format_list_bulleted Topic Overview

Labor Distribution Adjustments

When payroll earnings post to an incorrect project-task-award (PTA) account or to an Organization Suspense Account, Oracle labor distribution adjustment transactions must be created to move those payroll charges to an appropriate PTA. This topic overview describes circumstances that may lead to salary being charged to incorrect PTAs and provides an overview of organization suspense accounts and labor distribution adjustments.

The table below describes two common business scenarios that can lead to salary being charged to incorrect PTAs and steps to correct the error and prevent it from happening again. 

Business Scenario Corrective Action and Remediation
Employee transfers to another department or business unit and their labor schedule is not updated to reflect the new PTA allocation.

The employee’s salary is charged to the department’s Organization Suspense Account (OSA) due to one of the following reasons:

  • A Labor Schedule does not exist
  • Labor Schedule lines total less than 100 percent
  • The PTA was not valid when payroll was run
  • The employee’s Axess timecard reflected the OSA PTA and it was not updated

Charges to the OSA must subsequently be cleared to avoid fees.

  • Identify the correct PTA allocation(s) to charge the employee’s salary expense.
  • Update employee’s labor schedule with the correct PTA allocation so that future salary charges will not be charged to the Organization Suspense Account. Refer to How To: Create or Update Individual Labor Schedule and How To: Create or Update Individual Labor Schedule with Salary Cap for more information.
  • For GFS employees, update the PTA in the Graduate Financial Support (GFS) system so that future salary charges will not be charged to the Organization Suspense Account.
  • As needed, work with the Office of Sponsored Research (Sponsored PTAs) or Fund Accounting (Non-sponsored PTAs) for assistance with an invalid PTA.
  • Create labor distribution adjustment(s) to transfer salary charges from the Organization Suspense Account PTA to the correct PTA allocation. Refer to How To: Clear Organization Suspense Accounts for Labor for more information.

To review important deadlines associated with payroll, such as labor schedule and timecard entry deadlines, refer to Payroll Schedules and Deadlines for more information.

Payroll lines rejected by Oracle Financials during the payroll run, due to invalid PTAs or missing or incomplete labor schedules, post to organization suspense accounts. An organization suspense account (OSA) is a non-funded PTA assigned to every organization to hold payroll transactions rejected by the Oracle Financials payroll process. Suspense earnings post to the OSA associated with the HR organization (work assignment organization) on the employee’s record in the PeopleSoft Human Resource Management system. Departments are required to clear OSA transactions on a timely basis, preferably after each payroll run is posted in Oracle. OSA transactions that are not cleared by the designated clearing deadlines are systematically transferred (via OSA sweep process) to a funded PTA provided by departments, referred to as the OSA Sweep PTA (this PTA is typically an operating budget PTA). Departments incur a $25 fee for every suspense entry included in the OSA sweep process. Departments are required to transfer earnings held in suspense accounts and OSA Sweep PTAs to appropriate PTAs by creating labor distribution adjustments.

For more information, refer to Topic Overview: Organization Suspense Accounts and How To: Clear Organization Suspense Accounts for Labor.

Labor distribution adjustments are created using the Labor Distribution Adjustments system in Oracle Financials. Correcting salary errors in a timely manner facilitates accurate financial reporting. For specific authority, required training, how-to instructions and more, learn about the Labor Distribution system.

Labor distribution adjustments require approval based on the PTA charged. Approvers must have "Labor Distribution" approval authority granted in Authority Manager over the Task Owning Organization of the PTA being charged. Oracle Financials automatically selects the approver using Authority Manager's hierarchy. The originator may change, add or re-order approvers, as long as designated approvers have appropriate authority. 

For more information about financial transaction approval authority and roles and responsibilities of approvers, refer to Topic Overview: Financial Transaction Approval and How To: Approve or Reject Labor Distribution Adjustments

OBI Financial Reporting offers various reports to help staff plan and monitor the distribution of employee’s earnings. 

  • Consolidated Expenditure Reporting (CER) Dashboard
    • Expenditure Detail reports display charges created by fully approved labor distribution adjustments (LDAs) and any applicable fringe charges. Drilling on the charges reveal the labor distribution adjustment which created the charge.
  • Payroll and Labor Management (PLM) Dashboard 
    • Labor Distribution Adjustments report displays summary, details, status, and approval history. Search by LDA Batch Name or any available selection criteria.
    • Labor Schedule Trend report displays future labor schedule PTA allocations. Search by Work Assignment Organization and verify all employees have 100 percent allocations to prevent OSA charges.

The Labor Schedules system offers the At A Glance page which displays labor schedules requiring action in the current pay period due to a missing labor schedule or incomplete labor schedules (under 100 percent).  

Last Updated: Jun 21, 2023