An organization suspense account (OSA) is a PTA assigned to an organization (org) to capture payroll transactions when they fail to post successfully to their original PTA. (By contrast, Accounts Payable (AP) default PTAs are PTAs assigned for an organization (org) to capture non-salary transactions when they fail to post successfully to their original PTA.)
Payroll transactions that post to the OSA PTA (AAQxx) are associated with the employee’s Assignment Org, reflect the suspense expenditure type 51610, and are burdened at the highest rate.
Departments requesting a new org through the Organization Code Hierarchy Tool must supply the designated OSA PTA as well as an OSA Sweep PTA, typically an operating budget PTA, to capture suspense transactions (transactions posted to a suspense account) included in a periodic sweep. For details on OSA sweeps, view the Identifying and Clearing OSAs section below.
- A labor schedule does not exist for an employee that should have one. This excludes students in the Graduate Financial Support (GFS) systems and employees submitting timesheets.
- Labor schedule lines total less than 100 percent. The remaining earnings are charged to the OSA PTA.
- The PTA assigned in the Labor Schedules system, Axess Timecard, paper timesheets, PeopleSoft Supplemental Pay Web Form, or GFS was not valid when payroll was posted in Oracle Financials.
Charging instructions which were initially successful can fail over time. Requirements for a charge to post are:
- Award status is active or at risk.
- Project status is active.
- Task is chargeable.
- Expenditure type is allowable on the project or task.
- Transaction Expenditure Item Date (EID) is within the most restrictive PTA start and end dates of each PTA segment.
Use the PTA Inquiry report in the OBI Reference Data and Inquiry Dashboard to view these values.
Taking action before payroll runs will prevent expenditures from posting to the OSA PTA. Here are some of the most common actions a user can take to prevent payroll transaction errors:
- Review the At A Glance page in the Labor Schedules system to view employees who require action in the current pay period due to a missing labor schedule or incomplete labor schedules under 100 percent. Refer to How to: Create or Update Individual Labor Schedule and How to: Create or Update Individual Labor Schedule with Salary Cap.
- Review the automated Labor Schedules email notifications when action is required on an employee’s labor schedule.
- Visually identify incomplete labor schedules by pay period using the Labor Schedule Trend Report in the OBI Payroll and Labor Management Dashboard, which makes it easy to review an entire organization for the rest of the fiscal year by displaying schedule totals and details.
- Review and modify the PTA in GFS, PeopleSoft Supplemental Pay Web Form, or Axess Timecard.
- Ensure that the PTA(s) on paper timesheets are legible and that the timesheet contains the employee's assignment number.
Departments should clear suspense transactions soon after payroll posts in Oracle Financials or by the published OSA clearing deadlines. All suspense transactions must be moved from the OSA, including vacation earnings (SOV/VCR) and retroactive salary payments for previous pay periods. If departments do not clear suspense transactions by the OSA clearing deadlines, the OSA Clearing Policy specifies a periodic sweep to move them from the OSA PTA to the OSA Sweep PTA with a $35 sweep fee per payroll line.
To identify suspense accounts (AP Default PTA, OSA PTA, and OSA Sweep PTA) for an org, use the Suspense Account Query Tool; only authorized budget officers may request changes to suspense accounts.
To review and clear transactions posted to OSAs, refer to How to: Identify and Clear Organization Suspense Accounts (OSAs) for Labor for step-by-step instructions.
To monitor the status of LDA transactions, review them in the Labor Distribution Adjustments (LDA) system's At-a-Glance page or run the OBI Labor Distribution Adjustments (Real-time) Report. (Those without access to either the LDA or OBI system should notify the authorized labor distribution adjuster to enter the distribution adjustment(s); to find an LD adjuster based on the person being paid, use the Labor Distribution User Query Tool.)
Subscribe to the LD Adjuster email list to receive biweekly email notifications of payroll postings in Oracle Financials and other important communications.