POLICIES AND PROCEDURES |Human Resources | 5.39 Payroll | 5.39.1 Payroll Process
Payroll Process
The purpose of this procedure is to document the payroll process for Southeastern Community College including additions/changes to employee information, along with the input, approval and transfer of time information for payroll disbursement processing and the ultimate posting of this information into the general ledger.
General
The Business Office is staffed with one Human Resource Administrator and one Payroll Technician. The Payroll Technician is responsible for compiling time and manually entering payroll information and reviewing payroll additions, deletions and adjustments, which are updated in the Datatel payroll system by the Payroll Tech. The Payroll Technician is supervised by the Controller and monitored by the HR Administrator during payroll processing.
For payroll purposes, employees are segregated into the following classifications: 1) Salaried 2) Hourly. Both salaried and hourly employees are paid on a monthly basis and are all processed centrally by the Payroll Technician. The Payroll Technician is responsible for processing a Part Time payroll as well as a Monthly payroll. Prior to processing the monthly payroll, the part time payroll must be finalized.
he college uses the Datatel system to record/track general employee information. This information serves as the basis for the payroll master files. Timesheets/cards are used to record hourly time information for hourly and part time employees. Employees are responsible for recording their time on timesheets/cards on a weekly basis. Each week supervisors should make changes in the time records of their employees if necessary. Supervisors are required to approve all timesheets/cards prior to being turned in to payroll for processing. The data is uploaded into Datatel where the payroll amounts are calculated and processed. Datatel also tracks the vacation and sick leave time for all monthly employees.
Employee Setup and Maintenance
All employees are initially set up in Datatel by the Business Office Secretary. The Human Resources Administrator/Payroll Technician is responsible for adding, updating and removing personnel and their related payroll/human resources information from the Datatel system. This information includes pay rates, exemptions, deductions and withholdings. Personnel Action Forms are used as authorization for any changes to an employee’s file. Personnel Action Forms are created by the Supervisor or the Administrative Assistant and approved by the supervisor and the Human Resources Administrator. These actions are processes as they are received in the HR and Payroll office and are filed in the employee’s personnel file.
PAF forms are also created when employees are terminated, and the related updates are made to Datatel as well. Supervisors are responsible for forwarding termination information to the HR Administrator or the Payroll Technician. The information is entered in the system and the documentation is filed in the employee’s personnel file. This process includes salaried, hourly, full time, and part time employees alike. The HR Administrator will review the PAF form to ensure that the terminations are coded properly (i.e., not placed on leave or as transfers to other units) so that they are properly tracked or removed from the system. This information is needed to prorate final pay amounts in some cases.
Employee Timekeeping and Data Entry
Part Time Employees
Time information for part time hourly employees is processed through the use of timesheets/ cards. Timesheets/cards are maintained by the employees and must be signed submitted to the supervisors for review and approval on the last working day of the month. Time sheets for each of their employees should be tallied showing appropriate hourly totals for the month. The supervisor is responsible for validating time worked and editing timesheets in error that has been submitted by their employees. Once all inaccuracies are corrected, all timesheets for the area should be complied and submitted to the payroll technician for processing.
Monthly Employees
Exempt employees’ time and payroll information is loaded into Datatel. Exempt employees are not required to report hours and are paid every period based on a normal amount of hours worked. One instance where changes and adjustments can be necessary is when the pay must be prorated based on hire date or termination or when an exempt employee does not have leave to cover periods of absence. In this case, the payroll technician recalculates prorated amounts to ensure their accuracy. Human Resources personnel make adjustments as necessary in response to pay rate changes, which must be approved at two levels. Wilma Allen reviews the completed changes for accuracy and appropriateness. All exempt employee vacation and sick time is tracked and entered monthly. It is the responsibility of each employee’s direct supervisor to make sure that salaried employees do not exceed their allotted leave time.
Payroll Processing and Review
Part Time Payroll Process
The payroll processing begins immediately following the close of the last payroll run. All timesheets/cards must be submitted to the payroll office by the fifth workday of the month following the month for which employees will be paid. Timesheets/cards will be verified for accuracy by the Payroll Technician prior to being entered into Datatel. Errors will be corrected and processed by the Payroll Technician. The cutoff for making changes or submitting additional timesheets/cards will be no later than the 10th of the month. All adjustments after the cutoff must be manually verified and approved by the divisional Vice President. Items that have not been properly approved will be processed during the next monthly payroll run.
As part of the processing procedures, the payroll technician will generate payroll registers for the location. Items that appear to be errors and/or unusual items will be corrected at this point through adjustments and/or stop payment requests. The part time payroll will be completed by the 15th of the month. Timesheets/cards submitted after the 15th will be processed during the following month payroll run.
Monthly Payroll Process
For salaried employees, who receive a set monthly salary, payroll processing is much less complex and focuses more on cutoff issues and wage adjustments. The Payroll Technician begins the monthly payroll process immediately following the completion of the part time payroll and must complete the process 3 business days before month-end. Employees are paid on the last business day of the month. Salaried employees receive the same pay, based on regular hours, every period barring termination or wage adjustments. Gross wages are manually calculated to prorate for employees who start in the middle of a pay period and for people who are terminated in a period. Stipends are entered into Datatel upon proper approval from appropriate supervisors and managers. All salary/wage adjustments must be supported by a Personnel Action Form and require Vice President approval.
Once all information is entered into the system, and all amounts are deemed accurate, the college sends part time and monthly payroll information amounts to a clearinghouse, which will authorize that the pay be distributed to the various employee bank accounts. In instances where problems are found after the electronic transmission to the bank, the college can submit stop payments on amounts for an individual and a manual check can be created to pay the employee in lieu of the stopped payment.