Payroll File Transmission in the Water Resources Division Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 09:53:31 -0400 To: "DC - All District Chiefs", "DC - All District Chiefs", "AO - All Administrative Officers", "TK - Time Keepers" From: "Alice A. Sabatini, Division Administrative Officer" Subject: Payroll File Transmission in the Water Resources Division Cc: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "Isabelle Halley des Fontaines, Chief, Br. Admin. Mgmt. Sys., Reston, VA ", "Kim Rogers, Computer Specialist, Reston, VA ", "Patrick D Smith, Computer Specialist, Reston, VA ", " WRD Archive File, Reston, VA " In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 442 October 14, 1997 MEMORANDUM To: District Chiefs Branch Chiefs Administrative Officers Timekeepers From: Alice A. Sabatini /s/ Administrative Officer, Water Resources Division Subject: Payroll File Transmission in the Water Resources Division During fiscal year 1997, the Water Resources Division completed the implementation of the Paperless Time and Attendance (TNA) System. This system allows sites to electronically prepare and submit time and attendance data for employees without the requirement to mail paper originals to the Payroll Office. All offices have done an outstanding job implementing a non-user friendly system. We believe that sufficient time has now elapsed to allow each timekeeper to complete the learning curve associated with the new system. As such, we now ask your assistance to alleviate the few problems that we are still experiencing. Policy: Some cost centers have not been meeting the 11:00 a.m. (your local time) payroll submission deadline and not notifying Headquarters or payroll_help of problems. Many timekeepers are still submitting empty files even though instructions have been distributed on how to ensure that files include data. When deadlines are missed or empty files are sent, we must contact each cost center to investigate and remedy problems. This extra work often requires that we pay overtime and require that the payroll coordinators in Headquarters extend their work day with no advance notice because all work cannot be completed by the end of the normal work day. In an effort to meet the deadline and normalize the workday for Headquarters payroll coordinators, the following policy will be enforced beginning with pay period 23, which begins October 12, 1997. Sites experiencing software or network problems should immediately contact payroll_help for assistance and further instructions. When a transmission file is not received by 11:00 a.m. (your local time) and payroll_help has not previously been notified of a software or network problem, the preprint file will be used to pay employees. The Division Administrative Officer will contact the District or Branch Chief to advise that this action has been taken and to inform the cost center of the actions that must be taken to remedy the situation. The preprint file contains only those hours that are part of a fixed schedule. Therefore, use of a preprint file results in no payroll being generated for overtime work, or for intermittent employees (usually students, as these hours are not part of a fixed schedule). Additionally, leave and account numbers will reflect data from the preprint file, rather than the actual records of the current pay period. Correction of these problems requires that hard copy corrected time and attendance reports be prepared, signed, and submitted to the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) payroll office for each employee that does not work according to the default schedule. Changes to the payroll data after a transmission file has been sent to Headquarters can only be made by submitting hard copy corrected time and attendance reports directly to the BOR payroll office. Payroll data will no longer be altered by the WRD Payroll Liaison, Patrick Smith, on your behalf, and timekeepers should not contact the BOR payroll office to request changes. BOR will not accept telephone changes from cost center timekeepers. Procedure: With the implementation of TNA, cost centers are required to transmit a preprint file the first Monday of each pay period. This preprint file (like the former AFiMS temporary file) can then be used to generate payment when a transmission for a cost center is not received (e.g., the submission deadline is not met, network or system problems prevent a site from generating and sending a transmission file, etc.). Cost centers are required to do the majority of their data entry on the second Friday of the pay period, making last minute changes on Monday prior to final validation, certification and transmission. The transmission and text files must be sent no later than 11:00 a.m. (your local time) on the Monday following the end of the pay period. Notification from the WRD payroll coordinator will be sent to field offices when, due to a holiday, payroll needs to be transmitted early. After transmitting a payroll file, the email group tk_xx (where xx is the state abbreviation or office name) will receive an email message indicating the payroll file was received at Headquarters (HQ). The type of file received at HQ is indicated in the email subject line as follows: Data from the "Transfer T&A preprints to HQ" Transfer was Successfully Loaded; or Data from the "Transfer T&A transmission to HQ" Transfer was Successfully Loaded; or Data from the "Transfer T&A text to HQ" Transfer was Successfully Loaded Payroll files transmit from the local site to HQ on the hour, so failure to receive notification after an hour has passed may be an indication that your transfer processes are down. Contact your local Data General Administrator for assistance on stopping/starting the AIS transfer processes. Additional information can be found at: http://wwwoper.er.usgs.gov/payroll/canned.messages.tna/TNA-transfer.processes Assistance with payroll policy or procedures, or system problems, should also be sent to payroll_help. Additional Time and Attendance information, Documentation and Frequently Asked Questions are available at: http://wwwoper.er.usgs.gov/payroll We are continually updating the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and bi-weekly payroll processing document. Please check both of these sources when you encounter a problem, before calling for assistance. We believe that these changes will improve our payroll process and make offices accountable for late submission of payroll files. Please contact me on 703-648-5027 if you need additional information on the need for these changes. We appreciate all of the hard work of our timekeepers. Copy to: Water Resources Division Senior Staff Branch Chief, Administrative Management Systems WRD Payroll Liaison Content-Type: text/plain; charset"us-ascii" ****************************************************************** * Alice A. Sabatini, Division Administrative Officer * * Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey * * 442 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive * * Reston, VA 20192 703-648-5027; fax 703-648-5295 * ****************************************************************** -_876851611_--