1. Minimum Wage
2. Payments
3. Workday – Card expenses not yet applied to an expense report
4. Weekly Payroll Deadlines
Connecticut’s state minimum wage will increase from $15.69 to $16.35 per hour, effective January 1, 2025. For unrestricted operating funds (excluding true cost centers), budgets will be adjusted to accommodate this increase. The budget increase will be based on actual student wages spent in fiscal year 2024, with adjustments for federal and institutional matches. For restricted funds, the increase will need to be covered using their own resources.
Digital Payments to Students
The default payment method for supplier invoices to students is a Workday change from WFS.
Prior to Workday, students were paid as follows:
- Payroll – Direct Deposit
- Accounts Payable – Direct Deposit based on Payroll banking information. If there was no banking information on file, the payment went as a paper check to their Wes Box.
- Student Account Refunds – Digital Payment (CQP)
In Workday, the payroll information is entirely separate from the accounts payable supplier setup. In order to limit the amount of banking information, the default payment type for any student paid with a supplier invoice is digital payment, which is now referred to by our banking partners as “Concourse”. On the Supplier Invoice the default payment type will appear as “Virtual Pay (CQP/Concourse)”.
Note that many students may be familiar with this as, not only have they been receiving student account refunds this way for the past three years, but all of the Covid related payments to students were paid this way. If you are in contact with a student who may not be familiar with how this works you can point them here.
Payments to be Made via Wire Transfer
We now have the ability to send wire transfers to US bank accounts via the regular payment settlement run, which is now twice a week. There is no longer a need to ad hoc Nate Seng into workflow. If the payment is to be made by wire transfer, the payment method should be US Wires (FedWire). Please contact Accounts Payable to add that as either the default or override payment type.
Regarding wires to international bank accounts, we will soon be able to process those in the same manner. In the meantime, the payment method should be “manual”. You still do not need to add Nate into workflow as we will be handling that during the settlement run.
Note, all requests for payment must begin in Workday in order to obtain the proper approvals. If you have historically requested payment directly with Nate Seng, our Treasury Analyst, you now need to ensure the supplier invoice is created and approved prior to that request and he will process the wire based on that information. Please do not send emails requesting payment. We cannot bypass our internal controls.
Accounts Payable Settlement Runs – Holiday Dates
As noted above, we are running settlement runs for Accounts Payable on Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the year. Due to the holiday break, our last settlement run prior to break will be on Monday, December 23rd. Our first settlement run in calendar year 2025 will be on Monday, January 6th.
3. WORKDAY – Card transactions not yet applied to an expense report
Based on department feedback, we are introducing a new report next week called “CC Transactions w UnApproved/Missing ERs”. This report will be created by cost center and delivered to Cost Center Managers on a monthly basis via email and Workday notifications. It will show credit card transactions that have not yet been “reconciled” or applied to expense reports/procurement card verifications for employees who are assigned to that cost center as an employee/worker. While the Finance office will be reminding users as well, it is important for Cost Center Managers to be aware that these transactions are not reflected in budget reports until they are reconciled. That is very different from WFS.
Due to University holidays falling on a Tuesday, the deadline for timesheets to be submitted, reviewed and approved is 10am on Monday December 23rd (for the week ended December 22nd) and 10a on Monday December 30th (for the week ended December 29th).