CAPPS Notes - May 18, 2005

I. Welcome - Cliff Lee covered the procedures for evacuation in the event of an emergency evacuation and/or "Shelter-in-Place" crisis. He also reminded participants to sign the attendance sheet. For those who might not have noticed it, Cliff pointed out that a CAPPS Survey box was located just outside the door for representatives who wish to drop off their completed CAPPS surveys anonymously. He indicated that representatives who did not receive a copy of the e-mail could contact one of the PPSPS staff and we would see that s/he gets a copy.

II. IDMS Release 16.0 - Penny Forbes introduced Kurt Guerion to talk about the implementation schedule for the next release of IDMS (v 16.0). Kurt indicated that the testing was originally scheduled for the weekend of June 11 with implementation scheduled for the weekend of June 25. June 11 is a non-payroll implementation weekend. However, June 25 is a payroll implementation weekend so the June 25 date is up in the air right now. He said that NFC is considering trying to do both testing and implementation during the weekend of June 11. However, the staff is still gathering information on whether it is feasible to do this and should know if it is a go by early next week.

A. Q: Penny what does this mean? A: Penny - We need clients to come in on June 11th to test with live data for that Saturday. Clients wishing to participate need to call OCC in advance. Kurt added that NFC was going to send something out in writing requesting testers as soon as information regarding the June 25th date was settled. Kurt explained that the current release would come down, v 16.0 would be installed for testing on the weekend of June 11th for production on June 13th. In the event that there are critical issues that cannot be resolved the old release would be re-instated on Sunday, June 12th. Issues would be worked out, IDMS 16.0 would be re-tested on June 25th and, if successfully tested, left in permanently.

B. Q: What is IDMS? A: Kurt - This is the system software where the data resides. Not the application software, but the system (i.e., not Microsoft Word, but Windows XP). The systems themselves should not be affected. On June 11th, NFC needs to make sure the software works properly on the new system before leaving the new version loaded.

C. R: Clarification, if IDMS 16.0 goes into production on June 11 and there are no problems that remain unresolved after testing, it will stay up.

D. Q: DHS - are there any application changes due to this upgrade? A: Randy - Not that we are aware of at this time. We are doing our own testing right now. However, we need client participation to do a more thorough test process.

E. Q: DHS - Will you be providing test scripts? A: NO. The agencies need to bring in their production data. NFC will have OCC and other staff's manned in case there are issues with the new version of IDMS. We need as many agency staff at their normal work sights processing regular work. THIS IS LIVE DATA PROCESSING AND NOT TEST PROCESSING. CHANGES ENTERED WILL BE LIVE!

F. Q: SI - How will this affect FESI? A: This should have no effect on the FESI process. We still suggest that you test to be on the safe side. There is always a risk of the unexpected. FQ: How will we find out if we have a problem? FA: We will schedule a pass of PINE that weekend to test this scenario to make sure it works (processing of PP-11 data.) This would also be a good time for those with FESI to do additional testing if you have something going on in your own system. If you are doing this extra testing, please let us know.

G. Q: TR - If you run a pass of PINE, will that be on Saturday? A: Yes. We would have to review the results on Saturday so we can use Sunday to pull back version 16 if we needed to do this.

III. PINE & PAYE Schedule for PP's 16 & 17 - Penny Forbes indicated that NFC is scheduled to convert the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) and the U.S, Coast Guard (USCG) to NFC's system in PP-17. Because this is expected to be a large and lengthy conversion, NFC is planning on accelerating PP-16's 1st and 2nd PAYE schedules. The first pass for all CV's would run on Thursday, August 25th and second on Friday, August 26th. NFC is planing to switch to this schedule permanently on October 1st anyway. Because of the conversion process, the first two passes of PINE for PP-17 would then run on Saturday, August 27th and Sunday August 28th for all CV's.

IV. Distribution of Reports - Penny Forbes discussed the concerns NFC has about producing reports that have to go to the agencies. NFC realizes that most agencies have restrictions against providing full SSN's via e-mail. She indicated that NFC would like to provide the name with the last four digits of the SSN. (i.e., they would mask the first 5 digits of the SSN on the report.).

A. Q: SI - Would you include name? A: Yes, the names would be on the reports. NFC is putting it on there right now anyway. FC: No, not on our last one. FA: It should have been. NFC is concerned with faxing and/or e-mailing employee lists that contain the full SSN.

B. Q: DHS - Is there a way to put them in a data set that we could go download in lieu of manual distribution?. Something like a FOCUS report? Are there other options? A: Penny - In order to do that you would need to have access to whatever file name we were putting them into. FC: DHS we could set up a standard. FR: Penny - This may be a longer-term solution. Jody - Does everybody agree with the recommendation to make the data accessible and the agency rep would be responsible for downloading the information. Penny indicated that NFC would have to have separate data sets for each group and this would have to be a project that NFC set-up. FC: USDA - Why not put it out on the Reporting Center (RC)? Penny that is an option. FC: DHS - The problem with the RC is that we cannot see all of our topics now. USDA- If you use the scroll bar on the left-hand side you should be able to see everything..

C. Q: SI - Can you put data into an excel spreadsheet out to the clients. A: Penny - We don't want to make this process so laborious that we have to start charging for it. FC: What about reports with a password?

D. Q: FMCS - We purchased certificates and have never had any place to use them. A: Theresa - I'm not sure when we started dealing with FMCS on certificates. Normally when we work with a client to obtain certificates they are for specific agency uses.

E. Q: What level of certificate do you need? A: It is not the level. FC: Cheryl all USDA employees are at a level 2. R: Level 2 is not a digital certificate. You need a higher level. There is a difference in the transaction. There is going to be more information on this subject at the customer forum in July. FQ: Penny there is a cost to do this? FC: FMCS - NFC recruited FMCS to do this. FA: Penny indicated that someone would contact her off-line on the FMCS issue.

V. Special Salary Rate (SSR) Changes - Cliff indicated that OPM did away with 103 SSR tables and modified 217 others. The ones remaining in effect are on OPM's website. Most have effective dates of May 1, 2005, although a few have earlier effective dates that may go back as far as January 1, 2005. The terminated tables cannot be found on OPM's website because they do not keep a history. The NFC bulletin was released late yesterday and there is quite a bit of information on the SSR changes in the bulletin.

The Work Force Flexibility Act (WFFA) changed the definition of basic pay to include locality adjustments. This allowed OPM to change the regulations on how they handled special rates. In situations where the locality pay for a geographic area exceeded a SSR in that same area, the SSR grades and/or steps superceded by locality were terminated. The only exception is the SSR 0491 (LEO Table) which has remained unchanged.

Cliff also reminded clients that NFC did send an e-mail to clients asking for a "yeah" or "nay" on whether the agency wanted NFC to process the conversion from SSR to the standard pay rate for you. That deadline is COB tomorrow, May 19th. The category of employees affected by these changes are those with a pay rate determinant (PRD) of 5, 6, E, or F. Only employees with a PRD of 5 or 6 appeared on the report distributed to the agencies. The actual program sweep that NFC would perform would be based on: 1) the employee has a PRD of 5, or 6; and 2) the employee's locality adjustment is greater than 0. In these cases the SSR has been superceded by locality, thus the employee is no longer entitled to the SSR. For those with employees with a PRD code of E and F, a separate list of affected employees was generated. Those agencies received special guidance from Cliff on how to process the removal from the SSR coverage. These cases were different because they involved SSR and grade retention.

A. Q: DHS - Did we have any of these? A: Cliff - there were no DHS employees on the list. Only DOJ, AG, AFRH, TR, and DOC had employees impacted.

B. Q: If we have an employee in SINQ due to a WGI to be processed this pay period, what do we do? A: Cliff - if you have individuals in this situation, you have two options. 1) Wait for NFC to do the sweep for you and then change the PRD from a 6 to a 0. Make sure that the salary is correct. The authentication date should also be subsequent to the one used on the system generated 894 ZLM. OR 2) Do the 894 ZLM yourself and modify the PMSO record.

C. Q: SI - What happened to the SSR tables 0414 and 0422 for engineers? A: Cliff - what happened is a modification was made to nationwide and worldwide rate tables to include a statement that says "Be advised certain localities have rates that are higher than those on this table and the SSR should be terminated in those areas." If your locality exceeds your SSR, you are no longer entitled to the SSR. These individuals are on the report and the agency must have an action processed to take the employee off the SSR. In most of the RUS locality areas, the SSRs still apply. This situation came up on several tables including the IT rates.

D. Q: TR-BPD - If we go ahead and do the 894 ourselves in order for the 893 to apply, does this cause a problem with the NFC sweep? A: Cliff - No. If the agency processes the conversion from the SSR, the sweep criteria would no longer apply to that employee.

E. Q: SBA - The 893's were effective on April 30th. A: Cliff - No they are effective on 05/01/05. FQ: The agency has to do something with actions in suspense even if we wait until after NFC sweeps right? A: Cliff - Yes. You need to change the PRD and salary on the document and possibly modify the PMSO, if the position is different from the one swept.

F. Q: We've identified four people who separated on May 1st and two who changed jobs on or after May 1st. What about them? A: Cliff - We're excluding the separated employees and if the employee is no longer in the SSR position we will not capture them. Keep in mind the PRD factors into the sweep. PLEASE NOTE: if you moved them out of SSR coverage on a promotion, you may have an HR issue from the 2-step rule. This is because OPM has not released the regulations on the new pay setting yet. OPM has indicated that they are almost ready to release that guidance. This should answer some of the unusual scenarios.

G. Q: What about HCUP packages? A: Cliff - This should not be a problem because the old SSR tables are active through April 30, 2005. If the employee's May 1st rate is not on the tables, the SSR for that grade/step is no longer in effect and the employee should be removed from the SSR table.

H. Q: SBA - We had six reassignments that took the employee off the SSR table and we lined them off. R: Cliff - We won't catch them if the PRD code is not a 5 or 6.

VI. Benefits Updates - Jody Nyers

A. TSP Open Season ends June 30, 2005. (Programming changes are progressing for the elimination of the open season effective July 1, 2005. However, remember agency contributions begin after 1-2 waiting periods).

1. Will OPM be revising their language on the SF-2809, FEHB Enrollment Form, to allow carriers to accept the form in electronic format from other than EEX? Jody - I have discussed this with OPM and they said the language will change with the 2006 open season.

VII. 2005 Customer Forum - Penny Forbes discussed the 2005 Customer Forum scheduled for July 26 and 27th. On the 26th, the OCIOS and OCFO's are invited to attend the am session. The general discussions, which in past years were held in the morning, will be held in the afternoon session. The sessions on the 26th will be held at the USDA South Building in the Jefferson auditorium. The demos on the 27th will be in the Customer Support Office. Information will on the web page later this week. The only thing scheduled for 27th is demos. However, these sessions will be more than just the standard demos of the past. Included in each demo session will be information regarding picture issues as they relate to the system being demonstrated. This will include such items as time-line for role-outs, enhancements, etc. The first day of the 2005 forum will be tied to the President's agenda and more of an annual report. We will not have the standard system update information that we have included in the past. All of the system information will be shared during the demos on the 27th. The agenda will be out in the next couple of weeks.

VIII. Employee Express Update / Employee Self Service - George Morris thanked Treasury for providing him with the dial-in for the May EEX meeting. He recapped the discussions from that meeting.

A. CFC functionality - This initiative has not expanded from an EEX standpoint. While they are still offering the pilot sites, EEX staff has been working closely with DC area CFC effort. This campaign area has done a lot of automation and EEX is working with them to see if the campaigns site can be used for employees to input data. This would be a prototype for how OPM would like the CFC drives operating throughout the US. For the first time OPM is going to try and manage the functionality through out the USA better. The idea is to cut down the 300-400 campaign areas and consolidate them. That may be something the E-payroll providers will want to deal with OPM directly on to benefit the employees' significantly. This initiative would be open beyond EEX (i.e., to ESS users and others).

B. EOD package - The other big EEX issue discussed was the EOD package. The discussions spun off a bit into areas that did not impact EEX and were bought back into alignment to focus on what the agencies need for their employees. We will see how successful the realignment is in the next few months. The prior focus would have supported EHRI initiatives, but not anything for the servicing offices.

C. Q: DHS - Why can't George be on the EEX distribution phone list? A: George reminded them that NFC is a part of USDA. EEX powers have determined that if the big USDA is no longer participating as an EEX client, then no USDA employee should be cc'd even though USDA-NFC does have clients that use EEX. George pointed out that he has tried several times to reverse this decision and has given up.

IX. Three R's - Cliff Lee - OPM had a forum on the 3 R's - recruitment, relocation, and retention bonuses. For starters they changed the terminology to "incentives." The new regulations on the 3 R's were posted last Friday. Thanks to DHS for shipping an advance copy to us. Did anyone go to the forum? DHS, yes. Cliff indicated that he was surprised when OPM announced that they had issued processing instructions to the payroll offices. As it turns out NFC did not receive them until after the meeting because they were sent immediately before it.

A. OPM is proposing a new NOA and authority code for the retention allowance.

B. In short, the new 3 R regulations change the computation of the incentives from basic pay (exclusive of locality pay) to adjusted salary (including locality pay).

C. There is also a requirement for service agreements with the exception of retention incentives paid biweekly.

D. In addition, in the past the recruitment and relocation bonuses were paid out as lump sum payments only. Now agencies have greater flexibility - lump sum, installments, sideways, anyway you want to pay them out. Any combination of these will cause a problem with NFC initially because we will have to pay via Manual Pay because

1. we compute on basic not locality; and

2. we cannot accommodate installment payments via the system.

Until the system is updated our only option is Manual Pay.

E. Another sticking point is there is a 'grandfather clause' in the regulations so that anyone currently receiving a retention allowance may continue to receive it under the old regulations until April 30, 2006. Anyone who has received a commitment for a recruitment or relocation bonus under the old regulations prior to May 1, 2005, may still receive that lump sum payment in accordance with the terms of their service agreement.

F. The new 3 R regulations may be found at the OPM web site.

G. There are numerous changes for the 3 R's. Agencies are required to set up Recruitment, Relocation, and Retention Incentive Plans. The new regulations also impose a reporting requirement to Congress for the next five years. Some data elements required for reporting are not in CPDF. Agencies will need to maintain some of the reporting data. NFC will need time to review the numerous changes and their impact on the payroll/personnel systems. For the foreseeable future, we will only be able to process recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives under the new regulations via Manual Pay.

H. Q&A's

1. Q: SI - Effective when? A: May 13, 2005. Jo added that this is one of those weird situations where if the agreement in place and person is not coming in until May 30th or June 1st they are grand fathered to retain a negative benefit (i.e., the computations are worth more under the new regulations!) Cliff indicated that OPM is allowing agencies to dust off the current regulations and add a statement that you are adopting the new regulations and slap a cover letter on it and proceed. OPM is being flexible on this issue.

2. Q: George - Do we need to coordinate with other payroll providers? A: Randy Gonzales - This has not been addressed. We talk with them monthly but we have not had any detailed discussion on this subject. This will present challenges to all of us.

3. Q: DHS - One of the new requirements will be reporting for five years. Since all the data is in the NFC payroll, are you going to produce the reports? A: We will provide the data that we have in our system. However, it appears to me that some of the reporting requirements levied by OPM will require a written report. There are non-statistical items that fall back on the agency to address. Whatever we can provide statistically, we will but your agency input will have to be handled individually. There are questions like "WHY did you give it to them?" Jo added that reps will need to keep in mind we will be going via Manual Pay for a period, so initially we won't have any data.

4. Q: At this time do we do all thru manual pay? A: Yes, at this time.

5. Q: Will NFC block the system or add an edit in the system so we cannot process those NOAs? A: Cliff - We cannot do that because some of the agencies are processing "grand fathered" cases under the old rules. FQ: Can still use the base salary? A: Yes under the old regulations we use the old salary - lose out on the benefit. Cliff - There is nothing to prevent a renegotiation of the incentive to allow them to take advantage of the new reg. With a new agreement the incentive would be based on locality pay.

6. Q: TR - what about NOAC? A: Right now it will be the same NOAC for recruitment and relocation with some new authorities for some provisions. One thing they have is a waiver to give them the 25% and pay out at 50% for twice as fast processing. FQ: Since we are paying these via manual pay there is no NOAC in the system, right? A: That's right. Until the programming is done you cannot record them in the system. FQ: After system is programmed, will we be able to go back and enter the NOAC? FA: Not sure. Keep track of those done via the manual process. You will need the list to go back and enter the NOAC in the system or report them to OPM. Cliff - Once we have passed the grand fathered period, we will close down the old programming. Take a close look at the regulations and fact sheets because this is a huge change.

X. User & Work Group Updates

A. Awards - (Jo Bonner) - Next Quarterly meeting is August 10, 2005

1. 840/841 NET generated on bi-weekly basis. $6,500 net CAPP - Clients can thank SS for a new NOAC combo. They had a need for a gross-up award option that was not paid on an overnight schedule and thus subject to the $500 limit. (DOC had expressed interest in this option earlier, but funding was an issue. SS is paying for the programming.) Therefore, effect in PP-11, NFC will have the combo NOA 840 or 841 with authority "NET" and award code C099. For these awards, the payment will be grossed-up and issued on the bi-weekly schedule. There is a $6500 input (net) limit on these awards, because the average gross-up amount is about 30%. With the $6,500 net cap, the award total should stay under the $10,000 limit agencies can process without OPM approval. If an agency does NOT want to use this award at all, please let Jo know so she can put an edit in place. This can be controlled based on the table 043 and programming changes are not needed.

a. Q: BPD - Did you say the maximum is $6500? What if it is a group award? A: Yes. If you are processing a group award, that maximum applies to each individual person within the group.

b. Q: SI - Is that the gross or net of $6500? A: It's the net amount, which is why we are using the NFC assigned authority of "NET". Agencies need to be advised that this is a ballpark figure. And it is the agencies responsibility to ensure that the gross award amount does not exceed the $10,000 OPM restriction. The actual amount the award is grossed-up to will vary based upon the employee's situation. For example, if the employee is covered by FERS, retirement contributions must be added to the gross-up amount.

c. REMEMBER - IF YOU DON'T WANT TO USE IT, let Jo know as soon as possible so that the option can be blocked for your agency.

POST MEETING UPDATE: Implementation has been postponed from PP-11. When a new implementation date has been established, CAPPS will be notified.

B. Benefits - (Jody Nyers) - Next meeting is scheduled for June 23, 2005

C. EPIC - (Penny Forbes) - We're going to resurrect the group meetings and scheduled to meet on the 3rd Thursday of each month. The first meeting will be June 16th. Agency representatives may participate via dial-in or in person. Someone from Randy Speed's staff and someone from the Customer Support Staff will attend each month along with other NFC personnel that may dial-in as needed.

1. Q: Who is coordinating these meetings? A: CSR. As long as Mark is in town, he will participate. We will have contractor for administrative support in the CSO so that person can also help out for notes.

2. Q: We'd like to have an agenda. A: We will be sending this out. E-mail suggested topics to your Customer Support Representative.

D. EPP - (Randy Speed) - no report

E. FESI (Donna Speed) - no report

F. EmpowHR - (Rick Minella) - We are working with TSA and USCG to implement them into EmpowHR (formerly referred to as HRIS). We are also conducting a fit gap with Forest Service to see what they would like to use. We have also been approached by DOJ for some demo's to see what the application looks like. Any agencies interested in a demo of EmpowHR should contact Rick or Glenda Dorsey and they will schedule something locally with the Beltsville Group to provide this. EmpowHR will also be covered at the Customer Forum.

1. Q: What will you do for the current agencies? A: Rick - we will continue the normal support. In addition, we had a study done on the enhancements needed/wanted and we are working on those at the same time. This includes such things as history corrections, rollbacks, etc. If we add any functionality, we will meet with the existing user group to make sure you are aware of it. FQ: We received information on changes being made and there were things that drastically changed the way we processed. We are concerned that we are not receiving the type of support on our day-to-day processing while you are bringing up the other agencies. A: Rick - I will talk to Glenda about this. FC: We have been out to Beltsville and she is not available to us. LOC and GAO have the same issues.

G. PMSO - (George Morris) - We are working on the package of changes/concerns submitted by one of the clients and we will present it to the entire workgroup. There are some changes recommended that are viable, however others would require a total revamping of the existing system. Changes that we will initially consider will revolve around improvements to the current PMSO as a functioning system. We are also meeting with Curt Dahlke in USDA as an additional resource.

H. T&A - (Jo Bonner) - Meets 1st payday Thursday of each month. This month there are updates on pending projects

1. Other Time 3 & 4 - At the last CAPPS meeting, TR bought up programming on "Other Times" and I had indicated that the T&A Requirements Workgroup had already submitted a request to utilize the new fields. For those who are not aware of it, when the database was changed back in 2002 there were two additional "Other Times" created. OtherTime3 and OtherTime4 and their associated fields. NFC plans to have the programming in place to begin utilizing those fields in PP-10. For those not using STARWEB you can use these fields by doing a continued T&A. The x-mit file layout does not change.

a. Q: How do we do this? A: In most cases, nothing on the user community side will change. Do not lose a lot of sleep over this one. For most of you you've had T&A's rejecting because you have been sending NFC more than two OtherTime records. Now that the programming is in place for OtherTime3 and 4, these additional 'other time' records will stop causing the T&A to reject. For example, if the T&A was transmitted with LWOP, AWOL, and credit hours earned; one of these transaction codes disappeared (either dropped completely as with credit hours earned or two non-pay times may have been combined to one value. Again, if you are a STAR 4.25 user you will not notice any change.

2. Effective in PP-10, credit hours earned, compensatory time earned and compensatory time for travel earned can be submitted with or without accounting depending upon how you have it defined in your T&A system. Typically timekeepers think of TC's that require accounting as regular TC's and TC's that do not as other TC's. Another way of looking at if for those old PC-TARE users is the "above the line" vs the "below the line" option. TC's above the line required accounting, those below did not. Anyway, there has been special programming in place for some of our agencies who do cost accounting to enable them to store accounting associated with these types of time. The T&A Work group elected to open it up and allow agencies to make the call as to which way they want to proceed. This enables those agencies that do need to charge time spent accruing credit or comp back to the specific project on which they were working to do so. This is just like they have done in the past for overtime. If you are a STAR 4.25 user, you will be forced to use this option in PP-10 if you elect to enter accounting on the T&A. If stored accounting is used on a T&A, there is no change. The T&A Work group felt that it would have a minimal impact on those who do not want to use it because most would be using stored accounting, which is the typical choice for non-cost accounting agencies. However, the benefit to those agencies that do utilize cost accounting will be significant. Once we come out with STAR 5.0 and the agency can maintain agency specific tables for this, those agencies not wishing to use this option can change it back.

a. Q: TR - If you put an accounting code, it's regular time? A: Jo - No, if a TC is regular time, you HAVE to put in the accounting code on the line.

b. Q: Okay, so if using stored accounting there is no difference. But if you are using line-by-line accounting it must be coded on the T&A. Where do you do this? A: Jo - There should be an indicator in all the T&A systems. At least there is an indicator in all of the NFC developed T&A systems. I'm not sure about agency systems, but they should not have hard coded it. Anyway, this indicator can be set by TC (i.e., regular time, over time, comp time, etc). It is frequently referred to as a "top-flag", but may have an official name. Please check NFC's Payroll/Personnel manual, Title I, Chapter 7, Section 1. NFC is working on a bulletin for this. Theresa Trentacoste added that, "Lynn is working on this as we speak". She added that both of the T&A related changes will be included in one bulletin because they are so closely related and the distribution list would be the same for both items. When we do a T&A bulletin, we have a large percentage mailed to that user community so we prefer doing one mailing to reduce costs for everyone vs two separate bulletins and mail-outs. We plan to rush the review and distribute it a soon as possible..

3. 22-day military offset leave payout will be automated in PP-12 to calculate the amount actually due to the employee. This has been a manual process and the automation has been a long time coming. However, as we speak, the programmers are working on this, table changes are being done, testing is being done, etc. Jo reminded clients that, as discussed with the original requirements for this, the HR office has to get involved to process a 903 MIL personnel action to document the employee's military hourly rate for the period to be paid when using the 22-day military off-set leave (TC-68). The HR office will be required to enter in the salary share offset code of "9" and the calculated military hourly rate each pay period. This must be re-computed each pay period because a activated military personnel pay rates typically vary each pay period. With the new changes going into place, if we see TC-68 on the T&A and nothing on the mainframe in for an offset value, we will reject the T&A. Otherwise, we will take the Federal computed rate from NFC, deduct the military rate entered on the 903 document for that pay period, and pay the employee the difference. In the event that the military rate is higher than civilian rate, we will not pay the employee for those hours, but will simply record them as TC-68 hours used and toss the code out the window for computing pay for that pay period. This information will all be covered in a bulletin that Directives is working on right now.

a. Q: DHS - Are you coordinating this with the EmpowHR folks because it is now one of your programs? Rick, are you going to make this change or is it handled by the Beltsville staff? R: Rick was not aware of the programming request. Jo sent it to GESDRequest, but will send something to directly to Rick on it after the meeting. This includes programming changes for LOC, GAO. Jo indicated that the changes on the EPIC end will be minor, the ability to add the auth code and salary share code for the 903 action, open a couple of fields when the combo is used, and modify/add a couple of up-front edits. Rick indicated that the Beltsville staff will need to make equivalent changes in EmpowHR. For those with other HR systems, there will be minor changes in your FESI (i.e., permit the new authority on the 903, allow the value of a 9 for the coop salary share code on the 903, etc.). Jo was informed that the EPIC Help portion of the changes will not be done until next EPIC client release, in PP-14. Randy will check on the client release date.

b. Q: TR - what is the auth code? A: Jo - The authority used with the 903 will be MIL - bulletin will explain it all.

c. Q: Jo asked if any of the clients have a problem if we require that the off-set amount contain a value on the mainframe anytime TC-68 is submitted on the T&A record? A: no response. FQ: Jo requested that CAPPS reps check with their respective agency T&A coordinators on this issue. 5 USC 6323 indicates that everyone has to abide by it, but before we put an edit in place, I want to make sure that we do not have an agency out there with an exception.

XI. Potpourri

A. DOJ - Is anyone using the transaction descriptor codes coming thru the T&A. Do you realize that they are only available in the T&A - PAYTA area? Is anyone trying to report via this? A: No other agencies spoke-up with an issue. Jo indicated that the T&A Work group intent for the descriptor codes was to enable additional editing and some time reporting. There was no need identified to pass this information along to PAYPERS or anywhere else after the pay process.

B. LOC - We are having problems with EPIC HCUPs where we are getting an error on a field that is not accessible (i.e., the field is grayed out). A: Penny will put this on the agenda for the EPIC meeting.

C. TR-BPD - There has been talk about abolishing the 006 but we never saw that happen. The RNO came off as an option, but not education? A: Penny only knows of the 006, nothing about the others. Where did you see this? F: When updating the RNO via an 006 action. FA: This sounds like another issue for the EPIC work group.

XII. Attendees

A. In-Person

1. Clients: USDA, ARC, AOC, CFTC, CSOSA, DOC, DOJ, DOL, FMCS, GAO, HUD, LOC, MSPB, NEH, OGE, PC, SBA, SMITH, TR, DHS

2. NFC: Cliff, George, Jo, and Jody

B. Via Teleconference

1. IBWC, TR-BPD

2. Randy Gonzales, Penny Forbes, Gary Gaspard, Rick Minella, Theresa Trentacoste, Kurt Guerion, Wendy Graschel