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Spring SSDT Direct

SSDT is once again conducting SSDT Direct sessions this year!  The SSDT support team is excited to go 'on the road' providing an opportunity to touch-base with district staff who are using state software! With assistance from hosting ITCs, we have developed an agenda based on current USAS and USPS software needs of their districts. A special thank you to the ITCs who have provided a location for us to conduct our sessions! Registration is required to attend one of the in-person sessions (listed below)! Topics to be covered as well as how to register for a session is provided here. When registering, you will be able to select the session you would like to attend (USAS, USPS or both)! If you manage accounts payable at your district, you may choose to attend just the USAS session. If you process the payroll for your district, you may select the USPS session only. If you are the Treasurer or use both software applications, you may benefit from attending the entire day. Session locations are open to any district, but space is limited so we encourage early registration! 

If you aren’t able to attend one of our spring sessions, no worries, we will be hitting the road again this fall.

Payroll Processing Error Checking….Continued:

You may have noticed some new warnings appearing on your Pay Error Report. When processing a payroll, we recently added some additional checking pertaining to payroll items. These new checks, along with the warnings already in place, should assist in potential withholding issues before it’s too late.

The latest Pay Error Report warnings include:

• An employee has no payroll items being withheld.

• An employee has no active Ohio Tax or other state payroll item.

• An employee has no active Medicare Tax payroll item.

• An error adjustment is not able to be withheld due to there not being enough remaining gross to withhold.

• An employee has missing retirement payroll item components. These include:

  • The employee has a Position>Retirement Code set to STRS with no active payroll item with the Type of STRS.

  • The employee has a Position>Retirement Code set to SERS with no active payroll item with the Type of SERS.

  • The employee has an active payroll item with the Type of STRS (and the Rate has a value of 0.000) and there is no active payroll item with the Type of STRS Annuity and/or Employer STRS.

  • The employee has an active payroll item with the Type of SERS (and the Rate has a value of 0.000) and there is no active payroll item with the Type of SERS Annuity and/or Employer SERS.

The latest Pay Error Report error includes:

• An employee does not have an active Federal Tax payroll item.

Remember, best practice is to always review the Pay Error Report. Those small errors and warnings can be big time savers!

Recent ESS Improvements

As was mentioned in the January newsletter, we continue to improve ESS, prioritizing feedback requests from our user community. Many user-requested features and improvements have been implemented to optimize the software’s functionality. Listed below are some of the most impactful updates that were made recently. (NOTE: Please click on the images below for a enlarged visual representation of each improvement.) We encourage you to share this article with staff in your district who are currently using ESS.

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• SSDT Wiki

• January Release Recap

• Newsletters Home Page

• SSDT Documentation

• USAS Documentation

• USPS Documentation

• Inventory Documentation

• ESS Documentation

• SSDT YouTube Channel

• USPS YouTube Playlist

• USAS YouTube Playlist

• Inventory YouTube Playlist

• ESS YouTube Playlist

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That’s right! Its almost that time of year to begin prepping next year’s budgets. The SSDT recently reviewed Budgeting Scenarios with ITC support staff. Check out the recording yourself to review the budgeting options available in USAS.

Did You Know?

All Payroll Reports Now Include ‘Total Future Gross’

Towards the bottom of the Payroll Report, in the Report Summary area, is a Pay Group Totals section.  If you are a district that uses Payroll Payment - Future, the Pay Group Totals section will include a Total Future Gross column.  The information in this column lists any pay information pulled into the current payroll from Payroll Payments - Future.  With the recent enhancement, if a Payroll Report is generated either by going to the details of a posted payroll or by going to the File Archive>YYYY - Per Pay Reports, the 'Total Future Gross' column and information is now included. (Please click on image below for enhanced view.)