I. Welcome -

Cliff Lee covered the procedures for evacuation in the event of an emergency evacuation and/or "Shelter-in-Place" crisis. Participants were asked to sign the attendance sheet.

II. Series EE Savings Bond Rate Changes -

Cliff indicated that he had already sent an e-mail on this subject but just wanted to call the representatives attention to it again. He said employees may begin calling on this matter, and many will probably cancel their EE-bond withholdings. In summary, starting with the May 1st issue date, EE bonds will be issued with a fixed rate of return and not a fluctuating one. This method is not viewed highly by investment counselors and employees may decide to change their bond withholdings to another type of U.S. Savings Bond or opt out completely.

III. Proposed OPM Regulations Scheduled for May 1st -

Cliff reminded clients that a number of proposed regulations affecting the Payroll/Personnel arena are scheduled to be effective on May 1st. These proposed regulations were published in the January 5th Federal Register. To date, OPM has not issued final regulations on them. Therefore, NFC has NOT made any changes. In OPM's defense, we are aware of the sudden death of a key staff member in their pay and leave area. Two of the key pay areas involve:

A. Changes to the Recruitment, Retention, and Relocation Bonuses (the 3R's), and

B. Pay administration changes affecting the Special Salary Rates and Pay Retention regulations. The focus of this second initiative is to eliminate the "windfall" situations that currently result when moving employees from special rate to non-special rate positions with pay retention; employees are currently entitled to full locality payments in addition to the saved pay.

IV. SPPSweb Q&A Testing -

Ashlie Horton indicated that the SPPSweb testing was scheduled to start Monday, but server issues prevented the testing. NFC was able to resolve those issues last night. Currently the NFC staff is going through the system to make sure that it is working properly. It is expected to be fully operational for clients tomorrow. Clients may be able to access the system today, but until they have completely reviewed it, NFC cannot guarantee that everything will function as expected.

A. Q: (PSA) What is the URL for this? Will it be e-mailed to us? A: Ashlie provided the link as http://atlas.nfc.usda.gov/spps

B. Q: (TR) Can we still submit additional SSN's for testing? A: Ashlie said probably but these requests should be sent to Sheila Ratcliff.

C. C: (TR) Our bureaus want to commend NFC for the immediate processing of the security requests for this access.

V. Benefits Updates

A. Jody announced that the final TSP "open season" for employee contributions began last Friday, April 15th, and runs through June 30th.

B. Jody indicated that she had a copy of the FEHB Data-HUB 2809 Requirements from OPM. She asked if the FESI users had a copy of this document. The general consensus was no. She has an electronic copy of the document and can share it. AOC, DHS, DOJ, GAO, HUD, LOC, PSA, SM, TR, and USDA all requested an electronic version.

1. Q: (SM) Is this available on OPM's website? A: Neither Jody nor Randy Gonzales knew if the document was available on the OPM website.

POST MEETING UPDATE: Jody forwarded this information electronically on April 21st to those CAPPS Reps who had requested it.

VI. FEGLI Error Pay out in PP 08 -

This issue relates to the PP-06 under-deduction for FEGLI. Debbie Tatum informed the clients that there appears to be some confusion over what is happening in PP-07 v.s. PP-08. She explained that NFC is generating the bills for the PP-06 payroll under-deduction but the money will not be collected from the employee until PP-08. Due to the administrative process in ABCO, NFC cannot process both in the same pay period. No intervention is required on the agencies part for the PP-06 under deduction. The employees will not receive the bill or letter in this situation. This is simply the internal process for NFC.

There was much discussion between NFC and several of the clients regarding specific cases and the inconsistent information that various NFC staff members had provided to the clients on this issue. In summary, the problem originated from a Basic FEGLI cost indicator that was set incorrectly in one of the PESB programs. This resulted in $0 deductions being withheld for PP-06 in the PASB programs for employees with a pay action (e.g., WGI, promotion, etc.) or HCUP package processed on them in PP-06.. There are two categories of affected employees:

A. Employees for whom no HCUP case was processed and thus only the deduction for PP-06 was affected. For these employees, the scenario outlined above will occur.

B. Employee for whom a HCUP case was processed, had no deduction for PP-06 AND were refunded monies for previous FEGLI deductions because PAYE read the incorrectly processed FEGLI indicator from the salary master for each of the re-certified pay periods. These employees will be handled in two stages. The above scenario will apply for the deduction withheld in PP-06. HOWEVER, Mose Lindsay's staff will handle the retro portion of this via the standard billing process. Yes, bills WILL be issued for those pay periods affected by the HCUP case - excluding PP-06's withholding which will be handled in PP-08 under scenario (A).

1. Q: I was told in PP-06 to set up a bill for this and have already done so. A: Debbie, requested that agencies please NOT do this and indicated that the rep had been given incorrect information. Mose requested that the rep please send the SSN for the affected employee directly to him and he will work with the rep to resolve the situation and ensure the employee is not double billed. Debbie's staff is working on a report that can provide the affected employees that will include the SSN, the amount, etc. Her staff hopes to have these reports to the CSR by noon today.
   
   
2. Q: DHS - Confusion on which employees are affected. Can NFC issue a new e-mail defining what happened and what is being resolved so that it can be forwarded within the organizations? FC: DOJ - Yes that would be beneficial.
   
   
3. Q: TR it looks like the agency contribution was not taken either? Will this also happen in PP-08? A: Yes. FQ: This is FEGLI only correct? A: Yes!
   
   
4. Q: SBA - Is this related to the 084 PINE message error? A: No.
   
   
5. Q: PSA - Are we going to get an email? A: Gary said yes. NFC has been experiencing some e-mail problems because USDA was treating all e-mails with excessive distribution lists as SPAM and deleting them. He indicated that NFC had made changes to resolve this. We will also send to PPSPS and it will be sent to the CAPPS reps. Debbie apologized for the inconvenience and miscommunications. If you have any questions on a HCUP situation, work directly with the manual pay staff

VII. HR Briefing Update -

Gary Gaspard indicated that Jerry Lohfink and Theresa Trentacoste have been working on changing the format for the Spring briefing. Because of the amount of work that is involved in the change, the briefing has been postponed until July 26-27. Jerry wanted to accomplish different things in this and future briefings. They are modifying the audience and treading new ground. The briefing will begin in the auditorium on the 26th with demos on the 27th in the CSO suite.

VIII. Update on Last Pass of PAYE -

Mose asked if there were any additional comments or inquiries regarding moving the last pass of PAYE to Friday. Cliff asked what the feedback had been. Mose indicated it had all been positive. Implementation is targeted for FY2006. Once the feedback is complete NFC will issue an official effective date. Gary reminded agencies to send input to Mose, Gary, and/or Penny Forbes so that any issues can be addressed. So far NFC has only received 5-10 responses.

IX. Requirement & Testing User Sign-off -

Randy Gonzales indicated that this was to be handled by Penny and she is out of town due to a death in the family. He briefly went over the concept again and indicated that no decisions or changes have been made yet. NFC will be issuing some new process over the next few weeks. Some internal changes have already been made and NFC plans on implementing the customer phase at a later date. The intent is to work out any internal issues before modifying the client aspect.

A. Q: TR - In the notes from last month there is approximately a page and-a-half on this. Will we get a written decision on the final outcome? A: Yes.

X. Employee Express Update (EEX) / Employee Self Service (ESS) -

George Morris participated in the April teleconference with EEX. The following items were key topics.

A. The EEX CFC pilot program (5 campaign areas, including Washington) is still up in the air. OPM has still not provided EEX with any support relative to establishing standard procedures/requirements. EEX has said that if OPM does not provide standards/control, EEX may drop this whole project. EEX should know more within the next month.

B. EEX reps have been talking to NASA regarding their E&LS and Employee Benefits Statement. NFC clients already have access to a E&LS/benefits statement via the EPP/ESS. NASA's benefit statement is updated biweekly. NFC is not looking into more frequent updates for the EPP at this time, but may consider similar changes in the future.

C. The EEX Fall release of the Entry On Duty (EOD) package is still a big item. The EEX work group is trying to work with OPM to identify documents for which the written signature requirements can be by-passed. In addition, there are still payroll office issues regarding to how to wed incoming employee data with the PPS when the employee record (SSN, etc.) is not on the database yet. If EEX manages to resolve some of these issues, NFC may look to provide an equivalent functionality down the road. However, for now NFC is tied up in implementations and other E-payroll issues.

XI. Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) -

George indicated that an OCSE rep has contacted him with concerns about quarterly error reports they have been providing NFC to date. They want to meet with representatives from each agency with errors, to attempt to reduce/resolve them. George indicated that OCSE had sent him an example of the error report, but that it is summary error counts only, with no specific identification of problem files/data. Many items on this report cannot be addressed by NFC because they deal with data issues which NFC has no knowledge about (i.e., Federal Employee Identification Number (FEIN) missing, address incorrect, etc.). George added the FEIN's are not used within the NFC system to identify organization components within the Federal Sector (these appear to be IRS derived, and used by private sector to reference back to the Federal Sector. Further, NFC cannot address discrete information on individual employees; this can only be handled by the employing agency. OCSE has asked if they can contact the agencies directly, and they asked if they could use the CAPPS Reps as initial contact for the agencies. Do the CAPPS Reps want to talk to them or ignore them?

A. C: DHS - I don't have a problem if they contact us. TMGT contains the individual agency level contact person. R: Cliff added that some agencies were not reported on an agency level, but by department level due to security issues. Additionally, some agencies mask select positions.

B. Q: Do we have a legal requirement to work with the OSCE? A: Yes to some extent, you have to report employment and collect funds as appropriate. This includes a listing of new hires and an all inclusive quarterly report.

C. Q: Jo asked why OSCE was not using the agency contacts published in the 5CFR 581as a point of contact. A: George did not know and agencies are certainly welcome to come back and insist that OSCE go that route.

D. Q: SM what other types of errors are they getting? A: FEIN non numeric and/or missing, ZIP code is non-numeric, SSN, etc. C: DHS - NFC needs to review the data and figure out why the data is wrong. How does it get past database error edits? R: George tried to explain that NFC cannot review individual employee records and determine if they are wrong-if the data meets basic requirements (alpha-numeric, etc.) it passes. We do NOT know the "correct" employee information and do not contact employees directly if data is questionable-data accuracy is a responsibility of the personnel office.

This conversation went back and forth several times without resolution and finally Jody stepped in and terminated the discussion. Clients were asked to send feedback to George on what they would like to see happen with regards to the contact(s) for the OCSE error reports situation.

POST MEETING UPDATE: George had subsequent discussions with OCSE, and advised them that agencies would prefer to be contacted via the Garnishment POC identified in the CFR. He also advised OCSE that the current error report was virtually useless in that it did not allow for identification of specific files/data wherein the supposed error occurred. OCSE indicated that they would further analyze the matter and get back to us later.

XII. Post Differential/COLA -

George advised the reps that it is the agency's responsibility to inform NFC when specific individuals are subject to COLAs/Post Differentials, and to further advise us of changes in these entitlements. State Department posts these changes on their website. There has been a problem in recent months regarding agency misinterpretation of these postings, and we strongly suggest that agencies advise this office (George) when they wish to input a change so that we can verify same.

XIII. Classification -

George announced the abolishment of the wage grade 5444 occupational series/titles approximately 2+ years back. This is the food/feed processing series. He indicated that most of the positions in this series are located in Agriculture. However, he wanted to warn all clients just in case there were a few stragglers out there. The series is scheduled for termination in June 05 unless clients have problems with this date.

XIV. E&L Message Process -

George reminded the clients of the standard procedure that was adopted late last fall. That procedure is that PPSPS will distribute voluntary requests for messages to appear on the E&L will be send to the clients via CAPPS. The agency will be responsible for updating TMGT Table 105 for this messages if they elect to have the message appear. NFC will only update TMGT Table 105 for MANDATORY messages.

XV. Taxes - Kathy Long

A. AZ state tax change - The new AZ tax rates are scheduled for PP-10. Cliff distributed an e-mail on this yesterday. This is a very familiar routine for AZ since it happens about every other year. There is standard process for AZ and the codes are hard coded in the system. NFC will do a sweep to increase to the new rate.

1. Q: IBWC - Is the effective date now or January 1, 2005. A: Kathy indicated that the new rate became effective on January 1, but there will be no retro adjustment for the AZ taxes.
   
   
2. Q: TR - Will a bulletin be issued? A: Yes, they are ready to go out.

B. VA state tax change - Kathy indicated that this change is scheduled for PP-09. With the 2005 change there are now separate categories for personal and age/blindness exemptions. The amounts are different for each. There is no way for NFC to determine which of the exemptions currently claimed on a VA tax for are reported for a standard exemption vs an age/blindness exemption. As a result the employee eligible for an age/blindness exemption will be require to submit a new VA-4 form. Kathy pointed out that the wording on the EPIC input screen will not be changed until the next EPIC client change. (The screen does not currently list VA as one of the states that use the special exemption field.) HOWEVER, the new VA formulas will be updated in PP-09

1. Q: TR - When is the next expected client change. A: Kathy was not sure. There is not one planned at the moment, therefore, it will not be any time soon.
   
   
2. Q: DHS - What about EmpowHR updates? A: Randy Gonzales indicated that Empower is not in production yet so NFC does not have control of it yet. FQ: But you are going to coordinate with them to make the change right? FA: NFC has notified the ICAMS staff, but we have no control over them yet. FQ: GAO - Does this mean we go through the ICAMS staff to get the change or do we need to use EPIC? Do Empower changes go through Glenda or ICAMS? A: Randy indicated that NFC has not yet assumed full responsibility of this yet they are still working out the details. The items will have to go through the ICAMS staff.
   
   
3. Q: SM is using PeopleSoft as a front-end. How does this affect us? R: The field is already in place for other states, NFC will enable it to be used for Virginia for the EPIC input. FQ: Where is the field on the EPIC screen? R: Over to the right toward the bottom of the screen there is a place that indicates other exemptions. FQ: Is this field also on the FESI layout? Yes it already exits there. We use it for other states already. FQ: Where is it in the FESI layout? FA: Nobody had that information on hand. FR: Okay, I'll find it in the FESI manual.
   
   
4. Q: FCMS - Will the system be set-up to except data or will the user be required to enter a value/and or nulls? A: The system will accept input for this field, but it is not required. A bulletin is being prepared. SEE NOTE BELOW!!!
   
   
5. Q: TR - In that bulletin when you make reference to FESI transactions, you need to tell us what to enter/not enter in that field. Right now this requires 0 for negative input. A: Kathy indicated that she did check this with the programmer. Apparently some require input while others do not. FC: We need to know that. FA: The information will be in the bulletin.
   
   
6. Q: How does this affect the employees who are using ESS. A: ESS will also be changed for PP-09. We will add the additional field as an option employees in Virginia.
   
   
7. Q: What about EEX? A: We do not know how EEX is handling this. That is an EEX representative issue.
   
   
8. C: TR - Cliff's e-mail on this was very well done. R: Cliff confessed that he stole the text from Kathy.

   POST MEETING UPDATE: On April 21st, Cliff issued an e-mail to CAPPS which contained the following update to the VA state tax programming. "At the monthly CAPPS meeting, a question was raised concerning whether an entry of '00' would be required in the 'Additional Exemptions Field' for FESI and EPIC state tax documents for employees with no 'age or blindness exemption' for the State of Virginia. NFC will shortly issue a bulletin announcing the new Virginia state tax withholding formula. In that bulletin, we will instruct agencies to enter '00' in the 'Additional Exemptions Field' for employees claiming no 'age or blindness exemptions.' The NFC special coding documentation for the 'Additional Exemptions Field' on the tax formulas for California, Illinois, Indiana, Puerto Rico, and now Virginia all advise: 'If no (additional) allowances are claimed, enter 00.'"

XVI. User & Work Group Updates

A. Awards - Jo Bonner reminded clients that the next quarter meeting is scheduled for May 11, 2005.

B. Benefits - Jody Nyers indicated that she held the kick-off meeting on April 12th. There were roughly 17 participants and a variety of benefit issues were discussed. The next meeting will be held on June 23rd. Jody has already distributed notes from the meeting to the group. The group will meet every other month. If you did not respond to the original call, you can still submit a name to participate.

1. Q: (DOJ) Who did the e-mail go out to this? We were supposed to send someone. A: Jody indicated that she only sent the meeting announcement and notes to those who signed up for the group. She also added that some agencies wanted to send 10-12 reps. That is too many. Clients should only select 1-2 people to participate and those individuals should share the information throughout the organization as appropriate.

C. EPIC - Gary Gaspard indicated no report.

D. EPP - Randy Gonzales indicated that as previously discussed they are working on the upcoming tax change

E. FESI - Randy G indicated no report

F. HRIS - Randy G announced that for those who had not heard they have changed the name from HRIS to EmpowHR.

G. PMSO - George indicated that he has received two big work packages identifying PMSO issues/concerns. He is discussing them with individuals of the work group. He hopes to hold either a conference call or meeting shortly to discuss them.

H. T&A - Jo Bonner reminded clients that the T&A user and T&A Requirement work group both meet on the 1st payday Thursday of each month. Currently the TARWG is working on pending issues with STAR 5.0. There is no date as to when STAR 5.0 will be out.

1. Q: SBA - In STARWEB rollover isn't allowed until the beginning of PP? A: You have to be in a pay period with transmitted T&A's to rollover to the next pay period. For example, you have to be in 06 to rollover to 07. If the user is waiting until Monday morning in PP-07 you need to change the PP back to 06 and roll into PP. Q: STARWEB in PP-06 some employees didn't rollover. When they looked at it the employee's started in PP 06, so they just did a T&A. R: If the employee just started in PP-06, unless imported from the mainframe from somewhere else for PP-05 there was nothing to rollover into PP-06. Jo also reminded converting clients that only AL and SL balances are imported from the mainframe. All other leave must be added. Q: Storing accounting in PP 20 - is this automatic? A: This works similar to STAR client. When changing accounting codes, enter 1 on T&A to store it and a code 2 to use it. You cannot do it in the pay period where the fiscal year splits. You have to wait one pay period. What you see printed on the T&A will not change unless you enter the new code via STAR. What prints out on the &TA will remain as a 5 for 2005. Q: Is there a problem with "storing" and or leaving accounting on the T&A every PP? A: This is not a real problem but waste of time for the timekeeper if the accounting is not changing.

XVII. Status of "CAPPS - how are we doing?" discussion from last month -

Gary Gaspard briefly updated the community on last month's discussion. He indicated that this is the time to reflect the usefulness and effectiveness of CAPPS and gather input. He has developed some Survey Questions and routed here in NFC South and sent a copy to NFC North today. He'll continue to collect comments, update the questions as needed, and get them to CAPPS by April 29th. At the May meeting, we will allow for responses to be dropped off anonymously. NFC will review the data, get recommendations, and discuss the items in the June meeting.

XVIII. Potpourri

A. Q: LOC - When will an Empower work group be established? A: There is no time frame on when this will be established. We'll add it to the next month's agenda and Glenda will be here.

B. Q: LOC - On PMSO dummy records, the title field pulled in that we had deleted. The change was saved but the old information was present when it printed. A: George had not heard of any PMSO problems. He requested that the rep send him an email with specifics so he could research it.

C. Q: TR - Because of the new comp time for travel we really need the non-pay other time TC expanded from 2 to 4. A: Jo indicated that when the NFC programmers made changes to the database in 2002 these fields were added at that time. However, they have not been opened up for use. The T&AUG has already indicated that the would like this opened and a request was sent recently to NFC. We will let you know when they will be open and can be utilized. FQ: Any way we can get a date to open these additional other time TC codes? A: The "Other-Time 3" and "Other-Time 4" fields are already on the screens, but they are just not implemented. Jo does not know how long it will take the programmers to modify the system to use them. Randy Gonzales indicated he would check on this for next month's meeting.

XIX. Attendees

A. In-Person

1. Clients - AG, AOC, CP, CFTC, CSOSA, DHS, DOJ, FCC, FDIC, FMCS, GAO, HUD, LOC, NEH, PC, SBA, SI, TR
   
   
2. NFC - Cliff Lee (chair), Jo Bonner, George Morris, and Jody Nyers

B. Via Teleconference -

1. Clients - IBWC, TR, TR-BPD
   
   
2. NFC - Gary Gaspard, Randy Gonzales, Ashlie Horton, Mose Lindsay, Kathy Long, Debbie Tatum, Theresa Trentacoste