Employee retirement plans have big effects on payroll and reporting, so it’s important that every employee’s retirement plan is set up correctly.
There are four areas related to setting up retirement data:
Retirement plan enrollment
Position retirement plan
Payroll items
Payroll item subtotals
Retirement plan enrollment
On the Employee - Single View > Retirement tab, indicate whether the employee is enrolled in IMRF or TRS. If the employee is enrolled in neither, this tab can be left alone.
For employees who are enrolled in IMRF or TRS, note:
- Indicating whether the employee is in Tier 1 or Tier 2 is required
- The exact enrollment date is not required
- If the employee has retired from TRS, the exact date is required for Gemini reporting
- TRS has several other fields that need to be filled out for Gemini reporting
To mass edit retirement enrollment:
- Go to Financials Main > Human Resources > Employee Positions (multi-view)
- Mass Edit Employees
- Pick a retirement plan, tier, and other optional details
- Check the employees
- Save
Position retirement plan
On the Employee - Single View > Positions tab, every position’s “Retirement Plan” field should be filled out, even if they aren’t enrolled in TRS or IMRF.
The four retirement plan options are:
|
TRS |
Should be used for TRS employees whose wages should contribute to TRS but not IMRF or FICA (e.g. certified teachers) |
|
IMRF/FICA |
Should be used for IMRF employees whose wages contribute to IMRF and FICA (e.g. custodian) |
|
FICA Only |
Should be used for employees who are enrolled in neither TRS nor IMRF but who contribute to FICA (e.g. some athletic coaches hired from out of district) |
|
None |
Should be used for employees who contribute to neither TRS, IMRF, nor FICA (e.g. retired TRS employees) |
To mass edit position retirement plans:
- Go to Financials Main > Human Resources > Employee Positions (multi-view)
- Mass Edit Positions
- Choose the Retirement Plan
- Check the positions
- Save
Payroll items
In order to contribute to TRS, IMRF, FICA, and/or Medicare, the employee must have the necessary payroll items to calculate those contributions. For example, an employee who contributes to IMRF will typically need:
- An IMRF employee portion (usually a deduction; sometimes covered by the board and listed a benefit)
- An IMRF employer portion (benefit)
- FICA withholding
- FICA employer taxes
- Medicare withholding
- Medicare employer taxes
You can add payroll items on the Employee - Single View page, the Mass Add Payroll Items page, or through Payroll Item Templates.
Remember to ensure that the TRS and IMRF rates are updated whenever changes go into effect. In addition to editing the district payroll item rates, you will need to mass edit employee payroll items and templates.
Payroll item subtotals
On the Employee - Single View > Payroll tab, every payroll item has the potential to contribute to or subtract from six different subtotals (more information). If the TRS, IMRF, FICA, and Medicare subtotals aren’t set up correctly, then the amount calculated on the payroll items will be incorrect, and you may encounter problems with TRS, IMRF, or federal 941 reporting.
Verify that:
- Wages for a TRS position contribute to Tax, SUTA, TRS, and Medicare.
- Wages for an IMRF position contribute to Tax, SUTA, IMRF, FICA, and Medicare
Sometimes deductions and benefits may subtract from or contribute to the retirement subtotals too. These settings vary by district.
Note: Substitutes generally do not have any wage items. Instead, the position retirement plan is used to determine which subtotals should be affected. See Substitute pay and retirement plans (Illinois).