University of Hawaii - ePayment

What is ePayment?

A simple and secure web interface for University of Hawaii (UH) employees to easily input and keep their bank information up-to-date.  The end goal is to reimburse employees for various UH expenses (such as travel) electronically via direct deposit instead of by paper check.

The overall benefits:

• Employees will receive payments faster and will save a trip to the bank to deposit checks.
• Will reduce manual work involved with check printing, pick up, and distribution.
• Cost savings for the University with electronic processing and not having to mail checks to off-campus locations.

How does ePayment work?

• Employee logs in with UH username/password.
• Upon first login, employee must set up their secret question & answer sets for an additional layer of security (more info on security and multi-level authentication).  This is similar to what banking institutions and credit card companies implement to safeguard account information.
• Upon subsequent login, employee must correctly answer one of their secret questions.
• Employee enters bank account and routing number (see process flowchart).
• Bank information is fed to Bank of Hawaii for pre-noting (validation of account and routing number) which takes up to 3 business days to complete.
• If account is valid, i.e. doesn't reject within the 3 business days, employee's bank information is fed to KFS (UH financial system) and stored on their vendor record.  A vendor record is required for anyone to receive payment from UH/KFS.  Subsequently, any payments that are processed for this employee is automatically deposited in the employee's bank account. The whole process will take up to 5 business days.
• If account is invalid, i.e. doesn't pass the pre-note process, the employee is notified of the error and must update their information.

Who should sign up?

Employees in Peoplesoft who normally receive payment in the form of a paper check from the UH Disbursing Office for travel, mileage, stipends, etc. If you are uncertain whether these payments apply to you, please check with your department's fiscal office.

ePayment DOES NOT apply to the following:

1. Direct deposit for payroll. Go to http://go.hawaii.edu/f5I for instructions on enrolling in the Hawaii Information Portal, the State's new modern payroll system.
2. UH students because a separate eRefund service is available through the MyUH portal for students to enter their bank information online for direct deposit of refunds for tuition/scholarships.
3. Any payments processed directly through RCUH, including RCUH funded travel since they have their own financial system, separate from KFS. See these instructions to sign up for direct deposit in RCUH's ePayment system.
4. Any employee who intends to transfer all monies received from UH to a foreign banking institution, per new NACHA guidelines effective 9/18/2009.
5. Student fellowship stipends. After a vendor record is set up in KFS, these payments can be direct-deposited by submitting the DISB-ACH (Electronic Funds Transfer Authorization) form.

ePayment is a joint project between Information Technology Services and the UH Disbursing Office.  Initial release was on November 7, 2008. VP & CFO Howard Todo issued a formal memo on November 17, 2009, announcing systemwide release.