Personnel Time Report Instructions

  1. Leave reports and time sheets are due by noon on the first working day following the end of a pay period. Due dates are clearly marked on each departmental envelope.
  2. IF a preprinted leave report or time sheet is not prepared for an employee, blank forms are available in the Payroll Office. Photocopies are not acceptable as each payroll form carries a unique identifying number. For a blank form, please insert the following information: employee name, social security number, account number and item number (if one has been assigned) and any applicable time worked or leave time taken.
  3. Effective June 1, 2002, employees of Sam Houston State University that have a FACULTY title will need to complete a leave report on an exception basis only, i.e. only when leave from the workplace has been taken for sick leave, bereavement, emergency, military, jury duty, and leave without pay. When the employee has not taken any leave, no leave report is necessary. This change of policy is effective for Faculty titled employees only. Preprinted leave reports for faculty will not be provided. When a faculty employee is absent from the workplace a blank leave report will need to be completed and returned to the Payroll Office for processing. This will not effect other exempt employees, or employees that have a non-exempt, graduate or student title. For these titles, preprinted leave reports and/or time sheet will need to be completed and returned to the Payroll Office each pay period.
  4. All staff must complete a leave report or time sheet for each payroll period. Leave reports and time sheets must be completed and signed with the employee's legal signature. Use only ink as pencil or rubber-stamped signatures are not acceptable.
  5. Both the department head and the employee must sign time sheets and leave reports. In the absence of the department head, an authorized alternative designee should sign. Each department must furnish the Payroll Office with sample signatures of those persons that are authorized to sign leave reports and time sheets. Blank signature forms are available at our "forms" link or in the Payroll Office.
  6. Employee should not sign time sheets and/or leave reports that are not correct and/or incomplete. Signatures verify the accuracy of the information and time recorded on these documents.
  7. Unsigned hourly time sheets will not be processed. Do not send unsigned hourly time sheets to the Payroll Office. However, unsigned salaried leave reports or time sheets should be forwarded to the Payroll Office for processing. The employee should be directed to the Payroll Office immediately on return to complete any appropriate forms. Hourly time sheets should be held at the department for employee signature.
  8. The employing department is responsible for the accuracy of the reported time. Therefore, the signature of the department head or designee will be considered verification of reported time. Time should be recorded as worked (i.e., do not estimate time worked, and do not incorrectly record hours worked to produce a set amount of pay). Portions of hours worked should be recorded in converted time per the chart available through the link under "Payroll Instructions."
  9. Corrections or changes made on leave reports or time sheets should not be "whited out". Rather, draw one line through the error and insert the correction above the error. The department head or the employee must initial corrections.
  10. Time sheets and/or leave reports should be hand delivered to the Payroll Office. Do not mail the forms to the Payroll Office.
  11. Time sheets and/or leave reports received by the processing deadline in the Payroll Office will be processed for the next applicable payroll. The processing deadline is noon on the first working day after the end of the pay period. Time sheets and/or leave reports that are received in the Payroll Office after the deadline will be processed for the next succeeding payroll period.

Leave reports are basically self-explanatory; however, time sheets require more detailed information. The following is a step-by-step guide to the various parts of a standard orange and white time report.

Employee Identification Information:

Please see that the name, social security number, account/item number, job title, department, standard hours, staff status and pay factor are completed if using a blank time report. This information will be pre-printed once the employee has been set-up on the department account.

BBF (Balance Brought Forward):

Record the total time shown on the previous time report for a work week that is split between two pay periods. This is considered the "balance brought forward" and will enable you to correctly report hours for a split week without referring back to the previous time report.

PP (Pay Period):

Indicates the ending date of the time being reported. Please enter the information if it is not pre-printed.

Date:

Dates and days for the pay period should be entered here if not pre-printed. On a pre-printed document, a dark line across the entire Time Report indicates the start of a new 40 hour work week.

Regular Hours:

Report regular hours worked each day. Minutes should be recorded using the Time Worked conversion chart. If more than 8 hours are worked, the extra hours become overtime when 40 hours have been physically worked for the week.

PLEASE NOTE: In accordance with Leave Interpretation 89-03 from the Texas State Auditor's Office, an employee budgeted to work less than 100% FTE can not earn state compensatory time until the combination of hours worked and leave hours taken exceeds 40 hours. The time worked in excess of budgeted hours, up to and including 40 hours, must be claimed on the time sheet under the heading of Equivalent Paid.

Equivalent Paid:

Report hours to be paid in excess of 40 reported hours, but less than 40 physically worked hours. The reported hours would be a combination of regular hours worked, and vacation, sick, compensatory time taken or administrative leave taken.

Overtime Paid:

Report hours to be paid in excess of 40 physically worked hours, as allowed by Human Resources policy ER-3.

Compensatory Earned at Equivalent Time:

Report hours in excess of 40 reported hours that are to taken off at a later time.

Overtime Compensatory Earned:

Report hours that are in excess of 40 physically worked hours that will be taken of at a later time. Multiply the actual hours worked by 1.5 and enter on the date earned.

Vacation Taken:

Report hours taken as vacation.

Sick Taken:

Report hours taken as sick. If more then 24 consecutive hours are used, a doctor’s statement or other written statement must be attached. A space is provided to indicate relationship of sick party, if other than employee.

Equivalent Compensatory Taken:

Report hours taken that were previously earned and recorded as Compensatory Earned at Equivalent Time.

Overtime Compensatory Taken:

Report hours taken that were previously earned and recorded as Overtime Compensatory Earned.

Administrative Leave Taken:

Report time that was not worked but does not impact vacation, sick, or compensatory balances. Hours should be reported in this column and explained in the next column.

Type of Administrative Leave Taken:

From the chart at bottom right of the time report, select the code for the type of leave taken and enter it next to the hours indicated. Bereavement must be further clarified in the space provided. Explanations and/or attachments are required for military, emergency and jury duty leaves.

Total:

Enter the total for each column. (Under regular hours, each day identified as a holiday counts for the number of hours regularly worked that day as a benefit eligible employee.) If an employee actually works on a holiday, the hours are reported as equivalent time paid or earned, as allowed by the supervisor.


BCF (Balance Carried Forward):

If a pay period ends in the middle of a week, report the totals for the partial week in this area and in the BBF area of the next time report.

Sick/Family:

If sick time was taken to be with a family member or dependent, please indicate relationship to employee.

Bereavement:

If bereavement time is taken, please indicate name of deceased and relationship to employee.

Employee/Department Head Signature:

Original legal signatures of the employee and supervisor are required. By signing, each person is certifying the correctness of the information reported, and the supervisor authorizes payment. Under no circumstances should a time sheet be signed before the hours are filled in.

important dates

FY 2009 Payroll Dates

The following dates have been set by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts as paydates for the current fiscal year.

Payroll Action Form Deadlines

Payroll Action Forms (PAF's) authorize payroll transactions.

Time Sheet / Leave Report Deadlines

Time sheets and/or leave reports received by the indicated due date will be processed for the next applicable payroll period.

more important dates