Commitment Accounting

Employee-related expenses rates

Employee-related expenses are ASU's cost for benefits provided to employees as part of their total compensation package at the university. These include workers' compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and the employer's portion of Social Security taxes, retirement plan contributions, health/dental insurance and life/disability insurance.

ERE is budgeted and charged to departmental Worktags based on ASU's Budgeting Office's rates, not individual employees' actual benefit cost. Each Employee Class in PeopleSoft is assigned an ERE rate, and the rates are applied to employee gross pay to determine ERE expense. ERE charges per employee are capped on a fiscal year basis when gross pay exceeds $400,000. See the following table for FY ERE rates in Workday.

An employee class is assigned to each position and job. An employee with multiple jobs can have multiple employee classes. Each job is charged the applicable ERE rate per class. Look up the employee class in PeopleSoft by navigating to Workforce Administration > Job Data >Job Information.

Regardless of employee class, non-benefits eligible employees are charged a specific ERE rate. The Benefit Program field on the PeopleSoft Job Data screen will determine an employee’s benefit eligibility. Employees in the Limited or Other Benefits Programs are assigned to the Non-Benefits Eligible ERE rate. Employees can have multiple active jobs, each with a different Benefit Program. When the primary job is assigned to the benefits-eligible Benefits Program, the employee is considered benefits-eligible for rate calculation purposes, and all jobs — including non-benefit eligible positions — will be charged ERE based on the Employee Class.

If the primary job is not the Benefits Program, each position is separately charged the applicable ERE rate. This is based on the employee class/benefit program combination, including the non-benefits eligible rate. Look up the employees' Benefits Programs in PeopleSoft by navigating to Workforce Administration > Job Data > Work Location > Benefits Program Participation.

General operating programs are assessed ERE. Departments are not allowed to move general operating ERE budget to either personal services or operations appropriation units.

Earnings codes exempted from ERE charges:

• AWP — Award/Prize Bonus.
• BNN — Nondiscretionary Bonus.
• BNS — Bonus.
• CAR — Car Allowance.
• DPA — Danger Pay.
• FRD — Fee Refund.
• HNR — Honorarium.
• HPR — Health Insurance Premium Reimbursement.
• HSG — Housing.
• TEC — Technical Subsidy.
• TSN — Non-taxable technical subsidy.

Payroll earnings redistribution transactions will also transfer the corresponding ERE expense for the selected pay period in equal proportion to the amount of earnings moved.

Vacation and compensatory payouts are centrally funded. The ERE rate includes a component to fund vacation payouts.

ERE transactions originate in PeopleSoft as redistribution entries generated during the payroll distribution process. The purpose of the redistributions is to charge or debit the departmental Worktags for ERE expense while funding or credit ASU’s central ERE account — CC0004, PG00002 — where the actual ERE benefits are paid. These transactions interface from PeopleSoft into Workday and post to the Journal Source: Integration — PSHCM Payroll ERE and PSHCM Payroll ERE — manual integration error corrections — under the following ledgers and spend categories:

The referenced journal sources, ledgers and spend categories can be used as filters for ERE reporting purposes when querying Workday Departmental Reports and the Financial Data Warehouse, Amazon Redshift.

For any ERE-related questions, contact your Financial Services accountant or your Grant and Contract Officer for inquiries specific to sponsored grants.

Payroll earning codes

RA/TA flat rate semester calendar

Departmental accounts are assessed tuition remission based on a flat rate charge for each academic term — fall, spring and summer. The following table indicates the pay period start date and end date tuition remission are assessed for each academic term.

RA/TA tuition remission and rates

RA/TA tuition remission is assessed to departmental Worktags through a flat rate per-semester charge allocated on a per-pay-period basis for each academic term the RA/TA is employed. See the RA/TA calendar for the tuition remission start and end date for the fall, spring and summer semesters.

The semester’s tuition remission flat rate is determined by the RA/TA’s FTE. Simultaneously the amount levied each pay period considers the expected number of pay periods worked within the RA/TA semester calendar. In the instance the RA/TA has multiple positions subject to tuition remission, the RA/TA assessment is allocated between positions based on gross earnings.

Local programs and sponsored grants are subject to the flat rate charge. RATA charges are not allowable on general operating accounts — Fund FD1100 or FD1110 — and are automatically redirected to PG99994: RA and PG99997: TA for grad paid under those accounts. Departments that hire an RA/TA after the seventh pay period of the fall or spring semesters are not assessed tuition remission. The summer session tuition remission is assessed to departments on all summer jobs regardless of the RA/TA's start date or FTE amount.

See the following table for current and prior year RATA rates:

Tuition Remission Transactions in Workday

Tuition remission transactions originate in PeopleSoft as redistribution entries generated during the payroll distribution process. These transactions interface from PeopleSoft into Workday and post to the Journal Source: Integration — PSHCM RA/TA and PSHCM RA/TA or manual interface error corrections in ledger account 7111: Employee Related Expenses — Graduate Tuition Benefit under spend categories SC0808: Tuition Benefit — RA and SC0810: Tuition Benefit — TA.

You can use the referenced journal sources, ledgers and spend categories as filters for RA/TA reporting purposes when querying Workday Departmental Reports and the Financial Data Warehouse, Amazon Redshift.

RA/TA health insurance

The health insurance benefit for RA/TAs is charged through the Research/Teaching Associate/Assistant ERE rate.

Payroll expense redistributions and RA/TA tuition remission

When a payroll redistribution entry is processed for an RA/TA, the tuition remission amount transferred will be proportionate to the amount of earnings moved.

For any tuition remission-related questions, contact your Financial Services accountant or your Grant and Contract Officer for inquiries specific to sponsored grants.