5). Payroll Charges

General Description:

MIT currently processes two types of payroll transactions -- a staff payroll and a weekly payroll. The staff payroll (paid monthly), includes faculty, other academic staff, sponsored research staff, administrative staff, and graduate student research assistants and teaching assistants. The weekly payroll includes support staff, service staff, MIT student employees, and voucher employees.

SAP Document Types:

SM (Staff Payroll), SW (weekly payroll), and some SA (journal vouchers)

Central MIT Controls:

Strong system of required approvals for hiring and changes to compensation. Feed from payroll system to SAP is electronic, with any charges posting to suspense researched and cleared.

Level of Risk: Low.

Controls over authorizing additions or changes to MIT's staff and their compensation are strong.

Documentation to Retain:

  • Time cards for hourly personnel, signed by the employee and an individual with direct knowledge of the work performed (for as long as the employee might want to check or challenge payment, at most the current FY and an additional FY).
  • Signed DACCAs, the payroll form which requires certification of effort on sponsored cost objects and other MIT activity by an individual with direct knowledge of the work performed. (Retain for current FY plus four additional FYs).

DLC Tasks:

Ongoing:

  1. Review time cards for hourly personnel, which must be signed by the employee and someone having direct knowledge of the work performed.
  2. Review DINDI (lists current month support staff, service staff, and student payroll activity) and communicate any required changes to Payroll via hard copy turnaround document. See note below on timing.
  3. Review SANDI (lists current month postings for staff members), and communicate any changes to Payroll via ESANDI (an electronic version of the SANDI) or SANDI hard copy turnaround document. See note below about timing.
  4. Review DACCA (lists all payroll activity for month), which must be signed by a designated individual who has direct knowledge of the work performed; communicate any changes to Payroll via hard copy turnaround document. See note below on timing.

    Note: Retroactive changes to salary, especially on research grants, must be properly documented, with an explanation why this change is being made. There are time limits on after-the-fact salary transfers; thus, a timely review is important.

Statement-related:

  1. Review SM and SW transactions via the DINDI, SANDI, and DACCA processes (described under "Ongoing" DLC Tasks).
  2. At month end, review any other document types related to payroll, but not processed through the payroll system (SA or journal voucher transactions, usually), to ensure they are accurate. A Data Warehouse report, "Payroll Exception", has been developed to identify any non-SW or SM transactions to a payroll GL account.
  3. Additionally, check to see that any changes requested in the prior month have been made.

Contact for questions: