Frequently Asked Questions - Additional Pay

Additional Pay

Are there any notifications that get sent out to the operator that a retroactive payment will not be paid out or do we have to manually look to see if there are active paychecks?

No, there are no alerts/notifications sent out to tell people that a retroactive payment is or is not triggered. The only notification is if someone at UCPC Payroll thinks an error has occurred and will reach out to the identified individuals to confirm.

Are there reports to see payroll transactions that are happening for a single employee? For instance, if I have an employee who has two jobs, but I only have security access for one of the jobs, can I see payments that are happening for the other depts.?

If you have access to the Review Paycheck page for an employee, you can see all of the details that they were paid, including details from other jobs that are not part of your regular visibility. However, beyond usage of the PREPSHUP tables, you will only be able to view recurring additional pay and one-time payments for the departments that you have visibility into.

For Additional Pay compensation, is that monthly, total, time period, or annual?

It depends on the employee class. If they are monthly then additional compensation will be distributed in one pay period. If they are biweekly then it will be distributed biweekly. 

On the personal summary screen, can you see all appointments in other departments?

You can see all active appointments in all departments and all UCs in the Person Org Summary page.

Does vacation/sick leave need to be entered daily for salaried exempt employees?

All sick and vacation must be entered in whole day increments. All leave should be entered in CalTime.

Why would you overwrite the chartfields for overpayments?

You would overwrite the chartfields when the chartfields are no longer active during the recovery process. If the overpayment is being recovered from the next available payment, it will go against the current pay cycle and the chartfields will not be able to be changed.

Can you submit an overpayment as negative amounts for percentages?

No, percentages must be submitted as positive amounts. 

Why can't you change the earn code to ACR for summer salaries?

We can request it as a change request but it will need to get approved by all Locations and it will definitely not be done by Go Live.

What can be done if an employee is paid on the incorrect chartstring?

If an employee is paid using an incorrect chartstring, the payment can be transferred to the appropriate chartstring using a Direct Retro request.

Are there notifications to indicate that a payment is being processed in UCPath?

For example, are there permissions for seeing that payment information?

There are no specific notifications regarding payments being processed in UCPath. To check if a payment has been processed, review the specific employee's paycheck/payroll data.

Will Post Authorization Notification (PAN) still exist in UCPath?

No. PAN notifications are sent out from Personnel and Payroll System (PPS) to notify select individuals that transactions have been processed. PPS will no longer be used, thus PAN notifications will not exist either.

How do you submit a retroactive merit increase for an employee?

Merit increases should be submitted using PayPath only, not using the additional pay forms. If a retroactive merit increase is submitted, the system will compare the new salary to their current salary and automatically calculate and pay out the amount of retroactive pay that should be generated.

There are two exceptions to this process:

  1. The system will calculate and pay out amounts for only the earn codes that are eligible for retroactive payments. If the employee has an earn code on their record that is not eligible for retroactive actions AND the amount paid out for that earn code is dependent on the employee’s compensation amount (e.g., a specific percentage of their salary), then the retroactive amount owed to the employee for that specific earn code will not pay out. That amount needs to be manually calculated and paid to the employee by using the one-time additional payment form.

  2. If the latest effective-dated row for that employee is for an action that conflicts with the retroactive merit increase (e.g., if the employee transferred to a new job or got a promotion), then you must contact UCPath for assistance in processing that transaction.

Can approvers be defined at the department level? When would you use an ad hoc approver?

Yes. Routing to the approver groups will be based on which form it is, the department submitting the request, and the affected employee’s employee class. By default, all forms will only need one approver level, meaning that only one person needs to approve the request in order for it to process.

Can UCPath apply a view or filter the forms based on an employee ID?

No. Additional Pay forms will show the same fields, regardless of employee type. However, some select fields may be filtered out based on the amounts input.

How do you enter a By Agreement (BYA/BYN) employee that should receive the same flat dollar amount every pay period?

If the By Agreement employee receives the exact same amount every pay period, then you can submit a Recurring Additional Pay request for that employee, entering the “Pay Period Amount” as the flat dollar amount that the employee should be receiving.

If the by agreement employee does not receive the same amount every pay period, then the request must be submitted via the One-Time Pay Additional form. 

Is the Additional Pay amount request for a gross amount or a net amount? Could I choose between the two?

The amount submitted using the Additional Pay forms is the total/gross amount, not including any taxes and deductions that will be subtracted when payroll is processed.

The forms have a Gross-Up checkbox to indicate that the submitted amount should be the net amount that should be paid to the employee; if this checkbox is selected, the employee will receive the submitted amount exactly as their net amount and the department/chartstring will be charged for the additional amounts that would have gotten taken out in taxes/deductions (i.e., the true gross amount needed for the employee to get paid that amount as net).

Does the Additional Pay form allow documents to be attached?

The Recurring Additional Pay form allows for document attachment. However, the One-Time Pay form does not have this functionality. If a document needs to be attached to the request, the one-time payment can be submitted using the Recurring Additional Pay form, with the effective and end dates adjusted to reflect one single pay period.

Can the initiator assign specific approvers?

No, initiators cannot assign a specific approver. Once an initiator submits the request, it will be auto-routed to the appropriate Approver Group based on the Department, the selected form, and the employee class (also known as “appointment type” in current state).

Only one person in that approver group needs to approve for the workflow to move forward. However, the approver can select a specific ad hoc approver from a drop-down menu of approvers who have the appropriate permissions.

If a Work-Study student is owed additional pay, is this the correct form to use?

Additional Pay is for payments that are in addition to the employee’s base salary (e.g., stipends, bonuses). If the work-study student is owed additional hours that have not been paid to them, then this would not be the appropriate form to use and the hours should be submitted via the Off-Cycle/Final Pay form instead.

If the work-study student is owed additional pay for an action that is separate from their regular hours/salary (e.g., if the student has been given a STAR award), then this would be the appropriate form to use.

Is there a way for the initiator to see what has been submitted?

When you open an additional pay form, current payroll requests for that employee that have been submitted will be shown to the right of the new submission.

Will earn codes/title codes change and if so, how?

While most earn codes will stay the same, there will be some changes to existing earn codes. We will provide a “mapping” document to map from current-HCM-to-new-UCPath Earn Codes during training as well as a definition of every UCPath earn code and how they should be used. Title codes will be staying the same.

Do some transactions allow cloning/copying? Is there a list of transactions that allow copying?

Yes, some transactions allow cloning, but that is only in the event that the request has been rejected. No cloning functionality exists for the Additional Pay forms.

How will UCPath recognize a duplicate request, or will UCPath process both updates?

When you open an additional pay form, current payroll requests for that employee that have been submitted will be shown to the right of the new submission, thus allowing the Initiator to check if a specific request has already been submitted. It is up to the Initiators to check current requests and previous paychecks to ensure that they are not submitting a duplicate request; the UCPath Center is not responsible for this action and will process both updates.

What is the difference between processing Additional Pay through the Personnel and Payroll System (PPS) system vs. processing through a department award (DSAS)? Are there guidelines for which to use? How does CSS determine which method to use?

Contact your HR Business Partner for information about DSAS and what guidelines/criteria are used to determine if they process pay out of PPS or DSAS. If specific payments are paid out of DSAS currently, they will most likely continue to be paid out of DSAS after we go live with UCPath. 

How are retroactive payments handled (within Additional Pay requests)?

There are fields in each Additional Pay form meant to identify the appropriate pay periods that the additional pay should apply to, thus allowing for retroactive submission. Note: You can only submit retroactive payments for earn codes that are eligible for retroactivity.

What about out-of-scope work for Additional Pay requests?

Additional Pay is defined as pay that is in addition to the employee’s regular base pay. Thus, “out-of-scope” requests for Additional Pay consist of inputting regular hourly and/or salary pay in current or previous pay periods. It also would not be appropriate for “rush”/off-cycle requests as well as final pay.

Can departments bypass the UCPath System for Additional Pay Requests?

No. UCPath is the only system of record and payment for HR/Payroll actions that UC Berkeley will be using.

Can Additional Pay requests be rushed?

No. Additional Pay requests will be paid out using the employee’s regular on-cycle payroll. In order to “rush” a payment, you will have to fill out the Off-Cycle/Final Pay form in order for the additional pay to be processed during UCOP’s next available payroll run.