- Knowledge Base Categories:
- School Accounting System
- General Ledger
- Payroll
FAQ: With the NE ESSA changes, if I use object 239 for Early Retirement/Termination, I get errors when processing payroll; what should I do?
Object code 239 is listed for Early Retirement or Termination in the ESSA financial coding information provided by the Nebraska Department of Education. When processing a payroll where an employee is getting a payout for early retirement or termination using the object code 239, the system will expense the Social Security and Medicare taxes on that salary to object code 229 (which is not a valid NE ESSA object) because the expense mask for the taxes uses 22X for the object. There will be payroll errors for the account number(s) with the invalid 229 object. To resolve the payroll errors, add the applicable account number(s) to the Chart of Accounts using object 229 even though object 229 is not a valid NE ESSA object; for example, if the early retirement or termination salary is being paid from the expense account of 01 1100 239 001 (Fund – Function – Object – Building), add an additional expense account number for 01 1100 229 001. Then at the end of the fiscal year, move the totals from the account numbers using the 229 object to the appropriate 22X account numbers (for example, the account numbers using the 221 object) by doing one of the following: 1) completing manual journal entries to move the totals from the account numbers using the 229 object to the account numbers using the appropriate 22X object, or 2) combining the accounts numbers using the 229 object with the account numbers using the appropriate 22X object.
Note: For object code 238 for Voluntary Termination Agreements, a similar process would need to be completed (use object code 238 for paying the employees, add the applicable account numbers using the 228 object code for Social Security and Medicare, and at the end of the year, complete manual journal entries to move the totals from the account numbers using the 228 object to the account numbers using the appropriate 22X object, or combine the accounts numbers using the 228 object with the account numbers using the appropriate 22X object).
Tip: The Nebraska Department of Education has removed the object 159 for Stipends and instead wants you to use the appropriate Additional Compensation 15X object to pay stipends, so a similar process would not have to be used in that situation.