What is Payroll Suspense?

Officer and Support Staff compensation is paid via the PeopleSoft HR/Payroll system. In order to account for all salary and fringe expense, Columbia uses a Labor Distribution System (LDS). When an employee is paid, the salary is passed from PeopleSoft to LDS. LDS must have a matching employee account profile for each earnings code in order to accurately pass the expense to the Financial Accounting System (FAS). If no match is found, the salary and fringe expense defaults to a departmental suspense account.

It is the responsibility of each department to make sure that it’s Departmental Payroll Suspense Account (usually shown as 2-XXX95 where XXX represents the department code) is cleared of all charges on a monthly basis.  The Payroll Department issues a monthly report of suspense by department to senior management.

How to prevent Payroll Suspense

The account profile must be established in LDS prior to the actual payment via WebSAF, paper SAF or Time Entry (ZT). For most transactions, the online tool, WebSAF, should be used for both the allocation of base salary (RG) and most Add-Comp payments. When WebSAF can not be used, a paper SAF (Salary Action Form) should be submitted to Payroll Accounting. For casual employees the FFE Time Entry module should be used. In all cases, the following fields in LDS must match payroll:

• SSN with check digit and/or Emplid
• Earn Code
• Start Date
• End Date
• FAS Account
• FAS Sub code
• Percentage Allocation (must total to 100%)
• Effort Reporting if necessary

Common Causes of Payroll Suspense and Solutions

• A WebSAF or paper SAF has not been submitted for the employee
  • Process a form via WebSAF or paper SAF in necessary
• No FAS account was listed on the Time Entry for a casual employee
  • PAT (Payroll Account Transfer) form must be used to clear
  • Highlight accounting information on paper Time Entry so that it will be pick up by data processing
• The End Date on the current SAF has expired for any or all of the FAS accounts.
  • Run WebSAF Report – Suspense Warning for SAFs that will expire during current or future month
  • If profiles expired in May and were for current/continuing employees the payments will/have fallen into suspense
  • If employment continues, a new WebSAF must be submitted to cover period starting where the last SAF left off
• The period (Distribution Start Date to End Date) on the SAF covers the dates the employee worked instead of the period during which the employee was paid
  • Resubmit a WebSAF with start and end date of payment period.
• The SAF was set up with an End Date which is AFTER the FAS account end date
  • Request must be made to Restricted funds to unfreeze the FAS account
• The project account has not been established because the award documentation hasn’t been received
  • Please work with the Office of Grants and Contracts to set up an account under a Guarantee Letter