Distribution FAQ
New and Existing Distributions
| 1. |
When do I need to do a new distribution for an employee?
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New distributions are required when an employee is first hired or is rehired on a different employee record number. A new distribution is also necessary if there is a transfer to a new department. Finally a new distribution is necessary for the beginning of a new fiscal year.
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| 2. |
A new employee from our department is on the missing list how do I create a distribution?
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On the UF Payroll distributions tab choose Add a New Value. Please verify the data to add from Job data.
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| 3. |
How do I view an employee's job data?
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Proceed to Workforce Administration > Job Information > Job Data.
Key in the employees UFID and search then choose the correct employee record number and view the details.
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| 4. |
Do I have to save and post distributions?
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Yes. Save and post all distributions.
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| 5. |
I am trying to add a new value for a new hire however the system is not allowing me to add this employee in. What should I Do?
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First ensure that his job data reflects he has been hired, if the job data is still pending you will not be able to enter a distribution. Then verify if you are using the correct employee record and department.
Also verify that the effective start date is correct. If not, a distribution cannot be entered until the EPAF is corrected.
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| 6. |
We are paying for an employee in a different department, why can't I see the distribution?
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Distributions are set up based on employee's home department and funding source, you will be able to view only employees under your department and those you have security to view.
However, there is a role that will allow you to
view another department that you are collaborating with. That role is UF_HR_View/Inquiry. The
collaborating department would need to give you this role. |
| 7. |
We are hiring this employee temporarily, do I have to distribute for the whole year?
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Yes. Please note that a distribution only indicate where to charge a
payroll expense to and does not calculate a check for the employee.
The employee only gets charged against the distribution when
there is an active job data that applies to that distribution.
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| 8. |
Why do I have to post 9/10 faculty for 12 months, how do I make sure employees are not paid when they are on short work break?
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The system requires that a distribution is posted from hire date through to the end of the fiscal year as short work break constitutes continued employment. The posted distribution will not affect the funds paid. Please ensure that job data is updated to reflect short work break and return to work.
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| 9. |
I have initiated a termination for an employee; however, Job Data still indicates active.
How do I make sure that this employee does not get a paycheck?
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Distributions are only effective after time and labor has been approved.
Therefore, please make sure that there is no time approved for the employee after the effective date of termination. UF payroll
distribution is used to identify which fund to charge a payroll expense to once a paycheck is computed.
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| 10. |
Does it make a difference if a distribution for a new hire is set up to begin in the middle of the pay period?
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Yes, it will make a difference whenever a retro occurs. If you are hiring a new person in the middle of a pay period, the retro will only go back to the first full pay period. Therefore, the partial beginning pay period will not be corrected through the retro process. The only way to correct such discrepancies would be through a journal entry for that partial pay period. However, if you are able to set up the distribution to start with the start date of that pay period in which the new hire is hired, then this discrepancy won't occur whenever a retro does happen. Note, it is not a problem to have the distribution start date begin prior to the start date in Job Data as payment against the distribution will only occur with what coincides in Job Data. |
| 11. |
Why am I seeing an employee on the missing distribution list that I know already has an existing distribution?
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Be sure to check the department ID (home department) that is shown for the employee's job data. That must be exact with what is being used in the distribution. It is possible that you may have an existing distribution for this employee that shows a different home department ID than the one that is needed for your current job data.
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Retros (Payroll Cost Transfer)
| 1. |
How do I retro payroll for my department?
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- For current year, change the distribution to the desired EAC, save it, then post the distributions. An important thing to remember is to ensure that there are adequate funds to cover the payroll charge.
- If the change involves cross colleges (cross college is whenever the first 2-digits of the department ID are not the same) or prior year distribution changes please fill in the cross college form 260 (FA-PR-260PD) and forward a copy to the payroll department to input. If it is for a non-cross college prior year item that you are unable to edit, i.e., when date ranges need changing, then submit the non-cross college form (FA-PR-NCCC) (non-cross college is whenever the first 2-digits of the department ID are the same 2 numbers) to the payroll department to input. Note that in the immediate prior year departments are able to edit the EAC or the percentage, but not the date range.
- All retros will continue to be processed on Monday's and Thursday's of every week.
- Prior Fiscal Year Grant Retro's on funds 201, 209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 171, 173 or 179 are allowed. Once the fiscal year is closed, general revenue and non-grant funds cannot be retroed.
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| 2. |
I am having problems with distributions for 9 month appointment-the system is retroing back the wrong amounts to contingency fund, what do I do?
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Check distribution start date. If it is in the middle of pay period change to beginning of pay period for the appointment.
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| 3. |
Where do I obtain retro reports?
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From my ufl menu go to
Enterprise reporting > Human Resources Information > Pay information > Current Pay cycle > Prompted Cost Distribution reports
Then filter for your department and run the report.
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| 4. |
What does "O" "R" "B" represent in the cost distribution report?
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O - The original charge.
B - Backed out - (when you are crediting back payroll wrongly charged, this would be in a negative amount.)
R - Retroed In - the payroll is charged back to the correct account.
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| 5. |
I would like to transfer vacation cash out. Can I retro that?
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That has to be transferred through the journal entry process. Follow the instructions, complete the Excel template, and email it to us.
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| 7. |
Can I retro additional pay?
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Yes, additional pay can be retroed. However, you need to fill in the Additional Pay Correction Request Form (FA-GA-ADDPAY) and fax or email that to us. Please note that we can only retro additional pay once, so kindly make sure that the details on the form are accurate.
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| 8. |
What if I am retroing payroll and this involves grants?
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- If you are trying to process a retro that involves an expired grant, you will get an error message about an expired project end date you will not be permitted to distribute beyond the end date of the project – see section below on Posting Distributions to Grants, item 2. You would need to use another source of fund (contingency fund) to distribute to as the distribution must be distributed through the end of the fiscal year.
- If you are submitting 260's or NCC's, make sure that projects are active and not expired. Grants authorization is required to process anything involving expired projects and this should be submitted along with your 260 or NCC requests.
- Grants authorization is required for processing any request in a prior prior year. Grants authorization is NOT required for active grants in the immediate prior year.
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Allocation of Payroll
| 1. |
How are payroll expenses allocated (recognized) at UF when a pay period crosses two fiscal years?
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FY05 - FY08: A 14 day calendar is used for all employees. Depending on how many days are recorded in the prior year and the new fiscal year the wages will be allocated according to the dates. Also, depending on whether an employee is exempt or non-exempt (hourly) determines how calculations are prorated. Exempt use 14 days, i.e. 6/29/07 and 6/30/07 would be 2 days and 2/14 would be the calculation.
Non-exempt use 7 days, i.e. 6/29/07 and 6/30/07 would be 2 days and 2/7 would be the calculation.
As of FY09 starting with the full pay period of 7/11/08 - 7/24/08: When a distribution or retro is processed for any charge to payroll distribution as of this pay period, it will be processed based on a 10-day calendar versus the 14-day calendar. Payroll distributions and retros for exempt employees are currently calculated based on a 2 week period of 14 days. Effective 7/11/08, a 10 days/pay cycle calculation will be used. Payroll distributions and retros for non-exempt employees are currently calculated based on 2 weekly periods of 7 days per week. Effective 7/11/08, a 5 day/week calculation will be used. Historical payroll distribution data prior to 7/11/08 will remain on a 14-day calendar format and this will need to be taken into consideration for retros processed for pay periods prior to 7/11/08.
See examples of 14 day and 10 day scenarios.
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| 2. |
The cost distribution report indicates that the employee's salary is paid out from the sub-department and not from the main department. Why is that?
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Check the Earnings Account Code reflected in the payroll distribution, click chart fields to see which department the EAC is routing to if that is not the intended department please key in the correct EAC.
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| 3. |
Can the employee have a different home department and be paid out of a different department that is still within our college?
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Yes, that can be done just ensure the EAC routes to the correct department.
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| 4. |
Can you tell me more about Payroll Cost Distribution reports?
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Payroll Cost Distribution report is updated and available following each payroll closing and may be run on an individual employee for a specific pay period, for the entire department or a specific project. The reports are available at Enterprise Reporting and available in PDF or Excel Formats and there is a choice of reports with or without off-cycles. The excel format option is useful for month end or fiscal year end analysis as it will show you the split in date ranges. However, the PDF format is what is requested as supporting documentation for processing a journal entry - Enterprise Reporting -> Access Reporting -> Public Folders -> Human Resources Information -> Pay Information -> Payroll Cost History -> Payroll/Fellowship Cost Distribution by Cost Center and Person including Off Cycles.
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Posting Distributions for Grants
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When posting distributions I received project date has ended what do I do?
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Please check the funding end date. If there is no extension indicated please look for alternative EAC. Once extension is approved and funds transferred you may use this EAC and retro back any salaries charged to the temporary account.
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| 2. |
How do I check for project end dates?
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Use public query: UF_GM_PROJ_END_DATE_BY DEPT_X and you can use a wildcard ("%") to get data on a unit wide basis.
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| 3. |
I have a negative budget for the present EAC and C&G has asked me to clear it, what do I do?
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For prior year retro's if a change in distribution dates is required please complete the cross college form 260 (FA-GA-260PD) and fax or email it to the payroll department at
distributions@admin.ufl.edu.
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End of the Fiscal Year Distribution Questions
| 1. |
Does posting of distributions happen at the end of every academic year?
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This happens at the end of every fiscal year. All distributions for active employees in the present year in June at a certain date will be rolled over to the next year. The actual rollover date will be confirmed through the listserve. When this happens, the system will save the distribution, but won't post it. It is then the responsibility (once a year in June/July) of the departments to go out and post all of the distributions for their area.
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| 2. |
If an employee has an active distribution at fiscal year end why doesn't the system roll that distribution over and post it?
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A couple of reasons why the rollover process should not post distributions are as follows:
- This gives the departments time to review the distributions for accuracy as many distributions likely change with the start of a new fiscal year.
- To prevent distributions from posting that shouldn't be posted. An example of this would be when a termination is in process but not fully approved until after the rollover. Once approved (assuming it's a term 6/30 or prior) no distribution is necessary in the new year, as this person won't be employed. If a systematic posting happens, we would potentially have many unnecessary distributions in the system.
- It is necessary for the departments to be monitoring project begin and end dates in relation to their employee's distributions. In reviewing each one, they should become aware if they have someone distributed on an expired grant. A systematic posting would not likely catch this.
- Many departments, in the process of doing this mass posting job, have been made aware of the fact that employees they thought were terminated in the system, were in actuality not. So, it has been good for housekeeping matters such as this.
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| 3. |
How do I know if employees in my department have not been posted?
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A list of the unposted distributions will be sent out periodically before the deadline.
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| 4. |
What happens to unposted distributions once the deadline to post the new FY distributions has passed?
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There will be a systematic removal of all non-posted new FY distributions. If these were deleted and you actually did need these, then you will have to manually create these distributions.
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| 5. |
What do I do with the distributions for the terminated employees?
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You can leave them as it is. Do not try to post them (even if you try you will probably get an error message that says you can't). A process is run to delete the unposted distributions and the distributions for the terminated employees will be automatically deleted with that process.
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| 6. |
Do I have to post faculty positions as well?
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Yes. We highly recommend that you do to avoid the additional work of having to create distributions
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| 7. |
What happens if the termination for an employee that is to occur at the end of the FY, i.e. 6/29/07, is not in Job Data when the first pay period (i.e., 6/29/07 - 7/12/07) in new FY is processed for payment?
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The employee would still appear in the system and if Time & Labor is not corrected manually, payment could occur in error to the employee. If payment to the employee does happen the charges may go to a department default chartfield as you would not have a posted new FY distribution for this employee if during the crossover pay period. Otherwise, after the fiscal year cross over pay period it will go be charged to the current years distribution at time of payment.
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| 8. |
What if I need to make some year end corrections, will I have time to do this?
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In June, you will be notified via the listserv email message when the deadline is for entering the last distribution change may occur and also you will be provided the deadline date when the last and final journal entry for payroll cost transfers may be submitted for corrections to state related funds. Once these deadlines have passed, you will have no recourse to correct prior year state related payroll expenditures. (See in the Retros Section 1C above for what funds can be retroed.)
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| 9. |
What happens if I have a new hire at the end of the fiscal year and they do not have a distribution in the system?
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If your new hire is set up in job data by the deadline indicated in the listserv email, you may be able to go ahead and enter the distribution for the FY just ending. Plus you will also need to enter a distribution for the new FY starting. However, if it is a cross-college distribution, you will need to submit your 260 forms to Payroll Distributions by the deadline indicated. Note that if you do not have a distribution for the prior fiscal year but do have a new fiscal year distribution at the time the first pay period (i.e. 6/29/07 - 7/12/07) is processed for payment, the employee will receive payment and your entire charges for the pay period may be charged to the new FY distribution. It is possible that the last day or so of the prior FY will be charged to your
department default chartfield. So it is important that the distribution for the FY just ending is created in time to be entered prior to the close of the first pay period of the new fiscal year. If it is your intent to pay these last few days off of state related funds, the distribution must be created and posted in order to access these funds.
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| 10. |
What happens when I pay an employee for time in June that did not have a distribution created and we are now in July or thereafter in a new fiscal year?
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There is a short window of opportunity to create the prior FY distribution so that the crossover pay period can be allocated according to both the current and prior year distributions. Once this window has passed a prior year distribution can never be created. However, once we are completely in the new fiscal year, all charges will go to the existing and current distribution, no matter what dates the payment is for and being made to the employee.
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