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Friday Feature – Districts and Counties Working Together on PERS

When a new employee is hired, whose responsibility is it to enter the CalPERS Id into the new Employee record? Well, the short answer is the county because legally counties are responsible for retirement reporting unless a district is fiscally independent. But, the longer answer is that HR is already entering the employee’s name, address, social security, and everything else on the planet. Why not allow them to enter the CalPERS Id too (if they have it) and save the county personnel the extra step of entering the data?

Escape encourages and supports this type of cooperation with some special logic for the PERS Member ID field in the Employee record.

PERS Member ID Field

PERS Member ID Field

See the red arrow pointing to the PERS Member ID field in the Employee record. Normally, this is a read-only field (marked with the lock icon like you see in the field above), but this is a new employee, not just a new employee for the district but a new employee for the county, so the field is unlocked and available for editing.

How does Escape Online know whether or not to make the field editable? Excellent question. In a county-wide system, Escape Online tracks retirement at both the county and district level, ensuring that all earnings at all district locations are tied together in one easy county record.

So, when the HR technician enters the employee’s Social Security Number, Escape Online checks the database to see if that employee already exists. AND, if that employee does exist, Escape Online loads information for that employee, saving the district data entry effort.

And, that’s the point!

By using special logic, the district can save the county time by entering the PERS Member ID, and the county can save the district time by automatically pre-filling fields for employees that are already in the system.

Now that’s some automatic and purposeful cooperation.  Go team!

Friday Feature – Dynamic Sort Groups

Some of the most controversial questions really boil down to the eye of the beholder. Where do you squeeze the toothpaste? What should the sort option be for the Payroll Deduction and Contribution Detail (Pay34) report be?
Seriously, the beauty of a specific sort/group option for a report really is in the eye of the beholder. While some reports have multiple hard coded sorts, dozens upon dozens need to allow the user to define this at run time. To accommodate this, we have created a feature we call “dynamic sort groups.”

To see how this works, let’s take a look at the Pay34, which is used to build a list of deducts/contribs for payroll reconciliation.

Pay34 - Report ParametersHere are screenshots of the report parameters and the lookup for the sort/group options.

As you can see, this is a very powerful report.

Since it is used to reconcile pay, it is also quite important for it to be as flexible as possible.

Thus, the numerous parameters and the dynamic sort options, which you can see at the bottom.

Pay34 Dynamic Sort Options Lookup

This particular report has four sort options. That means you can define four different sort/group options at run time.

So, if you pick bargaining unit for sort/group 1 and deduct/contrib group for sort/group 2, your report is going to be sorted first by bargaining unit and then by deduction/contribution group.

Then, you could run it a second time—picking pay date and person type instead—producing a completely different report!

The ability to dynamically define the way you need a particular report to sort/group so that you are more efficient on a daily basis truly is a work of art, beautiful to all who behold.

Friday Feature – Budgeting Addons

Here we are on the last Friday of March and the last feature regarding budgeting. But don’t be sad. Spring is in the air so we shall rejoice in the budgeting of non-positional pay or what we like to call Addons.
In Escape Online, addons define any employee pay that does not come from position assignments. Examples are stipends, longevity, furloughs, bonuses, coaching, and substitute pay for non-regular employees. Obviously, addons affect an employee’s pay and retirement. And, obviously, addons need to be considered when budgeting.

As you probably guessed, Escape Online automates the budgeting of addons. Check it out.

Budget Entry Addons

Budget Entry Addons

Here is an example from a LIVE database. The graphic shows the line items for a Teacher that gets one stipend for acting as the Department Chair and another for having a master’s degree.

The Department Chair is an addon that is associated with the EMPLOYEE, regardless of position. You can see that because the position number is zero (0).

The Master is an addon that is associated with the employee’s POSITION. You can see that because the position number is the same as the teacher line item.

The Budget Management activity picks up all of this information when you load from HR/Payroll. Very easy; a simple task selection is all you need.

But what if there are addons that are associated with employees that you do not want to budget? Addons like bonuses and coaching, addons that lend themselves to a single budget line item instead of employee line items?

No worries!  Escape Online has you covered there too.

Check it out. Here is a LIVE example of a Coach addon.

Budgeting Addons Setup

Budgeting Addons Setup

As you can see, the “Include in Budget” flag is set to No. This tells Escape Online to exclude this addon from budget calculations. Then districts can manually enter a figure for all of the coaching stipends, which is much more appropriate.

This level of control let’s your budget blossom beautifully!

Friday Feature – Budgeting by Assignment Type

Assignment Types

Assignment Types

Last week, we went over how Escape Online determines vacancies through available FTE. That is perfect for some assignments (teachers) but not so much for others (volunteers). And, that is why Escape Online considers the type of assignment when determining budget figures for salaries and vacancies.  Check it out.
Escape Online supports six different types of assignments, some of which are included in determining FTE for budgeting purposes:

  • Paid – (Included) Employee is assigned to a position for a period of time. The assignment has a salary.
  • Timecard – (Included) Employee is assigned to a position for a period of time. The assignment is paid from a timecard. The hours are entered through the Adjust Payroll activity.
  • Extra – (Included) Employee works over 1.0 FTE. For example, this is used for a teacher that is working an extra period (6/5 of a day).
  • Leave of Absence Paid (LOAPaid) – (Included) Employee is on a paid leave of absence from a position. The assignment has a salary.
  • Leave of Absence (LOA) – (Excluded) Employee is on unpaid leave from a position. The assignment does not generate pay.
  • Unpaid – (Excluded) Employee or volunteer is assigned to a position for a period of time. The assignment does not generate pay.

Looking at a typical district on one of our LIVE customer systems, we can see how this automation really makes great sense!  This particular district is a Joint Union High School with 905 paid assignments, 314 timecard, 52 extra, 2 paid LOA, 12 unpaid LOA, and 2 unpaid.

Using these figures, Escape Online will budget for 1,273 assignments (paid, timecard, extra, paid LOA). Escape Online will NOT budget for the other 14  assignments (unpaid LOA and unpaid). Perfect!

This type of flexibility gives you the freedom to create employee assignments for all of your changing needs without forcing you to manually include/exclude certain types from your position control budgeting for salaries and/or vacancies!

Friday Feature – Budgeting Vacancies

It is that time of year again: time to create next year’s budget. To celebrate, I will be focusing on this most important task for the next few weeks.
One of the more tricky concepts for budgeting is vacancies. But Escape Online makes this easy by determining where vacancies exist, automatically.  How does it do this most wondrous feat?  Check it out.

First, Escape Online looks at your positions to see what is filled and what is not (has available FTE). See how the position list below shows the Data Entry Clerk (position 1455) has 0.125 FTE available.

Position List

Position List

Escape Online determines the available FTE by subtracting the Used FTE from the Authorized FTE. Nice!

Now, let’s  take a closer look at the used FTE.

Position Assignment List

Position Assignment List

Here are the assignments for that position. We see that Celeste has held the position for three years, using 0.25 FTE (or working for 2 hours a day).
Armed with this information, we can now go see what Escape Online loads into next year’s budget, both for Celeste’s position and for the vacancy.

Budgeting Vacancies

Budgeting Vacancies

Check it out!

Escape Online creates FOUR lines in budget to cover all of the information, giving you precise figures. Let’s look at each line:

  • Line 1: This is the Available FTE being budgeted as a vacancy. (Notice the Type is V.)
  • Line 2: Celeste only works for a few days in the first month of the year (August). Escape Online budgets these “pay actual days” separately.
  • Line 3: Celeste works full-time for most of the year (September – May). Escape Online summarizes this monthly activity to make budgeting easier to read and understand.
  • Line 4: Celeste only works for a few days in the last month of the year (June).

I am sure you will agree, Escape Online’s budgeting of vacancies (and salaries) is a truly wondrous feat!

Friday Feature – Auditing Records and Fields

Changes matter. When working with public funding or personal information, it is important to keep an audit trail of field level changes (like a social security number in an employee record or the number of items ordered in a requisition) and processing events (like the denial of a requisition or the generation of a PERS retirement report).
Escape Online has this audit process built-in.  Almost every activity includes a History tab where “old” and “new” field values are stored and processes are documented.  Check it out.

Here is a LIVE example of a completed requisition’s history (with changed user names). Starting from the bottom, we can see that an account amount was changed, precipitating a change notice and a warning that the threshold was exceeded. The requisition went on, though, proceeding through year end processing and (at the very top) having two checks printed for payment of the goods.

Requisition History

On the HR/Payroll side of the software, here is an amusing example for fans of the old TV show, “Alias Smith and Jones,” of how Escape Online keeps track of name changes in the Employee record.

pic_news_ff_emp_history

Depending on the record and where it is in the processing cycle, Escape Online writes history records to help you audit the fields and processes that are important to your district’s integrity and standards.

Now, that’s change you can count on.

Friday Feature – Classifying Receipts

Everybody loves to receive money. School districts are no different.  There are a lot of reasons why schools receive money: insurance payments from retired employees, developer fees, facility use rent, and the ever so lovely – donations.
Receipt Types LookupSchools not only receive a lot of small amounts throughout the year, they also receive them in a variety of ways: checks, cash, bank cards, etc. Escape Online helps the business office receive the money and track the type of receipt.  Check it out!

Here is a graphic of the lookup for all of the receipt types you can use to classify the money you receive. This list was developed with the input of our customers, portraying their real life needs for classifying receipts.

In fact, let’s look at the LIVE data from one organization in one of our county customers. For the fiscal year 2013:

# Receipt Type Amount
1,019 Checks $4,392,494.26
23 EFT $227,170.84
31 Cash $4,652.02
18 Cash/Check $14,381.14
1,901 $4,638,698.26

This classification of receipts allows district offices to quickly accept payments, reconcile deposits, and make corrections if necessary. They can use Escape Online’s list, grid or reports to get detail on their receipt processing, even exporting the data to Microsoft Excel for some in-depth analysis.

And that is something everybody loves.

Friday Feature – Automatic Seniority

Last Friday we discussed how to manually track seniority for employees. While this is a great feature, Escape Online has another great way to track seniority that is automatic. This automated method calculates and creates seniority records every time you process payroll. It is easy to set up and easy to use.  Check it out. Seniority granting is controlled through the employee’s assignments and addons and the job category to which they are associated.

The automated method creates detailed transaction records of an employees’s seniority based on the hours and days of assignments and addons, adjusting for time off due to leave of absences.

Employee Seniority Records

Employee Seniority Records

These are the seniority records for a Child Care Assistant.

They have these records because their job category (Daycare) is setup to track seniority by hours.

Notice how there is a seniority record for each month, tracking the number of hours worked in that month.

If this employee had two assignments that both tracked seniority, you would see two records for each month, one for each assignment.

There are several ways to define seniority:

  • The Single and Academic Department methods calculate the earliest date for paid assignments.

  • The FTE method calculates the earliest date and highest FTE for paid assignments.

  • The Hours method tracks both assignments and addons. For assignments, it compares the pay cycle period dates to the calendar paid days to calculate how many paid days this assignment had during the pay period and then multiplies that by the hours worked. For addons, it checks the employee’s pay detail to get the exact time worked.

Job Class Seniority Setup

Job Class Seniority Setup

No matter which method you select, though, Escape Online factors time worked, cancelled assignments, assignment changes, and backdated assignments.

Every time you process payroll, these records will be created and posted to the Employee record.

No manual intervention necessary!

Friday Feature – Manual Seniority Ranking

The fabulous news this year is that some school districts are hiring again! So, for the next couple of posts, I am going to talk about the Employee record. Escape Online provides great flexibility in the Employee record. As you can imagine, with over 300 organizations tracking over 100,000 employees in Escape Online, we need to have a variety of ways to accommodate employee management tasks.

In particular, we have several ways to track seniority: automatic granting based on assignments and addons or manual tracking by employee, job class or FTE.

In this Friday Feature, we are going to discuss the manual method. Check it out.

Seniority Fields on the Employment Tab

Seniority Fields on the Employment Tab

The simplest way to manually track seniority is to use the Seniority Date field on the Employment tab of the Employee record. You can search and report on this date.

But what if you hired 10 people in one day?

No problem. You can use the Seniority Rank field to qualify each employee for that date.

But what if you want to differentiate between different classes (Teachers versus IT staff versus Administrative Staff versus Management)?

Again, no problem. If you wanted to manually track seniority by job class, then you would bypass the fields on the Employment tab and go straight to the Seniority tab of the Employee record. Check it out.

Defining Seniority on the Seniority Tab

Defining Seniority on the Seniority Tab

As you can see here, the Seniority tab is chock-full of options. I can base seniority on position, FTE, addon, job category/class or academic department.

Then, within those options, I can add a ranking. So if the district has around 500 high school teachers, I can rank the teachers from 1 to 500, using a random or matrix methodology, whatever is defined by the district.

Of course, the manner in which a district implements and uses seniority is unique to each district. It is up to your district standards which manual method you use.

On the other hand, if what I have described here sounds like too much manual data entry, have no fear!  Next week, we will be discussing the automated seniority feature of Escape Online.

Friday Feature – Testing PERS Files

Testing, testing, testing. Escape Online gives you the ability to generate PERS test files for this month, and next month, and the month after that. And, they let you create test files in both the XML format and the older “standard” format. Check it out!

PERS Test File Dialog

All you have to do is select the Generate Test task in the PERS Processing activity and Escape Online is going to prompt you for a reporting period month and organization (optional if you are an all-org user).

As you know, PERS is currently supporting two file formats (XML and standard). So, Escape Online does too! See how Escape Online wrote two history records for my single request, one for each format.

PERS History Records

That means you can use either file, or both, depending on your needs. Nice!

Friday Feature – Testing STRS Files

Last week we talked about testing W2s; this week it is STRS’ turn. With all of the changes coming at you from AB340, now is definitely the time to test your STRS file before uploading the “real” file. And, of course, Escape Online is helping you out with all of this, providing timely updates for AB340.
While you have had the ability to generate STRS test files for many releases, now it is more important than ever.  And, it is so easy. Check it out!

STRS Test Task

All you have to do is select the Generate Test task in the STRS Processing activity and Escape Online is going to prompt you for a reporting period month, type (supplemental or not), and organization (optional if you are an all-org user).

But that’s not all. Escape Online is also going to prompt you for a location to save the file.

But wait there’s more.  Escape Online is going to write a history record listing the period, type, org and user Id of the person who generated the test file.

Once generated, you can upload that file to the STRS web site to make sure everything is perfect, giving you that piece of mind to make the final cut.

As Huell Howser would say, Amazing!”

(Stay tuned for next week, when we discuss PERS test files!)

Friday Feature – Testing W2s

The old saying, “Measure twice. Cut once.” applies to more than just carpentry. It can apply to W2 processing too! As you probably know, the Social Security Administration provides employers with the AccuWage software to identify the most common format errors in wage submissions. And, as you also probably know, Escape Online includes a task that generates a test W2 file you can upload to AccuWage, ensuring that you have “measured twice” before handing out W2s to employees. Check it out!

Generate Test File

Generate Test File

Of course, the testing of your file is at the tail end of your processing.  Once you have verified all of your information is complete, you are ready to select the Generate Test task from the W2 Reporting activity.

It is that easy!

Now you can upload that file (copied from \escapeserver\ InputOutput\ PayrollTaxes\ TEST_EFW2-CalendarYear) to the AccuWage software.

And as the old saying generally works in real life, that second measurement is the same as the first, but now you have the peace of mind to make that final cut (of W2s!).