University Operating Data - Default Pay

Issue/Question

  • What is Default Pay?
  • Who will show on the default pay object? Who will not show?
  • Why is default pay sometimes different from the encumbrance amount in FIS?
  • I sent paperwork for a change for an employee but the default pay does not show anything or shows the wrong default pay. Why?
  • When does the default pay amount not reflect step increases or any mass pay increases?
  • How will sabbatical pay appear when looking at default pay?
  • How will employees being paid on the 9/12-month option appear when looking at default pay?
  • An employee shows up on a wrong index for a past month in default pay even though the index was corrected for that month in PYAHOUR and it posted to FIS correctly? What happened?

Environment

  • Oregon State University
  • CORE
  • Grant Reporting System (GRS)
    • In the past this system was called the Grant Reporting and Reimbursement System (GRRS). People still some times use the GRRS acronym for GRS.
  • Jaspersoft

Explanation

Default Pay is a custom calculation in our reporting databases designed to help departments predict how much salary expense will be charged to indexes and FOAPAL elements in the current fiscal year. Default pay is calculated by employee, position, job suffix and FOAPAL for each pay period remaining in the current fiscal year. It does not include OPE expenses. The default pay calculation uses the current employee data in Banner and is run nightly.

Default pay is calculated for:

  • Salaried employees with jobs that are active at some point during the current fiscal year and have a default earn code
    • employee class = CA, UA, UB, UC, UD, UE, UG, UH, UP, UV, UX or UY
  • Classified full-time hourly staff
    • employee class = CD
  • Grad Student employee positions
    • employee class = XB

Default pay is not calculated for:

  • Hourly paid employees (classified part-time hourly, temporary staff, unclassified hourly, hourly academic wage appointments and student workers)
    • employee class = XA, TS, CE, UT or UW
  • Unpaid, courtesy and emeritus appointments
    • employee class = XX

Note: Past default pay amounts should be ignored as default pay reflects the job record defaults that were in effect for the month in question. When you change a job, you can't back date the effective date of the record before the first day of the current month. Therefore, the default labor distribution can't be changed for periods prior to the current month. For past months, look at the actual pay instead. Different values could have been entered during time entry or subsequent redistributions.

Resolution

Discrepancy between Default Pay and Encumbrances

Default pay is not the same as an encumbrance. While they are similar, there are several differences in how they are calculated.

Default Pay Encumbrances
Default pay is calculated in a nightly process and will reflect changes made to an employee's record the day after the change is made. Encumbrances are calculated near the end of the month and will reflect changes made to an employee's record since the previous encumbrance calculation.
The default pay process uses the actual personnel effective date (e.g. an employee started work mid-month like the 16th). Default pay accounts for this partial month of pay. The encumbrance process often uses the first day of the next month to start encumbering. As a result it does not take into account the partial pay for someone who started working mid-month.
The default pay process does not attempt to estimate OPE. Encumbrances are calculated for OPE.

Note: Partial month calculations are based on the number of working days in the month. For example, in a year when September has 20 work days and the period of September 16 - 30 has 10 work days, the default pay would be 50% of the monthly pay. However, in a year when September has 21 work days and the period of September 16 - 30 has 11 work days, the default pay would be 52.38% of the monthly pay. This can result in the projected pay for the year appearing to be higher than the employee's annual salary rate.

Employee's default pay amount is wrong or missing

The default pay calculation reflects the state of Banner when it is made during the nightly process. Some common business process reasons that can cause default pay to appear wrong or missing include:

  • Data entry might not be complete. For example, data entry for changes to employee records for the current month take priority over future-dated changes. If the change is for a future month, such as if you submitted a position change and salary increase for an employee in June that doesn't take effect until September, the change may not have been entered into Banner yet.
  • Data processing might not be complete. For example, an Electronic Personnel Action Form (EPAF) may have been submitted, but until it has been approved, it won't update the job record.
  • Pay increases, especially mass pay increases such as bargained cost of living increases, are usually not entered until the month they take effect. As a result they will usually not show in default pay until the month of the pay increase.
  • Necessary data fields may be empty. For example, if a default earn code is left off a job in an eclass that requires the default earn code to be populated, the default pay may not be calculated.
  • People on 9 month appointments will not have default pay for the months they are off.
  • People on sabbatical will have their pay posted to employee position suffix 11, unless the employee is on a 9 month position over 12 months. In that case, their pay will be posted to employee suffix 00. All sabbatical pay will appear on account code 10123.

Note: If the default pay is wrong or missing, even after taking into the above situations into account, look in Banner form NYIJOBS to verify that the data in Banner is complete and accurate. If the data there is missing or needs to be corrected, notify HR (askHR@oregonstate.edu).

Note: While there are default pay amounts for past months these reflect the estimated pay for the employee in that past month and does not reflect their actual pay. Look at the person's pay data to see what they were paid in the past.

Assistance

For assistance, contact the UIT Data Team

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