Manager Frequently Asked Payroll Questions Regarding Time Approval and Payroll

You can view the status of time submitted and/or approved by visiting Payable Time Detail from the Time Approver Work Center in Manager Self-Service.  Visit How to Approve Time - 5 View Payable time for additional information.

The employer (i.e. University) is legally responsible to ensure all non-exempt or hourly-paid employees are paid in full and in accordance with the biweekly payroll schedule. The University must not withhold or delay pay from an employee who did not report their hours worked.

1. Remind the employee that it is their responsibility to enter their time on a daily basis after each shift worked.
2. If you, as the manager, know the employee worked but the time has not been reported on the timesheet, request the employee enter their time worked as soon as possible.
3. If the employee does not report their time in accordance with the biweekly payroll schedule, it is the manager's responsibility to enter and approve the time that was worked by the time approval deadline.

• Approve the time. It is the time approver's responsibility to ensure that ALL time worked has been entered and approved by the deadline regardless of whether the employee was productive or not. If you've hired the employee to perform tasks that have not been completed, address the performance but we cannot legally delay pay for poor performance.

• Visit 0580.00 Tracking Hours Worked for additional information on payable time.

1. Ask the employee to delete the time or update the timesheet.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is highly recommended that the employee fix their own timesheet. You should only ignore the time if you have personal knowledge and backup to prove the employee did not work the hours they submitted.

• Adjustments/changes to their timesheet will be available for your approval after the next Time Administration process has run. The Time Administration process is scheduled to run nightly and at 10am, noon and 2pm on Mondays or time approval deadline days. If you've already approved the inaccurate hours, the adjustments will show as negative and the negative hours should also be approved to ensure accurate pay. For example, you approve 8 hours of REG and the hours are subsequently deleted or changed to something else, the 8 hours of REG will show as negative and should be approved.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is highly recommended that the employee fix their own timesheet. You should only ignore the time if you have personal knowledge and backup to prove the employee did not work the hours they submitted.

• Approve the time. Then contact payroll with updated chartfields and we can redistribute the earnings to a different account.

• All time worked for a particular pay period must be entered and approved by the established time approval deadlines per the payroll schedule.

• Approve the time. It is the time approver's responsibility to ensure that ALL time worked has been entered and approved by the deadline. If you approve time for a lot of employees that's difficult to track, compare other scheduling software (i.e. Sling) hours to MaineStreet hours.

• Your employee will get paid automatically on the next regular payroll cycle unless you submit a request for an off-cycle emergency paycheck.

• Approve the time as soon as possible. The employer (i.e. University) is legally responsible to ensure all non-exempt or hourly-paid employees are paid in full and in accordance with the biweekly payroll schedule. If the employee agrees, they will get paid automatically on the next regular payroll cycle; otherwise, submit a request for an off-cycle emergency paycheck.

The first step in the time approval process is to search for your employees’ payable time. If you’re expecting to see an employee that doesn’t show it could be for a couple reasons:

1. Time has not been entered by employee; visit Payable Time Detail to view status.
2. Time could already have been approved; visit Payable Time Detail to view status.
3. There's an Exception that needs to be reviewed and resolved;
4. Time was just entered and the Time Administration process has not yet processed the time to Payable status ready for approval. The Time Administration process is scheduled to run nightly and at 10am, noon and 2pm each weekday.
5. The employee doesn’t fit your selection criteria.
   1. Click Load All and/or View All
   2. Discrepancy in the employee’s record OR
   3. You need to modify your selection criteria

• Time approval access is granted by department and/or dynamic (aka TL) group so if you have access to a specific department(s), you will be able to approve time for all employees in that department/group.  If you're seeing employees that you do not normally see, it is most likely related to your search criteria.  Follow this article to set up you Manager Search Options to suit your individual needs:  How to Approve Time - 2 Manager Search Options.

Try these common resolutions for time entry issues:

1. Try the View by Day option on the timesheet.
2. You will be notified if/when the job has been set up for a new employee. Have you (or the supervisor) received this email notification yet?
3. Is the employee trying to enter time before their actual hire/start date?
4. Is the employee accessing the correct job's timesheet? Each job will be set up with a separate job record and corresponding timesheet.

If a per diem employee needs to leave early or can’t make a shift that they signed up for or that they are called in for, then they should be able to use their accrued Earned Paid Leave.

Some 2021 summer students were set up with Elapsed Timesheets where they would just report their hours; however, going forward, students will enter punches as normal with the only change being that they will have a time reporting code.  Visit for details:  How-to Report Time for Student Employees Eligible for Maine Paid Personal Leave

Try these common resolutions if employee wasn't paid correctly:

1. Verify that all hours were submitted and approved by the established deadlines. Review Payable Time Detail.
   1. If hours were submitted and/or approved late , the employee will get paid automatically on the next regular payroll cycle.  If necessary, submit a request for an Emergency paycheck.
2. Did the employee sign up for Direct Deposit?
   1. Did they mistakenly select deposit AMOUNT 100 instead of PERCENT 100?
   2. Did the employee check their bank account? Call bank to inquire.
   3. Did they enter the correct bank routing and account information? Call bank to inquire.

Contact payroll@maine.edu with any further inquiries regarding payroll.

This is likely because the employee mistakenly selected deposit AMOUNT 100 instead of PERCENT 100 when they signed up for Direct Deposit. They should revisit the Self-Service page and fix as soon as possible. The remainder of their paycheck would have been mailed to their address on record.

If employees sign up for direct deposit before payroll is processed, they will receive direct deposit. If they don't sign up for direct deposit before payroll is processed, a paper check will be generated and mailed to the address on record. Employees should sign up for direct deposit as soon as possible and also ensure their address is correct for paper check distribution as well as year end Form W-2.

Contact payroll@maine.edu with any further inquiries regarding payroll.

After payroll (including off-cycle) is processed and the employee is paid, the overnight process will update your GL account. Retroactive distributions may be completed if earnings were distributed to an incorrect account. Submit the Earnings Distribution form to make retroactive or prospective updates. Retroactive adjustments may be processed for the prior fiscal year until mid July of the new fiscal year.

• Awards are granted per Academic Year or Summer to eligible students; if student is no longer eligible for financial aid/work study, your department will be charged.

• Monitor your Student’s Work Study Award Limits closely! Once the award amount has been exhausted, your department will be charged any overage.

  • See Student Earnings Report for more information

  • GL expenditures update when payroll is processed for the employee

• Award Detail Screen

Note: The Department will automatically get charged when a Student’s award is exhausted or a Student loses their finanical aid eligibility (e.g. falls below minimum credits).