Systems and Procedures
A Division of The Office of Budget and Finance
A Division of The Office of Budget and Finance
Employees of The Pennsylvania State University (“University”) on the monthly or regular biweekly payrolls may authorize gifts to the University through payroll deduction. Employee donors may specify the area (or areas) where the gift is to be applied, or can identify their gifts as unrestricted, to be used where the University need is greatest.
One of the easiest ways to express support for the Penn State community is to join the University’s payroll deduction program. There are two methods for enrolling in the payroll deduction program:
The following documents the authorization, data entry, reporting, verification, receipting, and transfer/distribution of funds, and record retention for this process.
An employee who wishes to start, increase, or change the allocation of a gift deduction must complete either an Employee Payroll Deduction electronic form or a Faculty and Staff Contribution Form.
The first section of the Faculty and Staff Contribution Form will be filled out, providing necessary personal information, as specified on the form.
Next, one of the "Ways to Make Your Gift" must be selected:
Selection of this option is used to authorize a one-time gift. A check, payable to Penn State, may be issued for a specified amount. The check will be included with the form and sent to the Office of Annual Giving. Further processing will occur as documented in "Faculty and Staff Contribution Form Processing."
A new payroll deduction is authorized by selecting “Start New Bi-Weekly Payroll Deduction” or “Start New Monthly Payroll Deduction.” The employee selects their payroll frequency and completes the designation section indicating the college, campus, or program to which the gift will be applied and the whole dollar amount for that designation. If multiple designations, indicate the amount to be allocated to each designation and the amount. The total amount will be deducted per pay period. The suggested minimum is $5 and the total deduction must be an even dollar amount.
Changes to existing payroll deduction are initiated by checking the “Change Existing Payroll Deduction and checking all the appropriate blocks and completing the corresponding payroll deduction section. The employee enters the amount to be deducted each pay period. The suggested minimum payroll deduction is $5.00, and the deduction must be an even dollar amount per month to each allocation. If multiple allocations are selected, the total of all amounts must equal the amount of the deduction per pay period.
If the paper form is completed, a signature must be applied to the form. This signature is authorizing Payroll to deduct the amount from the employee's paycheck.
When a Faculty and Staff Contribution Form (paper or electronic) is received in the Office of Annual Giving, a "thank you" note is generated and sent acknowledging their contribution.
Faculty and Staff Contribution Forms and checks are forwarded to Donor and Member Services in accordance with Procedure CR2004 Accounting for Transfer of Items of Value (Except Equipment). All forms will be date-stamped by Donor and Member Services upon arrival. They are reviewed for accuracy and completeness. Employees are contacted for clarification or additional information, if/as needed.
Upon receipt by Donor and Member Services, all monies will be deposited in accordance with Policy FN01 Cash Revenues and Procedure FN2005 Depositing Cash Revenues.
Additionally, a Journal Entry for Incoming Funds will be prepared in the System for Integrated Management, Budgeting and Accounting (SIMBA). The Journal Entry for Incoming Funds will debit the General Ledger account (GL) of the bank where the funds were deposited, Fund 1850000001, Business Area 6310 (see the Journal Entry for Incoming Funds KB article) and credit GL 26005000, Fund 9900000028, Business Area 6310 Gifts for the total amount received.
Gifts being charged on a donor credit card will be handled in accordance with the applicable University procedure for the type of credit card being charged.
Refer to "Payroll Deduction Processing" for processing details for this method of giving.
Each Faculty and Staff Contribution Form is reviewed, comparing the data on the form to what data (if any) currently exists on the Alumni/Development database for an employee. As applicable, new information will be entered, and/or old information will be updated on the Alumni/Development database for each Faculty and Staff Contribution Form received.
For those employees who've selected payroll deduction as their gift option, the pertinent payroll data is electronically uploaded to the University Payroll Office the day before Biweekly deadline and the evening of Monthly deadline. Once the file is received, it is transferred to an EIB which is used to load the deduction in the employee record. This action results in the generation of an Automatic Payroll Upload Detail Report once the payroll processes.
Upon electronic upload to the Payroll Office, the information provided for each employee is entered to their record on the University payroll system. At month-end, a Journal Entry for Incoming Funds is generated which summarized this activity, crediting the total gift deductions received/processed for the month to credit General Ledger account 26005000, Fund 9900000028, Business Area 6310.
Reports are generated by DDAR IS team and posted to eDDS for both bi-weekly and monthly payroll. Currently there are automated procedures that run to process the deductions. One day after bi-weekly and monthly payroll calculations by payroll office, DDAR receives a file and loads the payroll deductions to the DDAR gift database. As a result of this load process, the payroll compare report is generated to identify variances between the extract file sent to payroll and the file received from the payroll office. Staff in Donor and Member Services address any variances and ensure the total on the Journal Entry that credited the gift account aligns with the total of payroll contributions recorded in the DDAR gift database.
After the payroll deductions are reviewed and reconciled, the Office of Donor and Member Services will close the payroll batches in the gift database. As a result of the processing of the batches, a daily automated procedure creates a Journal Entry to debit the Gift Account and credit the accounts that align with each designation of the individual payroll contributions.
Like payroll deduction activity, a daily Journal Entry is initiated to distribute the funds received for any one-time gifts, debiting General Ledger account 26005000, Fund 9900000028, Business Area 6310 Gifts for the total dollar amount of gifts processed for the day, and crediting the appropriate budget/fund designated by the employee.
In accordance with University and IRS mandates, receipts are generated every January and distributed to those employees authorizing a gift to the University via payroll deduction. Each receipt indicates the cumulative amount and gift designation(s) for the gift made.
Receipts for one-time gifts, unlike payroll deduction gifts, are issued immediately upon deposit and posting of each gift, per Policy FN01 Cash Revenues and Procedure FN2005 Processing Cash Revenues.
Violation of a financial policy should be reported to your supervisor, unit manager, Human Resources representative, and/or office responsible for the policy and/or procedure. Where those resources are inadequate, you may choose to make an anonymous report through the Penn State University hotline by calling 1-800-560-1637.
See Procedures FN2002 Processing Returned Checks for complete details pertaining to checks returned by banking institutions.
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 collaborating 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 collaborating with the external auditor and/or a central university office related to these procedures.
University Records retention must be managed in accordance with Policy AD35 University Archives and Records Management, and Records Retention Schedules approved by the Records Management Advisory Committee, 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, 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 Record 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. If the disposition method for University Records states "Review by Archives" on the records retention schedule, the employees 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.
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 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.
There are no exhibits associated with this procedure.
For questions or additional details, please contact the Office Development and Alumni Relations (see the University Development Contact Us web-page for additional details.
To request changes to this procedure, please contact the Office of Systems and Procedures by submitting a GURU Technical Support Request form.
July 12, 2024