Last month’s decision to remove UCSF from the enhanced process to redistribute prior period leave resulted in the incorrect distribution of leave across position funding established using the Salary Cap/MCOP Funding Worksheet. The issue impacted members of the Health Sciences Compensation Plan (HSCP) who had leave reported on the March 31, 2021 paycheck. Leave transactions were charged to the default distribution established using the blank/catch-all chartstring (often using Project ID 2222222) instead of to the distributions established for HSR/HSP/HSN components of pay. In addition, salary offsets for VAC earnings were applied only against HSR earnings and were not distributed across funding for all components of pay. These issues affect the financial recording of pay and leave but not the amount of pay or leave for any employee.
Why did this occur?
This issue had been incrementally reported for HSCP members since the enhancement was deployed in January, and impacted a much larger number of March paychecks. Upon closer examination of the issue in consultation with the UCPath Center we learned that:
- The enhanced leave distribution program that looks back for prior period funding is operating at 80% success; 20% of transactions are skipped and result in the incorrect distribution of leave.
- By opting out of the prior period leave redistribution program in March, UCSF was unexpectedly returned to base UCPath functionality which only distributes leave across blank/catch-all position funding lines and performs salary offsets to only REG-like earnings.
What happens next?
We apologize for the disruption this decision created for our UCPath users and for the inaccurate financial recording of salary and benefits. UCSF will resume the prior period leave redistribution process beginning with April paychecks. The errors we experienced as a result of the defective enhancement process remain open, and UCPath Center developers are actively working on a solution.
Paychecks with incorrect leave distribution and salary offsets can only be fully corrected through a UCPath Center initiated Mass Leave Correction (MLC). To ensure an accurate correction that completely corrects our financial reporting, we advise departments to wait for the UCPath Center MLC correction. This will mean that:
- No salary cost transfers can be performed for the incorrectly distributed paycheck. Performing a salary cost transfer will make that paycheck ineligible for the MLC.
- The earliest we anticipate that UCPath Center will be able to make the correction is June. This is due to a dependency on a May technical release for a defect impacting the MLC. We will communicate further updates on the timing of the correction as information becomes available.
- Only March paychecks are slated for correction, because the MLC can only be run for the period when we opted out of the prior period leave distribution process. We are continuing to work with the UCPath Center to determine the best method of correction for the 20% of paychecks in which the prior period leave distribution process is not successful, both past and future.
- The MLC is not guaranteed to fix 100% of March paychecks; it is possible that some paychecks may be skipped during the running of the MLC.
If departments are unable to wait until the UCPath Center runs the correction program, Salary Cost Transfer Initiators can move salary expenses manually to correct prior period paychecks. A mitigation plan is posted in the Known Issues section of the UCPath System Information page. If you need assistance with correcting pay distributions, please contact the Controller’s Office Solution Center.