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New Contracts
It is hard to believe but the time is quickly approaching to start thinking about adding new contracts for next year. Listed below are three options that can be used to create new contract compensations in USPS-R. This article is intended to provide general information about the new contract options. Your ITC may have a custom checklist for creating new contracts so please contact them for specific details.
Creating Contract Compensations
New Contract Maintenance option
Under Processing>New Contracts, it defaults to the New Contract Maintenance tab. From there, click on the Copy button which displays the following window. 
Query the Employee, choose the Compensation and select the Contract Type 'New Contract' and click Create. It will copy the individual employee's compensation and displays it in the new contract window.
Make any necessary modifications and save the contract information for the upcoming year.
- Job Calendar: will use days from the chosen calendar to determine how many work days will be defined for this compensation.
- Description: can be the title of the position (i.e. 21-22 Teacher). It will default to what is currently listed as description.
- Label: used if the position has more than one compensation and can be used to differentiate between compensations (example- 20-21 Teacher). The label is used for the description on the pay stubs.
- Compensation Start Date: start date of the current contract. This date is a required field and is usually the first day for which the job is paid.
- Compensation Stop Date: stop date of the current contract. (Remember if the employee is paid accrued wages through the summer, enter in a stop date of the ending date for the last pay for the contract). This date is a required field.
- Override Unit Amount Calculation: used if wanting to override the system generated unit amount calculation.
- Contract Work Days: calculated by using the compensation start and stop dates and the job calendar selected.
- Override Pay Per Period Calculation: used if wanting to override the system generated pay per period amount calculation.
- Contract Amount: indicates where the compensation is placed on the salary schedule. This amount is for informational purposes. Amount and obligation will differ when a change in the obligation is made (mid year) for the current contract through new contract. In that case, the contract amount will be the full contract amount.
- Contract Obligation: the amount the board is obligated to pay the employee for the current contract,
- Pays in Contract: is the number of pays the job is contracted for.
- Stretch Pay: indicates whether the payments for the compensation should be stretched over the number of pays in the contract.
Mass Copy Compensations option
The second tab found in Processing>New Contracts is Mass Copy Compensations. This option allows you to copy specific job status positions as well as select specific pay groups you want to pull into new contract. There is an option to enter in the Contract Start Date as well as the Contract Stop date. If these are populated, it will put the dates directly into the compensations that are copied to new contract. You can then modify and save the remaining contract information for the upcoming year (Job Calendar, Description, Label, Contract Amount, Contract Obligation, Pays in Contract, Override Pay Per Period, Override Unit Amount.) Again, if desired the Override Pay Per Period Calculation and Override Unit Amount Calculation flags can be set.
NOTE: The italicized fields above are fields that MUST be updated for the new contract for the upcoming year. It is very important that a contract Compensation Start Date and a Compensation Stop Date are entered for the appropriate calculation of pay for the contract. If desired, the Override Pay Per Period Calculation and Override Unit Amount Calculation flags can be set. This will ensure that the same pay per period and the same unit amount are used during the payroll processing. If the flags are not set, the system will calculate each pay and there could be a slight difference due to rounding in the amounts for pay per period or unit amount.
Import New Contracts option
The last option found under Processing>New Contracts is Import New Contracts. This option will allow for a CSV file of new contracts, with the appropriate header information, to be imported into new contract. To create a template spreadsheet using the Compensations fields, which can assist in creating new contracts, you may use the New Contract Compensation Worksheet.rpd-json file. This will allow you to create a template new contract spreadsheet. After the spreadsheet has been created, you can sort to obtain specific Pay Groups and remove all others if desired, or you can also sort the entire spreadsheet on Compensation Start and Compensation Stop Dates and then remove any records that will not require a new contract for the upcoming year. With some manipulation performed on the spreadsheet, this will then allow you to update the data and create new contracts using the Import option in Processing>New Contracts.
The following fields are required to be on the CSV file for proper loading to take place in new contract: contractType, employeeID, jobNo, newCompensation.label (NOTE: Label is only required if the employee has more than one compensation for a position), contractAmount (required for stretch paid jobs), and contractualObligation (calculated for contracted jobs). Please refer to the New Contract documentation for a complete listing of new contract CSV header information.
Once all new contracts have been added to Processing>New Contracts and since the new contracts have start dates that would be for the upcoming school year, the new contracts displayed on the grid can be selected by clicking on the check box next to the employee(s) new contracts or, if you wish to select all employees, click the box at the top and all records will be selected. You can also use the grid to filter for specific records and just select them. When all records are selected, click Activate and the new contract compensations will be created. These compensations will not be paid on until the Compensation Start Date is within the period beginning and ending date for a payroll.
Creating new Non-Contract Compensations
New Contract cannot be used for the creation of new Non-Contract Compensations. To create a Non-Contract Compensation CSV file, go to Reports>Report Manager and select the SSDT Non-Contract Compensation Mass Load Extract. Make any necessary changes, deletions, etc. and save the file in CSV format. NOTE: Please refer to the Mass Load Compensation criteria documentation for required headers for the CSV file. With the appropriate header information defined, the file can then be loaded directly into compensations using Mass Load's Compensation importable entity (CSV file example below).
Useful links:
As the end of the fiscal year approaches, you have the option to close purchase orders that will no longer be used so that account encumbrances are not carried forward to the next fiscal year.
Depending on the Rules set at your district, there are different ways to close a purchase order.
- If you have an open purchase order that has never been invoiced, you can Amend the purchase order and click on the Cancel button on the PO line item(s) to close the purchase order.
- If the last partially paid invoice is in a closed or archived posting period and the rule is set to prevent opening a previously closed posting period, an AP Invoice can be created to cancel the remaining encumbrance amounts by selecting the remaining open PO item(s) and selecting the status ‘Cancel_Full’.
- If the last partially paid invoice is in an open posting period, or if the posting period can be reopened, you can change the status on the previously paid invoice to 'full' to cancel the remaining encumbrance(s). Sort the AP invoice grid by the purchase order & date, navigate to the last paid invoice, click
to view the invoice. Click 'Full'. A helpful tool tip is provided when hovering over the Action button stating the action that will be taken if you click on it.
REDESIGN STATUS | |
|---|---|
425 Sites Live on Redesign | 198 Total Wave 7 Sites |
17 Participating ITCs | 549 Total Districts Participating |
Please view the Current List of Districts & Status to see a comprehensive list of school districts along with their ITC, implementation status and the wave they are scheduled to migrate from Classic to Redesign.
The following terminology is used to determine where in the implementation process the entity is currently at:
Implementing: The ITC is running test imports and balancing reports on the entity. The district and ITC are working to schedule dates to begin dual processing and go live.
Paralleling: The entity is inputting all production transactions into both Classic and Redesign.
Live: The entity is using Redesign for production processing; no parallel processing is being performed; Classic is available in 'read-only' mode.
ODE has recently launched a new site that provides links to five-year forecasts submitted to the Ohio Department of Education by various types of Local Education Agencies (LEAs).
Choose a link and from there select current or prior year forecasts. Also provided are forecast notes and assumptions as well as a yearly Cash Balance Analysis spreadsheet. What a great new tool!
SSDT is providing a pre-recorded session at the virtual OASBO Annual Conference (listed under the 'On Demand' sessions) called "Optimizing Business Practices with Redesign". Lots of good tips/tricks on grids, template report features, use of the activity ledger vs grids, explanation of 'outstanding' reports in USAS, use of templates in USPS-R. etc.
