This issue of the Financial Management Office Newsletter includes information about the following:
- 05/18/2022 Fiscal Administrator Town Hall
- Bursar Office News
- KFS Fiscal Year End Reminders
- Student Employee and Graduate Assistant Summer FICA Tax Exemption Status
- Quarterly Interest Rate for Late Vendor Payments
- Treasury Operations: Fiscal Year-End Reminders and Due Dates
Resources
The FMO Newsletter is distributed monthly. Should you have any questions about this newsletter, contact Amy Kunz via email at amykunz@hawaii.edu.
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05/18/2022 Fiscal Administrator Town Hall
Target Audience: All
Thank you for your time during the FA Town Hall on May 18, 2022. We appreciate your attendance and patience as we moved to a new platform to hold these meetings. Please note that the Agenda, Presentation Slides and Presentation Recording can be found at our FMO website. Also, thank you all for your attention to year end deadlines and we appreciate your assistance in getting another fiscal year closed.
Watch for the next FA Town Hall meeting to be scheduled in October 2022. Please let me know if you have any agenda topics that you would like to have covered at amykunz@hawaii.edu
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Bursar Office News
Target Audience: All
New features are being added to FlyWire, the third party payment center known for handling payments on International Student accounts. First, FlyWire will be integrated with the student account system, Banner. The integration project will begin in mid-July with cooperation of ITS and the Bursar’s Office and will allow for payments to post directly into Banner. Payments will continue to be converted from the country-of-origin currency to American currency. However, there will no longer be a need to manually post payments once the integration project is complete. Payments will automatically post onto Banner.
Second, the UH System will now be able to offer eRefunds to International Students in their country-of-origin currency. This will further reduce the need for paper checks and provide a tool for International Students to use to comply with AP8.802. Through this new process, FlyWire will contact students through their Hawaii.edu email address and work directly with the students to assist with getting the necessary information for the funds to be electronically transferred to the account the student designates. The student will be able to designate themselves as well as an authorized user.
Lastly, FlyWire has expanded its services and has partnered with many 529 plans to activate a new feature to streamline the acceptance of 529 payment plans by digitally accepting payments through FlyWire’s 529 Payment Portal. FlyWire is targeting to connect with 40 Ascensus-managed 529 plans. Payments have been generated through the portal since mid-May and the Bursar’s office has been handling the manual posting of payments to student accounts. Once the integration (referred to above), is established with Banner, the payments will be automatically recorded on the student’s account through the FlyWire payment interface.
Should you have any questions, please contact the Bursar Office via email at dearment@hawaii.edu.
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KFS Fiscal Year End Reminders
Target Audience: KFS Users
Please note the following system activities during fiscal year end:
- Fiscal Year Maker is scheduled to run on 6/11/2022. This batch job copies table values that are specific to a fiscal year into the new fiscal year tables. The Object Code and Sub-Object Code tables are included in this process.
- If you create an object or sub-object code after 6/11, you will also have to create it for the new Fiscal Year (2023). Use the Object Code or Sub-Object Code Lookup (search), update the search criteria Fiscal Year to “2022”, select the “copy” feature for the respective previously created object or sub-object code and complete the new copy section for Fiscal Year 2023. The respective Fiscal Year 2023 Object or Sub-Object Code can be created any time after 6/11/2022.
- KFS transactional eDocs (except REQS, POs, POAs) that are in ENROUTE status will be auto disapproved on 7/1.
- The list of eDocs that were auto disapproved will be distributed to the PageCenterX mailboxes in the KFS | GL folder called autoDisapprovedDocs_FOnnn.csv. The FO Code is assigned based on the primary chart-org of the initiator of the document. If these documents still require processing, please copy and resubmit them in the new FY.
- KFS will be in restricted status from 7/2-5 and will only be accessible by central office staff.
- KFS will be open for FY 2023 activity without balances on 7/6/2022.
Thank you for your efforts in reviewing and processing your KFS documents in a timely manner.
Should you have any questions, please contact Fiscal Services via email at fissrv@hawaii.edu.
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Student Employee and Graduate Assistant Summer FICA Tax Exemption Status
Target Audience: Personnel Officers, Fiscal Administrators and Student Employment Coordinators
Student employees, except graduate assistants as noted below, must be enrolled (at a minimum) in a summer session term on a half time basis (3 credits or more) to maintain and/or qualify for the FICA tax exemption. Student employees who do not qualify for the FICA tax exemption during the summer months must participate in the State of Hawaii Part-time, Temporary and Seasonal/Casual (PTS) Deferred Compensation Program. Departmental personnel are responsible to determine student employees’ FICA exemption status and update the FICA codes on applicable payroll documents.
To assist departmental personnel in determining FICA exemption status for these employees during the summer, the UH-Manoa Student Employment and Cooperative Education office (SECE) has developed a questionnaire (Attachment A ) and flowchart (Attachment B). These documents are located on the SECE website.
Changes to the FICA code for an existing student employee record must be made on-line via the SECE System. Attachment C shows UH Payroll Office guidelines and deadlines for making on-line changes for pay periods during the summer months.
Any changes to Graduate Assistant FICA codes are made via submission of an ePNF through the PeopleSoft system. Go to the Payroll AO/PO section of the FMO website for 2022 Payroll Due Dates. Documents must be submitted by appropriate deadline dates shown. Please note:
- 9-month graduate assistants are not affected and remain exempt from FICA since their compensation is prorated over 12 months.
- 11-month graduate assistants must participate in the PTS Deferred Compensation Program during the summer if they are not enrolled for at least 4 units during any summer session. If the one-month off duty period is taken during the summer, compensation received during this off-duty period would qualify for FICA tax exemption since no work is performed. If a change in the FICA code is required, prepare and submit a PNF to reflect the proper FICA code. Use action/reason “Data Change – 911” (RETIREMENT/FICA CODE).
Timely FlCA code changes in the SECE Student On-line System and PNF document submittal to the UH Payroll Office are critical as an erroneous FICA code results in either an over-assessment or under-assessment of the employee’s PTS deferred compensation contribution and Medicare taxes. If this occurs, corrective action must be initiated by the employing department.
In the event of an over-assessment or an under-assessment, departmental administrators will be required to refund or recover the PTS Deferred Compensation amount and the Medicare tax for the student and process adjustments to the State Payroll System via the UH Payroll Office to properly correct the student’s payroll records. Fringe benefit corrections for the Medicare tax will also be required for imposed accounts.
- If a student has already left University employment, departmental administrators will be responsible for tracking the student and executing the required corrective actions
- If Medicare taxes are owed by a student and cannot be recovered, the funding source (imposed accounts) will be responsible for both the 1.45% employee assessment and the 1.45% employer assessment for a total of a 2.90% assessment.
Questions related to the timing of documents should be directed to your campus Student Employment Office or the Graduate Division, as applicable.
Questions on Graduate Assistant appointment processing and requests for forms/informational material on the PTS Deferred Compensation plan should be directed to your respective Human Resources Representative.
Questions related to payroll processing requirements are to be directed to the UH Payroll Office at payroll@hawaii.edu.
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Quarterly Interest Rate for Late Vendor Payments
Target Audience: Fiscal Administrators and Support Staff
Pursuant to Section 103-10 of the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, the interest rate for obligations related to goods delivered or services performed remaining unpaid after 30 days is equal to the prime rate for each calendar quarter plus two percent. The interest rate is adjusted quarterly using the prime rate as posted in the Wall Street Journal on the first business day of the month preceding the calendar quarter. Please refer here for the 3rd quarter interest rate and calculation.
Should there be any questions regarding this change, please call the Disbursing Office at (808) 956-5535.
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Treasury Operations: Fiscal Year-End Reminders and Due Dates
Target Audience: Fiscal Administrators and Fiscal Support Staff
Please refer to the Fiscal Year 2022 Year-End Closing schedule for fiscal year-end due dates related to treasury operations.
Recording Bank Deposits
Please note the following due dates for FAs to approve KFS e-docs for deposits:
| Fund Type | Due Date |
|---|---|
| G-Funds | June 9, 2022 |
| Non G-Funds | July 1, 2022 (by 5:00 p.m.) |
Please note that the last day to finalize KFS e-docs (Cash Control/Payment Applications, Advance Deposits, and Credit Card Receipts) for non G-fund deposits is Friday, July 1, 2022. Include only receipts received as of June 30, 2022.
Credit card transactions for Thursday, June 30, 2022 should be recorded in KFS for fiscal year 2022, even if the settlement deposit will not be recorded in bank until July 1, 2022.
Please remind approving parties to review their KFS Action List items so that all ENROUTE e-docs are finalized for the fiscal year. Any ENROUTE deposit e-docs remaining will be disapproved once KFS is disabled for the fiscal year on July 1, 2022 at 7:00 p.m.
During the month of June, the Treasury staff will be working with BOH to obtain daily electronic payment information as well as debit and credit memo adjustments. When this information is provided, please record the entries in KFS. As all receipts for FY 2022 are to be recorded in KFS for the fiscal year, please start your process to review and reconcile all funds received with deposit entries recorded in KFS. The Treasury staff may be contacting you via email or phone to follow up on unrecorded items and adjustments.
Your assistance to process and record these items in a timely manner is appreciated.
Dishonored Check Invoices
Please be sure to finalize transactions for all dishonored checks for the fiscal year:
- Finalize the Non-check Disbursement (ND) e-docs initiated by the Treasury Office, and
- Create/finalize the DM invoice.
The due date to finalize all dishonored check invoices is Thursday, June 30, 2022 (5:00 p.m.).
For questions regarding Fiscal Year-End Reminders and due dates, please contact the Treasury Office at uh-treasury@lists.hawaii.edu or by phone at (808) 956-7638.