CAPPS Notes - April 19, 2006

I. Welcome: Jeanette Richardson announced to the CAPPS attendees the procedures for an evacuation in the event of an emergency and/or a "Shelter-in-Place" crisis situation.

II. Update on NFC Status: Gary Gaspard

Reviewed Action Items and status

• CSRS offset error corrections scheduled for Pay Period 09.
  
  
• W-2C's are up to date and has nothing pending in the tax reporting section.
  
  
• ERI/RNO Code implementation date is Pay Period 09. Will use the 30 document instead of the 120 document.
  
  
• Masking of SSNs on the EPP entry screen should be implemented in Pay Period 09.
  
  
• NFC could find no problems with downloading the SF-113 Report in an excel spreadsheet. Any agency still experiencing problems should contact their customer support representative with specific problems.
  
  
• Foreign addresses are manually pulled and postage applied. However we recently changed our software product and had not mail ELS to foreign addresses since Pay Period 01. We did resume mailing for foreign addresses in Pay Period 05.
  
  
• The EPIC change that will fix missing remarks on SF-50s will be implemented in Pay Period 11.
  
  
• Additional information: The issue with pulling W-2C forms for separated employees has been fixed. If you are still having problems, contact your customer service representative with specific problems/issues.
  
  
• Gary Gaspard announced that there will be a STAR Web 5.0 demonstration on May 3, 2006, in the Lincoln Room, at 9:00 a.m. EST. Following the demonstration, there will be a discussion period where users can bring up issues and/or requests for enhancements.

III. Pay Changes: Donna Speed

• The 3R's Project is in production.
  
  
• Retained pay is scheduled for implementation in Pay Period 08.

  Question: A representative from Bureau of Public Debt (BPD) asked when they could expect to see the bulletin? Answer: Donna Speed stated the bulletin is in final draft but has not yet been published.

  Question: BPD asked when the bulletin will be available on the Web? Answer: Jo Bonner stated it should be out later this week. Donna Speed noted that retained pay would be addressed in a separate bulletin.

  Question: What about the EPIC portion? Answer: The EPIC portion should be included and implemented in Pay Period 08. Randy Speed agreed and stated the bulletin should be released shortly explaining all the 3R's.

IV. Benefits Update: Jody Nyers

1. TSP Quarterly Meeting

• There are 3.6 million employees that participate in TSP. FERS have 80% participation and the Military has 65%.
  
  
• TSP wants to go paperless and is pushing electronic statements.
  
  
• The elimination of a waiting period is still pending.
  
  
• In July, TSP will release new versions of all forms.

2. Retirement Processing: Jody Nyers reported that the separations are processed within the 30-day time frames.

3. FSA Refund: Employees are calling NFC programmers directly. The employees should be referred to the 3rd party (SHPS) or web site not NFC. FSA contacts were notified to stop referring employees to NFC.

4. ELS insert for Long Term Care Insurance: The inserts are ready, but there is a problem with delivery. Because of new software, NFC cannot selectively choose which agencies should and/or should not receive the insert; it is a condition of all or none. Jody Nyers asked if any agency had any concerns about putting inserts in the ELS; Jody will proceed with the insert.

V. Benefit contributions on the hard copy ELS: Gary Gaspard

• E-Pay centers are talking about including the government portion of benefits on the ELS statements. More discussions will follow next month.
  
  
• Please discuss this with your Agency/s and make a list of any concerns or issues for the next CAPPS meeting.
  
  
• Jerry Lohfink may attend the next CAPPS meeting to discuss the subject in greater detail.
  
  
• One CAPPS representatives inquired about the Department of Labor request for changes on the ELS. JO Bonner responded that this request was voted down.

VI. SF-1150 Record of Leave Data: JO Bonner

• OPM is combining the SF-1150 with the OPM630C Report.
  
  
• OPM wants only one form to cover all leave information.
  
  
• JO Bonner asked if there are any other items agencies wanted to see on that report? Let her know by April 30, 2006, at e-mail JO.BONNER@USDA.GOV.

  Question: One agency representative asked if the forms would be one or two pages, or just one - front and back? Answer: JO Bonner answered it would depend on what the agencies send in. That has not been determined yet.

  Question: Cheryl Ruff asked why OPM is combining the two reports?
  Answer: JO Bonner responded that OPM would like to reduce paper forms.

VII. NFC Liaison Role: Jody Nyers/JO Bonner

• NFC North informed the agencies that even though NFC North no longer hosts the CAPPS meeting, they still want to receive input. NFC North reported that they are receiving numerous calls from field offices, and since their office has been reduced in manpower, they cannot handle the volume of calls and e-mails generated. They asked that the CAPPS representatives pass on information to their bureaus/field agencies and that they (the agency) field questions from their users. They also stated that EPIC/HCUP suspense questions should still be sent to ppo@usda.gov.
  
  
• Jody Nyers reminded the CAPPS representatives to make sure they notify Gary Gaspard of changes to the CAPPS representatives.

VIII. Transit and Parking Allowances: Tom Neumeister from Smithsonian (SM) explained how his agency processes the transit and parking allowances, and stated that SM has had issues with calculating the benefits when there is a third payday in a month. Tom explained that one way to process during a three-payday month is to delete the benefits document then reprocess. Most representatives did not agree with this. The method of calculation seemed to be the issue with SM and Tom stated that one resolution would be to add to the drop down menu in EPIC. Most of the CAPPS representatives reported having no problems with the calculations.

Question: Tom asked if anyone else had come across this problem? Answer: No one else had the problem.

Question: Tom asked if anyone could offer a solution? Answer: It was suggested that a 127 document could be processed rather than a discretionary allotment. There may be something in EPIC that may allow you to do monthly deduction. Cheryl Ruff and other CAPPS members suggested he first check the bulletin on how to process Transit and Parking allowances. The BPD representative stated that the calculations were addressed in Title l, Bulletin 02-11 and 03-16 - Fringe Benefits. BPD reported that the search function on the web page was not working. Theresa Trentacoste advised they are working on it and it should be fixed by the end of the week.

IX. Data Base Change: Gary Gaspard

• Gary advised May 15th is the deadline to provide input for the database change. Send requests to GESD.DBCHANGE@NFC.USDA.GOV. The database change is scheduled for Pay Period 21

X. User and Work Group Updates: Gary Gaspard

• No updates for EPIC, EPP, or FESI.
  
  
• Jody advised the next meeting for Benefits is May 18, 2006.
  
  
• Jody reminded the CAPPS representatives of the change in processing schedule for Pay Period 07, and reminded the representatives that a customer notification was sent out earlier this week.

XI. Potpourri

Question: A representative from IBWC asked if there is a possibility of having a Web cast of the STAR Web demonstration for those out of state? Answer: Gary stated that after the presentation on May 3, 2006, NFC could send an electronic copy of the demonstration to IBWC or other agencies, as requested.

Action Item: Send soft copy of presentation to IBWC.

Question: A Bureau of Census representative asked if NFC could design a report for the Reporting Center that would reflect changes made by the employee on the EPP/ESS. Answer: Gary requested that the request be sent to him via e-mail. One representative reported that there is a report in the DOJ library (Report ESSALL), which will display a report that reflects the results from changes via the ESS; it will not display both the information before it was changed and the changed data.

Question: The SM representative asked a question on behalf of his IT people. They wanted to be able to capture the T&A data after it was transmitted to NFC but before TIME has applied its edit routine. Answer: Gary Gaspard stated he did not believe this would be possible.

Question: The SM representative asked if this is something that could be requested for the upcoming database change. Answer: Gary reported that this would not be a part of the database change. Gary did state he would check to see if this could possibly be captured via FOCUS (if Db2 database is defined to FOCUS).

Action Item: Gary will check to see if DB2 database is defined to FOCUS.

Question: A representative from BPD asked if the TSP_SCD problem was resolved. Answer: Gary advised we are working on it but issue has not been resolved.

Question: A representative from BPD asked why aren't new bulletins being posted on the NFC page under the Recent Publications? Answer: Theresa Trentacoste stated there might not have been any new bulletins lately.

Comment: A representative from Treasury stated there are new ones because you can pull them up. Answer: Theresa Trentacoste will research and make sure new bulletins are posted to the Web Site.

Question: A representative from DOJ asked about the bulletin on ERI coding. DOJ wanted to ensure that the FOCUS data element names and associated values are included in the bulletin so that DOJ can develop FOCUS reports against the ERI codes. Answer: Theresa Trentacoste reported that the bulletin is out for final review and will ensure that all this information is contained in the bulletin.

Question: Same DOJ representative asked how would they retrieve the element where NFC will store ERI the code from FOCUS? Answer: Theresa - That may not be in the Bulletin. I will check on it. Question: Mike - We assume it is a USDA/NFC FOCUS report? We need the FOCUS name and position occupied. Action Item: Theresa will check the ERI bulletin to see if it includes information on how to retrieve the element in FOCUS, the FOCUS name, and position occupied.

Question: A representative from the Office of Special Council stated they are receiving "Intent to Offset" notices without acceptable explanations. Answer: Gary Gaspard requested that examples be e-mailed to him for research. No explanation.

Question: BPD representative asked for a status to the ll3A & G reports on the Reporting Center. Answer: Gary stated we are working on it but no update yet.