Administrative Practice Letter IV-O

Subject: Time Reporting

Purpose and Scope

This policy provides University of Maine System (UMS) departments with an authorized method for tracking and approving hours worked and paid time off for employees. Timely and accurate record keeping of hours worked and subsequent timely approval of hours reported is critical to ensuring employees are paid in accordance to law. Falsification of a timesheet is not permitted under any circumstances.

To ensure compliance with applicable federal and state law, non-exempt employees are required to report all hours worked accurately in their MaineStreet Time and Labor Timesheet. Authorized Time Approvers are required to review the time and approve as appropriate according to the established payroll deadlines. Unless the supervisor has personal knowledge or documentation that the employee’s time worked is different than the employee has entered, the supervisor should not change the time and, in general, the University is responsible for paying the employee for the hours the employee reported.

Timely and full payment of wages is required by Maine law. The University must pay in full all wages earned at regular intervals not to exceed 16 days. Each payment must include all wages earned to within 8 days of the payment date. To comply with this, non-exempt employees must be paid in accordance with our biweekly payroll schedule.

To ensure accurate accounting of liabilities, all leave time is required to be entered into the MaineStreet Time and Labor Timesheet for all hourly and salaried personnel.

Responsibilities

Non-Exempt (Hourly-paid & Student) Employee Responsibilities

Non-exempt employees must accurately report all hours worked and any leave taken on a daily basis. Recorded hours must document hours actually worked, rather than hours scheduled to work, and rather than only hours that were pre-approved.

Each non-exempt employee is responsible for ensuring that all time worked and leave taken is accurately reflected on their timesheet, and the timesheet must be submitted by the employee on a daily basis to ensure adherence to the established payroll deadlines. Failure to submit the timesheet by the established deadline may jeopardize on-time processing and receipt of employee pay.

Timesheets must be submitted for each pay period worked. State and Federal regulations require employees be paid for any and all hours worked during a pay period. Timesheets should not be held over multiple pay periods.

Repeated neglect by an employee to submit time and/or leave in accordance with established policies and pay dates may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. Falsification of a timesheet will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Exempt (Salaried & Faculty) Employee Responsibilities

Exempt employees (staff and faculty) only record exception time on the timesheet. The employee’s timesheet must be submitted by the employee by the established payroll deadlines.

Time Approver Responsibilities

The time approver is typically the direct supervisor with authority to approve or deny leave. The time approver is responsible for ensuring that all time and leave records are input in MaineStreet and accurate for their areas of responsibility by the established payroll deadlines. Managers with timesheet approval responsibilities are required to approve timesheets for their direct reports as required by the established payroll approval deadlines.

If primary time approvers are not available to approve timesheets in accordance with the established approval dates, their responsibility must be delegated to an authorized and approved proxy. An individual who is reporting time should not be responsible for approving her/his own time.

Time approvers who do not appropriately review, correct, and approve timesheets by applicable deadlines may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

If the supervisor has reason to believe time submitted was not worked, the supervisor should speak with the employee to resolve the discrepancy, have the employee resubmit the time, and then approve it. It is necessary to resolve all discrepancies, make any necessary adjustments, and approve the timesheet by the payroll approval deadline. Unless the supervisor has personal knowledge and documentation that the employee didn’t work, the supervisor should not change the time and the time should be approved for timely payment.

In the event of extenuating circumstances, an employee may provide, in writing, hours worked to the supervisor, who will input and approve hours on their behalf. This process should be used on an exception basis and will be audited. Excessive use of this process will result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Approval of time is the responsibility of the supervisor. If the supervisor chooses to delegate this task, the responsibility, nonetheless, remains with the supervisor.

Human Resources (HR) Responsibilities:

Human Resources provides MaineStreet time and leave reporting training for employees at time of hire and available on an ongoing basis for all employees required to record their working time, and for those required to approve other employees’ hours worked. Time approval training is also available.

The timekeeping system of record is MaineStreet (PeopleSoft Payroll for North America/Time and Labor). All routine wages must be dispersed via the UMS Payroll system of record (MaineStreet). The Office of Human Resources is responsible for maintaining all HR records within the approved system of record. Timekeeping systems that are outside of MaineStreet (PeopleSoft Payroll for North American/Time and Labor) are not considered the official record.

Definitions

Compensable Time (Hours Worked)

Work not requested but performed or permitted to be performed is work time that must be paid for by the University. For example, an employee may voluntarily continue to work at the end of the shift to finish an assigned task or to correct errors. The reason is immaterial. The hours are work time and are compensable. See Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for details.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

The “FLSA” is the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal law that includes provisions which prohibit child labor, set minimum wage, require overtime pay, require equal pay and require record keeping. The FLSA governs the distinction between exempt status (not eligible for overtime pay) and non-exempt or hourly status (eligible for overtime pay). An employee has to be either exempt or non-exempt in totality, not each position.

Policies

Anticipating Time

Time reporters should report time worked and taken off as it occurs. Vacation time should be reported right before the employee embarks for vacation. Recording working time in advance is not permitted. Employees should not anticipate overtime hours and approvers should not approve regular or overtime hours until they have actually been worked. Overtime is calculated after forty hours of regular time has been entered.

Fifteen Minute Increments

Time must be reported in quarter hour increments in the Time and Labor system. Time worked within a quarter should be recorded up to the nearest quarter. For example, if an employee works 7 hours and 25 minutes, they should record 7.5 hours of work. Employees may not, and must not be instructed to, round their recorded time down. Acceptable entries should be reported with the following decimals:

· .00
· .25
· .50
· .75