TO: Department and Agency Directors of Human Resource, Personnel and Affirmative Action Officers, Equal Opportunity Specialists, Diversity and Inclusion Specialists THIS MEMORANDUM AND SCHEDULE REPLACE ADVISORY MEMORANDUM #23-02 ISSUED May 8, 2023, AND ITS ATTACHED SCHEDULE. PLEASE REMOVE ADVISORY MEMORANDUM #23-02 AND SCHEDULE. In the past, the Department of Civil Service was able to provide some leeway with payroll deadlines. However, this flexibility is no longer possible. Agencies must adhere to the deadlines below to achieve on-time payroll certification and in preparation of upcoming changes with lag payroll. See below for additional information on late transaction submittals. PAYROLL DEADLINES The Department of Civil Service (Department) 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. PROCESS CHANGES FOR LATE TRANSACTION SUBMITTALS 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 due to unforeseeable or unavoidable circumstances. These late transactions must be submitted no later than Tuesday after the Department's Friday payroll due date to ensure certification to OSC by the Friday of that week. 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 by your Appointment Examiner by e-mail. 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. To ensure adherence to these deadlines, the Department will be changing the processing of any transaction that produces a paycheck submitted after the Tuesday cutoff. 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, with the original effective date and status, in the next pay period and receive the necessary approvals from this Department in order for the transaction to be approved. This is for NYSTEP only, per OSC do not attempt to resubmit the transaction to Payserv. Transactions that are not certified to OSC and/or 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). ***In an effort to provide agencies with notification of these processing changes, and for agencies to have time to implement any internal changes to ensure these deadlines are met, the Department will implement these processing changes effective Payroll Period 12 for both Administration and Institution payrolls. At that time, the Department will change late transactions to temporary status as noted above.*** FREEZE WAIVERS/EXEMPTIONS Refer to Budget Bulletin B-1224 (Revised) for the most recent information on the extension of the Statewide Hiring Freeze. REMINDERS Each pay period, OSC runs the "Appointment End Date Report" in NYSTEP using the day before the start of the pay period and the day before the end of the pay period for each pay cycle (Administration, Institution) to determine one category of checks which could be withheld. 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 must 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 Korynn Holdridge at (518) 473-9950. Please make sure that all members of personnel and payroll staff have copies of this information.
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