Purpose

To Explain the New Certification Process.

Affected Employees

Employees in the Classified Service Who Require Certification or Re-certification by DCS.

Overview

Transactions entered each payroll period into the payroll system that are subject to DCS certification, such as hires, rehires, promotions, and position changes, must also be entered into the Department of Civil Service System (NYSTEP) in the same payroll period by the established OSC and DCS deadlines. Transactions for employees requiring recertification must be entered into NYSTEP only.

Note: Paychecks will not be released to agencies for employees who have not been recertified in NYSTEP by DCS or who had a certifiable transaction submitted in the payroll system and did not have the same certifiable transaction entered in NYSTEP and approved by DCS.

New Page

Emp Job Certification

Path: Home>Administer Workforce>Administer Workforce(GBL)>Use>Emp Job Certification

Highlights of Changes

Agencies will have VIEW access to the new Emp Job Certification page that will be used in the OSC Certification Reconciliation process.

A new report NHRP519, Agency Mismatch Report, will be available for agencies. This report will identify mismatches between the payroll system and NYSTEP with regard to certain fields.

Certification Reconciliation Process

Each time a transaction is inserted on the Job Data record and DCS certification is required, a row will automatically be inserted on the Emp Job Certification page. When this occurs, information from the Job Data record will default and the Employee Certification status on the inserted row will automatically be updated to “Not Certif”.

Each payroll period, after the audit process is complete, DCS will notify OSC of all transactions recently approved in NYSTEP via the weekly input file. Transactions on the weekly DCS file will automatically be inserted into the DCS History record page and will be used by OSC in the certification reconciliation process. This process compares the transactions on the Emp Job Certification record having a value of “Not Certif” to the information contained on the DCS History record page.

If a match occurs, or the only mismatch is a *non-critical data mismatch, the Emp Job Certification record will be updated from the status of “Not Certif” to “Approved” and the DCS History record page will be populated with the Eff Seq and Empl Recd# values from the approved Emp Job Certification record.

*Non-critical data is data that is not required to match in the certification reconciliation process in order for the employee to be paid. Non-critical data includes employee status, line number, jurisdictional class, and the full/part-time indicator.

If there is a **critical data mismatch, or there is no DCS History record page, OSC will contact the agency to resolve the discrepancy by taking the appropriate action. When the agency submits the appropriate information in the payroll system and/or in NYSTEP, and the NYSTEP transaction is subsequently approved by DCS, OSC will update the certification status on the Emp Job Certification record from “Not Certif” to “Approved”.

**Critical data is data that is required to match in the certification reconciliation process in order for the employee to be paid. Critical data includes effective date, position number, title, grade, and percentage of time worked.

In addition, OSC will review the NYSTEP End Date report to identify employees who require re-certification because their certification end date will expire prior to the last day of the payroll period being processed. The agency will be notified of employees requiring recertification.

If the agency fails to take the appropriate action in a timely manner and/or the employee is not certified by DCS, OSC will disable the employee’s direct deposit, if applicable, and/or hold the employee’s paycheck until the employee is appropriately certified.

Agency Actions

The agency is responsible for the following:

• Entering the same certifiable transactions into both NYSTEP and the payroll system by the established deadlines. This will ensure that employees are certified by DCS in a timely manner and will appear on the appropriate NYSTEP file.
• Reviewing the NYSTEP End Date report prior to the NYSTEP submission deadline and entering the appropriate recertification transactions into NYSTEP before the established deadline.
• For employees who had the appropriate transaction entered into the payroll system, but did not have the same transaction entered into NYSTEP, the agency is responsible for immediately entering the appropriate transactions into NYSTEP for DCS review and approval.
• For employees who had the appropriate transaction entered and approved in NYSTEP, but have a critical data mismatch in the payroll system, as identified by the OSC audit unit, the agency must immediately enter the appropriate transactions in the payroll system to avoid the disabling of direct deposit and/or the withholding of the employee’s paycheck.
• Reviewing the NHRP519 Agency Mismatch Report that will be available on the Monday following the agency submission deadline and resolving the non-critical field mismatches by entering the appropriate follow-up transaction into NYSTEP and/or the payroll system by the following payroll period. This agency reconciliation process will ensure that the same data exists in both the payroll and NYSTEP systems.
• Notifying employees whose direct deposit was disabled and/or whose paycheck was withheld due to the OSC certification reconciliation process.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Audit mailbox.