Time Reporting System (TRS) FAQ

Log into TRS using your UCInetID and password.

You can also access TRS via ZotPortal by logging in with your UCInetID and password, hovering your mouse cursor over the Applications tab, and selecting the My Applications Portlet. Under the My Applications bullet, locate and select the item Time Reporting System (TRS).

TRS is available to employees 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via any Internet accessible device.

If you do not have access to a computer at work or at home, please notify your direct supervisor or departmental payroll coordinator. They can assist you with gaining access to TRS. Keep in mind that employees and students of UCI have free access to computers at many campus libraries (Langson, Science, etc.) and some departments may also have computer kiosks for your use. Also, most public libraries offer free access to computers.

Yes. You can use any device that allows you access to the internet, such as smartphones or tablets.

Yes, you will still use TRS to enter your working hours, but you will be moved over to the UCPath version of the software. The legacy Payroll/Personnel System (PPS) version of TRS and the new UCPath version of TRS are not significantly different.

After UCPath is deployed at UCI, the Legacy version of TRS will become a temporary archive and remain available for reference until its data can be migrated to UCPath TRS.

Currently, TRS is open to DTAs (Department Time Administrators), supervisors, most staff and student employees, and select faculty members.

Yes. Work study hours can be reported in TRS.

Additionally, the TRS Support Desk has put together a TRS Student Employee Handbook that is available for download in the Employee section of our TRS Resources page.

No, UCI Temporary Employment Services (TES) employees do not currently report their work/leave hours via TRS. Rather, timekeeping for TES employees is administered via a separate online Campus System, QuickTemp.

Thus, the TRS Support Desk generally defers any inquiries from or regarding TES employees to Talent Acquisition in Campus Human Resources.

A Department Time Administrators (DTA) is the person responsible for the final review and submission of current and late timesheets into the campus payroll system. In some units, the DTA may not be the same person(s) as the Departmental Payroll Coordinator. Rather, the DTA may be in the unit's Dean's Office or other parent unit.

A DTA primarily performs the following five functions in TRS:

1. Assigns Primary & Backup Supervisors to Employee Assignments
2. Ensures appropriate setup of employee Work Schedules and Overtime Compensation selections
3. Submits employee work/leave hours to PPS via TRS per deadlines established by the Payroll Division
4. Returns incorrectly-entered timesheets to Supervisors for correction
5. Provides TRS support to supervisors & employees within their assigned Department(s)

DTA access in TRS requires an employee to be assigned the Departmental Time Administrator (DTA) role in the Security Access Maintenance System (SAMS) by their Departmental Security Administrator (DSA). The TRS Support Desk also recommends the following types of PPS access for DTAs:

• PPS – EDB Inquiry: Allows users to view employee records and previously submitted employee time & attendance information in the Employee Database (EDB)
• PPS – EDB Update: Allows users to update employee information directly in the EDB in PPS
• PPS – Time Reporting: Allows users to report employee time & attendance information directly to the Online Payroll Timesheet Reporting System (OPTRS) in PPS

NOTE: The Personnel Relations Database (PRD) has been decoupled from TRS indefinitely. Thus, any updates made to supervisor data in TRS must also be entered separately into the PRD.

Additionally, all PRD-related questions should be directed to the HR Systems and Metrics Administrator in Campus Human Resources.

Before the DTA Deadline for the current pay cycle: After submitting a BiWeekly employee’s timesheet from the Supervisor Approved tab of the View Current BiWeekly section in their Review/Submit Payroll tab in TRS, a DTA can check their Department’s IDTC Roster in PPS to verify that the employee’s recorded work/leave hours in TRS have posted correctly in PPS.

• DTA timesheet submission via Supervisor Approved tab

• Submitted Employee work/leave hours as shown in a Department’s IDTC Roster in PPS:

After the DTA Deadline for the current pay cycle: After submitting a BiWeekly employee’s timesheet from the View Manual Transactions section in their Review/Submit Payroll tab in TRS, a DTA can check the employee’s EDLR screen in PPS to verify that the employee’s recorded work/leave hours in TRS have posted correctly in PPS.

• DTA timesheet submission via the View Manual Transactions section:

• Late-Time (LX) Transaction as shown in an employee’s EDLR screen in PPS

When a DTA selects the EDLR option in TRS to submit an employee’s timesheet, the DTA is essentially instructing TRS to not process the hours reported in the employee’s timesheet.

Additionally, when a DTA subsequently selects the EDLR Yes, ELDR No, or Final Pay option, the DTA is indicating whether the department will report the employee’s hours via a manual transaction in PPS.

1. Selecting the EDLR Yes option means the department is going to (or already did) process the employee’s timesheet manually via PPS (comments are optional, but recommended).
2. Selecting the EDLR No option means the department will not process the employee’s timesheet manually via PPS (explanatory comments are required).
3. Selecting the Final Pay option means the department is submitting a separating employee’s final timesheet in TRS and is going to (or already did) process the employee’s timesheet manually via PPS (comments cannot be entered).

Yes, however, TRS only allows DTAs to release BiWeekly timesheets from up to the last 6 prior BiWeekly pay periods and Monthly timesheets from up to the last 3 prior Monthly pay periods.

DTAs can release a previously completed timesheet for adjustment by navigating to the Search Timesheets section of their Review/Submit Payroll tab, entering in the employee’s information, selecting the Search button, locating the desired timesheet in the search results, and then selecting the Release Prior Completed Timesheet for Adjustment padlock icon to prompt the system to open the Release Prior Completed Timesheet pop-up window.

The DTA will need to enter in a comment in the pop-up window as to why the timesheet is being released, then select the Release Timesheet button to return the timesheet to the employee’s supervisor. The supervisor can then edit the timesheet or return it to the employee to edit.

NOTE: Corrections to previously submitted time entered on older timesheets in TRS must be adjusted manually via the Payroll/Personnel System (PPS).

Yes. Approved 9/80 and 4/40 alternate work schedules can be recorded in TRS.

Yes. TRS has a function that will allow you to enter multiple shifts in a work day, if needed.

Yes, but if you are a Non-Exempt Employee, the way you report work/leave hours via TRS may change once your DTA enters your ERIT reduction in PPS.

For example, if your pre-ERIT percentage of employment was 100 percent (40 hours/week) and you come to an agreement with your department to implement a 20 percent ERIT reduction (less 10 hours/week), you will continue to report the actual hours you work and/or take leave in TRS. However, in addition to reporting your work/leave hours in TRS based on an 80 percent employment percentage (30 hours/week), you will also report the remaining 20 percent (10 hours/week) in TRS to equal your pre-ERIT 100 percent employment percentage by selecting ERIT from the drop-down menu in your timesheets.

You may be able to report time via TRS for those jobs which are considered TRS-Eligible and do not have conflicting Payroll attributes. However, you will most likely have to report time on timesheets outside of TRS for any of your jobs that are not considered TRS-Eligible or if they have any of the following types of conflicting Payroll attributes in PPS:

• Pay Schedule – BiWeekly (BW) or Monthly (MO)
• FLSA status – Exempt or Non-Exempt
• Union representation – Different Unions (BX/EX) or Different Representation Status (BX/Non-Represented [99])
• Time Code – Positive (Z) or Exception (R)

Please contact your departmental Payroll Coordinator for further assistance. It's important that you work with your departmental Payroll Coordinator to ensure that you receive proper payment for all time worked.

A Primary Supervisor is assigned to an employee by a DTA and is the person directly responsible for overseeing the employee's work schedule, making sure the hours reported by the employee are accurate. Primary Supervisors are also responsible for approving timesheets submitted by the employees to whom they are assigned in TRS.

A Backup Supervisor is assigned by a DTA and oversees an employee's work schedule and approves the employee's timesheets in the absence of the Primary Supervisor. An Optional Backup Supervisor can be also be assigned by a DTA to oversee/approve in the absence of both the Primary and Backup Supervisors.

Yes. Supervisors can create, edit, and submit timesheets on behalf of their employees in TRS. Go to the Manage Timesheets section of your Manage My Staff tab, select the Create Timesheet button, enter in the employee information and any date within the desired pay period, and click the Create button.

Supervisors can also edit/submit their employees' timesheets currently in Saved, Recalled By Employee, or Returned By Supervisor, status in TRS by essentially following the same process as creating a new employee timesheet. However, while it seems as if the Supervisor will "create over" the employee’s existing timesheet in TRS, the Supervisor is merely prompting the system to override the employee’s timesheet status to Submitted to Supervisor status in TRS.

If an employee’s Primary Supervisor separates from the University, TRS will not allow the employee to save or submit timesheets for the affected Assignment(s) until they are assigned a new Primary Supervisor by a DTA.

Yes. You can report most non-productive time in TRS to the nearest quarter-hour. Non-productive time includes Sick Leave (SKL), Vacation Leave (VAC), Comp Time Off (CTO), Leave without Pay (LWOP), Jury Duty, and Voting Time Off.

TRS automatically determines employee Holiday Pay Eligibility and includes it in the calculation of your pay, so unless you are actually scheduled to work on a holiday, you should not record any work/leave hours on holidays in TRS.

Employees need only enter the actual hours they work and/or take leave in their TRS timesheets. TRS automatically determines any earned Overtime payment and/or Comp Time accrual amount.

Employees need only enter the actual hours they work and/or take leave in their TRS timesheets. TRS automatically determines any earned SDF payment.

Yes. Employees should complete timesheets whether they have hours to record or not. There are two ways that employees can submit a zero-hour timesheet in TRS.

Leave all days blank, enter in a comment stating that they have no hours to report during the pay period, and submit their timesheet.

Enter in their regular hours using LWOP (Leave Without Pay) from the Add hours drop-down, and submit their timesheet.

Timesheet status is listed as None when it has not yet been saved or submitted by you or your supervisor. Timesheets are temporary until they are saved or submitted by you or your supervisor and will fall off the Open Timesheets section of your Manage My Time tab after TRS rolls over into a new pay period.

Timesheets that are still in None status will appear to fall off an employee's Manage My Time tab after the Employee deadline has passed for the timesheet's pay period.

NOTE: Employees can review the answer to Question# 16 for instructions on how to create a timesheet for a past period.

Yes. Go to the Enter Current Timesheet section of your Manage My Time tab. Under the Open Timesheets heading, you will see a Recall icon that looks like a green circular arrow in the Action column.

You will be able to recall a timesheet as long as the Submitted to Supervisor status appears under the Timesheet Status column. If the status shows Submitted to DTA, Submitted to PPS, or Completed, you will not be able to recall the timesheet; contact your supervisor to let them know your timesheet needs to be corrected.

Yes. Go to the Enter Current Timesheet section of your Manage My Time tab. Under the Create Past Periods Timesheet heading, you can select the last two pay periods in the drop-down menu OR use the Date field to enter any date during the desired pay period. After you've selected the pay period or date, click the Create button.

While new or updated TRS-eligible PPS Appointments and/or Distributions are generally available in TRS within 24 to 48 hours of being entered in PPS, TRS and PPS do not exchange employee information directly. TRS must interface with DataWarehouse (DWH) each morning to collect the previous day’s TRS-eligible PPS data before it can load the following information each afternoon:

• Newly hired Employees – TRS creates an Employee Profile and new Assignments for each new hire with one or more TRS-eligible PPS Appointments
• Updates to existing active TRS-eligible PPS Appointments – TRS will update existing active Employee/Timesheet Profile information and/or Assignments to reflect updates made in PPS

• BiWeekly (BW), NonExempt & Exempt, Time Code Z (Positive-Paid)
• Monthly (MO), Exempt, Time Code R (By-Exception)
• Union Codes: 99, CX, EX, HX, NX, RX, SX, TX, LX, FX, DX, or BX
• DOS codes: REG and REC
  • The DOS codes REN & SDW are not currently supported in TRS.
  • On-call/Call-back is not currently supported in TRS.

While the hours recorded in timesheets submitted in TRS during their appropriate DTA submission windows generally appear immediately in PPS, TRS and PPS do not exchange payroll transactional information directly. TRS must interface with an external Web Service in order to transmit recorded timesheet data to PPS.

MO employees record their exception time (leave hours) in their timesheets one month in arrears in TRS, so by the time MO employees submit their timesheets in TRS for the prior Monthly pay period, they will have already received their regular earnings. Thus, when a DTA selects the Submit to PPS option to submit a MO employee’s timesheet in TRS, the MO employee’s recorded leave hours are generally processed as Late-Time (LX) transactions in PPS.

The TRS submission process of Monthly employee timesheets follows the steps below:

1. If a Monthly employee does not have any exception time (i.e. VAC, SKL) to report in their timesheet for the prior Monthly pay period, the employee’s timesheet will update directly to COMPLETED status upon DTA submission in TRS.
2. If, however, a Monthly employee does report exception time (i.e. VAC, SKL) in their timesheet for the prior Monthly pay period, the employee’s timesheet will update first to SUBMITTED TO PPS (EDAT) status upon DTA submission in TRS.
3. Once TRS is able to process the LX transactions in PPS to report the Monthly employee’s leave hours on the next Monthly pay period, the employee’s timesheet will update to COMPLETED status in TRS.

NOTE: If a Supervisor approves a timesheet in which a MO employee has reported LWOP, TRS will display a yellow warning flag beside the words LWOP reported underneath the MO employee’s name in the Supervisor Approved tab of the View Current Monthly section in the DTA’s Review/Submit Payroll tab. However, the MO employee’s earnings must also be adjusted manually in PPS via RX transactions to reduce previously reported work hours and/or leave accruals. Additionally, TRS does not auto-route MO timesheets with only LWOP hours reported to the View Manual Transactions section – rather, the timesheet will update directly to COMPLETED status upon DTA submission in TRS.

Holiday Pay is assessed automatically by TRS after a Departmental Time Administrator (DTA) submits an eligible employee’s timesheet in TRS.

• TRS Holiday Calculation Logic:

• • TRS auto-calculates 8.0 hours of Holiday Pay if an employee’s aggregated Percent Fulltime rate of all their active PPS Appointments (Appts) totals 100% on the holiday.
  • TRS auto-calculates Holiday Pay for Part-time New Hire employees that are NOT Limited, Casual/Restricted, or Floater based on their aggregated Percent Fulltime rate of all their active PPS Appointments (Appts) on the holiday.
  • TRS auto-calculates Holiday Pay for existing Part-time employees based on the number of pay status hours reported during the quadriweekly pay cycle preceding the pay cycle in which the holiday occurred (see the Holiday Pay Table)
• TRS includes an employee’s Holiday Pay information in their timesheet’s Weekly Hours Estimator beneath the Holiday Calculator heading.

• If a DTA finds that TRS has reported earned HDL erroneously for an employee, they may need to adjust the employee’s reported hours manually in PPS.

• BW Employees: When a BW employee reports LWOP hours in a timesheet, TRS simply reports the BW employee’s reduced number of work hours as they are recorded in their timesheet.
• MO Employees: When a MO employee reports LWOP in a timesheet, a DTA generally adjusts the MO employee’s earnings for the following month manually in PPS via Reduce-Time (RX) transactions to reduce the work hours and leave accruals that were already reported in PPS for the MO employee’s regular earnings for the prior month.

No. If a timesheet submitted via TRS will result in an RX transaction in PPS, the timesheet will automatically route to the Manual Transactions section in TRS and the system will remove the timesheet’s Submit to PPS option.

• The employee’s PPS Appointment is currently not TRS-Eligible.
• The employee’s PPS Appointment was deleted in PPS.
• The employee’s PPS Appointment End Date was updated to today's date or a prior date in PPS.
• The employee is working under UCI Temporary Employment Services (TES).
  • The UCI Directory usually lists TES employees under the Campus Temporary Services department.
• Conflicting concurrent PPS appointments
  • Sched field: BW -AND- MO
  • TUC field: CX -AND- EX or CX (Represented) -AND- 99 (Non-Represented)
  • FLSA field: Exempt -AND- NonExempt
    • This is also referred to as an FLSA Mismatch.
      • FLSA Mismatches reported to the TRS Support Desk are escalated to the HR IT Team in OIT for further investigation.
      • Additionally, FLSA Mismatches are resolved on a case-by-case basis via a joint agreement/effort between the Payroll Division, Academic Personnel, and Human Resources units.
  • The employee’s PPS Appointment is incomplete – the Dept Cd field is blank.
    • An employee’s payroll processor can update/re-enter the FAU in the Distribution line of the PPS Appointment to force PPS to re-derive the employee’s Dept Cd.
  • The employee’s PPS Appointment is incomplete – the FLSA field is blank.
    • An employee’s payroll processor can update/re-enter the Title Code of the PPS Appointment to force PPS to re-derive the employee’s FLSA status.
  • System issues affected the daily DataWarehouse (DWH) Profile Loading Job.
    • If the daily DWH Profile Loading job is unexpectedly interrupted or terminated, TRS may delay loading or be unable to load some or all new/updated Employee Profiles.

• The employee has not yet activated their UCInetID.
  • Employees can activate their UCInetID here: http://activate.uci.edu/.
• The employee’s record in OIT’s Identity Management (IDM) Database has been affected by an error.
• The most common IDM-related error is when an employee has been assigned multiple UCInetIDs.
  • Occurs mostly among student employees due to discrepancies in their identifying information listed in their Student Record versus their Employee Record
  • The DTA or Employee must contact OIT to request them to merge their UCInetIDs and specify which UCInetID they want to retain (usually their student UCInetID)
  • NOTE: If the UCI Directory shows multiple entries for an employee, it’s likely they have been assigned multiple UCInetIDs by OIT’s IDM services
• There is also a rarely-occurring IDM error where DataWarehouse (DWH) is unable to return query results for any fields included in an employee’s record in the IDM Database (First/Last/Middle Name, Office Address, UCInetID, CampusID, etc.)
  • DWH should still be able to return query results for any fields that are not referenced in the UCI Directory (Employee ID, Employee Name, Primary Title, Home Dept Cd, etc.)
  • The DTA or Employee must contact OIT to request resolution of this rare IDM-related issue.

System errors affecting timesheet submission in TRS are quite rare – the vast majority of employees who report their time via TRS are paid their earnings for each pay cycle without issue. However, the TRS Support Desk does receive occasional reports from DTAs regarding employees that have not been paid after the seemingly successful submission of their timesheet in TRS.

• The most common cause for an employee not being paid after DTA submission of their timesheet in TRS is unfortunate timing of updates in PPS to the employee’s Appointment or Distribution.
  • PPS will automatically block an employee’s work/leave hours previously submitted by TRS on a Department’s IDTC Roster if updates have been made to the employee’s PPS Appointment or Distribution after Supervisor approval of the employee’s timesheet in TRS, but before PPS has completed the payroll compute for the current pay cycle. (See red highlighted dates below.)
  • Departments should encourage their payroll processors to schedule updates to the PPS Appointments or Distributions of employees who report their time via TRS for after PPS has completed the payroll compute for the current pay cycle and before the Supervisor deadline of next pay cycle.

• Less common are TRS errors that occur due to a conflict arising in an employee’s Timesheet Profile or Current Policy portion of their Employee Profile in TRS after updates to the employee’s Appointment or Distribution are entered in PPS.
  • Employees usually encounter issues reporting time in TRS after being re-classed retroactively in PPS due to conflicts between their previous and current PPS appointment attributes:
    • Sched field: BW -AND- MO
    • TUC field: CX -AND- EX or CX (Represented) -AND- 99 (Non-Represented)
    • FLSA field: Exempt -AND- NonExempt
  • DTAs can also check two locations in TRS to verify if a previously submitted timesheet has been affected by this type of error:
    • The employee’s timesheet – the employee’s payroll accounting information (Full Accounting Unit – FAU) will be missing from beneath the BiWeekly Calendar.

• • • The employee’s Timesheet Workflow – in the COMPLETED Status Code row of data, the DTA’s name appears instead of the word SYSTEM in the Completed By column:

• • While a DTA may not always be able to foresee or detect errors in TRS, establishing a routine each pay period of checking the following areas of TRS and PPS prior to the payroll compute should help DTAs avoid most situations that can lead to an employee not being paid their regular earnings:
    • Employees usually encounter issues reporting time in TRS after being re-classed retroactively in PPS due to conflicts between their previous and current PPS appointment attributes:
      • TRS: The Supervisor Approved tab of the View Current Monthly/BiWeekly section in their Review/Submit Payroll tab
      • TRS: The View Manual Transactions section in their Review/Submit Payroll tab
      • PPS: Their Department’s IDTC Roster
      • PPS: The employee’s IDTL/EDLR screen in PPS

If a DTA has not yet assigned an employee's Primary and Backup Supervisors in TRS, the employee will not be able to save or submit their timesheets. 

Similarly, if an employee’s Primary Supervisor separates from the University, TRS will not allow the employee to save or submit timesheets for the affected Assignment(s) until the employee is assigned a new Primary Supervisor by a DTA.

If an employee tries to save or submit a timesheet in TRS for an Assignment without an assigned Primary Supervisor--or a with a Primary Supervisor who has Separated from the University, they will trigger an error alert and TRS will neither save nor submit the employee's timesheet.

The error alert will appear in a red notification text box under the Error/Warning heading below the calendar and contain the following message: "Alert: Errors found. Primary supervisor is not set up for your assignment. Please contact your Department Payroll Officer for assistance."