Hello UCPath Users, 

We are reaching out to address several questions that have arisen around the payroll processing schedule changes made by UCPath Center last October. The Payroll Processing schedule was recently discussed in our User Group meeting to clarify the transaction hold dates, and the need to adhere to these dates for timely processing of payroll at the UCPath Center. The following FAQs came forward from our discussion. These Payroll Processing Schedule FAQs are also available on the UCPath website for reference, and job aids and resources mentioned below can be found on the Transactional Users page under the Payroll Processing Schedule section.

1. What transactions can be initiated and approved during the Payroll Processing Schedule stop dates (“blackout period”)? 

   • PayPath transactions outside of the current on-cycle pay period; e.g., if the current pay period being processed corresponds to biweekly employees, you may enter monthly transactions.
   • Non-PayPath transactions, e.g., HR templates and leaves.
   • Transactions with effective dates beyond the current pay period (including PayPath transactions).
   • Employee data changes that affect payroll must be submitted and approved in UCPath by 3:00 PM. Changes submitted after 3:00 PM will not be included in the pay run. 
   • Locations may continue to send HR Template and Leave of Absence transactions after the STOP date and time. However, if these transactions impact pay, they will not be processed until the resume processing date and will be included in the next pay cycle. 
   • E-702 Funding Entry Page and E-703 Funding Upload is due a day (EOD) prior to the Pay Confirm Date

2. What transactions have to be stopped (not approved)? 

   • Position Management Update transactions for the current or previous pay cycles cannot be entered during this period, when there is an incumbent in the position.
   • PayPath transactions for the current or previous pay cycles cannot be entered during this period.
   • Note: the problem is when transactions are initiated and approved because then they will write to the UCPath system and cause issues with the Payroll Processing for that pay period. It is okay to initiate the transaction and NOT approve it until the blackout period has passed for that pay cycle.

3. What is a “Pay-Impacting” transaction? 

   A 'Pay-Impacting' transaction is any transaction in UCPath that updates Job Data in such a way that impacts the frequency in which an employee is paid, amount owed, or the funding for an employee in the current pay cycle or prior pay cycle (i.e., retroactive transaction) during the Payroll production process. This also includes position management changes for positions which are currently assigned to employees. Any job data change, such as a retro-active lower rate change, that will cause an overpayment.
   
   A pay impacting transaction includes position and incumbent job data changes such as:

   • Job data change (i.e. FTE, comp rate, pay cycle, title code, benefits etc.)
   • Retroactive Job data change which causes the retro module to be triggered
   • Additional pay change (change to recurring additional pay such as amount, earn code, effective date etc.)
   • Position management change impacting the incumbents job data

4. Are the blackout dates specific to a pay cycle, i.e., can transactions for MO employees be completed during a hold on transactions for BW employee transactions? 

   Yes, the hold dates are pay cycle specific. If the current pay period corresponds to Biweekly employees, monthly transactions can be entered and vice versa. See page 10 of the job aid.

5. Can Position Management transactions be entered during the blackout dates if there is no incumbent in the position?

   Yes, vacant and new positions are okay to transact as long as there is no incumbent in the position- vacant position changes are not pay impacting Other Position management changes (especially those with incumbents in the position) should be held until the “Resume” date on the Payroll Processing Schedule.

6. Is it okay to enter future dated PayPath and Position Management transactions during the blackout dates? 

   Only if the PayPath and Position Management transactions have an effective date beyond the payroll cycle resume date is it okay to submit these future dated transactions.

7. Can Smart HR templates continue to be submitted during the “blackout period” listed on the Payroll Processing Schedule?

   Yes, HR Templates can continue to be processed during this window, since they require processing at the UCPath Center before writing to the system. However, anything submitted after 3:00 PM of the cutoff date will not be processed for current pay cycle The UCPath Team team will hold work on these until the “resume” date listed on the Payroll Processing schedule. Refer to the Information on Payroll Processing Calendar document section for “What does this mean for a location” and “What can I continue to do in between the STOP and RESUME date/times?”

8. Can leave transactions be submitted during the processing hold times outlined on the Payroll Processing Schedule? 

   Yes, like HR Templates, Extended Absence Transactions can continue to be processed so long as they are not sent as a mass inbound file, since they do not write directly to the UCPath system without UCPath Center first processing.

9. There seemed to be a discrepancy in the payroll processing schedule in that accrual transactions need to be entered by the Inbound Files date, but are included in the transactions that should not be processed (often a day before the deadline for inbound files). Can someone please clarify this?? 

   The Employee Data Change Deadline, the first column in the location section of the Payroll Processing schedule,  is actually for deadline purposes, rather than for hold dates. For this reason, you can continue to focus on the outlined Inbound Files date so long as the transaction is being processed as a mass file. See pages 3-4 of the job aid. 

   Note: The E-084 Manage accruals inbound file writes directly to the employee’s accrual table; an employee data change. Different deadlines apply, so it’s listed in both the Inbound Files - Description and Employee Data Change sections of the Payroll Processing Schedule. 

During each payroll blackout period, a transaction reject report identifies transactions which should not have been submitted during a given pay period. A few examples of transactions from Berkeley which have been on this report are: 

For additional questions on the Payroll Processing Schedule, please refer to the Job Aid: Review the Payroll Processing Schedule on the UCPath Help Site. 

You may also want to reference this visualization of the deadlines and non-transaction days, which outlines the payroll process. 

If you have further questions, please contact us at ucbucpath@berkeley.edu.

Thank you, 
UCPath Operations Team