University of California, Berkeley

HCM: Earnings Distributions Changes

An Earning Distribution Change occurs when you need to:

  • Reallocate the distribution % of an employee's pay.
  • Change the chartstring(s) to which you are charging pay.
  • Add a Work Study Code.

This is a common procedure, especially for students and other positions that don't have "permanent" funding.

When you make a change to an employee's distributions, you do not end the previous distribution line(s). Instead, restate all true distributions from the effective date onwards (even the ones that aren't changing). When the information passes from HCM to PPS, the new distribution picture will supersede the old information (even if some of the information is the same as before).

PPS will automatically end the previous distribution lines (with an end date of the day before the effective date of the change) and start the new ones, as appropriate.

Remember that to save an HCM transaction, the total distribution % on all Regular pay lines must equal the total Job FTE (Percent of Time) for each calendar day of the appointment, from the effective date of the transaction to the end of the appointment.

If the distribution % and Job FTE are not equal, or if the Appointment Begin/End Dates and Pay Begin/End Dates don’t correspond, you will trigger a Save-Edit error. If that happens, check the following items and save again:

  • Check Distribution % (on Earnings Distribution). It must be entered as a whole number (e.g., 100, not 1.0), and must equal Job FTE.
  • Make sure you filled in Job FTE (on Job Information).
  • Check Effective Date (on Work Location) and End Date (on Job Information).
  • Check the Pay Begin and Pay End Dates (on Earnings Distribution). Make sure these dates cover the same period as the appointment.

Retroactive chartstring changes:

Chartstring changes whose effective dates are earlier than the current month do not need to be recorded in HCM. The Controller's office has stated that HCM is not the system of record for which chartstring is used, the Payroll is the system of record.

Changing chartstrings on past HR records and altering the historical record is unnecessary and would look bad in an audit. Therefore only a Payroll Expense Transfer needs to be processed in OPTRS to move the earnings for previous months.