State Agencies Bulletin No. 1281

Subject
2014 SEFA (State Employees Federated Appeal) Campaign
Date Issued
November 18, 2013

Purpose

To provide instructions for processing payroll deductions for the SEFA Campaign for the 2014 calendar year.

Affected Employees

All Employees

Effective Date(s)

Payroll deductions for the 2014 SEFA Campaign will begin:

Paychecks dated January 9, 2014 (Institution)
Paychecks dated January 15, 2014 (Administration)

SEFA Campaign Guidelines

The pre-printed Federated Fund Number which appears on the authorization card must be used as the Deduction Code. Cards that have been modified must be returned to the employee for completion of a new card.

The amount of deduction requested on the authorization card is the amount to be deducted from each paycheck in the calendar year, not the total amount of the pledge.

State Agencies will no longer be able to accept cash for the upcoming SEFA Campaigns. Checks made out to SEFA will be accepted.

Deduction Code 851 SEFA of New York City

Online enrollment established by the authorized federated community campaign (EarthShare) can be utilized for employees wishing to donate to the following deduction codes:

Deduction Code 851 – SEFA of NYC (http://www.sefanyc.org/)
Deduction Code 865 – SEFA of Long Island (https://www.giveattheoffice.org/_lisefa/)
Deduction Code 871 – SEFA of Ulster County and
Deduction Code 880 – SEFA of Sullivan County (https://www.giveattheoffice.org/_susefa/)

Employees are encouraged to initiate the deduction with the online enrollment process.

For employees without computer access, or who choose not to use the online enrollment process, paper forms are available at the agency payroll office. Online enrollment will not be available after EarthShare submits the transactions to OSC (December 26, 2013).

Questions concerning the online enrollment process for these deduction codes should be directed to Sheila O’Connor of EarthShare at (646) 380-1887, or by email to [email protected].

Agency Actions

The following instructions apply to agencies that are not currently customers of the NYS Business Services Center (BSC). For those agencies that are customers of the BSC, the BSC will provide you with specific instructions on the agency and BSC responsibilities for processing the SEFA pledge cards.

For employees not enrolling online:

  • Agencies must review the completed authorization card and verify the completeness, accuracy and legibility of the Federated Fund Number, Amount of Deduction, Employee’s Agency Code, Employee’s NYS Emplid and Name.
  • Agencies are required to enter 2014 Federated Fund (SEFA) transactions into PayServ on the General Deduction Data (Agency) page, using the following instructions:
    1. After logging into PayServ, access the General Deduction Data (Agency) page.
    2. Enter the NYS Emplid from the authorization card in the EmplID field of the dialog box and click Search.
    3. The employee’s General Deduction page appears. Select View All.
    4. Determine whether the employee already has a deduction record for the specific Federated Fund Number on the authorization card by scrolling through the Deduction Codes using the scroll bar. Deduction Code - Enter the Deduction Code (Federated Fund Code) indicated on the SEFA authorization card.
      • If a record with the same Federated Fund (SEFA) Deduction Code exists, select the + sign to add a new row in the Deduction Details page, insert a row and continue with Step 6.
      • If there is not an existing row for the Federated Fund (SEFA) Deduction Code, select the + sign to add a new row in the General Deduction page, insert a row and continue with Step 5.
    5. Deduction Code - Enter the Deduction Code (Federated Fund Code) indicated on the SEFA authorization card.
    6. Effective Date - Enter the effective date for the 2014 deduction to begin as follows:
      Institution (Lag) 12/12/13
      Administration (Lag) 12/19/13
      Institution (Current) 12/26/13
      Administration (Current) 01/02/14
    7. Deduction Calculation Routine – Select Flat Amount from the drop down box.
    8. Deduction End Date –
      For Administration employees, the following end dates must be entered:
      Administration (Lag) 12/17/14
      Administration (Current) 12/31/14
      For Institution employees, the following end dates must be entered:
      Institution (Lag) 12/10/14
      Institution (Current) 12/24/14
      A deduction end date should not be entered for employees participating in the Continuous Giving Program (see Continuous Giving Program below).
    9. Flat/Addl. Amount – Enter the amount to be deducted from each biweekly paycheck.
    10. Save the transaction.

The Goal Amount field should not be used when entering SEFA transactions (see Exception below).

If an employee has a Goal Amount/Goal Balance in the existing record and the agency enters a transaction for 2014, the Goal Amount and Goal Balance will roll up on the newly inserted row unless the Goal Amount and Goal Balance are equal. Agencies must delete the Goal Amount and Goal Balance on the 2014 row and then save the transaction.

Exception: If a participant chooses to elect other than the full year (26 pay periods), the agency must enter the total amount of the annual contribution in the Goal Amount field as well as the flat amount to be deducted biweekly. The appropriate effective and end dates must be used as outlined above.

Continuous Giving Program

One SEFA regional campaign is participating in the Continuous Giving Program in 2014:

Regional Campaign Deduction Code
SEFA of Cln/Ex/Frk/Ham Ctnys 881

OSC will end date all other SEFA deductions that currently have no end date effective in the first paycheck of 2014. SEFA will notify these employees to re-enroll for the 2014 giving year in order to have payroll deductions continue.

Federated Fund (SEFA) Codes Changes

The Federated Fund (SEFA) Code Listing is available in numeric and alphabetic order.

Employees who want to change a Federated Fund (SEFA) deduction may do so by completing a new authorization card. A payroll general deduction transaction should then be processed to change the deduction.

Transfers

OSC automatically continues Federated Fund (SEFA) deductions upon an employee’s transfer from one agency to another within the same record. It is necessary to obtain a new authorization card only if the employee wants to contribute to a different Federated Fund (SEFA) organization in the new agency.

Cancellations

To cancel a Federated Fund (SEFA) deduction, the agency must insert a new row using the beginning date of the pay period in which the deduction should be canceled as the effective and deduction end dates. Cancellation notices must be retained by the agency.

Questions

Questions regarding the new online enrollment process may be directed to Sheila O’Connor of EarthShare at (646) 380-1887, or by email to [email protected].