Change to Positions and Adlocs
Detail Payroll expenditures will now be linked to certification documents even if the Adloc on the payroll detail does not match the adloc of the document. We have found that in these cases the employee was still working in the same position, under the same supervisor, doing the same work.
When the Time and Effort application was first developed, a decision was made to create separate documents if payroll activity for a person occurred on the same PIN but on a different adloc (BPP department code). The thinking at the time was that the position/job may have been moved to a different department and probably a different supervisor.
Over time, however, we have realized that payroll activity on the same PIN for the same person is nearly always for the same job. It does not require a separate document – and should not create a separate document. Additionally, at times a different adloc is used on a payroll correction – simply by mistake.
The time and effort application will now link payroll activity to a document if it matches the PIN and UIN of an existing document.
This change went into effect beginning in January 2013. The intent of this change was to keep additional documents from being created for the same person in the same position for the same time period. For new certification periods, the change should be rarely noticed by an employee or supervisor.
Impact on documents from prior periods
However, one of the unintended consequences of this changes was that payroll detail that was previously unconnected to any document is now being joined to existing documents. This can occur under the following conditions:
- The payroll activity was for the same person and PIN as an existing document.
- The payroll activity was coded under a different adloc than the original adloc of the document.
- The payroll activity was on an account or project that did not require certification.
Under the new business rules, this payroll is now connected to existing documents. It does not change the amounts by account on the existing document but it may:
- Add new accounts to the document
- Change the overall FTE our hourly units of the document
- Change the percentages on the document
- And it will put the document in a “re-certification required” status
Since these changes are critical to the overall time and effort purpose and intent, it is recommended that these documents be re-certified. We apologize for the late notice on change, but do think this is the best course of action.
Note: this change has cause new payroll detail to appear on old certification documents. We recommend that these documents be re-certified.
Other Major Feature Enhancements
- Mandatory Training. Training will now be assigned via TrainTraq to all employees who have a role in the Time and Effort application. Employees will not be allowed to enter the Time and Effort Application if they have an Pending TrainTraq assignment for Time and Effort Training.
- One time merit object codes are now excluded from certification documents. See this link: tamus-payroll-included-for-base-pay/
- Document upload – Ability to upload and attach PDF files to effort documents. This can be used for notes and supporting documentation.
- PI Eligible Flag can now be edited in Time and Effort by Central Administrators.
- PDF copy of document kept when documents are certified. This may be helpful if case documents are later re-certified.
- Pending Administrative Verification Release. Central administrators can release all documents from pending verification with a single click – for a single adloc.
- Negative Effort Reports – Report added to Department Administrator Report List
- Comments Section added to Action Log. Employees or administrators can now add comments at any time to Certification documents.
- Documents placed in a “Hold” status will either reopen or go to pending administrative review status based upon the adloc preference when a new payroll detail record is attached to the document.
- TimeTraq: The colors for the Approval and Certification buttons have been changed to better differentiate between the two options.
- Pie Chart – Visual Enhancement. Documents now contain a pie chart that shows their effort by account/project.
- For Departmental and Central Administrator – search or Filter by UIN or Document number has been added.
- Employee Title and Contact information is available on the find documents page (you must hover over the employee name)
- Pay rate from Pay History added to the Excel payroll export.
- Documents “on hold” will only be moved to Open status if an Administrator releases it or a new payroll correction occurs.
- An email is sent to employees when document comes of off Hold status
- New Adloc change feature for documents with more than one Adloc for the same person and PIN.
- Other minor updates.