Federal Personnel/Payroll System (FPPS) Update Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 07:30:55 -0500 From: "Isabelle Halley des Fontaines, Chief, Br. Admin. Mgmt. Sys., Reston, VA " In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 406 MEMORANDUM To: All Administrative Officers and Federal Personnel Payroll System (FPPS) Users From: Barbara J. Gunderson, WRD Security Point of Contact Branch of Human Resources Management Support Subject: Federal Personnel/Payroll System (FPPS) Update Activities are underway in preparation for the full implementation of the Federal Personnel/Payroll System (FPPS). The system will be fully operational for the USGS on May 10, 1998. The purpose of this memorandum is to summarize the course of action and how it will impact your end users. The USGS will conduct a Survey-wide parallel test of the new system during the processing cycle for pay period 08 which begins on March 29, 1998. All personnel actions effective from March 29, 1998 through April 11, 1998, must be entered in both the SF-52 menu item "S" and the FPPS Parallel menu item "L". In other words, actions previously entered in the SF-52 system, and that are to be effective in pay period 8, must also be entered in the parallel system. I will work with the Personnel Office and the Regional Human Resources Specialists to determine which actions will need to be reentered into the new system. I will be the Division coordinator for personnel actions during this parallel testing period should you have any questions or encounter any problems. On-the-spot awards will be eliminated effective April 11, 1998. After this date, all awards must be requested and paid via the FPPS system and amounts will be included in the employee's pay checks. Payroll will process awards that were paid by Third Party Draft or imprest fund received through April 11, 1998. Beginning April 12, 1998, cost centers must enter award requests into FPPS for payment. Payment for awards initiated in April or May will not be processed until the end of the parallel test period. Awards initiated during that period will be paid during pay period 11, beginning May 10, 1998, and will be received by employees in June. Offices will begin approving within grade increases and probationary periods in FPPS. However, because security routing paths have not yet been set up, these approvals will be applied by the Division and Regional Human Resources Specialists during the parallel testing period and perhaps a pay period beyond. Offices will be provided additional instructions on approving within grade increases and probationary periods when the system issues have been corrected. All Time and Attendance transactions during March 29 through April 11, must also be sent to both the PAY/PERS and FPPS Parallel system. Headquarters will handle the transmission of payroll files to both systems. Kim Rogers will serve as the Division coordinator for payroll transactions during the parallel testing period in the event you have any questions or problems. Please refer to the email dated 3/11/98 by Patrick Smith for more information on T&A changes. Once the parallel testing is over, (April 11) it will be business as usual as far as entering actions into the SF-52 system. We will use the period between April 12 - May 9 to address system issues/problems identified during the test period. What will be Different? Although some screens will have a new look, the steps needed to complete personnel actions will remain basically the same. A copy of the Requesting Office Users Manual has already been mailed for your assistance. It will be most beneficial to review the Manual as it covers the new screens, new fields, new commands, and new on-line help features. Please ensure your subordinate users receive a copy or at least have a copy available to them. You will see that the Manual covers some functions that you do not have access to (leave, leave share, entitlements, tour of duty). The Personnel Office is currently handling these actions, however, there is a chance that in the near future, these commands may be delegated to the Requesting Office. How will End Users be Trained? In December of 1996, each office received an instructional manual for the FPPS Computer Based Training (CBT) along with instructions on how to FTP the training diskettes. Since it is imperative that staff members involved with the initiation and processing of personnel actions are familiar with the new FPPS screens and system navigational commands, I am offering the following Internet URL that accesses the DASC data download site, where you can download the following CBT modules. The URL is: http://www.dasc.doi.gov/fpps/download/cbt/cbt.htm. The workbooks are included at the end of each file. The files you should download are as follows: INTRO.EXE; REQUEST.EXE; and ADDRESS.EXE. There are instructions at this site on how to download and execute these CBT files. The CBT was designed for a PC-based system. In order to use the CBT software, you must have a DOS prompt (C:). You may have software already installed on your Data General server such as SoftPC, which will allow you to emulate a PC environment, or you may have an NT Server running in your office which would allow you to emulate the program on your DG. If not, you will need to locate a PC you can use for the purpose of running this program. If you need assistance, please contact your site administrator. There are two additional training modules under this URL for any persons who will be new users to the FPPS system after May. The file names are: RO1.EXE and RO2.EXE. Please copy these files if you feel it is necessary. Client Orientation Data Base Even if you are unable to use the CBT, you should begin accessing the Client Orientation Data Base (COD) as soon as possible. You access the COD the same way you access the SF-52. When you get to the FPPS Menu screen (where you select "S") you will select "F - FPPS Client Orientation Data Base". I encourage you to sign on to the COD and try the various new commands and learn to navigate within the system so that you will be comfortable during the parallel testing and ultimately the full implementation of FPPS. Each time you enter an action into the current SF-52 system, you should enter that same action into the COD. No actions entered into the COD will be processed by Personnel as "live" actions. However, this process will allow the Servicing Personnel Offices to practice using the new system providing you forward the actions to them. FPPS Goes "Live" FPPS will be fully operational beginning pay period 11, May 10, 1998. During Week 1 of pay period 11, all FPPS test data will be deleted and the current SF-52 system will be turned off. During Week 2 of pay period 11, all personnel actions to be effective on or after May 10 must be entered or re-entered into the FPPS system for processing. There will be no carryover of actions from the SF-52 system to the full FPPS system. You will need to reference the personnel action number from the old system in the "Remarks Section" (F2) when re-entering into FPPS. FPPS Reports and Queries Capabilities The various personnel reports that Headquarters and Region-level personnel currently retrieve will be available "on-line" via FPPS and will reflect data as of the date pulled, not a payperiod or two behind as it is now. Presently, cost centers do not have the printing capability to run these reports. We are in the process of making the necessary arrangements to set up cost centers with remote printing capabilities. We expect this feature to be available by May 1, 1998, and will notify you when it is available. In the interim, contact your Regional Human Resources Specialist for assistance with any reports you would like to run at your local level. Summary Here is the time line for the implementation of FPPS: PP 08 March 29 - April 1998: Parallel testing begins. Users must enter actions in both the SF-52 system AND the FPPS parallel system. Last pay period to process on-the-spot awards via third party drafts (TPD). Paperwork for awards paid by TPD MUST be received by the Payroll Office not later than April 11, 1998. HQ will begin converting payroll files to the format needed by FPPS. PP 09 April 12-26, 1998: All awards must be entered and paid through FPPS. Cost centers are responsible for the data entry of awards into FPPS beginning April 12, 1998. Employees should be informed that award payments will be delayed (until first week of June). Offices should stop parallel entry of actions and ONLY enter personnel actions into the SF-52. Personnel Offices and FPPS personnel will be evaluating the actions entered during the parallel period and correct security and system issues. PP 10 April 27 - May 9, 1998: Continued evaluation and system corrections by the Personnel Offices and FPPS personnel. Offices continue to enter personnel actions into the SF-52 (with the exception of award requests). Ability to pull and print reports at the local level should be in place. (More specific instructions on this will be distributed at a future date.) PP 11 beginning May 10, 1998 and beyond: Full implementation of FPPS. Uncompleted actions in SF-52 will need to be reentered into FPPS. Offices will be notified if this is necessary. Within grade actions will be routed to local offices for approval in FPPS. (More specific instructions on this will be distributed at a future date.)