Manage pay-related and non-pay transactions in your department. 

Learn how to process the following HCM transactions and related tasks: 

Additional Pay

The Additional Pay transaction adds a bonus, moving/relocation reimbursement or incentive pay to an employee's wages. There are two types of additional payments:

  • A one-time payment will issue once during a pay period and ends on or after the pay end date.
  • A recurring payment issues a payment over more than one pay period.

Guides

Tips and tricks

  • One-time and recurring payments must be approved. Once approved, one-time payments feed into Reported CU Time, while recurring payments feed into payroll and are stored in the HCM additional pay page.
  • A one-time payment needs to have an end date, so it is included in the next pay cycle.
  • Recurring payments require both a monthly amount and a goal amount. You can split the payment between more than one speedtype to create two separate additional pay transactions.

Contract Pay

Resources and Policies

Use the resources and tips below to complete the following contract-related tasks:

  • Setting up a new contract on an active job record (reappointment)
  • Reviewing contract payment details
  • Changing pay rates 

Guides

Tips and tricks

  • To access updated contract types, an effective date must be entered first. 
  • The effective date must be equal to payment begin date.
  • A school schedule is entered only when setting up 9-pay-9 and 9-pay-12 contracts.

Contract Information and Policies

Contracts at a Glance

Contract Setup: 

  • In general, academic-year appointments are made on a contract basis for the academic year.
  • Faculty may select a nine-month (9/9) or, if eligible, a (9/12) month payment option.
  • If faculty do not indicate a preference, their pay defaults to the 9/9 plan. 

Choosing a plan:

A faculty member must choose their payment plan by the start of the academic year (September through May). The election is irrevocable once the academic year has begun, and the contract remains in effect for the entire academic year. Faculty may only change contracts at the beginning of each new academic year.

To comply with IRS regulations regarding deferred compensation, the university cannot allow any changes between 9/9 and 9/12 contract types once the contract period has begun. IRS regulations also provide a limit on the amount of compensation for 9-pay-12 contracts where the Earnings Not Paid (ENP) amounts move from one tax year to the next. See details on these limits and an explanation of the IRS 409a regulation or visit the Faculty Election Page of the employee portal. 

Pay Dates:

Faculty are paid on the last working day of each month. 

Pay Disbursements

Paid over 9 months (9/9 schedule)

9/9 contract payments will be disbursed throughout the academic year ending in May. 

Paid over 12 months (9/12 schedule selected before September)

If a faculty member selects the 12-month pay option, they will receive payments from the beginning of the academic year through the summer months ending in August.

Contract Amount Adjustments

Contracts for academic-year faculty are generally updated in August. Any mid-year changes to contract compensation will affect the remaining payments. Any change made to the full contract amount during the contract period will change future payments so the total contract amount is paid correctly.

Vacation and Sick Leave

Leave
Both contract types (9/9 or 9/12 pay options) do not accrue vacation leave. However, faculty may be eligible for sick leave under certain circumstances. See the   Faculty Handbook for guidelines.

Multiple Components of Pay

By federal law, the university must document the effort expended by employees paid by grants and contracts (  OMB Circular A-21 Cost Principles for Educational Institutions).

The Personnel Effort Report System (PERS) is an after-the-fact certification system that accurately documents these employees' effort on projects for sponsoring agencies. The Personnel Effort Report (PER) certifies the level of effort expended on the sponsored project(s) during a particular timeframe. This provides sponsoring agencies reasonable assurance that the labor costs charged to a sponsored project reflect the actual effort expended on the project.

The PER can be generated on a quarterly, semester, or monthly basis, based upon campus needs. Reports are generated for any employee paid on any sponsored project.

The employing campus-sponsored programs office distributes the PER Form to the employing department for confirmation of accuracy by the employee and/or the designated responsible official. Once the form is certified as correct, and any needed changes have been made, the employing department notifies the campus-sponsored program office. The PER system is then used to track the receipt of the forms, so any missing forms can be identified and located.

For additional information, contact the specific campus-sponsored program offices and the following websites:

New and Returning Faculty Contract Information

New faculty contracts

For new faculty contracts, you'll enter a hire transaction and a pay rate change transaction. 

Job Aid: Working with Contracts 

Step-by-step: Pay Rate Change

Returning faculty member contracts

To prepare for contract renewals and contract amount changes:

  • Update employees' statuses (active or inactive).
  • Validate report of employees whose contracts will be renewed for fall.
  • Update a provided template with contract amount changes.
  • Each year, faculty will be able to change their payment schedule in the employee portal's Contract Faculty Election page.

Campus-specific questions

If you have campus-specific questions, please contact:

 

Course Completions

Make sure your staff is up to date on training. Learn how to update your team's training records.

Guides

COWINS Union Leave (formerly Steward Time)

COWINS Union Leave (formerly Steward Time) is a type of administrative leave that ensures eligible COWINS employees are paid correctly under Article 5 of the Partnership Agreement.

Effective July 1, 2025, approved Union Leave will be counted as work time if the leave is taken during the Employee’s regular work schedule. Union Leave shall not be granted if time spent performing Steward duties is outside of the Employee’s regular work schedule and is not included in the calculation of work hours for overtime purposes.

Pursuant to Article 5.5, each Steward, other than the Union President and elected Officers, shall be granted up to 120 hours of paid Union Leave per fiscal year for activities listed in this Article, in addition to the Union Leave for participating in collective bargaining stated in Article 5.2. Employees must request Union Leave at least seven (7) days in advance, when practicable, unless the State Entity provides less notice to COWINS of a meeting or opportunity for representation as outlined in Article 5.2. Union Leave of more than three (3) consecutive days must be pre-approved by the Steward’s supervisor at least 15 days in advance.

COWINS Stewards at CU should report approved Union Leave using the STC code (Steward Time – Classified Only) as part of regular time and leave reporting processes.

Stewards who have general questions regarding Union Leave should contact the Labor Relations team at dpa_laborrelations@state.co.us.

Stewards who have specific questions on inputting Union Leave into their time and leave system should contact their department’s Human Resources office.

Follow these resources to submit time under the correct pay code as a steward and how to process as a pay professional. If you have any questions or need additional information, contact your campus HR office.

Resources

Create/Modify a Position

Learn how to create and update position data and the non-person profile (job description), and, if necessary, prepare to feed data to CU Careers for recruitment. The types of changes available include working with vacant positions, reactivating positions, new positions, and moving position and non-person profile data to CU Careers.

Guides

Step-by-step: Adding Required Training

Step-by-step: Approving Transactions

Step-by-step: Create a Position

Step-by-step: Creating or Updating a Non-Person Profile

Step-by-step: Updating a Position

Step-by-step: Union Code Field in Position Data

Quick Reference Guide: View Complete ePAR Transactions and Track their Status

Resources

Please use the following lists and reference guides when building Non-Person Profiles. (Hint: To sort through these lists, click the dropdown arrow at the top of each column. )

How HCM and CU Careers work together

Integration means simplified position creation.

Using HCM and CU Careers, creating job descriptions will center on selection of duty statements, competencies, qualifications, training requirements and other additional position requirements. The Non-Person Profile is the basis of what will become our Job Descriptions.

Non-Person Profiles compile information from a variety of sources:

  • HCM provides Position Data and Training Data (HIPAA, Hazardous Material);
  • Kenexa provides job matches and competencies;
  • CU Careers provides job summaries, duty statements and other information about posted positions.

Transaction pages let us create the position and the profile on the same page, so the Manager/HCM Department User/HR will not have to navigate to different pages. They enable automatic transactions between integrated systems. This means less data entry for everyone involved. Driving human resources by position lets us define specific attributes of various positions and then move workers in and out of those positions.

Funding Entry

Funding Entry allows you to determine and allocate funding to a position. This pay action modifies funding pages, which make up the Department Budget Table. DBTs store distribution information for earnings, deductions and taxes.

Guides

For more information about Combination Codes (speedtypes), visit the CU Controller's website.

Group Changes

HCM lets you make changes for a number of employees at a time in your department. The types of changes you can make include FLSA (Overtime Eligibility), pay group, appointment authority, supervisor/reports to and location changes.

Guides

Group Terminations

HCM lets you terminate multiple employee records at once.

Before your submit the transaction, make sure to run these queries:

  • CUES_HCM_END_APPOINT_CONTRACT identifies records for termination.
  • CUES_PAY_GROUP_TERMINATION identifies records that contain future-dated rows. Please remove these records from the Selected for Group Transaction table before processing. If these records are included in the table, the group termination transaction will fail for all employees, and you will need to process the transaction again. 

For more information on running queries, please visit Run Reports.  

Guides

Hire or Rehire

Learn how to hire employees with or without CU Careers as well as rehire previous employees.

Guides

Job Change

Through this transaction, you can change an employee's appointment, supervisor, location, pay group and much more.

Guides

Leave of Absence

This transaction allows you to put an employee on leave, whether it's sabbatical, paid leave or a short work break. You'll also use this transaction to return someone from leave status.

Guides

Leave — CU FAMLI, Family and Medical Leave, and Parental Leave

Person of Interest (POI)

A POI is affiliated with the university but is not paid as an employee. POIs include volunteer faculty, off-campus Work-Study employers, employees of CU Medicine and visiting scholars.

Guides

POI information and policies

A POI may have multiple affiliations with the university without having a job record. However, they may also have multiple affiliations as well as a paying job with CU.

POI are defined as a relationship with a sponsor in the Human Capital Management (HCM). Much of the POI relationship is handled at the department level and through the POI sponsors.

POI are often subject to many of the same rules and policies as employees (Office of Discrimination and Harassment (ODH), background checks, smoking, information technology (IT), etc.), but some unique situations or applications of those policies may apply to POI. The policies themselves will typically cover those details.

POI should work closely with their sponsors and HCM Community members as they will likely be able to provide the most current information about how to obtain access to buildings, parking, systems, etc.

POI and University Policy

POI are often subject to many of the same rules and policies as employees (Office of Discrimination and Harassment, background checks, smoking, information technology, etc.), but some unique situations or applications of those policies may apply to POI. See the University-Wide Administrative Policy Statements Related to Affiliates.

POI, at least those in what we call security-sensitive positions, are subject to background checks either through their own employer or through the university's program. More information can be found at the Office of Policy and Efficiency webiste.

POI are subject to university policies on Protected Class Discrimination and Harassment and Sexual Harassment, and must comply with the mandatory training requirements through the Office of Discrimination and Harassment.

POI Access to University Systems

CU-Boulder: POI HCM Records Practices - Identikey/HCM access, etc.

CU System: Access the employee portal

CU Denver: Access to ERA (INFOED) System Information Form for POI Number

UCCS: POI Accounts

  • UCCS Access Service Requests: UCCS Help Desk
  • Accounts for individuals (POI): Individuals outside the UCCS payroll system who request an IT account should follow the instructions below. (Examples of these accounts would be an unpaid staff or faculty member who needs an account, e.g., an ROTC member or volunteer).
    • Human resources officials process account requests for individuals. The POI must complete the POI Worksheet to obtain an IT login.
    • To request an account, please refer to the Add a Person (POI) Step-by-Step Guide. The Adding a Person of Interest Form must be signed by a department sponsor and turned in to the appropriate person. IT departments cannot accept or process these forms.
    • The account sponsor will be notified once the account has been created.
    • PLEASE NOTE: Accounts are active for six months.

POI Training

POI are subject to university policies on protected class discrimination and harassment and sexual harassment, and must comply with the mandatory training requirements through the Office of Discrimination and Harassment.

POI Perks

CU-Boulder: POI (particularly those in volunteer, non-paid positions) may be eligible for special parking arrangements while on campus, and should work with their department liaison and Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) Department at 303-492-7152 for more information.

In most cases, POI will be eligible for a temporary BuffOne Card to grant them access to facilities as needed, access the library, load dining dollars and other campus services for which they are eligible. For more information, employees should work with their HR liaisons and the BuffOne Card office. Find more BuffOne Card information for CU visitors and guests.

Contact the CU-Boulder Human Resources Department for more information.

For more information for your campus/office:

Personal Information Changes

When an employee has a change of address, phone, email or other personal details, ask them to update that information using the self-service features in the CU Resources area of the employee portal. 

Changing phone numbers

Changing phone numbers, including cell phone, campus 1, campus 2 or home numbers, must go through multi-factor authentication. This process protects W-2, W-4, direct deposit and phone information by asking employees to authenticate their identity using a passcode, provided through a phone call or text message.

If an employee's phone number has changed and they no longer have access to an old number, the employee will need you to update the phone number within HCM.

Legal name change

If an employee's legal name has changed, advise them to contact their campus Human Resources office.

Anschutz Medical Campus

CU Boulder

CU Denver

UCCS

CU System

When to contact Employee Services

If a retiree, surviving spouse, terminated or resigned employee needs to update personal information, please ask that person to contact Employee Services at 303-860-4200, option 3, or EmployeeServices@cu.edu for assistance.

For other employee data issues, please email Employee Services at hcm_community@cu.edu. Please include your name, employee ID, contact information and a description of the problem.

Note: Address changes entered in HCM will update the employee's address with health, dental and life insurance providers. However, the employee must contact PERA and the university's flexible spending account administrators with address changes.

Payroll Expense Transfers

Payroll Expense Transfers (PETs) move expenses related to earnings, deductions and/or taxes to different combination codes (speedtypes). PETs do not increase or decrease expenditures and cannot change anything except the combination code (speedtype). Transactions are available for update once they have posted to the general ledger (GL).

Guides

See the HR/GL section for additional resources.

Retirement

Assist employees on their journey to retirement. This transaction processes retirement for employees.

Guides

Step-by-step: Terminating an Employee

Step-by-step: Approving Transactions

CU Retirement Information

Retiree Data

Employees preparing to retire must notify their hiring department to coordinate final pay. Certain aspects of the retirement process are time sensitive and require advance preparation.

For example, a PERA Final Six Months' Salary Report for classified employees should be sent to Employee Services by the employee enough in advance to ensure Employee Services can complete and forward it to PERA. Also, you must make advance arrangements to deposit any terminating vacation or sick payouts into a tax-deferred account.

In addition, employees may be eligible to continue retiree benefits and need to arrange for this with Employee Services before they retire. Employees must contact an Employee Services benefits counselor for retirement counseling and benefits enrollment (if eligible) within 31 days after their termination date of active employment. If retiree benefits are not elected within 31 days, employees may permanently lose their eligibility to enroll in certain university medical, dental and other benefits, depending on their retirement plan (CU 401(a) or PERA).

Find more retirement planning information on the Employee Services Retirement Ready webpage.

Post-Retirement

Information for faculty, classified staff and university staff who retire from the university is maintained in HCM, post-retirement. After an employee retires, Employee Services is responsible for setting up a retiree job in the CUR company. However, before the retired employee can be set up as a retiree in the system, his/her pre-retirement department(s) must terminate all active jobs in the CU company (reason code should indicate retirement).

Upon retirement, the employee is assigned a retiree job code. Employee Services will be responsible for future demographic and address changes for retirees.

Note: Vacation at separation/retirement (VCT) and sick leave at retirement (SKS) should be entered in CU Time during the employee's final month of regular pay so it can be included on the employee's final check. See Terminations section on this page for additional information.

Termination

Employees separate from the university for a variety of reasons, and several parties may be involved in processing a termination.

Guides

Termination for Cause

To effectively process Termination for Cause, there must be coordination among the department supervisor/department administrator/appointing authority, the campus human resources office, the department's HCM Community member and Employee Services.

Supervisor/Department Administrator/Appointing Authority

  1. Involve your campus Human Resource office.
    Departments must work with their campus HR offices and/or legal counsel whenever an employee must be terminated for cause. Consider all legal and personnel issues before taking any action. The department/supervising authority must ensure all human resources requirements are met.
     
  2. Notify your department's HCM Community member.
    The appropriate department supervising authority must notify the department’s HCM Community member whenever a termination for cause action is being taken. Notification should occur in advance whenever possible to give the HCM Community member and Employee Services sufficient time to process the final payment.
     
  3. Provide your HCM Community member final pay information.
    The department supervising authority must provide the HCM Community member with current and accurate information on final pay due the employee. Use department or campus checkout forms to ensure all issues related to termination have been accounted for. The final check should include all of the following as they apply: regular salary through the last day worked; payment for any remaining vacation balance; sick payout only if eligible (see note); overtime pay; shift differential; any additional outstanding pay items. Reductions in pay that are still outstanding should also be mentioned, such as VDK, SDK, DK1, and DK2.

    Note: Sick payout of 25% of remaining balance (up to maximum limit) will only apply if an employee's eligibility for retirement is confirmed and documented.
     
  4. Provide your HCM Community member the last date of employment.
    The department supervising authority must provide the HCM Community member with a confirmed final date of employment. This is needed to begin the termination payment process and correctly enter the action into HCM.
     
  5. Notify the employee of the termination decision.
    After working with Human Resources, notify the employee of the termination decision and the method by which they will receive final pay.

Department HCM Community Members

  1. Confirm the correct last date of employment has been provided.
     
  2. Confirm all outstanding pay items.
    Enter the termination action into HCM as soon as possible, provided it does not create confidentiality issues. The effective date will be the day after the final day worked or on paid leave.

    For example, an employee who worked through 3/12/24 will have an effective date of 3/13/24 for the Termination for Cause action in HCM.

    If the termination action cannot be entered or final pay processed (e.g., HCM is unavailable), contact an Employee Services payroll counselor.
     
  3. Provide Employee Services advance notice of the pending termination.
    Contact an Employee Services payroll counselor to alert payroll of the Term for Cause, discuss timing issues and arrange for distribution of the termination check. If you cannot provide advance notice, notify Employee Services as soon as possible.
     
  4. Be aware of the payroll deadline, and process any pull/cancelation requests using the normal pull/cancel process.
    Termination actions processed after the payroll deadline will require a pull/cancel of the employee's regular pay so a replacement hand-drawn check with the correct information can be provided in its place to prevent overpayment.
     
    • Prepare and submit to Employee Services a Handdrawn Request Form.
      Indicate reason No. 3, Involuntary Separation. To avoid delaying payment, the form must be correct and complete, referencing all final pay items due. Please also check the "Involuntary Separation" box at top of Handdrawn Warrant Request Form.

Employee Services

  1. Assist each department with any issues and questions.
  2. Process any requested pull/cancelation related to the termination.
  3. Process all termination hand-drawn requests in a timely manner, provided all information is complete and HCM is available for use.

Time Frame for Final Pay

University of Colorado employees who are terminated for cause are entitled to receive their final payment as quickly as business allows. For employees who live and work in other states, those state regulations must be reviewed to determine proper final payment rules for terminations. Meeting this requirement involves effective and timely coordination, and sufficient advance notice to Employee Services.

Processing may be delayed if HCM is not available.

Transfer Employees

This transaction transfers an employee, either within the same campus (to another department) or across campuses (to another campus). Because the transfer affects two departments, there are multiple stages and roles involved in this process:

  • The receiving department (the department the employee is transferring to) initiates the transaction.
  • The position to which the employee is transferring should be prepared ahead of time.
  • Once the transaction is submitted for approval, the employee will be notified of steps to complete the close out of their current position (such as submitting a final timesheet, expense report, etc.).

Guides