Payroll is one of the most crucial — and most complex — components of any organization. To avoid payroll funding headaches, we’ve compiled these payroll funding “best practices”.

Ongoing monthly funding

Plan to update funding and job data for monthly payroll by the 10th of each month to ensure paycheck accuracy.

Watch the payroll calendar for payroll deadlines.  No new job data information will be sent to payroll after the payroll deadline. The CU Funding Entry page is available for current pay period funding updates until payroll post-processing begins. After it begins, a message indicating the next available pay period will display.

Use HCM WorkCenter Resources

The HCM WorkCenter – Resources tab is a great resource for finding helpful payroll funding queries.

Use the Funding Distribution query to identify current funding for filled positions, including SpeedType and project status information.

Use the Position Funding query to find funding for all positions including the date the entry was made, headcount status/count in each position, and a hotlink to position data.

The Funding History query will return the entire funding history for a specific position.

Use the Funding Suspense Current Row query to find just the funding that is expired or will expire within the next 45 days.

Download the query to Excel to easily filter for expired funding or expired project end dates.

Grant Considerations

Grants with project end dates need special consideration.

Look for funding end-dates that expire soon and add new funding rows before they expire.

Funding entries will accept projects in pre-spending and open status. Projects past their end dates and/or in ended or reporting status cause payroll to go to suspense.

Only projects require funding end dates. Removing funding end dates from non-sponsored funding avoids suspense after the fiscal year roll-forward. 

Note: The budget end date is equal to the end of the fiscal year. This cannot be changed on a funding entry or row.  A new funding entry/row is required each new fiscal year.

Mid pay period funding changes

Create a new funding row when funding expires part way through a month. For example, if a funding row has a funding end date of February 15th, create a new row effective February 16th with active funding to ensure payroll will process correctly for the entire period.  Expired funding causes payroll to go to suspense.

What happens when a position changes funding mid pay period? The pay will distribute proportionally to the number of funded days of all calendar days in the month.  This is different than calculating a partial month of pay, which is proportional to the number of paid status days of all the working days in the month.

Example for February

February 2022 has 28 days. If a funding distribution exists on February 1st, and another distribution is added effective February 16th, calculate the distribution as follows for $1000 of pay:

• Feb. 1 - Feb. 15 = 15 days or 15/28 days or 53.571% of the month ($1000 x 53.571% = $535.71 funded during this part of the month).
• Feb. 16 - Feb. 28 = 13 days or 13/28 days or 46.429% of the month. ($1000 x 46.429% = $464.29 funded during this part of the month).

Cross Campus Funding

Remember that each campus has their own rules for earnings, taxes, and deductions — default earnings SpeedTypes, taxes and benefit SpeedTypes, HCM encumbrances, and FIN fringe allocations. (Refer to the blog post in January for more information.)

Reach out to your campus controller if special consideration is needed for taxes and deductions on a position rostered at your campus with cross campus funding.

Need extra help?

You can learn more about funding entires and find payroll calendars on the HCM website. You can also email: hcm-community@cu.edu or System.HRGL.Team@cu.edu.

Additionally, you can find HCM queries here:

1. Log into the employee portal.
2. Open the CU Resources dropdown menu and click Business Tools.
3. Select the HCM tile and choose HCM Community Users from the drop-down menu.
4. Click the HCM WorkCenter tile.
5. Select the Resources tab and click the query you desire.