Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide instructions for processing payroll deductions for the SEFA Campaign for the 2021 calendar year.

Affected Employees

All employees are affected.

Effective Dates

Payroll deductions for the 2021 SEFA Campaign will begin Administration paychecks dated January 6, 2021 and Institution paychecks dated January 14, 2021.

SEFA Campaign Guidelines

The pre-printed Federated Community Campaign (FCC) Code, 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 the 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 any FCC code:

Employees are encouraged to pledge online by visiting www.sefanys.org.

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 18, 2020 to ensure it will be entered for the first pay check of 2021.

OSC Actions

OSC will end date all SEFA deductions that currently have no end date, or an end date that is not valid.

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.

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: 

1. Agencies must review the completed authorization card and verify the completeness, accuracy, and legibility of the FCC Code, Payroll Deduction, Employee’s Department ID, Employee’s NYS EMPLID, and Name.
2. Agencies are required to enter 2021 SEFA transactions into PayServ on the Create General Deductions page, using the following instructions:
   1. After logging into PayServ, navigate to Create General Deductions (Main Menu > Payroll for North America > Employee Pay Data USA > Deductions > Create General Deductions).
   2. Enter the NYS EMPLID from the authorization card in the Empl ID field of the dialog box and click Search.
   3. The employee’s Create General Deductions page appears.
   4. Select View All.
   5. Determine whether the employee already has a deduction record for the specific FCC Code on the authorization card by scrolling through the Deduction Codes using the scroll bar. 
   6. If a record with the same FCC Code exists, select the + sign to add a new row in the Deduction Details page, insert a row and continue with Step 6.
3. If there is not an existing row for the FCC Code, select the + sign to add a new row in the Create General Deduction page, continue with Step 4.
4. Deduction Code - Enter the Deduction Code (FCC Code) indicated on the SEFA authorization card.
5. Effective Date - Enter the effective date for the 2021 deduction to begin as follows:

   Institution (Lag):	12/17/2020
   Institution (Current):	12/31/2020
   Institution (Extra Lag):	12/10/2020
   Administration (Lag):	12/10/2020
   Administration (Current):	12/24/2020
   Administration (Extra Lag):	12/03/2020

6. Deduction Calculation Routine – Select Flat Amount from the drop down box.
7. Deduction End Date – An end date must be entered. Effective in the first paycheck of 2021, OSC will end date all SEFA deductions with no end date or an end date that is not valid. Therefore, agencies must use the end dates listed below: 

   Institution (Lag):	12/15/2021
   Institution (Current):	12/29/2021
   Institution (Extra Lag):	12/08/2021
   Administration (Lag):	12/08/2021
   Administration (Current):	12/22/2021
   Administration (Extra Lag):	12/01/2021

8. Flat/Addl. Amount – Enter the amount to be deducted from each biweekly paycheck, not the total amount to be deducted for the campaign.
9. Save the transaction.
10. 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 2021, 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 2021 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.

SEFA FCC Codes

The FCC listing is available in numeric and alphabetic order.

Changes

Employees must complete a new authorization card to change a SEFA deduction.  A PayServ General Deduction transaction must be processed to change the deduction.

Transfers

OSC automatically continues SEFA deductions upon an employee’s transfer from one agency to another within the same payroll record. When an employee transfers, it is only necessary to obtain a new authorization card if the employee wants to contribute to a different SEFA organization in the new agency.

Cancellations

To cancel a 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 Date and Deduction End Date. Cancellation notices must be retained by the agency.

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.