OSPS E-News ~ OSPS Semi-Annual Customer Update

[Announcements from OSPS to the users of the Oregon State Payroll Application]

Training

During the period January through June 2010, OSPS provided 660 training
hours.  Training hours are computed using the formula students x class
hours = training hours.  Training offered included: 

*	Payroll Fundamentals
*	New Employees
*	Separations
*	Deceased Employees
*	Employee Overpayments
*	Payroll Registers
*	Payroll Exception Reports

 

We offered the Payroll Fundamentals class in partnership with the Oregon
Training Consortium. By becoming an American Payroll Association
Approved Provider, we could offer RCH credit to Certified Payroll
Professionals  taking the class.

 

To provide more training opportunities for payroll staff members outside
the Salem area, we began offering telephone conference calls and
iLincOregon sessions for the OSPS Users' Forum. We also offered two
classes through a virtual classroom in iLincOregon.

 

Payroll Statistics

*	During the first six months of 2010, OSPS issued 314,000 system
generated payroll payments and 5,340 manual checks.  
*	86% of state employees use direct deposit 
*	Around 450 state employees use an AccelaPay payroll card.  Sixty
percent of them use the card to receive their net pay.  

 

2010 Key Projects ~ January through June

OSPS staff worked on several high priority projects that require system
changes and new or modified procedures or user resources.  Here's a
brief summary of the key projects in the past 6 months.  

o        OSPS is very close to being able to provide electronic payroll
reports to agencies.  We have been piloting this project with eight
agencies giving them a chance to use the .pdf online versions of OSPS
reports.  The feedback received from the pilot agencies has been very
useful in measuring the success of this effort.  We thank the agencies
who helped us pilot this project - their comments and suggestions have
been useful and affirming.  Next steps:  We will be scheduling
informational meetings so agencies can view a demonstration of the
e-reports and prepare for the conversion.  

o        Furlough management continued through OSPA in the first half of
2010. As additional collective bargaining agreements were implemented,
OSPS implemented the furlough business rules and structures for those
benefit packages. This included the computation of furlough obligation
for employees and loading that obligation to their leave accrual
screens.  Based on agency need or choice, we set provided the posting of
fixed office closure days to timesheets.  We also prepared a report of
furlough savings for calendar year 2009.  

o        OSPA began processing 2010 payroll payments using updated
tables for federal and state tax withholding and FICA wage maximums and
all of the rates and calculation rules provided by PEBB for Plan Year
2010.  

o        OSPS coordinated with Treasury and the agencies to support the
success of the conversion of the Oregon College Savings Plan to a new
fund management organization.  Assisted Treasury in communicating to the
agencies about what participants needed to do to modify their existing
direct deposit transactions in order to change the destination of their
direct deposit to the new fund management organization.  

o        We assisted the Department of Revenue in implementing their
interface of time and attendance data to OSPA.  

o        We have met a number of times with the DHS-led group that is
managing payroll and  HR planning for the implementation of the Oregon
Health Agency which is scheduled to become active 7/1/2011.  This
project will result in many positions moving to the new Agency 42300,
most of which are DHS positions, but will also include some from DCBS,
DAS and the Office of Private Health Partnerships.  Our initial focus
has been coordination with representatives for all of the systems that
will have a role in this project, some initial testing and a review of
the OSPA cloning utility.  

 

Meeting Agency Payroll Needs - OSPS Help Desk

 

o        New NACHA rules fueled the complete overhaul of our Direct
Deposit Enrollment form.  We took this opportunity to approach the form
from an employee perspective and made significant formatting changes.
With help from some of our agency partners, we shortened this form from
four pages to just one.  The new and improved form has received numerous
positive comments.

 

o        While overhauling the Direct Deposit Enrollment form, we
relocated AccelaPay enrollment to its own form.  We heard from agencies
that employees were unnecessarily completing the AccelaPay section on
the old form, thinking that they needed to complete everything on the
form.  The new Pay Card Enrollment form isolates only the information
needed to enroll in AccelaPay.

 

o        In March, we added a new payroll table to the Datamart.  We
also worked with another division to develop three related repository
reports.  The WORK_SCHED table deals exclusively with work schedule
information.  It is designed to work in connection with other payroll
Datamart tables.  See the March 2010 Training Newsletter for more
detail:
http://oregon.gov/DAS/SCD/OSPS/docs/training/newsletter/News201003.pdf .

 

o        OSPS received notification from U.S. Treasury that they will no
longer permit the purchase of paper savings bonds through payroll
deduction. As of January 1st, 2011, all savings bond purchases must be
made through Treasury Direct, and bonds will be electronic. Our plan is
to communicate directly with participant employees on September 1 to
inform them in advance of the change and give them the details they need
to set up personal accounts with US Treasury to continue the purchase of
savings bonds.  Employees will be able to submit a direct deposit form
to their payroll department in order to send funds directly to their
Treasury Direct account.  As of September 2010, agency payroll will
cease adding savings bond deductions into OSPA.  With the close of
November 2010 payroll, OSPA will perform a final reconciliation of the
bond account. Additional information may be found at
http://oregon.gov/DAS/SCD/OSPS/newbonds.shtml. 

 

o        While reviewing report E311-018A Child Support by Agency, OSPS
staff noted the absence of case numbers or instances where the employee
social security number was being used as the case number.   Child
support withholdings paid to the Oregon Department of Justice are
transmitted via a special ACH file format that includes the case number
for swift posting to the DOJ child support system.  OSPS staff contacted
DOJ to learn the affects of the missing claim numbers and coordinated
with agencies where changes were needed.  OSPS also presented this issue
at the June 3 OSPS Payroll Forum.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

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