Office of Business Operations

Payroll - Labor Distribution (LD) Tab Instructions for SEAFs

Most SEAFs will have a default Labor Distribution (LD) account.  If you are NOT using the default LD account you will need to create an Alternate LD.

If you are creating an Alternate LD account you must have a Start Date.  End Dates should not be used except for grant accounts.

 The Labor Distribution Start and End Dates (use End Dates for grant accounts only) must be the beginning or end (respectively) of a pay period with the exception of new assignments.   The LD Start Date for new assignments is the actual start date of the assignment.  IF you need to use an End Date, for grant accounts, it must be the end of the pay period.   For example, if you have a grant requiring an end date, and you know a student will only be working until the end of the semester of Friday, May 5, but that biweekly pay period ends on Saturday, May 6, the End Date would be May 6. 

IF the account being charged for a student employee’s work has to change on a date other than a beginning of a pay period, then you must create a New Assignment for the student for the new account.  In this case, the student’s assignment will likely have the same Job Title and Organization as the first assignment so you will need to use an Assignment Identifier for the new assignment to distinguish between the two.  The Assignment Identifier must be a word/term/date that will easily identify to the student and supervisor which timecard is to be used. 

Example:  Sally Student is working on a grant in your department.  The grant account number changes Oct 1.  Sally’s first assignment would have an LD End Date of the pay period end date after Oct. 1.  This will result in all hours worked through Sept. 30 in the original assignment to be charged to the old account.  The new assignment set up for her would start Oct 1 so the LD Start Date would be Oct 1 and the LD End Date would be the appropriate end of pay period date.  Payroll Periods and Paydays

Timecards MUST be submitted and approved timely.  Not only is this to have the student paid timely but also to ensure the correct account will be charged.   In the above example, if a timecard for the week ending May 6 (pay period ending May 6) is not submitted until June, the wages will be charged to the Labor Distribution account in effect for that assignment in June, NOT to the one that was set up through May 6th