Excess Plus/Minus Processing Notes

 Summary

 “Excess Plus/Minus” is the tracking of hours worked for those employees on alternate or compressed schedules.  “Plus” hours indicates the employee worked more than the standard schedule hours (either 168 or 176), and is compensated at the end of that month.  “Minus” hours indicates the employee worked less than the standard schedule hours, but may carry forward the deficit until there is a “Plus” scenario, or the end of year, when it must be reconciled.

 Excess Minus Example

Joe Employee works a 4/40 schedule (4 days per week, 10 hours per day), Monday through Thursday.  The pay period for July of 2004 began Thursday 7/1 and ended Saturday 7/31.  Regular schedule employees (5 days per week, 8 hours per day) will have worked 176 hours.  Joe’s time would be counted as follows:

 

Week of 7/1                    10 hours

Week of 7/5-8                40 hours

Week of 7/12-16           40 hours

Week of 7/19-22           40 hours

Week of 7/26-29           40 hours

   Total                         170 hours

 

Joe will receive a regular paycheck, but has a deficit of 6 hours.  He worked 6 hours less than someone on a standard schedule.   This “Excess Minus” time will be calculated and tracked by PeopleSoft Absence Management as -6 hours, which can be viewed in the Absence Report titled Excess Plus/Minus - Negative.  The balance will carry forward until:

• he has “Excess Plus” hours that offset the debit, or

• the end of the calendar year, at which time the debit must be reconciled by use of either Vacation, Personal Holiday (whole day increments only)*, or Compensatory Time Off.  If employees do not have sufficient leave balance to cover the deficit, a dock in pay should be processed.

* As a reminder, usage of Personal Holidays in hourly increments is not permitted.  A Personal Holiday must be used as one full day of an employee's regular work schedule.

 

To keep reconciliation time reporting separate from regular absence activity for December, reconciliation time should be reported by timekeeper cut-off in January, using the Prior Pay Period Adjustment Form.

Employees must be notified by the department via memo of Excess Plus/Minus action. Please see Technical Letter 2003-28 for sample notification memos.

 

 Excess Plus Example

Jan Employee works a 4/40 schedule (4 days per week, 10 hours per day), Wednesday through Saturday.  The pay period for July of 2004 began Thursday 7/1 and ended Saturday 7/31.  Regular schedule employees (5 days per week, 8 hours per day) will have worked 176 hours.  Jan’s time would be counted as follows:

 

Week of 7/1-3             30 hours

Week of 7/7-10          40 hours

Week of 7/14-17        40 hours

Week of 7/21-24        40 hours

Week of 7/28-31        40 hours

   Total                         190 hours

 

Jan must be compensated for the 14 hours additional she has worked.  The corresponding time will be tracked by PeopleSoft Absence Management.  The hours can be viewed in the Absence Report titled Excess Plus/Minus – Positive.  The Payroll Office will access these reports each month, and pay overages accordingly, when the positive payroll is paid on the 15th of the succeeding month.

 

Employees must be notified by the department via memo of Excess Plus/Minus action.  Please see Technical Letter 2003-28 for sample notification memos.

Miscellaneous Items

Docks – If an employee takes time off that is not covered by leave time, process the dock as usual.  This time is NOT counted towards Excess Plus/Minus – they will have already been docked.

 

Shift Differential – Employees who regularly work a shift eligible for differential pay will continue to be paid the shift differential in total for the month for the actual number of hours worked.  For example, an employee who works 180 hours in a standard month of 176 hours should have the shift differential entered for 180 hours. Excess Plus time is paid at the base rate only.

Prior Pay Period Adjustments – Adjustments to prior (closed) pay periods will be processed through the Prior Pay Period Adjustment forms as usual.

 

ADO (Alternate Day Off) – Employees on alternate schedules for whom a paid holiday does not fall on a regularly scheduled workday will be owed another day to take in the future.  The absence element entry in SOLAR HR Absence Management is ADO Expiring Earn OR ADO Non-Expiry Earnings in the amount of hours the employee normally works (i.e., 10 hours).   When the employee uses the time, the accompanying absence element to report usage is ADO Expiring Take OR ADO Non-Expiry Take and the corresponding date taken.

 

[Special note: for employees in any of the CSUEU bargaining units, there is a 180 day expiration period for taking the Alternate Day Off.  In the SETC bargaining unit, there is a 90 day expiration period.]

 

CTO – Employees who WORK on a University observed paid holiday will continue to be compensated in the regular manner; earning a regular day of wages, plus either Compensatory Time Off at the premium rate (1.5, absence element reporting code CTO Premium Earn), OR payment as cash in the form of Overtime (also 1.5, Time and Labor time reporting code OTPR).

Questions should be directed to SOLAR HR Support at solarhr@csun.edu, or call SOLAR HR at x 1000, press 2, press 2.