Maintaining Payroll Status

The Status component allows you to maintain all the information related to the status of the payroll. On this component, you can view payroll transitions, exceptions, and employee mismatches. For non-agency users, the Status component displays only the exceptions and employee mismatches that the agency has flagged for vendor review.

• Note: Non-agency users (prime contractors and subcontractors) can view payroll information for their employees and for subcontractors lower in the payroll hierarchy, for all payroll phases except Initial. However, only non-agency users with vendor authority are able to edit payroll and employee information.

To access the Status component, you must first locate the payroll on the Contract Certified Payroll Overview or the Unapproved Certified Payroll Overview, and select Status from the Actions menu on the payroll's row. The Status component is displayed on the Certified Payroll Status page, which also includes the Contract component at the top of the page. For information about the Contract component, see Viewing Contract Payroll Information.

The Status component subheader displays the current phase of the payroll. The upper section of the component displays the following general information for the selected payroll modification:

• Created Date

• Signed Date

• Prime Original Not Accepted Date

• Prime Accepted Date

• Agency Original Not Accepted Date

• Agency Accepted Date

The following information is also displayed when the selected payroll record was entered by the prime contractor on behalf of a subcontractor:

• Submission Method

• Proxy Signed Date

• Payroll Signer

The following information is also displayed when the selected payroll record was entered by the prime contractor on behalf of a subcontractor and when the payroll status is set to Under Agency Review:

• Paper Copy Location

• Paper Copy Received Date

• Note: For proxy payrolls, agency users reviewing a payroll submitted by the prime contractor on paper must enter information in the Paper Copy Received Date and Paper Copy Location fields before reviewing exceptions and/or approving the payroll.

Transitions

Certified payrolls pass through several transition points as they are checked and accepted, or rejected, at different phases before eventually being approved by the transportation agency.

The Payroll Transition section of the Payroll Status component displays a list of all the transition comments that were recorded for the payroll and provides Approve or Reject buttons, as appropriate for the current phase.

Using the Payroll Transition Comment Window

Payroll transition comments are used to add explanatory information to the payroll record about the payroll's transition from one phase to the next (or to a previous phase in the case of a rejected payroll). When you are accepting a payroll, transition comments are optional; when you are rejecting a payroll, you are required to record transition comments.

The system displays a list of payroll transition comments. When you approve or reject a payroll, the Comment field opens as a text area. Click in the text area and type information as needed. You can use standard Windows editing commands like inserting, deleting, cutting (CTRL+X), copying (CTRL+C) and pasting (CTRL+V).

When you are finished entering information, click the Save button on the Status component header to save the transition comment. The system closes the Comment field, adds the new comment to the list, and runs validation tests on the payroll. If no errors are found, an accepted payroll progresses to the next phase and a rejected payroll returns to the previous phase.

The system automatically adds a transition comment record in the Payroll Transition section of the Payroll Status component.

Exceptions

The first time a certified payroll is put in Under Agency Review status, the system runs a series of validation checks to verify that the data in the payroll is valid. If one of these validations is not met, the system generates a payroll exception. For information about each payroll exception, see Understanding Payroll Exceptions.

When the system calculates the values used to validate payroll data, the calculated values must be truncated or rounded to a whole penny. Calculated values for payment fields are truncated to two decimal places. Calculated values for deductions are rounded up to the next penny.

The purpose of payroll rounding is to eliminate the few cents exceptions that would be reported because of the way a payroll system generated the information compared to the AASHTOWare Project application. Payroll systems round to the benefit of the employee, so to eliminate exceptions from being generated for just a few cents, the payroll rounding in the application is applied to counteract the payroll system rounding.

The Exceptions section of the Payroll Status component contains a list of exceptions that the system has generated for the payroll and which the agency has marked for vendor review and action. The system displays the following information for each payroll exception in the list:

• Resolved Ind

• Must Be Resolved

• Pyrl Except Type

• Payroll Exception Description

• Agency Comments

• Vendor Notified

• Exception Resolution Date

• Vendor Notified Date

• Resolution Comments

• Exception Resolved By

 

If the exception involves a mismatched employee record, the following fields are also displayed:

• Failed Payroll Employee ID

• Failed Employee ID

You can locate a specific record by typing criteria in the Quick Find search box. Click in a field and add, change, or delete information as needed.

When the agency clicks the Vendor Notified button to notify the payroll vendor that the system generated an exception for the payroll, the system automatically enters the current date in the Vendor Notified Date field.

Generating a Payroll Exceptions Report

You can generate a report that lists the exceptions found in the payroll and can be supplied to a vendor to document the problems.

Follow these steps to generate this report:

1. Select Generate Report from the Actions menu on the Menu Bar.

2. In the list of reports, select Payroll Exception Report.

3. Select the payroll to include in the report.

4. Click the Execute button.

For more information, see Payroll Exceptions Report.

• Note: This report can also be executed from the Actions menu on the Payroll Overview or Summary component headers. The payroll displayed on the component will automatically be selected for the report.

Viewing an Exception

Assuming you are viewing an exception associated with the latest modification for a payroll that has not yet been approved, the Exceptions section of the Payroll Status component displays only the exceptions for which the agency has selected the Vendor Notified check box.

Employee Mismatches

If a payroll exception is due to a mismatch between a payroll employee record and its corresponding reference employee record, this section of the Payroll Status component lists those exceptions. Click the Rslvd Ind link to correct the mismatch. For more information, see Resolving Employee Mismatches.

 

Related topics:

Maintaining a Payroll Record