Sequoia is new home for HR and payroll activities Posted July 6, 2026

1. Customize your time card view

   Resize columns by selecting and dragging the lines between columns, minimizing fields that you do not normally use. This gives you a clearer view, so it’s easier to spot mistakes before you submit your time card.

2. Move efficiently between fields

   As you begin entering your timecard, select an entry field and ‘type ahead’ if you know the value that you would like to enter in that field. Otherwise, double-click the field to enable the dropdown menu. Tab to easily move between fields. If you have multiple assignments, or jobs, with the university, the department associated with the assignment will populate automatically after you select the assignment and then tab to the next field. This allows you to confirm you’re applying your entries to the right assignment.

3. Start with Regular Time

   Enter ‘Regular Time’  as the Time Type to begin entering your Start and Stop times for the pay period. If you take an unpaid meal period during your work day, you will need to enter your first set of Start and Stop times on one row and then add a row for your second set.

4. Record time daily in the Sequoia time card 

   Time should be entered on a daily basis as you work. Employees and managers can make corrections to time cards as needed, which creates audit logs for transparency.

5. Overtime and premiums calculate automatically

   Upon saving your timecard, rules will be applied against your Start and Stop times recorded to automatically calculate your overtime for you. Premiums like shift differentials or meal period penalties are applied automatically too, as long as your time is recorded accurately.

6. Review your calculated hours 

   Check your hours, overtime, and time-off balances whenever you like. Your Reported Time shows what you have logged. Calculated Time shows how Sequoia totals it into regular, overtime, and premium pay. Reviewing both views helps you confirm that what you entered matches how it will be paid.

7. Submit by the deadline

   Remember: Save isn't the same as Submit. Save keeps your edits as a draft so you can come back. When you Submit, you'll first complete a separate attestation step to confirm your hours are accurate, and then the time card goes to your manager for approval. Always submit by your pay-period deadline. Submitting on time with accurate hours ensures your pay is processed correctly and without delays.

8. Normally remote, but temporarily working in California? 

   Remote employees who normally work outside of California, both non-exempt and exempt, use the time card to report time worked in California by entering ‘CA’ in the Temporary Tax Location field.

9. Need to correct a time card?

   Time and absence corrections for previous pay periods can be made directly in Sequoia for up to 45 days after the pay period has ended.

1. Plan ahead for absence requests

   Use the Absence module to request time away as it is planned, which can be as far in advance as needed. Adjustments to previous entries can also be made in alignment with pay period deadlines. Planning ahead helps your team schedule coverage and keeps your time-off balances and time card in sync.

2. Enter unplanned time off upon return

   For unplanned time off, such as sick time, make the entry as soon as possible after the absence occurs. Or, as needed, ask your manager to enter the absence on your behalf. Recording unplanned time promptly makes sure your balances and pay reflect real time away.

3. Verify calculated absence duration and correct as needed

   When you enter an absence for a range of dates the duration, or number of hours, used for the absence will automatically calculate. If your absence spans a weekend, toggle Show Individual Dates to see the full range of dates. Delete weekend and holiday dates, as needed. Reviewing the duration and individual dates helps you avoid overusing hours or including days you didn’t actually miss.

4. Check your accruals 

   Vacation and sick accruals are posted after the second pay period of the month. PTO and Floating Holiday accruals post annually, each January 1. To support the transition to Sequoia, accruals for the first half of June (June 1 - June 15) were calculated separately from the second half (June 16 - June 30). The Accrual for the first part of the month is labeled ‘Partial Accrual’ and the second is labeled ‘Periodic Accrual’; the sum of the two accruals will match your normal monthly. 

5. Fix absences and track requests 

   Absences are edited or deleted in the Existing Absences page. If you would like to remove an absence request, click ‘Withdraw’. Track the status of your absence requests, and if absences do not appear, double-check the approval status. Also, be sure to respond promptly to any rejected requests. Keeping your absence records up to date helps ensure your balances, approvals, and pay remain accurate.

1. As a manager, you can approve, correct, or reject time cards

   Review all time cards for accuracy and completeness before approval. You can approve, and either correct or reject time cards that require correction. If needed, document reasons for any required adjustments.

2. Keep an eye on the notifications

   Be on the lookout for workflow notifications via email or, by navigating to the bell icon, to review and approve individual time card and absence requests.

3. Details matter

   For non-exempt (hourly) employees, managers must monitor PTA/PA allocation, meal periods, and overtime to ensure that employees are paid accurately and completely, and that costs are charged to the appropriate funding sources. If a non-exempt employee has not entered time for the period, enter time worked on their behalf, to the best of your knowledge, and then correct as necessary when you are able to confirm with the employee.

4. Overtime and premiums calculate automatically

   Rules are applied against the entered Start and Stop times that  automatically calculate overtime and other premiums like shift differentials or meal period penalties.

5. Review calculated hours

   Reported Time shows the total hours entered by the employee; Calculated Time shows how Sequoia totals it into regular, overtime, and premium pay. Calculated Time can be exported into Excel to facilitate review.

6. Encourage non-exempt (hourly) employees to accurately respond to attestations of time worked

   Attestations are required to confirm a non-exempt employee’s time worked and meal periods. (SLAC employees also attest to effort reported.)

1. Remember the difference between “absence” and “leave"

   In Sequoia, “absence” refers to time off for vacations or sick time. There is a separate HR process managed outside of Sequoia for taking longer leaves, such as medical leave or family leave.

2. Absence planning details can inform your review

   In order to clearly understand the absence request, select Absence Planning, then View Details to see the dates, type of leave, comments, and supporting documentation (if provided).

Sequoia log-in

• Select Sign in with SSO (Single Sign On)
• Enter SUNet ID and password, if prompted

Pinnacle site

Cardinal at Work site: 

• HR & Payroll System Upgrade
• Required and Recommended Training

The Financial Support Center (FSC) is still your first stop for questions about time cards and absence management (time-off requests) in Sequoia, and any questions or issues related to payroll (direct deposit, withholding allowances, tax forms, etc.)

The HR Service Center (HRSC) can offer support on Sequoia questions and issues, common HR inquiries, retirement calculations, I-9 questions, and benefits program support.

Cutover marked the transition period when Stanford moved from PeopleSoft to Sequoia as the official system of record for HR and payroll data and processes. 

FMS kept the month-end close deadlines as published for June. The contingency to adjust the month-end dates was not needed as there were no significant delays in the planned cutover activities for Sequoia.

System outages and data freezes

As part of the cutover period, campus was apprised of the possibility of outages of certain financial systems, including Oracle Financials and OBI Financial Reporting, as well as freezes of financial data – i.e., data sourced from Oracle Financials/Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) with communications to the affected audiences through the stanford-FMS-news Slack channel.. The table summarized the outages and impacts, organized by system. 

Oracle Financials

Oracle Business Intelligence Financial Reporting (OBI) 

* BI Publisher reports using Oracle Financials as the source were available with current data from June 22 through June 25, when Oracle Financials was available and prior to the OBI outage. This included the real-time reports for Posted Journals and Labor Distribution Adjustments.

Commitment Management System (CMS), Cardinal Planning and Budgeting (CPB), eCert, and Faculty Faculty Financial Inquiry Tool (FFIT)

While the overall impact on OBI reporting is limited, users can expect some changes based on the updates to the HR system and business processes in Sequoia. OBI users who access HR or Payroll data through OBI dashboards, including Payroll Labor Management (PLM), Consolidated Expenditure Reporting (CER), and Time and Leave will see changes in the following reports.

• PLM Dashboard: Actual Pay, Labor Schedule, Labor Schedule Trend, Scheduled v Actual, Timecard, Timecard Approvals, Leave Summary, Leave Details, Actual Pay Drill from Employee Name 
• Drill reports for CER Dashboard: Expenditure Balance, Expenditure Trend, Expenditure Variance, Expenditure Details
  • Drills from Actual Expenditure Amount and Employee Full Name for salary expenditures
  • Drills from Assignment Number in Expenditure Item Department Reference Text for salary expenditures
• Time and Leave Dashboard: Timecard, Timecard Approvals, Leave Summary, Leave Details
• PLM and CER Ad hoc: Department and individual ad hoc reports.

Key Reporting Changes

New structure for job assignment number and new values for assignment details 

The most significant change is the new Job Assignment Number structure, which will begin with a letter indicating person type (e.g., E for Employee), followed by the unique person number (EMPLID), and an assignment sequence if needed (e.g., E12345678 or E12345678~2). Visit the Data Governance Center to learn more.

Screenshot of updated Job Assignment Number structure

• Note: In reports that have the Expenditure Item Department Reference Text field (e.g., the Expenditure Details report) the original (nonconverted) job assignment number will be displayed unless an action occurs in Oracle Financials - such as a labor distribution adjustment - at which point the converted job assignment number will be shown.

In addition, assignment details like Position Number, Pay Group Name, and Classified Indicator Name may also display new values. 

Other changes to PLM and Time and Leave Dashboard 

After the Sequoia implementation, the Timecard Approvals Report will no longer be updated because Sequoia's integrated timecard approval workflow provides sufficient, immediate, and actionable insights for managing time. However, it will continue to serve as a historical record for data up to June 2026. 

In addition, the Timecard report will no longer include the Comment Entered Datetime or SUNet ID columns, and will display new values in the Employee Record column. 

Finally, the PLM Labor Schedule Trend tab will see a few changes:

• Updated selection criteria are offered, so any saved customizations will need to be recreated. 

Screenshot of updated selection criteria

• Classified Indicator Name will display some new values. For example, employees that were classified as “Casual” now have the value "Temporary."

Screenshot of new values in Classified Indicator Name

Recommendation to review Ad Hoc report filters 

Certain fields will have updated values after Sequoia go-live, so Ad Hoc reports using those values as filters should be updated to use the new values.

• Review and update report filters using Employee Status Description. 

Screenshot of new values for Employee Status Description field

• Review and update report filters for Job Assignment-related attributes (e.g., Paygroup Code/Name, Classified Indicator Code/Name, Job Classification Code/Description, Position Number/Description).

A new Primary Job Assignment Indicator has been added to the PLM and CER ad hoc subject areas, and can now be used to identify an employee’s primary job assignment. The Primary Job Assignment Indicator will also be added to the PLM dashboard reports after go-live, with a specific delivery date to be confirmed.

Screenshot of Primary Job Assignment Indicator

Questions or issues about these updates? Please submit a support request.