Payroll

Academic pay schedules  Payroll and payday calendars

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 FS Payroll. All appeals are approved by the senior director of accounting services.

• I-9 handbook — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
• Overtime policy.
• Payroll action request.
• Payroll calendars.
• Vacation policy.

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

The employee and their immediate supervisor are responsible for accurate time and attendance reporting. A Timekeeper may be assigned to support the Manager in approving time for the employees within that organization. Timekeepers should have a direct line of sight over the employees for whom they approve time.

An Operational Timekeeper has access to all time-entry approval requests for the employees in the supervisory organization hierarchy. Operational Timekeepers approve time entries in exception scenarios to ensure timely pay. They must maintain approval documentation, which is subject to review and audit.

Documentation must show acknowledgment or approvals of hours by the direct supervisor or an equivalent individual or designee.

Employee responsibilities

• All employees: Request time off via the Absence Calendar per the leave and time off policies in the Staff Personal Manual (SPP).
• Nonexempt staff: Accurately report hours worked daily. Time entries can be entered and submitted via the Time Entry Calendar in Workday.

Manager and timekeeper responsibilities

• All staff: Manage nonexempt schedules and requests, receive approvals for overtime or compensatory time, review and approve time off requests and submit required documentation within established deadlines.
• Exempt staff: Review and approve requests for time off submitted via Workday, as determined by the department. Review any email correspondence of the time off requests to finalize.
• Nonexempt staff: Review and approve timesheets to finalize. Retain any documentation of variations in the schedule and leave request forms.

Operational timekeeper responsibilities

• Compare the employee’s online timesheet with the documentation received.
• Ensure hours outside standard hours have approval documentation.
• Ensure 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 time off against the approved request.
• Nonexempt staff: Verify the timesheet is signed by the employee and supervisor.
• Report discrepancies between the timesheet and documentation to the employee’s supervisor for resolution.

Vacation and compensatory payouts at termination or status change are now centrally mapped and funded. The ERE rate includes a component to fund vacation and compensatory payouts.