Payrolls with July or later pay dates in the new fiscal year cannot be processed unless STRS Advance has been completed. An error will be given if trying to Initialize the first pay in July: .  You WILL NOT be able to proceed with payroll until the STRS Advance has been completed.

***Error - STRS Advance must be processed before running a payroll with pay date in July.***  WILL NOT be able to proceed with payroll until STRS Advance is completed

The system uses the current posting period to determine the fiscal year.  Be sure to process the STRS Advance reports and submission file BEFORE making July current. 

If wanting to change Position numbers for Positions that are in advance, it is advised to NOT create new Payroll Items and assign them to the new Position.  This change will effect the employee's advance.

The STRS Advance program provides you with  the ability to create reports and a submission file. This can be found by going to Reports>STRS Reporting>STRS Advance. The reports should be used for verification purposes, and can be created any many times as necessary, before the submission file is created.  The reports will include active and inactive employee's that qualify for STRS advance.  Employee's with a Position>Position Status of Deceased or Terminated will not be included.  Docks without an effective date can be added in Payroll Payments - Future and will be included in the report calculations.  After STRS advance processing is completed, the dock payment in Payroll Payments - Future should be deleted until the dock payment should take place.   

...

The only field that is non modifiable during STRS Advance, is the STRS Advance Flag on the Compensation.  All other fields are modifiable during Advance.  

After generating the STRS Advance Submission File, a file called STRSADYY06.txt (YY = Year) is created. The file is then submitted to STRS using the 'Submit Uploaded File to STRS' option.

...

created. The file is then submitted to STRS using the 'Submit Uploaded File to STRS' option.

...

• Employee must have a position with retirement system set to STRS
• Employee must have earnings in the fiscal year. Earnings are a sum of 3 things.
  • For an advancing compensation, the accrued wages will be added to earnings (accrued wages = contract obligation – amount paid – amount docked). 
  • Adjustment journals of type equaling Total Gross and Payroll Item Code equaling 591 and/or 691 for the employee with a Transaction Date within the fiscal year will be added to earnings. 
  • The Applicable Gross of historical STRS pay items paid to the employee on payrolls that are not imported from classic and have a Pay Date within the fiscal year will be added to earnings.
• Employee must have a contract (or legacy) compensation with a date range that the current date falls within the current date. AND the compensation pays paid is not equal to pays in contract or the compensation has been paid in the fiscal year OR Employee must have a non contract compensation with a date range that overlaps the fiscal year.
• Having a Compensation Stop Date will prevent a compensation from advancing, if that stop date falls within the academic date range. (Will show earnings on the FYTD report (compensation obligation - compensation amount paid - compensation amount docked)

(Note that in the above bullet, if the conditions before the bolded OR are met, or the condition after the bolder OR is met, then the employee will be on the report if the 2 preceding bullet points are met)

...

• Employee must have a Position with retirement system set to STRS and the Position must have a Job Status of Active or Inactive.

• Employee must have a Contract Compensation with a date range that the current date falls within.

• Compensation>Contract Days Worked must equal the Contract Work Days or the Compensation>Contract Work Days must equal the Contract Days Worked as of June 30 (determined by counting the remaining number of work days to be paid through June 30 from the Job Calendar).

• Compensation>Contract Work Days and Contract Days Worked must be greater than 0. 

• Compensation>Pays paid must be less than Compensation>Pays In Contract.

• Compensation>Contract Obligation – Amount Paid – Amount Docked must be greater than 0.

• Compensation>Accrued Wages must be greater than 0.

  • Accrued Wages = Compensation Amount Earned - Amount Paid - Amount Docked

 Sample Report

To create Non-Advanced Positions Report

...

• Starting Date for the Academic Year- Choose date from the Calendar , click  or enter in the starting date using format M/DD/YY

• Ending Date for the Academic Year-  Choose date from the Calendar , click  or enter in the starting date using format M/DD/YY

• 
  

  Note
  If you remain on this screen, the Sort By and Academic dates options will remain populated from the previous run of the advance reports

  
  

• Click on 

• 

• Once the file has been created, a message will appear:
• 

Sample submission file

Upload Submission File to STRS

...

Pay Types that affect balancing

During advance cycle certain pay types cannot be used on jobs with advance flag set - REG and IRR.  

Certain pay types will affect the Amount Paid Back field under SYSTEM/CONFIGURATION/STRS Advance Configuration

• DCK
• BCK
• TRM
• POF

Docks

If a Dock is known before STRS Advance is processed, the total amount needs to be entered in FUTURE as a DCK pay type.  Once STRS Advance has been processed, remove the Future entry before running the next payroll.  Then the dock can be reentered in any future payrolls during the advance.  The STRS Advance FYTD report does not apply dock from future pay to the earnings on the report.  It only reduces the advance amount.

Early Contract Payoffs

Consider early contract pay offs. If aware of these now, go to the Compensation record and update the 'Pays In Contract'. Keep in mind this may change the pay per period.

• Make this update AFTER the last pay of June has been processed. If you wish to continue to pay the regular pay per period on the first pay of July, then change the number of pays back to the original value AFTER you have created and submitted the STRS Advance Submission file.

STRS Advance Configuration and Organization 

...

If Amount Paid Back is off, run theCheck STRS Advance Report and compare this to their STRS Advance report to find the difference.  

Amount Paid Back shows 0.00- The Amount Paid back is calculated based upon the current year.  If already in the next CY, it is a calculation of Advance Amounts paid in the new CY which is zero.  The amount paid back for 202X would have shown on the STRS advance configuration through December 202X (current year) since the district never came out of advance.

Example: If FY 2022, the amount paid back difference would still show through December 2022.  But now in 2023 Current year, the Amount paid back is cleared and no longer available. 

Payroll Report STRS Advance amount

...

• On the 450 Payroll Item, mark the Rehired Retiree checkbox and enter the rehired date in the Rehired Date field.  
• The following adjustments will need to be created:
  • Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 450 using the Type of Portion of FTD Gross that was earned as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling the Earnings and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.
  • Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 450 using the Type of Portion of FTD Board Amount that was earned as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling the Non-Taxed Deposit/Pick Up and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.
  • Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 591 using the Type of Portion of FTD Amount that was withheld as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling the Non-Taxed Deposit/Pick Up and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.
  • (If applicable) Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 691 using the Type of Portion of Board Amount that was earned as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling Non-Taxed Deposit/Pick Up and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.

...

After the adjustments have been created, verify the following:

...

• • checkbox

Image Added

The following adjustments are necessary if an employee was not marked as a rehired retiree when they returned to the district as a rehired retiree at some point during the fiscal year.  The employee will be listed on the STRS Advanced reports with two lines.  One line will list the information prior to retiring and the Rehired Retiree column will be set to N and the other line will list the information when the employee returned as a rehired retiree and the Rehired Retiree column will be set to Y.

• On the 450 Payroll Item, mark the Rehired Retiree checkbox and enter the rehired date in the Rehired Date field.  
• The following adjustments will need to be created:
  • Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 450 using the Type of Portion of FTD Gross that was earned as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling 450 Payroll Item>FYTD Total Gross that was earned as a rehired retiree, the Earnings and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.
  • Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 450 using the Type of Portion of FTD Board Amount that was earned as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling 450 Payroll Item>FYTD Employer Amount withheld as a rehired retiree, the Non-Taxed Deposit/Pickup and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.
  • Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 591 using the Type of Portion of FTD Amount that was withheld as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling 591 Payroll Item>FYTD Withholding withheld as a rehired retiree, the Non-Taxed Deposit/Pickup and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.
  • (If applicable) Core>Adjustments - Payroll Item 691 using the Type of Portion of Board Amount that was earned as a rehired retiree, enter the Amount equaling 691 Payroll Item>FYTD Employer Amount as a rehired retiree, the Non-taxed Deposit/Pick-Up and check the Fiscal Year To Date checkbox.

...

The system looks at the hire date on employee and the academic year start date entered by the user on the STRS advance view and use whichever is later.  We will use the termination date on the employee and the academic year stop date and use whichever is earlier.   This is used when calculating days employed. 

Service days will be determined by counting the days from the employee's job calendars plus attendance and absence days. These days must have a Pay Date stamped in order for them to be included in the count. (Dock Days use the Activity Date, no Pay Date stamped is required) The system then locates any CORE/Adjustment transactions 'STRS Retirement Days' for the fiscal year for STRS. Adjustment transactions entered are considered manual adjustments to what the system would calculate. Note that "manual adjustment" transactions are picked up based on the fiscal year instead of the date range that the employee was paid for. Any adjustment dated within the reporting period will be applied. The manual adjustment records are a bit different because they are not for specific days. The adjustments (if any) are added to or subtracted from the total unadjusted service days and that total is the total that will appear on the STRS Advance report. 

...

If an employee is on the Non-Advanced Report and needs to advance, use the Compensation Adjustment, Days Worked for that compensation, to adjust 'Days Worked as of 6/30' field.

How the system calculates the 'STRS Advance Fiscal Year To Date' Report

The STRS Days is using the current FY Contract Start Date of employee till 06/30/2021 plus any days from prior FY starting from 07/01/2020.  We count STRS days from the Job Calendars, Attendances within the FY (Pay stamp date within FY) and STRS retirement days adjustment entries. 

• For Example, an employee's FY 20-21 contract starts 08/02/2020 - 07/31/2021.  The STRS Days is calculating from the Beginning of the contract, 08/02/2020 to 06/30/2021 total days of 224.  Then it will look for day's prior from 07/01/2020 thru 08/01/2020, which is days from the employee's FY contract 19-20, to get Total STRS Days of 240.
• If needing to correct STRS Days, use Core>Adjustments>STRS retirement days.  The Transaction date of the adjustments will need to be in an open month and also the box 'Month To Date' needs to be checked, in order for the FYTD report to include them

...

Obligation $72,841.00 - Amount Paid $61,634.76 = $11,206.24

Job 1 450 FYTD Applicable Total Gross                           = $55,470.78 

Job 2 450 FYTD Applicable Total Gross                           =  $2,989.01

450 Adjustments Total Gross                               = $12,326.84

                                                                             = $81,992.87

Advanced amount $1,725.75/.14 = $12.326.84 Inflated Gross

...

Non-taxed Earnings = Earnings

$22,286,426.54

Non-taxed Advanced Amount is the contributions that will be paid over the summer months for employees who have a STRS annuity or Employer STRS PU (?)withheld.

$756,501.33

Taxed earnings is total earnings for the Fiscal Year (including advance)

Taxed Earnings is the total STRS applicable gross for the Fiscal Year. This does not include advance gross. It does include the amount remaining on contract (compensation obligation – paid – docked). Taxed Earnings is the total for employees who have an employee amount withheld on their STRS item (non annuity).

Taxed Advanced Amount is the contributions that will be paid over the summer months

Taxed Advanced Amount is the contributions that will be paid over the summer months for employees who have an employee amount withheld on their STRS item (non annuity).

Taxed + Non-taxed is the Non-taxed Total (Non-taxed Advanced Amount + Non-taxed Deposit/Pick up) from the report totals plus the Taxed Total (Taxed Advanced Amount + Taxed Deposit/Pick up) from the report totals.

Taxed+Non-taxed = Non-taxed Total = Non-Taxed Total

$3,119,861.34

Amount Advanced is the amount that will be paid toward the advance over the summer months. It is the total of Non-taxed Advanced Amount and Taxed Advanced Amount.

Non-taxed Advanced Amount = Amount Advanced = Non-Taxed Advanced Amount

$756,501.33

Regular Employee Count

Regular Employee Count is a count of employees on the report who are not rehired retirees. A mid year retiree will count as both a regular employee and a rehired retiree.

357

Regular Employee Contributions

Regular Employee Contribution is the total employee amount withheld on STRS items (non annuity). Does not include rehired retiree amounts. This amount also includes total taxed advanced amount.

Regular Pickup

Regular Pickup is the total employee amount withheld on STRS annuity items plus total amount withheld for Employer STRS items. Does not include rehired retiree amounts. This total also includes total non-taxed advanced amount.

Regular Pickup = Taxed+Non-taxed - Retiree Pickup 

$3,028,331.40 = $3,119,861.34 - $91,529.94 

Non-taxed Deposit/Pick up is the amount contributed until June 30

Non-taxed Deposit/Pick up is the total employee amount withheld on STRS annuity items plus total amount withheld for Employer STRS items.

Non-taxed Deposit/Pick up = Non-Taxed Deposit/Pick-up

$2,363,360.01

Non-taxed Total is the total of contributions until June 30 + advanced contributions for current Fiscal Year

Non-taxed Total is the total of Non-taxed Deposit/Pick up plus Non-taxed Advanced Amount.

$3,119,861.34

Taxed Deposit/Pick up is the amount contributed until June 30

Taxed Deposit/Pick up is the total employee amount withheld on STRS items (non annuity).

Taxed Total is the total of contributions until June 30 + advanced contributions for Current Fiscal Year

Taxed Total is the total of Taxed Deposit/Pick up plus Taxed Advanced Amount

Retiree Advanced Amount

Retiree Advanced Amount is the total advanced amount for employees who are rehired retirees.

$13,259.46

Rehired Retiree Count

Rehired Retiree Count is a count of employees on the report who are rehired retirees. A mid year retiree will count as both a regular employee and a rehired retiree.

29

Retiree Contributions

Retiree Contribution is the total employee amount withheld on STRS items (non annuity) for rehired retirees. This amount also includes taxed advanced amount for rehired retirees.

Retiree Pickup

Retiree Pickup is the total employee amount withheld on STRS annuity items plus total amount withheld for Employer STRS items for rehired retirees. This total also includes non-taxed advanced amount for rehired retirees.

$91,529.94

Advanced Positions Report

...

Non-Advanced Payment Report

The Non Advance report figures 'Days worked as of June 30th' by adding in the contract days worked from the compensation first.  Then it finds the most recent payroll the employee was paid in and uses the payroll stop date plus 1 day (so the day after the payroll stop date) as the starting date to look up days on the calendar up to an end date of June 30th.  It looks for work, holiday, and calamity days on the calendar in this date range and then adds the total to the contract days worked from the compensation to get the days worked as of June 30th on the report.  If an employee is on the Non-Advanced Report and needs to advance, use the Compensation Adjustment, Days Worked for that compensation, to adjust 'Days Worked as of 6/30' field.

The 'Contract Obligation' pull from the employee's compensation.

...

Part-Time Employees Calculation

STRS has made changes to how part-time employees service credit is calculated.  This is effective for the current STRSAD in July 2020.  There are NO changes for full-time employees.

STRSAD determines whether an employee is full-time or part-time by the drop down box on the 450 Payroll Item record.

To view the changes online, go to the STRS website:  https://www.strsoh.org/employer/_pdfs/guides/50-380.pdf  

• Here are the new calculations for Part-time employees:
  • If less than 90 days worked.  Calculate days/180 and calculate actual compensation/$12,000.  The Service Credit is the LESSER of the two calculations.
  • If greater than 89 and less than 120 days worked.  Calculate days/180 and calculate actual compensation/$12,000.   The Service Credit is the LESSER of the two calculations.
  • If greater than 119 days and salary is less than the state minimum of $35,000.  Calculate days/180 and calculate actual compensation/$12,000.  The service Credit is the LESSER of the two calculations.
  • If greater than 119 days and salary is greater than the state minimum of $35,000.  The Service Credit is 1.00 or 100%.
• Make sure the STRS Configuration is filled in for the 'State Minimum Salary' of $35,000
  • 

...

• Address cannot be blank. Verify entire address in CORE/EMPLOYEE for previous SSN.
  This indicates either the first line of address, city, state, or zip code on the CORE/EMPLOYEE is blank. No part of the address can be reported to STRS as blank. View CORE/EMPLOYEE and verify the fields.
• Advance amount is negative for previous SSN, assuming zero.
  Indicates a possible error correction from a previous fiscal year.
  Check Compensation information and contact ITC if unable to resolve. It may also be necessary to contact STRS to resolve the problem.
• Amount remaining on contract is zero for previous SSN, job #.
  Indicates that pays are remaining with no contract amount to pay.
  Verify Compensation information and run an AUDRPT to determine if manual changes were made.
• Check for possible error in number of pays in contract for previous SSN.

This error indicates the district is running the advance reports very early.  This error is checking the pays left on a compensation that would advance.  If the pays left are greater than 14, the error is received. Since the district ran the reports in December or earlier, the pay left is greater than 14.  This error will clear up when the reports are ran closer to the fiscal year end.

• Contract amount paid exceeds the contract obligation for previous SSN, job #.
  Indicates the amount paid shown on Compensation exceeds the obligation.
  Verify Compensation information and run an AUDRPT to determine if manual changes were made.
• Contributions with zero service credit for previous SSN.
  Regular contributions with no service credit have been detected. STRS requests that these situations be researched and corrected before submitting the data.
  Check Payroll Items (450/591/691) start and stop dates, job calendar assignments, job calendar start dates, and Attendance records. Contact ITC if unable to resolve.
  Refer to the section of this chapter called, "How STRSAD days are calculated" for assistance in resolving service credit problems.
• Days worked in contract will exceed work days in contract for previous SSN, job #.
  This message indicates that the remaining work days on the calendar through June 30th for the job will cause the days worked to exceed the work days in contract. This refers to jobs that still have work days remaining on the calendar.
  Check the contract start date and the beginning date of the first payroll of the contract to insure days worked in the contract were correctly counted. Check for incorrect period beginning and/or ending dates that may have been entered. Adjustments to days worked may be necessary in Compensation.
• Employee's first/last name cannot be blank. Verify in CORE/EMPLOYEE for previous SSN.
  This message indicates either the first or last name on the CORE/EMPLOYEE is blank. The name cannot be reported to STRS as blank. View CORE/EMPLOYEE and verify the fields.
• FTD total for board deduction is negative for previous SSN, assuming zero.
  A 691 Payroll Item record has a negative amount in the FTD deduction field. This indicates that an error correction from a previous fiscal year may have been processed.
  Research using AUDRPT (looking for manual updates) and contact STRS for possible correction procedures.
• FTD total for retirement deduction is negative for previous SSN, assuming zero.
  A 450 Payroll Item record has a negative amount in the FTD deduction field. This indicates that an error correction from a previous fiscal year may have been processed.
  Research using AUDRPT (looking for manual updates) and contact STRS for possible correction procedures.
• Job calendar is not assigned for compensation with code ######.  Please assign a job calendar to get corrected values on report.

...

• Name and address for previous SSN not on file.
  The Employee record does not have a name or address entered.
  Enter these fields in Employee.
• No active position level or employee level STRS item found for position #: #

          Verify Start and Stop

...

dates on the employee's STRS item 

Verify STRS Payroll items 450, 591 or 691

Check STRS Payroll Items to see if archived.

• No service days for regular earnings for previous SSN.
  No service days are found for this employee.
  Check Payroll Items (450/591/691) start and stop dates, job calendar assignments, job calendar start dates, and Attendance records. Contact ITC if unable to resolve.
  Refer to the section of this chapter called, "How STRSAD days are calculated" for assistance in resolving service credit problems.
• Non-stretch pay job will advance for previous SSN.
  It is not normal for a non-stretch pay job to advance. This message simply alerts the user to a possible problem but does not indicate that a problem exists. If the situation does occur, it could cause problems in the advance pay back calculations since the amounts for these jobs are not properly handled by Initialize.
• Number of days worked exceeds work days in contract for previous SSN, job #.
  The number of days worked is greater than the work days in Compensation.
  Verify the days worked on the job and the job calendar assignment. Run an AUDRPT to determine if manual changes were made. Update Compensation if necessary.
• Pay per period times remaining pays differs from accrued wages by more than $1.00 for previous SSN, job #.
  This message indicates that a possible error in contract calculations has occurred.
  The district should verify the contract amounts in Compensation with what has been paid on the job thus far. Run an AUDRPT and attempt to isolate the problem. A dock or payment of additional money may be necessary to make the correction. Contact your ITC for assistance if necessary.
• Pick up amount is negative for previous SSN, assuming zero.
  A 591 Payroll Item record has a negative amount in the FTD deduction field. This indicates a possible error correction from a previous fiscal year may have been processed.
  Research using AUDRPT and contact STRS for possible correction procedures.
• Retiree amounts for previous SSN exceed the regular contribution total.
  The retiree amounts showing on the 450, 591, and 691 records are greater than regular amounts. This should not occur since retiree amounts are subsets of the regular contributions. The retiree amounts should be less than or equal to the regular contribution totals.
  Run AUDRPT to determine if manual adjustments to regular or retiree fields were processed. Manual changes to the Payroll Item records may be required.

...