HR Note - October 2008

Reporting Time Worked

       Valencia has now entirely converted to Web Time Entry for all of our Student and Part-Time employees! Employees must accurately report their hours worked on their Web Time Entry time sheets on a daily basis. Employees should never complete and submit their time sheet in advance of working the time. Hours entered must be the exact hours actually worked, not the hours that the employee is scheduled to work. For example, if the employee is scheduled to be in at 8:00 but arrives at 8:15, they must enter 8:15. Conversely, if they arrive at 7:45 and immediately begin working, they must enter 7:45 on their time sheet. An employee who completes a time sheet in advance using their scheduled hours could be, knowingly or unknowingly, falsifying their time sheet.

      Once completed, the time sheet should be submitted on the last day in the pay period that the employee is going to work. For instance, if their last day worked is Wednesday and the pay period ends on Saturday, they need to go ahead and submit that time sheet before they go home on Wednesday - there is no need to wait until the pay period is over. Anything can happen if they wait until the last minute, and we don't want them to miss a pay!

      If hours were inadvertently omitted on a previous time sheet, an employee cannot simply add those hours to a current time sheet. A paper time sheet must be submitted for the day the hours were actually worked. Many departments attempt to simply add omitted hours to the next pay period rather than recording the hours on a paper time sheet, but that is considered falsifying records and is against the law. We know that's easier, but accuracy is incredibly important. In addition, incorrectly reporting hours worked violates State and Federal law as well as Fair Labor Standards Act and Workers' Compensation Laws.

      If an employee does not enter their time through Web Time Entry by the deadline, or they enter it but they do not submit it to their supervisor for review and approval, a paper time sheet must be completed. That time will be paid on the following payroll as long as the original paper time sheet reaches the Payroll Department (mail code 3-34) by the deadline for that pay period. No manual checks will be issued if the time sheet is late because the employee did not complete and submit it. The part-time and student time sheet deadlines can be found at: Part-Time & Work-Study Time Sheet Schedule 2008/2009

     At the end of the pay period, supervisors must certify that the hours worked are correct and approve/submit those electronic time sheets to the payroll department in order for their employees to be paid. Supervisors should keep in mind that their electronic approval of a time sheet attests to their knowledge of, and confirmation of, hours worked. That means that time sheets should never be completed and approved in advance of the time being worked. How can you as a supervisor attest to the accuracy of a time sheet if the hours have not yet been worked? Once you validate the hours, submit the time sheet to Payroll by clicking on the "Approve" button. When you do not approve your employees' time sheets in time for the payroll, they may not immediately realize that they will not be paid on time and that could adversely impact them. Additionally, employees who are set up with direct deposit do not get to receive that benefit when a manual check is issued. All time sheets not approved online must be completed on a paper time sheet and submitted to the Payroll Department (mail code 3-34) with a memo attached explaining why the deadline was missed and that a manual check is requested. As stated above, if the time sheet is late because the employee did not complete it or did not submit it to you, their supervisor, it will be processed on the next payroll - no manual checks will be issued. If the employee submitted it on time, a manual check will be issued as long as a memo is attached to the paper time sheet. Once again, the deadlines can be found at Part-Time & Work-Study Time Sheet Schedule 2008/2009

      If you know that you will be unable to approve the time sheets for your employees, please make sure that you have set up a proxy who can take care of this task in your absence. Please make sure that the person you select knows that you have selected them as your proxy and that they know what they are supposed to do. Instructions for setting up a proxy can be found at Web Time Entry Proxy Setup You can also find the training videos and step-by-step instructions for approving time sheets at this web address.

     Blue Time Cards are completed and submitted by Full-Time, Non-Exempt, Career Service employees. The blue time cards report in and out times on a daily basis and are submitted monthly. They also reflect vacation days, sick days, holidays, comp days, etc. The deadlines for the blue time cards can be found at Blue time cards schedule

     Supervisors must review, approve and submit their full-time employees' time cards by the posted deadlines. Valencia must keep an accurate record of time worked for the Department of Labor and audit purposes. That means that you need to spot check the calculations and make sure that vacation days, holidays, comp days, etc. are properly reported. Overtime hours are reported based on these time cards, so it is imperative that they are accurate. Incorrect or missing time cards could result in steep fines for the college.

     Please contact payroll if you have any questions about how to fill out time cards or electronic time sheets. We need to work together to ensure that our employees are paid on time!

Please be sure to distribute /communicate this information to your employees!

HR Notes #87
October 2008