State Agencies Bulletin No. 751

Subject
2008 SEFA (State Employees Federated Appeal) Campaign
Date Issued
October 18, 2007

Purpose

To provide instructions for processing payroll deductions for Federated Community Campaigns for the 2008 calendar year.

Affected Employees

All employees

Effective Dates

Payroll deductions for the 2008 SEFA Campaign will begin:

  • Paychecks dated January 3, 2008 (Institution)
  • Paychecks dated January 9, 2008 (Administration)

SEFA Campaign Guidelines and Agency Actions

  • Agencies must review the authorization card and verify the completeness, accuracy and legibility of the Federated Fund Number, Amount of Deduction, Employee’s Agency Code, Social Security Number and Name.
  • The pre-printed Federated Fund Number, which appears at the top right of the form, must be used as the Deduction Code. Cards that have been modified must be returned to the employee for completion of a new card.
  • The Amount of Deduction is the amount to be deducted from each paycheck in the calendar year, not the total amount of the pledge.
  • The employee’s signature is required to authorize the payroll deduction.

Agencies are required to enter 2008 Federated Fund (SEFA) transactions into PayServ on the General Deduction Data (Agency) page, using the following instructions:

  1. After logging into PayServ, access the General Deduction Data (Agency) page.
  2. Enter the Social Security Number from the authorization card in the EmplID field of the dialog box and click Search.
  3. The employee’s General Deduction page appears. Click on View All.
  4. Determine whether the employee already has a deduction record for the specific Federated Fund Number on the authorization card by scrolling through the Deduction Codes using the scroll bar.
    • If a record with the same Federated Fund (SEFA) Deduction Code already exists, click on the + sign to add a new row in the Deduction Details page, insert a row and continue with Step 6.
    • If there is not an existing row for the Federated Fund (SEFA) Deduction Code, click on the + sign to add a new row in the General Deduction page, insert a row and continue with Step 5.
  5. Deduction Code - enter the correct Deduction Code for the Federated Fund (SEFA) from the authorization card.
  6. Effective Date - enter the effective date for the 2008 deduction to begin as follows:
    Institution (Lag) 12/06/07
    Administration (Lag) 12/13/07
    Institution (Current) 12/20/07
    Administration (Current) 12/27/07
  7. Deduction Calculation Routine – select Flat Amount from the drop down box.
  8. Deduction End Date – Note: There are 27 paychecks in the year 2008 for Institution cycle employees.
    For Institution employees who choose to contribute 26 paychecks, the following end dates must be entered:
    Institution (Lag) 12/03/08
    Institution (Current) 12/17/08
    For Institution employees who choose to contribute 27 paychecks, the following end dates must be entered:
    Institution (Lag) 12/17/08
    Institution (Current) 12/31/08
    For Administration employees, the following end dates must be entered:
    Administration (Lag) 12/10/08
    Administration (Current) 12/24/08
    Note: For employees participating in the Continuous Giving Program, a deduction end date should not be entered. (Please see the Continuous Giving Program below.)
  9. Flat/Add Amount – enter the amount to be deducted from each biweekly paycheck.
  10. Save the transaction.

The Goal Amount field should not to be used when entering SEFA transactions (see Exception below).

If an employee has a Goal Amount/Goal Balance in the existing record and the agency enters a transaction for 2008, the Goal Amount and Goal Balance will roll up on the newly inserted row unless the Goal Amount and Goal Balance are equal. Agencies must delete the Goal Amount and Goal Balance on the 2008 row and then save the transaction.

Exception:

If a participant chooses to elect other than the full year (26 pay periods), the agency payroll office must enter the total amount of the annual contribution in the Goal Amount field as well as the flat amount to be deducted biweekly. The appropriate effective and end dates must be used as outlined above.

Continuous Giving Program

The following SEFA regional campaigns are participating in the  Continuous Giving Program:

Regional Campaign Deduction Code
SEFA of Allegany County 883
SEFA of Cln/Ex/Frk/Ham Ctnys 881
SEFA of Sullivan County 880
SEFA of Ulster County 871

Attachment

Linked is the Federated Fund (SEFA) Code Listing in numeric and alphabetic order.

Changes

Employees who want to change a Federated Fund (SEFA) deduction may do so by completing a new authorization card. A payroll general deduction transaction should then be processed to change the deduction.

Transfers

OSC automatically continues Federated Fund (SEFA) deductions upon an employee’s transfer from one agency to another. It is necessary to obtain a new authorization card only if the employee wants to contribute to a different Federated Fund (SEFA) organization in the new agency.

Cancellations

To cancel a Federated Fund (SEFA) deduction, the agency payroll office must insert a new row using the beginning date of the pay period in which the deduction should be canceled as the effective and deduction end dates. Cancellation notices must be retained by the agency.

Questions

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