Generate Report

This program can be used to verify State Employees Retirement System (SERS) and will create an output file used for submission of data to SERS (per pay).

Field Definitions

The Save and Recall option , allows the users to create and save certain reports  for different report runs for each report option.  The Default option is the original SSDT report and the Most Recent is the last report that was ran by the user.  If the report is no longer needed, click on to delete the report. The Default reports cannot be deleted.

Report Title: SERS Per-Pay Report is the default file name for the report. This can be changed by entering a new file name in the Report Title field.

Select a Report Format from the drop down option:

• PDF (download)
• Comma Separated Values
• Excel-Data

Sort By offers the following choices:

• Employee Name
• Employee Number
• Earning Code
• Begin Date
• End Date
• Pay Date
• Member Earnings
• Member Deposits
• Employer Pick Up
• Days Paid
• Hours Paid
• Rehired Retired
• Adjustment Only
• Voided Submission

 Check if wanting to Begin Each Employee on a new page?

Uncheck if not wanting to show Detail on Report?

 Uncheck if not wanting to show Informational Messages on the Report

Enter in a Pay Date of the current payroll 

Select the eSERS Pay Cycles from the Pay Cycles dropdown box.  These options were set up by SERS and must be adhered to the SERS rules.  Valid options include:

• WKY = Weekly
• BWK = Biweekly
• MON = Monthly
• SMO = Semi-monthly
• OTH = Other

The last 4 characters of the Pay Cycle Code identify the sequence number and must be numeric.  Valid values include 0001, 0002 ... 9999.

The Pay Cycle is set up with SERS and the same pay cycle will be used each time when running a pay.  The OTH (Other) pay cycle are to be setup for special pays.

The Start Date:  The beginning date of the period for this pay cycle.  It must be in a valid MM/DD/YYYY format and previously set up with SERS.

The Stop Date:  The ending date of the period for this pay cycle.  It must be in a valid MM/DD/YYYY format and previously set up with SERS.

If need more then 10 lines, select the  option in the lower left hand corner of Pay Cycle box

When all options are entered, click on 

Note** Error will be produced if no Posted Payroll is found: 

If wanting to view all Historical Payrolls, leave unchecked 

If wanting to view all Historical Payrolls that have been reported to eSERS only, check the box 

The option below allows districts to include Voided and Un-voided Payments in the SERS file.  

To include Past payroll Voided and Un-voided payments

Click on to create an Adjustment Only Submission File to be submitted to eSERS for the VoidedUn-voided payments

Select any additional payments to include from past payroll.  Voided and Un-voided payments are shown below:

Selected employees will be included within the SERS Per-Pay report:

Example of Voided Payment included in SERS Per-Pay Report:

Remove 'true' filter from voided column header to search for an un-voided payment:

Example of 'SERS Per Pay Report'

Example of SERS Per Pay report.csv

Example of SERS Per Pay Report.xlsx

Earn Code Values

01 = Regular (must have days/hours)                                         Note: Position type of R, T or blank in Position (01 Earnings code cannot be negative, if no regular wages to pair with a dock, then the dock will be a 51 Earnings code)

02 = Supplemental (must have days/hours)                               Note: Position type of S in Position

03 = Retro (cannot have days/hours)                                         Note:  Pay type = "BCK" in Payroll Payments in Future/Current

04 = Stretch(cannot have days/hours)                                       Note:  Stretch pay employee and  (Pay type = "ACC" and pay amt > 0)  OR (Pay type = "POF" and pay amt > 0)  OR  (Pay type = "LPA")

51 = Regular Adjustment (must have days/hours)                     Note: Adjustment to 01 earning code 

52 = Supplemental Adjustment (must have days/hours)           Note: Adjustment to 02 earning code 

53 = Retro Adjustment (cannot have days/hours)                      Note: Adjustment to 03 earning code

54 = Stretch Adjustment (cannot have days/hours)                   Note: Adjustment to 04 earning code 

Earning codes 51-54 above are adjustment codes.  These are normally dock pay amounts and error adjustments to SERS.

Negative SERS earnings, deposits or P/U will be coded with a 5*

If employee is paid with REG, MIS etc but has negative ACC wages and/or with a DCK, it will code it all as an Earn Code of 01

If employee is paid with REG, MIS etc, but has positive ACC wages and/or with a DCK, it will code it separate on the file as Earn Code 5* and an Adjustment File for submission will have to be created.

Below is the how the SERS report determines:

IF pay type = RETRO

• IF Pay Type is EXCEPTION
  • 53
• ELSE
  • 03

ELSE IF accrued pay type AND amount > 0

• IF Pay Type is EXCEPTION
  • 54
• ELSE
  • 04

ELSE IF position is supplemental

• IF pay type is EXCEPTION
  • 52
• ELSE
  • 02

ELSE

• IF pay type is EXCEPTION
  • 51
• ELSE
  • 01

If employee has ONLY a negative pay type for a job, for example: MIS -100.00, retirement will NOT be calculated on this negative amount.  Add error adjustments to the employee Payroll Item 400, 590 and/or 690.

Generate SERS Submission File

Once the report is correct, check to Set Employees Within Submission File as Reported to SERS.  By checking this option, it will no longer automatically show this payroll in the historical payroll grid.

Once all correct, select  . This button should be selected for a regular submission file. If there were any adjustments added, an Adjustment Only Submission File will also need to be generated clicking on .

 will take you directly to the eSERS site.

Example of SERS Submission file:

Generate Submission Adjustment Only Submission File?

** Note that an adjustments submission file may be needed for SERS submission **

Click on the option, if only wanting to generate an Adjustment Only Submission File?  If there are any earning codes on the SERS per pay report that begin with the number 5, then these are adjustments.  Adjustments are earning codes 51-54.  Adjustment data does not appear on the regular submission file.  An adjustment submission file should be run after the regular submission file. This will produce a file in the format of SERSccyy_mm_ddA.TXT.  The 'A" just before the .TXT signifies this is a SERS Adjustment file.

Example of 'SERS Per Pay Report' with Voided Payment included:

Example of Submission File for Adjustments Only

Calculating Regular and Retirement Pickup

Please click here for documentation on how Retirement is calculated.

Breakdown of SERS Per Pay Report

Member Earnings

The Member Earnings uses the 400 Total Gross.

Employer Pick Up

The Employer Pick Up uses the 590 Amount Withheld and 690 Employer Amount

• If using Adjustments:
  • 590 Amount Withheld
  • 690 Board Amount of Payroll Item

How SERS Hours are calculated

Hours uses the actual hours worked in the payroll.  For example, if paid 3 days at 8.00 hours a day, the Hours Paid will show as 24.00.

Example of how hours are calculated:

To calculate hours: Earning code 01 ==> $421.12 / $1,872.48 = .2248 * 124.50 hours = 27.9876, which rounds to 28 hours.
                                 Earning code 02 ==> $1,451.36 / $1,872.48 = .7751 * 124.5 hours = 96.4999, which rounds to 96.5 hours.
 (Also, for the last earning code of 01 or 02, it makes sure that 28 + 96.50 = 124.50 total hours.  If earning code 02 rounded to 30 hours and 96.50 + 29 = 125.5, the program would subtract 1 from the hours so that it doesn't exceed the total hours.) 

How SERS days are calculated 

The SERS per pay report shows Days Paid and to get this, we get the pay history for the payroll selected by the user in the report options and for each SERS positions we find the days on the calendar and also attendances/absences that fall within the pay group date range used on the payroll.  It also looks at the calendar start / stop dates for compensation to gather this info and compares it to the dates of the pay group / payroll.

**NOTE** If a contract has multiple contracts ( Example, legacy and a new contract) make sure the Calendar Stop date of the Legacy is before the Beginning date of the payroll the employee is being paid on the New Contract, otherwise, SERS will pick up Work Days on the calendar, Example, employee's new contract starts 09/01/2021 but their Old Legacy Calendar Start date is set to 08/31/2021 and the Job calendar has work days for all of August.  When running payroll for dates of 08/23/2021 - 09/05/2021, the system will pickup up all Work days starting from 8-23-2021 thru 09-05-2021.  So a Calendar Stop date on the Old Legacy needs to be 08/22/2021 so no Work days will be picked up from 08/23/2021 thru 08/31/2021. 

Example of how Days are distributed

The SERS Per Pay report will distribute the days among the earnings codes that are applicable for days (codes 01, 02, 51, and 52) based upon the total earnings and the member earnings from each row.  If there are 2 rows with earnings code 01 that are applicable for days, the total earnings for the 2 rows is 421.12 + 1451.36 = 1872.48.  We use this to determine the percentage of earnings that comes from each row and then multiple that percentage by the total days to determine the number of days applied to each row.  There are 15 total days.  The first line has 421.12 member earnings.  So the days calculation for this row becomes (421.12/1872.48) * 15 = 3.37, rounded down becomes 3 days.  Then, on the second row we calculate days as (1451.36/1872.48) * 15 = 11.62, but since we know there are 15 total days and 3 were applied to the first row, the days gets set to 12 for the second row.

In order for the adjustment days to be picked up by the SERS per pay report, the adjustment must fall within the period beginning and end dates for payroll the employee is in, which is being reported. Normally this means the payroll period beginning and end dates, but if the employee was added to the payroll using the additions option and a different period beginning and end date were used then that would be the range the adjustment would have to fall within. The Transaction Date has to be within an open posting period or an error will occur.

The total day count is what is shown on the report. 

SERS Annual Payment

To get a report with Accounts for SERS, the district can use Employer Distribution by Accounts or Employer Retirement Distribution reports using Payroll Items 400 and 690.

Info and Error Messages

Error messages will appear in the CSV and Excel-Data formats.  There is a column labelled Error and column labeled Info.  Multiple messages within the column will be enclosed in brackets with all the messages.

Info    Adjustment for service days of XXXX will be included in the SERS submission file
Info    Adjustment for service hours of XXXX will be included in the SERS submission file

Info    The difference (00.00) between the total SERS deductions and the employer pickup is greater than 00 cents.

     This Info message will appear if an adjustment of days or hours was made using CORE/ADJUSTMENTS.  The file can be submitted to eSERS if the Days and Hours show correctly on the report.  No adjustments needed in eSERS.

**Error messages will NOT stop the submission file from being created**

Error  No payrolls found matching entered payroll start date - XX/XX/XX stop date XX/XX/XX and pay date: XX/XX/XX.  Please verify the correct dates have been entered.

Error  Employees with earning code(s) '01' or '02' must include both days paid and hours paid.

Error  Earnings Code '01' must include both days and hours paid -  **Error should be fixed BEFORE running/submitting the SERS Per Pay Submission File**

Error  Earnings Code '02' must include both days and hours paid - **Error should be fixed BEFORE running/submitting the SERS Per Pay Submission File**