All salary cost transfers (Direct Retros) for payroll that originated in UCPath must be approved by 5 p.m. on July 6 in order to be recorded in Fiscal Year 2020-21. The final salary cost transfer batch of the fiscal year will be executed by the UCPath Center after 5 p.m. on July 6. The 2021 Payroll Processing Calendar on the Controller’s Office website includes additional updates to salary cost transfer batch processing during fiscal year end.
Review the following reminders to help minimize delays in processing salary cost transfers in UCPath in preparation for year-end close.
Confirming Valid Chartstrings
When submitting a Direct Retro, UCPath will perform a chartstring validation on the “new data” chartstrings. Although “old data” chartstrings are not validated during the submission process, it is equally important that these chartstring are valid at the time of processing. If a Direct Retro is reversing expenses on an “old data” chartstring, that chartstring must also be valid at the time of posting to the General Ledger. If it is not valid, the reversing salary and benefits will post to the payroll suspense account.
- When performing a salary cost transfer check that sponsored projects are active by using the chartfield validator in PeopleSoft (MyAccess login required).
- Contact your CGA Service Team to verify that sponsored projects will remain open during the entire salary cost transfer transaction processing period (submission, approval, batch processing, and posting to the General Ledger).
Using the Distribution of Payroll Expense (DPE) Report to Prepare Direct Retros
The Distribution of Payroll Expense (DPE) report is an important tool for reviewing payroll expenses in preparation for submitting a salary cost transfer. As a best practice, use DPE data to identify specific payroll expense transactions requiring salary cost transfer adjustments.
The UCPath Direct Retro online page does not always reflect all of the detailed debit and credit lines by earnings period or earnings date. You may only see a ‘net’ amount by earnings code and chartstring within UCPath Direct Retro pages. In addition, for each paycheck the UCPath Direct Retro page could display a combination of data across earnings periods, including:
- regular salary expenses for the current earnings period;
- leave expenses (i.e. vacation, sick, holiday, etc.) and the corresponding offsetting lines for the prior earnings period which are reported in arrears for monthly employees.
MyReports provides the option to run the DPE report by Accounting Period or Earning Period.
- Reports run by Accounting Period will show all payroll transactions that were posted in the selected data range. This is the default setting.
- Reports run by Earning Period will show all payroll transactions that were earned in the selected date range.
When reconciling effort percent by month, run the DPE report by Earning Period to view all transactions associated with an earnings end date, including leave transactions for the earnings period that may have posted in arrears in the next accounting period. Any adjustments required for a specific month should be based on the complete information by earnings end date provided in the DPE report.
Addressing Issues Related to Prior Period Leave Redistribution
Review the latest Update on Prior Period Leave Redistribution. In ongoing office hours sessions, we have reviewed examples and shared strategies related to the leave redistribution process. Consult the following session recordings to learn more (MyAccess login required).
- As indicated in the latest update, approximately 20% of future transactions may continue to be skipped during the leave redistribution process and result in incorrect redistribution of leave earnings. These leave transactions will need to be corrected as part of a manual workaround. Review a recent office hours recording discussing the mitigation plan for redistributing vacation that posted incorrectly.
- Watch a thirteen-minute recording to review the recommended strategy for completing Direct Retros with vacation redistribution lines. This recording walks through how to decipher which lines are part of the current month and which lines are part of the prior month.
Updates to known issues related to the prior period leave redistribution process are tracked on the UCPath System Information page and will continue to be communicated in the Controller’s Office Newsletter. Please contact the Controller’s Office Solution Center if you need further assistance.