BEST Shared Services
System Status & Updates
| Key: |
| Date | Time | Update |
| 08/27/2010 | 4:20 pm | As a follow up to the BEACON Help upgrade announced earlier this week, please note that we are postponing the upgrade due to technical issues discovered as a part of the upgrade process. We are working with our vendor to resolve these issues so that we can publish a better site for our users. We do not have a timeframe as of today when the upgrade will go into production. You will be able to continue using the current site. We will be working very diligently to upgrade the site as soon as possible. Please continue checking the portal and BEST Website for updates. We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause you and your agency. |
| 08/25/2010 | 10:15 am | As part of an upgrade to the BEACON Help website over this weekend, BEACON Help will be changing its URL. As of Monday, August 30, 2010, http://help.mybeacon.nc.gov/beaconhelp will be changing to http://help.mybeacon.nc.gov/help. The BEACON Help website will still be accessible through SAP and the various OSC website locations. NOTE: This upgrade will cause any previously bookmarked links to BEACON Help to break. Going forward, BEACON Help documents will be posted without versions or revision dates. The file name will remain static, allowing the user to access the latest and greatest version of that file. Revision dates will be visible within each document. This will greatly reduce broken links in the future for the user community. To offset the breaks in previously bookmarked links, a Job Aid will be available to demonstrate the new Search and Index features that are available through the upgraded BEACON Help. This will help users locate those files that they access most often. Another Job Aid will be provided to explain some of the new features and changes to the file structure. The file structure changes are minimal and will allow the user to access documents with fewer clicks and drill-downs. When you first access BEACON Help on Monday, be sure to look for both of these Job Aids in the folder labeled General Information & Troubleshooting. As always, if you need assistance you can contact the BEST Call Center. If you have any problems accessing BEACON Help on Monday, August 30th, please enter a ticket with BEST by calling 919-707-0707 or 1-866-622-3784, or by emailing BEST at BEST@osc.nc.gov. |
| 08/20/2010 | 8:30 am | The ESS/MSS issues have been resolved. If you continue to experience problems, call BEST Shared Services at 919-707-0707. |
| 08/20/2010 | 7:50 am | BEACON is experiencing ESS/MSS issues this morning. There are some instances where employees are missing the ESS tab. The Production Support team is aware of the issue and working to resolve. Please continue to check back for further updates. |
| 08/06/2010 | 12:05 pm | The ESS-MSS issues have been resolved. If you continue to experience problems, notify BEST Shared Services at 919-707-0707. |
| 08/06/2010 | 11:40 am | We are currently experiencing issues with ESS-MSS on the BEACON system. Please continue to check back for further updates as we have them. |
| 07/28/2010 | 4:55 pm | OrgPlus will not be available after 5:30 pm on Thursday, July 29th due to routine maintenance. We expect OrgPlus to be available Friday, July 30, 2010. |
| 07/26/2010 | 2:00 pm | The problem with the NCID login on the BEACON Production System should now be corrected. If you continue to experience problems, please call 919-707-0707. |
| 07/26/2010 | 11:25 am | We are currently experiencing NCID Login problems on the BEACON Production System. We are looking into the issue now. |
| 07/01/2010 | 3:24 pm | Details for the Process for Finalizing the Year-End Compensated Absences Report available here. |
| 06/28/2010 | 12:35 pm | All system issues have been resolved and production should be back to a normal status. |
| 06/28/2010 | 12:11 pm | There are still some users experiencing problems logging into the SAP Portal. The Portal Team is still working on the issues. Users are advised to try accessing the portal from the following link: https://mybeacon.its.state.nc.us/irj/portal Further updates will be posted as soon as information is available. |
| 06/28/2010 | 11:00 am | BEACON Servers are now online. |
| 06/28/2010 | 10:30 am | BEACON Servers are experiencing Network Issues. We are currently working on the problem. The estimated up time is 10:45 am. |
| 06/28/2010 | 9:35 am | BEACON ERP is experiencing connectivity issues this morning which requires us to recycle the applications. This process should take approximately 30 -45 minutes. If you are still experiencing problems after 10:15, please contact BEST at BEST@osc.nc.gov or 919-707-0707. |
| 06/28/2010 | 8:45 am | BEACON experienced some network issues this morning that have been corrected. Please log out of the portal and back in. If you still experience problems logging in, please contact BEST Shared Services at BEST@osc.nc.gov or 919-707-0707. |
| 06/18/2010 | 11:30 am | The BEACON servers have resumed normal operations and the SAP system should be back at this time. |
| 06/18/2010 | 9:45 am | ITS is experiencing network issues that are affecting the BEACON servers. They are currently working on the problem and there is no estimated time up. |
| 06/16/2010 | 9:30 am | ID Cards for Employees: The employee ID number as found on the employee ID card will continue to be available to each employee using Employee Self Service (ESS) on the state portal website https://mybeacon.its.state.nc.us/irj/portal via any of the following:
Employees may contact their respective Human Resources office or BEST Shared Services at 919-707-0707. As the employee ID is not a requisite for contacting the BEST Shared Services Center, employees will continue to be able to obtain assistance using their name and other employee specific identifiers when contacting BEST Shared Services. Agencies desiring to obtain employee ID cards may contact the Department of Corrections Quick Copy Center at 919-733-7492 for printing and pricing information. Please contact BEST Shared Services at 919-707-0707 should you have questions or require additional information. |
| 06/03/2010 | 1:20 pm | Portal Access and BI Reports: Access to BI reports will be unavailable starting at noon on Friday, June 11th due to system maintenance activities. We expect to have access again at 7:00 am on Monday, June 14th. |
| 05/25/2010 | 4:21pm | OrgPlus: OrgPlus will be unavailable this weekend, for routine maintenance beginning Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 6pm. We expect OrgPlus to be available Tuesday, June 1, 2010. |
| 05/14/2010 | 9:52am | Weekend System Access: The HR/Payroll system will be unavailable from 2:00 pm to 12:00 am on Sunday, May 16th due to system maintenance. |
| 03/19/2010 | 11:12am | Weekend System Access: The HR/Payroll system will be unavailable during the normal maintenance window this Sunday, March 21st, between 2 and 5:00 PM. |
| 03/11/2010 | 12:00pm | System Availability: |
| 03/02/2010 | 3:50pm | Weekend System Access: On Saturday, March 6th at 8:00am, access to the Portal will be unavailable in order to prepare the system for the upcoming State Health Plan open enrollment period. The estimated time to complete this task is unknown, but it will take at least 6-12 hours. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. |
| 03/02/2010 | 1:05pm | System Availability: The system is back up and normal operations can resume. |
| 03/02/2010 | 11:50am | System Availability: The system will be coming down at 12 noon (03/02/10) and will be down for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. Continue checking the BEST system status for further updates. |
| 03/02/2010 | 9:05am | Bi-weekly Payroll: The time eval for monthly employees did not successfully complete during the nightly run on 3/1. Time eval for monthly employees will not be re-processed today. It will run tonight as scheduled and pick up any entries from 3/1 and 3/2 in the nightly process. |
| 02/13/2010 | 1:45pm | W2 Reprint through ESS The ability to view and reprint your W-2 is now available via ESS. Although W-2’s are still sent to the employee’s mailing address, ESS users now have the ability to view and print a “Reissued Statement” of their 2009 W-2. This copy can be used if the user’s original W-2 is lost or damaged. Please click on “My Pay” for more details on how to print your W-2. |
| 02/12/2010 | 8:30am | W2 Reprint through ESS The ability to view and reprint your W-2 via ESS is coming soon. We are in the final stages of testing this functionality, and our goal is to make it available to employees as soon as possible. Please continue to check the BEST Website or Portal News for updates on the availability of this feature. If you need a W2 reprinted immediately, you may call BEST Shared Services to request one - there is a 36-48 business hour turn-around time on reprints handled by BEST Shared Services. |
| 02/08/2010 | 8:00am | Adverse Weather Processing Adverse Weather processing changes were implemented over the weekend of February 7th. The majority of issues that we previously had with Adverse Weather have been corrected. If you have used Adverse Weather in the past, you may see a change in your leave balances. All agencies have been notified of this weekend's activities. |
| 01/29/2010 | 10:40am | W2's Mailed W2's for the 2009 year have been printed and were mailed on January 27th by zip code location. Please allow 7-10 days to receive your W2 statement. Reprint requests for W2's will begin on February 10. If you have not received your W2 by February 10, 2010, you may call BEST Shared Services to request a reprint. |
| 01/15/2010 | 10:20am | System Availability 1/15-1/19 The HR/Payroll system will be unavailable starting at 6:00pm on Friday, January 15 due to system maintenance. The system will be available no later than 7:00am on Tuesday, January 19. |
| 12/07/2009 | 9:15am | HR/Payroll System The HR/Payroll system will be unavailable starting at 6:00pm on Friday, December 11th due to system maintenance. The system will be available no later than 7:00am on Monday, December 14th. |
| 11/24/2009 | 2:44pm | OSC BEACON System The OSC BEACON system will be unavailable from 2:00PM to 8:00PM on Sunday, November 29th due to system maintenance. |
| 11/12/2009 | 8:25am | System Availability 11/13-11/15 The HR/Payroll system will be unavailable starting at 7:00pm on Friday, November 13, due to system maintenance. It will be available no later than 7:00am Monday, Novermber 15. |
| 11/09/2009 | 8:30am | BI Benefit Load Failure The weekly benefit load failed this weekend. Data for the benefit reports is current as of October 31, 2009. |
Previous Updates
| 12/09/09 | 2:10pm | December 2009 Pay Day Pay day for monthly employees will be December 23rd. Biweekly employees will also be paid on December 23rd. |
| 12/07/2009 | 9:30am | System Availability 12/11-12/13 |
| 11/24/2009 | 2:44pm | OSC BEACON System The OSC BEACON system will be unavailable from 2:00PM to 8:00PM on Sunday, November 29th due to system maintenance. |
| 11/12/2009 | 8:25am | System Availability 11/13-11/15 The HR/Payroll system will be unavailable starting at 7:00pm on Friday, November 13, due to system maintenance. It will be available no later than 7:00am Monday, Novermber 15. |
| 11/09/2009 | 8:30am | BI Benefit Load Failure The weekly benefit load failed this weekend. Data for the benefit reports is current as of October 31, 2009. |
| 10/06/2009 | 1:30pm | Notice to All Employees Currently Receiving Payroll via Direct Deposit – IAT Rules Banking industry rules for Direct Deposit are changing. New rules require the State, as an employer, to change how it transfers Direct Deposit data to the bank when the entire payment amount is subsequently transferred to a non-US bank account. The rules are known as International ACH Transaction (IAT) rules. If you receive your payment by Direct Deposit at a US financial institution and then have the entire payment amount forwarded to a bank in another country, please notify your payroll office. This employee notice allows the State to comply with the IAT rules and the applicable US Law. More detailed information for employees about the IAT rules can be found on the State Controller’s website: http://www.osc.nc.gov/SECP/IAT_Employees.html |
| 10/06/2009 | 8:00am | BI Data The BI data load failed last night. BI Data is current as of 9/30/2009. |
| 10/05/2009 | 8:20am | BI Data The BI data load failed this morning. Data is current as of 09/30/2009. |
| 10/02/2009 | 8:00am | BI Data There was a problem with the BI data load last night. BI data is current as of 9/30/09. |
| 09/19/2009 | 5:30pm | System Availability Update The system is now available. |
| 09/16/2009 | 4:30pm | System Availability The OSC BEACON system will be unavailable starting at 7:00pm on Friday, September 18th, due to a system upgrade. It will be available no later than 7:00am Monday, September 21st. |
| 09/16/2009 | 10:20am | BEST Phones are Down - Update Phone service to BEST has been restored. |
| 09/16/2009 | 10:00am | BEST Phones are Down The BEST Shared Services Center is experiencing technical difficulties with the phone system. Please e-mail any questions or concerns to best@ncosc.net. Please watch this page for updates. |
| 09/09/2009 | 8:00am | Portal Availability on Sunday (9/13) The OSC BEACON system will be unavailable from 12:00 Midnight to 12:00 Noon Sunday morning, September 13th, due to an ITS Infrastructure upgrade. |
| 09/04/2009 | 10:30am | New Call Center Hours To better serve our customers, the new hours for the call center will be 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and will be effective Monday, November 2, 2009. This change will allow the Call Center to operate more efficiently given both our current resources and the decreased demand for services from our customers after 5 p.m. |
| 08/26/2009 | 2:35pm | Payroll Processing Completed Payroll processing has completed and the system is now available for normal use. |
| 08/26/2009 | 8:52 am | Payroll System Locked Due to payroll finalization running, BEACON will be locked for transaction processing until payroll has completed. Users can still inquire and view, but cannot maintain. Users should continue to check back for further updates and a message will be posted when payroll has completed. |
| 07/20/2009 | 1:00pm | Issue with ESS Time Entry When Using Daily View Has Been Resolved
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| 07/20/2009 | 10:50am | Daily BI Load Failed This Morning The Daily BI Load failed this morning. Data is current as of 7/16/09. |
| 07/16/2009 | 7:30am | The Incorrect Tax Withholding Status Being Displayed on Pay Statements Accessed Through ESS Has Been Resolved
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| 07/15/2009 | 10:10am | Incorrect Tax Withholding Status Being Displayed on Pay Statements Accessed Through ESS Employees who access their pay statements through ESS will notice that their pay statements may not be displaying their correct tax filing status. This is only a display issue that arose from this weekend’s system patching. Once again, taxes have been charged at the correct amount, they are just currently displaying incorrectly. To see your filing status, in ESS go to My Personal Data and click the Tax Withholding Information link. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. |
| 07/14/2009 | 11:30am | Issue with ESS Time Entry When Using Daily View Those employees who use the Daily View feature in Employee Self Service to add notes (Details) when they enter time are currently receiving an error message when they click the "Details" link. The OSC BEACON team has made this a high priority issue and is currently working to resolve it. |
| 07/09/2009 | 9:30am | System Availability The OSC BEACON portal will be unavailable from 6 p.m. on Friday, July 10 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 12, for maintenance.Active |
| 06/29/2009 | 11:40am | The System Is Operating Normally The system is operating normally. However, users should close down their web browser, then open a new browser session before logging back in. |
| 06/29/2009 | 9:45am | Working to Resolve Slow System Response Times The OSC BEACON team is aware of the system’s slow response times. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. |
| 06/26/2009 | 7:30am | This Weekend's Portal Downtime The OSC BEACON portal will be unavailable beginning Saturday, June 27, at 6 p.m. till Sunday, June 28, at 6 a.m. for system patching. |
| 06/25/2009 | 3:20pm | Process for Finalizing the Year-End Compensated Absences Report The OSC BEACON team has simplified the process for finalizing the year-end compensated absences report. The June 30, 2009, vacation and bonus leave balances in the state’s new human resources and payroll system will be utilized in this process and must be up-to-date. To meet this requirement, all BEACON-impacted agencies must ensure that employee time data through June 30 is recorded, released and approved by no later than July 24. For more details, review the year-end compensated absences report memo. |
| 05/21/2009 | 10:45am | BEACON Payroll Postings for Dual Employment With the May monthly payroll run, dual employment transactions will be retro’ed back to Jan, 2009. This will correct the postings that were done to the wrong distribution for health insurance and retirement. |
| 04/28/2009 | 1:30pm | Letter to State Employees from Governor Perdue Please read the letter to State Employees from Governor Perdue concerning the implementation of a flexible furlough. |
| 04/28/2009 | 12:15pm | Executive Order No. 11 The OSC/BEACON team is working with the Office of State Personnel and the Office of State Budget and Management to fully understand Executive order No. 11 (Establishing and Implementing a Flexible Furlough Plan for the 2008-09 Fiscal Year). This office will share the details regarding the process for implementing the governor’s order as soon as possible. Note:This change will not impact the monthly April pay date or the biweekly May 1 pay date. |
| 04/28/2009 | 11:15am | BI Unavailable BI will unavailable today beginning at 12:00pm for approximately an hour. |
| 04/21/2009 | 7:45am | BI The BI data load failed this morning. The data is current as of 4/19. |
| 04/17/2009 | 1:10pm | BI Reporting Availability In order to implement some BI reporting features, all BI Reporting will be unavailable from 5:00pm today through 12:00pm on Saturday. |
| 04/15/2009 | 2:30pm | New Organizational Chart Functionality As part of Release 1, HR Core Users with the "Display OM" or the "HR Data Maintainer Role" will have access to view Organizational Charts via the portal. Starting April 20th, users with these roles will have a tab labeled "OrgCharts". Please review information in this tab and take the web based training if you are interested in using this new feature. |
| 04/08/2009 | 8:00am | BI Data Load Failure The BI data load failed last night. BI data is current as of 04/06/2009. |
| 04/03/2009 | 8:45am | OSC BEACON Portal Does Not Support Internet Explorer 8 Microsoft recently released Internet Explorer 8 as its updated web browser. Because this is a new browser, it is not currently supported by the OSC BEACON portal and cannot be used to access Employee Self Service (ESS), Manager Self Service (MSS) or the SAP GUI tab. Currently, we only support IE 6 and 7. |
| 04/01/2009 | 8:45am | Improvements To Business Intelligence Report Processing Beginning April 5, Business Intelligence (BI) report users will notice some changes when they access and pull BI reports. Overall, processing times for running BI reports should improve. However, the order of an individual's BI reports may change from the order they are accustomed.In addition, BI users who have access to a significant number of reports (twenty-plus) may notice slower login times (an increase from approximately 5 to 10 seconds). The good news is that the longer login times should only occur the first time a BI users accesses the system each day. The large majority of BI users, who access a small number of reports, should not notice a significant difference in their login times. The advantage to making this change is that BI transactions will now run in their own environment, separate from Employee and Manager Self Service transactions, which provides for improved report processing. |
| 03/31/2009 | 3:30pm | Reminder: Federal Stimulus Bill To Impact Employee Pay Tax code changes approved by the federal government will go into effect beginning with the March payroll. DOT and temporary employees will notice a slight pay difference in their March 20 deposit, whereas employees who are paid monthly will notice a difference in their March 31 deposit. This change was effective as of Feb. 17. For detailed information on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus bill, click here. |
| 03/26/2009 | 7:30am | Information Regarding PCRs Dated July 1, 2009 and Later To support fiscal year end, most PCRs dated July 1, 2009 or later may not be created until further notice.Active |
| 03/19/2009 | 3:30pm | Federal Stimulus Bill To Impact Employee Pay Tax code changes approved by the federal government will go into effect beginning with the March payroll. DOT and temporary employees will notice a slight pay difference in their March 20 deposit, whereas employees who are paid monthly will notice a difference in their March 31 deposit. This change was effective as of Feb. 17. For detailed information on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus bill, visit www.recovery.gov. |
| 03/12/2009 | 10:00am | New Call Center Hours - 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. To better serve our customers, the new hours for the call center will be 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and will be effective beginning April 1, 2009. We anticipate that this change will mean shorter call wait times, plus it will allow us to truly set up a tiered staffing approach. Additionally, this change will allow us to be more flexible with training opportunities for our staff, which will in turn allow them to better serve you. |
| 03/12/2009 | 10:00am | Issue with Holiday Leave Quotas The OSC BEACON team has identified an issue with the processing of holiday leave quota records. The effect is that employees may be able to record more hours of holiday leave than they actually have in their holiday quota bucket. We are currently working on a solution. Until the OSC BEACON team can correct the processing issue, managers and time keepers are asked to review employee holiday leave balances prior to approving and/or entering these absence types (9300). Time administrators can check for employees who may have already accrued a negative holiday leave balance by running transaction PT_BAL00, selecting variant /NEGHOLIDAY, and specifying the employees whose records should be reviewed. To correct the records of employees who may already have a negative holiday balance, someone with the authorized security role should change the excess 9300 absence records to another absence type. |
| 03/05/2009 | 5:06 pm | Production System Outage The production system will be down from 6:00 PM Saturday, March 7th until 6:00 AM Sunday, March 8th in addition to the normal maintenance windows. |
| 03/02/2009 | 12:52pm | Hours of Operation for 03/02/09 Due to adverse weather conditions, BEST Shared Services will close at 5:30pm on Monday, March 3, 2009. |
| 02/02/2009 | 10:00am | Time Statements Are Now Available: Time statements, dating back to May 2008, are now accessible through Employee Self Service for employees and in SAP for core users. Job aids have been developed to better explain the time statement, as well as to help employees and core users alike access and print the statements. Access:
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| 02/03/2009 | 11:30am |
W-2 Statements We have discovered a couple of issues with the recently mailed W-2 statements.
In either case, revised W-2 statements will be generated for impacted employees and be distributed as soon as possible. |
| 02/05/2009 | 4:00pm | W-2 Update W-2 statements that had to be reprinted because of issues with either box #10 or box #11, have been delivered to the post office. Employees should begin receiving these updated W-2 statements over the coming days. Also, we have received calls from some employees explaining that when they attempt to e-file their tax returns they receive invalid employer tax identification errors. We followed up with the IRS (view the IRS letter) and they confirmed that our employer tax identification number is correct. The e-file problem seems to be associated with those individuals who are attempting to use the service via the Internal Revenue Service website. As a reminder, employees in agencies that went live with BEACON in the second go-live group (April 2008) will receive two W-2 statements, one generated from the Central Payroll System and another from the new system, for the 2008 work year. It is important to note that these W-2 statements have two different tax identification numbers, and as such, employees must report both numbers on their tax returns. |
| 02/10/2009 | 9:50am | No New Hire Transactions Should be Conducted Saturday Because the ORBIT Retirement system will be unavailable Saturday, Feb. 14, the BEACON system will not be able to process new hires. The new hire and the non-BEACON to BEACON transactions will be locked throughout the day. |
| 02/11/2009 | 2:30pm | NCAS Wage Types 1709 and 1712 Posting Changes For NCAS agencies wage types 1709-On Call Pay and 1712- Holiday On Call Pay have been posting to the salary accounts (53121X, 5313X, etc). Effective with the February payroll these two wage types will be changed to post to SAP account 50144000-Callback/Standby Premium Pay, which crosswalks to NCAS account - 53144X. If your agency has on call pay please make sure all fiscal/budget/payroll areas are made aware of this change. |
| 02/12/2009 | 7:30am | BI The BI data load failed this morning. The data is current as of 2/10. |
| 02/12/2009 | 12:00pm | Update Regarding Conducting New Hire Transactions on Saturday The ORBIT Retirement system will now be unavailable on Saturday, Feb. 21, as opposed to this Saturday, Feb. 14, as originally planned. Because of this, new hire and non-BEACON to BEACON transactions will be locked throughout the day on Feb. 21. |
| 02/24/2009 | 11:50am | 2008 Time and Payroll Wall The payroll and time wall will be put in place today upon completion of the February payroll for employees who are paid monthly and at the end of the week for employees who are paid biweekly. What this means is that agencies will no longer be able to make time and payroll changes for the 2008 tax year. Agencies that have situations arise requiring them to make a change to 2008 time and payroll data will need to submit a ticket to Best Shared Services via e-mail with the following information:
The Shared Services center will:
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| 01/05/2008 | 7:45am | PO13 Changes Impacting Infotype List: Recently a change was made to PO13 to remove infotypes not used by the state. PO13 users will notice that the position infotype list has been condensed. It is our hope that removing infotypes not needed will reduce confusion for PO13 users. |
| 01/07/2008 | 11:00am | Payroll Requisitions: The payroll requisitions for the 01/09/2009 payday will post to CMCS on Thursday, January 8. Please make sure there is someone available to submit the requisitions by 11:00AM. |
| 01/07/2008 | 3:00pm | Vacation Year-End Rollover Update: All 2009 time for all employees can now be entered and approved in the system. The year-end rollover of vacation leave to sick leave for employees with more than 240 hours of vacation leave as of Dec. 31, 2008, will take place this weekend. |
01/08/2008 |
4:00pm | Upcoming Time Recalculation Information: |
| 01/09/2008 | 8:30am | BI: The BI data load failed this morning. The data is current as of 1/7. |
| 01/09/2009 | 1:30pm | W2s: For Wave 1 agencies that went live on January 1, 2008: W2 statements will be generated from the BEACON system and will be mailed directly to the employee's home address as listed in the BEACON system. For Wave 2 agencies that went live on April 1, 2008: Further questions on W2 statements and distribution should be directed to the BEST Shared Services Call Center at 919-707-0707 or 1-866-622-3784. |
| 01/12/2009 | 12:15pm | Quota Balance Adjustments: Some employees may notice that they now have a holiday comp balance. A holiday comp balance would have appeared for those employees who either did not or only partially used any given 2008 state holiday 30 days prior or 30 days after the holiday took place. Moving forward, holiday leave will automatically roll over to holiday comp when appropriate. If someone in your respective agency created a 2013 record to manually move holiday leave (subtype 40) to holiday comp time (subtype 22), we request that you delete these records as soon as possible. 2013 records created for other purposes should be reviewed. The easiest way to review 2013 records is to use the ZPT2013 SAP report. Use normal reporting search criteria to identify the appropriate 2013 records to review. We request that you review and delete appropriate 2013 records by January 24 to ensure that the time statements, when made accessible on January 26, are as accurate as possible. If you have any questions regarding these records, contact BEST Shared Services. |
| 01/14/2009 | 8:30am | BI: The BI data load failed this morning. The data is current as of 1/12. |
| 01/20/2009 | 8:15am | BI: The BI data load failed this morning. The data is current as of 1/18. |
| 01/20/2009 | 8:20am | BEST Operating Under Adverse Weather Schedule: |
| 01/20/2009 | 12:15pm | BEST Operating Under Adverse Weather Schedule - Update The Office of the State Controller BEST Shared Services Center is operating under adverse weather procedures. We are currently unable to assist our customers via phone, but we are able to assist you through email. If you will email BEST at BEST@osc.nc.gov, we will be happy to assist you. Please be sure to include your complete name, BEACON Employee ID number and complete phone number when sending an email message to us. If you are a core user and inquiring about an employee, please be sure you include the employee’s complete name and BEACON ID number. Please be very specific as to what your question or issue is so that we may accurately research or escalate to the correct group for assistance. We thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation during this time of interrupted service. |
| 01/21/2009 | 11:25am | Longevity Report Enhancements An enhanced version of the B0064 Estimated Longevity Eligibility report is now available. The report extends its estimate to a full 12 months (selecting January/YYYY in the variable entry screen will project a full calendar year). In addition it has been filtered so that only those individuals who are due a longevity payment within the 12-month time frame will be selected in the result set. The enhanced report also includes a total by month, and an overall total for the 12-month period selected. |
| 01/21/2009 | 2:36pm | BEST Adverse Weather Schedule Update |
| 01/23/2009 | 9:30am | Weekend System Downtime The BEACON System will be unavailable beginning at 7 p.m. today, January 23, through 7 a.m. Sunday, January 25, for W-2 processing. |
| 01/25/2009 | 7:45am | System Down Until Further Notice W-2 processing is still ongoing. The system will be brought up later today. |
| 01/26/2009 | 2:30pm | Time Statement Rollout Update Due to W-2 processing taking longer than anticipated, the time statement release will be delayed until Feb. 2. Moving the date will allow us to finalize W-2 activities (processing, printing and mailing), and ensure we are better able to respond to employee questions once the January payroll is finished. |
| 01/29/2009 | 7:50am | BI: The BI data load failed this morning. The data is current as of 1/27. |
12/02/2008 |
8:00am | BI:
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12/03/2008 |
7:30am | BI: |
12/04/2008 |
7:50am | BI: |
12/04/2008 |
4:00pm | Nightly Portal Maintenance Window Extended by 30 Minutes Tonight: |
| 12/05/2008 | 7:30am | No New Hire Transactions Should be Conducted Over the Weekend: Because the ORBIT Retirement system will be unavailable over the weekend, the BEACON system will not be able to process new hires. The New Hire and the Non-BEACON to BEACON transactions will be locked beginning at 8pm today through 7am on Monday. |
| 12/10/2008 | 12:20pm | System Access: There was an earlier issue with receiving a message in SAP functions of no read authorization. Per the Security team, this issue has now been resolved. |
| 12/12/2008 | 11:30am | Annual Rollover of Vacation Leave to Sick Leave: In preparation for the year-end process of rolling over balances for employees with more than 240 hours of vacation leave to sick leave, please ensure that all employee time, especially those with a balance of more than 240 vacation leave hours, is entered and approved in the system by Dec. 31, 2008. |
| 12/12/2008 | 4:50pm | System Availability: The portal will be unavailable beginning at 8pm tonight, Friday 12/12, until Noon tomorrow, Saturday, 12/13. |
| 12/16/2008 | 5:00pm | PO13: If you are having problems accessing PO13, choose Settings/Select Aspect/Beacon OM Aspect. This will remove infotypes not used. The issue with this change will be resolved by the end of the week at which time the Setting will be selected automatically when you log in. |
| 12/19/2008 | 9:00am | Payroll Requisitions: The payroll requisitions for the 12/23/2008 payday did not post to CMCS today. OSC is aware of the issue and is currently working on a resolution. We will update this page once the issue has been resolved. Thank you for your patience. |
| 12/19/2008 | 9:15am | Payroll Requisitions Update: The payroll requisitions for the 12/23/2008 payday will be posted on Monday, December 22nd. Please make sure there is someone available to submit the requisitions by 11:00AM. If agencies have not submitted their requisitions by 11:00AM on Monday, OSC will automatically submit them on your behalf. |
| 12/29/2008 | 9:30am | BI: The BI data load failed this morning. The data is current as of 12/25. |
| 12/31/2008 | 9:00am | Reminder: Year-End Vacation Rollover Set for Jan. 8: BEST Shared Services will be processing the year-end vacation rollover on the night of January 8, 2009. When time evaluation is run back to December 31, 2008, any hours more than 240 in the Vacation Leave Quota will be moved to the Sick Leave Quota. In order for the rollover calculation to be as accurate as possible, all time entries, quota corrections and quota payouts with 2008 effective dates, which affect the Vacation Quota balance, should be processed before January 8, 2008. Likewise, any entries or records effective for 2009 dates that affect the Vacation Quota balance should be postponed until after January 8, 2009, if at all possible. |
11/03/2008 |
8:30am | Update Regarding Employee Salary Comparison Reports:
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11/04/2008 |
3:45pm | BI Cost Distribution Data Load for the October Month End:
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11/05/2008 |
2:15pm | BEST: |
11/05/2008 |
2:45pm | BEST Update: |
11/21/2008 |
8:45am | Change to the Abolish Position Action Process: |
11/24/2008 |
8:53am | Payroll Requisitions for November Payroll: |
11/24/2008 |
4:00pm | Updated BEACON Security Change Request Form: |
11/25/2008 |
8:25am | BI: |
11/26/2008 |
8:00am | BI: |
10/08/2008 |
11:40am | Security Role Issue: |
| 10/09/2008 | 9:15am | Security Roles: |
| 10/10/2008 | 10:40am | Security Roles: Some HR/Payroll/Time Administrators may experience a loss of some of their access. This is a known issue and work is being done to resolve this as soon as possible. A notice will be posted when this has been resolved. |
| 10/14/2008 | 8:30am | BI Load Failure: |
| 10/20/2008 | 8:00am | New SAP Workflow Reports: |
| 10/20/2008 | 8:30am | Legislative Increase Report Changes: |
| 10/21/2008 | 9:15am | Time Evaluation: |
| 10/22/2008 | 11:40am | HR Master Data Maintainer Access to Some Employee Records: |
| 10/22/2008 | 1:20pm | HR Master Data Maintainer Access to Some Employee Records: |
| 10/22/2008 | 2:00pm | Employee Quota Balances Are Now Available Through MSS: |
| 10/23/2008 | 7:30am | BEACON Update from State Controller David McCoy: |
| 10/24/2008 | 10:45am | Updated December 2008 Payroll Calendar: The December 2008 Payroll dates have been released. Updated calendars are available on the BEST Support page. |
| 10/27/2008 | 8:30am | BI Load Failure: |
| 10/27/2008 | 10:00am | Connectivity Issues: We are experiencing connectivity issues that are resulting in some users being kicked out of the system. Users performing the New Hire action or batch processing are especially at risk of losing connectivity. We are working on this issue and will update this page when more information is available. |
| 10/27/2008 | 12:45pm | Connectivity Issues Update: The system has resumed normal operation. |
| 10/27/2008 | 11:35am | Payroll Correction Run Delay: Due to the system downtime from 12:00pm-1:00pm this afternoon, the normal payroll correction run will be delayed and payroll will be locked from approximately 1:00pm-2:00pm. |
| 10/27/2008 | 11:20am | Connectivity Issues Update: The system will be unavailable from 12:00pm to approximately 1:00pm today while the servers are being restarted to correct the connectivity issues. |
| 10/28/2008 | 8:30am | BI Load Failure: The BI Load did not complete last night. The data in BI is current as of 10/23. |
| 10/29/2008 | 11:00am | Payroll Posting/Requisitions: Payroll postings to NCAS for the 10/31/2008 payroll were posted last night to NCAS. Postings went to SBM with a 10/29/2008 and will post tonight correctly. The CMCS requisitions were not posted but will post tonight and will be in CMCS tomorrow morning for the agency to submit. |
| 09/02/2008 | 11:00am | BEACON Portal Access Update: The portal is now available. |
| 10:00am | BEACON Portal Access: The BEACON portal is being restarted due to poor system performance and should be available around 11:00 am. |
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Notice for 09/07/2008 |
11:00am | BEACON Portal Access Update: The portal is now available. |
| 4:00am | BEACON Portal Access: The BEACON portal and the production system will be down for network maintenance from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7. The regular 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday maintenance window will be suspended this weekend. |
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| 09/12/2008 | 10:45am | BI: |
| 09/15/2008 | 9:00am | BI: The BI cost distribution load failed last night (impacting position, budgeting and vacancy reports). The problem has been identified and the team is working on a solution. It is anticipated that all data will be refreshed by 11 a.m. |
| 09/17/2008 | 9:30am | BI: |
| 09/19/2008 | 7:30am | OM Workflow Screens for New Positions and Reallocations: In an effort to capture SOC code information for those positions reallocated since go-live, agencies will receive a spreadsheet from the BEACON Functional Team to complete with appropriate SOC codes for banded positions (graded positions will be corrected automatically). Instructions for completing this information will be included. |
09/24/2008 |
5:00pm | Payroll Results: The payroll results have been corrected. |
| 8:45am | Payroll Results: Any payroll changes that were made after 4 p.m. yesterday (Sept. 23) may not be reflected in this morning’s payroll results due to a payroll processing error. This prevented approximately 4,300 employees from being processed. We anticipate that it will be corrected by the noon payroll run. |
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| 09/24/2008 | 3:19pm | BI Report Service Pack: |
| 09/25/2008 | 8:30am | BI Load Failure: |
09/29/2008 |
7:00am | BEACON Portal Access Update: The portal is now available. |
| 6:00pm on Sept. 26 | BEACON Portal Access: The BEACON portal and the production system will be down for network maintenance from 6 pm on Sept. 26 to 6 am on Monday, Sept. 29. |
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| 09/29/2008 | 8:30am | BI Changes: |
| 09/30/2008 | 8:00am | BI Load Failure: |
| 09/30/2008 | 3:35pm | BEACON Portal Access: The BEACON portal is currently down and will be restarted as soon as possible. |
| 09/30/2008 | 4:15pm | BEACON Portal Access Update: The portal is now available. |
| 08/01/2008 | 9:30am | BI: The monthly BI load failed this morning. The result of this is that headcount, staffing assignments and cost distribution reports cannot be run for the month of July. Our daily process completed successfully so these reports can be run for August. Action data was loaded and can be accessed for all months. The BI team is working to have the July data loaded as soon as they can. |
| 08/04/2008 | 1:25pm | BEACON Portal Access Update: Normal operation has resumed. |
| 11:20am | BEACON Portal Access Update: We expect the portal to be unavailable until approximately 1:00pm. Please watch this page for further updates. |
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| 10:25am | BEACON Portal Access: |
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| 08/06/2008 | 8:00am | BI: The BI Daily load for today (8/6) was not completed. The data in BI is current as of 8/4. |
| 08/07/2008 | 8:00am | BI: The BI Daily load for today (8/7) was not completed. The data in BI is current as of 8/4. |
| 08/08/2008 | 8:00am | BI: The BI Daily load for today (8/8) was not completed. The data in BI is current as of 8/4. |
| 08/15/2008 | 1:16pm | Letter from State Controller Robert L. Powell |
| 08/18/2008 | 5:00pm | Time Evaluation: Monthly time evaluation will not run tonight in order to process bi-weekly payroll. |
| 08/20/2008 | 4:30pm | BEACON Portal Access: BEACON will be unavailable during tonight's regularly scheduled maintenance period from 8pm - 9pm. |
| 08/22/2008 | 10:40am | BEACON Portal Access: BEACON will be unavailable Sunday, August 24, from 5:00am - 12:00pm for maintenance. |
| 08/26/2008 | 3:00pm | BEACON Portal Access Update: The portal is now available. |
| 12:00pm | BEACON Portal Access Update: The portal is still unavailable. Please watch this page for updates. |
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| 8:00am | BEACON Portal Access: Due to extended processing times required for processing the retroactive Time Evaluation and Legislative Increase, the Portal will be unavailable until 12:00pm today. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. |
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| 08/27/2008 | 5:10pm | BEACON Portal Access Update: The SAP GUI is now available. |
| 5:00pm | BEACON Portal Access: The SAP GUI is being restarted and should be available in 15 minutes due to poor system performance. |
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| 08/28/2008 | 12:40pm | BEACON Portal Access Update: The SAP GUI is now available. |
| 12:25pm | BEACON Portal Access: The SAP GUI is being restarted due to poor system performance and should be available again in 15 minutes. |
| 07/02/2008 | 8:30am | BI: The BI Daily load for today (7/02) was not completed. BI data was last updated on 7/01 with data from 6/30. |
| 07/03/2008 | 8:00am | BI: The BI Daily load for today (7/03) was not completed. Normal load schedule will resume after 07/07. BI data was last updated on 7/01 with data from 6/30. |
| 07/16/2008 | 10:50am | BI Update: BI reporting is now available. |
| 9:15am | BI: Users are currently unable to print BI reports. |
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| 07/17/2008 | 1:20pm | Payroll Accruals: |
| 07/21/2008 | 10:00am | Issue with Vacation Leave Accruals: BEST Shared Services is aware of the issue with employee vacation leave accruals (a change was made that reverted accruals to the lowest accrual value). Because of this, state employees with more than two years of service will notice that their vacation balances on their quota overview page in Employee Self Service will not display the correct balances. The issue should be resolved tomorrow morning. |
| 07/22/2008 | 8:00am | BI: The BI Daily load for today (7/22) was not completed. The data in BI is current as of 7/20. |
| 07/22/2008 | 8:00am | Issue with Vacation Leave Accruals: |
| 07/23/2008 | 8:30am | Issue with Vacation Leave Accruals: The issue concerning Vacation Leave Accruals has been resolved. At this point employees should see their correct vacation balance in ESS. |
| 07/30/2008 | 9:00am | 2008 Legislative Increase: |
| 06/02/2008 | 11:00am | BEST Contact Information Update:
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| 06/05/2008 | 7:25am | BI: The BI Daily Load for today (June 5) was not completed. The last successful load occurred on June 4. |
| 06/09/2008 | 7:25am | BI: |
| 06/09/2008 | 9:00am | BEST FAX Issues: Due to issues brought about by the high temperatures over the weekend, faxes sent to the BEST Shared Services Center using the 919-855-6861 number between 5 p.m. on Friday and 11 p.m. on Sunday were not received. We apologize for any inconvenience and ask that you resend any faxes that may have been submitted between those hours. |
| 06/13/2008 | 10:30am | BI: |
| 06/18/2008 | 1:10pm | BEST Contact Information Update:
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| 06/23/2008 | 9:30am | BEACON Portal Access: The portal will be unavailable beginning today, June 23, at 4 p.m. through 7 a.m. tomorrow. Additionally, the portal is scheduled to be unavailable from 12 to 1 p.m. and 4 to 5 p.m. tomorrow. However, there may be cause to take the portal down for additional times on Tuesday to finalize biweekly payroll. There also will likely be limited access to the portal on Wednesday, June 25, as well, but we will keep you updated. |
| 06/24/2008 | 6:00pm | BI: |
| 06/25/2008 | 9:50am | BEACON Portal Access: The portal will be unavailable beginning today, June 25, at 12 p.m. through 7 a.m. tomorrow at the latest to complete monthly payroll transactions. Please watch this page for updates regarding availability. |
| 06/25/2008 | 6:00pm | BEACON Portal Access Update: |
| 06/27/2008 | 10:05am | Payroll/CMCS Change in Accrued Vacation Transactions: The Payroll Interface from BEACON mistakenly posted some Change in Accrued Vacation transactions. This also increased the payroll requisition in CMCS. OSC will reverse these transactions. Negative requisitions will be created in CMCS as well as the corresponding NCAS journal entries. Corrections by the agency should not be made. |
| 05/02/2008 | 2:20pm | DOT Payroll Update: BEACON has run an additional payroll and is coordinating distribution of checks through DOT. |
| 10:30am | DOT Payroll: Due to a technical glitch, some DOT employees have been shorted in the pay they received today. The Office of the State Controller is working to identify the source of the problem and will run an additional payroll today to make sure that all employees receive their full pay. |
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| 05/07/2008 | 2:15pm | BEST Contact Information Update: Phone service has been restored to BEST. |
| 1:10pm | BEST Contact Information: If you need to contact a BEST representative, please email BEST@ncosc.net. Please include your employee ID in your email. Updates on this situation will be posted on this page when available. |
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| 05/09/2008 | 8:55am | BI: Due to system problems, the BI Daily Load has been suspended today. Loads will resume Monday morning, 5/12. The last successful load occurred on 5/8/2008. |
| 05/13/2008 | 11:00am | BEST Contact Information: The BEST Shared Services Center is experiencing technical difficulties with the phone system. Callers may have their call answered but are unable to hear the BEST representative. If you experience this, please hang up and try your call again or email BEST@ncosc.net. Please include your employee ID in your email. |
| 05/14/2008 | 9:14am | ERoom: |
| 05/16/2008 | 2:00pm | BEST Contact Information Update: Payroll News: |
| 05/21/2008 | 7:30am | Upcoming BEACON Portal Access:
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| 05/21/2008 | 8:55am | BI: The BI Daily Load for today (5/21) has been suspended. BI loads should resume on Saturday (5/24). The last successful load occurred on 5/20. |
| 04/10/2008 | 10:15am | System Availability The BEACON Portal will be unavailable this weekend from 7am Saturday until 6pm Sunday due to conversion and maintenance activity. |
| 04/14/2008 | 3:15pm | Group 2 Quota (Leave) Balances Update: |
| 9:15am | Quota (leave) balance conversion: Wave 2 Agencies:
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| 04/14/2008 | 3:15pm | System Availability Notice: The BEACON system will be unavailable on Monday (4/14/08) from 7:00 pm until 6:00 am and from 8:00 pm till 5:00 am the rest of this week (4/15/08 – 4/18/08) for group 2 quota balance updates and start-up processing. Please be sure you are logged off at that time. |
| 04/15/2008 | 8:30am | Group 2 Quota (Leave) Balances Update: Quota balances have been loaded for most employees in the Wave 2 agencies. There are a few employees that leave has not been loaded for yet. The BEACON Time team is working with those agencies to obtain the correct information and load it into the system. For all Wave 2 employees for which the quota balances have been loaded, leave taken beginning with April 1 may now be entered. Please remember, that your time worked or taken off must be entered and released by you, approved by your supervisor, and the time evaluations run in BEACON for any changes or updates that you enter to be reflected in ESS. |
| 04/17/2008 | 11:00am | HR-Time/Leave News:
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| 8:00am | New Manager Self-Service Reports New reports were recently added to the Manager Self-Service portion of the BEACON portal. These reports act as a supplement to MSS Time Approval by allowing managers to, among other things, monitor all working times entered into ESS by direct reports, reconcile previously approved times and identify time that has been saved, but not yet submitted for approval. For more information on these reports and how to use them, visit the BEACON Help site at http://help.mybeacon.nc.gov/beaconhelp/MSS%20User.html. |
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| 04/18/2008 | 1:00pm | System Availability Notice: The BEACON portal will be unavailable beginning 7 p.m. Friday, April 18, through Monday, April 21, at 6 a.m. |
| 04/23/2008 | 8:00am | BI: Due to system issues, the BI daily load has been suspended. The normal schedule will be resumed tomorrow. |
| No updates |
| 02/27/2008 | 8:00am | System Availability
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| 01/29/2008 | System Availability The ESS/MSS Portal will be unavailable each Sunday between 2:00pm and 5:00pm for maintenance. |
| 01/14/2008 | BEST Update Phone and email service has been restored to the BEST Shared Services Center. |
| BEST The BEST Shared Services Center is experiencing networking issues affecting incoming phone calls and e-mail. Updates concerning the restoration of normal operation or alternate procedures will be posted when available. |
| 12/20/2007 | BEST Update Phone service has been restored to BEST. You may continue directing your inquiries by e-mail or phone. |
| BEST The BEST Shared Services Center is experiencing technical difficulties with the phone system. Please e-mail any questions or concerns to best@ncosc.net. Please watch this page for updates. |
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| 12/17/2007 | System Availability The BEACON system will available to Time Keepers starting December 17. It will be available to all Wave 1 users on January 02, 2008. |