Managing Payroll Suspense

Learn about Payroll suspense, common causes and how to prevent it. 

Details

What is Payroll Suspense?

Officer and Support Staff compensation is paid via the PAC system. When an employee is paid, the salary needs to be allocated to a single or set of accounts (or combo codes). If during the course of employment, an employee's salary distribution profile points to accounts that are no longer active, the salary and fringe expense defaults to a departmental suspense account.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 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

An employee's account profile must be established in PAC prior to the actual payment. PAC should be used for both the allocation of base salary (RG) and most Add-Comp payments. When PAC can not be used, a ServiceNow LA Form (Labor Accounting Form) should be submitted to Payroll Accounting.

For casual employees, the FFE Time Entry module should be used.

Common Causes of Payroll Suspense and Solutions
  • No (or incorrect) ChartString information was listed on a paper time entry request for a casual employee.
  • The End Date on the current salary allocation in PAC has expired for any or all of the accounts.
  • The salary distribution was set up with an end date which is after the account end date (request must be made to restricted funds to unfreeze an ARC account).
  • The project ChartString has not been established because the award documentation hasn’t been received (please work with Sponsored Project Administration to set up an account under a Guarantee Letter).

Still have questions?

Visit our Service Center.