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Definitions of Common Terms Manual Timesheets & Manual Paychecks
Administrative Approvals of Timesheets & Leave Reports
Moving Expense Reimbursements Overpayment Collection

Definitions of Payment Types

Note: The term "stipend" is simply defined as a “payment” (rather than a category of income) and provides no indication of what is being expected for the payment, the relationship between payer and payee, the basis for making the payment, or how to properly treat it for tax withholding and reporting. Requests should not reference the term as all payment are stipends and all stipends are payments. Requests received without proper definition of the payment will be returned to the requestor for correction.

  • Compensation—Very generally, any payment (monetary or non-monetary) made in consideration of past, present, or future activity. Compensation is often separated into two categories: (i) dependent (e.g., wages, salary), and (ii) independent (e.g., consulting fees, speaker's fees, payments made to an independent contractor, honoraria for non-employees). For the purpose of these definitions, "dependent compensation" is considered to be compensation to employees while "independent compensation" is considered to be compensation to non-employees. 
  • Base Pay—Base Pay means the rate or amount of pay budgeted for a standard work period, job, or position exclusive of additional payments or allowances.
  • Additional Pay—Additional pay is any compensation provided to an employee outside of their base pay.
  • Fellowship Grant (a.k.a. Non-Service Fellowship)—Similar to a non-qualified scholarship, a fellowship payment generally means an amount paid or allowed to, or for the benefit of, an individual (typically outside of the enrollment in an academic program), to aid the individual in pursuing their studies. Fellowships are not payments that require the payee to perform services benefiting the University in order to receive the payment and are typically paid at a fixed sum to defray expenses and provide an allowance.
  • Gift—Most accurately defined as "detached and disinterested generosity" that "is not in return for services rendered," gifts are not payable to students or employees as the University is neither "detached" or "disinterested" from either. Gifts are occasionally provided to individuals who are neither students or employees and those payments are processed by the accounts payable team.
  • Honorarium—An honorarium payment is a modest gesture of appreciation for the individual’s efforts of preparing or performing a service and does not rise to an amount considered to be "Fair Market Value" for the service performed. An honorarium payment may be of any amount and is taxable income to the recipient.
  • Prizes & Awards—The University makes available a wide range of prizes and awards to its students in recognition of academic excellence or achievement. Historically, the terms “prize” and "award" have been used by departments for payments distributed to students during the academic year, most notably at Commencement. The recipient may receive a monetary and/or a tangible prize. Student recognition by University departments for academic achievement is considered a prize by the IRS, e.g. best design, highest score, academic achievement, best project, etc. or winnings from a drawing.
  • Scholarship (a.k.a. Non-Service Scholarship)—A scholarship generally means an amount paid or allowed to, or for the benefit of, a student, whether an undergraduate or a graduate, to aid such individual in pursuing his studies. Scholarships are not payments that require the payee to perform services benefiting the University in order to receive the payment and are typically paid at a fixed sum.
    • Qualified—This category includes payments to a student (those in a degree program) or credits to a student’s account used only for “qualified tuition and related expenses,” which are limited to tuition and required fees, books, supplies, or equipment. These payments are applied toward a student's account by the accounts receivable team.
    • Non-Qualified—A non-qualified scholarship is a scholarship payment used for expenses that are not qualified tuition or related expenses (e.g. amounts used to pay optional fees, room, board, travel and personal expenses) at the discretion of the student. These payments are typically applied toward a student's account by the accounts receivable team.

Definitions of  Other Common Terms

  • Contractor—
  • Employee—
  • Hours Worked—Hours worked ordinarily include all the time during which an employee is required to be on University premises, on duty, or at a prescribed workplace.
  • Lump-sum—A lump sum is a single payment of money, as opposed to a series of payments made over time.
  • Overtime—Covered non-exempt employees receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per workweek at a rate of one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. 
    • Call-Back Overtime—Covered non-exempt staff members who are called back for critical and urgent or emergency reasons will be guaranteed a minimum of three hours pay at overtime rates. Such emergency callback does not apply when work outside the normal work schedule is planned in advance. Additional details concerning Call-Back Overtime can be found in the staff handbook.
  • Work—Work is providing a service for which one earns compensation. There is an employee-employer relationship where the employer controls the time, place, scope of what’s done and how it’s done, and the activity is for the benefit of the employer.
  • Workweek—The official work week begins at 12:00 a.m. on Saturday and ends at 11:59 p.m. the following Friday.

Manual Timesheets & Manual Paychecks

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to keep certain time and pay records for non-exempt employees. These employees are eligible for the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and must complete time sheets to track all hours worked.

Most employees at the University are expected to submit their timesheets online using Banner's Employee Self-Service (ESS). Employees use ESS to complete timesheets and leave balances.

Manual Timesheets

All employees and their supervisors are responsible to ensure that timesheets are approved in Self-Service no later than the established due dates in order to be paid in a timely manner. Timesheets that are not received in time to process with the current payroll run, will be included with the next regularly scheduled payroll processing.

If time is not entered on or before the published deadline, the hours cannot be uploaded into the current pay cycle in Banner. If the electronic time record was not uploaded and paid with the current pay cycle, the following procedures should be followed: 

  1. Employee must complete a manual timesheet, being sure to select the correct "Type of Employee", "Pay Period" and "Days". All fields must be complete in order for the timesheet to be processed.  Incomplete timesheets will be returned for correction, if needed.
  2. The supervisor will complete the supervisor section and sign the late timesheet, noting a brief explanation of why the time was not processed electronically.
Manual Check Request

Manual check requests are to be used for those individuals who will suffer financial hardship if not paid, otherwise they will receive back-pay in the next payroll cycle.  Payroll reserves the right to approve a manual check. If a manual check has been approved by payroll the manual check will be issued on the Friday following the request for the manual check. A manual check will only be processed due to an administrative error.

Administrative errors do not include the following:

  • Department missed published deadlines for paperwork submission
  • Late Submission of Time Sheets by the Employee
  • Incorrect leave usage
  • Additional hours not reported on original timesheet

If a manual check is to be requested by the department; the department must complete a manual check request form providing the reason for the manual request. The department head must authorize the manual check request.

The following must be in place before a Manual Check will be processed:

  • Employment Record must be in the Banner system, free of any errors or missing data.
  • The Manual Check request form must be filled out and proper signatures obtained.
  • Back up documentation (manual timesheet) must be attached to the request as to why this person was not paid on the original payroll run.
  • Payroll will call the department when checks are ready to be picked up, as Direct Deposit is not available for manual checks.

  • There is a minimum requirement of 32 hours on the manual timesheet for a manual check.

  • Manual check requests that do not fall under these guidelines will be processed as a back-pay on the next semi-monthly payroll cycle.

Administrative Approvals of Timesheets & leave Reports

The University requires that all employees complete their timesheets and leave reports accurately and timely as an integral component of the payroll process. A supervisor identified as a timesheet and/or leave report approver ("approver") has the responsibility to approve timesheets and/or leave reports by the established deadlines.

All employees and their designated approvers are responsible for ensuring timesheets and leave reports are submitted and approved via Banner Self-Service no later than the published due dates in order to accurately record all hours paid, and for the proper accounting of work performed and leave taken.   

Timesheets and leave reports that are submitted by employees but not approved by their designated approvers by the established date will be administratively approved by the payroll processor. The administratively approved process imports the unapproved timesheets into the Banner payroll process ensuring the employee is paid and leave time recorded. However, the hours worked have not been reviewed and approved by the approver at that time.  

What to expect 

The University requires all timesheets and leave reports to be verified and approved by the approver. After the payroll processor administratively approves timesheets or leave reports, approvers and their supervisors will receive emails outlining their responsibilities to verify and confirm the hours reported by the affected employees on the timesheets and/or to submit corrected timesheets for affected employees for payroll adjustment. 

Approver’s Responsibility:

  1. Approvers are required to review and verify all timesheets and leave reports via Banner Self-Service that were administratively approved in the payroll process.
  2. If a correction is necessary, the approver and the affected employee must complete a manual timesheet or leave report and submit it to payroll immediately.
  3. If no corrections are required, respond to the email certifying that the time reported for each affected employee is correct.

Approver’s Supervisor Responsibility:

  1. Approver’s supervisor must ensure the approver understands their responsibility to approve timesheets and/or leave reports in a timely manner. 
  2. The Approver’s supervisor must ensure the approver reviews all administratively approved timesheets and sends certifying email to payroll.

Payroll's Responsibility:

  1. Payroll will follow up with approver’s supervisor and copy the approver if no response has been received within seven days of the email being sent. 

Moving Expense Allowances

The University provides an allowance for certain moving expenses for new employees in accordance with the Moving Expense Policy. 

Processing

New employees must submit a reimbursement form along with proper documentation of receipts to one of the following, as appropriate.

  • Office of the Provost—Exempt Staff
  • Office of the Dean of the College—College of Arts & Sciences Faculty
  • Office of the Dean of the School of Theology—School of Theology Faculty

All requests for moving expense allowance payments must be submitted within sixty days of incurring the expense and no later than one year after the effective date of the employee’s appointment. Expenses limited to moving household goods and personal items may be paid directly by the University to the moving company provided the payment is within the total amount for which employee is eligible. 

If a printed check has been requested by the employee and approved by payroll the check will be issued on the Friday following the request for the printed check.

Overpayment Collection

If an employee has been overpaid by the University, the overpayment is a legal debt and must be repaid in full. It is the practice of the Office of Human Resources (HR) to initiate recovery efforts on all payroll overpayments as soon as the discrepancy is detected. Departments should not initiate collection.

When a department or employee determines that an overpayment has occurred, the department or employee must notify the HR in writing. Details must include the date the issue was discovered, the period of overpayment, the amount and type of overpayment and the reason for overpayment.

It is the intention of HR to work amicably with the affected employee, to affect an orderly return of all excess payments to the University without causing undue financial hardship to the employee.

Recovery Method

Once HR has calculated the amount of repayment to the University, the employee will be sent an email detailing the amount due. The employee can repay the debt by personal check, or if available, directly through a payroll deduction (if actively employed) in accordance with the state regulations.

Recovery Amount

Current Calendar Year

If repayment is made in the same calendar year as the overpayment, the employee will repay the net pay amount of the overpayment. HR will reduce the employee’s taxable wages and associated taxes for that calendar year to ensure the year-end W-2 Form is correct.

If the repayment is made through payroll docking, then the docking schedule may call for partial payments over multiple pay periods, but in no cases should the repayment occur over a longer period of time than the overpayment occurred. For example:

  • Employee overpaid for one period, the employee's pay should be reduced by the amount of the overpayment in one pay period.
  • Employee overpaid for four pay periods, the employee's pay should be reduced over four pay periods to recover the overpayment

Prior Calendar Year(s)

If repayment is not made in the same calendar year that the overpayment occurred, the employee must repay the net pay amount of the overpayment plus the associated federal taxes via personal check(s). (Taxes are permanently credited to the employee on December 31 and cannot be subsequently recovered by the University).

HR can only recover the overpaid Social Security and Medicare taxes. Since the University can recover the Social Security and Medicare taxes, the University will reduce the repayment amount by those associated taxes, if applicable. To this end, the employee must provide a written statement (the FICA Release Form) that they will not request a refund of Social Security and Medicare taxes as well from the IRS.

The wages paid in error in the prior year remain taxable to the employee for that year because the employee received and had use of those funds during that calendar year. The employee is not entitled to file an amended tax return for that year. Instead, the employee is entitled to a deduction (or credit, depending upon the amount repaid) for the wages repaid on their personal income tax return in the year of repayment.

Once repaid, HR will issue a corrected W-2 Form, reducing only applicable Social Security and Medicare wages and taxes and issuing the employee a W-2c. HR, if requested by the employee, can also issue a Statement of Corrected Income which details the amount repaid by the employee and the year repaid. The employee can use this Statement for their current tax return for a credit or a deduction. The employee should consult the IRS Publication 525 (Repayments) with respect to reporting the repayment of wages for a prior year.

Terminated Employees

Overpayments to terminated employees must be collected through the University's established collections procedures by the Accounts Receivable Office.

Overpayments to terminated employees must be collected through the University’s established collections procedures by the Accounts Receivable Office.