August

Contents
1. New Format for Statement Message
2. Brown Bag Lunch Agenda, September 12
3. Update on SRS Vacation Credit Issues
4. Mark Your Calendars for Procurement and Travel Vendor Fairs
5. How to Get Your New Procurement Card
6. Payroll User Documentation for Students, Employees, and Administrators
7. Business Tip of the Month: Payroll Tax Calculation for Hourly Students with Late Timesheets
8. Where to Find the Payroll Monthly Schedule
9. Update on Implementation of Reduced EB Rate
10. Contact Information – When You Need Help

1. New Format for Statement Message
We have streamlined the format of the email version of the statement message. Starting with this issue, we will send only the table of contents in the email text, along with a link to the on-line version. We will also attach a PDF version for readers who prefer that format.

We hope this will make it easier to scan the content for articles of interest. Please let us know what you think – send comments/suggestions to lindal@mit.edu.

2. Brown Bag Lunch Agenda, September 12
Please join us for the first Brown Bag Lunch since the reorganization of the financial units on Wednesday, September 12, from 12 - 1pm in Twenty Chimneys, Stratton Student Center. The agenda includes:

1. Overview of VP for Finance Organization: Strategies and Focus
2. Update on Vacation Credit Issues
3. Preview of eSDS Fiscal Year View Changes (Available by October)
-- View a complete fiscal year for each appointment
-- View prior fiscal years (starting with FY07)
-- Enhanced “View Dollar” features

3. Update on SRS Vacation Credit Issues
This is an update on the technical issue we have had with distribution of SRS vacation credits in the past several months. To hear more, join us at the Brown Bag Lunch on September 12.

The payroll system has not been handling retroactivity for SRS vacation credits properly in the situation when a salary distribution was changed after a vacation credit was posted. Salaries were being moved, but the related credits were not. In April and May, Payroll corrected many of these problems. However in June and July, vacation credits that had been correctly moved in previous months were moved again, causing the correction to double or triple.

The IS&T project team is working with Payroll to rectify this problem as soon as we can, with a target date of September 27, 2007. We are trying to solve this problem without doing journal vouchers, so the corrections appear on your DACCA to create an easy audit trail.

In the meantime, if a cost object is closing and you need to have the credits adjusted, please email exemptvacation@mit.edu. A journal voucher will have to be done to make this correction.

We want to thank the community for timely review of DACCAs and reporting the problem with vacation credits. Please continue to keep us posted concerning issues that you see. If you have any additional questions please contact Leslie Wright, lesliem@mit.edu or cawatson@mit.edu.

Based on these actions, you should be able to certify the 4th Quarter DACCAs because changes will be made to correct the errors.

4. Mark Your Calendars for Procurement and Travel Vendor Fairs
September is the month for the annual Procurement and Travel Vendor Fairs, where community members who purchase goods and services or make travel arrangements have an opportunity to meet staff from Procurement or Travel, ask questions of MIT internal providers or partner vendors, sample refreshments, and generally find out what’s new in these areas.

The Procurement Vendor Fair will be held Thursday, September 13, 2007 – rain or shine – from 9:00am – 2:00pm outside under the tent in McDermott Court – outside buildings 54 and 18. There will be free samples and refreshments at this popular event. Don’t forget: you can also pick up your new Procurement Card at the Procurement Fair – be sure to bring a photo ID.

The Ninth Annual Travel Vendor Fair will be held Tuesday, September 25, 2007 in Lobby 13 from 10:00am - 2:00pm. Invitations will go out to all faculty, administrative staff and support staff during the week of September 17, 2007. Individuals who travel on MIT business or are responsible for making travel arrangements will find this event informative.

5. How to Get Your New Procurement Card
MIT procurement cards will expire on at the end of September, so please pick up your new card before then. For your convenience, we are distributing the new cards several ways:

• At the Procurement Vendor Fair: Thursday, September 13, 9am – 2pm. There will be a booth at the Procurement Vendor Fair and staff to check your picture ID and give you your new card.

• In First Floor Lobby of NE49: Due to the large number of cards to be distributed, we ask that you pick up your card on the date that corresponds to the first initial of your last name.Letters A - M: Monday September 17 - Wednesday September 19 - (10am – 2pm)

  Letters N - Z: Thursday and Friday September 20 & 21 & Monday September 24 - (10am – 2pm)

• From Fourth Floor of NE49: Tuesday September 25 - Friday September 28 from 10am – 2pm.

Please note no card will be given out without a valid picture ID, either your MIT ID or a driver's license. If you need to pick up cards for members of your department, you will need their MIT ID. You do not need to return expired cards to Procurement. Once you obtain your new card, it is your responsibility to destroy the old card. If you have questions regarding the card distribution, please email procard@mit.edu.

6. Payroll User Documentation for Students, Employees, and Administrators
With many new students and employees on campus, this is a good time to highlight where to find payroll user documentation for students, employees, and administrators.

Short, simple tutorials and quickcards on how to submit and approve timesheets, how to read your paystub, eSDS and eDACCA, etc. may be found at: https://userdocs.mit.edu/hrp-resources/index.html. At the suggestion of a community member, we have added a link on the CAO Payroll home page to make this useful documentation easier to find.

7. Business Tip of the Month: Payroll Tax Calculation for Hourly Students with Late Timesheets
With new students working at hourly jobs on campus, September is also an opportune time to explain how taxes are calculated on an hourly student’s (or weekly employee’s) weekly gross pay.

When a student (or employee) submits late time sheets that are all paid in the same week, taxes are calculated on the total gross, so the taxes withheld that week may be much higher than the individual expects. Taxes are withheld based on when a payment is made, not when the money is earned. Timely submission and approval of time sheets will alleviate this issue, so please encourage your hourly students to submit their hours worked promptly at the end of the week.

8. Where to Find the Payroll Monthly Schedule
The payroll schedule, which includes time sheet deadlines and other monthly payroll deadlines such as eSDS cutoff dates, is available on the Controller’s Office web site at

http://controllers.mit.edu/calendar_schedules/schedules/monthly_payroll_closing

This schedule is updated monthly.

9. Update on Implementation of Reduced EB Rate
As you may already know, salaries for part-time employees and visitors not fully eligible for benefits will receive an EB rate of 8% beginning in July 2007. Part of the implementation is fully automated (most visitors, and all non-exempt salaries) and began in July.

The other part of the implementation is more manual: for a few visitors and part-time exempt staff, the salaries are charged to the full EB G/L account, and moved (trailing one month) to the reduced EB G/L account by journal entry. This was done for the first time in August (for July). These salaries are being moved in aggregate for reasons of confidentiality. Payroll can provide the detail of names and amounts behind these journal entries – DLC staff who need that information should contact payroll@mit.edu for a list.

10. Contact Information – When You Need Help