LCD Process Information

All �� Employee salaries and benefits are paid out of one agency and one funding source at the State Controller’s Office. On a monthly basis, �� receives the pay tape. The salaries and benefits are then redistributed to the same or different departments and funding sources through the Labor Cost Distribution (LCD) process. The Budget Office owns the funding source tables, which consist of the Combo Code Build, Pool ID Table, and Department Budget Table.

The Combo Code Build creates the chartfield string and makes it valid for use. It identifies the effective date, fund, project, class, and program (if applicable). It also includes a “Hot Key.” This hot key is a two-letter code that identifies the Fund portion of the chartfield string and is used in lieu of the Fund number because of limited available character spaces. For example, a chartfield that resides in the Operating Fund (48500) uses the hot key “GF” for general fund (the prior name of the current operating fund). The Extended Learning fund 44101 has a hot key of “EL.”

The combo code build establishes all possible salary account codes and benefit account codes, populated from the CSU HR Labor Expense Accounts table, to avoid having to build each account code separately.

Once the combo code build process has been completed, the next step is to establish a Pool ID. Budget creates Pool IDs and HR/Budget assigns them to position numbers to identify the funding source. As in the previous example, if the funding is in the general fund, the Pool ID would be built to reflect that. A Pool ID funded to the operating fund will have a prefix of "G." If it is the first funding set up for that department, it normally will have a Pool ID of G01. If additional codes are added (such as to include program, class, project) once that new combo code has been built, a new pool ID will be created. Within the same department and fund, this would be G02. For example:

Department 1080 in the operating fund, G01 represents 1080-GF-601300
Adding chartfield codes, G02 represents 1080-GF-601300-107

Each time there is a change to the basic chartfield (an element is added, or a new fund is used), a new pool ID is created to represent the new chartfield.

Once the combo code has been built and the pool ID has been created, the Department Budget Table must be set up for the Pool ID. This involves effective dating and identifying the funding source. The Job Code (account number) and Pool ID (dept ID, fund, optional: class, program, project) will determine the chartfield the position salary posts to. Since each position’s job code will determine the account number used in the salary chartfield, Pool IDs are created with 601300 as the default, placeholder account code.

Alternate funding sources may be defined (optional) at three different levels through the Split Funding process, whereby the Pool ID chartfield is overridden by one of the following:

Position – the position number is used to set up the Department Budget Table (DBT).
- Must be unique, or all individuals with this position number will be funded the same
Job code – the job code is sometimes used to identify funding and trigger a split fund set up
- Most commonly used in the Federal Work Study (1871 and 1875) and LAEP (1880 - state work study) set ups for Student Assistants
Appointment – this uses the employee ID (emplid)
- Will override an existing position number split fund setup
- Attached to employee’s current dept ID – if employee’s position moves to a new department, a new split fund must be set up

When the pay tape is received and loaded into our system, the paycheck creation process tries to match each paycheck with a person and specific job within the PeopleSoft HR database. It looks at SSN, job code, etc. If no match is found, Paycheck Creation Errors are created, and Payroll reviews and corrects those errors to make the information match.

Once Payroll is done, the paycheck distribution process is run. This process distributes earnings, taxes, and deductions associated with all paychecks. As the paycheck process uses SSN, job code, unit # and serial to match, the distribution process uses these as well as position number, pool ID, earnings ID, etc. Based on the setup tables above, the process will dynamically replace chartfields. If Pool ID or chartfield information is missing, it will cause an error. Mid-month changes contribute to these errors, as the pay tape may include data for an employee who quit earlier and is now inactive. In this example, the employee was likely issued a manual check, and the actual check is coming through the pay tape process.

Budget corrects these errors through the Paycheck Distribution Errors process. We can correct the department, position number, pool ID, budget level and account code. The account code will either be blank or will default to the account code of the person whose data erred during the Paycheck Distribution process. Normally, we correct the chartfield string and add the correct pool ID.

There are some instances where manual corrections need to be made in the Paycheck Distribution Override process. If a correction is made to a paycheck, it must be made to each line of earnings and to each benefit line. Once we are satisfied we have made the appropriate corrections and reviewed any other items in question, we notify FSO/LCD Administrator that Budget is done with our part, and they move LCD through the remaining processes to complete and post the payroll journal.