Chapter 3

Introduction to Payroll/Personnel

Overview
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Introduction Every employee at Washington University is appointed to his or her position.

The appointment specifies the terms of employment such as appointing
department, duration, title, salary, etc. This chapter discusses concepts,
definitions and other information important to know when working with
appointments and salary sources in the Payroll/Personnel system.
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Message The Payroll/Personnel system has a Message facility that central areas can
facility use to communicate important information to departments. When you sign on to
the Payroll/Personnel system, you may see messages regarding payroll
deadlines, special training classes, changes in policy or procedures, etc. If a
message is displayed when you sign on, be sure to read it carefully. When
finished, press ENTER to display the menu.
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In this This chapter covers the following topics.

chapter

Topic See page

Appointment Types PP3-2

Appointment Information PP3-4
Payroll Types PP3-6
Payroll Schedule PP3-7
Distribution of Paychecks PP3-8
FOCUS Reporting PP3-9

Revised 12/2000 PP3-1

Appointment Types
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Introduction There are several ways in which an employee can be appointed. They can be
staff, academic or student. They can be prime or joint. They can be regular or
temporary. This section will describe each of these categories.
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Academic Employees with teaching or research duties are appointed as academic

employees. This includes employees with titles such as:

• Professor, Associate or Assistant Professor

• Instructor, Lecturer
• Research Associate
• Research Assistant
• Teaching Assistant
• Fellow

When appointing academic employees, use the AMSX code of A.

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Staff Employees with non-academic (non-teaching or non-research) duties are

appointed as staff. Staff appointments can include the following:

• administrators, managers, administrative assistants

• secretaries
• clerks
• lab assistants/technologists
• computer programmers/operators
• accountants
• lawyers
• nurses, aides, and other allied health professionals

Staff positions have specific job codes that identify them as staff. These codes
are available from your Human Resources Office.

When appointing staff employees, use the AMSX code of S.

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continued on next page

Revised 12/2000 PP3-2

 Appointment Types
continued
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Student Employee's who are Washington University students are appointed as student
employees. Student positions have specific job codes that identify them as
students. These codes are available from your Human Resources Office. When
appointing student employees, use the AMSX code of X.

Note: This classification applies to Washington University students only.

Employees who are students at other colleges or universities should be
appointed with an AMSX code of S.
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Graduate Washington University graduate students may be appointed as either student

students or academic employees, depending on their duties. If a graduate student has
teaching or research related duties, appoint him or her as an academic
employee. If a graduate student has clerical duties (i.e., a job code beginning
with an X), appoint him or her as a student.
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Prime An employee may hold more than one appointment with Washington
University. One of these appointments must be a prime appointment. The
department that holds the prime appointment is called the prime department.
The prime department enters the employee's personnel information and
education history in the Payroll/Personnel system. The prime department also
enters the employee's total salary amounts (monthly and annual). Thus, the
prime department must obtain any joint appointment salary amounts from the
joint departments.

An employee may hold only one prime appointment.

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Joint Any appointments held in addition to the prime appointment are called joint
appointments. An employee may hold more than one joint appointment. The
total full-time equivalency (FTE) for the prime and all joint appointments cannot
exceed 100.
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Regular Employee's who are appointed for more than three months are considered
vs. regular employees. Employees who are appointed for six months or less
temporary are considered temporary.
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Revised 12/2000 PP3-3

Appointment Information
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Introduction This section presents a list of terms and definitions you will find helpful when
entering appointment information in the Payroll/Personnel system.
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Department An employee may be appointed to a department, or, at the Medical School, a

vs. division division within a department. The term appointing department can mean either
department, or division within the department.
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Basis Basis, also called pay basis, indicates how many months the employee will
receive a paycheck. For example, an academic employee may work only nine
months (September through May) but receive 12 paychecks (July through June).
Another employee may work nine months and receive nine checks. In the first
case the annual salary is spread out over 12 months; in the second, the annual
salary is spread out over nine months.
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Period The period, also called appointment period, indicates the number of months an
employee will work. All regular Medical School employees work 12 months.
Hilltop employees may work 9, 10, 11 or 12 months during the year.
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Other Other appointment is the date the appointment ends. If you enter a value
appointment for period, the system will enter the other appointment date. If you do not enter
a value for period, you will enter the appointment ending date in Other Appt.

Examples:

For employees with a period of 12, the other appointment will be 06/30/YR.
For employees with a period of 9, the other appointment will be 05/31/YR.
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Other basis Other basis is the date through which paychecks will be issued. If you enter a
value for basis, the system will enter the other basis date. If you do not enter a
value for basis, you will enter the pay period ending date in Other basis.

Examples:

For employees with a pay basis of 12, the other basis will be 06/30/YR.
For employees with a pay basis of 9, the other basis will be 05/31/YR.
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continued on next page

PP3-4 Revised 12/2000
 Appointment Information
continued
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FTE FTE, or full time equivalency, indicates the percentage of time the employee
works. An FTE of 100 means the employee will work 100 percent of her time.
An FTE of 50 means the employee will work 50 percent time. The total FTE for
all prime and joint appointments for an individual cannot exceed 100.
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Standard Standard hours apply to biweekly employees. Standard hours are the hours
hours an employee will work every pay period. Standard hours for a full-time employee
are 75 or 80.

Note: Some biweekly employees (e.g., workstudy students) do not work

standard hours. These are called zero standard hour employees.
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FLSA FLSA, or Fair Labor Standards Act, is used by the Medical School only. This
indicates if an employee is exempt from overtime or non-exempt.
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Plan of Plan of employment is used by the Medical School only. This indicates if an
employment employee is monthly or biweekly, exempt or non-exempt.
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Letter title Academic employees receive an appointment letter that lists their title(s) and
salary. The letter title is the title that appears in the appointment letter. It should
be complete and contain no abbreviations.

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Revised 12/2000 PP3-5

Payroll Types
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Description There are five payroll types at Washington University. Each of these is
described below.

Monthly - Employees who are paid once a month are appointed as monthly
employees.

Biweekly - Employees who are paid every two weeks are biweekly employees.

Summer School - Academic employees on the Hilltop campus who teach for
University College during the summer are paid on the summer school payroll.
This is in addition to their regular appointment.

Summer Research - Hilltop academic employees who are appointed for nine
months, and do research during the summer are paid on the summer research
payroll. This is in addition to their regular appointment.

University College - Hilltop academic employees who teach for University

College are paid on the University College payroll.

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PP3-6 Revised 12/2000

Payroll Schedule
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Detailed A detailed schedule of document deadlines and processing dates is included

schedule in the on-line AIS Help/Information function under the topic heading Payroll.
This article includes specific dates for entering documents, completing the
biweekly payroll, and system processes.

The dates presented in Help/Information are Hilltop Payroll deadlines. Medical

School departments should refer to the paper calendar distributed by Human
Resources.

Any changes or special information regarding deadlines will be displayed when

you sign on to the Payroll/Personnel system.
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Monthly Documents for monthly employees should be entered in the Payroll/

employees Personnel system by the published payroll deadline. This will ensure that any
appointments and/or source changes will be included in that month's payroll.
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Biweekly Documents for biweekly employees should be entered in the

employees Payroll/Personnel system by the Thursday prior to the biweekly gross-to-net
(eight days before payday). Biweekly gross-to-net is run the Tuesday before
payday.

Biweekly authorization pages must be entered as follows:

Medical School: By 2:00 pm the Tuesday before payday

Hilltop: By 2:00 pm the Tuesday before payday

Note: These deadlines are subject to change, especially when holidays occur
during the pay period. You will be notified by your campus, or through the on-
line Payroll/Personnel message facility.
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Special Deadlines for special payrolls (University College, Summer School and
payroll Summer Research) are irregular. Consult the Help/Information function to find
deadlines for these payrolls.

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Revised 12/2000 PP3-7

Distribution of Paychecks
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Policy The person who has the responsibility for preparing payroll authorizations in your
department should not receive or distribute the payroll checks. Although it is
convenient for the person who prepares the payroll to also distribute the
paychecks, this is contrary to University policy since it makes possible an
obvious opportunity for fraud.

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Delivering Following are guidelines for the protection of checks which cannot promptly
checks be given to employees.

• Checks for employees on vacation should be mailed the same day as

received or held in a locked fixture (safe, desk, filing cabinet, etc.) in a safe
location such as an office that is locked when not in use.

• Checks for terminated employees should be mailed to the last known

address the same day as received. If the check is returned because of an
incorrect address, it should be forwarded to the Payroll Office, Box 1000.

• Checks that cannot be distributed as indicated above because of an

unknown address or for any other reason should be returned immediately to
the Payroll Office, Box 1000.

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PP3-8 Revised 12/2000

 FOCUS Reporting
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Introduction Information Systems at Washington University offers a report generating

program called FOCUS. Through FOCUS, you can access a variety of reports
for the Payroll/Personnel System. You can also create your own reports.

If you are not familiar with FOCUS and want more information, call the FOCUS
Helpdesk at 935-7979. If you are interested in doing your own programming,
classes are available. Contact the FOCUS Helpdesk for class schedules.
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Existing The following Payroll/Personnel reports are already available through FOCUS.
reports
1. Employee Query - All Current Year Information
2. PARS-Reportable Payroll Authorizations by PI
3. Payroll Authorizations by Account
4. Payroll Authorizations by Person
5. Payroll Distributions by Account
6. Payroll Distributions by Person
7. Payroll Distributions: Salary = 0, Fringe Charge Not = 0

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Revised 12/2000 PP3-9