WFS Changes
1. Budget Transfer Smartdoc Enhancement
2. Budget vs Actual Reports
3. Year End
4. Benefit Rate
5. Student Summer Employment
6. WFS Tips and Tricks – Searching for Paid Vouchers
7. Purchasing News
1. Budget Transfer Smartdoc Enhancement
You now have the ability to enter budget transfers for Account Group 2 (student, temp, other comp, etc…), Account Group 4 (operating expenses), and Account Group 5 (centrally managed expenses) using the Budget Transfer Smartdoc. Prior to this enhancement only Account Group 4 was available and an Offline Budget Transfer needed to be submitted for Account Group 2 or Account Group 5. There is also now a comment field available at the line level which you can use to include additional detail with a 30 character limit. The line level comment is not a required field so you may leave it blank if you so choose. If you have any questions about this smartdoc please direct them to financialplanning@wesleyan.edu. See attached for additional information.
2. Budget vs. Actual Reports
Recently we made changes to the WFS BUDGET vs. ACTUAL BY SMARTKEY report and we want to update you on one more enhancement. You can create a reoccurring month-end report that you can receive or send to someone by email. Yes, it will automatically produce a monthly email (5th day of the month) without any additional involvement on your part. It takes less than 5 minutes to set-up and you do not have to touch it again unless you want to make modifications or cancel it. Attached are the steps to create this report. Please note, this is an updated version of the document. We have also scheduled a training session on Wednesday, April 9, 2014 at 10:00-10:45 am in Usdan 108. Some points:
• Emails will be sent early morning on the 5th of each month
• Only active smartkeys (have budgets or transactions) for the fiscal year will show up
• If you use the PI/Project Manager/RP selection criterion you will get smartkeys in Funds 101, 104, 140, 501, 502, 601, 602, & 720 by faculty member. Note that the Grant 501/502 summaries will be found at the end of reports because they use different column headings than the other funds
3. Year End
It is not too early to begin thinking about year end. The year end schedule will be distributed and posted on the Finance website this month and we will be hosting Year End Seminars in May and June. Stay tuned for additional information. The following items are things you can begin thinking about now:
•Budget Status – Request that any old PO’s, vouchers and/or journals be closed or deleted. Note that grant PO’s carry forward to the next fiscal year so no action is necessary.
•Prepaid Expenses – If you have a voucher that pertains to the next fiscal year, please ad hoc Susan Pavis into Workflow after AP.
•Travel Expense Reports – get them in as soon as possible for completed trips.
•Necessary expenditures through June – be sure you are not headed over budget.
•Workflow backlog – All documents will need to by processed by year end.
4. Benefit Rate
The budgeted full benefit rate for 2014/15 will be 36.3% (the same rate as 2013/14), with the breakdown as follows:
21.3% Medical, dental and other
7.35% Pension
7.65% FICA
Unrestricted operating and restricted gift and endowment smartkeys will be charged the percentages above. Grant and agency smartkeys will be charged actual medical, dental and other charges rather than the budgeted percentage for medical, dental and other. Please note that the percentages above represent budgeted amounts only. Actual amounts contributed to pension will vary based on eligibility and participation in the retirement matching program and actual amounts contributed to FICA will vary based on salary. Any variances between budgeted rates and actual rates will be managed centrally.
5. Student Summer Employment
Wesleyan will again coordinate a summer employment program for Wesleyan students. The funds available for the summer program are limited; therefore, the number of students employed in the program is limited. Preference will be given to students who are working toward meeting their expected student contribution from summer earnings (this does not necessarily need to be with one department) and will be evenly distributed among qualified departments. Given the increasing number of applications for summer employment eligibility, we anticipate that not all students will be approved for the summer earnings wage-split.
The summer employment program period will be for May 19th to August 31st.
Please keep in mind the following guidelines for the summer employment program as you plan your needs for the summer.
**Summer Employment Eligibility**: Students that have demonstrated need (i.e. Federal Work-Study or Term-Time eligibility) during the 2013-14 academic year will be eligible for the 50% wage reimbursement. Supervisors must complete and submit the attached Summer Employment Request Form to be considered for this wage reimbursement by May 9th – there will be no exceptions to this deadline. Completed forms must be sent to workstudy@wesleyan.edu. Requests will be reviewed and departments will receive an e-mail confirmation if their student(s) will be eligible to participate in the program during the week of May 12-16. Requests received after the May 9th deadline will not be eligible to participate in the program.
Summer Employment eligible students can earn up to $3,264 in hourly wages during the summer, during which their employer(s) will receive the benefit of the 50% wage reimbursement. Students may hold multiple jobs on-campus and all of their earnings will go toward this $3,264 individual allotment. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to monitor each student’s pay. Earning in excess of the $3,264 allotted for each student will be charged 100% to the department. Additionally, if a student qualifies for overtime, overtime earnings will be charged to the respective departmental accounts.
Summer Pay Rate: The recommended summer pay rate is set at $8.70 per hour.
Summer Employment Web Site: Please see the link below to the Student Employment web site order to update or post a job on the summer employment web site. Students have the discretion of selecting their job for the summer. We cannot guarantee that every department’s job request will be filled. Students will view all job postings on the web and make their request for an interview by e-mail unless otherwise instructed on the job posting.
For more information on posting summer positions go to: http://www.wesleyan.edu/finaid/employment/employers/posting_position.html
(Be sure to indicate in the posting that this is a summer position when submitting it.)
Questions/Contacts: Any financial questions or concerns regarding summer employment (i.e., student earnings, the 50% wage reimbursement, etc.) should be directed to financialplanning@wesleyan.edu.
Any other questions about the summer employment job postings should be directed to Sean Martin at smartin@wesleyan.edu.
General Reminders. The student payroll dates are the same as during the academic year (Monday through Sunday). Summer student employment hours are submitted through PeopleSoft (Student Time Reporting) in the same way that hours are submitted during the academic year. Departments are responsible for submitting time for students on a timely basis because Connecticut state statutes require that all wages earned during a weekly pay period shall be paid within 8 days. The submission of time is due by Monday at noon for hours worked the prior week with the exception of special holiday payroll schedules. Hours submitted retroactively should be on an exception basis only and must be entered on the Retro Student Time panels. Retro earnings will not be eligible for the summer employment match. Allowing summer employment match on retro earnings would make it difficult for employers to track eligibility. Please impress upon the student workers that it is their responsibility to submit their hours promptly so that the time reporters can report them accurately to payroll. Failure by the students to comply may result in termination of their employment.
Students must be paid for the actual number of hours worked and they must be paid an hourly wage that meets the minimum wage. Hourly time reporting is necessary to comply with the state’s labor laws to ensure that students who hold multiple jobs have all of their work hours combined for determining and calculating overtime. It is a violation of state law to submit hourly time based on an estimated number of hours worked.
Students who participate in the summer employment program must work on-campus.
When hiring students, please contact the Payroll Office if you need to confirm that the student(s) have completed the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form. The students are no longer allowed to work prior to completing the proper paperwork. Any questions can be directed to Payroll at 860-685-2670.
Because the university’s fiscal year ends on June 30, wages paid after July 1st will be charged to the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget.
Failure to comply with summer employment guidelines as outlined above may jeopardize a department’s ability to receive the summer employment wage match.
Temporary Summer Housing: Students must secure housing on their own either off campus or through the Office of Residential Life. For more information regarding summer housing please refer students to the Office of Residential Life Website http://www.wesleyan.edu/reslife/.
Graduating Seniors: Departments hiring graduating seniors must contact Human Resources Office x2229 to make arrangements to convert them into temporary employees. Graduating seniors are ineligible for the summer earnings wage-split
6. Searching for Paid Vouchers
If you are looking to see if an invoice has been paid, and if there is any chance it may have been paid using a University PCard, it is important that you search for the payment using the Wesleyan Inquiry Pages – Transaction Detail report. If you search by Vendor using the “Find an Existing Value” tab on the Voucher Smartdoc it will not return vendors paid by PCard.
In Inquiry, the Merchant Name, as it appears on the Mastercard file, is fed into the Vendor Name field for PCard transactions so searching by vendor name will return both PCard and Non-PCard transactions in this panel. Since the WFS vendor name and the Merchant name may differ slightly due to abbreviating, it is recommended that you leave the drop down as “contains” and type in the minimum amount of identifying information for a name.
7. Purchasing News
WB Mason and Year End Furniture Purchases
On April 15, 2014, there will be a small price increase on some of the office supplies items. However, we have included Swap & Save items to choose from to keep the same price or even lower. We appreciate your decision to use the Swap & Save program whenever possible.
The Year End Furniture purchases should be looked at now to make sure that furniture will be received before June 25, 2014. Most of the furniture lead times are 4-8 weeks. Furniture orders must be received in Purchasing by April 28, 2014.
Also, please see attached for additional information on assitance with issues regarding water filtration or coffee units, Sprint Nextel benefits and the 3rd annual Taste of Middletown April 30, 2014 at Beckham Hall.
SUBMISSIONS FOR FINANCE MONTHLY What topics would you like to see included in this monthly communication? Do you have a system tip you’d like to share? Finance Monthly will be e-mailed on a monthly basis. Items for inclusion are due five business days before the end of each month and can be submitted to finance@wesleyan.edu