ARCHIVED CD 2006-005

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March 10, 2006

SUBJECT: Modifications to the Regional Pay System

1. PURPOSE

1.1 The purpose of this directive is to provide clients with information concerning changes being made to the Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Regional Pay System (RPS).

2. BACKGROUND

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requested that PWGSC create a unique regional pay master for CRA employee accounts. This pay master (identified as 03) will be implemented on March 20, 2006, for April business processing. In addition, PWGSC was asked to redefine and develop functionality to support various processes required to deliver payroll services to CRA employees.

As a result of this initiative, a number of enhancements have been introduced to the RPS and these will be made available to all clients. These changes include the streamlining of payments on termination of employment, which will result in timelier processing, and delivery of payments to employees. RPS batch input clients will now have access to their errors through the on-line transaction data base which will improve identification of errors and allow batch clients to re-input corrective action.

The information contained in this compensation directive identifies the changes that will affect all RPS clients effective March 20, 2006.

3. RPS Changes

3.1. Service Location Code

The service location code is a new RPS field that will be used to identify the PWGSC regional office that supports an employee account on the CRA pay master 03. This code will automatically be generated by the system (cannot be modified manually) for all CRA accounts. It will be a two-character code that represents the regional office responsible for the employee account. For example, code 66 will be the service location code used to identify the Pacific (Vancouver) PWGSC regional office. It will be utilized by PWGSC to determine various report distribution and communication requirements. Clients will not see any changes to the current procedures with this modification. The RPS will be modified to include the service location code. For all clients, other than the CRA, this field will be blank.

3.2. Recycled Payments

Currently, only one type of supplementary payment (see below) can be processed in one pay update run, for each account. If more than one type is present, the supplementary payments are processed in a separate pay update run, in the following sequence:

  • Vacation advance payments;
  • Boot and Glove Allowance payments;
  • All supplementary payments, except termination entitlements and returns of contributions (ROC);
  • ROCs; and
  • Termination entitlements (refer to Personnel-Pay Input Manual (PPIM) Section 4.4.71.1).

Effective March 20, 2006, modifications will be made to the RPS to change this recycled payment process. Termination and/or ROC payments will no longer be recycled if there are any other supplementary payments to be issued to the employee during the supplementary payment run. They will be processed with all the other supplementary payments and each will be issued as a separate payment in the same run. In one supplementary run an employee could have four payments issued: a cash termination payment, a portion of the termination payment directed to a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), an ROC payment and a salary adjustment (e.g. overtime).

If additional supplementary payments are processed in the same update as a vacation advance payment (entitlement code 253) or a Boot and Glove Allowance payment (entitlement code 084), these payments will continue to process as a priority and any other supplementary payment will be issued in the next supplementary payment run. If a vacation advance payment and a Boot and Glove allowance are processed in the same payment update, code 253 will be processed first and code 084 will be processed in the next payment run. The remaining transactions will be processed in the following supplementary run.

4. RPS On-line Inquiry Screens

4.1. Transaction Data Base (TDB)

The TDB on-line inquiry screen will be modified for the batch input clients. This will allow the compensation advisor access to view the transactions that have rejected or those for which a warning has been produced. To view the errors and warnings, a new line has been added to the bottom of the TDB inquiry screen: "To access only batch transactions with errors or warning, enter 'X':"

TDB - Paylist Selection (TDL)

The client may make a selection by paylist whereby a new Transaction Data Base - Paylist Selection (TDL) screen will display the accounts with errors or warnings by paylist. The Error Analysis Report (EAR) will continue to be produced for all clients except CRA.

Procedures for the on-line TDB screens are available in PPIM Section 18.4.

Data Base Master - Personnel (PER)

The PER on-line inquiry screen will be modified to display the service location code. The on-line screen details are available in PPIM Section 18.3.1.

5. RPS Messages

The following edit messages will be produced by the RPS.

5.1. Mailing Addresses (MAC/PAC22)

WI3 : "Address line has been shortened/La ligne d'addresse a ete raccourcie"

This message will be produced when a transaction for the address line (code 2 or 4) is received in the RPS and has more than five characters. Any additional characters will be truncated.

5.2. Transfers NAR (RPS acronym for CRA)

U46: "Transfer Request Invalid - TOS/SOS Req'd/Demande de mutation invalide - PEF/RAY Requis"

This message will be produced if a client is submitting a transfer-in or a transfer-out transaction with the Canada Revenue Agency. Taken on strength (TOS) and struck off strength (SOS) transactions must be processed for transfers of employee accounts between employers. Refer to Compensation Directive 2002-017 for change of employer procedures.

6. Broadcast Message

The RPS, the Contributor Inquiry System, the Central Index System, the Estimate of Cost application and the Estimate and Election System (ESTEL) will be unavailable during the conversion activities scheduled for March 17, 2006 (6:00 EST) to March 19, 2006 (24:00 EST). A broadcast message will be issued in early March to remind clients of these dates.

7. Compensation Manuals

Compensation manuals will be updated to incorporate all related changes contained in this compensation directive.

8. INQUIRIES

8.1 Any inquiries on the information contained in this document should be addressed to your PWGSC Compensation Services Office.



Original Signed by
B. Fortin

Brigitte Fortin
Acting Director General
Compensation Sector
Accounting, Banking and Compensation


Reference(s): CJA 9024-200