Initiating a Payroll Certification System (PCS) Report

This page will walk you through the process of creating a PCS report and submitting it for certification via the Kuali Financial System (KFS). For information about looking up PCS Reports in KFS, please visit C&G Certification Tracking Lookup.

1. Lookup PCS Report to Initiate

Use the C&G Certification Tracking Lookup in KFS to locate the PCS Report you would like to initiate. The Lookup query should return all active PCS budget reporting periods.

Budget Period End Dates: You cannot complete a PCS Report until the Budget Period has ended. Budget periods can be checked in the KFS Award Document Lookup. Visit Payroll Certification Tracking Lookup for more information on how to search for Awards.

Below example displays the results when searched for specific fund number. Notice how it returns results for each budget period for this fund number:

2. Check for Cost Sharing and PC Status

Before you initiate a new report, first do the following:

• Check if the award has cost sharing and if salaries need to be cost shared for the budget period for which certification is due. Cost Sharing Report needs to be completed prior to initiating the PCS Report.

• Check the PC Status column to see if the PCS report has already been initiated.

When you're ready, click PC Preview in the Actions column for the Budget Period End Date, the PI needs to certify.

3. Review the KFS-PCS Preview Screen

The Preview Screen gives you a chance to review the PCS report before actually generating the Payroll Certification Document in KFS. The Preview Screen provides an overview of the non-financial information and salary expenses for the budget period. Pay special attention to the two following tabs:

Award Information Tab

This tab contains the non-financial information about the fund being certified.

Employee Information Tab

This tab contains the financial information about the report being certified, including Cost Notes which are discussed below. Verify that salary totals are correct and are generally aligned with the project budget (significant variances should be explored).

Drilling Down to Salary Details

You can click the amount under Direct Project Salary column for each employee to drill down to the details behind each salary total. You can export the details to a spreadsheet to verify detailed payroll transactions.

As an ongoing practice, communicate regularly with the PI to identify changes in personnel and other occurrences that may alter the amount of salary charged.

Cost Notes

The Cost Notes column gives you additional information about each individual's salary. Cost Note A and B indicate salary was charged within the salary limitation requirements, and no action is required. If you encounter Cost Notes 1 or 2 though, you may have to perform salary transfer to eliminate it. If you believe that salaries are correct and can be certified with Cost Note 1 or 2, the document will route to the central CG office for an exceptional approval. Cost Notes 3 and 4 indicate that the individual's salary should be scrutinized more closely.

4. Start Certification

If any payroll adjustments are required or other changes need to be made, complete them now. If no salary transfers are required, or if all adjustments are complete, click the Start Certification button at the bottom of PC Preview page.

If you do not want to begin the certification process, you can click the Close button. Closing the Preview Screen takes DPCA back to Tracking Lookup page.

5. Submit the Payroll Certification e-Document

After you've clicked on Start Certification, KFS will generate the actual Payroll Certification e-document. The Document Overview Tab will auto-populate with the Fund Number, budget end month, and Principal Investigator's last name. The Award and Employee Information tabs are both carried forward identical to how they looked in the Preview.

After generating the document, you can simply click the Submit button and the Payroll Certification Document will be automatically routed to the PI’s Action List for certification.

Depending on their familiarity with KFS, you may need to help your PI with opening the PCS document from their Action List, reviewing the salaries charged in the Employee Information tab, and checking the Certified box in the PI Certification tab.

6. Wait for PI Certification

You will notice that there is a PI Certification tab in the PCS eDoc. The PI will be required to check the box in this tab to affirm the payroll certification statement. The Certified checkbox can only be checked by the PI and is not available to either the DPCA or any ad-hoc approvers. This is by design because certification is the responsibility of the PI.

After salaries are reviewed and certified, the PI can click the Approve button at the bottom of the document. For more detailed information, visit Certifying a PCS Report.