FAQ | Payroll FAQ

Position Data Information

• Changes to existing positions (e.g., change in job code)
• Proposed Position Data
• Funding expiration

Job Data

Appointment end date, unless it is accompanied by an action that terminates the employee or puts the employee on a short work break (See the Automatic Termination Process.)  Unapproved transactions to an employee's job data:

• Actions intended to stop pay—For example, if a leave without pay action is entered to the job data but is not approved by the payroll approval cutoff, the employee will continue to be paid until it is approved. Or if a termination is entered for a monthly employee that is unapproved, the employee will continue to be paid until it is approved.
• An employee who has an approved row of job data with pay attached to it and who has a new row of data entered that is in a proposed status will still be paid based on the approved row.

Monitoring Your Reports

There are several reports that are helpful in monitoring your payroll activity. These reports, in the Reports and Reviews menu, are:

• Personnel Roster Report: This report tells you all the employees in your department, their current status, e.g., active, on Leave or SWB, current salary and their appointment end date.
• Employee Compensation Report: This report provides you with all salary information for a specified period of time for either a specific employee or department.
• Employee Job Data - Funding Distribution Report: This report provides you with all the information as the Personnel Roster, but in addition provides you with funding distribution information.
• End of Appointment Report:  This report can be used to monitor appointment end dates so that eligible employees are reappointed in a timely manner.
• Personnel Actions History Report:  This report is used to determine who is on short work break.
• Job Status Report:  This report can be used to determine which of your job data transactions are still in a proposed status when it gets close to payroll cutoff.
• Payroll Register Reports:  These reports are available after each payroll is run and will tell you who got paid, how much and from what FOPPS.
• Contract Pay Report: Shows applicable employees history, current and future-dated contracts.

The smoker information is coming from a checkbox in the HRMS. The smoker checkbox is used by one of the payroll processes to determine which rate to use when calculating the deduction amount for an employee's optional life insurance.

The data is not sent anywhere or used for any other purpose. The default value for the field is "yes." The only time the value is changed is if an employee chooses to enroll in optional life insurance during his/her initial enrollment period, or during open enrollment. If during either enrollment period the employee indicates that he or she is a non-tobacco user, the smoker value is changed to "no."

Employees who do not enroll in optional life insurance or are not eligible to participate in the plan will have a value of "yes" in the smoker field.

We are looking into changing the way optional life is handled and calculated in the system. The change will allow us to update that value since it will not be used for payroll purposes. However, we are not ready to make that change yet.

The enterprise portal, where CU Resources is located, is on PeopleTools 8.51. Certified browsers include Firefox 3.6, Internet Explorer 7 and 8, and Safari 3 and 4.

If given a choice among IE releases, we recommend IE 8, which in testing offers enhanced caching and improved page rendering.

What stops employee benefit charges?

The following actions stop an employee’s benefit charges.

1. Employee terminated employment
   All of the employee's benefit-eligible appointments (jobs) in the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) have been terminated and approved. If all benefit-eligible appointments (jobs) are not terminated and approved in the HRMS, charges for benefits will continue.
   
   The employee and department are responsible for paying premiums.
    
2. Employee loses eligibility
   1. The employee transfers from an eligible job class (job code) to one that is ineligible.
   2. A faculty or university staff member (formerly exempt professional) has a permanent percent of time change from 50 percent or greater (eligible for benefits) to less than 50 percent (not eligible for benefits).
      
      For faculty or university staff members with more than one appointment, the sum of their benefit-eligible appointments must drop below 50 percent for them to lose eligibility. For example: Jane Smith is a professional research assistant on job record "0" at 25 percent time and has an additional job of a professional research assistant on job record "1" at 50 percent time. The two benefit-eligible appointments added together make her eligible with 75 percent time.
      
      If her appointment on job record "1" were to drop from 50 percent to 25 percent, she would still be eligible for benefits since the total of both appointments is equal to 50 percent. However, if her appointment on job record "1" dropped to 15 percent, she would lose benefit eligibility, as her combined percent of time would be 40 percent.
       
   3. Classified staff members who drop below 50 percent time appointment lose eligibility for the university plans, but remain eligible for Colorado plans.
       
   4. All employees who change from a regular employee to a temporary employee.
       
   5. All employees who move from a monthly-paid position to a biweekly-paid position.
   
   
   Note on Short Work Break: When an employee is put on a short work break (appointment end date has expired and the job is not terminated in the HRMS), his/her percent of time remains the same. The department should only change the percent of time if the employee's continuing appointment is changing.
   
   If the employee is not returning to work, the appointment should be terminated. The benefits will not be terminated in the HRMS until any change to the appointment (termination or percent of time dropping below 50 percent that makes the employee ineligible) is approved in the system.
    
3. Employee canceled coverage
   The employee has an eligible qualifying life event that may allow him/her to cancel coverage. If the employee elects to cancel coverage due to an eligible qualifying life event, the necessary forms must be completed and submitted to Employee Services within 31 days of the event.
   
   Benefits will discontinue only if these forms are received within this timeframe and the appropriate supporting documentation is attached. If Employee Services is not notified of the employee's intent to cancel benefits, the employee and department are responsible for payment of premiums.

Refund Process (employee and /or department)

If benefits are charged inappropriately, the employee and/or department must contact Employee Services' benefits team to request a refund of benefit charges to the employee, and/or to the department in question.

Insurance Refund Policy – House Bill 02-1353—The passage of House Bill 02-1353 directly impacts refunds or adjustments requested for medical and/or dental plans. The bill limits time periods in which refunds for premiums can be made.

CU medical and dental plans collect premiums one month before coverage begins. If you expect a refund of premiums, you must contact Employee Services' benefits team by the end of the month in which the request/change takes place. If you contact the benefits team after the end of the month, premium refunds are not permitted from the insurance company.

Colorado medical and dental plans collect premiums at the end of the month during which you'll be covered. If you expect a refund of premiums, you must notify Employee Services' benefits team by the 10th of the month following the one in which the change takes place. If you contact the benefits team after the 10th of the month, premium refunds are not permitted from the insurance company.

If you have questions on the state's refund policy, contact the state benefits office at 303-866-3434.

There are standard Human Resources Management System (HRMS) reports that can assist you.

Descriptions and instructions on these HRMS reports can be found in the Resource Guide. 

Please note: There are additional queries that have more specific information. 

This is a fairly easy process, but it also depends upon the timing of the changes you want. Please follow the Step-by-Step Guides to make changes to the upcoming pay cycle on an established position using both:

1. Change Future Funding; and
2. Update Funding Distribution

If you are just creating a position and need to establish funding, use the "Create New Position with Funding" Step-by-Step Guide.

If you are trying to change the funding of a prior timeframe, then Payroll Expense Transfers (PET’s) come into play. Depending upon the situation, please review the following guides to determine the best option:

• PET Retroactive Funding Change
• Quick Reference PETR
• Correction PET

• Quick Reference PETC
• PET Review

Please contact an Employee Services international tax specialist for assistance.  

In most cases, you cannot change a contract type in the middle of a contract year. However, some instances noted within the Faculty Election Form may qualify as emergencies, and thus, exceptions. Also, we will review instances in which an error occurs on a case-by-case basis to resolve the issue. 

Forms are due to the departments by June 30 each year. If a new faculty member is hired after June 30, he/she will have 30 days from the date of hire to make an election. The default is to pay at 9-pay-9.

IMPORTANT - Timing restriction for your election: A faculty member's election to be paid salary over nine months or 12 months must be made before the start of the academic year to which it applies. Once the academic year has begun, the election is irrevocable for that year. It will remain in effect for the entire academic year, and may only be changed at the beginning of each new academic year.

The university cannot allow any changes between 9-pay-9 and 9-pay-12 contract types once the contract period has begun, as doing so would violate IRS regulations around deferred compensation.

Learn more about contracts.

See the CU Regents policies on leave:

1. Parental Leave for Faculty, Officers, and Exempt Professionals
2. Paid Administrative Leave for Officers, Exempt Professionals, and Faculty on 12-Month Appointments
3. Leave information for university staff and classified staff

Employee Services payroll staff must help departments change their descriptions, such as campus box numbers or default location code changes on the department table. 

You must provide the department number, new location code and/or new campus box number. Once the new location has been created, follow this step-by-step guide to update all the positions needing to be changed.

Just add a new row with the effective date in Job Data, and increase the contract pay amount in Pay Components on the Compensation Panel. 

Hit the "Calculate Compensation" button in yellow, then save the information. The contract will adjust for the rest of the timeframe. 

It's best to do this before the May pay cycle, so the ENP portions can adjust. 

You may also review a guide to compensation changes to contracts.

Vacation and sick accruals do not process when a handdrawn request is processed. The personnel payroll liaison must make this correction in Time Collection by using the following earnings codes. These codes are used for both hourly and salaried positions.

• SCA - Sick Hours Balance Adjustment: Used to adjust sick leave accrual hours balance. Enter positive or negative number as appropriate.
• VAA - Vacation Hours Balance Adjustment: Used to adjust vacation leave accrual hours balance. Enter positive or negative number as appropriate. 

Contact any of the University of Colorado's human resources offices:

• CU-Boulder
• CU Colorado Springs
• CU Denver and CU Anschutz Medical Campus
• CU System Administration

The first place to call when verifying someone's employment:

• Employer's Unity: 720-484-4896

Employment verification by campus

• CU-Boulder: 303-492-3835
• CU Colorado Springs: 719-255-3372
• CU Denver and CU Anschutz: 303-315-2700
• CU System Administration: 303-860-5664

Use these campus-specific resources:

• CU Boulder  Office of Student Employment  Phone: 303-492-7349
• CU Colorado Springs Office of Student Employment Phone: 719-255-3460
• CU Denver and CU Anschutz Office of Student Employment Phone: 303-556-2802

Find all payroll deadlines through the Employee Services payroll calendar.

Although multiple months are published at once, some dates may change. Always regularly check for updated information. You will also find important dates and events listed on the Employee Services homepage. 

To gain access to the Human Resources Management System, you must complete training, based on what kind of tasks your role requires you to complete.

The POI type "Security Access (00015)" requires a Social Security number, which is not required for all others. However, campus offices such as IT may require Social Security numbers for other POI types.

Additional information on setting up a POI can be found in our Step-by-Step Guide.

You can find assistance with creating and adding relationship for POIs in our Step-by-Step guides.

Use the Employees Services Step-By-Step guides to help with the Human Resources Management System and My.Leave.