When a contract ends mid-month and a new contract begins during the same month, posting payroll can be tricky. Avoid confusing paycheck calculations by following these best practices for mid-month contract changes.

When an employee transitions from one contract to another mid-pay period, use a different employee record number for the new contract beginning mid-month. Separate record numbers allow funding and account codes to process separately for each contract.

Contracts are tied to a record number on the record, not effective dated position data.

• HCM will not differentiate between multiple positions with different effective dates tied to more than one contract on the same record during a single pay period.
• Both contracts post using the same data from the last position that is effective in the pay period.

Why does this matter?

Funding distributions and account codes use position data when posting pay, which in turn identifies the campus funding rules, type of pay (i.e., faculty vs. student and full-time vs. part-time pay) and which campus fringe rates to post.

• Funding distributions use business unit (campus) and position number to post funding.
• Account codes use position data (job code, regular/temporary status and sum of standard hours (for full- or part-time status)) to post the type of pay.
• Fringe rates post based on account codes on earnings SpeedTypes for campuses that pool benefit costs.

For example, if a contract in effect at the beginning of the month is a part-time position, and the contract beginning mid-month is a full-time position, and both contracts are on the same employee record number, then both contracts will be charged the higher full-time fringe rate based on the full-time position effective at the end of the pay period.

Consider how pay for partial month contracts could be corrected: 

• If just funding must be corrected, use a Payroll Expense Transfer.
• If the account codes must be corrected, then the position(s) must be moved to separate records. Submit a manual adjustment form. The form can also be used to change pay group, earnings code, job code, department and earnings period.
• After the manual adjustment posts, the account codes may still need to be corrected. Reach out to your campus controller’s office for special assistance or email system.hrgl.team@cu.edu.

Need extra help?

You can find contract resources on the HCM Contracts page. You can find resources for funding and account codes on the CU HR/GL web page.

As always, you can email hcm_community@cu.edu or System.HRGL.Team@cu.edu for additional help.

To access the HCM queries mentioned above:

1. Log in to 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.