Districts in Illinois must record a TRS Payment Reason on all wages and benefits that contribute to TRS Creditable Earnings.
The TRS Payment Reason field is set only on Employee Payroll Items because the reason may differ for different employees/positions.
You can mass enter TRS Payment Reasons when you first start using SchoolInsight Financials or when you add a new wage item. Mass entry allows you to enter the TRS payment reason for many employees at one time.
Which payroll items require a TRS Payment Reason?
Which payroll items require a TRS Payment Reason?
Any payroll item that increases TRS Creditable Earnings, indicated by a + in the TRS subtotal, must have a TRS Payment Reason entered. This typically only applies to wages and benefits.
- Wages will typically have a TRS payment reason of Base Salary or Extra-Duty/Stipend but there are several other options to select.
- When there is a + in the TRS column for Non-Taxable Benefits the TRS payment reason will typically be Flexible Benefit Plan or Board Payments to a qualified tax-deferred plan.
Additionally, non-TRS qualified wages should have a payment reason of Non-Contributory if the employee has at least one TRS-qualified position. For example, if a certified teacher also works as a non-certified part-time custodian, the Gemini report wants those non-certified wages included on the report, to clear up any confusion in the future about why some wages were not counted.
Regular employees
When you need to add a new payroll item such as a Wage or Benefit that increases TRS Creditable Earnings, you can add the TRS Payment Reason to a payroll item at the same as you add it to the employee.
To add a single payroll item:
- Go to Financials Main > Human Resources > Employee - Single View
- Search for an employee
- Open the Payroll tab
- Add Payroll Item
- Select the item
- From the drop down menu select the TRS Payment Reason for the payroll item
- Enter other required information
- Save
Typically, many employees with the same payroll item will share a TRS Payment Reason. For example, most Salary items can be reported with the payment reason Base Salary. You can edit many employees at once to set their TRS Payment Reason.
Remember that this page only pushes updates for items that are marked as “Update.” Skipping that field (step 4) will result in no changes being made.
To mass edit payroll items:
- Go to Financials Main > Payroll > District Payroll Items > Mass Edit Employee Payroll Items
- Select a wage or benefit payroll item and click Apply
- In the Data to Change section, select a TRS Payment Reason
- Check Update next to the TRS Payment Reason field
- Check the data (Employees, Payroll Item Templates, and Draft Payroll Runs) that should receive this update
- Look at each position description very carefully to ensure it should be using this payment reason
- Remember you can skip any employees/positions that do not have a + in the TRS column
- Save
Substitutes
Substitutes typically do not have a wage payroll linked to their positions; instead each pay is recorded on the Human Resources > Employee Attendance/Time Off/Substitutes page. Therefore, each substitute entry needs to have a payment reason entered.
To set a default payment reason for a substitute:
- Go to Financials Main > Human Resources > Employee - Single View
- Look up the substitute employee
- Go to the Positions tab
- Edit the TRS-qualified substitute position
- Set a Default Substitute TRS Payment Reason
- Save
To mass edit TRS payment reasons for substitute entries:
- Go to Financials Main > Human Resources > Employee Attendance/Time Off/Substitutes
- At the bottom, select More > Mass Enter TRS Payment Reasons
- By default, only entries that have no payment reason will be displayed. If you need to change an incorrect payroll item, check Show All.
- Select the appropriate Payment Reason
- Check each entry that should be updated with that payroll reason
- Save