OMES Central Accounting and Reporting launched the Crash Course With CAR training series a few months ago, and we appreciate your attendance and participation! If you missed any sessions, need a quick refresher or have new team members who require training, you can access all recorded sessions either in Workday@OK by searching "Crash Course With CAR" or online by selecting the links below.

OST will conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for the new financial system Feb. 2-March 6. We strongly encourage agency users to explore the new system and participate in this testing phase. 

To support this process, OST will host four training sessions to demonstrate the system's new functionality, workflows and reports. Each session will include time for questions. Agendas and training materials will be shared closer to the webinar dates.

Training dates (12:30-4:30 p.m.)

• Feb. 6
• Feb. 12
• Feb. 26
• March 5

Note: Access to the platform will be available after the Feb. 6 training.

Please watch for upcoming communications from OST. Prompt responses will help ensure a smooth UAT and transition. Topics will include:

• Review and update users for Secure Folders (MoveIT) – for sending and receiving files.
• Review and update users for Remote Check Printing – replacing Bottomline WebSeries; files accessed via MoveIT.
• Review and update users for Image Centre – replacing Image Retrieval for viewing cleared agency checks.
• Review and update users for Payment Hub – similar to PAGY access.
• Procedures to access Secure Folders (MoveIT).
• UAT training materials and test cases.
• Communication channel for reporting UAT results.

To stay informed, please update your contact preferences by selecting the button below, then registering for the Agency Contacts - Banking topic.

Thank you for your continued partnership as we modernize our financial systems for the State of Oklahoma.

Subscribe to OST updates

The Office of Management and Enterprise Services is upgrading their secure file transfer process, which may impact file transfers between agencies and PeopleSoft Financials. The new platform, MOVEit, is faster and more secure.

Your agency is impacted if you use any of the following processes:

• Vouchers from remote.
• 747 upload.
• Deposit upload.
• Nightly vendor upload (higher ed process).

  Your agency is not impacted if you only use the following processes:

• Manual entry into PeopleSoft accounts payable.
• Workday@OK payroll processing.

If you are impacted by this new process:

Your agency likely currently uses blackmesa.ok.gov to load files; your daily routine will remain largely the same.

• No new software: Send files directly through your browser without specialized programs.
• Same permissions: You will still use OMES Form 90 to request access.
• Consistent folders: Your files will transfer to the same folders and destinations as before.

What's next?

OMES is rolling this out in stages through 2026 to ensure a smooth transition, allowing several agencies to test the new system and provide feedback before statewide implementation. Specific dates and details will be shared in upcoming communications.

For additional questions or concerns, please email Rachel Parks.

Agencies should review and ensure employees have a valid federal income tax withholding exemption election on file for 2026. The current exemption expires on Feb. 17, and employees must enter a new tax election to continue exemptions for 2026. If you receive an exempt W-4 after Feb. 17, do not process a tax refund to the employee or submit one to OMES Central Payroll for processing. The W-4 will take effect on the next pay cycle; it is not retroactive to the beginning of the year.

Teams can run the PY/Payroll Employee Federal Withholding Elections report in Workday@OK to identify employees in the agency who claim exempt. When running the report, use the current date as the Effective as of Date and enter the Company. This will provide a list of all agency employees claiming exempt from federal income tax withholding. Filter on the Exempt column and review the Last Updated column date. If prior to the completion of the last payroll that paid in 2025, the employees will need to be notified to update their tax election. If employees do not update their tax election by Feb. 17, they must be changed back to the last valid W-4 on file prior to the exemption or if none on file, set the marital status to Single with no other entries.

Some states require employees to renew their exemption annually. Oklahoma currently does not require employees to renew their exemption annually. Agency personnel must be familiar with the W-4 requirements for states in which they have employees. For agencies with employees in other states, you can use a report in Workday@OK to find employees claiming exemption from state income tax withholding.

RPT00525 - Employee State Tax Elections – This custom report can identify employees claiming exemption from state withholding. Enter the specific company and the current date as the effective date. Once the results populate, filter on the Work State column to remove OK, then filter on the Exempt column as ‘Yes’ to find employees in other states currently claiming exempt. The Effective Date on the report should be reviewed, and if prior to the completion of the last payroll that paid in 2025, the employees will need to be notified to update their tax election.

If employees do not update their tax election by the date specified by the state, they must be changed back to the last valid W-4 on file before the exemption, or if none is on file, set the marital status to Single with no other entries. Again, agency personnel must be familiar with the W-4 requirements for states in which they have employees and adhere to those requirements.

With employees working remotely outside of Oklahoma, the state, as the employer, is required to withhold and submit income taxes to that state and report unemployment and other wages/taxes, as applicable. If an agency has employees working outside of Oklahoma, they must update the employee's work location to the state where the employee is physically working. To ensure proper income tax and unemployment withholding/reporting, the employee's tax elections must be current and accurate.

Please help communicate these requirements to agency HR recruiting and onboarding personnel, as many tasks are performed or initiated by these teams. Although OMES Central Payroll processes the actual payments and reports to the other states, agency personnel must be familiar with the requirements for any state in which employees are hired. Contact OMES Central Payroll with any questions concerning state agency employees working outside of Oklahoma.

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 should understand the withholding and reporting requirements for each state where employees are working.

NOTE: The IRS has determined that 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.

Repayments from employees made in the current year (2026) that are for overpayments of wages in a prior year (2025 or earlier) must be repaid at the gross overpayment amount in accordance with IRS regulations. Agencies must complete and send a Form W-2c to OMES Central Payroll. Only Social Security and Medicare wages and taxes are corrected on the W-2c.

Do not correct federal or state taxable wages or income taxes. The employee received and had use of the funds during the year of overpayment, and as such, the amounts are taxable for federal and state purposes. The employee may be able to consider such repayments on their current year (2025) income tax return. Please advise the employee to speak to a tax accountant.

Additional instructions for Form W-2c are available on the IRS website. For assistance, contact Jean Hayes at 405-522-6300 or email Payroll Reporting.

When an employee chooses to reimburse an overpayment of salary or wages with annual leave, the amount of annual leave reduced should equal the gross amount of the overpayment.

If an employee reimburses an overpayment with terminal leave, an OMES Form 94P must be submitted to correct the retirement amounts reported on the check which included the overpayment. Terminal leave is not included in retirement wage calculations; therefore, a payroll correction is required. For assistance, contact Jean Hayes at 405-522-6300 or email Payroll Reporting.

OMES has created an automation process for timesheet entry and approval notifications to employees and managers. The automation replaces manual processes and emails for contacting employees and managers when time is not entered, submitted or approved.

The automation will send three reminder emails for the prior week’s timesheet entry every four hours from noon on Mondays to noon on Wednesdays. Once an employee’s time has been entered, submitted or approved, they will be removed from additional emails. Agency payroll personnel will also receive the emails so they can monitor the progress and determine action to take after the last reminder is sent.

In addition, reports are generated listing entries that were completed and how many notifications were sent before the entries were completed. Reports are generated daily, monthly, quarterly and annually and can be sent to agency leadership for review and trend analysis.

Several agencies have implemented the automation and have seen a significant increase in the timeliness of employees and managers entering, submitting and approving time. This has allowed payroll teams to prioritize payroll processing and other tasks and responsibilities.

Any agency interested in automation can submit a service ticket requesting information on the timesheet entry and approval reminder automation. An automation team member will contact you to discuss the process and implementation.

40 O.S. § 165.3a allows employers to provide employees the option of designating a beneficiary for wages and benefits payable upon an employee’s death. The State of Oklahoma, as an employer, offers this to all state employees. Providing this option to employees relieves stress and anxiety for family members and provides agencies with clear guidance on who should receive final wage payments.

This statute does not include any longevity payment that may be due as of the date of death of an employee. 74 O.S. § 840-2.18, subsection H.2, authorizes any longevity payment to be paid to the decedent’s surviving spouse, or if there is no surviving spouse, to the decedent’s estate.

Employees can complete the designation process in Workday@OK by following these steps:

1. Open the Menu and navigate to Organization > Request.
2. Select Create Request.
3. In the pop-up window, use the Request Type drop-down menu to select All.
4. Choose Outstanding Wage Beneficiary Designation Form and select OK.
5. Complete, sign and submit the form. 

Agency report

Agency HR and Payroll staff can run RPT00581 - Worker Outstanding Wage Beneficiary Forms to audit outstanding wage beneficiary forms in the system. Employees may submit forms through onboarding or the request process and may show on the report with both. Please ensure you are using the most recent form based on the signature date.

The OMES Form PWC should only be used when an employee is not entitled, in part or whole, to the funds. All PWC forms OMES Central Payroll receives will initiate the process to retrieve the funds, if direct deposit, and cancel the warrant in the payroll system. Agencies must identify payroll errors and process the form immediately upon discovery.

Paper warrant cancellations: Email Form PWC to Payroll Reporting. Scan the original warrant (marked void) and attach it to the email. If physically sending the paper warrant and form, the original warrant must be marked “Void” and attached to the completed Form PWC and sent to OMES Central Payroll, located in the Will Rogers Building, 2401 N. Lincoln Blvd., Ste. 302-3. These requests cannot be processed by fax.

Direct deposit cancellations: Email Form PWC to Payroll Reporting. The document must be password-protected, and the password should be included in a separate email or sent via another secure method. To ensure direct deposit funds are returned, the PWC request must be received by noon three business days before the effective pay date. Any request for cancellation of direct deposits after that cutoff will be subject to recall or reversal procedures that are subject to denial by the employee’s bank. An employee must be notified in writing of a reversing entry and its reason no later than the effective date of the reversing entry. Please notify the employee no later than the day the OMES Form PWC is submitted for processing.

Agencies can modify the statement below to inform employee(s) of the pending reversal:

“A payroll item will be posted in error to your bank account on MM/DD/YYYY. A reversal has been issued and will post to your account to pull these funds back to the state. Please keep the full amount of this deposit in your account. If the state cannot retrieve the full amount of the deposit, action will be taken in accordance with applicable procedures to retrieve the funds from you.”

Once the funds have been returned to the state, OMES will process a cancellation in the payroll system, which returns the funds to the agency. If the funds cannot be recovered from the bank, the agency is responsible for recovering the funds from the employee. Please refer to 74 O.S. § 840-2.19 (D) for proper procedures for recovering overpayments, if needed. The agency should submit OMES Form 94P for processing if the employee reimburses the funds through a miscellaneous payroll deduction or cash.

PWC forms received for direct deposit items that are more than four business days past the effective date will not be processed pursuant to NACHA rules. If agencies encounter erroneous entries more than four business days past the effective date, please contact OMES Central Payroll or the Office of the State Treasurer (OST) for consultation on options for recovering the funds.

All compensation to employees and former employees, regardless of the form, constitutes wages unless specifically excluded by the Internal Revenue Code. Examples include stipends, allowances, employee lawsuits and settlements, gifts, prizes, awards and fringe benefits. Before compensation is given to employees or former employees, agencies must determine the correct method of payment (payroll vs. accounts payable) and reporting required (W-2, 1099 or none). In an audit, the IRS will focus on the reason for the payment. 

Public school teacher payments

The IRS has determined that Oklahoma public school teachers receiving payments from a state agency are to be treated as employees of the state. As such, any payments to teachers must be evaluated to determine if the payments should be considered wages. If so, the amounts must be paid through the payroll system, not accounts payable, to be reported on Form W-2 by the paying agency. 

Attorney fees

Attorney fees paid on a settlement are reportable to the plaintiff if the settlement is a reportable settlement. For attorney fees paid through accounts payable, the amount must be reported to payrollreporting@omes.ok.gov. The attorney will automatically receive a 1099-MISC reporting the amount in Box 10 on a 1099-MISC if the correct account code is used on the voucher payment. The plaintiff reporting requires a manual entry and must be reported to OMES. 

If a payment settles a lawsuit, the auditor will focus on the basis of the lawsuit. Agency payroll, finance, human resources and legal departments should obtain the knowledge needed to accurately process compensation to employees or former employees. Agencies are responsible for complying with IRS requirements for withholding and reporting. 

If the plaintiff is a current or former employee and the settlement or judgment payment is income that constitutes wages, the payment is reportable as compensation and included on the Form W-2 and all applicable taxes and deductions must be withheld. For any payment that is income but doesn’t constitute wages, the payment will be subject to reporting on Form 1099-MISC to the plaintiff in Box 3, Other Income.  

If an agency has a settlement agreement that requires the payment be processed through accounts payable instead of the payroll system to expedite processing and the payment is reportable as compensation, then applicable federal, state and FICA taxes must be remitted to OMES on the same day the settlement to the individual is processed. If taxes are not withheld on the payment, the agency must gross up the amount and pay both the employee and employer share of taxes. The employee’s record will be updated for year-end reporting. If additional guidance is needed, please email payrollreporting@omes.ok.gov. 

Institutions are required to submit payroll documents by 3 p.m. five business days prior to the actual pay date. The deadline protects the agency and the employee, allows for OMES certification, and provides sufficient turnaround time to process the payment. This also allows for time to resolve unknown contingencies or system issues that may occur.

PFT Reversal files should be submitted timely after notification from OMES Transaction Processing that payroll funds have been successfully retrieved from an employee’s bank or when submitting a paper payroll warrant for cancelation on the MWC form. Failure to submit a file timely will result in the warrant not being canceled and the agency not receiving the funds back in the 789 class fund until a file is received.

When submitting the Validate PFT Funding report for a PFT Reversal file, please include a brief description of the reason for the PFT Reversal. For example, "PFT Reversal file for EWC Warrant 200000099" or "PFT Reversal file for year-end adjustments." This will assist us in identifying the PFT Reversal and notifying others if any EWC/MWC forms are being held waiting on a file.

The PFT Reversal process is also used to process amounts in or out of the 789 fund based on business needs. This includes:

• Processing taxes which were not processed through the normal 500Misc/PFT process but must be submitted through the ACES system.
• Corrections necessary for overpayment refunds. 
• Correction of items improperly reported or omitted from the original PFT submitted.

Additional information on processing PFT Reversal files is available on the OMES website.

When OMES processes an institution’s payrolls, the warrants are listed on the AP Check Register the following day. Payroll personnel should verify with finance personnel that the payroll is listed on the report to ensure the payroll has been processed.

If an expected payroll is not listed on the register, please email payrolltransprocess@omes.ok.gov.

A summary report is available for each agency to run for 1099-MISC & 1099-NEC forms that have been produced during the 2025 reporting year. The report can be found in PeopleSoft Financials at: Suppliers>OCP 1099 Processes>Agency 1099 Report. Enter the Reporting Year 2025 for the year, your Agency in the From line and Business Unit in the To line.

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

All 1099 corrections for CY 2025 or previous years must be submitted to OMES as soon as possible. OMES will report the correction to the IRS. This includes payments reported on 1099NEC, 1099MISC, 1099INT, 1099DIV, 1099B, 1099F and 1099G. This also includes any 1099 that was not originally produced and now must be issued to the supplier. If you have any 1099s returned by the supplier that require changes, submit those changes to OMES, and include the original 1099 and any documentation supporting the change.

Please contact Alicia Reel at 405-522-1099 or alicia.reel@omes.ok.gov with any questions.

NOTE: This does not apply to Higher Ed Institutions, which will process their own 1099 reporting.

Ongoing series of 30-minute virtual training sessions for state finance personnel:​

• Mar. 11: Payroll Funding Corrections​.
• Apr. 16: Encumbrance Corrections.

Secure Act 2.0, Death Payments & Final Pay: What Payroll Professionals Must Get Right

When: Friday, Feb. 20, from 8 a.m.-noon

Where: Mustang Recreation Center: 1202 N. Mustang Rd., Mustang, OK, 73064

Enrollment: Register on the Oklahoma Payroll Org website. 

Ethical Dilemmas with Artificial Intelligence

When: Friday, Feb. 27, from Noon-2:00 p.m.

Where: Virtual Only

Enrollment: Free to AGA members, $25 to non members

Register here

Calculating Paychecks

Calculating Paychecks provides a comprehensive overview of the rules, regulations, and calculation methods essential to accurate payments. Better understand minimum wage requirements, overtime computations, federal and state tax withholding, benefits-related adjustments, and the proper handling of wage deductions and garnishments. Each course is presented in four segments which cannot be purchased separately.

March course - four sessions (noon-1:30 p.m.)

• March 12
• March 13
• March 19
• March 20

September course - four sessions (noon-1:30 p.m.)

• Sept. 3
• Sept. 4
• Sept. 10
• Sept. 11

All classes are interactive virtual style. To learn more and register, visit the PayrollOrg website.

Multiple webinars and on-demand videos are available. Please visit the E-Verify website for this month’s training opportunities.

Multiple webinars are available this year. Please visit the TRS website for available training opportunities.