AB School Fiscal Year End Start-Up

The following pages outline some areas that are recommended to be reviewed in each payroll module, if applicable.  Not all of the procedures might be applicable to the payroll ID you are working in.  If not applicable to the payroll ID you are in, move on to the next recommended procedure in the check list.

Refer to detailed payroll documentation in the payroll manual for further information and functionality.

The fiscal year end procedures are to be done AFTER the last payroll is run and updated for the fiscal year and BEFORE the first payroll in the new fiscal year.

Payroll FISCAL Year End Procedures - AB

The school year start up procedures are to be done AFTER the last payroll is run and updated for the prior school year and BEFORE the first payroll in the new school year.

FISCAL YEAR END

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Profile Maintenance > OPS Master Profile

• Ensure the field BAS Fiscal Year reflects the new fiscal year.

Generate Payroll > Miscellaneous Payroll Procedures > Payroll Housecleaning 

• To delete your old cheque and bank EFT files.  This will free up disk space, making your backups shorter and your payroll processing faster.  Includes options to delete Payroll Stream files, Pension files, CSB files, ROE files and Miscellaneous files.  What it removed will be found in your log file from your payroll update.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll File Maintenance > Earning Statement Archive

The EARNING STATEMENT ARCHIVE PROCESS allows for Earning Statement files, for a chosen year, to be removed while retaining the employee’s last PDF statement for that given year.

Two payroll Earnings Statements files exist per employee per pay period, one text file and one PDF file. This generates a large number of files per year. This feature is design to significantly reduce the number of files maintained on the system while retaining the employee’s PDF statement containing the year to date totals. The PDF version is the only one used by the Employee Self-service.

This process can be run for just text files, just PDF files or both files for a given year. An option to archive the selected Earning Statement files before removal is also available. It should be noted however the archive feature does not recover the disk space used up by the old Earning Statement files.

The archiving portion of this process requires the logical SRB$OPSARC: be defined with a location separated from the SRB$OPSEARN location.

The report lists the employees and the number of text and PDF files removed as well as the number of PDF files kept for the selected year.

Payroll Employee Reporting  > Employee Deduction Report

• Check for outstanding arrears by running the Employee Deduction Report for your arrears deduction.  If there are any balances you want to clear, you need to do a YTD Adjustment

School Year Start/ End Procedures - AB

SCHOOL START UP

The school year start up procedures are to be done AFTER the last payroll is run and updated for the prior school year and BEFORE the first payroll in the new school year.

Profile Maintenance

Pension > Alberta Pension Reporting > Alberta Pension Profile

• Update the fields School Year and Month and Teaching Days in School Year.

• Alternate Teaching Days should no longer be defined on the Alberta Pension Profile and should be removed.  Instead, define the Working days and Alternate Working days via the Payroll Calendar screens.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Payroll Calendar

• Verify ATRF Working Days per period.  You may need to update the Working Days for each pay period.

• If your school division uses the same number of working days each month for ATRF purposes for all teachers:

  • Working Days for ATRF purposes for the majority of the employees in a specific payroll are defined in field Working Days on the Payroll Calendar.  This is what gets put into the ATRF days storage bank based on the employee's FTE during the payroll run.  The ATRF storage bank is used to define the employees FTE

• School divisions in which more than one set of school year calendars exist:
  

  • School divisions that have multiple school calendars, the Alternate Days are to be used as an override to the default Days In School Year as well as the Working Days per payroll calendar for a unique group of employees.  The Employee Type code must be defined on the employee's master function line.  This alternate  days definition allows for multiple teaching days to be defined within the payroll and used in all ATRF process where the teaching days apply.

  • Define any number of Alternate Working Days with a range of selection criteria, per payroll calendar.  Option to define a different number of Working Days for different Employee Type codes or Occupation codes.  Selection is available based on the most likely function line items.  Wild carding on the selection is also available.

  • The Alternate Working Days will override the main calendar Working Days value where applicable.  Where applicable, this Alternate Days option is to be used in conjunction with the Annual Hours/Days field on the Employee Type Code database.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Employee Code

• If using the Alternate Days for an employee group, you must complete field Annual Hours or Days on the Employee Code database.

• Applicable Employee Type code must be defined on the employee's master function line.  Maintain the correct Employee Type code per employee in Employee Record Changes on the function line field Employee Type.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Payroll Calendar

• Verify direct deposit dates and period start/end dates, accounting period, etc. are accurate, edit as required.  Calendar Copy or Calendar Edit may also be used.

• Set to clear and reload Storage Bank entitlements, where applicable (field bank clear and field field bank cycles). 

• Verify number of working days in field Working Days used for days worked for teacher pension purposes, and for pay of actual days in the period for payrolls where applicable.

Database Maintenance

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Deduction Code

• Enter deduction rate changes, if applicable.  Upon exiting you will be prompted to do a global change. You will say “Y” Yes to this prompt.  You MUST run the Global Deduction Changes to apply the change.

Payroll Demographics > Global Deduction Changes

• Must be run to apply the changes made in the database to specific deduction codes and apply the changes to the Employee’s Master Deduction screen.  Run in ‘R’eport mode first to verify results.  Must be re- run in final ‘P’rocess mode to apply the changes to the employee records.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Deduction Rate Table

• ie. Dental, Health, Vision where amounts stored on tables.  Select the deduction code to be changed, the Lookup icon will produce a list of deduction codes that use Tables.  Select each Table Enter Rate Table changes to the employee and/or employer share as required.  Upon exiting you will be prompted to do a deduction table update. You will say “Y” Yes to this prompt.  MUST be followed by Deduction Table Update process.

Payroll Demographics > Deduction Table Update

• This process will take the changes made in the database to specific deduction rate tables and apply the changes to the Table field on Employee’s Master Deduction screen.  Run in Report mode first to verify results, and then in Process.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Occupation Code

• Enter new values for occupation code allowances, if applicable.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Shift Code

• Enter new rates for shift premiums, if applicable.

Payroll System Maintenance > Payroll Database Maintenance > Storage Bank Table Control

• Update pay bank amounts i.e. Negotiated % or flat amount increases, allowance amounts paid by a pay bank.  Edit each Bank Table code as required.

Employee Maintenance

Payroll Demographics > Employee Additions or Employee Changes

• Add new employees in each payroll ID, complete each screen fully

• Edit existing employees per payroll with current assignments & information

• Check and verify:

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  • Location

  • Add or change Memos

  • Earnings statement field

  • Direct deposit banking changes

  • TD1 changes & additional income tax

  • CPP/EI Exempt and effective date

  • CPP Exemption across payrolls

  • Web Time Entry field, if applicable

  • Changes to function lines: salary grid, cycle code, pay type, percent employed, rate, base hours, occ code, employee type, shift code, start/end dates

  • Changes to Cost Centre, GL account or GL % distribution

  • Deductions & Deduction Rate Tables, EE/ER splits

  • Storage bank & Storage Bank Tables, override dates, suspended banks

  • Message printed on earnings statement(s)

  • Any other additions or changes to employee information ie. address, phone

Payroll Demographics > Employee Status Adjustment

• Change employee status to Active, On-Leave, On Leave With Benefits, or Terminated as necessary in each payroll ID.

Salary Grid Rate Changes

Run Prior to September payroll processing for TEAC, CASU & SUPP for any increases in pay the below processes must be run.

Payroll Maintenance > Salary Grid Maintenance > Salary Grid Adjustments

• When new salary grid rates have been negotiated Salary Grid Adjustments can be used to create new salary grid points from existing ones based on percentage or fixed amount increases.  This process can be run on selected salary grids in Preliminary mode for testing and then Final mode once you have obtained the desired result wish to implement. This process has the option to increment by a percent or flat amount depending on your increment amount, this is dictated by the collective agreements at your board.

Payroll Maintenance > Salary Grid Maintenance > Salary Grid/Payroll Update

• Salary Grid/Payroll Update module updates the employee function lines by taking the value in the salary grid database, and replacing the current values of rate and/or hours on the function line.  Over ride salary grids are bypassed in this process.  The above processes work well for multiple salary grids or salary grid levels and large groups of employees.  

• Note:  The other option would be to manually update the salary grid databases in Salary Grid changes.  Then run the Salary Grid/Payroll Update process to update the employee function lines by either salary grid or employee number.

Salary Grid Increment Procedures

Salary Grid increments can be given by Date or by Storage Bank, choose the appropriate procedures for your site from the options that follow.

Run prior to September payroll processing for TEAC & SUPP for any increases in steps that correlate to experience, the below processes must be run depending on which option you use as a division.

Payroll Maintenance > Salary Grid Maintenance > Grid Increment By Date

The Salary Grid Increment By Date program provides a salary grid increment process based on the employee’s Increment date, as defined on the master Pay screen. This process will update the function line salary grids by stepping up one grid level. A salary grid is incremented by adding one to a user-defined position within the salary grid used to represent the years of service and this is the position incremented.

The employee is selected for increment when the employee’s Increment date falls within the selected range of dates.

Optionally you can define the Increment date to be advanced (reset) for the next increment. You can have the Increment date advanced by adding years, months or even days to the current Increment date to define the next Increment date.

Employees cannot be incremented to a salary grid that does not exist within the payroll salary grid database.

Employees that do not have an Increment date will be omitted from both processing and reporting. You must add the initial increment date as required to each employee in Employee Record Changes.

Function lines that contain an override salary grid will be omitted from processing. The override salary grids are defined on page 3 field Override Salary Grids of the User Specific Parameters Profile.

To update the rate and/or hours on the function line based on the new salary grid value you must run the Salary Grid/Payroll Update once this process is completed.

Payroll Maintenance > Salary Grid Maintenance > Salary Grid/Payroll Update

The Salary Grid/Payroll Update module updates the employee function lines by taking the value in the salary grid database, and replacing the current values of rate and/or hours on the function line. Function lines that contain an override salary grid (page 3 field Override Salary Grids on User Specific Parameter Profile) are bypassed by this process. A summary of employees that had function lines bypassed based on an override salary grid is also generated.

All Lump Sum function lines are omitted from this process.

Payroll Maintenance > Salary Grid Maintenance > Grid Increment By Storage Bank

To increment employees based on a storage bank balance you will use this procedure. The Storage bank is defined in the database with the number of hours/days required to increment. When you run this process you can run it in report mode first to see which employees have the appropriate balance needed to increment. The report provided from this process will list the employee, the current grid and the new grid. Verify the results, then re-process. Once this process is run you must run the Salary Grid Payroll Update to update the employee’s Function Lines.

Payroll Maintenance > Salary Grid Maintenance > Salary Grid/Payroll Update

The Salary Grid/Payroll Update module updates the employee function lines by taking the value in the salary grid database, and replacing the current values of rate and/or hours on the function line. Function lines that contain an override salary grid (page 3 field Override Salary Grids on User Specific Parameter Profile) are bypassed by this process. A summary of employees that had function lines bypassed based on an override salary grid is also generated.

All Lump Sum function lines are omitted from this process.

Years of Service Increment (based on date field in Employee Master)

This type of increment is used when the contract stipulates vacation pay is based on years of service.

Example:  Years 1 – 5         4% Vacation

                Years 5+ – 10     6% Vacation

                Years 10+ – 15   8% Vacation

                Years 15+           10% Vacation

Storage Bank Maintenance > Employee Bank Table Increment

Vacation Pay - Auto-Increment Process (SUPP & CASU)

 Run the Employee Bank Table Increment, depending on the definitions on the Storage Bank table set up, the program will first look at the employee’s Original Hire , Current or Vacation  date on the Employee master.  You will run this process either prior to each payroll run or several times a year as per collective agreements.

• This process can be run in report mode first to get a list the employees who are eligible for a vacation percent increase.

• If you choose the PROCESS option, the program will automatically move the reported employees to the next Storage Bank table, thus they will earn the higher level of vacation in the current pay period.
  

Update Annual Salary/Age Used In Calculation of Employee Benefit Deductions

As of Age/Salary Changes - Note: If your division was given specific As of Age/Salary instructions previously – please follow your custom procedure sheets

Payroll Demographics > As of Age/Salary Maintenance

This module provides a fixed salary and age as at a certain point of the year for a specific deduction that requires these two factors to be fixed as of a certain point in time.  At the present time, this is used for group life insurance and may be applicable to other deductions in the future.  See payroll documentation for detailed instructions for use.

When a new employee is hired and they will have employee benefits deducted:

• Mandatory deductions will default, insert the applicable deductions codes and deductions code tables to the Deduction Screen of the Employee Record (1,1,#) for Life Insurance and other group benefits.

• For Support payroll employees who are hourly / timesheet employees if the FTE for the benefits is defined under field 23=Benefit on the Pay Screen of the Employee Record.  The default of blank equals an FTE of 1.0, if the employee is less than full time for benefit purposes enter the benefit FTE here.

• Run As of Age/Salary Update for the Selected employee(s) only to calculate the employee’s age and/or salary so that it can be fixed as of a particular point in time. See payroll documentation for description of prompt fields.

  • ENTER RELATED DEDUCTION CODE ## enter the deduction code for LIFE

  • LIST OF STORAGE BANKS TO INCLUDE IN SALARY 

  • use FIND key to select the appropriate accrual or pay storage banks to be added to the as of salary ie. vacation pay banks, etc. if applicable

  • PROCESS EMPLOYEES     ALL/SELECT/BY CYCLE    

  • <S> Select employee by number

  • The updated employee age and annual salary amounts will display.

• Run Pay Estimate Inquiry to check the results when processed through the payroll stream.

• As of Age/Salary Change allows access to change, either the As Of Age, or the As of Salary, for any employee.  As of Age/Salary Inquiry allows access to the information for as of age and as of salary for a specific employee.

When there has been a pay rate change for several employees, after the new pay rates have been entered and updated on the employee record master function lines:

• As of Age/Salary Report provides a listing of all the employees presenting the calculated as of age and calculated as of salary.  This report is to be used for verifying that the figures as shown on the file are correct and may be used as the basis of adjustments when required.

• As of Age/Salary Update can be run for ALL/SELECT/BY CYCLE employees to calculate the employee’s age and/or salary so that it can be fixed as of a particular point in time.  Caution – as all selected employees will be automatically updated it is recommended that you select test employees first and verify the desired outcome before processing the entire group of employees.  Run Pay Estimate Inquiry to check the results when processed through the payroll stream. (see payroll documentation for description of prompt fields)

• As of Age/Salary Report can be re-run to be used for verifying that the figures as shown on the file are correct and may be used as the basis of adjustments when required.

• Run Pay Estimate Inquiry to check the results when processed through the payroll stream.

• As of Age/Salary Change allows access to change, either the As Of Age, or the As of Salary, for any employee.  As of Age/Salary Inquiry allows access to the information for as of age and as of salary for a specific employee.

Review and edit Lump Sum functions lines, if required  

• Run Payroll Master Report, open in Excel to get listing.

• Employee Record Changes or Global Function Line Changes.

Review and edit employees paid via Override Salary grids on function lines, if required

• Run Payroll Master Report, open in Excel to get listing.

• Employee Record Changes or Global Function Line Changes.

Storage Bank Verification

Check and verify Storage Banks

• Employee Changes - Ensure employee has correct storage banks & tables on Banks screen.  Modify tables (or delete storage banks) or Add Storage Banks.  Suspend ‘*’ or unsuspend storage banks as needed.  Enter override dates, if required.

• Storage Bank Adjustments - Manually add or adjust storage bank hours/days or money, if required.

• Storage Bank Report - Reports employees bank, table and available balance.  Open in Excel columns are in the correct order format for use with Storage Bank Adjustment Interface process.  Option to report Suspended banks or Negative balances only.

• Storage Bank Adjustment Interface - Provides a means of importing storage bank hours and/or earnings values from Excel spreadsheet.  Adjustment adds to existing storage bank balance.  Load results in new storage bank balance is equal to the amounts from import file.

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  • Do you have storage banks that you would like incremented or cleared external from the payroll stream, prior to the beginning of a period such as September? 

  • Please send in a Support request and we can discuss if either of these optional processes are right for your district, and assist you with utilizing these new payroll features effectively.

•  External Storage Bank Clearing – optional, only if required.

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  • Process allows storage bank balances to be cleared external from the payroll stream. Bank clear may trigger a rollover and all the new rules of bank rollovers will apply - prorated limits, negative balances etc.

• External Increment Load/Recalculation  – optional, if required.

  • Process was created to allow storage bank increments (‘I’ type banks) to be run external from the payroll stream so you can preload the storage bank value prior to the beginning of a period such as in September. This process can also correct / adjust increments that were setup wrong. 

Test and Verify

Pay estimates to test and verify results

Payroll Master Report 

• Complete screen as required & click Excel icon.  When opened in Excel the report contains multiple fields of employee record data which is helpful for verifying your data.

Compare & verify function line FTEs from AtrievePayroll to AtrieveHR assignment FTEs

• If district has Staffing Notification Full, from AtrieveHR

  • run Assignment/Function Line Comparison Report

• Districts using Staffing Notification Lite you will do a manual comparison using these two reports:

  • Run Payroll Master Report  per payroll, open in Excel, to get AtrievePayroll FTEs.

  • Run Assignment ASOF Report  to get AtrieveHR FTEs per payroll ID, open in Excel.

Note, if HR position is hours based the hours per week will be reported and could be compared to base hours on the payroll function lines. Add formulas.

Payroll Processing & Analysis

1. Run payroll stream processing & verify results

2. Review resulting reports in Pay Report Output Review 

3. Run Detail GL Distribution Reports check for Invalid GL accounts, run in Full to verify GL costing is accurate

4. Gross Pay Comparison Report can also be re-run from menu (2,5,9) various selection criteria, open in Excel

5. Payroll Register Extract open in Excel and analyze results

6. Correct data as required and re-run payroll stream

SCHOOL YEAR END

ATRF School Year Set Up

• Edit your ATRF Profile and enter the number of teaching days in the new school year in field 8, screen 1. Edit the starting pay period and the ending pay period and the payout pay period, field 20, screen 2.

• Edit your Payroll Calendars E for edit and add the number of working days for each pay period.

Alberta Teachers 1/200 Calculation  - Reconciliation tool where the system analyses the original 10mo contract and adjusts the summer payout amount so it is proportionate to the amount of contract fulfilled. Used to calculate adjustment to salary for Teachers who did not work a full year i.e. reduced FTE, contract less than full year.  Calculation pulls information for the employee for months already worked and projects the remaining months to end of June.  Switch default between Deduct 1/200 and Pay 1/200 through Alberta Pension Profile, or per employee.

Leave fields Payout Salary Pay Codes to Pay Out Batch Code blank if this is not a Teaches payroll.  These fields are required by the Teachers 1/200^th calculation process.

Payout Salary Pay Codes

Enter all the pay codes that define the employee's regular salary. The total of these pay codes should represent the employee's regular annual salary.

Payout DOCKING Pay Codes

• Enter any pay codes used to adjust the regular salary.

Payout School Year Pay Periods

• Enter the pay periods that represent September, June, July and August for the current school year.

Payout Pay Code

• Enter the pay code to be used by the Teachers 1/200th calculation when a timesheet is to be generated.

Payout BATCH Code

• Define the batch code to be used by the Teachers 1/200th calculation when a timesheet is to be generated. It is recommended a batch code be created and reserved for this purpose.

June Pay Out Procedure

Pension > Alberta Pension Reporting > Alberta Teacher 1/200 Calculation

The Alberta Teacher 1/200 Calculation is used to calculate the adjustment to salary for Teachers who did not work a full year either through working a reduced FTE or not completing a full year. This 1/200 calculation process pulls in the information for the employee for those months already worked and projects the remaining months to the end of June.  By default the Deduct 1/200 is calculated and displayed.  You can switch the calculation between Deduct and Pay 1/200 as needed. From the pre-calculated amounts you can adjust the employee’s values as needed.  The total of the days, Days Worked plus Not Worked is forced to equal the number of Working Days defined in the payroll calendar.

This process requires the PAYOUT prompts on the second page of the ALBERTA PENSION PROFILE be completed ahead of time.  The PAYOUT profile values define the earnings to be regarded as ‘Annual Salary’, the critical pay periods for the current school year, the pay code and the batch type code required for timesheet generation.  It is recommended that a new batch type code be created and reserved for this purpose.

Enter Employee #

• Enter the number or name of the employee to be adjusted.

Days Worked = taken from the Days storage bank for the employee.

FTE = calculated from the Days storage bank and the payroll calendar Working Days.

Not Worked = Calendar Working Days less Days Worked.

Daily Rate = Salary at 100% divided by 200.

Salary AT 100% = Salary Per FTE bumped up to 100%.

Salary PER FTE = Earnings paid based on the Payout Salary Pay Codes, as defined under the Teacher profile, plus any retro distributed to that month. Days and salary based on the Payout Docking Pay Codes will be included as Salary Per FTE for the specific month.

Deduct 1/200 = The days Not Worked multiplied by the Daily Rate.

Pay 1/200 = The Days Worked multiplied by the Daily Rate.

** = Projected months Days Worked and Salary Per FTE are carried forward to unprocessed months.

Deduct 1/200 results = Salary At 100% less Salary Per FTE less Deduct 1/200 equals totaling owing for July and August.

Pay 1/200 results = Pay 1/200 total less Salary Per FTE equals totaling owing for July and August.

JUL/AUG = Salary Per FTE (function line earnings) plus or minus TIMESHEET amount equals ½ of the calculation for a combined total equal to the total Deduct or Pay 1/200. The highlighted amounts under the TIMESHEET heading is the amount(s) to be used when a timesheet entry is generated.

Edit mode allows you to adjust the values for the current vertical line. You can move from field to field using the up and down arrow keys or the enter key on your keyboard or by using the arrows indicated. You can also use the page up and page down to move from one line to another while remaining in Edit mode on a specific field. For example, you can move from one deduction frequency field to another using the page up or page down without going to the end of the line or leaving Edit mode.

Timesheet Generation

Using the up and down arrow keys, select the month or July and August where the timesheet entry should be created. Select Cancel to return to the previous screen without creating a timesheet. Details will be displayed for each timesheet entry generated, showing the batch and pay code used.

July/August Two timesheets one in July and one in August will be created using the Timesheet amount shown.

August One timesheet with the combined Timesheet amounts will be created under the August pay period.

July One timesheet with both the combined Timesheet amount as well as the August payment will be created under the July pay period.

Selecting June to September will generate a timesheet entry using the full recalculation amount.