FY 2015

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-001

Effective Date: June 27, 2014

Contact Name: Heather DeBusk

Ph: (785)296-2434          

Email: heather.debusk@da.ks.gov
Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Modification made to KPAY711 to include the employee name with each filled position listed on the report.

The KPAY711 report (Department Positions and Budget Earnings funding report for SHARP agencies) has been modified to include employee name with all active/filled position numbers listed on the report.  The employee name will be listed after the Effective Status column on the report only if the position listed is active/filled.  This change will be effective with the report that will run on June 27, 2014.

If you have any questions regarding this report change, please contact Heather DeBusk with the Office of Systems Management, Payroll Services at Heather.DeBusk@da.ks.gov or 785.296.2434.

SG:NTR:had

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-002

Effective Date: Payroll Period Ending August 16, 2014

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Organization Dues Changes for ORG030

The organization dues for members of the Pittsburg State University, Kansas National Education Association will change from $30.11 to $30.50 per biweekly payroll period.  The new rate will become effective with the payroll period beginning August 3, 2014 and ending August 16, 2014, paid August 29, 2014.

The amounts listed above include the deduction amount (ORG030 deduction code) and the $0.06 service fee (ORF030 deduction code) added together. The new rate for deduction code ORG030 will increase from $30.05 to $30.44 and the fee (ORF030) will remain at $.06 (for a total deduction of $30.50 per biweekly payroll period).

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP system.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring that these changes are made in their respective systems effective with the payroll period noted above.

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Informational Circular No.: 15-p-003

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-005

 Effective Date:     Payroll Period Ending September 13, 2014
Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Organization Dues Changes for KAPE

The Board of Directors for the Kansas Association of Public Employees (KAPE) has advised that changes to the regular biweekly dues for members of KAPE will be effective with the payroll period beginning August 31, 2014 and ending September 13, 2014, paid September 26, 2014 as follows:

As a reminder, the service fee will remain $0.06 per biweekly payroll period. Therefore, the amounts listed above include the deduction amount (ORG001-006 deduction codes) and the $0.06 service fee (ORF001-006 deduction codes) added together.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the payroll system to affect all SHARP employees enrolled in the above KAPE dues deductions. Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring that these changes are made in their respective systems effective with the payroll period noted above.

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Informational Circular No.: 15-p-004

Date: September 10, 2014

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Kathy Ogle

Ph: (785) 296-2290

Email: kathy.ogle@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Kansas State Tax Data (k-4) update capability through Employee Self Service has been added

The Office of Systems Management is pleased to announce that new functionality has been added to SHARP Employee Self Service (ESS) that allows employees to update their Kansas State Tax Data information electronically.  The new ESS menu option, Update K-4 State Tax Data, allows employees to update their Kansas marital status, number of allowances, amount of additional withholding, and exempt status on-line themselves.  Prior to this, employees had to submit a paper K-4, Kansas Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, to their agency Human Resource personnel for changes.

The Update K-4 State Tax Data link in ESS works similarly to the Update W-4 Federal Tax Data functionality.  After an employee has entered and submitted the desired changes, the updated information is inserted into SHaRP.  Two rows are inserted, effective dated with the current date.  A row is inserted into Federal Tax Data, pulling forward the prior row’s data, and a row is inserted into State Tax Data with the updated information.  If an employee makes both a State Tax Data and a Federal Tax Data change on the same day using ESS, both updates will display in SHaRP effective dated with the current date.  After submitting an ESS K-4 State Tax update, the system generates emails to both the employee and the employee’s Agency Payroll Administrator with the details of the update made.

Please communicate this new ESS Update K-4 State Tax Data capability with your agency’s employees.  If you have any questions regarding this new functionality, please contact Kathy Ogle with the Office of Systems Management, Payroll Services at kathy.ogle@da.ks.gov or 785.296.2290.

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Informational Circular No.: 15-p-005

Effective Date: Payroll Period Ending September 13, 2014

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: (Earl.Brynds@da.ks.gov)

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Transition form SHARP to COBRAGuard for Administration of State Employee Health Benefits

The Health Care Commission has approved using a third party vendor, COBRAGuard, to administer state employee health benefits from the COBRAGuard Membership Administration Portal (MAP) system. MAP becomes the source system for maintaining the state employee health benefits replacing SHARP.  This change is effective beginning September 1, 2014.   Open enrollment for 2015 employee health benefits will also occur in MAP during October, 2014. 

Therefore, starting with the September 13, 2014 pay end date, paid on September 26, 2014, COBRAGuard will send to SHARP via a bi-weekly interface file from MAP, the employee health benefit deductions and employer contribution information to load directly to employee paychecks.  The current Benefit Plan/Deduction codes in SHARP will continue to be used for paycheck deductions for the remainder of 2014.  To accommodate Regent agencies who want to simplify the number of valid deduction codes, the following new Benefit Plans/Deduction codes are being added in SHARP effective 8/31/2014:

Any updates or changes to employee health benefits required to be made between Aug. 27 and Sept. 15, 2014, will need to be made in both the MAP system and SHARP by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Division of Health Care Finance since the Sept. 12, 2014 paycheck will calculate using the health benefits data stored in SHARP.  After Sept. 15, any required updates or changes to employee health benefits data for a time period from Sept. 15, 2014 forward will need to be made in the MAP system.  Any changes to employee health benefits for a time period prior to Sept. 15, 2014 will manually be calculated and entered into MAP by KDHE.

In addition, beginning with the Sept. 26, 2014 paycheck, there will no longer be any Employer Flexible Spending Account (FSA) nontaxable contributions (5.74 percent of employee deduction) processed on employee paychecks in SHARP.  Regents will also no longer be required to send in the Employer FSA contributions on their pay detail files.  These employer FSA contributions will be processed outside of SHARP by KDHE.

For SHARP payroll processing, any necessary prior period adjustments for health benefits will be generated out of MAP and sent to payroll to process on employee paychecks.  For example, if an employee does not receive a paycheck for a specific pay period in which health insurance should have been deducted, the MAP system will submit the current period and the ‘missed deduction’ for the prior period on the next paycheck, resulting in a double-deduction for health insurance for that employee.

Any adjustments to employee health benefits for a time period prior to Sept. 15, 2014 will be manually calculated and entered in MAP by KDHE.  These lump-sum adjustment amounts will then be sent to SHARP from MAP via the bi-weekly interface file for payroll processing. Agencies should be aware that adjustments for multiple pay periods may be submitted as one lump-sum adjustment amount to SHARP from the MAP system.  Details as to the periods covered by the lump-sum adjustment amount must be obtained from the MAP system.  The existing payroll advance process in SHARP will continue to be utilized.  This process advances funds and establishes a payroll arrearage to cover the cost of certain health benefits when an employee’s gross pay will not cover the full benefit amount.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP system.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring that the changes required to accurately calculate payroll following the transition to COBRAGuard are made in their respective systems effective with the payroll period noted above.

SG:NTR:ewb

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-006

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: ING Financial Services Name Change to Voya Financial, Inc.

As of September 1, 2014, ING Financial Services, our deferred compensation vendor as well as a TSA & VTSA vendor, has changed its name to Voya Financial, Inc.  This name change is reflected in the SMART and SHaRP vendor tables for the following Vendor IDs:

0000000015
0000000016
0000000017
0000159432

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Informational Circular No.: 15-p-007

Effective Date: September 28, 2014

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: earl.brynds@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Addition of Earnings Code 'LWN' for Leave Without Pay for Non-Exempt Employees

A request has been submitted from the University of Kansas and the University of Kansas Medical Center to add a new Earnings Code to SHARP for use in Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting and also for use in tracking metrics.

Therefore, a new earnings code has been added to SHARP effective September 28, 2014 to administer Leave Without Pay for non-exempt employees.  The following earnings code is eligible to be used starting with the pay period beginning September 28, 2014 through October 11, 2014 paid October 24, 2014.

LWN is an Hours Only earnings code and does not add to Gross Pay.  Agencies can also use the existing Leave-Without Pay earnings code (LWP) for time reporting for Exempt employees.

SHARP agencies: The Office of Personnel Services has mapped the existing LWPNE (Leave-Without Pay Non-exempt) Time Reporting Code (TRC) to the LWN Earnings Code effective September 28, 2014.  Therefore, use of the LWPNE TRC will now result in the LWN earnings code processing on the employee paycheck and any associated payroll reports.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team, is responsible for adding the new earnings code in the SHARP system.  Regents’ institutions are responsible for implementing the new earnings code in their payroll systems.

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Informational Circular No.: 15-p-008

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-p-007

Effective Date: Calendar Year 2015

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: earl.brynds@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: SHARP On-Cycle and Off-Cycle Payroll Processing Schedules for 2015.

Attached are the SHARP bi-weekly on-cycle and off-cycle schedules for calendar year 2015.  The attached schedules provide important information regarding the critical payroll processing deadlines for each bi-weekly payroll period. Agency personnel responsible for payroll processing will need to ensure that all appropriate information is entered or submitted by the cutoff dates indicated on the schedules to ensure timely issuance of pay for their employees.    

SHARP off-cycle payrolls will generally be processed each Monday and every other Wednesday night and will include all activity entered into SHARP since the last off-cycle payroll.  If a holiday occurs on a Monday or Wednesday, the off-cycle payroll will normally be rescheduled to occur on the following business day.  Payroll payments resulting from the first off-cycle for the payroll period (Run ‘A’) will normally be issued with the same paycheck/direct deposit date as the on-cycle pay date for the payroll period. Payroll payments resulting from the remaining off-cycles (Runs ‘B’ and ‘C’) will normally be dated three working days from the date the off-cycle is processed. Agencies generally have until 6:00 p.m. on Mondays and every other Wednesday to enter adjustments and/or supplemental data into SHARP for processing in that night’s off-cycle payroll.   Agencies have until 3:30 p.m. to submit/approve reported time so it is picked up by the Time Administration process. After Time Administration runs, the payable time must be approved by 6:00 p.m. so that the status is ready for payroll processing.  Agencies are reminded that they must approve the timesheet (reported time) and payable time (after time administration runs) before requesting a paycheck adjustment in SHARP.

Off-cycle payrolls for Regents’ institutions are also normally scheduled for each Monday and every other Wednesday night.  Regents’ institutions generally have until 4:00 p.m. on Fridays and every other Tuesday to submit off-cycle payroll interface files.  The Office of Systems Management must approve all interface files for processing by 5:00 p.m. on the following Monday or every other Wednesday for the files to be processed in that night’s off-cycle payroll.   Regents’ off-cycle payrolls will be issued with the same check/advice date as the SHARP off-cycle processed the same night.

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2015 On-Cycle
2015 Off-Cycle

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-009

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Joyce Dickerson

Ph: (785) 296-3979

Email: joyce.dickerson@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Payroll Processing Impacts and Changes in SHARP due to COBRAGuard (MAP) Implementation for State Employee Health Benefits

As a result of the COBRAGuard MAP implementation for State Employee Health Benefits effective Sept. 1, 2014, agencies should be aware of the following payroll processing impacts and changes in SHARP.  Also, agencies are reminded that the MAP system is used for administering Health Benefits only.  Health Benefits administered through the MAP system include Group Health Insurance (Medical/Dental/Drug), Vision, Flexible Spending Accounts (Dependent Care/Health Care), and Health Savings Accounts.  All other benefits, including Optional/Spousal Group Life, will continue to be administered in SHARP.  Therefore, in addition to maintaining employee changes that impact Health Benefits in MAP, it is very important that agencies continue to update the employee Benefit Program Code field in SHARP as well in order to process the other employee benefits accurately.

 New Payroll Report
To respond to agency requests, a new payroll report (KPAY228- MAP HEALTH BENEFIT ADJUSTMENTS AND REFUNDS) is being developed and will be run on the first night of pay calc week, normally on Tuesday night, and sent to agency directories in their MVS mailbox. This report will list all health benefit deductions for any employees who have either an adjustment (Type = ADJ) or a refund (Type = REF) sent to payroll from MAP to be processed on the employee’s paycheck for a particular pay period.    Agencies can use this report as a tool for contacting employees and working arrearages in advance of issuing their paychecks.  This report is currently being developed and a separate SHARP infolist message will be sent out when the report becomes available.  Until this report is available, Payroll Services will be identifying adjustments and refunds on the incoming file and notifying agencies via e-mail of this information.

 SEHP Deduction Cutoff Schedule for MAP
Attached is a deduction cutoff schedule developed by the State Employee Health Plan for 2014-2015 that lists the MAP entry cutoff dates.  As noted on the schedule, SEHP Benefit requests must be entered into MAP by the MAP Entry Cutoff Date column in order to facilitate final processing by SEHP Membership Services for the corresponding pay date. Requests that are not entered by Human Resource Officers by the MAP Entry Cutoff Date will not appear on that corresponding payroll date.

Health Benefit Paycheck Adjustments – Exceptions to MAP Processing
Agencies can no longer request adjustments for health benefits (GHI, FSA, HSA) in SHARP.  However, agencies can submit DA-180’s centrally to process the following health benefit adjustments as exceptions only:

1. Employees who pre-pay health insurance for a pay period where they have no pay
2. Termed employees

Health Benefit Adjustments/Refunds Processed Through MAP
Except for the two scenarios listed above, health benefit adjustments and refunds will be processed in the on-cycle for the pay period received from the MAP system as long as the employee has a paysheet created.  When an employee has a change in coverage that is recorded in MAP, the increase or decrease in the premium amount for the previous applicable pay periods will be processed in the on-cycle.  For employees who do not have a paycheck, the deduction amounts will accumulate until the pay period in which the employee has a paysheet created. 

Agencies can enter an ADJ or ADV on the employee’s timesheet in the amount of the adjustment if the employee has an accumulation of health benefit deductions for multiple pay periods that were not previously deducted due to a paysheet not being created.  ADJ would be used for all after-tax deductions that were not taken in previous pay periods due to no employee paysheet.  ADV would be used for all before-tax deduction adjustments where the employee had a paysheet.  Agencies are reminded that any arrearages established for benefits deductions should be collected over the same number of pay periods where missed deductions resulted in the establishment of the arrearage.

Creation of Online Checks
Agency personnel will need to be aware that when using the Online Check process in SHARP, all health benefit deductions for the employees will now need to be entered on the One-Time Deductions page since health benefit deductions are no longer maintained in SHARP.  Guidance for adding the deductions has been added to the procedures on the OSM website at the following link:  http://admin.ks.gov/offices/osm/payroll-procedures.

E-mail Extension for Confirmation Statements from MAP
It appears that some agency e-mail filters are blocking Open Enrollment confirmation statements sent from MAP to State of Kansas employee e-mail addresses.  Agency HR/Payroll are encouraged to contact their agency IT staff to request that the domain extension HRISSUITE.COM be added as a trusted extension for incoming e-mails. After the domain extension is added, employees who did not receive a confirmation statement after completing the Open Enrollment process in MAP can go back through the process, re-confirm their initial selections, and click the final Save to receive an email confirmation statement.

Questions Regarding Health Benefits/MAP
Agencies are reminded that any agency and employee questions regarding health benefits, the MAP system, and health benefit adjustments should be directed to the State Employee Health Plan at SEHPMembership@kdheks.gov or via phone at 785-296-3226 as the SHARP system no longer maintains detail information regarding employee health benefits.   In addition, all questions that relate to any pay period end date prior to Sept. 1, 2014 (MAP implementation) should be directed to SEHP first, in order to verify how to handle the adjustment, before contacting Payroll Services.

Deduction Cutoff Schedule to Send

Printable Version of 15-P-009

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Informational Circular No.: 15-p-010

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-p-009

Effective Date: January 1, 2015

Contact Name: Carmen Waters

Ph: (785) 296-7059

Email: carmen.waters@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Social Security Wage Base Increase to $118,500 effective January 1, 2015.

The Social Security wage base for OASDI will be $118,500 for calendar year 2015.  This is a $1,500 increase from the wage base of calendar year 2014 of $117,000.  The OASDI tax rate for 2015 will be 6.2% for both employees and employers.  The maximum OASDI employee contribution for 2015 will be $7,347.00.   There continues to be no limit on wages subject to the Medicare tax in 2015.  Medicare tax rates for employers and employees remain at 1.45%.  However, wages paid in excess of $200,000 will be subject to an additional 0.9% Medicare tax that will only be withheld from employees’ wages.  Employers will not pay the extra tax.

For Federal employees at Kansas State University who were hired prior to January 1, 1984, the employee contribution rate for reduced FICA remains at 1.45 % on all wages subject to the tax (there has been no maximum contribution since January 1, 1994).  Federal employees hired after January 1, 1984 will have a maximum contribution of $7,347.00 for OASDI and no maximum for Medicare.  The employer and employee rates continue to be the same, with wages paid in excess of $200,000 subject to the additional 0.9% Medicare tax that will only be withheld from employees’ wages.

For Kansas Police and Fireman’s program participants who are subject to the mandated Medicare coverage, the contribution rate remains at 1.45% on all wages subject to the tax (there has been no maximum contribution since January 1, 1994) with the additional 0.9% tax that will only be withheld from employees’ wages in excess of $200,000.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team is responsible for making the necessary updates to the SHARP payroll system.  Regents’ institutions are responsible for ensuring these changes are reflected in their individual systems.

SG:NTR:kao

 Printable Version of 15-P-010

Informational Circular No: 15-p-011

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-p-008

Effective Date: November 2014

Contact Name: Joyce Dickerson

Ph: (785) 296-3979

Email: joyce.dickerson@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Payroll processing schedule changes due to the November 2014 holidays.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014 (Veterans' Day), Thursday, November 27, 2014 and Friday, November 28, 2014 (Thanksgiving Holiday) are designated holidays for state service in 2014.

Due to the holidays in November, changes are required to the ‘normal’ payroll processing schedule.  Agencies are asked to note the payroll processing schedule due dates, some of which are occurring on a different day of the week than normally scheduled.

Monday, November 3, 2014

The Run A off-cycle for the period ending October 25, 2014 will be processed November 3, 2014.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplementals and/or adjustment run controls for the Run A off-cycle.  All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM.  Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run A off-cycle will be dated November 7, 2014.

Regents’ on-cycle files for the period ending October 25, 2014 will also be processed on this date. 

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Regents’ Run B off-cycle payroll files for the period ending October 25, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 4, 2014 in order to be processed on Wednesday, November 5, 2014.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The Run B off-cycle for the period ending October 25, 2014 will be processed November 5, 2014.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplementals and/or adjustments run controls for the Run B off-cycle.  All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run B off-cycle will be dated November 10, 2014.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Payday for the payroll period ending October 25, 2014.

First opportunity for Time and Labor interface agencies to have time and leave files for the period ending November 8, 2014 submitted to the Department of Administration for processing by 5:00 PM on November 7, 2014.  (These files would normally be due Monday, November 10, 2014).  Last opportunity to submit files will be noon on Monday, November 10, 2014.

Regents’ Run C off-cycle payroll files for the period ending October 25, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 7, 2014.

Monday, November 10, 2014
Time and Labor interface agencies can submit time and leave files for the period ending November 8, 2014 to the Department of Administration for processing by noon to be processed at 12:30 p.m. on November 10, 2014. 

Paysheets for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending November 8, 2014 will be created on Monday, November 10, 2014.  (Paysheets would normally be created on Tuesday, November 11, 2014.)  For SHARP agencies, some job actions (i.e., FLSA Status change) must be entered by 6:00 PM on November 10, 2014 in order to be reflected on the paysheets for this period.

The first on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending November 8, 2014 will also occur November 10, 2014. For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) into SHARP by 3:30 PM.  After Time Administration runs at 3:30 PM, payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM. on November 10, 2014 in order for a paycheck record to be created.

The Run C off-cycle for the period ending October 25, 2014 will be processed November 10, 2014.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplementals and/or adjustment run controls for the Run C off-cycle. All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run C off-cycle will be dated November 14, 2014.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Veterans' Day Holiday

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The second on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending November 8, 2014 will occur November 12, 2014. 

Thursday, November 13, 2014
The third on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending November 8, 2014 will occur November 13, 2014. 

Regents’ on-cycle payroll files for the period ending November 8, 2014 are due to the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 13, 2014.

Friday, November 14, 2014
Final pay confirmation for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending November 8, 2014 will occur November 14, 2014.  All employees’ payable time must be approved, by 6:00 PM on November 14, 2014 in order for a paycheck record to be created.  All deduction and tax data changes must be entered by 6:00 PM on November 14, 2014 in order to be reflected in the final paycheck created for the employee.

Regents’ Run A off-cycle payroll files for the period ending November 8, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 14, 2014.

Monday, November 17, 2014
The Run A off-cycle for the period ending November 8, 2014 will be processed November 17, 2014. SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplemental and/or adjustment run controls for the Run A off-cycle. All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM. Paychecks for the Run A off-cycle will be dated November 21, 2014. 

The Regents’ on-cycle files for the period ending November 8, 2014 will also be processed on this date.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Regents’ Run B off-cycle payroll files for the period ending November 8, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 18, 2014. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014
The Run B off-cycle for the period ending November 8, 2014 will be processed November 19, 2014.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplementals and/or adjustment run controls for the Run B off-cycle.  All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run B off-cycle will be dated November 24, 2014.

Friday, November 21, 2014
Payday for the payroll period ending November 8, 2014.

First opportunity for Time and Labor interface agencies to have time and leave files for the period ending November 22, 2014 submitted to the Department of Administration for processing by 5:00 PM on November 21, 2014.  (These files would normally be due Monday, November 24, 2014.)  Last opportunity to submit files will be noon on Monday, November 24, 2014.

Regents’ Run C off-cycle payroll files for the period ending November 8, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 21, 2014. 

Sunday, November 23, 2014
The one-time $250.00 legislature authorized bonus will be inserted into eligible employee timesheets.

Monday, November 24, 2014
Time and Labor interface agencies can submit time and leave files for the period ending November 22, 2014 to the Department of Administration for processing by noon to be processed at 12:30 p.m. on November 24, 2014.

NOTE: Terminations and Retirements must be entered by 6:00 PM on November 24, 2014 and reported time must be submitted by 3:30 PM in order for leave payouts to be calculated correctly.

Paysheets for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending November 22, 2014 will be created on Monday, November 24, 2014. (Paysheets would normally be created on Tuesday, November 25, 2014.)  For SHARP agencies, some job actions (i.e., FLSA Status change) must be entered by 6:00 PM on November 24, 2014 in order to be reflected on the paysheets for this period.

The first on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending November 22, 2014 will also occur November 24, 2014.  For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) into SHARP by 3:30 PM.  After Time Administration runs at 3:30 PM, payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM, in order for a paycheck record to be created. Please note that there will be only two SHARP on-cycle preliminary payroll calculations for the pay period ending November 22, 2014.

The Run C off-cycle for the period ending November 8, 2014 will be processed November 24, 2014.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplementals and/or adjustment run controls for the Run C off-cycle.  All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run C off-cycle will be dated December 1, 2014. (These checks would normally be dated Thursday, November 27, 2014.)

Tuesday, November 25, 2014
The second on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending November 22, 2014 will occur November 25, 2014.

Regents’ on-cycle files for the period ending November 22, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 25, 2014.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Final pay confirmation for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending November 22, 2014 will occur November 26, 2014.  For SHARP agencies, all employees’ payable time must be approved, by 6:00 PM on November 26, 2014 in order for a paycheck record to be created.  All deduction and tax data changes must be entered by 6:00 PM on November 26, 2014 in order to be reflected in the final paycheck created for the employee.

Regents’ Run A off-cycle payroll files for the period ending November 22, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on November 26, 2014.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thanksgiving Holiday

Friday, November 28, 2014

Thanksgiving Holiday

Attached is a calendar for the month of November 2014, which highlights key payroll processing activity for the month.  The attached calendar is intended for use as a supplementary reference tool only; it does not contain the level of detail that is included in the narrative portion of this circular.

Please note the changes to the payroll processing schedule and adjust your schedules accordingly. If it becomes necessary to change any of the payroll 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.admin.ks.gov/resources/informational-circulars.

SG:NTR:ccl

Attachment
Printable version of 15-P-011

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-012

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-p-010

Effective Date: January 1, 2015

Contact Name: Joyce Dickerson

Ph: (785) 296-3979

Email: joyce.dickerson@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: 2015 Deferred Compensation and Tax Sheltered Annuity Limits

Pursuant to the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), the annual Deferred Compensation and Tax Sheltered Annuity (TSA) limits will change effective January 1, 2015 as follows:

457(b) Deferred Compensation:
The Deferred Compensation (Benefit Plan 457DEF) annual contribution limit is increased from the lesser of $17,500 or 100% of includible compensation (2014 calendar year limit) to the lesser of $18,000 or 100% of includible compensation.

The Deferred Compensation special catch-up (Benefit Plan 457DER) limit increases to $36,000. The special catch-up limit is twice the general deferral limit, and is only available to employees who are within three years of normal retirement age.

The Deferred Compensation catch-up provision for participants who are 50 years of age or older (Benefit Plan 457DEC) increases the annual contribution limit by $6,000 for 2015 making the total $24,000.  The provision for 2014 was $5,500, making the total for 2014 $23,000.

Please note that the two different catch-up provisions cannot be used concurrently.           

Tax Sheltered Annuities (TSA):
The limit on annual contributions to a TSA for 2015 is the lesser of $53,000 or 100% of compensation, increased from $52,000 for 2014.

The annual compensation limit used for calculating mandatory employee and employer contributions is increased from $260,000 (for 2014) to $265,000 (for 2015).  The $265,000 applies to the mandatory retirement plans for the School for the Blind, School for the Deaf, and Kansas Board of Regents (for employees whose participation began after 1995).  For School for the Blind and School for the Deaf employees, the maximum contribution that can be made to the plan is $26,500 ($265,000 maximum annual compensation multiplied by 10%, 5% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution).  For Board of Regents employees (participants after 1995), the maximum contribution that can be made to the plan is $37,100 ($265,000 maximum annual compensation multiplied by 14%, 8.5% employer contribution and 5.5% employee contribution).

For employees participating in the Kansas Board of Regents’ mandatory plan prior to 1996, participants are ‘grandfathered’ and use the annual compensation limit under Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a) (17).  The 401(a) (17) limit is increased from $385,000 (for 2014) to $395,000 (for 2015).  However, participants should note their maximum annual compensation limit will be $378,571.43, since the $378,571.43 annual compensation multiplied by the 14% contribution rate (8.5% for the employer and 5.5% for the employee), results in $53,000, which is the limit on annual contributions.

The limit on elective deferrals (Voluntary Tax Sheltered Annuities) is increased from $17,500 for 2014 to $18,000 for 2015.  The age 50 or older catch-up provision is increased from $5,500 for 2014 to $6,000 for 2015.  Therefore, an employee age 50 or over is eligible to increase his/her elective deferral and limit on an annual contribution by $6,000.   Additionally, there is a 15-year rule which may allow employees with 15 or more years of service to increase the elective deferral limit by an additional $3,000.  Employees may use both the age 50 catch-up provision and 15-year rule concurrently.  IRS regulations issued in 2003 state that when employees are eligible for both the 15-year rule and the age 50 catch-up provision, the limit on elective deferrals ($18,000 for 2015) is applied first, then the 15-year rule, and finally the age 50 catch-up provision.

Please note that the total of nonelective deferrals (the mandatory retirement plans) and elective deferral (VTSA) cannot exceed the limit on annual contributions plus the age 50 or older catch-up provision amount (if applicable).

Regents’ institutions are reminded that they are responsible for applying the maximum VTSA formulas for their employees.  Please note that this circular only provides a summary of the law in this area.  Due to the complexity of the legislation and the unique circumstances of each employee, Regents’ institutions are strongly encouraged to contact the 403(b) carriers to aid in determining limits in those cases which are outside the norm (the employee is near the limit on annual contributions, the employee is near the elective deferral limit, the employee wants to use the age 50 catch-up provision, or the employee wants to use the 15-year rule).

Finally, the EGTRRA Act of 2001 repealed the coordination requirements for employees who participate in both a 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plans and 403(b) Tax Sheltered Annuity plans.  Employees eligible for both plans continue to be able to defer the full amount to both plans.

 SG:NTR:kao

Printable version of 15-P-012

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-013

Effective Date: January 1, 2015

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: earl.brynds@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: New Deduction Codes/Benefit Plans for Future Members of KPERS (Tier 3)

Pursuant to Sub House Bill (HB) 2333 passed in the 2012 legislature, a new Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) Tier 3 cash balance retirement plan is created for new hires beginning January 1, 2015.  This plan includes new employees hired after January 1, 2015 and inactive KPERS Tier 1 and Tier 2 members who are not vested and return to work January, 2015 and after.  Correctional Officers are not included in the new Tier 3 plan. As a result of this legislation, future members of the KPERS system will begin contributing 6% of their salary to the new cash balance retirement plan.  This will be effective with the first day of employment in an eligible position.  Employer contribution percentages are the same for Tier 3 as they are for Tier 1 and Tier 2.   Further information on the specifics of this new KPERS cash balance plan can be found at http://www.kpers.org/pdf/KPERS3plan.pdf.

Current Tier 1 members include those first employed before July 1, 2009.  Current Tier 2 members include those first employed between July 1, 2009 and December 31, 2014; the existing KPERS deduction codes and benefit plans will continue to be used for current Tier 1 and Tier 2 members. For future KPERS members (Tier 3), which includes employees first hired on or after January 1, 2015, two new KPERS deduction codes and ten benefit plans are being added in SHARP effective for the payroll period beginning December 21, 2014, ending January 3, 2015, paid January 16, 2015.

The new KPERS deduction codes and benefit plans are: 

(Note: these codes do not apply to the corrections, law enforcement or judges retirement plans)

The existing ‘GTL’ deduction codes and benefit plans as noted in the table above will continue to be used for the employer contributions for death and disability insurance provided to participating KPERS members.

The SMART Expenditure Account Code for Employer Contributions for the new deduction codes will be the same as the current KPERS deduction codes (518100 for Regular and Legislator).

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team is responsible for making the necessary updates to the SHARP payroll system.  Regents’ Institutions are responsible for ensuring that these changes are reflected in their individual systems.

SG:NTR:ewb


Printable version of 15-P-013

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-014

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Joyce Dickerson

Ph: (785) 296-3979

Email: joyce.dickerson@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Changes to the payroll processing schedule for the payroll periods ending December 6, 2014 and December 20, 2014 due to December 24 (half day), 25, and 26, 2014 being designated state holidays.

As a result of Governor Brownback declaring a half-day Wednesday, December 24, Thursday, December 25, and Friday, December 26 as state holidays, the following changes have been made to the December payroll processing schedule for the payroll periods ending December 6, 2014 and December 20, 2014:

Monday, December 8, 2014
The Run 'C' off-cycle for the payroll period ending November 22, 2014 continues to be scheduled for December 8, 2014.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplemental and/or adjustment run controls for the Run C off-cycle. All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  The check issue date for the Run 'C' off-cycle will remain Thursday, December 11, 2014.

Time and Labor Interface agencies must have time and leave files for the period ending December 6, 2014 submitted to the Department of Administration for processing by 5:00 p.m. on December 8, 2014.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Paysheets for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending December 6, 2014 will be created as usual on Tuesday, December 9, 2014.  Some job actions (i.e., FLSA Status change) must be entered by 6:00 PM on December 9, 2014 in order to be reflected on the paysheets for this period.

The first on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending December 6, 2014 will also occur December 9, 2014.   For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) into SHARP by 3:30 p.m. After Time Administration runs at 3:30 p.m., payable time must be approved by 6:00 p.m. in order for a paycheck record to be created.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014
The second on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending December 6, 2014 will occur December 10, 2014.

Thursday, December 11, 2014
The third on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending December 6, 2014 will occur December 11, 2014.

Regents’ on-cycle payroll files for the period ending December 6, 2014 are due to the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 11, 2014.

Friday, December 12, 2014
Final pay confirmation for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending December 6, 2014 will occur December 12, 2014.    For SHARP agencies, all employees’ payable time must be approved, by 6:00 p.m. on December 12, 2014 in order for a paycheck record to be created.    All non-health benefit deductions and tax data changes must be entered by 6:00 p.m. on December 12, 2014 in order to be reflected in the final paycheck created for the employee. The check issue date for the on-cycle will be Friday, December 19, 2014.

Regents’ Run ‘A’ off-cycle payroll files for the period ending December 6, 2014 are due to the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 12, 2014.

Monday, December 15, 2014
The Run ‘A’ off-cycle for the period ending December 6, 2014 will be processed December 15, 2014.  For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run ‘A’ off-cycle will be dated Friday, December 19, 2014.

The Regents’ on-cycle files for the period ending December 6, 2014 will be processed.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Regents’ Run ‘B’ off-cycle payroll files for the period ending December 6, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 16, 2014.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014
The Run 'B' off-cycle for the payroll period ending December 6, 2014 continues to be scheduled for December 17, 2014.  For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run ‘B’ off-cycle will be dated Monday, December 22, 2014.

Friday, December 19, 2014
Payday for the payroll period ending December 6, 2014.

Regents’ Run ‘C’ off-cycle payroll files for the period ending December 6, 2014 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 19, 2014.

First opportunity for Time and Labor interface agencies to have time and leave files for the period ending December 20, 2014 submitted to the Department of Administration for processing by 5:00 p.m. on December 19, 2014. (The files would normally be due on Monday, December 22, 2014).  Last opportunity to submit files will be noon on Monday, December 22, 2014.

Monday, December 22, 2014
The Run 'C' off-cycle for the payroll period ending December 6, 2014 continues to be scheduled for December 22, 2014.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  This is the final off-cycle for calendar year 2014.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplemental and/or adjustment run controls for the Run C off-cycle. All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  The check issue date for the Run 'C' off-cycle will be Monday, December 29, 2014. (It would normally be on Thursday, December 25, 2014).

Please note that paysheets for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending December 20, 2014 will be created on Monday, December 22, 2014, instead of the normal day on Tuesday, December 23, 2014, to allow for maximum preliminary payroll calculation opportunities.  Some job actions (i.e., FLSA Status change) must be entered by 6:00 PM on December 22, 2014 in order to be reflected on the paysheets for this period.

The first on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending December 20, 2014 will also occur December 22, 2014.  (It would normally be on Tuesday, December 23, 2014.)  For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) into SHARP by 3:30 p.m.  After Time Administration runs at 3:30 PM, payable time must be approved by 6:00 p.m. in order for a paycheck record to be created.

Time and Labor interface agencies can submit time and leave files for the period ending December 20, 2014 to the Department of Administration for processing by 7:30 a.m. to be processed at 7:45 a.m. or by noon to be processed at 12:30 p.m. on December 22, 2014.

NOTE: Terminations and Retirements must be entered by 6:00 PM on December 22, 2014 and reported time must be submitted by 11:00 AM or 3:30 PM in order for leave payouts to be calculated correctly.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014
The second on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending December 20, 2014 will occur December 23, 2014. Please note there will be only two preliminary pay calculations for the period ending December 20, 2014.

Regents’ on-cycle payroll files for the period ending December 20, 2014 are due to the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 23, 2014. (The files would normally be due on Thursday, December 25, 2014).

Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Christmas Eve ½ Day Holiday

Final pay confirmation for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending December 20, 2014 will occur December 24, 2014.  Due to this being a half-day holiday, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 11:30 a.m.  Payable time must be approved by noon.  All non-health benefit deductions and tax data changes must also be entered by noon on December 24, 2014 in order to be reflected in the final paycheck created for the employee.  The check issue date for the on-cycle will be Friday, January 2, 2015.

Regents’ Run ‘A’ off-cycle payroll files for the period ending December 20, 2014 are due to the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 24, 2014.

Thursday, December 25, 2014
Christmas Holiday

Friday, December 26, 2014
Christmas Holiday 

Monday, December 29, 2014
The Run ‘A’ off-cycle for the period ending December 20, 2014 will be processed December 29, 2014.  For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run ‘A’ off-cycle will be dated Friday, January 2, 2015.

The Regents’ on-cycle files for the period ending December 20, 2014 will be processed.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Regents’ Run ‘B’ off-cycle payroll files for the period ending December 20, 2014 are due to the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 30, 2014.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014
The Run 'B' off-cycle for the payroll period ending December 20, 2014 continues to be scheduled for December 31, 2014.  For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run ‘B’ off-cycle will be dated Monday, January 6, 2015.

Attached is a revised calendar for the month of December 2014 that highlights the payroll processing schedule changes due to the Christmas holidays.  The informational circular for key payroll processing dates in December for calendar year end activities will be released at a later date.  The attached calendar is intended for use as a supplementary reference tool only; it does not contain the level of detail that is included in the narrative portion of this informational circular.

Please note the changes to the payroll processing schedule and adjust your schedules accordingly. If 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 who are interested in subscribing to the Infolist, but have not yet done so, can subscribe at http://da.ks.gov/sharp/infolist.htm.

SG:NTR:ccl

Attachment

Printable version of 15-P-014

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-015

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 13-p-008

Effective Date: Payroll Period Ending December 20, 2014

Contact Name: Joyce Dickerson

Ph: (785)296-3979

Email: joyce.dickerson@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Change in Organization Dues Deduction for SEAK Members

The organization dues for the State Employees Association of Kansas (SEAK) will be increased from $6.50 to $7.50 for regular members (ORG050) and from $3.50 to $4.50 for single, head of household members (ORG051) per biweekly payroll period.  The new rates will become effective with the payroll period beginning December 7, 2014 and ending December 20, 2014, paid January 2, 2015.

Currently, organization dues must be entered into SHARP as two separate deduction codes:  one organizational dues deduction code and one corresponding fee deduction code.  In this case, the new rate for deduction code ORG050 will increase from $6.44 to $7.44 and the fee (ORF050) will remain at $.06 (for a total of $7.50 per biweekly payroll period).  The new rate for deduction code ORG051 will increase from $3.44 to $4.44 and the fee (ORF051) will remain at $.06 (for a total of $4.50 per biweekly payroll period).

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team is responsible for making this change in the SHARP system.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring this change is reflected in their individual systems effective with the payroll period noted above.

 SG:NTR:ccl

Printable version of 15-P-015

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-016

Effective Date: Payroll Period Ending December 20, 2014

OSM Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: earl.brynds@da.ks.gov

KDHE Contact Name: Delos DeCelle     

Ph: (785) 296-3667     

Email: ddecelle@kdheks.gov
Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Addition of new Health Reimbursement Accounts/Medical Benefit Plans and Deduction Codes and Other Changes for Group Health Insurance Plan Year 2015

The Health Care Commission has approved adding Aetna as a new medical vendor for plan year 2015.  In addition, beginning with plan year 2015, those employees enrolled in Plan C that are not eligible for a Health Savings Account (HSA) may now elect a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA).  A Health Reimbursement Account is an employer-sponsored plan that has similarities to both a Health Care Flexible Spending Account and a Health Savings Account. However, contributions are funded entirely by the employer - no employee contributions are permitted, the HRA is not portable and any remaining funds at the end of the year will not roll into the next plan year.

To accommodate the new medical vendor and the HRA option processing, the following new Plan Type (68) and Benefit Plans/Deduction codes are being added in SHARP effective 12/7/2014:

For plan year (PY) 2015, the Health Care Commission has again approved making the employer contribution amount to an HSA and also an HRA benefit option in two equal installments.  The first installment will be made during the second pay period in January (January 16, 2015 paycheck date) and the second installment will be made during the first pay period in July (July 2, 2015 paycheck date).  This employer contribution will be processed in SHARP for each employee participating through the State of Kansas health insurance program in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and making the required employee contribution to an HSA, or if not eligible for an HSA is eligible for an HRA. For employees who still have a balance in their Health Care Flexible Spending Account on December 31, 2014, both the prorated bi-annual employer contribution and employee contributions will be delayed until after March 15, 2015.  Employee HSA contributions will continue to be deducted semi-monthly throughout PY 2015.  However, the January 2015 employee deductions will occur on the second and third paychecks of January.  All other employee deductions for 2015 will occur as normal on the first and second paychecks of the remaining months.

For both HDHP benefit options (Blue Cross and Aetna) for 2015, the combined total for both HSA (and HRA) bi-annual employer contribution amounts for full-time employees will be $1,500 for single coverage and $2,250 for dependent coverage. For part-time employees, the combined total for both HSA (and HRA) bi-annual employer contribution amounts will be $1,125.20 for single coverage and $1,687.60 for dependent coverage.  Prorated employer contribution amounts for all employees will be as follows depending on the month the employee is enrolled for coverage:

For employees who are enrolled after the beginning of 2015 and for when a hire occurs in the middle of the month, the coverage begin date entered into MAP should be effective for the beginning of the month following 30 days from the date of hire and the appropriate bi-annual prorated employer contribution should also be processed effective on the first paycheck of that month.  For example, a new employee is hired on June 17, 2015 and enrolls in HSA.  The coverage begin date should be entered effective August 1, 2015 and the HSA prorated bi-annual employer contribution for August will be processed on their first paycheck in August.

For all employees, the agency GHI composite rate cost for the HDHP benefit options will continue to be reduced by the amount of the semi-monthly HSA/HRA employer contribution.  All GHI, HSA, and HRA employer contributions will be charged to Account Code 519500.

Beginning in 2015, a pared down list of valid benefit plans/deduction codes will be used for Health Benefit processing from the MAP Health Benefits system into SHARP.  The valid benefit plans/deduction codes listing is attached to this circular.  Regents should also use this list of valid codes when submitting their pay detail files to Payroll Services beginning with the January 2, 2015 paycheck.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP system for these changes.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring that the new medical deduction codes as well as the Health Reimbursement Account processing procedures are implemented in their individual systems effective for the payroll period noted above. 

Attachment
Printable version of 15-P-016

SG:NTR:ewb

INFORMATIONAL CIRCULAR NO: 15-P-017
Effective Date: Immdeiately

Contact Name: Joyce Dickerson

Ph: (785) 296-3979

Email: joyce.dickerson@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: December 2014 Payroll Processing and Updated December Processing Calendar

As 2014 calendar year-end approaches, the Office of Systems Management is making preparations for the issuance of calendar year 2014 Wage and Tax Statements (Forms W-2) and Non-Resident Alien Compensation Statements (1042-S).  Any 2014 paycheck adjustments processed after the established cut-off dates will update the employee’s calendar year 2015 balances; a corrected W-2 (Form W-2C) for 2014 will not be issued for the employee involved.

FINAL 2014 PAYCHECK

The final on-cycle paychecks for calendar year 2014 will be issued December 19, 2014.  Payroll transactions for the December 19, 2014 on-cycle paychecks will be posted to SMART on Wednesday night, December 17, 2014.  The final off-cycle paychecks for calendar year 2014 will be issued on December 29, 2014 (generated from the off-cycle processed on December 22, 2014). 

PAYCHECK ADJUSTMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTALS
SHARP agencies have until 6:00 p.m. on December 22, 2014 to enter paycheck adjustment requests for any 2014 paychecks.  Adjustments processed in the December 22, 2014 off-cycle payroll will be reflected on the employee’s 2014 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 2014 paycheck has been previously adjusted and requires additional adjustment, form DA-180, SHARP Paycheck Reversal/Adjustment/Supplemental, should be submitted to the Office of Systems Management, Payroll Section by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, December 15, 2014.

Payroll Services staff will make every effort to process all DA-180 forms submitted by 5:00 p.m. on December 15, 2014 for inclusion in the December 22, 2014 off-cycle.  However, if a large volume of DA-180 forms is received on the December 15, 2014 cut-off date, Payroll Services cannot guarantee that all forms will be processed as calendar year 2014 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, 2014 which are adjusting paychecks issued prior to January 1, 2015 will not result in a W-2C; the adjustment will update the employee’s 2015 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, 2014 will update the employee’s 2015 payroll balances.

REGENTS’ INSTITUTIONS: ON-CYCLE FILES
Regent on-cycle files for the pay period ending December 6, 2014, paid December 19, 2014 are due to the Department of Administration by 4:00 p.m. on December 11, 2014.

REGENTS’ INSTITUTIONS: OFF-CYCLE FILES
2014 Paycheck Reversals
Regent Institutions must submit all transmittals for 2014 paycheck reversals by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2014 in order to update the employee’s 2014 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 2015 payroll balances regardless of the paycheck issue date of the paycheck being reversed.  Reversals for paychecks issued prior to January 1, 2015 submitted after 4:00 p.m. on December 19, 2014 should default the pay adjust check date to January 1, 2015.

2014 Adjustments and Supplementals
In order to update employee balances for 2014, any paycheck adjustments and supplementals must be submitted no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2014.  The Run C off-cycle for the pay period ending December 6, 2014 generated on the night of Monday, December 22, 2014 will have a check issue date of December 29, 2014; all activity for this off-cycle will be reflected in the employees’ 2014 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 2014 date.

2015 Adjustments and Supplementals
With the exception of arrearages or refunds for OASDI and/or Medicare for tax years prior to 2015, any adjustments or supplementals submitted after 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2014, will be considered to be 2015 business regardless of the pay period end date to which the pay is related.  Since this activity will be considered calendar year 2015 business, the employee’s 2015 balances will be updated.  These files should contain a ‘C’ indicating current year business and the pay adjust check date should be a 2015 date (regardless of the original paycheck issue date of the paycheck being adjusted -- if the original check date was prior to January 1, 2015, agencies should default the pay adjust check date to January 1, 2015).

With the exception of OASDI and/or Medicare tax refunds or arrearages for tax years prior to 2015, Regents institutions may continue to submit adjustments and supplementals throughout the month of January 2015 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 2015 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, 2014 deadline for the December 22, 2014 Run C’s off-cycle payroll will not be processed until the April 13, 2015 off-cycle payroll.  Since the files will be held, please do not begin submitting those files for processing until the week of April 6, 2015.  The deadline for submitting payroll interface files for the April 13, 2015 off-cycle is 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 10, 2015.

GENERAL REMINDERS

United Way and Community Health Charities
The deduction END date on the general deduction page for 2014 United Way or Community Health Charities contributions for both the UTDXXX and UTFXXX deduction codes should be dated between December 07, 2014 and December 20, 2014 in order for the last 2014 deduction to be taken on the paycheck issued December 19, 2014. Agencies should verify the deduction end date for all employees enrolled in United Way and/or Community Health Charities to ensure deductions are taken correctly.  For calendar year 2015, agencies can enter a new row effective-dated between December 07, 2014 and December 20, 2014 in order for the first deduction for United Way or Community Health Charities for 2015 to be taken on the January 2, 2015 paycheck.  If the deduction is to be taken over 27 pay periods, a deduction end date of December 20, 2015 should be entered.  Agencies should enter the total pay period amount authorized by the employee when establishing the UTDXXX deduction code for 2015. 

A batch process will run the night of December 19, 2014 to establish the fee portion (deduction code UTFXXX) of the 2015 United Way/Community Health Charities deduction.  The batch process will establish the UTFXXX deduction code with the same effective date and deduction end date as the UTDXXX deduction code for 2015.  This process will reduce the 2015 deduction amount (UTDXXX deduction code) by $.06 and create a UTFXXX deduction code which defaults to the Deduction Code table for a deduction of $.06; the sum of the UTDXXX and UTFXXX deduction codes for 2015 will match the employee’s authorized deduction amount.  Agencies should verify the deduction/fees set up for all employees enrolled in United Way and/or Community Health Charities beginning Monday, December 22, 2014 to ensure both the UTDXXX and UTFXXX deductions are taken correctly.  Please note that if agencies need to enter any 2015 United Way/Community Health Charities deductions after December 19, 2014, then both the UTDXXX and UTFXXX deduction codes for the employee will need to be entered by the agency.

Tax Information
Pursuant to IRS regulations, all employees claiming an exemption from federal withholding must file a new W-4 each calendar year. To facilitate this requirement, an email notification will be sent on December 1, 2014 to all SHARP employees who are exempt from federal withholding.  Notifications will be sent to the employee’s email address listed under ‘Update

My Profile’ in the Employee Self Service Center at: https://sharp.ks.gov/psp/ESS/?cmd=login.  Notifications will be sent to the agency payroll supervisor email address for those employees who lack an individual email address, and agencies will need to distribute the notifications to their employees.  For agency payroll/human resource staff, a worklist will be created that will identify these employees. The worklist will be sent on December 1, 2014 to the agency staff that has been designated as the Agency Payroll Administrator through the SHARP security roles.  The worklist can be accessed two ways in SHARP:  from the Home page, click on Worklist under Main Menu on the left side of the screen, or click on Worklist on the top right side of the screen next to Home.  For each employee on the worklist, your agency should contact the person to ensure the appropriate action is taken so that the desired tax status is in effect for 2015.  If your agency has no employees claiming an exemption from federal withholding the worklist will be empty.

SHARP employees are encouraged to use the Employee Self Service functionality to file their 2015 W-4s.  Employees should submit new paper W-4s by December 10, 2014 to allow adequate time for processing.

Agency personnel have until 6:00 p.m. on December 18, 2014 to enter all paper W-4s into the system.  Agency personnel are reminded that they also need to check the radio buttons ‘New W-4 Received’ on the employee’s ‘Federal Tax Data’ panel in SHARP for the effective-dated row 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 2015.

The KPAY320 will be processed the evening of December 18, 2014.  This process searches for all employees for whom a W-4 email notification has been sent.  If a new W-4 has not been received, a January 1, 2015 effective-dated row will be placed in the Employee Tax Data record.  The January 1, 2015 effective-dated row will update the employee’s marital status to ‘single’ with zero exemptions.

For any 2015 paper W-4s (for employees claiming exemption from withholding) received between December 18, 2014 and January 1, 2015, agency personnel will need to enter the data with a January 2, 2015 effective date.  Agency Workflow Administrators will also need to change the effective date to January 2, 2015 for any electronic W-4s received in this time period.

The KPAY320 will only insert new effective-dated rows for federal withholding tax.  Employees should be advised to also review their state tax withholding to determine if changes are needed.  Employees working in Kansas will need to complete a new Form K-4, either paper or on-line, to make any needed state tax withholding change.  See Payroll Informational Circular 15-P-004 issued September 10, 2014 for information pertaining to Employee Self Service K-4 update capability.

The 2015 Form W-4 will be posted to the Office of Systems Management’s website as soon as it is available from the IRS.

The KPAY320 will also enter a new-effective dated row in the SHARP federal tax data records on December 18, 2014 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 2015.  The new tax data row will be dated January 1, 2015.  The 8233 indicator on the tax data records should be updated once a form 8233 for calendar year 2015 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 whose current Federal Tax Data record in SHARP indicates the ‘Form 8233 Received’ checkbox does not contain a value of ‘Y’.

Deduction Information
All deductions for calendar year 2015 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.

-Optional Group Life Insurance: monthly, deducted on the second pay date of the month.

-Health Savings Accounts: semi-monthly, deducted on the first and second pay dates of the month except for January, deducted on the second and third pay dates of the month.
 

Arrearages/Advances
The collection of all outstanding payroll debts (arrearages or advances) must be completed either by personal reimbursement or paycheck deduction prior to the cut-off date of December 22, 2014.  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, 2014, and prior to December 22, 2014, must be sent to the Office of Systems Management, Payroll Section for processing in order to impact the 2014 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 2014 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, 2014 by personal reimbursement as soon as possible.

Payroll arrearages and advances, not including advances for Group Health Insurance for active employees and specific arrearages requested for exclusion, outstanding as of December 31, 2014 will be sent to the State of Kansas Set-Off Program for collection.  Agencies are allowed to request certain debts not be submitted to the Set-Off Program for the period of one calendar year by submitting a DA-181, SHARP Exclusion Request Form to Payroll Services. All DA-181 forms are due to Payroll Services no later than 4:00 p.m. on December 19, 2014.  Please remember that these forms are only for those arrearages that are actively being collected.

On December 31, 2014, Payroll Services will generate a file of those identified outstanding payroll arrearages which will be sent to the Set-Off Program for collection.  KPAY229 will be run to remove those identified outstanding payroll arrearages from SHARP.  Please be aware that any employee inquiries for specific information regarding the debts submitted by Payroll Services to Setoff will be directed to the individual employee’s agency.

W-2s
Please note that if an employee has an active mailing address on the SHARP Personal Information/ Modify a Person/ Contact Information page, the mailing address will be used for mailing the W-2.  If the employee has no active 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 the employee’s Contact Information page by 6:00 p.m. on December 23, 2014 to guarantee the updated information is included in the W-2 data. Although SHARP agencies have until December 23, 2014 to update the Contact Information page, it is strongly recommended that these changes be made as soon as they are known.  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 19, 2014.  Since the W-2 form can only accommodate 30 characters in Address 1 and Address 2, please limit your employees’ address lengths.  Abbreviations should be used as needed to stay within the limit. 

The W-2 programs will be executed anytime between December 29, 2014 and January 2, 2015.  Electronic W-2 forms through Employee Self Service will be available on or before January 2, 2015.  For those employees not consenting to receive their W-2 forms electronically, W-2 forms will be printed and mailed on or before January 31, 2015.  Email notification of electronic W-2 availability will be provided for employees who have consented.  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 2014 that highlights the key payroll processing activity.  This calendar does not provide the same level of detail as that provided in this informational circular.  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://da.ks.gov/sharp/infolist.htm.

Attachment
Printable version of 15-P-017

SG:NTR:kao  

Informational Circular No.: 15-P-018

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-012

Effective Date: January 1, 2015

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: New State Withholding Tax Tables Effective for Paychecks Issued On or After January 1, 2015

The Kansas Department of Revenue has issued new tables for the percentage method of withholding for 2015.  Please note that the standard deduction for one withholding allowance remains unchanged at $ 2,250.00 per year in calendar year 2015.  The attached tables are to be used in computing state tax withholding for wages paid on or after January 1, 2015.  In order to use the attached tables, income must be annualized.  To annualize income, multiply state taxable income for the current bi-weekly pay period by twenty-six pay periods. 

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team is responsible for making the necessary updates to the SHARP payroll system to implement the new withholding tax rates. Regents’ institutions are responsible for implementing the new withholding tax rates in their respective payroll systems. 

SG:NTR:ewb

Attachment:  Table for Percentage Method of Withholding

Printable version of 15-P-018

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-019

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-014
Effective Date: January 1, 2015

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: New Federal Withholding Tax Tables Effective for Paychecks Issued on or After January 1, 2015

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued new tables for the percentage method of withholding for 2015.  Therefore, the attached tables will be used in SHARP for computing federal tax withholding for wages paid on or after January 1, 2015.  In order to use the attached tables, income must be annualized.  To annualize income, multiply federal taxable income for the current bi-weekly pay period by twenty-six pay periods.  In addition, the value of one withholding allowance has increased to $4,000 for 2015.   

Regents should also note that the annual amount to add to Nonresident Alien employee’s wages for calculating income tax withholding for 2015 has increased to $2,300.  In addition, Regents should check IRS Publication 1494 for any changed amounts when computing tax levies for garnishments.  Currently, the IRS has not yet released Publication 1494 for 2015.

IRS regulations continue to require employees claiming exempt status from federal tax withholding (for income earned in the United States) to file a new W-4 form annually.  Employees are eligible for the exempt status if the following criteria are met:  1) the employee had no income tax liability in the previous year, and 2) the employee anticipates no income tax liability in the upcoming year.   

An e-mail notification was sent on December 1, 2014 to all SHARP employees who were exempt from federal withholding in 2014.  The notification reminded employees that a new W-4 must be submitted to continue the federal tax withholding exempt status for 2015.  The notification was sent to the employee’s e-mail address listed under ‘Update My Profile’ in the Employee Self Service Center at Sharp Login. Agencies will need to distribute notifications to their employees who lack an individual e-mail address.  

SHARP employees are encouraged to use the Employee Self Service functionality to file their 2015 W-4s.  The 2015 Form W-4 is immediately available at the IRS website at IRS W4 and at the Office of Systems Management website at Document Center.  Employees should submit their new W-4s as soon as possible to allow adequate time for processing.  Agency personnel have until 6:00 p.m. on December 18, 2014 to enter all paper W-4s into the system.  It is important that agency personnel check the ‘New W-4 Received’ radio button on the employee’s ‘Federal Tax Data 1’ page in SHARP for the effective-dated row that is entered.  Agency Workflow Administrators also need to check the ‘New W-4 Received’ radio button on electronic W-4s submitted by the employee for calendar year 2015. 

The KPAY320 will process during the batch cycle generated on the evening of December 18, 2014.  This process will search for employees for whom a W-4 notification was sent.  If a new W-4 has not been received, a January 1, 2015 effective-dated row will be placed in the employee’s Tax Data record, and will update the employee’s marital status to ‘single’ and exemptions to ‘zero’. 

For any Form W-4s for 2015 received between December 18, 2014 and January 1, 2015, agency personnel will need to enter the data with a January 2, 2015 effective date.  Agency Workflow Administrators also will need to change the effective date to January 2, 2015 for any electronic FormsW-4s for 2015 received in this time period.  Please refer to the Employee Payroll Tax Data section of the Payroll module in the on-line CBT (Computer Based Training) for specific instructions on entering employee tax data information and worklist maintenance.    

IRS regulations require non-resident alien employees who claim an exempt status from federal withholding tax up to their treaty limit (for income earned in the United States) to file a new 8233 annually.  Employees who claimed a non-resident alien exempt status in calendar year

2014 must file a new 8233 form for calendar year 2015 if they wish to continue their non-resident alien status.  As a reminder, Regents Institutions are responsible for the accuracy of the eligibility of their non-resident alien employees and for monitoring maximum presence.   

The KPAY320 processed on December 18, 2014,  will enter a new effective dated row in the SHARP federal tax data records for employees with a special tax withholding status of ‘Non-Resident Alien’ to reflect that no 8233 form has been submitted for calendar year 2015.  The new tax data row will be dated January 1, 2015.  Regents Institutions are responsible for updating the 8233 indicator on the tax data records once a form 8233 for calendar year 2015 has been submitted. 

The KPAY320 creates a report (by SHARP agency) that identifies all agency employees whose exempt withholding status was updated in SHARP on the night of December 18, 2014. The report will be available in the agency directory on the MVS on Friday, December 19, 2014.  A report 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 whose tax data records indicate a current 8233 form has not been received.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Services, will make all of the necessary changes in the computation of withholding taxes for SHARP agencies.  Regents’ institutions are responsible for implementing the new withholding tax rates in their respective payroll systems. 

SG:NTR:ewb

Attachment: 
Tables for Percentage Method of Withholding

Printable version of 15-P-019

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-020

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Jennifer Holthaus

Ph: (785) 368-6313

Email: jennifer.holthaus@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Changes to Procedures for Lump Sum Income Withholding Orders

In September 2013, Payroll Services issued payroll informational circular 14-P-006, Implementation of Lump Sum Withholding Orders per HB2015.  HB2015, passed during the 2013 Legislative Session, requires a 14-day notice be provided to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) prior to a lump sum payment being made by a payor (employer) to an obligor (employee) for whom an active income withholding order (IWO) with an arrears amount has been served on the employer. The 14-day notice is required in order to allow DCF to request a new IWO specifying the amount the employer is required to withhold from the lump sum payment. Legislation allows the employer the right to withhold up to 100% of the lump sum wages to pay towards the IWO arrears amount.

 As a full year has passed since implementation of the Lump Sum IWO legislation, DCF Child Support Services division has conducted a review of the procedures and has notified Payroll Services of the following change going forward:

While maintaining the legal right to withhold up to 100% of the lump sum wages, DCF’s intent is to cap the withholding on lump sum wages at 50% of the lump sum bonus going forward.   In order to implement the 50% cap on lump sum wage withholding going forward, DCF will be modifying the existing lump sum income withholding orders issued to Payroll Services to specify on the order a flat dollar amount to be withheld.  This will require Payroll Services to provide to DCF the amount of the anticipated bonus when providing the notification to DCF.  Payroll Services has made modifications to the KPAY226 “Employees with Title IV-D IWO Garnishments with Arrears”, to include the known amount of the longevity bonus an employee is to receive.  For employees identified on the KPAY226 as requiring notification of lump sum payments, any future payment related to leave payouts will require the agency to provide the following information

• Employee Name
• Estimated pay check date of the lump sum payment
• Total hours (Sick and Vacation, if both are to be paid) to be paid to employee 

to Jennifer Holthaus in Payroll Services at Jennifer.Holthaus@da.ks.gov NO LATER THAN 21 DAYS PRIOR TO THE CHECK DATE ON WHICH THE PAYMENT IS SCHEDULED TO BE PAID. A calculation of the total amount to be paid to the employee for leave payouts will be provided to DCF, based on the information provided by the agency.  DCF has been made aware that in the case of leave payouts, this may be an estimated lump sum amount if it is provided prior to the actual pay period in which the payout occurs.  DCF is in agreement with that approach as they are retaining the legal right to withhold up to 100% of the bonus amount.    

SG:NTR:ewb

Printable version of 15-P-020

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-021

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 08-P-028

Effective Date: Payroll Period Ending January 3, 2015

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Organization Dues Change for ORG133

The organization dues for members of the Public Service Employees Local Union 1290 P.E. (represents employees at the University of Kansas and the University of Kansas Medical Center)

will increase from $13.47 to $13.56 per biweekly payroll period.  The new rate will become effective with the payroll period beginning December 21, 2014 and ending January 3, 2015, paid January 16, 2015.

The amounts listed above include the deduction amount (ORG133 deduction code) and the $0.06 service fee (ORF133 deduction code) added together. The new rate for deduction code ORG133 will increase from $13.41 to $13.50 and the fee (ORF133) will remain at $.06 (for a total deduction of $13.56 per biweekly payroll period).

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP system.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring that this change is made in their respective systems effective with the payroll period noted above.

SG:NTR:ewb

Printable Version of 15-P-021

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-022

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-015

Effective Date: January 1, 2015

Contact Name: Kathy Ogle

Ph: (785) 296-2290

Email: kathy.ogle@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: IRS Cents-Per-Mile Valuation Rule Changes for Calendar Year 2015

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the standard mileage rate will increase to 57.5 cents beginning January 1, 2015 under the Cents-Per-Mile method of valuing an employee’s personal (commuting) use of a state-owned or leased vehicle.  The standard mileage rate for business is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile.  The Cents-Per-Mile valuation is one of several methodologies that can be used to calculate fringe benefit income.  See Informational Circular No. 05-P-023*.  Using this methodology, fringe benefit income is calculated by multiplying the 57.5 cents rate by the number of personal (commuting) miles driven by the employee in the state-owned or leased vehicle.  To be eligible to use the Cents-Per-Mile method, at least 50% of the vehicle’s total mileage is used for the employer’s trade or business, or the vehicle is primarily used by employees and the total mileage for the vehicle exceeds 10,000 miles per year.  The Cents-Per-Mile method may not be used for ‘luxury’ vehicles.  If a vehicle is first made available to an employee for personal (commuting) use in calendar year 2015 and the agency wishes to use the Cents-Per-Mile method, the fair market value of the vehicle cannot exceed $16,000 for a car (unchanged from 2013 and 2014), and $17,500 (up from $17,300 in 2014) for a passenger truck or van.  Agencies and employees are also reminded that the only personal use of a state-owned or leased vehicle allowed under state law is to commute between the employee’s work station and home, and then in only limited situations.

Please note that this Informational Circular does not impact the State’s privately owned vehicle mileage reimbursement rate. 

*Informational Circular No. 05-P-023 contains an incorrect K.A.R. reference number in the next to the last paragraph of the POLICY section.  The reference should be:  Kansas Administrative Regulation 1-17-2a(b)(1).

SG:NTR:kao

Printable version of 15-P-022

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-023

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-030 Attachment A

Effective Date: Pay Period Beginning December 21, 2014; Ending January 3, 2015; Paid January 16, 2015

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: KPERS Employer Rate Reduction for the Remainder of Fiscal Year 2015

Pursuant to the Governor’s announced allotment plan, some KPERS employer contribution rates will be reduced for the second half of Fiscal Year 2015.  The rate for Regular and Corrections KPERS members will be reduced from the current rate of 12.12 percent (base rate of 11.27 percent plus Death and Disability rate of 0.85 percent) to a composite rate of 9.5 percent (base rate of 8.65 percent plus Death and Disability rate of 0.85 percent).  This rate reduction also includes Legislators and legislative agencies.  However, it does not include KPERS Police and Fire members and Judges.  The reduced contribution rates will be effective with the payroll period beginning December 21, 2014 and ending January 3, 2015, paid January 16, 2015.

Please refer to the attachment for a revised listing of all KPERS employer rates.  The employer rates that have been reduced are in bold font on the attachment.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP payroll system to reflect these changes in employee contribution rates.  Regent institutions are responsible for ensuring these rate changes are reflected in their individual systems.

Attachment

Printable Version of 15-P-023

SG:NTR:ewb

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-024

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-018

Effective Date: Pay Period Beginning January 4, 2015; Ending January 17, 2015; Paid January 30, 2015

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: New KPERS Employee Contribution Rate for Tier 1 Members

Pursuant to Sub House Bill (HB) 2333 passed in the 2012 legislature, the KPERS employee contribution rate for Tier 1 members will increase from the current 5% of such member’s compensation to 6% beginning January 1, 2015.  The new contribution rate of 6% will be deducted from Tier 1 member’s pay effective with the payroll period beginning January 4, 2015 and ending January 17, 2015, paid January 30, 2015.  This rate increase also includes Tier 1 correctional and legislative employees. 

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP payroll system to reflect these changes in employee contribution rates.  Regent institutions are responsible for ensuring these rate changes are reflected in their individual systems.

SG:NTR:ewb
​

Printable Version of 15-P-024

Informational Circular NO: 15-P-025
Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-019

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Carmen Waters

Ph: (785) 296-7059

Email: carmen.waters@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Information Pertaining to Employee 2014 W-2 Statements.

The final version of the KTXPR55 W-2 listing has been generated.  The KTXPR55 report contains all information printed on the 2014 W-2 Wage and Tax Statement for each employee of your agency.  Agencies will find the report in their agency mailbox on the MVS with a date of December 30, 2014.  This report should be downloaded and retained by your agency to meet your historical record needs.  This report will be removed from your MVS mailbox and will be no longer available for downloading after January 28, 2015.

The KTXPR55 W-2 listing is sorted as follows: 1) by department number, 2) alphabetically by last name, and 3) by social security number (SSN).  Totals are included for each 10-digit department number as well as a grand total summary for the entire agency.  The 'DIST. TOTAL' represents the total number of 2014 W-2's that were printed for your agency.  The Department of Administration will be preparing a SMART voucher to bill each agency for the applicable costs associated with mailing the 2014 W-2's.

In those instances where an employee has worked for more than one department, one W-2 form has been prepared which includes earnings and deductions for all departments.  The W-2 information for these employees will be included on the KTXPR55 W-2 listing for the department number appearing on the employee's most current job record.

The standard W-2 will be used again for 2014.  The standard W-2 is one page, contains four copies (a copy to be used with the employees federal return, two copies that can be used for the employees state and local returns, and a copy for the employee records).  For those employees consenting to receive their W-2 electronically, the form will be available on Employee Self Service.  For those receiving a printed W-2, the form will be printed and pressure-sealed. 

Agencies are reminded that the mailing address on the Contact Information page will be the primary address used for mailing the paper W-2 to employees not consenting to receive an electronic W-2.  If the employee has no mailing address, then the employee's home address will be used for mailing the W-2.  Most employees should continue to receive their W-2’s at home, since the majority of employees do not have a mailing address.  The return address for all W-2 forms mailed this year will be the address of the Department of Administration’s Office of Printing & Mailing.

All paper 2014 W-2’s, which are considered undeliverable to the employees and are returned to the Office of Printing & Mailing by the U.S. Postal Service, will be retained until April 15, 2015.  At that time, they will be destroyed.

In cases where the 2014 W-2 Wage and Tax Statement information does not agree with your records, please notify this office with an explanation.  For all cases where the social security number is incorrect, please send a copy of the employee's social security card to this office with the explanation.  State agencies are not authorized to make changes on W-2 forms.  The Social Security Administration and the Kansas Department of Revenue must be notified of corrections made by the Department of Administration.

For employees needing duplicate W-2’s for years 2009 through 2014, agencies are expected to recommend that employees consent to view these W-2’s electronically using ‘W-2/W-2c Consent’ found in Employee Self Service at https://sharp.ks.gov/psp/ESS/, and then viewing and printing the duplicate using ‘View W-2/W-2c Forms’.  For those employees not wishing to consent to receiving their W-2 Form electronically, they should use the ‘W-2 Reissue Request’ functionality also found in Employee Self Service to request a paper W-2 duplicate if a paper W-2 was processed for the year being requested.  Desk Aids that explain these procedures, Desk Aid - View W-2/W-2c Forms - Employee Self Service and Desk Aid - W-2 Reissue Request - Employee Self Service may be printed and distributed to employees to assist them in this process. Agencies are reminded that employees who retired or terminated from State service on or after September 16, 2011, have access to consent to view/view/print and to request duplicate paper W-2’s for 18 months following their date of separation, per Informational Circular 12-P-011 and should be directed to utilize Employee Self Service to consent/view/print or request a duplicate W-2.  For requesting paper W-2 reissues, after logging into the system and selecting ‘W-2 Reissue Request’, the employee will be asked to review the Tax Address and make any needed corrections.  Please note that the Tax Address is where the reissued paper W-2 will be mailed, so it is imperative that the address is correct.  The employee will also need to specify for which tax year (2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, or 2009) the reissued W-2 is needed.  Duplicate W-2’s for 2009- 2013 are currently available, and duplicate W-2’s for 2014 will be available starting on Wednesday, February 11, 2014.  Please note that duplicate W-2’s for the year 2009 will no longer be available after mid-April 2015.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Services will continue to provide duplicate paper W-2’s for those employees who cannot access Employee Self Service.  Requests for duplicate W-2’s received by Payroll Services by noon of each Thursday will be processed Thursday afternoon and mailed the next day.  Agencies need to verify the mailing addresses for the W-2’s and submit the correct addresses to Payroll Services.  Agencies are requested to submit one blanket request for duplicate 2014 W-2's for each printing.  The requests should be in employee ID order and should include each employee's name and correct mailing address in addition to the employee ID.  Requests for duplicate W-2's for years prior to 2014 should be submitted separately.  Duplicate 1042S form requests should also be submitted separately.  Requests for either duplicate W-2 or 1042S forms should be directed to Payroll Services at telephone number 785-296-7059.

Attachment A has been included with this circular to assist agencies in answering questions regarding the W-2 forms.  The attachment defines what items must be added (+) or subtracted (-) to arrive at the amounts shown on the W-2 form.  In addition, agencies may also consider utilizing the SHARP KPAY318, “Year to Date Balances” report to assist in answering W-2 related questions.  The report is available through SHARP using the path: Home / Payroll for North America / Periodic Payroll Events USA / Balance Reviews / Year to Date Balances.  Employee ID and year are required to run this report.  See Accounts and Reports Informational Circular No. 97-P-005 dated October 31, 1996 for additional information regarding the KPAY318. 

Please note that on-cycle and off-cycle paychecks dated December 19, 2014 and off-cycle checks dated December 22, 2014 and December 29, 2014 are included in the 2014 W-2 amounts.   

Attachment A
Attachment B
Printable Version of 15-P-025

SG:NTR:kao

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-026

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-p-020

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Carmen Waters

Ph: (785) 296-7059

Email: carmen.waters@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: 2015 W-2 Production Report Schedule

In an effort to reduce the time and effort required of Regents and SHARP agency personnel as well as Payroll Services staff at the end of the calendar year, the 2015 W-2 production reports will be produced throughout the calendar year.  By producing the reports on a scheduled basis during the year, the work associated with identifying and correcting errors/address problems can be more evenly distributed.  The following is a list of the dates the 2015 W-2 production reports are scheduled to be generated:

Friday, February 13, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, May 22, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Friday, July 17, 2015
Friday, August 14, 2015
Friday, September 11, 2015
Friday, October 9, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
Monday, December 7, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
Monday, January 4, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - Tentative Final Load

Agencies should anticipate finding copies of the KTXPR55 and TAX910ER reports in their agency mailbox on the MVS on the first working day following the above listed scheduled dates. Errors appearing on TAX910ER for SHARP agencies will be monitored and corrected by the Office of Systems Management.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for monitoring and correcting their own errors in a timely manner.  No action is required by the agency on the KTXPR55.  Once the W-2’s for 2015 are complete, a final KTXPR55 report will be generated for each agency’s information and review.

In addition, the Regent’s institutions will receive the report TAX900 in their agency mailbox on the MVS. The TAX900 report should be thoroughly reviewed and any correcting transactions processed timely.  It will continue to be the Regent’s responsibility to use the Management Reporting Interface file (MRI) to reconcile the year-to-date amounts in SHARP to the year-to-date amounts in their individual payroll systems.

SG:NTR:kao

 Printable version of 15-P-026

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-027

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 11-P-004

Effective Date: January 2, 2015

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: earl.brynds@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Modification of Earnings Code S16 due to Memorandum of Agreement between the State of Kansas and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 64 Signed January 2, 2015

The Memorandum of Agreement, Article 25, between the State of Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 64 signed in January 2015 now stipulates that if Parole Duty Officers respond to calls after regularly scheduled work hours, weekends and holidays in accordance to departmental policy IMPP 14-147 – Parole Duty Officer, duty officer hours shall be compensated at a rate of $28.00 per day (previously $1.25 per hour) for hours beyond regularly scheduled work as designated duty officer.  As a result of the agreement, the description for earnings code S16 has been modified in SHARP effective January 4, 2015 as follows:

Earnings                                                    Short                               Effective Code            Description                            Description                      Date    

S16              Duty Officer Pay-FOP-$28.00    Shft FOP                          1/4/2015

The Office of Personnel Services has also updated the S16 Time Reporting Code (TRC) to reflect the S16 Earnings Code changes. In addition, timesheet entry will now allow only a one (1) to be entered per day. If a value other than 1 is entered on the timesheet, the following message will display upon Saving and validating time worked or Submitting: “Daily quantity for TRC S16 must be between 1 and 1. Current total for 2015-01-05 is X. (13504,234). Review all your entries for the TRC and adjust as necessary.”

KDOC employees will enter a ‘1’ on their timesheet for each day they need to be paid the $28.00. The system configuration will automatically calculate the total amount to be paid over the bi-weekly pay period for the S16 earnings.

 The S16 earnings code is only available for use by Department of Corrections.  The details of the agreement can be found at http://admin.ks.gov/docs/default-source/ops/labor-relations/docmoa.pdf?sfvrsn=4.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team, is responsible for updating this earnings code in the SHARP system.

 
Printable version of 15-P-027

SG:NTR:ewb

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-028

Effective Date: December 21, 2014

Contact Name: Nancy Ruoff

Ph: (785) 296-2853

Email: nancy.ruoff@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Addition of Earnings Code 'COM' for Reimbursement of Personal Communication Devices Used for State Business and Other Accounting Policy and Procedure Regarding Personal/State-Issued Mobile Devices

Executive Order 14-06, signed by the Governor on December 9, 2014, authorizes mobile device reimbursement for State employees to offset the cost to the employee for using his/her personal device for State business.  The amount of the monthly mobile device reimbursement shall be capped at and not exceed the rate of $30.00 per employee.  Mobile device allowances other than through reimbursement are prohibited.

The approved mobile device reimbursement will be paid monthly and included in the employee’s paycheck.  However, the reimbursement will not be considered as taxable income to the employee since it is a reimbursement for the business use of an employee’s personal mobile device.  Additionally, this reimbursement does not constitute an increase to base pay, and will not be included in the calculation of percentage increases to base pay due to salary increases, promotions, etc.

In order to administer the reimbursement, a new earnings code has been added to SHARP effective December 21, 2014.  The following earnings code is eligible to be used starting with the pay period beginning December 21, 2014 through January 3, 2015 paid January 16, 2015.

This new earnings code will not be included in KPERS wages for calculating KPERS paycheck deductions. Earnings code COM will be mapped to flow through payroll using the same account codes as earnings code (MVT) for the reimbursement of moving expenses.  Therefore, the account codes that COM is mapped to are 510100, 510110, 511100, and 511110.

SHARP Agencies
The Office of Personnel Services has created the COM (Communication Device) Time Reporting Code (TRC) and has mapped the COM TRC to the COM Earnings Code effective December 21, 2014. The COM TRC is now visible in Time and Labor timesheet TRC dropdown lists. The dollar amount for COM should be entered on the second Saturday of the time period or earlier in the pay period if the employee is not active on the second Saturday. 

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team, is responsible for adding the new earnings code in the SHARP system.  Regents’ institutions are responsible for implementing the new earnings code in their payroll systems.

Other Accounting Policy and Procedure Regarding Personal/State-Issued Mobile Devices

Note that at a minimum, State business-related calls and/or data on an employee’s personal mobile device may be subject to disclosure requests under the Kansas Open Records Act.

Agencies shall maintain current records of employees designated to receive state-issued mobile devices or reimbursement for the use of personal mobile devices, in accordance with requirements established by the Office of Information Technology Services (OITS).

Note that state-issued as well as personally owned mobile devices for which reimbursement is received shall be enrolled into the Mobile Device Management product to be selected by OITS.

      Personal Mobile Device Reimbursement

The agency head or designee must provide documented approval of the reimbursement.  Additional information from OITS will follow.

In no instance will the employee be reimbursed more than the monthly cost to the employee in an amount not to exceed $30.00.

In order to receive reimbursement the mobile device number must be provided to the state under OITS procedures, including notification within five business days of any mobile device number changes.

      State-Issued Mobile Devices

For review and audit trail purposes, monthly statements from mobile service providers for state-issued mobile devices are required. These should be attached to the agency's payment voucher documentation.

The agency shall review the monthly statement for billing accuracy and to ensure that any additional charges resulting from personal use are reimbursed to the agency. The SMART electronic voucher approval indicates the agency’s acknowledgement and review of compliance with the mobile device policy.

More than de minimis personal use of a State-issued mobile device without written authorization by the employee’s agency head is prohibited except in emergencies. When personal use causes the monthly base service plan rate to be exceeded, reimbursement must be made to the State for the overage. All reimbursements are to be made within 15 days of receipt and reconciliation of the monthly statement. If an employee reimburses the agency, note the receipt voucher number on the invoice copy retained with the payment voucher documentation. The calculation of the reimbursement highlighting the overage for which reimbursement is made should also be attached to the payment voucher documentation.

The State of Kansas is exempt from paying State and local sales taxes, and federal excise tax on state-issued mobile devices. However, the State must pay the Universal Service charge and taxes that are passed through from other carriers.

The State is self-insured so mobile device replacement or insurance provisions should not be a part of mobile device agreements.

Agreements with mobile device providers should allow for the provisions of the State's Prompt Payment Act.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer may review selected payments for compliance with Executive Order 14-06.  In addition, the appropriateness of the plan for the agency's needs may be reviewed.

 Printable Version of 15-P-028

SG:NTR:ewb

Informational Circular No: 15-P-029
Effective Date: April 2015

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: earl.brynds@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: SHARP SCI Hosting-Payroll Changes and Impact on Payroll Processing Dates in April 2015

This informational circular will discuss key dates and payroll changes in SHARP as a result of the transition to the SHARP Sierra-Cedar (SCI) Hosting site. On-cycle and off-cycle dates have been changed in April in order to accommodate the transition to SCI Hosting. Please review carefully the information contained in this circular and in the calendar attached.

Due to the Hosting transition, scheduled to begin Friday night, April 3, 2015, changes are required to the ‘normal’ payroll processing schedule.  Agencies are asked to note the payroll processing schedule due dates, some of which are occurring on a different day of the week than normally scheduled.

Monday, March 30, 2015

The Run C off-cycle for the period ending March 14, 2015 will be processed March 30, 2015.  SHARP agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplemental and/or adjustment run controls for the Run C off-cycle. All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM.  Paychecks for the Run C off-cycle will be dated April 2, 2015. 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Paysheets for the on-cycle payroll for the period ending March 28, 2015 will be created on Tuesday, March 31, 2015.   For SHARP agencies, some job actions (i.e., FLSA Status change) must be entered by 6:00 PM on March 31, 2015 in order to be reflected on the paysheets for this period. FLSA status changes should not be entered Wednesday through Friday of this week.

The first on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending March 28, 2015 will also occur March 31, 2015. For SHARP agencies, all employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) into SHARP by 3:30 PM.  After Time Administration runs at 3:30 PM, payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM. on March 31, 2015 in order for a paycheck record to be created.  Please note that there will be only two SHARP on-cycle preliminary payroll calculations for the pay period ending March 28, 2015.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The second on-cycle preliminary pay calculation for the period ending March 28, 2015 will occur April 1, 2015.  NOTE: This will be the last preliminary pay calculation before final pay confirmation runs on April 2, 2015.  

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Regents’ on-cycle payroll files for the period ending March 28, 2015 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on April 2, 2015.  NOTE: This deadline will be strictly enforced due to running the on-cycle files during the day on Friday, April 3, 2015.

Final pay confirmation for the SHARP on-cycle payroll for the period ending March 28, 2015 will occur April 2, 2015.  (Final pay confirmation would normally occur Friday, April 3, 2015).  All employees’ time and leave records must be ‘OK to Process’, and all employees’ payable time must be approved, by 6:00 PM on April 2, 2015 in order for a paycheck record to be created.  All deduction and tax data changes must be entered by 6:00 PM on April 2, 2015 in order to be reflected in the final paycheck created for the employee.

Friday, April 3, 2015

The Regents’ on-cycle files for the period ending March 28, 2015 will be processed during the day on Friday, April 3, 2015.

Regents’ Run A off-cycle payroll files for the period ending March 28, 2015 must be received by the Department of Administration by 4:00 PM on April 3, 2015.

SHARP system (Including Employee Self-service [ESS]) shut down at 6:00 PM.  Transition to SCI Hosting begins.

Saturday, April 4, 2015
SHARP/ESS system shut down.  Transition to SCI Hosting continues.

Sunday, April 5, 2015
SHARP/ESS system shut down.  Transition to SCI Hosting continues.

Monday, April 6, 2015

SHARP/ESS system shut down.  NOTE: SHARP system open to Central Department of Administration/OITS core users only. 

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

SHARP/ESS system open to all users. 

The Run A off-cycle for the period ending March 28, 2015 will be processed April 7, 2015. (This off-cycle would normally be scheduled for Monday, April 6, 2015.)   Agencies have until 6:00 PM on this date to enter supplemental and/or adjustment run controls for the Run A off-cycle. All employees’ reported time must be entered (and approved if applicable) by 3:30 PM. Payable time must be approved by 6:00 PM. Paychecks for the Run A off-cycle will be dated April 10, 2015. 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Normal Payroll Processing Schedule resumes.

The Run B off-cycle for the period ending March 28, 2015 will be processed April 8, 2015.  Paychecks for the Run B off-cycle will be dated April 13, 2015. 

Attached is a partial month calendar for the month of April 2015, which highlights key payroll processing activity around the dates of the Hosting transition.  The attached partial calendar is intended for use as a supplementary reference tool only; it does not contain the level of detail that is included in the narrative portion of this circular.

Please note the changes to the payroll processing schedule and adjust your schedules accordingly. If it becomes necessary to change any of the payroll 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.

SG:NTR:ewb

Attachment
Printable Version of 15-P-029

Informational Circular No.: 15-P-030

Supersedes Informational Circular No: N/A

Effective Date: April 2015

Contact Name: Functional:  Earl Brynds, Technical:  Greg Smith

Ph: (785) 296-5376, (785) 296-4462

Email: Earl.Brynds@da.ks.gov, Greg.Smith@ks.gov

 Approval:     Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: SHARP SCI Hosting - System access and changes to website address for SHARP and Employee Self-Service Log-In

As discussed in Informational Circular 15-P-029, the transition for SHARP to the Sierra-Cedar (SCI) Hosting site will begin Friday night, April 3, 2015.  Agencies should have access restored to SHARP and Employee Self-service (ESS) beginning 7 AM Tuesday morning, April 7, 2015. 

This change to the SCI Hosting will require a new URL to be used for logging into the production environments.  The new URLs are listed below.   Agency HR/Payroll staff, who have not previously tested the new links, should test the URL’s now to ensure agency staff are able to reach the sign-in page.  DO NOT try to sign in (prior to Tuesday, April 7, 2015) because the links are not active yet.

If the standard SHARP sign-in and ESS sign-in pages do not appear when testing the URLs, contact your agency IT staff to ensure the URL/IP is available from your agency network.  Agency HR/Payroll staff should also communicate the new URLs to all employees.  In addition, new ‘Favorites’ will need to be established with the new URL’s as the old ones will not work after the cutover to SCI Hosting.

SG:NTR:ewb

Printable Version of 15-P-030

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-031

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 11-P-014

Effective Date: June 1, 2015

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: Earl.brynds@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Optional Group Life Insurance and Optional Spousal Life Insurance Rate Changes.

Please note that effective June 1, 2015 the Optional Group Life Insurance rates are changing as follows:

        Age at the Beginning                             Monthly Premium
        of June 2015                                                    per $1,000       
           Under 25                                                         $0.04
             25-29                                                            $0.04
             30-34                                                            $0.06
             35-39                                                            $0.07
             40-44                                                            $0.08
             45-49                                                            $0.12
             50-54                                                            $0.17
             55-59                                                            $0.32
             60-64                                                            $0.51
             65-69                                                            $0.95
             70-74                                                            $1.54
             75 and Older                                                 $1.67

An administrative fee of $0.20 per month will continue to be added to the premium each month.  Maximum coverage available is $300,000.00.  The age calculation will continue to be based on the employee’s attained age as of January 1^st of the current calendar year.

Effective June 1, 2015 the Spousal Group Life Insurance rates are changing as follows:

            Age at the Beginning                            Monthly Premium
​            of June 2015                                               per $1,000
              Under 25                                                        $0.09 
               25-29                                                            $0.09
               30-34                                                            $0.13
               35-39                                                            $0.14
               40-44                                                            $0.16
               45-49                                                            $0.23
               50-54                                                            $0.34
               55-59                                                            $0.65
               60-64                                                            $0.99
               65-69                                                            $1.91
               70-74                                                            $3.08
               75 and Older                                                 $3.33

The new rates are effective with coverage for the month of June 2015.  Therefore, the June 19, 2015 paycheck (paycheck issued for the payroll period ending June 6, 2015) will be the first check issued with the new rates, since Optional Group Life Insurance premiums are collected on the second biweekly paycheck of the month for that month’s coverage. 

 
The Department of Administration, Payroll Services Team will ensure the updates are made to the SHARP payroll system to effect this change for all employees from whom SHARP calculates pay.  Regent's institutions are responsible for ensuring that this change is made in their respective systems prior to June 1, 2015.

Printable version of 15-P-031

DH:NTR:ewb

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-032

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-027

Effective Date: Immediately

Contact Name: Joyce Dickerson

Ph: (785) 296-3979

Email: joyce.dickerson@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Summary of Fiscal Year End Payroll Processing

This informational circular will discuss key payroll processing concepts to aid in fiscal year end closing. 

Note:  Another informational circular regarding the fiscal year 2016 payroll contribution rates will be issued as soon as the information becomes available.

Benefits Contribution Rates

Supplementals and adjustments use the benefit contribution rates effective for the pay period being adjusted.  Supplementals and adjustments that are processed for pay periods ending on or before June 6, 2015 will use fiscal year 2015 benefits contribution rates (or prior fiscal years benefits contribution rates depending on the fiscal year of the payroll period being adjusted).  Supplementals and adjustments for pay period ending dates greater than June 6, 2015 will use fiscal year 2016 rates. Benefit contributions include: KPERS, TIAA-CREF, KPEDCP, workers compensation insurance, state leave reserve assessment, group health insurance (GHI), and parking administrative fee. 

Tax Rates

Taxes for supplementals and adjustments will be calculated using the tax rates effective for the paycheck issue date for the off-cycle payroll being processed.  Taxes include: OASDI (Social Security), Medicare, federal withholding tax, state withholding tax, local withholding tax, and unemployment compensation insurance.  Note for Regents: the use of the ‘current’ UCI rate for calculation purposes does not replace the reporting requirements for prior period adjustments necessary for quarterly UCI reporting.  

Fiscal Year Expenditure Impact

Supplementals, adjustments and reversals will be charged to expenditures in the fiscal year the off-cycle paycheck is issued regardless of the pay period being adjusted.  Please note, the Run C off-cycle (scheduled for June 22, 2015, paid June 25, 2015) for the pay period ending June 6, 2015 will be the last opportunity to have a paycheck adjustment charged to fiscal year 2015 expenditures. 

The fiscal year expenditure impact applies to both SHARP agencies and Regents institutions.

Budget End Date and Fiscal Year Changes

The Budget End Date and Fiscal Year on the Department Budget tables will be updated centrally at the beginning of the fiscal year.  This process is scheduled to run during the batch cycle the night of June 14, 2015 and should be completed by Monday morning, June 15, 2015.  In that process, a new row will be added to the Department Budget tables with an effective date of June 7, 2015 (beginning date of the first on-cycle payroll charged to FY2016).  The Budget End Date will be June 6, 2016. 

Agencies should send Combination Code files or any Department Budget Table files for FY16 changes into Payroll Services by Friday, June 12, 2015.  These files will be loaded into SHARP beginning Monday, June 15, 2015. Agencies should not enter any rows with an effective date greater than or equal to June 7, 2015 until after the FY2016 insert has been completed. When adding new rows for FY2016, agencies should verify that June 6, 2016 was used as the Budget End Date for FY2016.

A special run of the KPAYGL5C (paycheck accounting transactions file) will be processed on Friday, June 19, 2015 after the ‘B’ off-cycle process has been completed for the June 6, 2015 pay period end date.  A SHARP Infolist message will be sent out to agencies after the KPAYGL5C has finished processing on June 19.  Agencies are encouraged to complete all FY15 payroll adjustments on or before the ‘B’ off-cycle which processes on Wednesday night, June 17, 2015, to take advantage of this early run of the KPAYGL5C.    Otherwise, any adjustments processed in the ‘C’ off-cycle on Monday, June 22, 2015 will not be included on the KPAYGL5C file until it is run again on Wednesday night, June 24, 2015. 

GHI Adjustments

As of September 1, 2014, GHI adjustments can only be processed for terminated employees. Contact SEHP Membership Services by Email: SEHPMembership@kdheks.gov or Phone: 785-296-3226 at Kansas Department of Health & Environment, Division of Health Care Finance, State Employee Health Plan about event maintenance that may affect claims processing for any active employees.

Regents’ Institutions Responsibilities

Regents’ institutions are responsible for ensuring that the correct benefit and tax contribution rates are used when calculating payroll for employees of their agencies and for ensuring that the SMART INF06 interface files affect the correct fiscal year expenditures. 

Reminders

To help reduce the number of adjustments to process, SHARP agencies are reminded of the following:

1. Enter job data changes prior to the creation of paysheets.Paysheets for on-cycle payrolls are generally created on the Tuesday night following the end of the payroll period.Agencies should not change the FLSA status after Tuesday night as this will cause issues with the paysheets and will require special handling.Agencies should also not change the Assign Work Schedule after Tuesday night if the change affects the Paygroup.

    

2. Agencies should review the accuracy of the gross-to-net payroll information and employer contributions after each preliminary pay calculation.The PAY002 report can be used to review the gross-to-net data. Agencies can review employer contributions by accessing the employee’s paycheck deduction information for the period. Employer contributions have a deduction class of ‘Nontaxable’.

 
Printable Version of 15-P-032

DH:NTR:ckw

Informational Circular No.: 15-P-033

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-P-028 & 14-P-031

Effective Date: Payroll Period Beginning June 7, 2015 and Ending June 20, 2015, Paid July 2, 2015

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: Earl.Brynds@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Parking Fee Increase - Curtis Building Garage - FY2016

Pursuant to Kansas Administrative Regulation 1-45-22(b)(2), parking fees for the Curtis Building Garage will increase by 2% effective with the start of fiscal year 2016.  To implement this change, the following payroll deduction codes and associated administrative fee code will increase effective with the payroll period beginning June 7, 2015 and ending June 20, 2015, paid July 2, 2015:

Employees with Attorney General and Department of Commerce who park in the Curtis Building Garage under parking deduction codes PKT10B and PPKT10 will see their bi-weekly deduction and associated administrative fee increase as follows:

The parking rates for Secretary of State employees are listed below and do not change:

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP payroll system to effect this change for all employees for whom SHARP calculates pay.  Regents’ institutions are responsible for ensuring that this change is made in their individual systems.  

Printable version of 15-P-033

DH:NTR:abe

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-034

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-p-029

Effective Date: July 1, 2015

Contact Name: Carmen Waters

Ph: (785)  296-7059

Email: Carmen.Waters@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Annual review of housing, food service and other employee maintenance rates required under K.S.A. 75-2961A and K.A.R. 1-19-9

Attached is form DA-171, Housing, Food Service and Other Maintenance Policy for your agency to complete.  It is not necessary to return this form to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.  The completed form should be maintained at your agency.  If the items that you provide have been determined to be taxable to the employee, any changes in rates for fiscal year 2016 will require entry into the SHARP v9.1 system at Payroll for North America>Employee Pay Data USA> Create Additional Pay for fringe benefit income.  FY2016 rate changes for maintenance should be entered into SHARP by 6:00 pm on Monday, June 22, 2015 in order to be reflected in the paychecks produced in the first preliminary on-cycle pay calculation for the payroll period ending June 20, 2015 (paychecks dated July 2, 2015).   

Regent institutions should also complete the Form DA-171 and maintain the completed form at their agency.  Regents’ are responsible for updating any rate changes into their payroll system.

 Attachment
Printable Version of 15-P-034

 DH:NTR:abe

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-035

Supersedes Informational Circular No: 14-p-030

Effective Date: Pay Period Beginning June 7, 2015; Ending June 20, 2015; Paid July 2, 2015

Contact Name: Carmen Waters

Ph: (785) 296-7059

Email: carmen.waters@da.ks.gov

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Fiscal Year 2016-Employeee/Employer Matching Share of Payroll Contributions and Retirement Plans

The attached schedules contain employer’s contribution rates for KPERS, unemployment insurance, state leave assessment, group health insurance, and worker’s compensation insurance for fiscal year 2016.  The fiscal year 2016 rates will become effective with the on-cycle payroll period beginning June 7, 2015, ending June 20, 2015 and paid July 2, 2015.  The withholding rates for OASDI, Medicare, federal income taxes, and Kansas income taxes remain unchanged for the remainder of calendar year 2015.

For Fiscal Year 2016, the employer’s contribution to KPERS Death and Disability Insurance will be 1.00% (except for retirement codes J1, J2, J3 which are .4%).  Since SHARP uses pay period end dates to determine if the KPERS Death and Disability Insurance contribution is taken, no contribution will be taken for paycheck adjustments with payroll period end dates that contain an original check date within a moratorium period.  Previous moratoriums for KPERS Death and Disability Insurance contributions were in place for payroll periods with an original check date between April 1, 2000 and December 31, 2001; between July 1, 2002 and December 31, 2002; between April 1, 2003 and June 30, 2004; between March 1, 2009 and November 30, 2009; between April 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010; between April 1, 2011 and June 30, 2011; between April 1, 2012 and June 30, 2012; and between April 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013.

For Regent institutions, moratoriums do not extend to members of Board of Regents retirement plans who elect to continue the Death and Disability Insurance coverage while on leave without pay under the provisions of K.S.A. 74-4927a(8), which specifically requires the “employee” to remit the required contribution while on leave without pay.

Legislation passed in 2006 changed rules about KPERS retirees who work after retirement for the same or a different KPERS employer.  More detailed information on these changes can be found in the KPERS DA Memo – April 21, 2006, located at http://www.kpers.org/damemos042106.htm.  These changes do not affect KP&F or the Retirement System for Judges.  For retirees who begin work for a different KPERS employer, the employer must make contributions based on retiree compensation.  This includes all retirees who first begin actively working in KPERS-covered positions on or after July 1, 2006.  Employees who meet these criteria should be enrolled in Benefit Plan ‘PR’ and Deduction Code ‘RETRET’.  For fiscal year 2016, employer rates are 11.44% Actuarial Employer Rate, 6.00% Statutory Employer Rate, for a Total Combined Rate of 17.44%.  Retirees enrolled in the ‘PR’ benefit plan are not subject to KPERS death and disability insurance.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Payroll Systems Team will update the SHARP system to reflect the changes in employer’s contribution rates.  Regents’ institutions are responsible for ensuring the changes in rates are made in their individual systems.  Regents’ institutions are also responsible for ensuring that the SMART INF06 impacts the correct fiscal year and account codes.

DH:NTR:ckw

Attachment A
Attachment B
Attachment C
Printable Version of 15-P-035