Business Procedures Manual

Fiscal Affairs Division

5.2 Human Resources Operations

5.2.1 Time and Leave Reporting

(Last Modified on January 25, 2018)

In accordance with the Time and Leave Reporting section of the USG’s HRAP manual, all employees should report time worked and leave taken. For all institutions utilizing the OneUSG Connect system, the system of record for all time and leave reporting will be the OneUSG Connect Time and Labor and Absence Management module.

Employees eligible for leave should request leave usage as soon as possible and in accordance with institution or department specified deadlines.

In the OneUSG Connect system, approved leave requests will automatically populate on the employee’s timesheet. If an employee was absent, and the absence is not reflected on the timesheet submitted for approval, the employee should ensure an absence request has been submitted to the time approver to ensure approval before final timesheet approval. The employee may add a comment regarding the absence. If it is determined that an absence was omitted after a timesheet has been submitted and approved, the absence should be recorded in the system after the fact and the system will process the absence accordingly.

In the OneUSG Connect System, employees classified as exempt under the FLSA should record exception time (absences). Exception time consists of any time during the employee’s standard work schedule that is not worked. Where applicable, Affordable Care Act (ACA) hours will be applied in accordance with the employee’s standard work schedule. (See BPM Section 5.3.6, Work Schedule and 5.2.4, ACA Coverage Reporting)

In the OneUSG Connect System, employees classified as non-exempt under the FLSA should enter all hours worked utilizing either the punch time method or the elapsed time method unless the institution designates the non-exempt employee as an exception based hourly employee.

  • The punch time method requires that employees enter beginning and ending time worked, including time for meal breaks if applicable. Time may be entered using a time clock, web punch or time entry page. The punch time method utilizes a six (6) minute rounding rule.
  • Elapsed time entry requires employees to enter the cumulative daily time for each time reporting code and is only entered using the time entry page. Elapsed time should be recorded prior to the close of business on the last scheduled work day of the pay period.

Each institution determines the employee’s method of time entry. Student workers (student assistants and Federal Work Study staffers) are required to use punch time to facilitate the determination that the student worker is not working during scheduled class time. Punch time is the default time entry method for non-exempt employees.

The timesheet for a non-exempt employee designated as an exception based hourly employee will be populated with work hours in accordance with the employee’s work schedule. The employee should make any necessary changes to ensure that the time and absences reported agree to the actual hours worked and absences taken prior to submitting the timesheet for the pay period.

Due to the payroll processing schedule for some pay periods, the employee may need to enter estimated time and absences prior to the actual end date of the pay period. Corrections due to differences in the estimated time/leave reported vs actual time/leave will need to be made after the pay period ends. Detailed instructions for making these corrections can be found in the OneUSG Connect SOP.


5.2.2 Time and Leave Approval

(Last Modified on January 23, 2018)

In accordance with the Time and Leave Reporting section of the USG HRAP manual, an employee’s primary approver, or designee, should approve the time and leave reports prior to the established deadlines in the payroll processing schedule.

For all institutions utilizing the OneUSG Connect system, the system of record for all time and leave approvals is the Time and Labor and Absence Management modules. In OneUSG Connect, time should be approved on the Time Detail page, not the summary page, to facilitate the approver reviewing the actual times reported. A supervisor may delegate time approval to a time approver designee.


5.2.3 Delegation of Tasks/Approvals

(Last Modified on January 30, 2018)

Delegation to perform actions is appropriate in the following scenarios:

  • A manager needs to delegate transactions to another employee while on leave, and/or
  • An administrator needs to delegate transactions to another employee to ensure timely processing of transactions.

The delegation of the task/approval does not transfer the responsibility for the action. The delegation can be a one-time delegation or an ongoing delegation.

The delegation of authority should only be afforded to an employee whose job duties include the performance of such transactions or to an employee that holds a superior position to the responsible employee in the institution’s organizational structure. Generally, duties of FLSA exempt employees should not be delegated to FLSA non-exempt employees. A delegation shall not be made that will create a segregation of duties issue without the implementation of mitigating controls. (See Section 5.6.1, Data Access and Segregation of Duties for additional information regarding segregation of duties.)

The OneUSG Connect system has a delegation feature that allows users to authorize other users to perform tasks and/or approvals on their behalf. The electronic record of the delegation is the official documentation for approval of the delegation.


5.2.4 Affordable Care Act (ACA) Coverage Reporting

(Last Modified on January 25, 2018)

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), applicable large employers – those with 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees – are generally required to:

  • Offer benefit coverage to full-time employees and their dependents
  • Offer benefit coverage that meets the law’s affordability or minimum standard values
  • Report appropriate benefit coverage-related information to the IRS and applicable employees

The USG (composite institutions) is considered a large employer. Additionally, for purposes of ACA, a full-time employee is an employee who works an average of 30 hours per week during the 12-month measurement period.

Monitoring and reporting of hours worked is necessary to determine full-time status and ensure compliance with ACA, including the offering of benefits when required. The USG must also maintain a monthly summary for reporting compliance by employee of all hours worked. The USG utilizes a third party vendor to accumulate these hours for eligibility determination and to provide the required information to both the IRS and applicable employees.

Failure to comply with these reporting requirements will result in substantial fines and penalties.

5.2.4.1 Monthly ACA Reporting

The hours worked by employees not offered health coverage shall be reported. For FLSA non-exempt employees, the actual hours worked should be reported. For FLSA exempt employees, the reported hours may be actual hours worked or calculated hours for specific tasks. The conversion chart outlined in the HRAP manual’s section on Employee Categories should be used to determine calculated hours.

The USG has contracted with a third party ACA reporting provider. The SSC is responsible for collecting the employee hours worked from each USG institution and transmitting the monthly files to the ACA reporting provider. The ACA reporting provider will then summarize the information and report to each institution. The institution must review the monthly information provided to determine if previously ineligible employees must be offered health coverage.

For institutions utilizing the OneUSG Connect system, the Time and Labor and Absence Management module is the system of record for all time reporting (Reference BPM Section 5.2.1, Time and Leave Reporting). FLSA exempt employees’ work schedules are utilized as the work hours unless the institution determines that calculated hours and/or actual hours will be utilized. (Reference BPM Section 5.3.6 Work Schedules)


5.2.5 Georgia Department of Labor (DOL) Separation Notice

(Last Modified on January 23, 2018)

Each institution must complete a State of Georgia DOL Separation Notice for each employee upon termination of employment regardless of the reason for separation. This is not applicable to student employees.

For a Single Employee Termination, form DOL-800 must be utilized as the separation notice. The institution should provide the Separation Notice to the employee at the time employment ceases. If the employee is no longer available at the time employment ceases, the notice should be mailed to the employee’s last known address within three (3) days of the date separation occurred or became known to the employer.

If 25 or more employees separate on the same day for the same reason, a Multiple Employee Termination situation exists and form DOL-402 should be used for separation notice reporting. The institution must provide this form directly to the GA DOL within 24 hours of the date of separation.

The OneUSG Connect system has a report that can be utilized to produce the DOL-800.


5.2.6 Jury or Court Duty

(Last Modified on January 23, 2018)

As provided in the Time Away From Work, Voting Leave and Other Miscellaneous Leave, section in the USG’s HRAP Manual, regular employees shall be granted leave with pay for serving on a jury or as a witness. If the courts provide payment to the employee for serving, the amount is generally considered to be reimbursement of expenses for serving and the employee is not required to remit the funds to the employer.


5.2.7 System of Record

(Last Modified on January 23, 2018)

The system of record is the authoritative data source for information.

The OneUSG Connect benefits administration third party vendor’s system is the system of record for:

  • Benefit enrollments for benefits administered by the system
  • Beneficiaries
  • Retiree demographic information
  • COBRA participants demographic information
  • Employee/retiree survivors demographic information
  • System-wide reporting of benefits data

The OneUSG Connect system is the system of record for:

  • Employment information
  • Employee payroll and salary information
  • Employee demographic information
  • Time reporting
  • Absence reporting
  • IPEDS reporting of personal services data
  • System-wide reporting of employee data
  • Personal services expenditures
  • Job code data
  • Manage faculty events data
  • Enrollments for retirement plans, savings plans, and benefits not administered by the OneUSG Connect benefits administration vendor

5.2.8 Termination Date

(Last Modified on January 23, 2018)

An employee’s termination date is the day following the last day worked or for which leave was paid.


5.2.9 Inter Institution Employee Transfers

(Last Modified on January 23, 2018)

When an employee transfers between two USG institutions, the transfer information must be entered in a specific manner to ensure that the employee’s benefits are not adversely affected. For institutions supported by the SSC, the SSC will coordinate the exchange of information and will perform the data entry in the system to minimize any negative impact for the employee. The institutions involved should utilize the SSC transfer form to verify accuracy of information entered by the SSC.


5.2.10 OneUSG Position Management

(Last Modified on January 23, 2018)

The OneUSG Connect system utilizes partial position management which allows unpaid persons of interest (ex. volunteers, contractors, etc.) to be entered in the OneUSG Connect system for proper reporting and monitoring without being entered into a position.

Multiple employees can be assigned to a position, if the position is created as a multi-incumbent position. This is normally reserved for non-benefited positions (ex. student assistant positions). Usually, benefited employees and/or employees with an FTE of 1.0 are assigned a unique position.

Each position in OneUSG Connect should have a unique funding source. The funding source is the financials/accounting system general ledger (GL) chart-field combination to which the personal services expenses are recorded.


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