PAYROLL
New or rehired employees eligible for the Pathfinder retirement plan should have a coverage begin date starting the first day of the month following the month of employment. For example, the coverage begin date should be May 1 for an employee that was hired/rehired on April 11. For additional information, please refer to the Oklahoma Administrative Code.
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Employee deferrals and employer contributions must be remitted to OPERS in a timely manner to ensure participant amounts are posted and transferred to the selected investment options within 10 business days of payday, end of payroll period or process date, whichever is later.
OMES processes payments for SoonerSave amounts on confirmed payrolls on a weekly basis. This payment schedule far exceeds the requirements set forth in the plan and IRS rules. On many occasions, contributions are posted to employee accounts on or before the actual pay date. Occasionally, due to the payroll processing schedule of agencies, payments may post after the actual pay date.
Please remind employees that payments not showing on a quarterly statement may be due to the later processing of payroll and will show on the next quarterly statement. Employees are also encouraged to use the SoonerSave website to review and receive up-to-date information on their account.
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As a reminder to agencies, certain types of earnings are eligible for deferral to SoonerSave while others are not considered eligible compensation.
Annual leave payout is generally eligible for SoonerSave deferral on termination of employment. However, payments on severance from employment do not qualify as compensation for SoonerSave deferrals. Therefore, payments under voluntary buyouts and reductions in force would be excluded from deferral consideration.
Only compensation from an agency that is attributable to services performed for the agency may be considered as earnings from which SoonerSave deferrals can be taken. This would include regular pay, overtime, shift differential and other similar payments based on employment. If an amount would have been paid had the employment continued, such as annual leave, then deferrals can be taken.
Please advise employees that changes in deferral amounts must be submitted to the SoonerSave administrator and approved before processing through payroll. For additional information, agency personnel should contact their SoonerSave coordinator or the SoonerSave administrative office at 800-733-9008 or 405-858-6781.
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Agencies must notify OMES CAR of any items that will affect the Oklahoma centralized child support payment. Items that could affect the amount to be paid include refunds to employees for amounts withheld in error and reversals of payroll warrants. If OMES is not notified and the centralized child support payment is processed, the agency will be responsible for contacting the Department of Human Services Child Support Services to attempt to get a refund. If the funds have already been disbursed to the recipient, the money might not be refunded back to the agency. Timely communication from agencies is critical in these situations.
Each Monday, CAR runs the HCM process to report and make payment to the OCSS/Oklahoma Centralized Support Registry, PS Vendor ID 0000190715. The process is run for payments with dates from the second previous Saturday through the previous Friday. For example: Paychecks with an issue date between March 23, 2020, and March 27, 2020 were processed to pay the child support withholdings on March 30, 2020. All payments going to the OCSS must be set up to use Vendor ID 0000190715. Payments to Vendor ID 0000000830 or Vendor ID 0000197419 for the OCSS are no longer allowed and will not be processed for centralized payment if used in error.
In PeopleSoft Financials, a journal entry is created to remove the funds from the agency’s 994 fund. The agency will see a debit to the 633190 account and a credit to 101000.
For questions, please email [email protected] and a team member will assist you.
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When an employee reimburses a payroll overpayment, please complete and submit the OMES Form 94P as soon as the reimbursement is made. Timely submission helps ensure corrections are reflected in the quarter in which they occurred for proper reporting and also helps in the full recovery of OPERS retirement amounts. If the retirement system is not aware of an overpayment and the pending overpayment refund request, payouts to former employees may be incorrect, resulting in a loss to the agency. In addition, retirement calculations may be incorrect if the overpayment is not reported timely.
Please do not provide copies of personal checks. The form allows the agency to enter the amount reimbursed. Additional backup data is not required.
The form requires the state employee ID (EmplID) be entered. This change is for the privacy and security of the employee. Please do not submit with the Social Security number or any other number.
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The HCM system correctly calculates taxes based on the current tax rates and an employee’s withholding certificates. Agencies should not override the taxes calculated. If the taxes appear to be incorrect, the employee's paycheck should be reviewed before continuing the payroll process. If the taxes prevent after-tax deductions from being withheld, the employee should be notified. Payment of items not withheld through payroll due to lack of net pay must be settled between the employee and the vendor.
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TRAVEL
Agencies were instructed not to book flights through FCM for travel after March 1, but some post-March 1 travel was booked through FCM. Agencies were told that they must deal directly with the airline for cancellations booked through FCM. We have received feedback that some agencies are being referred back to the booking travel agent by the airline. If you experience this issue, FCM has been assisting but is charging a $16 cancellation fee if the ticket was booked online. If the ticket was booked by phone there is no cancellation fee. Refundable tickets will be refunded to the agency and nonrefundable tickets will be put on an unused ticket list for future use through FCM. When rebooking unused tickets, agencies must call FCM and will be charged a $50 travel agent fee.
For tickets purchased through the Journey House/Concur contract, Journey House will assist with cancellations.
For additional questions, please contact [email protected].
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COVID-19 TEMPORARY PROCEDURES
Like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the CARES Act providing federal economic relief to state and local governments will require reporting. Several state agencies that worked tirelessly during the ARRA implementation will recognize provisions establishing a Pandemic Response Accountability Commission and quarterly reporting similar to that required during ARRA.
Final federal regulations are expected in mid-April. Look for future updates on reporting requirements after the federal regulations are final. The requested information will include state agency reporting contacts and other responsible persons, federal grant award information including award amounts, expenditure amounts, federal award identification and tracking information normally associated with grant awards.
CLASS FUNDING 49000:
Oklahoma state agencies should plan to use PeopleSoft Class Funding 49000 for depositing and expending Pandemic Recovery dollars. If your agency is currently using this class funding, OMES will be working with your agency to clear out the activity in this class funding. If your agency will be receiving Pandemic Recovery funding and you do not already have a Class Funding 49000, please contact Jennie Pratt at [email protected] to have one set up for your agency.
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All COVID-19-related P-card purchases must be coded with the program code A0104 in Works within 24 hours of posting for daily expenditure reporting.
To accommodate working remotely, agencies may pick up P-cards only on Monday, Wednesday or Friday; only between the hours of 1:30-3 p.m. at 5005 N. Lincoln Blvd.; and only after having been notified by the State P-card Office that cards are available to be picked up. Notices from the State P-card Office will only go out on Tuesday afternoon/evening and cards will be taken to the pickup point on Wednesdays.
Questions related to the above P-card information should be directed to [email protected].
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- Direct deposits – Email Form PWC to [email protected]. The document must be password-protected and the password should be included in a separate email, or sent via another secure method.
- PWC for paper warrants – Email Form PWC to [email protected]. The original warrant should be scanned and attached to the email. However, OMES will process the cancellation without the scanned copy if the email certifies that the agency has the warrant and can provide it when circumstances allow.
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Agencies should track all costs related to COVID-19. OMES is establishing a separate program code under the Prevention topic for this purpose. For all COVID-19 purchases and expenditures, use program code A0104.
In addition, an additional time code is being added to the HCM Member Self Service application. For time worked on COVID-19 issues, use the time code COVID19 instead of the normal Time Reporting Code (REGHR, HREG, etc.).
New Time Reporting and Earnings codes have been created for agencies to track salary costs for employees with time worked on COVID-19 issues. The amounts will post to a new GL account 511119.
The new codes are:
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Earnings code
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TRC
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Description
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CVH coding
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CV19H
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Hourly employee
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CVS coding (exception reporting)
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CV19S
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Salary employee
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CVP employee coding (i.e., biweekly)
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CV19P
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Positive pay
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Agencies that use a separate time and labor application and interface with PeopleSoft, without using the new time reporting codes, should track COVID-19 payroll costs and email cumulative costs to [email protected]. Cumulative payroll costs related to COVID-19 should be emailed after each regular payroll. Detail is not necessary at this time but may be requested depending on federal requirements.
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TREASURER'S OFFICE
The Oklahoma State Treasurer Cashier Window is closed due to COVID-19. The following procedures are in place:
State agency personnel can pick up warrants between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. at:
- OMES Information Services, 3115 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73105*
*Ask for Carl Stengel or Stacey Williams.
Each agency that picks up warrants should have a card on file at OST listing those authorized to pick up on behalf of the agency (OST has provided OMES IS with the list); the agency cannot send just anyone to pick up. If the agency needs to update or complete a form, please contact [email protected].
All checks made payable through the State Treasurer's Office may be cashed at the following bank location:
- BancFirst, 1111 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73104
*Proper identification (e.g., state driver's license, state ID, passport, military ID) will be required. All check cashing policies/procedures of BancFirst must also be followed.
State agencies may also take deposits to the same BancFirst location at 1111 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73104.
State agency employee personal checks cannot be cashed at BancFirst during this time period.
Please direct any banking-related questions/concerns to:
Deidra Salim [email protected]
Victor Castillo [email protected]
Kiran Nallayahgari [email protected]
Additional information is also on the OST website.
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Please ensure the authorized signers on file are up to date (for both repetitive and non-repetitive wires). The risk of fraud increases exponentially during times of crisis and proper authorization is mandatory before a wire transfer is processed. Exceptions will not be granted to this risk control measure.
Non-repetitive wires for over $100,000 require approval from two authorized signers, no exceptions.
We are temporarily limiting the non-repetitive wires to Thursdays of each week. Please plan accordingly and submit all documentation ahead of time. The callback verifications will be performed on Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and noon, via Teams/Zoom/Uber where possible.
The deadline to receive same-day wires is 12:30 p.m. and will be strictly implemented. Wire directives received after the deadline are not guaranteed for same day.
Where a physical signature is not possible, the wire directive should originate from the official email address of the authorized signer with their express approval in the body of the email. If a second approval is required, a second authorized signer should respond to the first signer’s email with their approval.
For any questions, contact the wire desk at [email protected].
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The Office of the State Treasurer has recently contracted with True Digital, a PCI Qualified Security Assessor, to provide training on its digital platform to assist participating state agencies in completing their PCI-DSS assessments. The training is scheduled for April 14, 2020, from 10 a.m. to noon. The training will be web-based. Please be on the lookout for a meeting invite that will be sent to each agency’s PCI contact prior to the webinar, as well as user credentials for your agency’s access to True Digital’s Self-Assessment platform. To learn more about True Digital and PCI, visit truedigitalsecurity.com.
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AGENCY NEWS
OMES is providing a new mail service to decrease lobby foot traffic for hand-delivered mail by providing a drop box and mailroom services for these items. Enrolled agencies will post one of the attached signs to their buildings (fillable pdf version or handwritten version), notifying individuals hand-delivering mail to take the envelopes to the mailbox outside the Will Rogers Building, located at 2401 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73105. Upon receipt of mail, OMES Central Printing will contact you to pick up your items. Items can be retrieved at 2120 N.E. 36th St., Oklahoma City, OK 73111.
To sign up for this new service, please email [email protected] with your agency information as well as the contact person that should be called when mail is hand-delivered for your agency. Please do not place the sign on your building until we have received an agency contact for your mail.
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Effective March 15, 2020, True Sky Credit Union is now a Voluntary Payroll Deduction Vendor.
True Sky Credit Union, trueskycu.org, 10201 S. Western Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73126
Vendor ID: 504325
Payroll Code: AU32
Contact: Greg Cline
Telephone: 405-682-1990, ext. 2513
Fax: 405-703-2570
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The Oklahoma College Savings Plan is transitioning to a new account management system for improved online functionality. Effective May 7, 2020, OCSP will no longer accept checks mailed by an employer for payroll contributions to its employees’ accounts into the plan. Contributions made through an account owner’s paycheck withholding will only be accepted by electronic funds transfer, which will ensure the timely, safe and secure transfer of funds from the employer to the plan. The vendor file will be updated with the banking information so EFT payments can be made going forward. Employees will receive information from OCSP regarding the transition and can call 877-654-7284 or visit ok4saving.org/transition if they have any questions.
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