Important Notes:
Payroll Correcting Entries are submitted for the following reasons:
To correct payroll (e.g. earnings, supplemental pay or fringe) costing with an effective date before Oct 30, 2022.
To reallocate or correct over-time expenses to or from a sponsored project or to reallocate fringe amounts as required by sponsored program agreement. Department SPA will reach out to business managers if items (such as fringe) costed to a grant need to be moved to another fund source.
To correct costing for an inactive employee (terminated) after their separation date has passed and the final check has been processed and paid.
If needed, a single payroll correction template can be submitted for multiple pay periods and multiple employees.
Each payroll correcting entry must include a completed single payroll correction justification form (required).
You cannot have multiple justifications per entry.
If correcting payroll for multiple employees, include justifications for all employees on one justification form.
If you also need to update the employee’s assignment costing, you must submit an Employee Costing Change form. Run the Active Employee Funding and Pay Report to confirm employee assignment costing is correct.
Journals for the prior month are only processed the first four working days of the next month.
Time Card Overrides and Corrections: Employees can incorrectly override their payroll costing by entering costing information on their time cards. If an employee incorrectly overrides their costing, supervisors can adjust the costing from the time card within 28 days by following these instructions to edit another employee’s time card.
If beyond 28 days, the department must submit an HR ServiceNow Ticket Request because time card overrides cannot be corrected via the ECC or payroll correcting entry processes.
Payroll Corrections with Sponsored Project: Payroll transactions rejected from the project ledger require a cost transfer for all transactions posted in the period the rejected transaction occurred. All transactions must be credited back to the project because unallowable costs cannot post to projects or contain split costs after posting to the general ledger. If a portion of the costs belongs to the project, that portion should be debited to the project and the remaining expenses debited to the correct funding source.
Example: if eight days of pay for Joe Bronco are allowed on the project, but because the project has ended, two days cannot be billed to the project. The full pay and fringe costs for the period are $1000, and the transactions were stopped before posting to the project ledger. The journal entry must credit the entire $1000 to the project, then debit $800 to the project and $200 to a different funding source.
For support with sponsored project related payroll corrections, email postaward@boisestate.edu.
Payroll Corrections impacting Work Study Programs: Payroll transactions impacting the Work Study Program must be approved by the Financial Aid office. The Work Study Program has strict student eligibility requirements, award limits, and aid-year cut-off dates; please reach out prior to submitting a correcting entry.
For support with work study related payroll corrections, email faworkstudy@boisestate.edu
Step 1: Access Payroll Correction Template
Download the Payroll Correction Template from the University Forms and Documents page.
ALWAYS download a new template for payroll correction request. Do not save and re-use templates. Re-using templates will results in a processing error and your request will be rejected.
Step 2: Save File Prior to Entering Data
After downloading the template, select File then Save As.
Save your file with a meaningful name and location.
Step 3: Run a Salary Data Report
Follow the instructions for running a Salary Data Report to gather information about the original transaction.
If you need to request report access, submit an Access Request Form. When submitting the access request, include the name of the report and any other details that might be needed.
A copy of the Salary Data Report is a required attachment when submitting a Payroll Correcting Entry.
Do not delete any columns from the Salary Data Report before uploading the attachment.
If correcting only part of the data in the salary data report, please highlight the rows in the salary data report that need to be corrected. If you include calculations, please ensure the salary data report attachment includes the original totals to help with processing.
Step 4: Enter Justification for the Correction
The justification form is required for all payroll corrections.
Select the Justification Form tab at the bottom of the worksheet and complete the required information for the correction.
Oldest posting date of original transaction (Journal posting date, column X in Salary Data Report, or if no date is entered for Journal posting date, then use Accounting date in column B).
Date prepared
Employee name(s)
Employee ID(s)
Pay period begin date
Pay period end date
PCN (if applicable)
Funding source segment string(s) that expense(s) originally posted to
Funding source segment string(s) that expense(s) should be transferred to
Reason/Justification for correction (Please provide specific information on why the entry is needed in box 1 and 2)
If the journal entry involves a grant and occurred more than 90 days ago, you must answer the questions listed in the justification form
Journal entry prepared by
If you have questions about the justification form, email JEuploads@boisestate.edu.
Step 5: Enter Journal and Accounting Information
Enter Journal (A12) and Journal Description (B12) in the appropriate fields on the first enterable line. These fields are free form with character limits of 100 and 240, respectively. They are for department information and there is no mandated format. The values will autofill down the template.
Enter Accounting Date (C12) as the current date (the date you are submitting the correction) or the last day of the open accounting period. If you have questions about whether an accounting period is open, email JEuploads@boisestate.edu.
Data should only be entered in white cells; gray cells are not editable.
Step 6: Enter Financial Data
Enter an amount as Entered Debit or Entered Credit. Values cannot be negative.
The amount must be rounded to the second decimal.
A credit on the salary data report should be reversed via debit in the journal and vice versa.
Entered Credit will create a negative amount on the indicated funding source.
Entered Debit will create a positive amount on the indicated funding source.
Enter the Funding Segment String information for the correction (please make sure each segment has the required number of characters)
Step 7: Enter Transaction Data Details
Line Description(s) - Optional (Often used to describe the correction in more detail)
Copy and paste the following transaction data detail columns from the Salary Data Report:
Employee ID(s) - Column M
Employee Name(s) - Column N
Pay Type(s) - Column O
Position Number(s) - Column P (If there is not a Position Number/PCN listed on the salary data report, leave this field blank in the journal)
Pay Period End Date(s) - Column Q
HR Department(s) - Column Z
Assignment Number(s) - Column AA
Process(es) - Column AB
Step 8: Confirm Pivot Accuracy & Review Totals
Review the Journal Entry (JE) Total to ensure each required field has been completed.
Confirm the sheet is balanced (JE total should be 0.00).
Select the Pivot Check tab at the bottom of the worksheet.
Refresh the pivot tables to ensure your journal balances by employee ID and pay period end date.
To refresh data, click into a table and select CTRL + ALT +F5 OR click Data from excel top navigation and click Refresh All.
All lines in each Pivot Table should have a net sum of 0 (except Fund). If the net sum is an amount other than 0 on any line, you will need to correct your entry to make sure debits equal credits for each account code (unless you’re correcting the account code). If you need additional assistance, please contact JEuploads@boisestate.edu.
Step 9: Email Approvers and Submit Request
If applicable, email your request to the appropriate approvers listed at the bottom of the Justification Form.
Upload completed Payroll Correction Template, Salary Data Report, and supporting documentation to thePayroll Correction Request form.
What’s next:
You will receive a confirmation email with a tracking number for your Payroll Correction request.
End of Process
Need help with the steps above?
If you need assistance with the process outlined above reach out to JEuploads@boisestate.edu.
If you have suggestions to improve the instructions in this job aid, please submit an OCI Service Request ticket.