May 13, 2024
Good afternoon, everyone:
As we gear up for the much-awaited summer break, I wanted to touch base with some important reminders:
New hires (individuals paid via payroll), Timekeeping, and Overtime
If you plan to hire new employees in your sponsored project, or on your TUC A and/or E funds, please remember that all individuals must complete the new hire sign in process before allowing them to work.
Compliance with federal regulations is crucial. Every new employee, regardless of citizenship status, must complete the Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) before their first day of work. Failure to adhere to these requirements could lead to penalties from The University Corporation and CSU Northridge. Additionally, in accordance with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, TUC is required to validate that the individual possesses a valid Social Security Card and number. Please note that TUC operates as a separate employer from CSU Northridge
Timely submission of timesheets is imperative to ensure accurate recording of hours worked and timely paychecks. Please remember to submit your timesheets semi-monthly according to the Payroll Schedule.
According to federal law, employers are obligated to compensate non-exempt employees for all reported and unreported work hours they are aware of or have reason to believe have been completed, regardless of whether the work was authorized or scheduled in advance
Please visit the PI FAQ page regarding personnel and payroll if you have any questions. Please contact tuchr@csun.edu, or your Post-award liaison, if you have specific questions not addressed in the FAQ page.
Updated Travel Guidelines: Hotel Approval Threshold increase
The CSU Travel and Business Expense Payments policy has been revised to increase the (domestic) lodging expense limit from $275/night to $333/night in order to adjust for inflation and align with other state public higher education institutions. Justification and additional eTravel approvals will be required for domestic lodging rates greater than $333/ night, excluding taxes and other related charges. The new rate limit applies to travel on or after April 18, 2024.
Before submitting your travel authorization/approval requests, kindly review the TUC Travel guidelines. If there are any travel guidelines imposed by the sponsored project that are more stringent than TUC’s guidelines, the sponsored project’s guidelines will take precedence. For any clarifications or assistance, please reach out to your Post-Award liaison.
Additional Pay – Spring 2024
All spring 2024 pre-authorization requests must be submitted by May 23, 2024. After this date, you will not be able to enter any pre-authorization requests for spring 2024 semester.
Please remember that the additional pay is a two-step process. Pre-authorization must be submitted initially and will be routed for approval. After the pre-authorization is fully approved, the faculty must submit the TUC payment authorization request to certify that the work was done and to report the days of work. Spring 2024 payment authorization must be fully approved by June 15, 2024.
The updated TUC additional pay guide is attached.
Additional Pay System Top 10 Tips
For any questions, please contact your Post-award liaison.
Additional Pay – May and June 2024 (Due: June 28, 2024 at 10AM)
Summer 2024 TUC Additional Pay system is now open. Please submit your pre-authorization for May and June 2024 as soon as possible. Due to Fiscal Year 23/24 ending, deadline to submit May and June 2024 payment authorization requests is on June 28, 2024 at 10AM.
If you anticipate a general salary increase on July 1, 2024, please wait to submit your July and August 2024 additional pay pre-authorization requests until the new compensation rate is updated on the additional pay system. For compliance and audit reasons, TUC will not be able to change the daily rate and will not issue payment adjustments once pre-authorization is submitted.
Please find SummerHowToGuide PDF file to help you submit summer additional pay requests. Below are the guidelines for summer 2024:
- For those working on federal or federal pass-through projects, select “base salary pay rate” as the payment type.
- Academic Year (AY) faculty have a total of 75 days available (125% of base time) during the summer, which includes teaching summer courses. Refer to the provided guide for the breakdown of available days per month:
| Date Range | Federal and federal pass-through | Non-federal | Total number of days |
May | 5/24/24 through 5/31/24 | 5 | 1.25 | 6.25 |
June | 6/1/24 through 6/30/24 | 19 | 4.75 | 23.75 |
July | 7/1/24 through 7/31/24 | 22 | 5.5 | 27.5 |
August | 8/1/24 through 8/20/24 | 14 | 3.5 | 17.5 |
Grand Total |
| 60 | 15 | 75 |
· 12-month faculty have up to 15 available days total (25% of base time) for additional work during the summer. Again, refer to the guide below for details:
| Date Range | Total number of days |
May | 5/24/24 through 5/31/24 | 1.25 |
June | 6/1/24 through 6/30/24 | 4.75 |
July | 7/1/24 through 7/31/24 | 5.5 |
August | 8/1/24 through 8/20/24 | 3.5 |
Grand Total |
| 15 |
- A 12-month faculty cannot do any other additional work if teaching a summer course and must claim vacation days to make up for the overage of teaching a course.
Please let us know if there are any questions.
Thank you,
Grace Slavik, Associate Executive Director, Financial Services