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June 27, 2008: Please remind HR staff that if they have PA workflows that they have initiated with Transaction ZPAA076 and have completed the action in PA40, they are not done! They need to click on the Complete Work Flow item box in their Workflow for that PCR as well. Typically, after you complete the action in PA40, it will automatically take you back to your PCR. The information tied to the position (IT 1018/ IT 9018) will not activate for the new personnel action without the Complete Work Flow Item being clicked in Workflow. If you have any questions, please contact your Classification Analyst. Please also remind HR staff to include comments on all actions (same information we captured on 118's & 105's in PMIS). I have had a call from OSP and they are beginning to audit actions and are finding that comments are not being attached to most actions. Even if they put comments on the workflow, they must also attach comments to the OM or PA action itself. June 26, 2008: We would like to apologize for taking the portal down for extended periods of time over the last two days without providing you with more notice and informing you via e-mail. Although we posted messages on the portal and sent messages via SAP to user desktops, we realize that we should have done more to make you aware of the portal downtime. Payroll activities have taken longer than planned this month because of the recent adjustments that were made to the system's time evaluation processing rules. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding. BEST Shared Services As you are aware, the BEST Shared Services team continues to make adjustments to the system’s time evaluation processing rules. The most recent adjustments will show up on June 30 payroll statements. These adjustments will impact a very small percentage (less than 1 percent) of employee comp time balances and pay. For example, impacted employees may notice that, among other things, more pay has been added to their deposit (if they had been earning comp time when they should have been receiving overtime pay) or less pay (if they had been receiving overtime pay when they should have been earning comp time). Employees may also notice a difference in pay because some of the adjustments your department has made to update misidentified employee position settings. We bring this to your attention so your department will know what to look for if you start receiving calls from employees on pay day. Currently, all personnel actions in BEACON must go through Central HR in workflow for approval. Somewhere in this timeframe, when designated the type actions that require agency-level approval it impacted workflow such that once an initiator starts that action, it automatically comes to the agency level and totally bypasses division approvers. We have asked BEACON to re-program ALL actions to go through the division/field offices for approval before going to the agency level. This will start with all NEW actions that are created. We hope this will address some of the concerns we have been getting from the field. On June 13th, Don Webb met with BEACON officials on the issue of partial payout of comp time. The meeting included the individuals responsible for BEACON management and payroll, Herb Henderson and Wendy Griffin. Their response was that partial payout of compensatory time/overtime cannot be accommodated in the system. SAP is only configured to either payout or accrue comp time. Switching back and forth between payout and accrual does no good since payout would be for all hours that have been accrued in the SAP "comp time bucket." While BEACON officials do understand that our pre-SAP business practice of partial payout is not being met, they clearly communicated it is not a priority for them to address this issue due to other payroll configuration challenges (i.e., extended duty, RN bonus, on-call) that affect pay. Our only option is for HR to put in a "ticket" to BEACON on this issue and perhaps BEACON may get to it several months down the road since it would involve programming work. Therefore, the only business option each facility has at this time is either payout of comp/overtime or accrual as compensatory time - - this can be done by individual position or can be a facility-wide decision. Since there are financial implications for total payout of overtime, directors may want to discuss this with SOS leadership before implementing total payout. June 24, 2008: As a follow up to the legislative increase information that was sent out last week, we want to clarify that we do not anticipate running the LI before July 11. If the legislature has not approved an LI by that date, we will run a place holder program and we will allow July forms to be processed beginning on Monday, July 14. We will then plan for an anticipated retroactive LI. If you have created PCRs that are in process, go ahead and complete them, either by your respective agencys finalization date for June actions or by July 11 for the systems finalization date for June actions. If you have created PCRs in error, or if there are PCRs that management has declined, please cancel them as soon as possible. We have also had some questions come in about how to change positions budgeted salaries. The best place to go for a refresher is http://help.mybeacon.nc.gov/beaconhelp/index.html. Once there, select the Human_Resources folder, then the Org_Mgmt folder, then select the Changes to Budget and Split Funding Infotype 1029 (PO13) BPP. Questions or comments should be directed to the BEST Shared Services Center by phone at (919) 707-0707 or by email at best@ncosc.net. June 20, 2008: BEACON has simplified the process for finalizing the year-end Compensated Absences Report. The June 30, 2008, vacation and bonus leave balances in the BEACON system will be utilized in this process and must be up-to-date. To meet this requirement, all BEACON-impacted agencies must ensure that employee time data through June 30 is recorded, released and approved by no later than July 21. Between June 30 and July 21, agency Leave Administrators can validate and make any necessary adjustments to the vacation and bonus leave quotas by following the steps outlined in a job aid that will be distributed later this month. Agencies that have been following the BEACON recommendation of having employees enter time weekly and managers approve time weekly should have to make few, if any, adjustments to vacation and bonus leave quotas. Following the July 21 cut-off date agency leave balances will be converted by budget code and account/center into liability dollars and made available to each agency on or about August 1 through the Compensated Absences Report. The report will include calculated fringe benefits (social security and retirement). Dollar amounts shown on the report will be based on each employees salary as of June 30 divided by 2080 hours (number of hours in a work year) multiplied by vacation/bonus leave balance hours. As in past years, the report is to be used as the source document in preparation for the year-end CAFR package and for related audit reviews. Questions or comments should be directed to the BEST Shared Services Center by phone at (919) 707-0707 or by email at best@ncosc.net. June 19, 2008: Each year at this time questions arise about processing July personnel actions. Because we have moved to an integrated HR/Payroll system, the procedures you will follow will be different than in the past. The following information should help explain what the BEST Shared Services team needs from you to ensure timely and accurate processing of this year's anticipated legislative increase (LI): SAP has been programmed to stop personnel action forms with effective dates of July 1, 2008, and later. The stop is in place until a decision on any potential LI is finalized or until the latest possible date to assure entry of actions for inclusion in the July payroll. This stop does not apply to actions on employees or positions in the Supplemental Staff Employee Group. SAP will allow a new position to be created in planned status to generate a position number for use on vacancy postings. During this time period, please do not create a new position unless you are ready to recruit. Personnel actions with a July 1 or later effective date should be gathered so when the July 1 stop is lifted, the processing can be done more quickly and efficiently. There is not a hold queue in SAP as there was in PMIS. It is very important that any personnel actions effective prior to July 1 be processed in the June payroll since the accuracy in implementing any LI through SAP depends on quality June 30 data in the system. Once the General Assembly makes a decision on a LI, the BEACON system will be updated to reflect the LI as soon as possible. We will follow up with you once a decision is made and our implementation plan is finalized. Run BI report B0149 to ensure budgeted salaries are equal to or above the employee's annual salary, and make any necessary corrections by June 27. Review your SAP inbox of all pending PCRs. PCRs effective prior to July 1 should be processed or canceled by June 27. LI reports available through BI instructions will be sent out later. Questions or comments should be directed to the BEST Shared Services Center by phone at (919) 707-0707 or by email at best@ncosc.net. June 18, 2008: New Report! B0083: Position Eligibility Settings This report displays settings about a position with location and pay information. As a reminder, time records prior to April 1 (all March time records) are no longer being processed by time evaluation for Group Two agency employees. Time Worked Adjustments Time worked hours should have been reported on March dates in order for the overtime calculation at the end of the conversion/go-live overtime period to be correct. If there are time worked hours missing or if too many hours were reported on these March dates, an adjustment needs to be made. Although changes can be made to the time sheet entries, these will not be processed by the time evaluation process since they occurred prior to the April 1 go-live date. A new Infotype 2012-ZWDJ subtype, Pre-SAP Work Time Adjustment has been created to allow agencies to adjust the time worked hours for impacted employees. This record can be a negative value if too many hours were reported and the number needs to be reduced. The hours of time worked that were already reported on the time sheet in BEACON have been counted, so this 2012 entry is an adjustment to add or reduce the hours. It does not replace the previous count of hours. To check what was already counted, run PT_BAL00 for day balance 3699 on 3/31/08. For example: If 8.5 hours of time worked was not reported, create a 2012-ZWDJ for 8.50 hours. If 3 hours too much time worked was reported, create a 2012-ZWDJ for -3.00 hours. Three Special Absence Types There are three Absence Types that should be included in the determination of overtime compensation: 9540 (Other Mgmt Approved Leave), 9550 (Civil Leave/Jury Duty), and 9300 (Holiday Leave). If an employee used any of these types of leave on the March dates in the conversion/go-live overtime period, even if they were reported on the timesheet in BEACON, an adjustment record needs to be created in order for their overtime calculation to be correct. Time Administrators can check to see what was entered for these three absence/attendance types using the CATS_DA report. The total of these three A/A types, or what the total should have been if it was not originally included, should be entered on the 2012. A new Infotype 2012 subtype, ZADJ Pre-SAP Absence Adjustment has been created to allow these hours to be entered. The combined number of hours used by the employee for all of these absence types should be entered on one 2012-ZADJ record. This adjustment record will not affect the holiday leave quota, it is only meant to provide the number of hours for the overtime calculation. For example: If an employee used 8 hours of Holiday Leave, but did not report it in BEACON, create a 2012-ZADJ for 8.00 hours. If an employee used 8 hours of Holiday Leave, and did report it in BEACON, create a 2012-ZADJ for 8.00 hours. If an employee used 8 hours of Holiday Leave and 8 hours of Civil Leave, create a 2012-ZADJ for 16.00 hours. NOTE: Both of these new infotype 2012 subtypes are only valid on April 1. When creating the records, you must use 4/1/08 as both the Start and To dates. Questions or comments should be directed to the BEST Shared Services Center by phone at (919) 707-0707 or by email at best@ncosc.net. June 16, 2008: Please read the attached instructions on Dual Employment within DHHS. Please communicate these instructions to your staff as well as your budget office. June 9, 2008: Agency HR Directors, Due to issues brought about by the high temperatures over the weekend, faxes sent to the BEST Shared Services Center using the 919-855-6861 number between 5 p.m. on Friday and 11 p.m. on Sunday were not received. We apologize for any inconvenience and ask that you resend any faxes that may have been submitted between those hours. Thank you, The BEST Shared Services Team June 5, 2008: Agency to agency transfer ONLY OCCURS BETWEEN 2 STATE AGENCIES. For example, an employee moves from the Department of Correction to DHHS. An employee's movement within DHHS is defined as WITHIN AGENCY TRANSFER, NOT AGENCY TO AGENCY TRANSFER. For example, an employee moves from Broughton Hospital to Dix Hospital or from DHHS's Vocational Rehabilitation to the Division of Medical Assistance. PLEASE REFER TO THE PA WORKFLOW: INITIATE TRANSFER ACTION BPP FOR DETAILS. Announcements Archive

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DHHS Division of Human Resources
2001 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-2001
Phone: 919.733.2940

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