Volume 32, Number 1 | Fiscal Year 2022 |July 19, 2021

• COVID-Related Expenses – Documentation
• Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan – New Submission Form
• HCM System Name Changes
• Payments After Date of Employee Death – Reportable to Recipients
• Payments After Date of Employee Death
• Employee Direct Deposit Verification of Bank Routing Number
• Reminder of Change for Federal Tax Deposit Entries
• PFT Reversal Files for EWC/MWC Forms
• Agency Verification of Payrolls Processed
• 1099 Tax Information Quarterly Report
• Voucher Documentation and Submission
• Required Review of Outstanding Warrants and Mitigation of the Loss of Funds for Stat Cancelled Warrants
• Update of Budget Reference on 340 Fund Entries
• Cash Transfer Requests
• American Payroll Association Monthly Lunch & Learn – OKC Chapter Meeting
• Statewide Financial Policy Training
• Payroll Law
• Form W-4 and Other Payroll Updates
• AGA Webinars

Agencies should continue to use the same COVID coding that you have been using all along to distinguish COVID-related expenditures. This is for your use in case the state approves further reimbursements to state agencies under the CARES Act or the American Rescue Plan.

In administering the Coronavirus Relief Fund, the CARES FORWARD team required proof of purchase to approve reimbursement requests. The auditor's office has asked for additional documentation for proof of receipt of goods. Please retain bills of lading, packing slips or other documentation showing that goods were received for anything related to the pandemic in case a reimbursement may be provided in the future.

Additionally, please be aware that any assets purchased and reimbursed with CRF funds are subject to federal guidelines. If an asset that was purchased and submitted for reimbursement from CRF monies, any monies received from the sale of that asset, could be required to be repaid to the Treasury.

The 529 plan administrator has provided this new TIAA form that must be completed and submitted with the warrant and deduction details. They continue to receive warrants without the deduction details and attempt to reach out by phone to agencies before rejecting the warrants, but this is a time intensive process for them.

This new form will assist them in contacting agencies when proper documentation isn’t received. As a reminder, agencies must manually add each employee’s account number to the Deduction Register 529 Plan page prior to sending it with the warrant.

Payroll and Finance personnel should be working together to ensure the warrant is mailed with both the deduction register listing the employees’ account number and the new TIAA form. Failure to follow these procedures may cause warrants to be rejected and returned to agencies, which will result in employee contributions not posting to their accounts.

An employee’s name should only be changed in the PeopleSoft HCM system after the employee provides an updated Social Security number card. If an employee has a legal name change because of marriage, divorce, court order or other reason, they must apply for a corrected SSN card. Once the new card is received and provided to HR, the employee’s name can be updated in the system.

Changing an employee’s name without verifying against the SSN card will cause mismatches in the year-end W-2 and ACA reporting process. If the name and SSN do not match the Social Security Administration records, the employee’s wages may not be credited to their Social Security account. Additionally, if the name and SSN do not match, the employee may not be reported correctly for ACA purposes, which could result in an IRS letter to the employee for possible lack of health coverage or an IRS letter to the agency for not offering coverage.

To help prevent mismatches, OMES verifies employee name and SSN combinations several times throughout the year through the SSA website. Agencies with mismatched results are notified and are required to provide the necessary changes to ensure year-end reporting is correct. This process helps to ensure accurate reporting and reduces the risk of information reporting penalties.

The IRS requires the amount that would have been reported as federal wages on the W-2 (if not for death) to be reported on 1099-MISC Box 3, Other Income, to the recipient(s) of any amounts paid after the date of death. In some cases, this amount could be significant and result in a change to the recipient’s tax situation for the year. Agencies should let recipients know the amount is taxable to them, a 1099 will be issued at year-end, and that they should talk with their tax accountant for additional guidance or information.

When earnings are payable after the death of an employee, the Payroll Processing for Death of an Employee instructions must be followed to ensure proper processing. For payments to a spouse, dependent, guardian or beneficiary of a deceased employee that are made through accounts payable, the recipient(s) must be set up in the vendor file. Please submit a completed IRS Form W-9  to Vendor Maintenance for payments to be made to a spouse, dependent, guardian or beneficiary of a deceased employee. Requests to add or update an employee Vendor ID made payable to the “Estate of ... ” an employee may continue to be submitted using the OMES Employee Vendor Request Form. All forms should be submitted to Vendor Maintenance at vendor.form@omes.ok.gov. Forms may also be faxed to 405-521-3663, Attn: Vendor File Maintenance.

Note: Remember to update the date of death on the HR Personal Data Record, update Job Data for a termination with the reason code ‘SO4’ (deceased) and terminate the employee’s direct deposit. Banks will return direct deposits for deceased customers. A return of an item will cause a delay to the individual receiving the payment.

Agencies must also complete OMES Form DER, Deceased Employee Reporting, when an employee dies and payments are made after the date of death. The form is on the OMES website under CAR Forms. Complete and email to OMES CAR Central Payroll as soon as possible after all payments have been processed.

Employee bank deposit slips should not be used to get the bank routing/transit number for setting up direct deposit information. A voided check from the employee is the most reliable method. If the employee does not have a voided check or wants to deposit into another type of account, have the employee call the bank directly to get the routing/transit number. A bank routing/transit number should never start with the digit 5. This indicates a branch of the bank and will cause the direct deposit to fail which means it will not leave OST to be paid and additional processing by the agency will be required to pay the employee.

With the change into the new fiscal year, institutions of higher education must include the proper BudRef in the journal entries they are entering. For payrolls that are funded from FY 22 budgets, the corresponding payroll tax deposit entry should include the BudRef of 22.

PFT Reversal files should be submitted timely after notification from Transaction Processing that funds have been successfully retrieved from an employee’s bank or when submitting a paper warrant for cancellation on the MWC form. Failure to submit a file in a timely manner will result in the warrant not being canceled and the agency not receiving the funds back into 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, e.g., "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.

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. This is a good verification that the payroll has been processed. If an expected payroll is not listed on the register, please contact payrolltransprocess@omes.ok.gov.

Please review the following items in this report:

The Name and Tax ID number must match the information on the vendor’s W-9, which designates the name and TIN that the vendor uses to report their taxes to the IRS, Oklahoma Tax Commission and/or secretary of state.

Pay attention to the 1099 flag: Y means the vendor should receive a 1099, and N means the vendor should not receive a 1099. A vendor does not need a 1099 if it is registered as a corporation, nonprofit or government entity (the exception to this is when the payment is for legal or medical services). State employees, in most cases, should have an N 1099 flag. All other non-exempt vendors should have a Y 1099 flag. If there are any questions about a vendor’s 1099 status please request an updated W-9 from the vendor and forward a copy to OMES.

Please note that Address 1 in the vendor file is the vendor’s official address reported to the IRS and the designated address for 1099 reporting. If the vendor’s 1099 flag is N, any new addresses provided will be added as a different location but Address 1 will not change. If Address 1 should be different please request the change by submitting the request on an OMES Vendor/Payee Form.

Review all warrants processed for each vendor to ensure that the correct amount is listed for the proper vendor. (Any warrant corrections will need to be made at the agency level.)

Please send any corrections on this report to OMES by Friday, July 30, 2021. If you have any questions contact Alicia Reel at 405-522-9479 or alicia.reel@omes.ok.gov, or Beth Brox at 405-522-1099 or beth.brox@omes.ok.gov.

Effective Aug. 1, 2021, email approvals will no longer be accepted for the submission of vouchers for payment. Approving Officers will be required to sign the 15As and Batch slips prior to submission to OMES Transaction Processing. Note: This requirement does not affect those on AP Workflow.

Agencies that submit paper vouchers for processing must resume the normal process of sending in the original voucher documentation for payment. Vouchers sent in via email will no longer be accepted. Agencies must keep a copy of the voucher and supporting documentation for the requisite seven years before the destruction of any documents.

OMES Central Accounting and Reporting is responsible for certifying that payments are appropriate and in accordance with statutes. This requires that documentation be sent with vouchers to substantiate claims. In March 2020, when state employees began working from home, CAR initiated temporary procedures to accommodate a fast move to telework. The temporary procedures allowed agencies to submit vouchers without scanning and attaching the supporting documentation or without sending the original paper documentation. Agencies were to retain the documentation to be made available upon request. This documentation is now required to be submitted either through the normal Kofax scanning process or as paper submitted to OMES. Scanning agencies will need to review vouchers submitted for payment since March 2020 and scan any missing voucher documentation. Paper agencies are required to send paper copies of all vouchers paid via email since March 2020 to OMES for storage as the official state record.

Agencies must have a business process in place to review their outstanding warrants every month and take the appropriate action. That action may be to follow up with the vendor on the status of the warrant or make a determination that the warrant should not have been issued. This practice aids in monthly reconciliation and helps catch warrants before the warrant stat cancel date. Once the warrant has stat canceled (also referred to as escheated), the funds are not returned to the agency. The exception is for warrants generated from Agency 700 funds using the Payment Option Account of 7REG with a 7F Pay Group.

The Month End Outstanding Warrants report can be run monthly or more frequently to review all outstanding warrants well before the scheduled stat cancel date. Warrants generally stat cancel after 90 days if they are not cashed. Warrants that have already escheated can be reviewed using the 36 Month Statutory Cancellations report. There are several options to be considered when reviewing the outstanding warrant list.

Warrants that have not stat canceled but are no longer needed or are incorrect must be submitted to Transaction Processing using a Misc Warrant Cancellation form with sufficient time to process the request. A copy of the warrant is required with the submission of the MWC. If the warrant is not in hand, an OST Stop Pay is required and must be submitted with the form MWC. These requests should be submitted when they are discovered to avoid the risk of the warrant escheating before the request can be processed. Remember that this is only if the warrant is not for a valid payment.

If an outstanding warrant is lost or destroyed and needs to be replaced, an OST Stop Pay is required to be submitted with OMES form 20R.

If a warrant has stat canceled and needs to be replaced, a form 20R is required. If the warrant is in hand, please submit the warrant with the form 20R. If the warrant is not in hand, a notary is required.

Caution: The submission of an OST Stop Pay alone does not cancel a warrant, nor does it stop the warrant from escheating. When providing an OST Stop Pay form, the submission should be the form that reflects OST’s approval.

The reports mentioned in this article may be found in PeopleSoft under Accounts Payable>Reports>Payments. The forms may be found on the OMES website under Central Accounting and Reporting>CAR Forms. The cancellation forms should be submitted to the Transaction Processing group email.

With the change into the new fiscal year, agencies that submit files with 340 fund summary transactions must include the proper BudRef in the files they are submitting. For entries that are funded from FY 22 budgets, the journal entry must be updated to post with the BudRef of 22.

Agencies submitting Form 10A to request a cash transfer must include the proper statutory authority. Make sure to update the citation on the form when submitting the request.

Topic: Diversity and Inclusion.
Date: Friday, July 16, 2021.
Time: Noon to 1 p.m. via Zoom.

Visit their website for more information.

The Office of Management and Enterprise Services is again offering the Statewide Financial Policy Training session for state agency finance, budget, procurement personnel, P-card holders and agency directors. The training provides a broad overview of the state’s accounting, budgeting and procurement policies and is recommended for everyone in a management position within an agency as well as for all financial and budget staff whether they are new or a veteran state employee. This is exactly the same course that has been held for the past three years and is highly recommended for those who have not yet attended the course.

The class will provide six hours of Continuing Professional Education credits for CPAs, CPOs or CGFM. Space is limited and reservations are required. These courses fill up fast so reserve your spot early.

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021.
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Concourse Theater
State Capitol Complex
2400 N. Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Register for the Statewide Financial Policy Training.

Live Online Seminars
Presented by Fred Pryor Seminars
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All webinars, unless denoted with a members-only icon, are open to anyone. They feature experts speaking on emergent issues to keep you in the loop on hot topics in auditing, ethics, governmental accounting, internal controls, performance and more.  Group registration options are available to those who would like to attend together in one location. Otherwise, individuals may register and attend from their own devices.

Upcoming webinars:

September Members Only Webinar – Free for AGA Members
Sept. 2, 2021.
1-2:15 p.m.

Check out the website for more information.