied and enter a new action.  You will also need to enter a retro to correct the distribution for the original period. 3.  Should I enter a retro to span multiple pay periods? No, retros should be for one period.  This will allow you to enter future retros properly.  If you enter a retro that spans multiple periods and then enter a sequence 2 with different dates, it makes it confusing to follow the transactional history.

Frequently Asked Questions 4. It is August 10th and I just realized my grant ended 7/31/17. How do I remove this project from the distribution? You will need to enter 2 actions.  First, enter an EAR to remove the grant effective 8/6/17 and make sure it gets approved by 8/18/17.  Second, enter a retro  for the 7/23/17-8/5/17 pay period to remove the grant. Use the Calculating Mid-Cycle Retroactive Distributions guide to determine the correct prorated percentages since the grant end date falls midway through the pay cycle.  You are required to note in the comments that you are removing the grant effective 7/31/17.  If the pay is moving to another grant, you are required to also include this information in the comments. Example comment: 10% removed from grant 123456 as of 7/31/17 and 8% added to grant 654321 as of 8/1/17.

Frequently Asked Questions 5.  My grant starts 8/1/17, but the pay period that includes 8/1 starts  7/23/17. How do I add this project to the distribution? You will need to enter 2 actions. First, enter an EAR to remove the grant effective 8/6/17 and make sure it gets approved by 8/18/17.  Second, enter a retro  for the 7/23/17-8/5/17 pay period to remove the grant. Use the Calculating Mid-Cycle Retroactive Distributions guide to determine the correct prorated percentages since the grant end date falls midway through the pay cycle.  You are required to note in the comments that you are removing the grant effective 7/31/17.  If the pay is moving to another grant, you are required to also include this information in the comments. Example comment: 10% removed from grant A as of 7/31/17 and 8% added to grant B as of 8/1/17.

Frequently Asked Questions 6.  My grant starts 8/1/17, but the pay period that includes 8/1 starts  7/23/17. I do not want to enter the 2 HR actions and create that much hassle over 5 days of pay. Can I just enter an EAR for the pay period starting 8/6/17? Yes, if you want to forgo assessing these costs to your grant that is fine, but remember if you need to remove from another funding source as of 7/31/17; both actions would be needed. This choice may only be made if the current source of funds are institutional dollars. You cannot burden another grant for 5 days of work to avoid doing an HR action.

Frequently Asked Questions 7.  Since monthly staff are moving to biweekly payroll in FY18, should we start using 31% fringe rate for grant applications? No, the fringe rate are not effected by this change. People are still classified as hourly or salary which determines their fringe rates. The only change here is when a person gets paid not their classification.

Summary of Takeaways 2 actions needed to ensure proper allocation to the grant. EAR effective after the grant begins and retro to cover the period of overlap so you may prorate the pay. Must include comments to explain or action will be denied Timing is tight: everyone must process and track Central office staff will not be checking your math Effort reporting will be changing for hourly employees