T0: Department and Agency Directors of Human Resources, Personnel and Affirmative Action Officers, Equal Opportunity Specialists, Diversity and Inclusion Specialists
FROM: Jessica Rowe, Director of Staffing Services
SUBJECT: FY ‘20-’21 Payroll Certification Schedule

The Payroll Certification Schedule for Fiscal Year '20-'21, beginning April 1, 2020, is below.

THIS MEMORANDUM AND SCHEDULE REPLACE ADVISORY MEMORANDUM #19-01 ISSUED May 7, 2019, AND ITS ATTACHED SCHEDULE. PLEASE REMOVE ADVISORY MEMORANDUM #19-01 AND SCHEDULE.

PAYROLL DEADLINES

The Department of Civil Service requires five working days to process and certify the payroll. Based on the Office of the State Comptroller's (OSC) deadlines, we must establish the normal payroll due date as the Friday prior to the last date of the payroll period. Agencies are required to submit their payroll to this Department by the NYSTEP Transaction Cutoff Date, including coding of substantiating eligible list certifications in ELMS or submission of substantiating paperwork such as S-203's. On the Friday after the end of the payroll period, this Department will certify the payroll to OSC.

However, we recognize that on rare occasions you may need to submit late transactions (e.g., for unexpected returns from leaves). While we will accept transactions that cannot be submitted by the payroll deadline, it is imperative that agencies limit the transactions submitted after the deadline to those that are absolutely necessary. These late transactions must be submitted no later than Tuesday after the Friday payroll deadline to ensure certification to OSC by the following Friday.

If you must submit a late transaction, please provide the last four digits of the social security number, name, action/reason code, and date the transaction was submitted to your Appointment Examiner by e-mail or by fax to (518) 473-7193.

Transactions affecting paychecks or pay status will be processed first.

If there is a critical problem with the transaction that cannot be resolved by the certification date (e.g., Division of Budget (DOB) approval), the transaction will be denied.

If there is insufficient time to obtain this Department's required approvals before the payroll must be certified, the transaction will be approved with temporary status for one pay period for the purpose of producing a check. The agency must resubmit the original transaction in the next pay period and receive the necessary approvals from this Department in order for the transaction to be approved.

Transactions that are not certified to OSC and transactions that do not affect paychecks will be processed on an "as time allows" basis. Transactions that are not completed by the time the payroll is certified will be held and worked with the agency's next payroll (e.g., change of hold item, change contingent to permanent status).

FREEZE WAIVERS/EXEMPTIONS

Agencies should not submit a transaction until any necessary DOB freeze waiver or exemption appears on the NYSTEP system. A transaction may be denied if no waiver is in place at the time the transaction is submitted, since DOB may not act on an agency's request during the five-day period in which we work on the payroll. Refer to Budget Bulletin B-1223 (April 28, 2020) for the most recent requirements.

REMINDERS

OSC uses the "Appointment End Date Report" to determine one category of checks which could be withheld. For each lag ADM/INS pay period, OSC creates a report, which covers two weeks, beginning one day before the start of the pay period and ending one day before the end of the pay period. It then advises agencies that, in the absence of an extension of the employees' end dates, checks for employees will be held. Generating the same report for your agency can alert you to NYSTEP transactions which need to be submitted before OSC notifies you that check(s) may be held.

NYSTEP guidelines for early submission of transactions will not be affected by the payroll deadline schedule. You may still submit transactions up to 30 days in advance of the effective date or, in the case of transactions requiring clearance, as soon as a clearance number has been obtained.

The PayServ submission schedule is not affected by this notice. Agencies should continue to submit transactions to PayServ based on the submission schedule issued by the Office of the State Comptroller.

If you have any questions regarding the implementation of the payroll deadline schedule, please contact Janet Vrooman at (518) 473-5053.

Please make sure that all members of personnel and payroll staff have copies of this information.

DCS AGENCY PAYROLL CERTIFICATION SCHEDULE

FY 20 – 21 LAG - Early Payroll deadlines indicated in bold print