ODOT will cut over to PeopleSoft Financials from Friday, March 21, to Sunday, March 23, with a go-live on Monday, March 24.

In preparation for this cutover, OMES will place a code freeze in the PeopleSoft production system on any modification that requires application development or design changes. The freeze will go into effect Wednesday, March 12. Anyone who makes a submission via ServiceNow during this time will be notified of this code freeze; however, if deemed an emergency, submissions for review can be made by OMES Finance Center of Excellence, OMES IS or OMES Purchasing with proper justification.

If you have any questions regarding the freeze, contact Amy Miller, director of PeopleSoft Financials.

This is a reminder for state agencies to provide advance notice to the state treasurer of all disbursements that could negatively impact state cash flow requirements. For notice purposes, daily total submissions for disbursement equal to or in excess of $50 million shall be deemed to have the potential to negatively impact state cash flow. Notice should be provided to treasuryservices@treasurer.ok.gov and Lisa Murray. While OST will do everything possible to handle all submissions, failure to provide timely notice may result in delayed payments. 

Agencies may receive lender or other creditor wage assignments for employees and should not be entering these in Workday@OK. Wage assignments are employee voluntary deduction agreements with entities that are not part of the Voluntary Payroll Deduction program. Basically, a wage assignment is an employee’s way to ask the employer to pay their bills/debts, or for a creditor or third party to collect a debt outside the court system. A wage assignment is not a legal court order to be honored by an employer. 62 O.S. § 34.70 (Payroll Deductions) provides the voluntary payroll deductions authorized to be withheld from an employee’s payroll.

Additionally, we have seen an increase in wage assignments for state employees that do not have the correct employer named on the assignment or for which the employee doesn’t owe the amount. If agencies receive a wage assignment, please notify the employee and let them know that it will not be processed for payroll withholding.  

On the other hand, wage garnishments are involuntary, go through the court system and have a judge’s signature. Wage garnishments must be honored, answered and entered in a timely manner to process the withholding through payroll.

Note: Child or spousal support orders may also be referred to as “income assignments” but are valid, legal orders that must be entered and processed for withholding. 

Agencies are reminded to update the Workday@OK information for employees at the end of their employment by inputting their personal email address as their User Name. The employee will then receive an email with a password to use for the Non-Active Employee Sign-In. If the user does not receive the email with credentials, they can contact the OMES Service Desk for a password reset. Please provide terminated/retired employees with the MFA for Terminated Employees user guide.

This information is extremely important, as it allows users to log in and retrieve their final pay stubs, W-2 forms and 1095-C forms. Former employees who selected electronic only for their tax documents and do not have access to Workday@OK after updating with the personal email address should be referred to the agency’s security partner or the OMES Service Desk. As an alternative, the last agency the individual worked at has access to and can print and provide a paper copy of the documents.

There are report worklets in Workday@OK that list custom reports related to a specific module. Search for the specific module and report (e.g., payroll reports, HCM reports). In addition to the worklets, users can see all reports they have access to by going from the Menu to Reports, then View Available Reports and Tasks. You can then scroll through the list or filter to find reports by entering a specific value (word).  

All employees must have a UI record. Most employees will be Exempt = NO. Only a few employees qualify to be exempt (Yes), such as elected officials and judges. The UI election will record unemployment wages only; it will not affect the agency’s setup as a covered (1%) or reimbursing (0%) agency. If your agency has any new hires or rehires, please be sure the UI election is added. In the Work State field, enter the state where the employee is physically working.  

RPT00098 – Tax Filing Data should be run by agency payroll personnel prior to each payroll to identify employees without a UI tax election. On this report, the federal tax election information is listed first, followed by the state tax election. The last five fields on the report list the current UI election. The Employee Jurisdiction field should have a state entered (in most cases, this will be Oklahoma). If no state is listed, there will be no UI election entered. This report will also show the employee’s UI exempt status (No or Yes).

Note: If you mark the box on the UI record, this will make the employee exempt. Only mark the box if you have verified this is the correct setup for the employee. If any employee is missing data, you must go back to Tax Elections and add the appropriate information.   

Employees and agencies have access to update an employee's Social Security number (national ID) in Workday@OK. Once an update is made, the task comes to OMES Central Payroll to verify the change. We use the Social Security Administration’s Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS) to verify that the name and SSN match. If the name and SSN match the information on the SSNVS, we will approve the change. If the name and SSN do not match, we will deny the change.  

If an agency finds an employee is listed with the same SSN under two or more different employee IDs, please contact the OMES Service Desk. Employees with multiple employee IDs must be reviewed and, if necessary, have their information combined in one correct record.

Agencies with employees working outside of Oklahoma should be aware that other states may have implemented a Paid Family Medical Leave plan or other state plan as required by their laws. Such a plan may involve the withholding of amounts in the form of an employee withholding, an employer withholding or a combination of both. If such amounts are included in the payroll results, do not adjust or refund the withholdings. We are required to withhold, remit and report in accordance with state laws. Agencies need to understand the withholding and reporting requirements for each state where employees are working.

Note: The IRS has determined any employee amount due that is not withheld from an employee but is paid by the employer is considered taxable income to the employee and must be included on their W-2. As an employer, the State of Oklahoma shall not pay an employee's share of required state tax or other withholdings on their behalf. All employee amounts must be withheld from their payroll.

State agencies must complete Form DER, Deceased Employee Reporting, when an employee has passed away and payments are made after the date of death. The form is on the OMES HCM Human Resources Payroll Forms page. Complete all forms and send to OMES Central Payroll as soon as possible after all payments have been processed. Submission of this form will ensure year-end reporting is correct.

Amounts paid in the year of death are reported on the W-2 for Social Security and Medicare only. The amount that would have been reported as federal and state wages is required to be reported on a 1099-MISC to the individual(s) who received the payment(s). Payments made in the year after the date of death are not subject to Social Security and Medicare and are not reported on the W-2. The amount that would have been reported as federal and state wages is reportable on a 1099-MISC to the individual(s) who received the payment(s).

The Workday@OK Deceased Payroll Process guide will assist you in processing payments after the date of death.

Notes:

• Remember to put the term reason as due to death: Terminate Employee > Involuntary > Death.
• Due to the timing of the deposit and date of death, banks may return direct deposits for deceased customers. The return of an item will cause a delay to the beneficiary receiving the payment.
• To assist recipients in tax planning, notify them that they will be issued a 1099-MISC form at year-end, and that the amounts will be reported to the IRS and OTC.

Best practice is that a replacement payroll warrant should not be processed until the incorrect warrant has been reversed in Workday@OK. Processing another payroll before the requested reversal is complete may cause balance issues for Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment wages and taxes.

If an agency chooses to run a payroll before the reversal is complete, the agency is responsible for verifying that the Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment wages and taxes are correct on the replacement payroll warrant. The wages and taxes should be manually calculated as if the reversal had been completed and verified against the system-calculated amounts to mitigate any wage and tax balance discrepancies that may occur after the reversal is completed. If amounts are found to be different, contact the OMES Service Desk and a team member will assist you.

When submitting the payroll claim document, be sure to include the period begin and end dates on the paperwork for the payment being issued. This helps to ensure during review and audit that agency payrolls have been submitted timely. Additionally, having the period correctly entered allows us to mark the agency’s payroll as received and reach out if we have not received an expected payroll. 

Transparency (OpenBooks) file uploads will soon be transitioning from PeopleSoft (PS) HCM to PS Financials. The file layout and requirements will remain the same, but the files will be loaded in Financials instead of the HCM system.

Stay tuned for additional updates. We are currently developing the process and will provide updates as the project progresses. 

Beginning May 1, higher education employees with access to the state’s PeopleSoft HCM system will have the following accesses removed:

• Payroll HE Payroll View Only.
• Miscellaneous.

The access is no longer needed since the statute of limitations has passed for the years these institutions were on the state’s system. The access removal date provides the agency time to run any reports they feel may be needed in the future. As a reminder, the institution's record is the system of record since not all information was provided on the file loads to process the payrolls. The only access remaining will be the Alpha List Load. 

All 1099 corrections for CY 2024 or previous years must be submitted to OMES as soon as possible. OMES will report any corrections to the IRS. This includes payments reported on 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-B, 1099-F and 1099-G forms. This also includes any 1099 that was not originally produced and now must be issued to the vendor. If you have any 1099s that are returned by the vendor requiring changes, please submit those changes to OMES.

Please note the following procedures pursuant to such changes to 1099 documents:

• For missing addresses, address changes, FEIN/SSN changes or amount changes to the 1099 document only, email a copy of an updated W-9 or the appropriate documentation explaining the nature of the transaction changes to Alicia Reel.
• For any changes to the permanent vendor file, submit an updated W-9 to Central Purchasing – Support using the Central Purchasing ServiceNow Catalog or by submitting your request to servicedesk@omes.ok.gov. Include the updated W-9 with your request.

If you have any questions, contact Alicia Reel at 405-522-1099 or alicia.reel@omes.ok.gov.

Note: This does not apply to higher education institutions, which will process their own 1099 reporting.