Purpose
The purpose of this job aid is to explain the recommended preliminary payroll review process.
This document outlines suggested standard preliminary payroll review process steps and recommends several Integrated HR-Payroll System reports and Business Object reports to review during the payroll correction days. Using the recommended reports will allow agencies to view and analyze finance, payroll, and HR data during the time when payroll corrections can still be processed. The goal is for each agency to create and document a process that allows them to detect and correct payroll related errors prior to payroll finalization.
This document does not explain transaction or report specifics. A link to the OSC Training website is provided below in the Additional Information section.
SAP payroll is paid in two regular cycles – Monthly (Mo) and Bi-Weekly (BW). Monthly paydays are the last working day of the month and Bi-Weekly paydays are on alternating Fridays. Payments are also made from Off-cycle payroll runs. Within each regular cycle there is a recurring chain of events: initialization day, correction days, CMCS requisition posted days, etc. ending in pay day. The entire payroll schedule by day is located on the BEST Support Materials website under State Agency Resources. The payroll calendars outline all scheduled activities and their associated due dates. Off cycle payrolls are just that and are not shown on the calendars.
Below is a discussion of the elements and approaches that an agency preliminary payroll review process should address.
WHY?
Agencies should be able to demonstrate and document due diligence to ensure accurate and timely payment to their employees. Establishment of, and adherence to a sound preliminary payroll review process will reduce payment errors to ensure public resources are being properly managed. Agency internal controls as well as audit readiness will be strengthened by tying the HR, finance, and payroll components together.
WHO?
In the Integrated HR-Payroll System, it is advisable for the person(s) responsible for preliminary payroll review to access payroll, financial, and human resources information. There are two options for making this data available to the reviewer: allow security access for the reviewer to create reports from all three of the functional areas (payroll, finance, and human resources) or have representatives from these areas provide the reviewer with the data. Each agency will need to decide how to approach this requirement.
WHEN?
Agency preliminary payroll reviews should begin payroll initialization. Preliminary payroll amounts should be compared against prior agency results for reasonableness. Ideally, these comparisons would be repeated after each payroll run (approximately 8:00 am, 12:30 pm, and 4:00 pm).
When there are unidentifiable discrepancies from the normal agency results, contact BEST Shared Services immediately.
HOW?
Agencies should establish expected results (run rates) that are a baseline for the population they will be testing during correction days. Establishment of run rates can be done by viewing payroll and financial reports from prior dates. Material and/or unexplainable deviations from the agency baseline should be researched and resolved before payroll finalization.
WHAT?
Payroll View Reports
Below is a list of recommended Integrated HR-Payroll System reports for preliminary payroll review.
Information: Your agency can set up a variant that chooses the same Org Unit, or Employee Group, or Wage Type, etc. each time to make comparisons more consistent and deviations easier to detect. All reports in this section are available at the specific employee level up through various summary levels.
Wage Type Reporter - PC00_M99_CWTR
Use for either period specific payroll amounts or for period-to-period comparisons of payroll amounts – either by element or summarized. Recommendation is that the agency is aware of reasonable run rates for total payroll expenses and important cost elements (overtime, longevity, etc.). The Wage Type Reporter is checked during payroll correction days to determine if agency preliminary results are on track.
For more information, the PC00M99CWTR Wage Type Reporter BPP is available on the OSC Training website in Help Documents.
Display Payroll Results - PC_Payresult
This is a technical report that displays what payroll was processed. This report can be used to display preliminary payroll results for one or more employees. Look for a status of “A.”
For more information, the PC Pay Result Display BPP is available on the OSC Training website in Help Documents.
A detailed discussion of this transaction is also in the PY300 Payroll Administration student guide.
For more information, the PY300 Payroll Administration student guide is available on the OSC Training website in HR-Payroll System Courses.
Additional Information
All Payroll BPPs, job aids, and student guides are available on the OSC Training website.
Business Objects Reports
All reports below should be compared against the payroll and financial view reports above. Depending on agency requirements, other Business Objects (BOBJ) reports may be useful also. BOBJ reports are accessed by clicking on the “Business Objects” tab if you are a Core User with security access. As discussed above, if the reviewer does not currently have and will not be receiving BOBJ access, this data will need to be obtained from other agency staff.
BP006: Employee Action Summary
Restrict your search to the action effective dates that match the payroll time period that you are reviewing, and restrict your search to the actions that result in a payroll impact.
BP113 (Position) Actions
This report displays position actions that occurred during a specified time period. This report can assist in verifying that changes to specific accounts/amounts are reasonable (shift pay, overtime pay, on-call, etc.).
B0064 Estimated Longevity Eligibility/Length of Service
This report provides a list of employees who have achieved at least 10 years of creditable service and are eligible to receive a longevity payment within 12 months of the date the report is executed. Compare the reported estimated amounts to Wage Type 1220 (Annual Longevity) ledger to see if the expensed amounts are in line.
BP179: Employee Action Detail
Note: If agency has Segregation of Duties monitoring requirements, this report will display the user that made system updates and the employee upon which those changes were made. Report can be used to determine if user has made changes to their own data.