Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide agencies with tools to assist in their efforts to enroll employees in direct deposit.

Affected Employees

All employees who have no active direct deposit record or who have an active direct deposit record with no balance row may be affected.

Background

Due to the Governor’s New York State on PAUSE Initiative, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Division of the Treasury is mailing all employee paychecks directly to employees.

To reduce the risk of fraud, incorrect mailing addresses, and the possibility of mailed employee paychecks not reaching the employee timely, OSC is asking all agencies to encourage employees to enroll in full direct deposit.

Effective Date(s)

The new locked queries are available immediately.

OSC Actions

OSC has created two new locked queries to help agencies identify employees that currently receive a paper check.

LQ_082_NO_DD_RCD identifies all employees who have no direct deposit record by Department ID. This query has a DEPT ID prompt and displays the following fields: Employee Name, Employee ID and Department ID.

LQ_083_NO_BAL_ROW identifies all employees with an active direct deposit but still choose to receive a paper check or who may receive a paper check because they have no balance row. This query has a DEPT ID prompt and displays the following fields: Employee Name, Employee ID, Department ID, Sum Amount, and Sum %.

These queries will allow agencies to do outreach to encourage full enrollment in direct deposit. Full enrollment in direct deposit should include a balance row. Employees without a balance row, even with 100% direct deposit, may still receive a paper check.

For example, an employee that has a net pay of $150.01 and would like their direct deposit split evenly between two bank accounts could be set up one of two ways:

Without a Balance Row: If this employee’s direct deposit is set up in PayServ as two accounts for 50% each, the employee will receive $75.00 in each account and a paper check for $0.01.

With a Balance Row: If this employee’s direct deposit is set up in PayServ as one account for 50% and one balance account, the employee will receive a deposit of $75.00 in the account for 50% and $75.01 in the balance account.

Agency Actions

Agencies can run the following locked queries to identify employees that receive a paper check and perform outreach to encourage full enrollment in direct deposit (with a balance row):

LQ_082_NO_DD_RCD
LQ_083_NO_BAL_ROW

These queries can be run at any time and will prompt for Dept ID. To run this query for all departments you have access to, enter a % in place of the Dept ID.

Agencies should remember to adhere to the current year’s agency submission schedule for data entry of direct deposit forms.

Agencies who participate in NYS Payroll Online (NYSPO) should also encourage employees to sign up for NYSPO to view their paycheck information online and provide them with the opportunity to opt out of receiving a printed direct deposit advice.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the DD Returns and Reversals mailbox.

Questions regarding NYSPO should be directed to your NYSPO Agency Coordinator.