State Agencies Bulletin No. 1788

Subject
2020 State Employees Federated Appeal (SEFA) Campaign
Date Issued
November 26, 2019
Status
REVISED
Status Date
December 13, 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide instructions for processing payroll deductions for the SEFA Campaign for the 2020 calendar year.

Affected Employees

All New York State employees are affected by this bulletin.

Effective Date(s)

Payroll deductions for the 2020 SEFA Campaign will begin:

Institution paychecks dated January 2, 2020

Administration paychecks dated January 8, 2020

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 cannot accept cash for the SEFA Campaigns. Checks made out to SEFA will be accepted.

Online Enrollment

Online enrollment can be utilized for employees wishing to donate to the following deduction (Federated Fund) codes:

Deduction Code 850 - SEFA of the Capital Region
Deduction Code 851 - SEFA of New York City
Deduction Code 856 - SEFA of Broome/Chenango/Tioga
Deduction Code 857 - SEFA of Buffalo and Erie County
Deduction Code 860 - SEFA of Cortland County
Deduction Code 861 - SEFA of Dutchess County
Deduction Code 864 - SEFA of Jefferson/Lewis County
Deduction Code 865 - SEFA of Long Island
Deduction Code 866 - SEFA of Greater Rochester
Deduction Code 872 - SEFA of Greater Utica
Deduction Code 873 - SEFA of Westchester/Putnam
Deduction Code 874 - SEFA of Chemung County
Deduction Code 876 - SEFA of Tompkins/Schuyler
Deduction Code 877 - SEFA of Steuben/Yates
Deduction Code 878 - SEFA of St. Lawrence County
Deduction Code 880 - SEFA of Sullivan/Ulster
Deduction Code 881 - SEFA of Clinton/Essex/Franklin/Hamilton
Deduction Code 882 - SEFA of Orange County
Deduction Code 883 - SEFA of Allegany County
Deduction Code 884 - SEFA of Rockland County
Deduction Code 885 - SEFA of Chautauqua County
Deduction Code 887 - SEFA of Central New York
Deduction Code 894 - SEFA of Delaware/Otsego

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

https://www.giveattheoffice.org/_nyssefa/

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 need to be completed by December 13, 2019 to ensure it will be entered for the first pay check of 2020.

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 specific instructions 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 2020 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.
    • 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 2020 deduction to begin as follows:
    Institution (Lag) 12/05/2019
    Administration (Lag) 12/12/2019
    Institution (Current) 12/19/2019
    Administration (Current) 12/26/2019
  1. Deduction Calculation Routine – Select Flat Amount from the drop down box.
  2. Deduction End Date – An end date must be entered. Effective in the first paycheck of 2020, OSC will end date all SEFA deductions with no end date or an end date that is not valid. Therefore, it is imperative that agencies use the end dates listed below:
    Institution (Lag) 12/02/2020
    Administration (Lag) 12/09/2020
    Institution (Current) 12/16/2020
    Administration (Current) 12/23/2020
  1. Flat/Addl. Amount – Enter the amount to be deducted from each biweekly paycheck, not the total amount to be deducted for the campaign.
  2. 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 2020, 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 2020 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 still be used as outlined above.

Federated Fund (SEFA) Codes

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

There are no deduction code changes this year.

Changes

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 payroll record. When an employee transfers, 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.

OSC Actions

OSC will end date all SEFA deductions that currently have no end date or an end date that is not valid effective the first paycheck of the calendar year.

OSC will process the electronic files received from the vendors to add a row to the employee’s general deduction record. An error report of transactions not processed will be sent to the vendor.

Questions

Questions concerning the online enrollment process for SEFA Deductions, may be directed to the Statewide SEFA Council at (518)-782-SEFA (7332) or http://www.sefanys.org/contact-us.

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.