Payroll Transfers

Payroll expense transfers are conducted through the "Payroll Expense Transfer System (PETS)" module in ACCTS. A payroll transfer cannot move the salary of more than one employee, but it can move several pay periods for the same employee. PETS can only move payroll incurred during the current or previous fiscal year. If the expense is older than that, then a paper form UPP 103 will need to be used (see instructions).

A payroll transfer must be submitted no later than the day before the the closing date of a given paydate if it is to be processed for that paydate (see payroll dates). Otherwise it will be processed by the next paydate. Thus payroll transfers for monthly employees may take up to 6 weeks to fully process and appear on ledgers. Once a payroll record is in the process of being transfered, it cannot be transfered again until the initial transfer is complete. For example, if the transfer of an October monthly salary was submitted one day late for the November closing, it will not be completed and appear on the ledger until the end of December. If that transfer subsequently needed to be corrected (e.g. wrong account or subaccount) a corrective transfer can not be submitted until after the end of December and could not be fully processed any earlier than the end of January.

Take the following steps to create a transfer using PETS...

  1. Go to accts.uchicago.edu and select the "PETS" module
  2. Enter your CNET id and password
  3. At the initial screen you can check the status or retreive the details of your submitted transfers, edit saved transfers, withdraw submitted transfers, or create new transfers.
  4. Click on the "new" button at the bottom.
  5. To search for a payroll record to transfer, you will need either the account number where the expense currently resides and/or the payroll number of the employee. Additional optional search parameters can be used for more precision.
  6. When the employee and account have been selected, you will se the "Payroll Expense Distribution Detail" screen.
  7. Ensure that the correct pay period and subaccount are selected (below the employee name at the top).
  8. In the "payroll activity" frame, click on the payroll record (or current activity line) that that you wish to transfer.**
  9. Enter the amount to transfer and the destination account in the "transfer detail" frame and click the "add" button.
  10. Repeat steps 6-8 as needed and click the "continue" button at the bottom.
  11. At the "payroll expense transfer" screen, you can either continue to add additional entries (going back to step 4), edit a transfer entry, or submit the transfer request.
  12. You cannot submit until an explanation is entered. Choose an appropriate one from the drop down list. You can also attach a file for additional explanation or justification (e.g. a late cost transfer form).
  13. When everything is complete, click the "submit" button.
  14. Print or save the generated transfer form for your records.

**For employees with 12-month appointments, it is best to use select a specific detail record to transfer. However, 9/12 appointees cannot be handled this way in PETS. Instead you should transfer "current activity" when dealing with 9/12 appointees. Transferring "current activity" will move a portion or all charges from the employee's payroll effort that was originally incurred during a given pay period. Thus, effort transferred from previous pay periods through transfers will be ignored. If the employee has effort under two or more job codes on the same account during the same pay period (not common) then the "current activity" transfer will not distinguish between them and a paper form would be more appropriate. If you need to move a transferred salary a second time, then a paper form should be used if it is for a 9/12 appointee.

If a full effort period must be moved, it is important to confirm how many accounts the employee's salary is distributed across. This can be more complicated if the employee's salary is divided between different divisions since cross-divisional account access is limited. One way to check that the total salary amount has been located is to check the employee's personnel record and determine his/her total monthly/bi-weekly salary.

If Financial Services rejects the transfer, you do not need to start from scratch. Log-in and scroll down to the transfer that was rejected. Then select it and click on "edit." Transfers with a status of "processed" or "batched" cannot be edited or withdrawn. If you submit a transfer that you later realize is incorrect, immediately log-in to withdraw the transfer before it is approved and batched for processing.

When transferring amounts to or from accounts that you do not manage, always contact the administrators of those accounts to let them know what is about to happen.