FMS nQuery
Salary and Benefit Transfers
Training and Documentation
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Salary and Benefit Accounting at UBC
i)
Account Structure
ii)
Coding in the Payroll System
2. Reasons for Salary and Benefit transfers
3. Procedures for Transferring Salaries and Benefits
i)
General Information
ii)
Benefit Charges
iii)
Determining the Amount to Transfer
a. Finding the Salary and Benefit Detail for an Individual
b. Finding the Salary Details for an Entire Account
c. Finding the Salary Details for an Entire PG
4. Special considerations
i)
General Purpose Operating Fund (GPO)
a) Hourly Employees
b) Workstudy Students
ii)
Research Fund (R)
a) UBC Policy 86 – Extraordinary Insurance Expense
iii)
Fee For Service Fund (FFS)
iv)
Payroll Earnings Types
v)
Additional Information about Salary Expense
vi)
Calculating partial period transfers
5. Contact Information
1. Salary and Benefit Accounting at UBC
i) Account Structure
Salaries are grouped into four main categories. The categories with examples are as follows:
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Faculty Salaries accounts 510000 to 519999
512000
Tenure track Faculty
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Sessional Salaries accounts 520000 to 529999
521000
Sessional, Non-Tenure Faculty and Post Doc Research/Teaching Fellows
522000 is used exclusively for one-time honorariums (code HN1) paid to individuals

Student Salaries accounts 530000 to 539999
531000
Semi-monthly students
545000
Hourly students
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Staff Salaries accounts 540000 to 549999
541000
Semi-monthly staff (including union, non-union and management)
543000
Hourly staff (including union, non-union and management)
Benefits are grouped into the account range of 598000 to 598999.
598000
Payroll benefits, including hourly vacation expense
598300
Extraordinary Insurance expense
(the Journal Voucher offset is account 213200 speedchart GZMV)
ii) Coding in the Payroll System
Every Faculty/Staff/Student Appointment Form has a Speedchart designated as to where the
salary will be charged. The payroll system (HRMS) uses this Speedchart to code salary and often
the benefits to a project/grant (PG).
Any changes to the distribution (coding) of salary and benefit costs for salary and benefits
previously charged must be made via an Appointment Form to update HRMS and via a
Journal Voucher (JV) in FMS. Changes to the Financial Management System (FMS) do not
automatically update HRMS. Salary commitments to the ledger are generated when the HRMS
system is updated from entry of an Appointment Form.
It is the department’s responsibility to calculate the amount and create the JV to move the
historical salary and benefit costs to the new PG.
2. Reasons For Salary and Benefit Transfers
Transfers are typically required due to the following reasons:
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An employee having a change in job duties and is being shared between two or more PGs
A permanent employee changing projects
The department moving salary costs in order to eliminate a deficit or balance
3. Procedures for Transferring Salaries and Benefits
i) General Information
When an earnings distribution change is made on an Appointment Form, the Payroll department
in Finance will update HRMS. The employee’s salary and benefits will be changed to reflect the
new Speedchart for all pay periods after the date the form is entered into HRMS. This also
means that the date that the form is entered into HRMS will determine whether a full month or
partial month’s salary expense is charged to the new earnings distribution.
If the department determines that they want the prior payroll charges moved to the new
Speedchart, they will have to calculate the salary and benefit amounts. Using these
amounts the department can then create a JV and make the appropriate redistributions.
The ledgers are updated with the current month’s salary expense at the end of the month, after the
current month’s ledger had closed. If actual salary expenses are needed for a JV to be posted in
the same month as the expense is incurred, contact the Payroll Department for assistance.
A few general rules for moving prior period salary and benefit costs are as follows:
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Salary and benefits should be for specific individuals
The JV must note the employees name, employee number and the period being
transferred
All salary entries must also have the associated benefits moved, including Extraordinary
Insurance expense if applicable (see UBC Policy 86)
The account number receiving the salary or benefit must be in the same range of accounts
as the original charge
If you are moving only a portion of salary and benefits from a PG then you should use the
same percentage on both the salary and benefits amounts
Detailed backup should be attached to the JV. Appropriate backup includes worksheets
from section (iii) of this document or pages from the Statement of Salary and Wages
The JV should be authorized/approved by a signing authority from each PG affected
Only actual salary costs can be moved, not future or budgeted amounts
After the move there must not be a credit balance in the salary account in a PG
Only past salaries can be transferred, future salaries will be handled by the payroll system
The Research and Trust Accounting website has links for information about generating research
and non-research PG Speedcharts as well as modifying signing authority for Project/Grants.
http://www.finance.ubc.ca/rta/FormsAndProcedures.cfm
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ii) Benefit Charges
Actual benefit costs should be used whenever possible. If this is not possible and if there are no
special requirements, as noted in the Special Considerations section, a flat benefit percentage can
be used. The estimated benefit percentages by employee group are as follows:
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Faculty
17% of salary
Sessional
10% of salary
Student
8% of salary
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If earnings are FEL: 1%

If earnings are SCH or RSG: 0%
Staff
17% of salary
The procedure to determine the actual benefits cost is in the following section, Determining the
Amount to Transfer.
The required accuracy of the benefit amount will depend on the fund that the salary is being
charged to. Details can be found in the Special Considerations section.
iii) Determining the Amount to Transfer
FMS nQuery is the best tool to determine the amount of salary or benefits associated with an
employee.
a) Finding the Salary and Benefits for an Individual
Within the FMS nQuery program choose the Payroll menu option and then Employee Details.
Enter the Speedchart or PG that the employee’s salary and benefits were charged to.
Once the detailed chartfield is retrieved select the Account Number, the Date Range and enter the
Employee’s ID or Name.
Hit Search.
Note: The Payroll menu option cannot be used to retrieve the Extraordinary Insurance benefit
amount (account code 598300). This information must be retrieved from the Ledger Summary
option in FMS nQuery. See the Special Considerations section for more details.
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To view details on certain earnings or benefit types, the information can be downloaded to
Excel.
Results downloaded to Excel:
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The data retrieved will give you the salary and benefit amounts for the employee selected and
provide the backup required for the JV.
Different earnings types attract different types of benefits. For transfers involving specific
earnings types, the benefits can be sorted by downloading to Excel. More information on this can
be found in the Special Considerations section.
Here is what the completed Journal Voucher would look like for the employee and period in the
previous example – note the addition of manually calculated Extraordinary Insurance expense
and the accounts and speed charts used to offset the charge to the research PG:
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b) Finding the Salary Details for an Entire Account
Within FMS nQuery choose the Payroll menu option and then Account Details.
Enter the Speedchart or PG that the employee’s salary was charged to. Benefit details are only
available in the Employee Details menu option.
Once the detailed chartfield are retrieved select the Account Number and the Date Range.
Hit Search
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Results downloaded to Excel:
The resulting information will show you all of the employees who have been charged to the
account in question.
This information can be used to get the benefit detail by going into ‘Employees Details’ or can be
used as backup for the JV.
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c) Salary Details for an Entire PG
Within FMS nQuery program choose the Payroll menu option and then Project/Grant Summary.
Enter the speedchart or PG that the employee’s salary was charged to.
Once the detailed chartfield are retrieved select the Date Range.
Hit Search.
Results downloaded to Excel:
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All employee charges, except benefits, by account will be displayed.
The Employee Details menu option will have to be utilized to get the actual benefit charges to
transfer.
4. Special Considerations
As was previously mentioned there are certain funds which require additional steps when salary
and benefits are involved.
i) General Purpose Operating Fund (GPO)
Transfers of Salary within the GPO fund do not require a benefit entry, with the exception
of some Hourly employees and Workstudy students. Benefits in the GPO fund are centrally
funded, meaning that the individual PGs do not get charged for the benefit costs associated with
employees.
Salaries being moved from the GPO fund to another fund do require a benefit entry. The central
benefit PG (speedchart DAME) should be credited and the PG receiving the salary cost should be
debited. The opposite is true if the salary costs are being moved to the GPO fund.
a) Hourly employees that are paid vacation on each cheque (Immediate Vacation Payout VPI)
have those earnings charged to your PG under account 598000. These charges can be found on
the nQuery Payroll Employee Details report in bolded type, coded VPI.
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To calculate the salary expense for the transfer amongst GPO PGs:
Salary expense: $614.08
debit/credit using salary account
VPI expense: $24.57
debit/credit account 598000 of your GPO PG
Salary expense being moved between a GPO fund and non-GPO fund PG does require an
additional entry. If moving from the GPO fund, credit account 598000 Speedchart DAME for
the non-VPI and debit or charge the entire benefit total to the PG receiving the charge. The
opposite is true if moving from a non-GPO fund to a GPO fund PG.
Here is what the JV would look like for hourly student salary expense moving between a nonresearch and research PG:
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b) Workstudy student salary expense and the Work/Learn Program for International Students are
subsidized through the Awards Office at a rate of $9.00/hour. The Awards Office credits the
salary account on the ledger:
- in December (for September to November salary reimbursements)
- in March (for December to February reimbursements)
- in May (for March to April reimbursements)
- in January for Summer Career Placements
Journal vouchers for transferring salary expense for Workstudy students are calculated at net of
the $9.00/hour reimbursement. The benefits are transferred between the PG’s in full using
account 598000.
Example:
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To calculate salary expense for the transfer:
8 hours X $9.00/hr = $72.00 Workstudy credit
Salary expense: $129.28 – 72.00 = $57.28
Benefit expense: $9.26
debit/credit account 545000 of your PG
debit/credit account 598000 of your PG
To confirm which hourly students (account 545000) are in Workstudy postions, check either the
nQuery Payroll Project/Grant Summary or Account Summary options. The job descriptions
show under Job Title above the names of the employees. The Employee Details option does not
show this information.
ii) Research Fund (R)
Movements to or within the Research fund require more detail since some benefit amounts are
not permitted by certain granting agencies. Only actual salary and benefit amounts can be
transferred.
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Each transfer must identify: the employee being moved, the employee’s ID number and the time
period being moved. For Student Salaries, also include their education level (bachelor, master,
doctoral or postdoctoral) in the JV description.
A separate JV should be done for each employee as granting agencies often want a full
accounting of who is being charged to a Research PG.
a) UBC Policy 86 - Extraordinary Insurance Expense
1.2 “In order to prevent individual grant or contract accounts from experiencing extreme
financial hardship and to enable an orderly method of funding short-term sick leave, maternity
leave, and payment in lieu of notice upon termination, the University has established an insurance
benefit for such employees to provide the same level of coverage as is provided for employees
funded from the general purpose operating fund.”
Extraordinary Insurance expense is recorded under account 598300 on the ledger and is
applicable for Staff and Faculty (not including Post Doctoral Fellows being paid “Reg” salary) on
Research and Contract PG’s (not including fund S1000). Student jobs do not attract this expense.
A drill-down on the amount in account 598300 will detail the name of the employees making up
the expense in any given month. The expense is calculated as a percentage of the gross salary
amount, and must be included in transfers. Policy #86 section 1.3 states that “this percentage is
adjusted based on experience of the previous year” and the policy is reviewed annually. As of
September 1/06, the rate was 0.5%. Please contact Human Resources for information about rate
changes.
The Speedchart and account to use for transfers between eligible and ineligible PGs is account
213200 GZMV.
Earnings types that do not attract this expense include:
FEL Fellowship
OTD Overtime
HN1 One-time Honorarium
RET Retro
iii) Fee For Service Fund (FFS)
There are times when certain salaries and benefits are billed to a third party.
To make the billing process easier it is recommended that a separate JV be done for each
employee transferred, identifying the employee ID and period of the transfer.
All of the other general requirements apply.
iv) Earnings Types and Benefit Implication
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HRMS distributes the benefits between PGs according to the Earnings Type for each PG in the
earnings distribution. The following earnings types attract specific benefits:
HN1 (one-time honorarium): CPP, EI, WCB
HON (honorarium): CPP, EI, WCB
Fellowship and RSG earnings: WCB
VSS (Sessional Faculty vacation payout): CPP, EI, WCB
OTD (overtime): CPP, EI, WCB
RET (retro): CPP, EI, WCB, Pension
Account 522000
Account salary is charged to
Account salary is charged to
Account 528000
Either account salary is charged to or
account 547000
Account salary is charged to
Example of HN1:
HN1 payment submitted on a timesheet - processed by Payroll if employee has had earnings
through Payroll in the current tax year.
The HN1 posts to the ledger under account 522000. A drill-down on the amount next to account
522000 in a given month shows the details of the payment.
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Results of first drill-down:
Click on the PYJ for the second drill-down to show the Payroll Account Details. For a
breakdown of the benefit details, use the Payroll Employee Details option. HN1 earnings are not
eligible for Extraordinary Insurance Benefit expense.
Results of second drill-down:
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Example of Hon Earnings:
“Hon” earnings are a specific earnings type (Honorarium) that may be part of the on-going
earnings distribution. This example shows the benefits for “Reg” (Regular) earnings summarized
along with those for “Hon” earnings. Hon earnings are eligible for Extraordinary Insurance
Benefit expense.
If there are questions about other Earnings Types, please contact the Payroll Department.
v) Additional information about Salary Expense
If more than one salary account is used for an employee you will need to review all salary
accounts to get the correct salary and benefit totals. For example, Sessional Faculty may have
vacation pay on each cheque under account 528000. Two Payroll nQuery reports – one under
each of the earnings accounts - will be needed to capture all the benefits, and some of the benefits
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on the report for the VSS (Sessional Vacation) will actually match the Reg pay, due to limits with
the nQuery reports. Another example is when overtime is paid under account 547000 rather than
using the same account as the regular salary is charged to. Two Payroll reports will be needed to
capture benefits that do not match overtime, but show on the report for account 547000.
CPP, EI and WCB have maximum amounts that can be withheld in a tax year. In some cases the
expense for these benefits will stop being charged, and will resume in January of the following
year.
Department-paid medical expenses are usually charged on the end-of-month cheque. Factors that
affect the total expense include whether employees choose coverage for just themselves,
themselves and their spouse, or themselves and their families. Retroactive enrolment will result
in a larger charge appearing in a month, with the following months at a steady rate, subject to
yearly increases in the rates as determined by the carriers.
Benefit amounts may show on the ledger that do not show on the nQuery Payroll report.
Usually this is related to employees on leave. Any questions about this should be directed to the
Payroll Department.
Examples of Benefits codes that appear on the nQuery Payroll Employee Details report:
CPP
EI
WCB
BGL
STP
FAP
MSP
EHB
DEN
EAP
Canada Pension Plan
Employment Insurance
Workman’s Compensation Board premium
Basic Group Life
Staff Pension
Faculty Pension
Medical Services Plan
Extended Health
Dental
Employee Assistance Program
Note: numeric coding attached to the alpha coding (ie/ EHB002) can be ignored. These benefits
are coded to account 598000.
For inquiries about other benefit codes, contact the Payroll Department.
vi) Partial Period Transfers
The pay periods are from the 1-15th and the 16th- last day of the month. Transfers that are
effective within those dates happen most often when employees move to a new job.
Students and Faculty salary expense for a partial period is calculated based on a 7-day week.
Staff salary expense for a partial period is calculated based on a 5-day week. Payroll uses this
method to calculate pay.
For example:
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Jane Doe moved to a new department on May 8/06 from/to a Staff position. She was earning
$3,000.00 per month. The payroll system was updated after the May 1-15 payroll ran, resulting
in the entire pay period being charged to the original department.
May 8-15/06 is to be transferred by JV.
May 8-15/06 = 6/11 days
$3,000.00 per month X .5 = 1,500.00 per pay period
$1,500.00 X 6/11 = 818.18 salary May 8-15/06
Benefit expense is calculated the same way,
remembering that medical benefits are included on
the end-of-month cheque.
If Jane had a Student or Faculty job, her salary calculation for May 1-8 would be based on a 7day week:
May 8-15/06 = 8/15
$1,500.00 X 8/15 = 800.00
Note: if an end-of-month pay period needs to be prorated, not all months have the same number
of days. Student and Faculty jobs are most often /15 to /16 days and Staff jobs /10 to /12 days.
Any questions should be directed to the Payroll Department.
5. Contact Information
Questions can be directed to your departmental Administrator or to Finance at
Support@Finance.UBC.CA
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