Kansas Department of Administration

04-P-017 December 2003 Payroll Processing (Supersedes 03-p-023 and 04-p-011)

DATE: November 18, 2003
SUBJECT: December 2003 Payroll Processing
EFFECTIVE DATE: Immediately
CONTACT: Roger Basinger (785) 296-5387 Roger.Basinger@da.state.ks.us
APPROVAL: Approved by Dale Brunton
SUMMARY: December 2003 Payroll Processing

As a result of Governor Sebelius designating Friday, December 26, 2003 as an additional state holiday for 2003, the following changes have been made to the December payroll processing schedule:

  • There will be only two preliminary payroll calculations for the pay period ending December 20, 2003. The preliminary calculations will occur on Monday, December 22, 2003 and Tuesday, December 23, 2003.
  • The final payroll calculation and confirm for the payroll period ending December 20, 2003, originally scheduled for December 26, 2003, is now scheduled for December 24, 2003. All employees' time and leave records must be 'OK to Process' by 6:00 p.m. on December 24, 2003 in order for an on-cycle paycheck to be generated. In addition, all deduction and tax data changes must be entered by 6:00 p.m. on December 24, 2003 in order to be reflected in the on-cycle paycheck created for the employee.
  • Regent's on-cycle files for the payroll period ending December 20, 2003, originally due on December 24, 2003, are now due to the Department of Administration by 6:00 a.m. on December 23, 2003.
  • The check issue date for the Run C off-cycle for the pay period ending December 6, 2003 has been changed from December 26, 2003 to December 24, 2003.
  • The due date for the Regent's Run A off-cycle files for the pay period ending December 20, 2003 has been moved from Friday, December 26, 2003 to Wednesday, December 24, 2003 at 5:00 p.m.

Please make sure to note the above payroll processing date changes and adjust your schedules accordingly.

2003 YEAR END PROCESSING

The Division of Accounts and Reports is making preparations for the issuance of calendar year 2003 Wage and Tax Statements (Forms W-2) and Non-Resident Alien Compensation Statements (1042-S). Any 2003 paycheck adjustments processed after the established cut-off dates will update the employee's calendar year 2004 balances; a corrected W-2 (Form W-2C) for 2003 will not be issued for the employee involved.

FINAL 2003 PAYCHECK

The final on-cycle paychecks for calendar year 2003 will be issued December 19, 2003. Paychecks will be mailed on December 18, 2003. The final off-cycle paychecks for calendar year 2003 will be issued on December 24, 2003 (generated from the off-cycle processed on December 22, 2003).

PAYCHECK REVERSALS

Any 2003 paychecks that are undeliverable should be reversed as soon as possible. SHARP agencies have until 6:00 p.m. on December 22, 2003 to enter paycheck reversals. Any reversals entered after the 6:00 p.m. deadline on December 22, 2003 will update calendar year 2004 balances and will not be reflected in the employee's 2003 W-2.

PAYCHECK ADJUSTMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTALS

SHARP agencies have until 6:00 p.m. on December 22, 2003 to enter paycheck adjustment requests for any 2003 paychecks. Adjustments processed in the December 22, 2003 off-cycle payroll will be reflected on the employee's 2003 Form W-2. Please remember that only one adjustment can be processed per employee per off-cycle; this applies to agency entered adjustments, supplementals and centrally entered adjustments. If a 2003 paycheck has been previously adjusted and requires additional adjustment, form DA-180, 'SHARP Paycheck Reversal/Adjustment/Supplemental', should be submitted to the Division of Accounts and Reports, Payroll Section by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, December 15, 2003.

Payroll Services staff will make every effort to process all DA-180 forms submitted by 5:00 p.m. on December 15, 2003 for inclusion in the December 22, 2003 off-cycle. However, if a large volume of DA-180 forms is received on the December 15, 2003 cut-off date, Payroll Services cannot guarantee that all forms will be processed as calendar year 2003 business. Agencies can assist in the processing effort by submitting any DA-180 forms and the completed attachment as soon as you become aware a centrally entered adjustment is needed.

Adjustment requests entered after December 22, 2003 which are adjusting paychecks issued prior to January 1, 2004 will not result in a W-2C; the adjustment will update the employee's 2004 payroll balances regardless of the reason the paycheck is being adjusted. Likewise, any supplemental requests that are entered either by agencies or centrally by Payroll Services after December 22, 2003 will update the employee's 2004 payroll balances.

REGENTS' INSTITUTIONS: ON-CYCLE FILES

Regent on-cycle files for the pay period ending December 6, 2003, paid December 19, 2003 are due to the Department of Administration by 6:00 a.m. on December 12, 2003.

REGENTS' INSTITUTIONS: OFF-CYCLE FILES

2003 Paycheck Reversals

Regent Institutions must submit all transmittals for 2003 paycheck reversals by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2003 in order to update the employee's 2003 W-2. These files should contain a 'C' indicating current year business and the pay adjust check date field should contain the original check issue date for the paycheck being reversed. Any paycheck reversals submitted after this date will update the employee's calendar year 2004 payroll balances regardless of the paycheck issue date of the paycheck being reversed. Reversals for paychecks issued prior to January 1, 2004 submitted after 5:00 pm on December 19, 2003 should default the pay adjust check date to January 1, 2004.

2003 Adjustments and Supplementals

In order to update employee balances for 2003, any paycheck adjustments and supplementals must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2003. The off-cycle for the pay period ending December 6, 2003 generated on the night of Monday, December 22, 2003 will have a check issue date of December 24, 2003; all activity for this off-cycle will be reflected in the employees' 2003 W-2. These files should contain a 'C' indicating current year business. For supplementals and salary underpayments, the pay adjust check date should be blank; for all other adjustment types, the pay adjust check date field should contain the original paycheck issue date of the paycheck being adjusted and the date must be a 2003 date.

2004 Adjustments and Supplementals

With the exception of arrearages or refunds for OASDI and or Medicare for tax years prior to 2004, any adjustments or supplementals submitted after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2003, will be considered to be 2004 business regardless of the pay period end date to which the pay is related. Since this activity will be considered calendar year 2004 business, the employee's 2004 balances will be updated. These files should contain a 'C' indicating current year business and the pay adjust check date should be a 2004 date (regardless of the original paycheck issue date of the paycheck being adjusted -- if the original check date was prior to January 1, 2004, agencies should default the pay adjust check date to January 1, 2004).

With the exception of OASDI and/or Medicare tax refunds or arrearages for tax years prior to 2004, Regents institutions may continue to submit adjustments and supplementals throughout the month of January 2004 regardless of the original pay period ending date of the paycheck being adjusted. The activity will be processed on the regular Monday and every other Wednesday off-cycle schedule and will update 2004 payroll balances.

Arrearages or refunds for OASDI and or Medicare taxes for prior calendar years and limited to those adjustments resulting from a change in Social Security status must be submitted on separate payroll interface files. These files should contain a 'P' indicating prior year business and the pay adjust check date field should contain the original check issue date of the paycheck being adjusted. Prior year OASDI and/or Medicare arrearages/refunds are the only situations in which a prior year indicator of 'P' should be used; payroll interface files for any other type of adjustments, which contain a prior year indicator of 'P', will be rejected and will not be processed.

Any prior year OASDI and/or Medicare refunds/arrearages identified after the December 19, 2003 deadline for the December 22 Run C off-cycle payroll will not be processed until the January 26, 2004 off-cycle payroll. Since the files will be held, please do not begin submitting those files for processing until the week of January 20, 2004. The deadline for submitting payroll interface files for the January 26, 2004 off-cycle is 5:00 p.m. on January 23, 2004.

GENERAL REMINDERS

United Way

The deduction END date on the general deduction panel for 2003 United Way contributions should be dated between December 7, 2003 and December 20, 2003 in order for the last 2003 deduction to be taken on the paycheck issued December 19, 2003. Agencies should verify the deduction end date for all employees enrolled in United Way to ensure deductions are taken correctly. For calendar year 2004, agencies can enter a new row effective-dated between December 7, 2003 and December 20, 2003 in order for the first deduction for 2004 to be taken on the January 2, 2004 paycheck. If the 2004 deduction is to be taken over 27 pay dates, a deduction end date of December 19, 2003 should be entered.

Tax Information

Pursuant to IRS regulations, all employees claiming an exemption from federal withholding and/or the advanced Earned Income Credit (EIC) must file a new W-4 and/or W-5 each calendar year. To facilitate this requirement, an email notification will be sent on December 1, 2003 to all SHARP employees who are exempt from federal withholding and/or who are receiving advanced EIC payments. Notifications will be sent to the employee's email address listed under 'Update My Profile' in the Employee Self Service Center at https://sharp.state.ks.us/servlets/iclientservlet/ess/?cmd=login. Notifications will be sent to the agency email address for those employees who lack an individual email address, and agencies will need to distribute the notifications to their employees.

SHARP employees are encouraged to use the Employee Self Service functionality to file their 2004 W-4s. Employees should continue to submit Form W-5 for the Earned Income Credit to their agency Payroll/Personnel Office. Employees should submit the new W-4s and W-5s by December 12, 2003 to allow adequate time for processing.

Agency personnel have until 6:00 p.m. on December 15, 2003 to enter all paper W-4s and W-5s into the system. Agency personnel are reminded that they also need to check the radio buttons 'New W-4 Received' and/or 'New W-5 Received' on the employee's 'Federal Tax Data 1' and 'Federal Tax Data 2' panels in SHARP for the effective-dated rows they enter. Agency Workflow Administrators also need to check the radio button 'New W-4 Received' on the electronic W-4s submitted by the employee for calendar year 2004.

The KPAY320 will be processed the evening of December 15, 2003. This process searches for all employees for whom a W-4/W-5 email notification has been sent. If a new W-4 and/or W-5 has not been received, a January 1, 2004 effective-dated row will be placed in the Employee Tax Data record. The January 1, 2004 effective-dated row will update the employee's marital status to 'single' with zero exemptions and/or stop any advance EIC payments for paychecks with a 2004 pay date.

For any 2004 W-4s (for employees claiming exemption from withholding) and/or W-5s received between December 15, 2003 and January 1, 2004, agency personnel will need to enter the data with a January 2, 2004 effective date. Agency Workflow Administrators will also need to change the effective date to January 2, 2004 for any electronic W-4s received in this time period.

The 2004 Forms W-4 and W-5 will be posted to the Accounts and Reports website as soon as they are available from the IRS.

The KPAY320 will also enter a new-effective dated row in the SHARP federal tax data records on December 15, 2003 for employees with a special tax withholding status of 'Non-Resident Alien' to reflect that no 8233 form has yet been submitted for calendar year 2004. The new tax data row will be dated January 1, 2004. Payroll Services will update the 8233 indicator on the tax data records once a form 8233 for calendar year 2004 has been submitted. A listing will not be provided for the 'Non-Resident Alien' updates, since reports are generated periodically throughout the calendar year to identify employees who have had non-resident alien earnings reported but who do not have a current 8233 form on file in Payroll Services.

Deduction Information

All deductions for calendar year 2004 are biweekly except:

  • Group Health Insurance: semi-monthly, deducted on the first and second pay dates of the month.
  • Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts: semi-monthly, deducted on the first and second pay dates of the month.
  • Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts: semi-monthly, deducted on the first and second pay dates of the month.
  • Long Term Care: monthly, deducted on the first pay date of the month.
  • Optional Group Life Insurance: monthly, deducted on the second pay date of the month.

All bi-weekly deductions will be deducted in the 27 pay periods in calendar year 2004 if no deduction end date prior to December 19, 2004 has been entered.

Arrearages/Advances

Every effort should be made to collect all arrearage balances either by personal reimbursement or paycheck deduction prior to the cut-off date of December 22, 2003. Please refer to the most recent PAY007, 'Deductions in Arrears Report' and evaluate all existing arrearages for your agency and verify that collection will be made; agencies should continue monitoring the PAY007 reports to determine collections will be made by calendar year-end. For sufficiently large balances that cannot be collected in one sum, agencies should establish a deduction override as soon as possible so paycheck deductions can be made and the balance collected by the cut-off date for year-end processing. Also, as adjustments are processed from now until the end of the year, please monitor any new arrearage balances and collect in an expedient manner. Any arrearage collections made by personal reimbursement that are collected after December 12, 2003, and prior to December 22, 2003, must be sent to the Division of Accounts and Reports, Payroll Section for processing in order to impact the 2003 W-2.

Agencies are reminded that advance ('ADV') earnings are being paid to employees in situations where the employee's earnings are not sufficient to cover certain deductions. 'ADV' earnings are taxable wages at the time the earnings are paid; taxable wages are then reduced when the advance is collected ('ADVNCE' deduction). Any 'ADV' earnings paid to an employee in calendar year 2003 will increase the employees' W-2 taxable wages if the earnings are not collected by the end of the calendar year. Agencies should collect any outstanding advances for payroll periods ending before December 6, 2003 by personal reimbursement as soon as possible. All 'ADV' earnings paid to employees on the on-cycle paychecks dated December 19, 2003 (i.e., on-cycle for the payroll period ending December 6, 2003) should be collected by personal reimbursement to avoid the advance from being included in the employee's 2003 Form W-2.

W-2s

Please note that if an employee has a mailing address on the SHARP Personal Data page, the mailing address will be used for mailing the W-2. If the employee has no mailing address, then the home address will be used for mailing the W-2. Since the majority of employees do not have a mailing address, most W-2's will continue to be mailed to the employee's home. Please make any name, address, or social security number changes to this Personal Data page by 5:00 pm on December 24, 2003 to guarantee the updated information is included in the W-2 data. Regent's Institutions should make their name, address, and social security number changes by submitting them through the management reporting interface by 5:00 p.m. on December 24, 2003.

The W-2 programs will be executed anytime between December 24, 2003 and January 16, 2004.
W-2 forms will be mailed on or before January 31, 2004. Notification of the W-2 mailings will be provided to all subscribers of the SHARP Infolist.

December Calendar

Attached is a revised calendar for the month of December 2003 that highlights the key payroll processing activity. This calendar does not provide the same level of detail as that provided in this informational circular or in the SHARP bi-weekly payroll schedules issued under Informational Circular No. 04-P-011, dated October 22, 2003. The attached calendar is intended for use as a supplementary reference tool to this informational circular.

If, in order to ensure the timely issuance of payroll, it becomes necessary to change any of the processing dates identified above, notification of the change will be provided to all subscribers of the SHARP Infolist. SHARP users interested in subscribing to the Infolist, but who have not yet done so, can subscribe at http://www.da.ks.gov/sharp/infolist.htm.

Attachment: December Payroll Calendar (.pdf)

DB:JJM:rdb

« Back

© 2024 Kansas Department of Administration. All rights reserved.