System Availability 12/11-12/13
The HR/Payroll system will be unavailable starting at 6:00pm on Friday, December 11, due to system maintenance. It will be available no later than 7:00am Monday, December 14.

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

Note:This change will not impact the monthly April pay date or the biweekly May 1 pay date.

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.

The BI data load failed last night.  BI data is current as of 04/06/2009.

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.

• The ESS-oriented job aid regarding accessing a time statement for a specific month
• A core user-oriented job aid regarding time statement access
• A core user-oriented job aid on using the time statement mass print process

It is important to note that there will be additional data fields (e.g. additional hours, extended duty hours, imputed callback, imputed Baylor time, advanced vacation owed, advanced sick owed, and adverse weather owed) added to the time statement later this year. We will keep you updated as to when these additional fields will be added to the time statement.

W-2 Statements

We have discovered a couple of issues with the recently mailed W-2 statements.

• Some employees participating in dependent care reimbursement may notice that the dollar amount shown in box #10 on the W-2 does not appear.
• Some employees may notice a dollar amount in box #11, identifying distribution from a non-qualifying plan. This box should be blank.

In either case, revised W-2 statements will be generated for impacted employees and be distributed as soon as possible.

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.

• Subject line of email should read “Retro Not Allowed Request”
• What changes are being requested and why
• The name and personnel number of each employee involved

The Shared Services center will:

• Temporarily remove the payroll and time wall for the employees noted in the e-mail
• Inform the agency what steps should be taken to make the adjustments

01/08/2008

Upcoming Time Recalculation Information:
Review State Controller David McCoy's time recalculation memo and the time recalculation presentation, which outlines the upcoming time activities.

For Wave 2 agencies that went live on April 1, 2008:
Employees will receive 2 W2 statements for 2008. For the period of January 1 - March 31, 2008, the W2 will generate from the Central Payroll system and will be mailed to the agency for distribution. For the period of April 1 - December 31, 2008, the W2 will be generated by the BEACON system and will be mailed directly to the employee's home address listed in the BEACON system.

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.

Quota Balance Adjustments:
With the successful conclusion of this weekend's time activities, employees may notice changes to their vacation, sick or holiday comp balances. The only employees who should notice a change to their vacation or sick quota balances are those who had more than 240 hours in their vacation leave quota. Excess hours above 240 rolled into sick leave quotas.

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.

BEST Operating Under Adverse Weather Schedule:
The Office of the State Controller BEST Shared Services Center will be operating under adverse weather conditions today. You may experience a longer wait time when calling. We will be triaging your calls to reps working outside the call center today. You may also use the BEST@osc.nc.gov email address to send in a question or request. We will be monitoring this email box all day and processing requests that come in. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, but greatly appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this time.

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.

BEST Adverse Weather Schedule Update
The Office of the State Controller BEST Shared Services Center is no longer operating under the adverse weather procedures. Normal operating hours have resumed of 7am to 7pm daily, Monday through Friday.

12/02/2008

BI:
The BI daily load did not complete last night. The data in BI is current as of Nov. 30.

12/03/2008

BI:
The BI daily load did not complete last night. The data in BI is current as of Nov. 30.

12/04/2008

BI:
The BI daily load did not complete last night. The data in BI is current as of Nov. 30.

12/04/2008

Nightly Portal Maintenance Window Extended by 30 Minutes Tonight:
The portal maintenance window will be moved to 7:30pm tonight. The portal will be available again at 9pm.

11/03/2008

Update Regarding Employee Salary Comparison Reports:
To assist agencies in providing required information to the Office of State Personnel, age is now available on B0088-2 reports. Access instructions to add the age field by turning on hidden key figures.

11/04/2008

BI Cost Distribution Data Load for the October Month End:
The October month end load of cost distribution had an error and as a result may be showing inconsistent data. The BI team will be re-loading the October month end cost distribution data tonight and it will be corrected and available for reporting tomorrow morning, Nov. 5. Any reports that have been run using cost distribution between Nov. 1 and Nov. 4 will need to be re-run. This issue only affected the October cost distribution data which was loaded on Nov. 1. Any reports run using this data prior to the Nov. 1 date would have been accurate. Affected reports include:

• B0149: Positions by Funding Source
• B0149-1: Summary Positions by Funding Source
• B0083: Position Eligibility Settings
• B0067: NCAS vs SAP Accounting Structures
• B0077: Position Attributes
• B0112: Positions Vacant/Filled Comparison by Count and PCT
• B0169: Vacancy History (Last 12 Months)
• B0104: Vacancy Report

11/05/2008

BEST:
Currently, the local number, 919-707-0707, for BEST Shared Services is not operational. The 866-622-3784 number may be used for anyone that needs to reach the service center.

11/05/2008

BEST Update:
The local number for BEST Shared Services is now operational.

11/21/2008

Change to the Abolish Position Action Process:
The Abolish Position Action (109) has been removed from ZOMA069 dropdown menu. To abolish a position, please submit a ticket to BEST Shared Services. When abolishing a position you should first ensure the position is vacant and then submit a ticket to BEST with the position number and the effective date of the abolish action.

11/24/2008

Payroll Requisitions for November Payroll:
The monthly payroll run on Friday, November 21st did not finish completely for the FI/CO postings, meaning payroll requisitions were not completed. The remainder of the payroll requisitions will be sent today and post in tonight's run.

11/24/2008

Updated BEACON Security Change Request Form:
An update has been made to the BEACON Security Change Request Form. Please use the updated form when submitting change requests.

11/25/2008

BI:
The BI daily load did not complete last night. The data in BI is current as of Nov. 23.

11/26/2008

BI:
The BI daily load did not complete last night. The data in BI is current as of Nov. 23.

10/08/2008

Security Role Issue:
It is a known issue that some users have lost all or part of their system access. The Security Team is aware of the problem and is working to restore system access for all users. The Security Team expects to have all users restored by tomorrow.

Security Roles:
Security access has been restored for all users.

BI Load Failure:
The BI data load did not complete this morning. The BI data is current as of Oct. 12.

New SAP Workflow Reports:
There are two new workflow reports available in the core SAP system, one for Personnel Actions and one for Position Actions. Note: these are not BI reports. Details regarding how to run these reports can be found in the Workflow Report Job Aid on the BEACON Training site.

Legislative Increase Report Changes:
The OSC team recently changed the legislative increase report to remove updated versions. The updated versions caused confusion for a number of users, as it was difficult and time consuming to produce and it was not easy to identify new version changes. The updated version option will remain available for viewing through Oct. 31, at which time the choice for original or updated will be removed from the variable entry screens. What will remain is the original 2008 legislative increase report. To better serve BEACON system users and in anticipation of a legislative increase next year, the OSC team will be developing different versions of the LI report specific to the needs of human resources and budget personnel.

Time Evaluation:
Time evaluation did not run last night due to a scheduling issue. The issue has been fixed and time evaluation will run tonight as scheduled.

HR Master Data Maintainer Access to Some Employee Records:
Some HR Master Data Maintainer roles have restricted access to some system infotypes. We are running a program to correct this issue and anticipate that it will be resolved later this afternoon.

HR Master Data Maintainer Access to Some Employee Records:
This issue has been resolved. Please log out of the system, then back in if you notice this issue again. If that does not correct it, then log a ticket with BEST.

Employee Quota Balances Are Now Available Through MSS:
The OSC BEACON team recently added a Quota Balances Overview function to Manager Self Service. This functionality allows managers to view the quota balances for each of their employees. To access, managers should log into the BEACON portal and choose the My Staff (MSS) tab, then on the left-hand navigation area, choose My Team and then choose Reporting. Under Reporting, managers will see access to the Quota Balances Overview function. Once the Quota Balances Overview area is accessed, managers will see a list of their direct reports on the left-hand side of the screen. To view a specific employee’s quotas, the manager should choose that employee’s name. Once this is done, that employee’s quota information will appear in a box on the right-hand side of the screen.

BEACON Update from State Controller David McCoy:
Review the BEACON HR/Payroll update from State Controller David McCoy that was recently sent to agency chief executive officers, chief deputies, human resources directors and payroll officers.

BI Load Failure:
The BI data load did not complete this morning. The BI data is current as of Oct. 24.

Notice for 09/07/2008

BI:
The BI Daily Load did not complete today (9/12). Due to system issues, we will resume normal loads on Monday (9/15). The last successful load occurred on Thursday (9/11).

BI:
The BI daily load did not complete today (9/17). The data in BI is current as of Sept. 15.

OM Workflow Screens for New Positions and Reallocations:
Effective September 19, 2008 OM Workflow screens for new positions and reallocations will change. These changes are being made to capture SOC code information, short position working title, and long position working title. Please see the OM WF BPP’s for detailed instructions.

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

BI Report Service Pack:
The BI reporting system is expected to be down from 6pm, Friday, Sept. 26 until 7am, Monday, Sept. 29 to apply Service Packs.

BI Load Failure:
The BI Load did not complete this morning -- data is current as of  9/23. The normal load schedule will resume on Friday (Sept. 26).

09/29/2008

BI Changes:
The recent upgrades (installation of service pack 18) made by the BEACON team have impacted the BI reports. Please review the BI documentation update when running reports.

BI Load Failure:
The BI data load did not complete this morning. The BI data is current as of Sept 26.

BEACON Portal Access:
The portal will be unavailable for approximately an hour.

Payroll Accruals:
The BEACON payroll accruals to NCAS did not post last night as originally scheduled. They will post tonight, 7/17/2008. Please call the BEST shared services 707-0707 if you have any problems or questions with these postings.

Issue with Vacation Leave Accruals:
Time evaluation for monthly employees was not run last night, so their quotas have not been corrected yet. Because of this, state employees who are paid monthly and who have more than two years of service will notice that their vacation balances in ESS are not correct. The issue should be resolved tomorrow (July 23) morning.

2008 Legislative Increase:
The 2008 General Assembly ratified HB 2436, which provides an across-the-board salary increase, effective July 1, 2008, for permanent full-time employees who are subject to the State Personnel Act. The salaries in effect June 30, 2008, for all full-time employees shall be increased by 2.75% or $1,100, whichever is greater. Review the new annual salary schedule. The increase does not apply to employees separated from state service prior to July 1, 2008 or to employees hired effective July 1, 2008 or later. Also, the LI will not be included in July pay deposits. State employees will notice the LI in their August pay, which will also include the LI for July.

BEST Contact Information Update:
BEST is still experiencing intermittent technical difficulties with the phone system.

• When your call is answered, if you are unable to hear the representative on the other end of the line; or if it appears that the representative is unable to hear you, please hang up and either try your call again or email BEST@ncosc.net.
• The toll free 866 BEST number is not currently working, please use the 919-707-0707 number or email BEST@ncosc.net.

BI:
The BI Daily Load for today (June 9) was not completed. The last successful load occurred on June 5.

BI:
The BI Daily Load for today (June 13) was not completed. Because of this the PA Headcount and Actions data were not refreshed today. All other data is current.

BEST Contact Information Update:
BEST is still experiencing intermittent technical difficulties with the phone system.

• When your call is answered, if you are unable to hear the representative on the other end of the line; or if it appears that the representative is unable to hear you, please hang up and either try your call again or email BEST@ncosc.net.

BI:
BI data will not be refreshed tonight. Normal BI loads will resume once payroll processing is complete.

BEACON Portal Access Update:
The portal is now available in accordance with its normal schedule.

BEST Contact Information:
The BEST Shared Services Center is experiencing technical difficulties with the phone system. While the problem is being worked on, we can not accurately estimate when normal service will be restored.

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.

ERoom:
Users may receive a security certificate error. Click the "Continue to this website (not recommended)" option to proceed to the ERoom.

BEST Contact Information Update:
BEST is still experiencing technical difficulties with the phone system. When your call is answered, if you are unable to hear the representative on the other end of the line; or if it appears that the representative is unable to hear you, please hang up and either try your call again or email BEST@ncosc.net.

Payroll News:
Please see the Payroll Communications page for updates on May payroll and Pay Statement Information.

Upcoming BEACON Portal Access:
To ensure accurate payroll processing for the upcoming May 30 pay date, as a reminder, the BEACON portal will be unavailable on:

• Wednesday and Thursday (May 21 and May 22) from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• Friday (May 23) from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 12 a.m.
• Tuesday (May 27) from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Group 2 Quota (Leave) Balances Update:
Conversion of Quota Balances for Group 2 Employees is still underway. The BEACON team is actively working to complete this activity as quickly as possible. Check here for updates regarding the status of this issue.

Quota (leave) balance conversion:
The conversion loading of balances for the Wave 2 agencies began over the weekend - April 12 and 13. The conversion process has not been completed yet, we are still working on getting the data loaded into the system. If you are reviewing your balances, and you are a Wave 2 agency, your balances will not be correct until the conversion has been completed. Please continue to check this site for updates, we will post information as it is available.

Wave 2 Agencies:

• Administrative Office of the Courts
• Board of Cosmetic Arts
• Dept. of Agriculture
• Dept. of Commerce
• Dept. of Correction
• Dept. of Crime Control and Public Safety
• Dept. of Cultural Resources
• Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources
• Dept. of Health & Human Services
• Dept. of Insurance
• Dept. of Justice
• Dept. of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Dept. of Labor
• Dept. of Public Instruction
• Dept. of Secretary of State
• Dept. of Treasurer
• Employment Security Commission
• NC Education Lottery Commission
• NC Community College System
• NC School of Science and Math
• Office of Administrative Hearings
• Office of State Auditor
• State Health Plan
• Wildlife Resources Commission

HR-Time/Leave News:
See the HR Communications page for new information on the following topics:

• March Time Entries
• Review Quota Balances for Accuracy
• Non-Leave Administrator Quota Corrections
• Leave Administrator Quota Corrections
• Community Service Leave Balances

System Availability
To complete group 2 agency cutover activities, the SAP portal will be unavailable on weekends from 7:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 a.m. Monday for the following dates. Please be sure you are logged off at that time.

• February 29 - March 3
• March 7 - March 10
• March 14 - March 17
• March 20 - March 24 (Thursday 7pm to Monday 6am)
• March 28 - March 31