Cost Transfers

A payroll redistribution is used to correct an inaccuracy in payroll accounting. These are also known as cost transfers (specific to payroll).

Payroll redistributions may be used to correct the account number, position number, close date or earnings code type of a payroll expense.  Payroll Redistributions are often the result of monthly account reconciliations.

Per policy FIN 203, account reconciliation is expected to take place on a monthly basis, to ensure timely correction of any accounting mistakes.

Payroll expenses may be reviewed and verified by running the HR Expenditures query in myReports.  These reports should be accessed on a monthly basis to determine that pay amounts and accounting sources are correct for employees in your department, and any corrections are made in a timely fashion.

In the Human Resource folder, there are two canned query options called HR Expenditures by Account or HR Expenditures by Employee.  Both queries offer three query options:

• Query by Salaries, Wages and ERE– (this query will provide you a listing of payroll and employee related expenses for a specific account)
• Query by Salary and Wages – (this query will provide you a listing of payroll expenses for a specified account)
• Query by ERE – (this query will provide you a listing of employee related expenses for a specified account)

Information on using myReports is at http://www.asu.edu/it/eds/welcome.html.

Cost transfers related to either salary, wages and related ERE, or non-payroll expenses, when involving sponsored project accounts, must comply with ASU’s Cost Transfers on Sponsored Projects policy found in RSP 506-02 http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/rsp/rsp506-02.html.  This policy indicates that cost transfers increasing a sponsored project’s expenditures should be requested within 90 days after the month in which the cost was originally accepted in the university’s financial accounting system. No time limit exists for removing inappropriate expenditures from a federally sponsored account. If an inappropriate expenditure is discovered on a federal project it must be removed regardless of a time limit.

A shorter cost transfer request period is necessary near the project end date. Final financial reports are typically due to sponsors 30 to 90 days after the project end date. This requires that all cost transfers must be completed no later than 60 days after the project terminates (unless the final financial report is due in less than 90 days following project termination requiring an earlier fiscal closeout of the project). This earlier cutoff is necessary to promptly charge the project and not delay submission of the financial report. Transfer requests on terminated projects may not be approved and will be reviewed by ORSPA on a case-by-case basis. 

Your Grant & Contract Officer will be able to answer questions relating to a project end date and/or final invoice/report submission required by the project.

Payroll redistributions are expected to be handled by each department, and are to be entered in our payroll system of record, Peoplesoft.

You must attend training to be granted the ASU_HR_PM Redistribution role in Peoplesoft, also known as the FSO Redistribution role. Courses are offered by Financial Services personnel, and you can register on the ASU Course Catalog Search page. Search for courses titled "Payroll Redistribution" and then click on the "Search" button.

No. However, account signer approval is required when payroll moves ONTO a sponsored account. If the person who submits the payroll redistribution is not an authorized signer on the account the charge is being transferred to, then all authorized signers on the account will be notified via email that the transaction requires approval. Only one authorized signer approval is required to process the payroll redistribution.

If transferring onto a sponsored project, make sure:

• The project is still open and the sponsor has not received their final invoice. Your GCA can assist you with this matter if you are unsure of the status of the project account.
• The account is not in deficit and there is available budget for the transactions you are moving onto the account. If your unit is awaiting additional budget, please hold off on submitting your transactions
• You have confirmation that the person performed work on the project, and have this information for your justifications.

Payroll redistributions should be submitted through PeopleSoft which can be accessed through myASU.

• Log on to myASU at www.asu.edu/myasu
• In the Left hand menu labeled Quick links, click HRSA (Peoplesoft). This will open a new window to the Peoplesoft logon screen.
• Logon to Peoplesoft HRIS and follow this menu navigation:

• ASU Customizations
• ASU HCM Custom
• ASU Position Management
• Create Redistribution Entry

Input your search criteria (Fiscal Year Empl ID, ASU Acct, etc…) and click 'Search' to pull up the transaction you want to redistribute.

• Once you have selected a transaction to redistribute you will be brought to a data entry screen for the “From” side of the transactions:
  • Enter answers to ALL of the three questions.
    • Not applicable, n/a, and none are not appropriate answers.
    • It is very important that you provide pertinent and comprehensive answers as to provide a proper audit trail. 
    • Relevant and detailed information will aid in making the approval and entry process quicker and accurate. 
  • Enter the dollar amount you wish to transfer
    • It is not necessary to transfer the entire transaction amount.
    • The amount you enter can be equal to or less than the original transaction.
  • Click the Continue button to move to the next screen.
• Enter information for the “To” side of the transaction
  • You are provided input boxes with defaults which mirror the original transaction. You may change any of the following: Position, Earn Code, Close Date, and Account.
  • Input the dollar amount for this transaction in the Redist Amt box.
  • If you are redistributing to more than one set of codes, click the plus sign at the right-hand side of the line to add a line.
  • Click save when all of the “To” criteria are entered. The Redist amount must net zero before the transaction can be submitted. For instance, if redistributing $500, your offsetting entries must equal -$500.

Yes, and PeopleSoft will require that you enter an answer for each question.  The answer of “not applicable” or “none” is not acceptable when the transaction involves sponsored projects.  If you input this response, your transaction will be rejected to you for edit.

Relevant and detailed information will aid in making the approval and entry process quicker and more accurate.  It is very important that you provide pertinent and comprehensive answers as to provide a proper audit trail.  On sponsored projects, federal and other sponsor regulations require written justification on all payroll redistributions that will document:

1. Reason why payroll expenses are being transferred.
2. What corrective action will be taken to avoid this type of error in the future?
3. Describe why all the costs transferred to new accounts are allowable, allocable, and reasonable charges. Additionally if a sponsored account, describe why costs are appropriate and necessary to performance for the sponsored project

Explanations that merely state that the transfer was made “to correct an error” or “to transfer to correct project” are not sufficient to justify new charges on a sponsored project account.  Transfers from one sponsored project to another sponsored project to reduce cost overruns, to spend unused balances, to avoid restrictions imposed by law or agreement terms, or for other reasons of convenience are strictly prohibited by sponsors. Please do not use the same response for all three questions.  The responses should be relevant to the question to which you are responding. 

For transactions ONTO a sponsored account, the transaction requires account signer approval. If the submitter is an account signer, the transaction skips to ORSPA approval. If the submitter is not the account signer, the transaction will queue for Account Signer Approval, and all Signers will be emailed. Only one signer is required to approve.

Next ORSPA reviews the transaction. ORSPA may return the transaction if the answers to the questions require more detail. Also, if an account is closed or in deficit, there is potential the transaction can be cancelled and the department notified.

Once the transaction is ORSPA approved, it will be loaded to Advantage the next time the GL posting is run. The GL posting should occur within a day or two.

A listing of authorized signers can easily be found on the ‘ORG1’ screen in Advantage.

Oftentimes, the process will take no longer within 2-3 business days. This is dependent on a clean and timely transaction, and signer approval being applied expediently. At year-end there is usually more activity and approvals may take longer than usual.

Once a payroll redistribution has been processed, you can view the approval status in PeopleSoft under ASU Position Management/View Redistribution Entries. In the transaction header are Approval Status, Signer approval, ORSPA approval and GL Post dates. Blank date field indicate that an action has not yet occurred. Approval status of “All Approved” indicates the transaction has passed signer and ORSPA approvals, and a GL post date indicates the transaction has been loaded to Advantage.

Once you have submitted a transaction, the only information you are able to edit are the responses to the questions. If you need to change the accounting information, you will need to withdraw the submitted transactions, and resubmit new transactions.

To edit your responses to the questions:

• Use the “Edit/Resubmit Redist Trans” in ASU Position Management to search the transaction
• Edit the responses. Relevant and detailed information will aid in making the approval and entry process quicker and more accurate.  It is very important that you provide pertinent and comprehensive answers as to provide a proper audit trail. 
• Submit the transaction again

Provided the transaction has not been ORSPA approved, you are able to with draw your transaction as follows:

In PeopleSoft, navigate to the ASU Customizations/ASU HCM Custom/ASU Position Management/ Edit/resubmit Redist Trans. Call up the transaction and click Withdraw button at the bottom of the screen.

Anyone with myReports access can query payroll data for redistributions. In myReports, redistributions are indicated by Source code of “RD”, and there is a column listing the transaction number. All transactions in myReports have been posted to the GL.

In Peoplesoft, those with the FSO Redistribution, HCM Dept Financial Mgr, HCM Dept Position Mgr, and HCM Position view roles can see the screen View Redistribution Entries under the navigation: ASU Customizations/ASU HCM Custom/ASU Position Management/View Redistribution Entries View Redistribution Entries allows you to view positions within to your Peoplesoft department access. Also, be aware that you can view entries that have not posted to the GL yet and are pending. Only transactions with a date listed in GL Post Date populated have been fully processed.