CAPPS Notes for Meeting on June 19, 2002

I. Welcome - Cliff Lee

II. Pay Administration - Cliff Lee

A. PAYE Processing for PP-12 - Due to the July 4th holiday on Thursday, the first pass of PAYE for Pay Period 12 will be run Friday night, July 5th.

B. State Tax Withholding for Post Differential Salary Payments - NFC is implementing the state income tax withholding of post differential salary payments in Pay Period 11.

C. Pay Workgroup - At the last meeting Cliff requested volunteers to work on a pay work group. To date only AOC, DOC, USDA have responded and the due date was today. He needs participants from both the pay expert area and the system side. It is vital that agencies with special pay provisions participate in this work group. Please contact him if you have someone to nominate. The date of the first meeting has not been set.

III. Benefits - Jody Nyers

A. Benefits Conference Update - Jody attended the Conference in Norfolk last week where discussions covered LTCI, PC-HB, TSP, and other items directed towards Benefits Officer.

For LTC, the open season begins July 1st and runs thru December 31st. Payroll deductions will begin in October. Question at the conference: If you choose LTC and decide to cancel in 4-5 years and get your money back? A: NO. Info on LTCI can be found at www.ltcfeds.com

For TSP, open season is May15th thru July 31st; and the next open season moved up to October. George mentioned a case where an employee went to EEX to change their percentage, decided to change it back but elected "Stop TSP" which essentially stopped their TSP and now they have to wait until the next open season to re-elect. Make sure your users are aware of this and educating the employees. Be very careful in how you make your elections; ie., one per open season.

B. FEHB Child Equity Act (Court Ordered FEHB Coverage) - Implementation was postponed until Fall 2002. May 8th bulletin sent in anticipation; Directives will be re-sending that bulletin. Agencies will need to continue to monitor theses individuals manually.

C. Changes to CSRS & FERS Agency Contribution Rates - Project #20685. BAL-02-312 .Agency contributions will decrease by 5% PP-20 2002, and again in PP-01-2003 so that agency contributions equal employee contributions.

IV. Employee Express Update - George Morris

A. Meeting 06-18-2002 - EEX discussions on testing state tax changes this week into EEX. NFC has already implemented these changes but the certain elections are not yet permitted on the EEX interface. EEX is testing data flow from Macon, GA to NOLA. Because NFC does not have multiple test areas for "FESI" interchanges, EEX will be using the "client" test window so it is not available to the clients at this time. (TR is not going to run in this test window. In August, NFC is planning on opening the test window as normal.)

• Mire Mire (TR) EEX does not currently offer the most recent changes such as permitting an AZ resident to elect 12% in lieu of 11%. Cheryl Ruf pointed out that some additional states are allowing employees to choose an exemption number but Macon's programming was not in place to allow this. George indicated that EEX plans to have the new configurations implemented in a few weeks. Until then, employees who wish to elect an option that is not available via EEX, s/he should submit the requested change through his/her servicing personnel office. NFC has made changes to the mainframe and the adjustment can be made via EPIC/PRES.

V. Class standard closeouts on TMGT 074 - George Morris

A. George is working with Curt to identify every individual series' involved. George will send a message to CAPPS clients indicating the proposed cut-off. You will be required to contact George if you have a problem with the date - probably 01-01-2003. Affected standards.

• Student Trainee titles (xx99) - January 2002 scheduled to terminate 06-30-2002.
• HR series (02xx) and IT series (0334) - December 2001 e-mail scheduled to terminate 09-30-2002.

B. What happens if you haven't applied the standard by the time the series is closed? The action will bounce the next time you try to do something to that employee. With the proposed time frame this will affect all of your Pay Adjustments!

C. Do not process a Change in Data Element for this! It is a real action and would most likely be a reassignment unless there are special circumstances.

D. Mary Arnold (DOC) indicated that she'd heard a rumor that OPM was going to start generating CPDF errors on the 334 series that are coming into them. George would like to have that date.

VI. Employees on Military Leave - Jo Bonner / Jody Nyers

A. LWOP counters on T&A vs 473 - LWOP submitted via T&As will require adjustments to AWOP counters. 773 shouldn't be processed AND will start the counters again.

• When a 473-LWOP US is processed through the system, NFC does not add the time absent to the counters to delay WGI or SCD dates. However, if while the employee is on LWOP-US, a T&A is submitted to pay him for less than his TOD, any non-pay time on that T&A (TC-71) over-rides the 473 for that pay period and the time WILL be added to the counters for that pay period. Agencies must monitor this activity and TINQ the non-pay back off the system to avoid delaying the individuals WGI and/or altering his/her SCD.
  
  
• NOTE: OPM guidance does not support placing the employee on a 773 Ext of LWOP. Some agencies are electing to do this, so they can run a tickler on who is due back when. NFC does not support this movement. In addition, processing the 773 over-rides the 473 LWOP-US by-pass routine and the non-pay time will be added to the AWOP counters regardless of whether or not a T&A is submitted with LWOP on it. Agencies that have elected to do this must correct it. Mike Mire (TR) pointed out that you may have to cancel back to the action prior to the 473 and "re-activate the 473 in order for the flag to by-pass the counter routine. Jo is going to monitor the case that has been reported and will share with the outcome with the CAPPS group.
  
  
• Q: An employee was on LWOP for military purposes but the 473-LWOP US actions was never processed. Instead T&A's were submitted each pay period for that period of time. Do they now need to do a HCUP package AND go into TINQ and adjust the counters? YES.

  a. Can the counters be adjusted now and the HCUP package held until next pay period since the employee is now back to work and his WGI is already late? YES.

  b. By the way this person, double dipped (i.e., was called up for active duty and left. He subsequently received a medical discharge. He came back to work but was continuing to receive some military pay) and the agency's ER staff is involved. Jo recommended that talk with her ER staff before doing anything. Depending on what the ER staff needs to do, it may be better not to generate payment now for the retroactive WGI if the employee is going to owe the agency money. That would be better handled via an AD-343 to off-set any money due him by that he double-dipped. Jo recommended that the CAPPS rep call her after discussing the issue with the ER staff and they can discuss the NFC options.

B. Lump sum payments for AL - An employee who is called up in support of the anti-terrorist activities may elect to receive a lump-sum payment for all of his/her annual leave. This should be processed via EPIC/PRES via the 054 document. If the 473 - LWOP US action has been processed and the payment type selected is interim, the system will not require a separation date and the actions should apply. Agencies should not be submitting AD-343's to manual pay to process these payments.

• Mike Mire (TR) inquired if the system was verifying that the 473 was on the database. Jo indicated that according to the guidance she has yes. She does have a case that is in process and will advise CAPPS if this is not working properly.
  
  
• Denise Kurt (USPTO) inquired if any of the counters for non-pay time would adjust and employees one-year or supervisory probationary periods? No. The probationary period date is in IRIS but it is not adjusted automatically to reflect any non-pay time the employee may incur during that probationary period.

C. Payment of FEHB premiums -

• Whose has made the decision to pay premiums? (AOC, GAO, TR's IRS, OCC, & USCS; and USDA)
• Whose decision is still pending? DOC, FDIC, FCC, NLRB, FMCS, Ginny's group, and everyone else that was not here or stated.
• For those clients who were serviced by NFC during Operation Desert Storm, all of you made the decision to pay for the FEHB premiums at that time. This may impact an agency's decision for the current situation in order to be equitable to any affected reservists.
• Q: Mike Mire (TR) - What should agencies who have made the decision to pay FEHB do upon an employee's RTD? A: It depends on what was done while the agency was on LWOP-US. Each individual's case will have to be reviewed for his/her unique circumstances and agencies may need to cancel a bill AND reimburse an employee for paid premiums.
• Some questions that need to be answered prior to deciding what action(s) to take are:

a. Did the agency process the 473-LWOP US promptly?

b. Was a T&A submitted for any pay period in which the employee was on active duty? (i.e., using military leave prior to going on LWOP-US. If the agency agrees to pay the FEHB premiums, then they should be doing so even for periods of pay time for that same service.)

c. Did the employee spread his/her leave out each pay period to cover FEHB premiums? (i.e., was the employee on paid leave one day per PP)?

d. Was a T&A for LWOP submitted for any or all pay periods even though the 473 was processed timely?

• Q: What about those accounting codes we submitted to NFC, did this count for FEHB? A: It's a pool of money for everything, not just FEHB.
  
  
• Q: Mike Mire (TR) - A FEHB receivable has been building every pay period. The employee returns to duty and the agency pays the bill for the employee. How is this payment treated for tax purposes? Will the employee be charged for this? A: NFC has already raised that question and PPSPS is trying to determine what was done during Operation Desert Storm. How did we treat the payments? Was there an IRS decision at that time? We're checking with our counterparts in NOLA to see what documentation is already on file? We will update the community when we know the answer.
  
  
• Q: What affect does PC-HB, have on these answers now that it's in place?
  A: Undetermined at this point.

VII. User & Work Group Updates

A. Awards User Group - Jo Bonner

• Next meeting is August 14th. The current project is reviewing the SINQ messages for the 110 documents.
• Requirements finished its analysis for implementation of the 848-Referral Bonus. The changes are greater than expected requiring a change to 16 systems. No implementation date has been released.

B. EPIC User Group - Mary Arnold

• Next meeting is July 11
  
  
• everyone on EPIC is encouraged to participate in the workgroup and/or read the minutes; at the agency level is fine not to have too many participants but need people to read minutes and reply
  
  
• new version 2.02 released but some database issues that were not fixed so when the new version was implemented, some issues were not resolved.
  
  
• operating system issues this week (up and down)
  
  
• problems with NTE dates in HCUP packages
  
  
• if continuing to have problems, let Lynda know
  
  
• if you receive an 002 or 001 and auth goes with true NOAC, then key it in where the authority truly belongs, save it and that should open it up where you can delete it. Do you delete the same day? It's all done as one action.
  
  
• Mary is aware of a problem on the NTE dates with no get-around. Send to Lynda to get it applied/corrected.

C. FESI - Hans Heidenreich

• no report

D. Leave Share Work Group - Jo Bonner

• Comments are due COB today (6/19). To date few comments have been received. However, FEMA has indicated that they will send theirs later today. After considering the comments, the package will be adjusted as needed and forward to NOLA
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• Next meeting is June 20th to review reports & letters, if attending, bring copies of letters so the group can review them

E. RIF Work Group - Debby Berry

• Debby sent and e-mail to Rick to check on the status of the package that was submitted. She will provide an update to CAPPS next month.

F. T&A User Group - Jo Bonner

• System user stats - Jo handed out copies of a table that shows all of NFC's current payroll clients and what T&A system that client is using. This information is based on the info we receive in the JCL on the T&A transmit file. If you are using PC-TARE or STAR we are completing the software completes this information. However, if you use another system or add the JCL later it is up to you to properly identify this. If the info reflected is incorrect, please contact her.

a. Jo explained that the "Unpaid" column may or may not be a major issue for your agency. This is the number of activite employees for whom a T&A was not submitted in PP-10 (the time frame for the report). These may be individuals who are on LWOP via a personnel action, seasonal, intermittent in non-pay status, furlough, volunteers, separated, etc. Agency really only need to be concerned if you have a large number of separated employees and that has been a topic at several CAPPS meetings. Agencies can run the Separated Employee List or a FOCEXEC on separated-employee-type to identify these individuals. So steps can be taken to clear them from the database. This will help you reduce your overhead costs for maintaining them.

b. Q: How much are agencies charged to retain people in a separated status? A: the same as a regularly paid employee, ie., about $105 per employee.

c. Q: If a separation was done and the individual had bills that are outstanding, will they be on this list? A: Definitely.

d. Q: Is there a list of things to check to try an ensure that separated employees drop off properly. A: Yes. This was distributed at an earlier CAPS meeting and PPSPS will try to find a copy of it.

• Next meeting is July 22nd. If you have a participant on the T&A User Group (TAUG), they receive stats monthly on STAR and WebSTAR usage. If you are interested in joining, e-mail Jo. Reps from GAO, TR, DOJ, DOC, USDA, SBA. It's an info group, not necessarily a testing group, we meet to facilitate what's going on in the T&A area. When "Work Group" efforts are needed, a special group sometimes including (TAUG) members convenes to work on the issues and/or testing.

VIII. Frequently Asked Processing Questions - Jody Nyers

Several times a year we receive similar questions, eg., Temp Appts & Exc Appts and we advise agencies that all position changes for temp employees are processed as conversions to appts (ie., 5xx) with the appointing authority on the 1xx action used on the 5xx action as opposed to entering a new 1xx action. We're considering a portion of each meeting be spent on allowing agencies to bring processing questions to the table, discussing it and providing answers.

Q: FEMA asked if this was outside the Knowledge Base on NFC's website?
A: We are not sure but will check into this.


IX. Potpourri

FMCS - notification on Operating System being down, limited notification to users. Maybe we need a "system status" on the NFC Web page or email CAPPS as soon as the problem is discovered. Agencies need to be aware of this ASAP to determine if it's an IT issue or NFC. PPSPS will discuss w/NFC South.

PC - working on project on ABCO records. ABCO stat is a report on accounts receivable bills. Trying to build a crosswalk and pulling data field dictionary, guessing at definitions. Has any other agency built a FOCEXEC that they can share about building a crosswalk via ABCO? Ask your financial folks; GAO may help and/or DOJ.

Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Wanted to know what happened with Laurel, MD issue. Is it in Anne Arundale, Howard, & Prince Georges Counties? Will a bulletin be forthcoming from NFC? George indicated that OPM has not provided additional info on this. OPM currently goes by ZIP CODE. US Geo Survey does not recognize, nor does OPM. If we change the file and tables in NFC, then tax rate will be changed on employees.

FEMA - bluebook: will there be one from 2001? NO. Jo indicated that there will not be a bluebook again b/c of the changes in accounting procedures.

FEMA - Does anyone know what the SAS70 report is? SAS is software, this report is an IG report for USDA. Who do I contact? IG's office (per Debbie Berry) and it's available on USDA's website.

FCC - anyone worked on developing a FOCEXEC on the annual limit. FEMA has an entire system in place; contact Kelynn.

DOC - rec'd a memo (fax) from TR re SSN's not being printed on hardcopy checks. Great idea; several months ago a DOC employee asked that SSN being masked or deleted from the ELS. George indicated that many discussions via EEX and at NFC, but no resolution at this time.

DOC - employee terminating FEHB; problem due to PC-HB. Error: if FEHB deductions are PC-HB, he can't cancel this b/c of the IRS Section 125 law. Need to remove the default in EPIC/PRES. Absolutely NOT. It's an agency's responsibility to educate their employees about PC-HB.

TR - several bureaus are inquiring about CSRS w/holdings for offset employees who were PC-HB participants. OPM's instructions provided on deductions on OASDI, max out limits, etc., were not clear. Results indicated some employees were recv'g 'catch up deductions' for several hundred dollars. BAL indicated that PON's have till 2003 to make changes. Some bureaus are adamant to submit adjustments for retirement contributions. Will NFC do them? Sure, but the amount of monies the agencies will pay to get the AD-343 contributions done may end up being more than the amount of money the employee would receive anyway. An example of this was distributed and reflected a total of 12 cents after all the debits and credits were done. And remember if under the overpayment or underpayment is less than $10, then no payment will occur. Send electronically to Mike.

TR - erroneously FEHB over 3 years....when will NFC be ready to handle? Jody will check w/NFC South on this.

TR - report from bureau on biweekly max's were changed, there was remark on the ELS that no longer displayed the salary payment being cut back for exceeding the MAX, anyone mention this? JO asked if there were other remarks that would have overridden it? Mike did not know. Cliff asked if a LEO? Mike will check. Trying to locate an old ELS that reflected the remarks.

TR - referral bonus - what is the status of this? Becky (NFC South) did the requirements. Will require a change to 16 systems at NFC. Blew everyone away. B/c of this we have not heard a date, won't happen before database change is complete, maybe later this year.

Ginny - EPP changes, did I miss this? Self-service came out in HR Briefing in April. Steve Cunningham said maybe in October we'll get some things out - layout being done and tested; eg., leave drill-down will be there. Preliminary portion hopefully by end of 2002. If you look at the HR Briefing notes on the web page, you'll see Steve's info.

Ginny - Standard cost will be counted differently for 343's. We asked if NFC South could participate but not available; any questions, call Pat Hanks and/or Deidre Charlot. Ginny concerned about the manual payments and costs and reimbursable agreements may be necessary. Will this take a lot more time and delay in the processing? We'll try to get Pat at the July mtg.