Systems and Procedures
A Division of The Office of Budget and Finance
A Division of The Office of Budget and Finance
The Office of Student Aid for The Pennsylvania State University (“University” or “Penn State”) coordinates most forms of student aid to students, including scholarships, grants, loans, and Federal Work Study. The U.S. Department of Education’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) serves as the single application for most financial aid at Penn State; however, some private scholarships and Penn State scholarships require separate applications.
The University participates in the Federal Work Study (FWS) Program to stimulate and promote part-time employment for students with demonstrated financial need. Student earnings are fulfilled by various budgets. All funds appropriated by the Federal Government for the FWS Program flow through University GL 43030100 Federal Student Support.
The Office of Student Aid coordinates this program with the various colleges and business areas by approving and providing a listing of FWS positions and making awards to eligible students. The job requisition and hiring processes are processed in the WorkLion business system.
This procedure documents the employment, payroll, reconciliation, and reporting functions utilized in administering the FWS Program at Penn State.
All students who indicate they are interested in work-study when completing their FAFSA are considered for the FWS Program for fall and spring semesters.
NOTE: For consideration for the summer FWS Program, continuing students must be enrolled in at least 6 credits and have FWS earnings in the fall and spring semesters.
New and continuing students approved to receive a FWS award are notified by Student Financial Aid Award Notification (Exhibit “A”) prepared by the Office of Student Aid.
All business areas interested in participating in the FWS Program must prepare a job requisition for their job positing in WorkLion. Position titles should include the words “Work-Study.” Worker Sub-Type of “Student” should be selected as well as the appropriate Job Profile Code. Other required verbiage will be communicated to business areas as applicable. The creation of a job requisition/positing signifies that the business area has agreed to the terms of the work-study program. Job requisitions should be reviewed periodically and removed or renewed as appropriate.
Once a job requisition is posted, a business area may begin interviewing interested students who have receive a FWS award. Withing the “Candidates” portion of the job requisition within WorkLion, student work-study eligibility can be verified under “External Student Data.” Eligible candidates can be reviewed, moved forward, or declined by selecting the candidate’s name. Once an eligible student has been selected, the offer can be initiated here as well. Business areas should work with Human Resources to confirm the necessary steps for completing the offer and determining the student’s start date. Upon completion of a favorable background check and on-boarding, the student is eligible to begin working.
See the Requisition and Hiring for Work-Study jobs job-aid for complete details.
Students participating in the FWS Program are generally paid on the biweekly payroll. Pay for student will be directly deposited into the student's bank account.
Participating business areas are responsible for establishing a procedure for recording hours worked. Supervisors are responsible for verifying hours worked by each student. FWS hours will be submitted in WorkLion for approval by the FWS manager or department timekeeper. See the Submitting Time job-aid for students logging their hours in WorkLion.
This processing will result in the following reports and events:
A Payroll Voucher is generated for each business area participating in FWS (a separate voucher is produced for FWS based on the specific earning used within WorkLion (Federal Work Study, America Reads or Community Service Work Study). Payroll Vouchers are stored in eDDS and can be retrieved by the business area once payroll has completed. The FWS earnings are posted in the System for Integrated Management, Budgeting, and Accounting (SIMBA) via the biweekly payroll posting file on the cost object in WorkLion. The postings are run through the pay transform table during the integration into SIMBA which adds the GL account based on the Job Profile, Job Family and if necessary, the Pay Component:
This listing shows the total monies expended via salaries and wage payroll in each auxiliary budget area for each month. FWS earnings are included in the "wage" totals. This report becomes support for a journal entry that is prepared by Accounting Operations, charging the general funds of the Auxiliary Enterprise area the current rate for fringe benefits for 100% of the salary and wage payroll wages, and 10% of the FWS wages. If desired by participating business area, the FWS wage payroll totals can be derived by pulling their payroll vouchers for the corresponding period(s) and comparing them to that month's Fringe Benefits Report.
Each department participating in the FWS Program can access its own Budget Report reflecting the portion of work-study monies paid, adjustments (as applicable), etc., from their budget.
The Office of Student Aid access Budget Reports through LionPATH and the Office of the Bursar access Budget Reports through SIMBA for GL 51208750 for reporting filing, and reconciliation purposes (as applicable to their respective areas of responsibility).
Once a student has earned their authorized award amount, employment cannot continue to be subsidized through the FWS Program. Students will begin receiving bi- weekly email notifications once they have earned at least 50% of their FWS award. The Office of Student Aid will contact these students via email notifying them that the amount of wages earned is approaching their award limit (Exhibit "B"). These emails will indicate the remaining balance on the student's FWS award, and what steps must be taken to prevent the student from exceeding their award amount. Once they have earned their FWS award, they will receive a final email notification stating their award has been fully utilized (Exhibit "C").
To facilitate accountability to the Federal government for the funds appropriated, the Office of the Bursar is responsible for maintaining and monitoring the FWS activity occurring in GL account 51208750. To accomplish this, the monthly budget reports for the fund are accessed and reviewed. Entries involving labor distribution or journal entries are examined and researched to ensure that the entry of these adjustments is both accurate and appropriate. Any inaccuracies discovered will be brought to the attention of the originating department, who will rectify them via completion of a labor distribution or journal entry. See Procedure CR2015 Labor Distribution for complete details on the labor distribution process.
Each month, the Office of the Bursar prepares a Fund Management Report with the dollar amount of money available and expended on FWS based on the funds approved for the current fiscal year. This monthly report is then provided to The Office of Student Aid for review and discussion at regularly scheduled monthly meetings.
Requested and approved amounts are “drawn down” from the Department of Education via electronic funds transfer (through G5) to the applicable University bank account. The Office of the Bursar processes SIMBA Journal Entries to record and reconcile all transactions to the appropriate University budgets and funds.
Annually, the University FWS expenditures and transactions for the entire fiscal year are reported on the Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP) Report for U.S. Department of Education reporting requirements.
The Financial Officer is responsible for ensuring that procedures pertaining to the accountability and safeguarding of all cash receipts, cash funds, and other assets are established and followed in accordance with approved University policies and procedures. Regular audits relating to advances, cash, travel, equipment accountability, and other expenditures provide a means to protect University assets. The Financial Officer is responsible for working with Internal Audit when audits are being performed in the administrative area. Audits relating to sponsored activities or other audits performed by external auditors may also be performed. The Financial Officer would also be responsible for working with the external auditor and/or a central university office related to these procedures.
University Records must be retained and managed in accordance with Policy AD35 University Archives and Records Management and the University’s Records Retention Schedules that have been approved by the Records Management Advisory Committee (RMAC), the Office of General Counsel, and Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff. These Records Retention Schedules are derived from - or based upon - federal, state, and local statutes or regulations (i.e.; Federal Acquisition Regulations, the OMB Uniform Guidance, Internal Revenue Service, and other regulations governing the auditability and retention of financial records), University Policy, industry standards, and business needs. All University Records must be maintained in such a manner to provide ease of access, establish a suitable audit trail for all transactions, and to be reviewed prior to disposition.
University Records and Transitory/Disposable Records are defined below. See Policy AD35, Definition of Terms for additional information.
Upon completion of the retention period, University Records must be disposed of via secure destruction or transfer to University Archives, unless an exception to the disposition process set forth below applies. In many cases, retention periods and disposition methods may be generally determined by comparing the type of record (i.e., reports, correspondence, etc.) to similar records series with known retention periods listed on the Records Retention Schedule. If the disposition method for University Records states "Review by Archives" on the Records Retention Schedule, the Unit responsible for those records should consult the University Archivist for a final determination of disposition. For University Records that must be securely destroyed, units may arrange for shredding services by either contacting the Blue/White Shredding Program or the Inactive Records Center (IRC).
Exceptions to the disposition process are as follows:
To safeguard the privacy of individuals, records that contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII), as defined in University Policy AD53 Privacy Policy, or student records, as defined in University Policy AD11 Confidentiality of Student Records, must be securely destroyed beyond recovery. For additional information regarding privacy and the protection of an individual's personal information, see Policy AD53 Privacy Policy.
Additional questions may be directed to the Office of Records Management.
For questions and/or additional details for this procedures, please contact the Executive Director, Student Aid.
To request changes to this procedures, please contact the Office of Systems & Procedures by submitting a Technical Support Request form.
March 3, 2023
