Rev 10/21/04
Texas A&M Forest Service
Timesheet Instructions
I. Payday Information
Paychecks are normally calculated and printed two (2) days before the actual pay
date shown on the check and/or check stub. It is mailed out the same day it is printed.
This gives two days mail time to get to the employee. The check is not valid before the
pay date on the check.
II. Paycheck Delivery
We are able to put all employees on Direct Deposit and we highly recommend it to
all of our employees. This does away with the problem of a lost check in the mail. It is
now possible for an employee to get his/her check stub information emailed to them by
HR Connect. This then removes the mail system from all steps of the payroll
distribution. We highly recommend this also.
III. TFS Payroll Work Period
The FLSA Law states that a payroll period is made up of seven (7) days assigned
by the Employer. Our period begins on Thursdays at 12:01 a.m. and ends on Wednesday
night at 11:59 p.m.
IV. Completing the Timesheet - Instructions
1.
The timesheet file consists of three worksheets: (1) Budgeted Biweekly Employees,
(2) Seasonal Employees, and (3) Salaried Employees Emergency Response. Each
group is treated differently in computing the hours worked. Please list each
employee on his or her applicable worksheet.
2. Preparer Box
- This is located at the top left corner.
- Enter the preparer’s name that completed the timesheet.
3. Date Prepared Box
- This is also located at the top left corner.
- Enter the date the timesheet was prepared.
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4. Phone # if Questions Box
- This is located at the top left corner.
- Enter the phone number where the preparer may be reached if any
questions arise.
5. Submission Data Box
- Choose an X from the drop down box under the action column to clearly
state what is being sent in. Failure to label the timesheet may cause the
Payroll Office to pay people twice.
a. Payroll Submitted – submitting for the first time (original
timesheet)
b. Payroll Submitted with Estimated Time – submitting time with
estimated days
c. Correction Affecting Pay – changes to the hours worked or coded,
affecting pay, from the original timesheet
d. Correction Not Affecting Pay – changes to the hours worked or
coded, not affecting pay, from the original timesheet
6. Signature Copy
- Place a handwritten X in this box when submitting a copy of the signature
copy of the timesheet.
1. The original signed timesheet should always be kept with the
timekeeper’s records. The timekeeper is the official repository
for the time sheet records for the employees he or she reports.
2. The signature copy of the timesheet gives proof that the
employee’s reported time has been approved by his or her
supervisor and is eligible for pay.
7. Pay Period Dates Box
- Enter the start and end date of the pay period.
8. Work Week Box
- Defaults to 5 Eight Hour Days (change if different)
9. Normal Working Hours Box
- Defaults to 8am to 5pm (change if different)
10. Administrative Unit Box
- Enter the department and/or location, whichever is appropriate.
11. Date on Each Weekday Column
- Above the listed day of the week, enter the date for the pay period.
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12. Employee Name Column
- List each employee’s name in alphabetical order by his or her last name on
the appropriate worksheet.
-
Do not leave names on the timesheet that have no hours to report.
-
Skip a line in between each employee listed. Do not skip a line between
different lines for same employee.
1. For seasonal/student worker employees, please include each
account number and hours worked on a separate line by the
employee’s name. Do not skip a line between these lines.
2. For employees that work on incidents, please include each
incident number and hours worked on a separate line under
the employee’s name. Do not skip a line between these lines.
Also, please make sure you use the assigned incident number
from TICC which will be the number set up in FAMIS for
expenses.
13. Weekday Columns
- Enter the number of hours worked or the number of hours on leave for each
day.
-
Enter as whole hours or quarters of an hour. If you enter 8 it will
automatically enter 8.00. If partial hours are worked, use quarter hours.
Fifteen minutes would be entered as 0.25 hours, 30 minutes would be
entered as 0.50 hours, and 45 minutes would be entered as 0.75 hours.
-
If you enter an incorrect number of hours, be sure to hit delete to take out
the incorrect number or type the new number of hours over the incorrect
number. Blanking it out by hitting the space bar will cause an error in the
total column.
-
If an employee has more than one leave type, account number, or incident
number, then use as many lines as needed for the number of hours worked
on the above.
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14. Code Columns
- This column is only used when there are hours of coded leave. Do not use
this column for the daily activity code.
-
Only the codes listed at the bottom left corner of the timesheet may be
entered in this column. See Part V for code definitions.
a.
If you enter an incorrect code, a message will pop up for you to
retry.
1. Click retry and enter the correct code or hit delete to eliminate
a code.
2. Click cancel and the incorrect code will disappear.
b.
If an employee has more than one type of hours in one day then use
as many lines as needed for the employee.
- For example, on Tuesday, an employee worked 4 hours and took
vacation the remaining 4 hours. Therefore on the first line of
hours for Tuesday you will enter 4 and on the second line you will
enter 4 and a V in the code column.
15. Pay Columns
- These columns automatically sum for you. The formula in each column
totals the hours for all of the days worked and then subtracts hours that you
enter in the Comp Time column. The result should be that the total of all
hours worked for the seven-day period should equal the hours to be paid and
the hours entered in the comp time column.
-
If an alpha character is entered in the day columns, then the pay columns
will show numeric symbols (####) and will not total.
16. Comp Time Columns
- You must account for all hours worked, even if they are to be banked as
comp time.
- When comp time is earned, place the hours in this column. No letter is used
beside the comp time hours earned.
- This column is to show the hours earned as comp in that time period to be
taken off at a later date. The column is not to be used to show comp hours
taken off. Hours taken off as comp time should be coded with a “c” in the
code column.
- The pay column and the comp column must equal the total hours showing
for the 7-day period.
- For example, if an employee works 45 hours in a workweek and the
additional 5 hours will be comp time, the daily amounts should add across
to a total of 45 hours. You would show 40 in that week’s pay column and 5
in that week’s comp column.
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17. Total Hours to be Paid this Period Column
- This column will also automatically sum for you.
18. Signature, Title, and Date Line
- Complete with Proper Approval
V. Submitting the Timesheet
Timesheets are due by noon on the due date assigned. Please make every attempt
in meeting this deadline. However, please do not send in partial timesheets. This causes
much confusion and makes it very difficult for us to work the timesheets. Please submit
the timesheet when you have accounted for all of your employees’ time.
It is imperative that you let your group of employees know what the deadline is. It
is the employee and supervisor’s responsibility to submit their time to the timekeeper in
a timely fashion so the timekeeper may submit it to the Payroll Office by the deadline. If
an employee does not submit his time by the required deadlines, then he will receive pay
for his scheduled 80 hours. Any overtime earned will be paid on a future payroll. If a
seasonal worker does not get his time in by the assigned deadline, he will receive his pay
on the next scheduled payroll. Again, it is his responsibility to know the due date to
submit his hours worked.
Please email or fax the completed timesheet to the Payroll Office by the deadline.
To insure that all in the Payroll Office will receive your timesheet, please use this email
address payroll@tfs.tamu.edu. If you are faxing the timesheet, please make sure it is
completely legible, especially if sending a reduced size fax, to reduce the chance of errors.
VI. Submitting Timesheets with Estimated Time
When submitting estimated time, please follow these guidelines.
1. Do not estimate overtime for budgeted biweekly, seasonals, or salaried
employees.
2. Do not estimate time to an emergency incident for budgeted biweekly,
seasonals, or salaried employees. For budgeted biweekly, always
estimate the time to the employee’s regular budgeted account.
3. Do not estimate time for seasonals unless they work on a set schedule.
For seasonals that work on an as needed basis, do not estimate time.
For seasonals that work a set schedule, you may estimate time. If for
some reason the seasonal with the set schedule did not work the hours
estimated and owes TFS hours back, the Payroll Office requests your
help to retrieve those hours back.
4. Do not estimate time for student workers. Their schedules may change
due to their school schedule.
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5. Do not use a code to specify an estimated day. If an employee is on an
approved paid leave status, the proper leave codes may be used for the
estimated days. When submitting a timesheet with estimated days,
place an X in the submission data box next to payroll submitted with
estimated time.
VII. Submitting Corrections
When submitting corrected time, please follow the guidelines below.
1. Please check the appropriate Submission Data Box on the timesheet.
Remember if the change involves coded time and more than 40 hours
were originally reported for that workweek, it will affect the pay of the
employee.
2. Please use a timesheet with the same dates as the original timesheet
being corrected in the exact same format.
3. To make sure the proper hours are paid, uniformity must be used
throughout the Agency by all timekeepers. To achieve this we ask that
the following method be used to report all payroll corrections.
a. When time needs to be corrected for normal changes as well as
estimated days, turn in a corrected time sheet for the entire work
week. Please include all the hours in the entire week, not just the
days being affected. The Payroll Office will subtract out the
previous hours paid. Do not turn in additions only.
Example: John Doe has 8 hours for each day of a workweek.
Later he turns in his time and has Thursday as 10 hours. The
proper method to use is to submit a timesheet with the correct
submission data box checked. You would show 10 hours on his
regular line for Thursday and then show the 8 hours for all the
other days. If the extra two hours were to be booked as comp
time, you would enter 2 in the Comp column. The formula
would then pick up the 8 in the Pay column. If the extra two
hours were for an emergency response to an incident number
you would list the regular line with 8 hours and on the second
line you would list the incident number and 2 hours. If all 10
hours were to the incident number you would show the
incident number and 10 hours for the Thursday. All the other
days would remain on the regular line.
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b. Please turn in as few timesheets as possible. When doing
corrections for normal or estimated days, please turn in one
timesheet for each group (Biweekly, Seasonal, and Salaried
Emergency Response) of your employees. Do not turn in one
timesheet for one biweekly employee and one timesheet for another
biweekly employee, etc.
VIII. Leave Codes
1. Comp Time (C)
Comp time should be scheduled in advance by the employee and should
have the prior approval of the supervisor. Comp time is subject to rescheduling by
the supervisor if an unreasonable burden would result. The supervisor has the
right and should request that an employee use his/her comp time before using
annual leave. This helps to manage the amount of comp time an employee has
acquired.
2. Emergency Leave (E)
Approval for emergency leave is specifically limited to the Director. A copy
of the approved document needs to be sent in with the payroll. Emergency leave
will be granted upon request because of death of the employee's spouse, or the
employee's or spouse's child, parent, brother, sister, grandparent, or grandchild.
The Director can also grant emergency leave when it is determined by the Agency
that there are unsafe travel conditions or hazardous working conditions.
3. Holiday Leave (H)
The Texas State Legislature sets the number of holidays. The holiday
schedule is set by TAMUS and/or the TFS. Employees should always take the
scheduled day off if possible. Any alteration from the assigned day must have
prior supervisor approval unless emergency response is required.
4. Jury Duty (J)
The TFS grants leaves of absence with pay for jury duty service. This is not
required and should not be abused. If an employee is released from jury duty,
he/she is expected to return to work if practicable. If the employee receives
payment for their service, they are not required to report this to us.
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5. Leave Without Pay (X)
Even though there is no pay, it still must be approved by the appropriate
personnel and cannot arbitrarily be taken. Do not enter any hours when an
employee is on this status. Either leave the weekday column blank or enter zero,
but remember to fill in the code column with an X.
6. Military Leave (M)
Several types of military duty are eligible for paid status. The Director
must give prior approval for any military duty.
7. Nonscheduled Paid Leave (L)
This is paid leave designated by the Chancellor of TAMUS or the Director of
the TFS. The Director’s Office or the Payroll Office, if instructed by the Director,
will notify you of this type of leave.
8. Sick Leave (S)
Sick leave with pay may be taken and sick leave without pay may be
requested when sickness, injury, or pregnancy and confinement prevent the
employee's performance of duty, or when the employee is needed to care for and
assist a member of the employee's immediate family who is actually ill. Immediate
family is defined as those individuals living in the same household and related by
kinship, adoption or marriage, or foster children certified by the Texas
Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. An employee’s minor child is
considered immediate family even if the child does not live in the employee’s
household. Pregnancy and confinement means temporary disabilities caused by or
contributed to pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, childbirth, and recovery
therefrom. (See also System Regulation 31.03.05.)
An employee's use of sick leave with or without pay for family members not
residing in that employee's household is strictly limited to the time necessary to
provide care and assistance to a child, spouse, or parent (but not parent-in-law) of
the employee who needs such care and assistance as a direct result of a
documented medical condition.
An employee may use up to eight hours of sick leave with pay each calendar
year to attend parent-teacher conferences for the employee’s children in prekindergarten through 12th grade. The employee must provide reasonable advance
notice of need for this leave.
Malingering and other abuses of sick leave with or without pay will
constitute grounds for dismissal.
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9. Sick Leave Pool (P)
Sick leave pool is designed to aid employees who have suffered a
catastrophic illness or injury to himself or immediate family member. To receive
hours from the sick leave pool, an employee must contact the TFS Human
Resource Office to apply. Each case is reviewed and decisions are made on a caseby-case basis. The employee may be eligible for up to 90 days (720 hours). If
eligible for sick leave pool, it is usually given in 180-hour blocks. Each block
request is reviewed for its merit and must be approved in advance by the
Administrator.
Timekeepers should always make sure the employee has furnished them
with an approved copy of the request before coding time to this code.
10. Vacation or Annual Leave (V)
An employee should always try to schedule annual leave in advance and
must have supervisor’s approval. While it is not necessarily the norm, a
supervisor does have the right to instruct an employee to reschedule his/her
annual leave if, by granting leave in the requested time period, it would place an
unreasonable burden on the Agency’s ability to provide the quality and quantity of
services that the Agency is expected to provide.
11. Weekend / R&R (W)
An employee takes a normal workday as a weekend during an incident.
12. Administrative Leave (A)
Administrative leave is limited in its use. You will be instructed on a caseby-case situation if this leave is to be used. Approval for administrative leave is
specifically limited to the Director. A copy of the approved document needs to be sent in with
the payroll.
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