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Payroll & Benefits

Payment Process Overview

This is a general overview of essential HR/Payroll steps necessary to ensure that faculty and staff are paid on the scheduled pay date.

The proper and timely completion of each step by the employing department, the Office of Human Resources or the appropriate HR Service Center, and the University Payroll & Benefits office is critical to ensuring that faculty and staff are paid on the scheduled pay date. Follow the Payroll Schedule to meet all deadlines. See Payroll Schedule Reference Materials for more information.

Human Resources Front End (HRFE) training can be found on the HR Front End page. For assistance with this process, contact the appropriate Human Resources office at your university.

Step 1 — Review Job Records for Accuracy

New hire jobs and changes to existing employment must be entered and routed in HRFE. Departments and HR should follow the Payroll Schedule to meet all HRFE transaction deadlines. Payroll is calculated according to job record data at the moment of the Job System Change Cutoff identified in the Payroll Schedule.

For all categories of employee, verify the job’s effective date, termination date, and FTE (Full Time Equivalent) are accurate.

The Monthly payroll calculation is based on the job record’s Assigned Salary. Check the Assigned Salary for accuracy.

Bi-weekly payroll is calculated by multiplying the number of hours by the rate of pay. Make sure the hourly rate of pay is correct.

In addition, the three categories of bi-weekly employees need specific elements of the job records verified.

  1. Civil Service Exempt – Default Hours must be set up (there should be no Work Schedule).
  2. Civil Service Non-Exempt – Work Schedule must be set up (there should be no Default Hours)
  3. Extra Help/Student employees should never have Default Hours or a Work Schedule set up on their jobs.

Step 2 —Set Up and Maintain the Time Reporting Structure

Each department needs to set up a payroll reporting structure. This includes setting up timesheet orgs, routing queues, and security. Structures should be set up in such a way that employees cannot approve their own timesheets.

See the job aids on Time Entry Setup and Security.

Step 3 — Process Time Entry for Bi-weekly Employees

To ensure that bi-weekly employees are paid on the scheduled pay date, time entry originators must submit timesheets in time for approvers to meet the noon Time Entry Cutoff identified in the Payroll Schedule (5:00 p.m. for Superusers). Pay period beginning and ending dates, payroll calculation dates, and pay dates are identified in the Payroll Schedule.

For bi-weekly payroll, departments use one of three methods for populating Banner with time reporting data:

  1. Web time entry requires the employee to enter and submit time in an online timesheet. The department approver reviews and approves the timesheet online or in Banner prior to the Time Entry Cutoff identified in the Payroll Schedule. Web Time is the preferred time entry method.

  2. Department time entry requires the department originator to extract timesheets in Banner and key in time according to the timesheet provided by the employee (usually paper). The department approver reviews the timesheet and approves it in Banner prior to the Time Entry Cutoff identified in the Payroll Schedule.

  3. Feeder units use their own clocking system to report time. Payroll data gets “fed” into Banner according to the deadlines on the Payroll Schedule. NOTE: Stringent guidelines and requirements must be met before a unit is approved to become a Feeder for time reporting. See the Mass Time entry Feeder Requests forms.

For time entry job aids and training materials, see Payroll & Benefits Training Materials.

For additional assistance with this process, contact University Payroll & Benefits.

Step 4 — Verify and Adjust Employee Pay

Bi-weekly timesheet errors identified after the timesheet has been approved during the Current Pay Adjustment Window can be corrected with a Current Pay Adjustment (CPA) in the Payroll Adjustment Request Interface System (PARIS).

The Labor Distribution Pay Period report is available in Mobius View (formerly View Direct) three days prior to the pay date. By reviewing this report, departments can verify if employees will be paid properly. If a monthly or bi-weekly employee is not on the report for that payroll calc, the department should check HRFE to verify that the job has been created. If the department has access, check the Employee Job form (NBAJOBS) or Employee Summary View Form (NZIESUM) in Banner. Then take the following actions:

  1. If the job has been created, and is correct, submit an approved Prior Underpayment Adjustment (PUA) in PARIS by 5 p.m. Friday for the payment to occur on the following Friday.

  2. If the job has not been created, or is not correct, contact your university’s Human Resources office to determine the status of the job.

  3. For bi-weekly employees, if the job has been created before the pay period end date and is correct, but no time was entered or approved, submit an approved PUA in PARIS by 5 p.m. Friday for the payment to occur on the following Friday.

Adjustments that comply with University of Illinois System policy and are submitted by 5 p.m. Friday will be paid the following Friday. However, when a large volume of adjustments is received by the University Payroll & Benefits office, some adjustments may be processed for payment on the following week. Alterations of the adjustment schedule due to holidays will be communicated through the OBFS News Feed.

If an employee is overpaid, see the Overpayments page for more information and instructions on how to resolve.

The PARIS Resource Page contains job aids and training materials for submitting payroll adjustments. Training is required for access to the Prior Underpayment Adjustment module.

For additional job aids and training materials, see Payroll & Benefits Training Materials.

Step 5 — Request a Payroll Loan

When significant changes in jobs are not completed in Banner or new hire paperwork and job set up is delayed, it is possible the scheduled payroll deadlines will not be met. Also, payroll adjustments are not possible until job records are available or updated. In this situation, departments may request a payroll loan for an eligible employee to ensure the employee will be paid on or near the scheduled pay date.

The procedure to request a payroll loan is managed by University Payroll & Benefits. The updated process is effective November 1, 2020 and is explained in the job aid Requesting a Pay Loan. Units/departments must submit an Expedited Payment Request (EPR) in the Travel & Expense Management application (TEM). A signed Pay Loan Request form and HRFE substantiation must be attached to the TEM transaction.

For assistance with this process, contact University Payroll & Benefits.

Last Updated: October 9, 2020

 
 

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