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First Payroll of the School Year Checklist

Caution: Do not begin this process until the EOY Payroll Accruals Checklist and (it would be preferable) the Finance Fiscal Year Checklist have been completed.

It is highly recommended that you process the export when the export prompt is displayed for a process. Be sure to create folders for each export so that if you need to import from a particular step, you are able to easily locate which file to use. If you perform an export on the same process multiple times, it is recommended that you move the previous exports to separate folders so they are not replaced by the new export in case you need to import from a particular step.

Prerequisites:

The following steps should already be completed. Do not continue if they are not complete.

Complete all payroll processing for the current school year.
Print HRS2250 - Deduction Register by Employee to verify all deductions are correct.
Print HRS2400 - Bank Accounting Listing to verify employee bank information is correct.
Print HRS1000 - Roster of Personnel and save for the auditors.
HRS4150 - TRS On-Behalf Payment Journal should be completed and posted.
Print HRS3050 - School YTD Report and save for the auditors.
Process service records, and update the Service Record Maintenance tab accordingly.
The EOY Payroll Accruals process should be completed through the Interface to Finance tab only.
Termination dates and reasons should be updated on the Employment Information tab for all employees that are no longer with the district.
Budget should have been moved to Finance.
Unprocessed and processed deduction transactions should be deleted. Failure to perform this step results in the inability to import payroll backups if Finance has removed the previous fiscal year from file ID C.

❏	Verify finance options Finance > Tables > District Finance Options Verify that the School Year field contains the new school year. Note: If the new school year is not displayed, stop and complete the Finance End-of-Year Process first. Do not update the School Year field until the Finance End-of-Year (EOY) process is complete.
❏	Verify payroll frequency Each time you prepare to move a group of employees (July contracts, August contracts, and September contracts), be sure to start with this step to ensure you are starting in the correct frequency. In Payroll, verify that you are in the next year frequency that is associated with your current year frequency. If not: Click Change. Select Next Year. Click Apply.
❏	Prepare NYR payroll for move to CYR Use the User Created Reports (or another preferred payroll report) to verify that all employee data is correct prior to moving the next year payroll to the current year. Employees being moved must have an active Pay Status. Generate the Payroll > Reports > Payroll Information Reports > HRS6150 - Employee Payroll Listing to verify the pay status of employees. Print and/or save this report. Inactivate those employees who do not need to be moved such as employees whose contract days begin in July and/or August (11- and 12-month contracts) or “filler” employees who are used only for budget purposes (i.e., vacancies). Use the Payroll > Maintenance > Staff Job/Pay Data > Pay Info tab to inactivate an employee. Retrieve the employee. In the Pay Status field, select 2 Inactive. Click Save.

STOP!

Discontinue updating or accessing current year payroll records during this process.

❏	Copy NYR tables to CYR Log on to the next year payroll frequency. Payroll > Next Year > Copy NYR Tables to CYR Copy all necessary tables. CAUTION: If you copied any tables prior to this step, be sure to exclude those tables at this time to avoid overwriting any necessary data such as previously made manual changes. Click Select All Tables to select all of the tables. OR Select ❏ next to the table(s) you want to include. Select ❏ again to unselect a table. ❏ ❏ Click for the School Calendar, Extra Duty Pay, and Job Code fields to open a pop-up window containing the corresponding tables. Select the applicable tables and click OK to populate the selected tables in the applicable fields. Note: If you receive a database access error referencing your Summer School Calendar, click OK. This error is generated when a Summer School Calendar exists in the current year payroll frequency but does not exist in the next year payroll frequency. Select the tables you previously selected again, but in this instance, select the individual School Calendars to be copied. ❏ Click Execute. Only the selected tables are processed. As the reports are generated, click Process for each table. Review the reports. A message is displayed with the table names and the number of rows that were copied. Click OK. Review the process report to verify that all applicable calendars, extra duty pay, and job codes were copied to the current year payroll frequency. It is recommended that you log on to Personnel > Tables > Workday Calendars to verify this information. If the calendars were not copied over correctly, you may have to individually copy the calendars. Note: When copying the school calendar table from next year to the current year, the calendar code, description, and days are copied. If a calendar code exists in the next year and current year, the next year data replaces the entire calendar contents for the current year for the specified calendar code.
❏	Copy active staff to the CYR Log on to the next year payroll frequency. Payroll > Next Year > Copy NYR Staff to CYR CAUTION: If the 11- and 12-month employees were reactivated to interface to Budget, they must be set to inactive at this time. You can select specific employees to copy using the following parameters: Contract Months, Contract Begin Date, Payoff Date, Extract ID, or Employee Number. In addition, consider the employee deductions. For example, if you have not updated the new insurance selections and premiums in the next year payroll, then do not copy any deductions to the current year payroll. Also, if you entered all new employees as electing insurance so that employer-paid amounts were generated to budget, then you would not want these “estimated” deductions brought to current year payroll. All insurance selections and rate changes can be made in the current year payroll frequency. ❏ Select Preview Changes. ❏ Click Execute. Review the list and click Process.
❏	Change to the current year frequency In Payroll, change to the current year frequency that is associated with your next year frequency (i.e., F = 6). Click Change. Select Current Year. Select a pay frequency. Click Apply. The following steps should be performed in the current year frequency unless otherwise noted.
❏	Update District HR options Payroll > Tables > District HR Options Verify that the following fields are updated. These fields may already be updated. The Payroll Clearing Fund/Year field should be set to 163/X or 863/X. If your LEA has a separate payroll clearing fund, use 163/X or 863/X in the Payroll Clearing Fund/Year field. If your LEA does not use a separate payroll clearing fund, use 199/X in the Payroll Clearing Fund/Year field. The School Year for PEIMS Codes field should be set to 2026. CAUTION: No payrolls should be processed for the new (upcoming) school year prior to the First Pay Date of the School Year. ❏ Under First Pay Date of School Year: Update the first pay date of the new school year for each payroll frequency. The date(s) must match the first payroll date(s) indicated on the pay dates table. In the Payroll 4, 5, 6 fields, enter the first pay date for each of the three pay frequency fields in the MM-DD-YYYY format. Once the pay date is entered, it should not be changed until the next school year. The entered date should represent a payroll that will actually be processed, supplemental or regular. If a date is entered and no payroll is actually posted using that date, the system will have difficulty identifying when the new school year began. This could affect how data is handled in the new school year. Additional first pay date notes Fiscal Year versus School Year If your fiscal year is July through June and the 10-month employees are paid from September through August, this date should be September. If your fiscal year is July through June and all employees (including 10-month employees) are paid from August through July, those employees should all have TRS Year selected on the Payroll > Maintenance > Staff Job/Pay Data > Job Info tab. If the First Pay Date of School Year field has an August date, a new school YTD is created and updated with all pay and accrual amounts. The TRS YTD is updated in the old school year. For example, if the first pay date of the school year is August 25, 2024, pay and accruals are updated in the 2025 school YTD and the 2024 TRS YTD is updated. Note: If the First Pay Date of School Year field is set to a date prior to September, be sure to verify that your TRS rates correspond to the appropriate TRS reporting month. If the First Pay Date of School Year field is updated with a September date, the school YTD and TRS YTD are updated in the current school year and if accruing, a new school YTD is created and updated with those amounts. For example, if the first pay date of the school year is September 25, 2024, pay and TRS amounts are updated in the 2025 school YTD and the 2025 TRS YTD. If the employee accrues, a 2025 school YTD is also created. If your fiscal year is September through August and the 10-month employees are paid from September through August, this date should be September. If end-of-year payroll accruals are performed for August days worked and the first paycheck is in September, the first pay date should be September. All non-standard employees (those employees who receive their first check in July or August) should have TRS Year selected on the Payroll > Maintenance > Staff Job/Pay Data > Job Info tab. This first pay date of the school year is used to determine: The school year to be used for the school YTD records for regular and non-standard employees. If the employee is a non-standard employee (TRS Year is selected), and the contract begin date is greater than this date, then the payroll calculation stores the accrual amounts in the next year school YTD record. The school year that should be used for the TRS rates and employee TRS record. The pay history records that should be used for accruals. The leave transmittals that should be accumulated to determine if the leave duration has been met for the school year. Notes: If the LEA does not use one of the pay frequencies, access to that field is not allowed. If a user does not have security access to a pay frequency, access to that field is not allowed. When the first pay date of the school year is changed, if any message displayed includes information about contacting your regional consultant, there are processed pay dates where amounts need to be moved from one school year to another. If these amounts are not moved, it can adversely affect school YTD historical amounts, TRS historical amounts, and reporting, workers’ compensation historical amounts and reporting, and payroll accrual calculations. Do not proceed without addressing this issue. ❏ Click Save.
❏	Enter school year pay dates Payroll > Tables > Pay Dates Enter pay dates for the new school year and click Save. These dates must equal the pay dates in your accrual calendar(s) except for the August accrual calculation run date (August 31).
❏	(If applicable) Complete the accrual calendar Log on to the current year pay frequency. Payroll > Tables > Accrual Calendars > Accrual Calendar August year-end LEAs - If your LEA accrues monthly, complete this step if it is not already completed. ❏ Enter the new pay dates and accrual days for all applicable accrual codes. The total number of days should equal the number of days employed for that group of employees. For August year-end LEAs, start with your accrual run date (08-31-20XX) and enter the number of August workdays. Continue adding pay dates and days worked for the remainder of the school year. The dates must equal the dates in your pay dates table. All pay dates should be entered even if zero days are accrued for that month. This information is LEA-specific. Note: For a standard 187-day calendar in a monthly pay frequency, there should be 13 entries including the date for the August Accrual process and the 12 pay dates including the months that may have zero workdays.
❏	Complete fund to grant information Log on to the current year payroll frequency. Personnel > Tables > Salaries > Fund to Grant IMPORTANT: All applicable federal grants must have a fund to grant code listed in the TRS Grant Cd field on this tab. If not, TRS federal grant care and TRS federal grant deposit amounts will not be calculated for that specific fund during payroll. Verify that the applicable federal grant funds (200-300) have a two-digit TRS grant code. Update this table as needed. Exception: If using the TRS Child Nutrition worksheet for TRS reporting, the child nutrition funds (240 and 242) should NOT have a fund to grant code assigned. This generates salaries for the TRS 3 and TRS 489 reports. In order for a fund to be displayed on this page, the fund must exist in an account code on the Finance Chart of Accounts. The codes are LEA-specific.
❏	Complete unemployment rates Payroll > Tables > Tax/Deductions > Unemployment ❏ In the Calendar Year field, type 2020 and click Retrieve to verify the LEA's preferences. Remember that the 2020 rates are valid until December 2020. ❏ Complete the unemployment rates for the next calendar year if they are available at this time. Otherwise, in January, reference the First Payroll of the Calendar Year Checklist to update this information. Rates are LEA specific.
❏	Verify/update Workers' Compensation rates Payroll > Tables > Tax/Deductions > Workers’ Compensation Verify that the workers' compensation rates are accurate for the new school year. If not, update the rates. For example, if the Workers' Compensation letter provides a rate of .001792, move the decimal two places to the right and enter that number in the Net Rate field. Codes, descriptions, and rates are LEA-specific. Note: The number of months in the contract should correlate with the number of workers' compensation payments. For example, if the employee has a 10-month contract, then the employee will have ten workers' compensation payments for the year. Use the User Created Reports to verify the number of Workers' Compensation remaining payments. If the report displays an incorrect number of remaining payments, use the Payroll > Utilities > Mass Update > Employee tab to reset the number of remaining payments.
❏	(If applicable) Update substitute information Update the substitute information on the Personnel > Tables > Salaries > Substitute tab.
❏	Generate the Account Code Comparison report Payroll > Reports > Payroll Information Reports > HRS6000 - Account Code Comparison Complete the applicable report parameters and generate the report. Print and/or save this report and review it for accuracy. Review the report and correct all of the errors. Verify that all employee master distribution records have matching accounts in Finance. If there are account codes on the report that do not exist in Finance, perform one of the following steps: If there are accounts that have a 5 for July and August start employees, perform a mass update of Payroll distributions. You can either mass update records by fund/year using the Payroll > Utilities > Mass Change Payroll Account Codes > Mask Crosswalk page OR mass update all records by using the Fiscal Year field on the Payroll > Utilities > Mass Update > Employee tab. Employees who are paid out of federal funds may need their distributions reviewed and changed for a different fund year, if necessary. For example, federal funds may still be available for the previous year. If there are other accounts that need to be added, add them on the Finance > Maintenance > Create Chart of Accounts page. After all of the account codes are added, generate the Payroll > Reports > Payroll Information Reports > HRS6000 - Account Code Comparison report again. If all account codes exist, a blank report should be generated.
❏	Generate the Employee Payroll Listing report Payroll > Reports > Payroll Information Reports > HRS6150 - Employee Payroll Listing OR Payroll > Reports > User Created Report The report provides a single-spaced list of employees that includes the tax information, contract information, pay rates, and primary job account code. Print the report by employee name for the entire district or group the report by campus. Include all employees, those with an active status or inactive status. When primary job (P) is not selected, all jobs are displayed with one account per job with a total for all jobs displayed. The criteria for which account is chosen to display for a job are as follows: The account with the highest percent. If there is more than one account with the highest percent for a job, the lowest account is displayed. Complete the applicable report parameters and generate the report. Print and/or save this report and review it for accuracy. Verify that all current employees are listed.
❏	Correct necessary payroll errors Payroll > Utilities > Pre-Edit Payroll Data If applicable, correct necessary payroll errors for employees with August contracts. ❏ Under Pay Status, select Active. ❏ In the Pay Type field, select E Exclude Substitute. ❏ In the Pay Date field, select the first available pay date (LEA's first pay date). ❏ Click Execute. Review the report. ❏ Click OK. Keep in mind that the errors displayed on this report are not exactly the same as the errors received during the Run Payroll process. Be sure to review and correct errors as needed and repeat the process until all necessary errors are corrected. There is a possibility that not all errors require a correction.
❏	Address leave Payroll > Utilities > Mass Update > Leave Update the employee master leave record balances. ❏ In the current year payroll frequency, generate the Payroll > Reports > Leave Information Reports > HRS7350 - Leave Status Report for active employees and exclude substitutes. Print and/or save this report and review it for accuracy. ❏ Use the Payroll > Utilities > Mass Update > Leave tab to update employee master leave record balances. This is a three-step process. Leave type codes are LEA-specific. 1a. This step clears the Leave Used and Leave Earned fields and rolls the ending balances to the following year beginning balances: Under Pay Status, select Active. In the Pay Type field, select E Exclude Substitute. Under Method, select Zero Leave Values for Employees. Under Leave Earned and Leave Used, select all leave types to be set to zero for the new school year. Be sure to process both options at the same time to prevent inaccurate balances. Do not select End Balance unless you want to set the balance to zero for that specific leave type. If this field is not selected, the 2024-2025 ending balances are rolled to the beginning balance fields for the 2025-2026 school year. Click Execute. Review and print the report. 1b. You may have leave codes for which you want to zero the end-of-year balance. For example, Jury Duty, School Business, etc. Under Pay Status, select Active. In the Pay Type field, select E Exclude Substitute. Under Method, select Zero Leave Values for Employees. Select Leave Earned, Leave Used, and End Balance for all leave types you want to zero out completely and not carry forward ending balances. Click Execute. Review and print the report. If the report is accurate, click Process to complete the changes. 2. This step automatically adds leave types to active employees who do not have the leave type assigned on their leave balance record. This step must be completed before leave is mass incremented in step 3. Under Pay Status, select Active. In the Pay Type field, select E Exclude Substitute. Under Method, select Add Leave Code to Employees. In the New Code field, select the leave code. Do not add balances. Click Execute. Review and print the report. The report only displays the employees who will have the leave code added. Repeat this step for each leave type to be added before it is incremented in step 3. 3. This step increments leave earned to employees: Note: If you have a maximum balance designated on the leave type table, this step will not allow the leave balance to exceed the maximum number set on the leave type table. Under Pay Status, select Active. In the Pay Type field, select E Exclude Substitute. Under Method, select Increment Leave Earned to Employees. Select Leave Earned for the applicable leave types (as defined in your local policy). In the Increment field, enter the number of days to increment. Click Execute. Review and print the report. The report includes a list of those employees who have reached a maximum of any leave type. If the report is accurate, click Continue. The second report displays the newly incremented leave earned and the new ending balances. Click Process. Click OK. For new employees, leave balances must be individually updated from their service record information on the Payroll > Maintenance > Staff Job/Pay Data > Leave Balance tab. ❏ Use the Payroll > Reports > Leave Information Reports > HRS7350 - Leave Status Report to verify the accuracy of the leave information. Print and/or save this report and review it for accuracy. If necessary, use the Payroll > Maintenance > Staff Job/Pay Data > Leave Balance tab to make changes to individual employees who are working less than the full school year or less than 100% percent of the day.

Caution: Before the first payroll of the school year is processed, you must post the master file created from the EOY Payroll Accrual process. If you do not use this process for accruals, bypass applicable steps.

❏	Post to master file Payroll > Payroll Processing > EOY Payroll Accruals > Post to Master Skip this step if you are a June year-end LEA or if your LEA does not use this process for accruals. CAUTION: Before the first payroll of the school year is processed, you must post the master file that was created during the August Accruals process. The Post to Master tab automatically creates a School YTD Maintenance page for the new school year and updates the page with accrued pay, accrued benefits, and days earned for all employees that are included in the record. ❏ Select a data row to be posted. If more than one frequency is used, there may be multiple data rows displayed. ❏ Click Post. The following message is displayed. ❏ Click OK.
❏	(If applicable) Verify the accrual expense table Payroll > Tables > Accrual Expense If your LEA accrues, verify the accrual expense table and update the fund/fiscal year to reflect the fiscal year for the new school year (e.g., 199/X and 211/X). Be sure to include all funds with payroll expenses. Also, add new fund codes if necessary.
❏	Generate the School YTD report Payroll > Reports > Year To Date Reports > HRS3050 - School Year to Date Report Complete the applicable report parameters and generate the report. Print and/or save this report and review it for accuracy. ❏ Verify that the accrual data is correctly posted for the 2026 school year. ❏ Use the Accrual Information Reports that were printed during the August Accrual Process to verify information. Accruals for employees who accrue monthly and who were included in the EOY payroll accrual process are displayed. Non-accrued employees are not displayed.
❏	Generate the School YTD Accrual Payroll Account Distribution Report Payroll > Reports > Year To Date Reports > HRS3550 - School YTD Accrual Payroll Account Distr Complete the applicable report parameters and generate the report. Print and/or save this report and review it for accuracy. Verify the accrual amounts balance with the amounts on the HRS3050 - School Year to Date Report.
❏	Generate the Employee Verification report Personnel > Reports > Personnel Reports > HRS1100 - Employee Verification Report OR Payroll > Reports > Personnel Reports > HRS1100 - Employee Verification Report Run the report with the Pay Status Active (A), Inactive (I), or blank for ALL parameter set to A - Print active employees only and the Pay Type 1-4, Exclude Subs (E), or blank for ALL parameter set to E - Exclude substitute employees from the report. Print and/or save this report and review it for accuracy. Verify that the employee information (e.g., years of experience) is correct to start the new school year. If individual corrections are needed, use the Personnel > Maintenance > Employment Info tab to update the employee's record.
❏	(If necessary) Mass update employee experience Personnel > Utilities > Mass Update > Employee If your LEA has not already done so, increment the years of total professional and non-professional experience, and the years of district professional and non-professional experience. Additionally, you can use this page to increment the prior years of teaching experience for those individuals in a teaching role. The Prior Teaching Experience is the total number of years that an individual has previously held a teaching position in one or more education institutions and is collected during the PEIMS Core Collection: Class Roster. If this process has not already been completed, it must be done at this time. It is highly important to confirm that it is completed. The Commissioner's Rules on Creditable Years of Service, Title 19, Texas Administrative Code (TAC) §153.1021, serve as a baseline for minimum requirements when determining an individual's years of experience. The Prof Experience Yrs and Non-Prof Experience Yrs should be incremented in separate instances. Total (Prof) Experience: ❏ Click Execute. The Employee Mass Update Report is displayed. ❏ Click Process. The following message is displayed. Total (Non-Prof) Experience: ❏ Click Execute. The Employee Mass Update Report is displayed. ❏ Click Process. The following message is displayed. Use the Personnel > Reports > Personnel Reports > HRS1100 - Employee Verification Report to verify the accuracy of the years of experience. Prior Teaching Experience: ❏ Click Execute. The Employee Mass Update Report is displayed. ❏ Click Process. The following message is displayed. Responsibility: ❏ Click Execute. The Responsibility Employee Mass Update Report is displayed. ❏ Click Process. The following message is displayed.
❏	Verify payoff dates Payroll > Reports > User Created Reports Verify that all pay type 1 and 2 employees have payoff dates that match the pay dates in the pay dates table. (June, July, and August as referenced in Step 9 of the ASCENDER - First Payroll of the School Year (September Start LEAs).
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