Payroll

Overpayments

An overpayment occurs when an employee is paid for hours they did not work or paid at an incorrect rate. ASU is required by law to recover these funds. A series of state and federal regulations govern the overpayment process. Employees must notify their department immediately if they discover an overpayment on a paycheck to comply with these regulations. Departments should reconcile their payroll on a timely basis to ensure that no employees are overpaid.

Repayment process

Once notified of an overpayment, payroll services will provide the department administrator with a payroll deduction agreement and an overpayment schedule for the employee. Repayment should be made in full immediately. However, some overpayments may be substantial and an immediate repayment may be a financial burden to the employee. Accounting Services will work with the employee to identify a mutually agreeable repayment solution in those instances. If the employee fails to respond to the payroll deduction agreement within 10 days, payroll deductions will begin on the next pay period per the terms outlined in the document.

Federal law treats wage overpayments the same as any other wages the employee might receive. As long as the employee repays the overpayment within the same taxable year, all taxes may be refunded, and the employee’s W-2 will reflect the correction. If repayment is received after the end of the tax year in which the overpayment is made, the W-2 cannot be changed for federal income or state taxes. Only social security taxes can be refunded.

Because of these circumstances, payroll will request net pay as the reimbursable amount if the repayment is made in the same year as the overpayment. If the repayment is not made until a later tax year, federal law requires payroll to request gross pay less Social Security taxes as the reimbursable amount. Refer to IRS Publication 525 for more details.

Appeal of determined repayment amount

An employee who wishes to appeal the amount and duration of the repayment may send an email to FSPayroll. All appeals are approved by the senior director of accounting services.

Resources

• Department time administrator DTA guide.
• Form — out-of-state approval for employee, new hire or relocation.
• I-9 handbook — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
• Overtime policy.
• Payroll calendars.
• Vacation policy.

Staff

Note: Contact backup only if you receive an out-of-office reply.

Time reporting

The employee and their immediate supervisor are responsible for accurate time and attendance reporting. Department Time Administrators finalize the approval of time only after receiving confirmation or endorsement by the employee’s supervisor or manager.

Each college and administrative area must have a procedure that requires time reporting to be requested by employees and approved by their supervisors before DTAs approve time in PeopleSoft. Departments must maintain request and approval documentation, both subject to review and audit. Refer to the Business Process guide for information.

Staff responsibilities

• All staff: Provide your supervisor or manager with a written request for all leave per SPP 702–01: Vacation Leave — General Policy and SPP 701–01: Health Leave Benefits.
• Exempt staff: Enter exception paid time off into the Time and Labor Reporting system or via an alternative method set by the department for all non-worked hours in a pay period.
• Nonexempt staff: Accurately report the employee's and student worker's hours daily. Time entries can be completed using online timesheet reporting, by submitting a paper timesheet or using an alternative method set by the department to the supervisor or manager.

Supervisor and Manager Responsibilities

• All staff: Manage nonexempt schedules and requests, receive approvals for overtime or compensatory time, review and approve leave requests and submit required documentation to DTA within established deadlines.
• Exempt staff: Review and approve requests for exception time submitted via email or an alternate method, as determined by the department. Forward any email correspondence of the exception time request to the DTA to finalize.
• Nonexempt staff: Review, approve, and sign a printed copy of the PeopleSoft timesheet or an alternative method, as set by the department before submitting it to the DTA to finalize. Provide the DTA any documentation of variations in the schedule and leave request forms.

DTA Responsibilities

• Compare the employee’s online timesheet with the documentation received.
• Ensure hours outside standard hours have approval documentation.
• Ensure that all time signed and approved by a supervisor for their employees is finalized and accurately entered within established payroll processing deadlines.
• Exempt staff: Verify the entry of exception time against the approved request.
• Nonexempt staff: Verify the timesheet or alternative time reporting method set by the department for signatures by the employee and supervisor.
• Report discrepancies between the timesheet and documentation to the employee’s supervisor for resolution.

Vacation and compensatory payouts

Vacation and compensatory payouts at termination or status change are now centrally funded. The ERE rate includes a component to fund vacation and compensatory payouts. Before submitting a vacation or compensatory PTR, departments must map the position number of the employee being terminated or going through a change of status for earnings-specific distribution, for the earnings code VPO and CTP, to Cost Center CC0004 and Program PG03070 in the maintain position accounting screens in PeopleSoft.