Budget Builder for Civilian Personnel
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Summary of New Features in Version 9 Settings for Terminology, NSPS Payouts, Pay Raises,
and Health Plan Increases Fill
(transfers DCPDS personnel data into payroll files) |
· Uses standard DOD data elements plus 10 user defined data elements
· Imports DCPDS personnel data
· Imports DCPS payroll data from a gross pay files, Air Force R60s, Navy LXLs, and other sources
· Compares payroll and personnel data
· Automatically costs personnel data using built-in pay and benefit rates
· Includes National Security Personnel System support
· Forecasts include user defined values for NSPS payouts, future health plan increases, and pay raises
· Provides standard step by step procedures for payroll forecasting and multi year budgeting
· Manages gains, losses, promotions, reimbursables, allowances, WGIs, PCS, etc
· Forty standard reports with six level sorting and numerous filter and output options
· Users may customize and save standard reports … or create new reports
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Custom terminology for Army, Navy, Air Force,
Marine Corps, National Guard, and other DOD components
Summary of New Features in Version 9
Major
Changes
Greatly simplified forecasting by adding a Forecast button on several reports
Added National Security Personnel System (NSPS) support
New option to enter health cost increases (FEHB) assumptions
Added ten years to pay raise and other windows to provide accurate personnel costing through 2020
Twenty new reports including:
New Work Year Cost reports
New Payroll vs. Personnel report
New Net Increase reports for pay raises, NSPS payouts, FEHB increases
New Payroll Stragglers report
All new User Guide with 5 divider tabs and a table of contents for each tab
Added import of Air Force 1092 report
Added import of Army AVK 692 report
Added import options for Army APC master file
Changes
for NSPS
Added a window for budgeting future NSPS costs with user assigned payout dates and percents
Pay rate files have been expanded to include NSPS payout dates and percentages
Added NSPS option on Pay and Benefits calculator
Revised the forecast procedure to include NSPS payouts for NSPS employees
Added a Payouts Report to show net cost of budgeted payouts
Revised the Pay Raise Report to exclude NSPS employees
New
and Revised Procedures
Payroll forecast prerequisites are automatically audited. User is notified when relevant.
Revised DCPDS personnel import to eliminate duplicate employees, if present
Several new tests added to Personnel File Audit
Revised Errors window
Added a “Loss” option on the Add Folder menu to budget losses without identifying specific employees
Added to payroll audit tests: “this biweekly file is named incorrectly”
Added option to automatically generate WGIs in future years
NSPS, step 00 & max step employees imported in 1 record (only employees with WGIs have 2 records)
Made step 00 hourly rates effective the day of DCPDS import
Added personnel codes to payroll sort menu
General
Report Improvements
The numerous options on Sort menus have been alphabetized.
Added option to include a BMP logo or picture icon report page headings
A User Reports option has been added to the main screen to list only new reports created by users
REPORT.TXT is the new, simpler name for the “Screen Preview/Text File” report output option.
Revised output to clipboard to avoid the extra spaces in previous versions
A Report Title field on many reports allows changing the report title without opening Page Setup
Interface
Improvements
Replaced the lengthy Show Column scrolling lists with a single
window menu!
Added main screen windows for Work Year % and Days in a FY
A 12 month Fiscal Year calendar replaces the 3 month calendar in previous versions
Improved the Date Calculator in calendar window
Simplified the Fill procedure to transfer personnel data to payroll
Data entry fields are now selected when empty to prevent accidental leading blanks during data entry
Revised default window colors. Added option to choose the color of windows in Budget Builder
Improved Filter+ window – Filter+ is a case sensitive filter
Introduction
This is the main screen for Version 9. New items are circled.
Budget Builder uses standard DOD codes and concepts. This includes DCPDS personnel codes and DCPS payroll and type hour codes.
Additionally since code requirements vary from service to service and at different organization levels, local code fields are provided to be named and used as desired in addition to DOD codes. Local codes allow requirements to be sorted, summed and filtered just as the common DOD codes.
Settings for Terminology, NSPS Payouts, Pay Raises, and Health Plan Increases
Users may choose the budget and accounting terminology appropriate to their organization – or assign custom terminology of their own choice. The selected terminology then appears throughout Budget Builder. Terminology choices may be changed or customized at any time.
The Terminology window is used to choose the budget and accounting terminology desired.
Pay Raises
Pay raise percents may be assigned by users but normally no action is necessary because Budget Builder pay rate files are posted with current DOD pay raise guidance. Therefore it is not necessary to change pay raise percentages unless:
1 there is a very recent change to pay raise guidance or
2 it is desired to run reports to see the effect of different pay raise assumptions
NSPS Payouts
Although NSPS employees do not get pay raises, analysts will wantd to budget future NSPS payouts on a percentage basis similar to pay raises. Presumably the payout percent will be higher than the pay raise percent since conceptually it includes amounts for pay raises, WGIs, promotions, etc.
NSPS payout dates and percentages are used in all Budget Builder NSPS calculations (calculator, reports, forecasting, etc.).
Health Plan Increases
Future cost increases for Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) plans to be managed just as pay raises. This screen allows entry of the year to year percent increase to be budgeted. These increases are applied to all calculations just like pay raise and payout percentages. The new FEHB Cost Report can be run to determine the net FEHB cost increase using the set percentages.
A built in Pay and Benefits calculator is useful to cost vacancies and other employee costs. For example it can be used to quickly calculate the answer to questions such as “What is the cost of 30 summer temps from May to Aug?” It also clarifies complex benefit relationships such as the relation of CSRS, FERS, Medicare, and OASDI to an employee retirement plan.
The calculator offers costing according to either Pay Tables or NSPS. The calculator uses the current pay raise and payout settings in calculations. When NSPS is selected, pay table fields are dimmed and vice versa. NSPS hourly rates may be typed or selected from a menu. Clicking the NSPS Hourly Rate button pops a menu to select Dollars followed immediately by a menu to select Cents.
Sample Reports
Civilian Personnel Reports is a 36 page PDF file containing an index and 35 sample Budget Builder civilian personnel reports with notes. Reports are grouped in these categories.
Payroll Reports
Payroll Totals (reports with different column layouts)
Payroll Changes Report
Work Year Cost Reports
Payroll Status Reports
Payroll Special Purpose Reports
Personnel Reports
Personnel Totals (with different column layouts)
Out Year Budgeting Reports
Net Increase Reports (for NSPS payouts, pay raise, FEHB, and WGI net cost increases)
Personnel Changes Reports
Personnel Special Purpose Reports
Payroll and Personnel Reports
Payroll vs. Personnel Reports
BACC (Budget and Accounting Classification Codes) Differences Report
Payroll
This is a detailed payroll window showing data elements typically imported. Payroll data available will vary somewhat depending upon whether the imported payroll data is from gross pay files, Air Force R60s, or Navy LXLs. Budget Builder allows all biweekly payroll files to be quickly merged in order to provide all payroll details from each biweekly payroll in a single file.
There are numerous ways to interactively view, sort, filter and total payroll data in a list view.
Details for overtime, awards, differentials, FTE hours, or other payroll matters are quickly available from numerous options for sorting and filtering payroll data. By contrast, service official accounting systems only include payroll totals. Payroll details are not available in service accounting systems.
Fill (transfers DCPDS personnel data into payroll files)
Fill transfers data from the active personnel file to the active payroll file by SSN. This is necessary for accurate forecasting. In forecasting it is necessary to know an employee’s pay plan (GS, wage grade, etc) and locality area in order to determine the dates and percent of pay increases.
Also adding personnel data such as grade and series allows payroll data to be sorted, filtered, and totaled by these or other personnel data elements. Examples: (1) overtime and award costs by grade can be reported (2) adding series to payroll permits collection and analysis of actual costs for firefighters, IT employees, Air Traffic Controllers and other occupations.
The purpose of payroll projection is to accurately estimate future civilian personnel costs considering pay raises, WGIs, future gains and losses, reimbursable costs, and many other variables. A Payroll Projection Worksheet provides a step by step payroll projection procedure. It is a check off list for building an accurate, auditable civilian personnel cost estimate whether using Budget Builder or not.
In Budget Builder the terms “payroll projection” and “payroll forecast” are not equivalent terms. Payroll projection is the broader term including 1) payroll forecast and 2) management estimates. Management estimates are future gains, losses, off payroll costs, etc.
Imported actual payroll data replaces forecast, management estimates, or accrual batches in overlapping pay periods. In this way forecasts are automatically updated as new pay periods are imported.
Budget Builder’s payroll forecast procedure uses these factors to forecast future pay periods.
· past payroll costs in each payroll account
· pay raises and payouts from the Pay Rates file
· benefit rate increases from the Benefit Rates file (FEHB, CSRS, FERS, Medicare, OASDI, and TSP)
· WGI costs during the forecast period
· the exact days in a fiscal year
· options selected by the user
The normal method to create a payroll forecast is to run a report using the Forecast button to include forecasted data. When a Forecast is used Budget Builder calculates and includes forecast data in the report. The Forecast button is available on the Super Payroll and other reports. This provides a simple and flexible method of payroll forecasting. The previous method of forecasting ( now called Advanced Forecasting) is still available for users that may be accustomed to that method.
The Management Estimates window allows entry of civilian personnel costs not contained in actual payroll data or payroll forecasts. These costs are future gains (vacancies), losses, WGIs, promotions, SIP, severance and off payroll costs. The Management Estimates window is a menu of possible user entries. Clicking an item in this window leads to an entry screen for the selected item.
When payroll and personnel files are used for forecasting and budgets, results will be inaccurate if files are inaccurate. How is it determined whether payroll and personnel files are accurate?
Do they contain the right employees?
Do they use the correct accounting data?
Budget builder has two reports designed to answer these questions.
Payroll vs. Personnel Report
BACC Differences Report
Comparing payroll and personnel files is an excellent and quick method to determine the accuracy of files. Since employees change frequently, the latest DCPDS file and the latest pay period file can be compared every pay period to reveal any discrepancies immediately.
The basic Payroll vs. Personnel Report compares employees in personnel and payroll files to find employees missing from one file or the other. When employees are missing, either the payroll or personnel file is inaccurate. The report provides a summary section grouping employees into five categories (see sample report). Check box options are available to list employees in each category. This report is normally run using the latest payroll pay period and a recent personnel file. The report also compares basic pay costs in personnel and payroll.
Several other Payroll vs. Personnel reports are available for other cost comparisons (FEHB, CSRS, FERS, FEGLI, etc).
Civilian personnel authorizations for dollars, FTE work years and other work years may be entered in a payroll file. Authorization amounts appear on the Payroll Status and FTE Status reports. Authorizations may be entered individually in the list view or by the Authorization window. Normally users will save time by first using the Authorizations window to generate authorization records and then edit the records in the list view to reflect the exact authorization targets desired.
Personnel
This is a detailed employee window showing data elements typically imported. Personnel data imported will vary somewhat depending upon the source (Army, Navy, Air Force, etc).
Budget Builder users receive employee data from their personnel office by email in the DCPDS_02 file format for import into Budget Builder. This format includes up to 100 data elements for each employee.
Employee data records may be accessed in a folder view or a list liew.
There are numerous ways to interactively view, sort, and filter personnel data.
Personnel cost projections are computed using DCPDS employee data from a personnel office and
built in pay and benefit rates (health plans, FERS, CSRS, FICA, Medicare, etc). Budget Builder does not use averages or short cuts. Budget Builder exactly computes civilian personnel costs from built in rates. Future costs are computed with pay raises, payouts, health plan increases and within grade increases.
The Personnel Cost Projection Worksheet provides a step by step personnel cost projection procedure. It is a check off list for building an accurate, auditable civilian personnel cost estimate whether using Budget Builder or not.
Budget Builder will compute employee costs and FTEs many years into the future. It's just as easy as computing five years into the future as the next pay period or the current year. When a report is run, Budget Builder selects the data that applies to the reporting period requested.
Employee folders have a leave button which displays this leave screen. Leave information is provided in the DCPDS_02 file from the Modern DCPDS system. Leave data is also available in a list view.
