Using the Graduate Research Assistant Payment Payment System
Table of Contents
Logging into the Graduate Research Assistant Payment System
Log in to Carleton Central at central.carleton.ca. If you have difficulty logging in, please reach out to the ITS help desk for assistance.
Once logged in, select “Human Resources Admin” in the top toolbar. From there, you will be able to select “Graduate Research Assistant Payment System”.
Job Requisition Workflow
The Job Requisition process follows a specific workflow. Each time a requisition is sent back for correction, it will return to the beginning of the chain and make its way back through each layer of approval.
The workflow is as follows:
- Originator: This individual starts the Job Requisition process. Each time a requisition is returned for correction, it will go back to the originator. The following employees can be originators:
- Departmental Administrator without Signing Authority
- Departmental Administrator with Signing Authority
- Grant Holder
- Grant Holder: The grant holder approves the requisition outlined by the departmental administrator. This step is only required if the originator is a departmental administrator without signing authority.
- Research Financial Services: Research Financial Services approves that there are sufficient funds in the research fund to pay the employee.
- Graduate Student: The employee will review and accept Type B Research Assistant requisitions. They will also be notified when a Type A requisition have been sent to Student Accounts Receivable (SAR) to be loaded to the student’s account.
- Payroll Services: Payroll Services loads Type B Requisition payments into the payroll system to be paid.
- Student Accounts Receivable: Type A Requisitions are loaded into the student account after approvals are complete. Questions regarding requisitions at ‘loaded to SAR’ status should be directed to student_accounts@carleton.ca.
At each step in the workflow, e-mail notifications will be sent to notify the next person of their required action.
How to Create a Requisition
The originator is responsible for starting the Job Requisition process. Once you have logged in to the system, you will select “Create Job Requisition” at the bottom of the Job Requisition Launch Page.
Assign Job
To Create the Research Assistant (RA) job requisition, you will need the following information about the student:
- Start and end dates of employment
- Employee ID/student number of RA recipient
- Funding source for the payment
- Job Type
Job Types – What Is the Difference Between a Type A and Type B Payment?
A Type A or Type B research payment will be automatically determined by the system based on your answers to the two yes or no questions on the page.
Type A
A Type A stipend is a fixed payment made to an individual registered in a graduate program. The individual shall be actively involved in the research of a faculty member in their related area of studies. It is not paid in exchange for quantifiable work performed nor for financial gain. There are no deductions at the time of payment, and the individual will receive a T4A for the amount paid during the calendar year. These types of payments will be paid in full to the student’s account when all approvals are complete.
Type B
A Type B salary is paid when an employee/employer relationship exists and a quantifiable amount of work has been performed. Salary payments, whether one-time or recurring are subject to mandatory source deductions and will include 4% vacation pay, this type of income will receive a T4 denoting the total amount of employment earnings paid during the calendar year. These types of payments will be paid via payroll services when all approvals are complete. Payments will be paid in equal amounts throughout the term.
Important Notes About Dates
- The start and end dates on your requisition must be within the same term (i.e. for Fall term, dates should be between September and December)
- Only graduate students that are registered for the term specified by the begin and end dates of the job are eligible for payments using this system. If the RA recipient is not registered as a graduate student during the term of payment, you will receive the error message below and will not be allowed to proceed.
At any time, you may also choose to “Delete Job Requisition”. You are not able to retrieve a deleted requisition.
Each time that you save changes you have made, look for the message, “Your changes were saved successfully.” at the top of your page.
Once you have saved, you will the see the “Next Step: PAYMENT DETAILS” option appear at the bottom of the screen. Click here to proceed to enter the job payment details.
Grad Job Payment Page
Type A Payment
If the system determines the payment to be of Type A, you will be able to enter the:
- Begin and end dates
- Total amount due to the employee (which will be allocated over the period you’ve outlined)
- Financial details
This payment will be loaded to the student’s account once all approvals are complete.
Type B Payment
If the system determines the payment to be of Type B, you will be able to enter the:
- Begin and end dates
- Hourly rate
- Total hours
- Whether or not you would like the total amount to include source deductions
- Total amount due: for Type B payments, the total amount due will be populated based on the hourly rate, the total hours, and source deduction checkbox
- Financial details
If you select the box titled “Payment to include Employer Source Deductions?” 15% will be deducted from the Total Amount Due to your employee. This will cover the Employer portion of their source deductions. If you do not select this box, the full amount will be issued, minus taxes. You will immediately see the total amount and hourly rate changed when you select this item.
Financial Details
When setting up the Financial Details, you are able to tailor the FOAP information using the drop-down menus. The index you select will automatically update your Fund, Org, and Program. The Account is automatically selected based on the student’s level of study and residency status. Next to the Index, you will see the name of the Grant Holder responsible for the selected fund.
If you would like to use more than one Fund, select “Add Source of Funding” and set up the additional FOAP. You can use up to a total of five different Funds. Please ensure that the “Percent” is allocated between the jobs and that it totals 100%.
If the Funds are owned by separate approvers or you would like funds to be spent sequentially, please create separate requisitions.
If you are not finished creating your requisition and you would like to leave the page, click “Save Payment Information”. This will save the changes you have made without sending the requisition on for further approval.
Submitting for Approval
Once you have set up your Type A or Type B job, you will be able to scroll down and submit the requisition. You can also include comments for the next approver at this time.
When you have reviewed the information, select “Submit”.
Payment Requisition Status
On the Grad RA Payment System Launch Page, you will be able to view any payment requisitions that require your attention and check the status of any requisition that you have submitted. The requisition status includes the following options:
- All – View all requisitions (recommended)
- Saved – not yet been submitted for approval
- My Pending – requires approval before they can proceed
- In Progress – outstanding job requisition
- Cancelled – you cannot restart a cancelled job requisition
- Return for Correction – job submitter must make changes
- Financial Approval Completed – Department Head/Grant Holder and Research Accounting approved payment. Awaiting student sign-off
- Loaded to SAR. A Type A requisition has been approved by all financial approvers and has been sent to Student Accounts Receivable (SAR) to load to the student’s account.
- Complete – employee accepted job.
- Processed by Payroll – payment loaded into Payroll System. Further changes must be submitted to Payroll Services.
Any jobs that are pending approval will appear in a list on the Launch Page. Once you have submitted your requisition, it is pending the next approver.
If you need to make any changes, you can ‘return for correction’ at any time before payroll or SAR has processed the requisition (status ‘Processed by Payroll’ or ‘Loaded to SAR’). After that point you will need to contact them either SAR or Payroll Services for assistance.
Reviewing Payment Requisitions
By selecting a requisition’s ‘Payment and Approval’ button on the launch page, you can view the financial details and make changes as needed.
Once the payment has been reviewed, you can make one of three selections:
- Approve – the payment will move on to Research Financial Services.
- Cancel – This will delete the requisition. A deleted requisition cannot be retrieved.
- Return for Correction – the requisition is sent back to the initiator for correction. In this case, comments should be made for clarification.
Once approved, the system performs a series of checks to determine where to send the requisition next. If there are any number of issues or errors, the requisition moves to Research Financial Services for validation of funds. If there are no issues or errors, the requisition moves to the candidate for approval.
If you need to make any changes, you can ‘return for correction’ at any time before payroll or student accounts (SAR) have processed the requisition. After that, please contact Payroll Services directly for Type B payments and Student Accounts Receivable for any Type A payments.
After You Have Created Your Requisition
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The system has an approval queue that goes from initiator to signing authority (if initiator is not a signing authority), Research Financial Services, and the employee themselves to accept the payment, in that order. If the initiator is a signing authority, once the requisition is submitted, it will go straight to Research Financial Services.
Submitting the requisition will initiate moving it through the various users. Each party is notified when they have an action to perform.
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Yes. You can find a previously submitted requisition by selecting the status of ‘All’ on the Job Requisition Launch page and filter on the requisition number. Note the status of the requisition on this page. If it has been processed by Payroll Services you will also need to contact them to stop the payment and to facilitate any possible recovery of funds. If the requisition has been processed by Student Accounts Receivable (SAR) then contact them for next steps.
You can cancel a requisition by following these steps:
- Click on the ‘Payment and Approval’ or “View” button beside the requisition
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Decision Details section
- Select the status ‘Cancel’ then click on the submit button. Remember to enter a comment!
- If the payment has been processed by payroll, please email Payroll Services and Julia Luther
- If the payment has been processed by Student Accounts Receivable (status is ‘Loaded to SAR’) they will automatically be notified and will take the appropriate steps to cancel the requisition on the student account.
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You can modify a requisition if it has not yet been processed by Payroll Services (Type B Requisitions) or Student Accounts Receivable (Type A requisitions) by returning the requisition for correction. Follow these steps:
- Find the requisition by selecting the status of ‘All’ on the job launch page and filter for the employee number or requisition number for which you are looking
- Click on the ‘Payment and Approval’ or ‘view’ button next to the requisition to open the Job Payment Page
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Decision Detail Section
- Select the status ‘Return for Correction’ then click on the submit button. Remember to enter a comment!
- From the job requisition launch page select the Status ‘Return for Correction’
- Find your requisition, make the required modifications and submit once again
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Requisitions should be approved by the grant holder by the New Payment Request deadline in order to be considered for the current pay. This is to give sufficient time for the student to accept the requisition.
Students should ensure that they have accepted the requisition by the student approval deadline. Students are only required to approve Type B Research Assistant requisitions, however they will also be notified of any Type A funding applied to their accounts.
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Research Accounting is included in the workflow and will validate that the funds are available to process payments during the dates stated. They will also receive an email directing them to Carleton Central to approve the requisition.
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The Grant Holder will receive an email in the workflow when a requisition requires their approval. The email will direct them to Carleton Central and provide access to review the fund information and make any changes prior to approval.
Warnings and What They Mean
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Initiating and approving a payment to oneself is a conflict of interest. This payment requires one-up approval.
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A possible double payment warning means that there is another payment in the system that appears to be the same. Check to make sure this is an additional payment and not a duplicate payment for the same work. If it is an additional payment, please enter a comment to indicate this has been verified, otherwise cancel the requisition.
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A low balance warning means that there may not be enough money left in the budget to cover the expense. Once submitted, the requisition will be forwarded to Research Financial Services for review. The Financial Administrator will contact you if an alternate index is required.
The Graduate Research Assistant Payment system will give a low balance warning for most research funds. This occurs because BANNER is trying to check the balance in the funds but Carleton does not currently enter budgets in BANNER (they are only in FAST) so it only sees expenses with no income. The balance checking feature was turned on for the implementation of eShop but causes erroneous warnings in the travel and expense system and the Graduate Research Assistant Payment system.
This is just a warning and will not prevent you from submitting the payment request. Please feel free to ignore this warning. If there is a problem with the balance, the Financial Administrator will contact you before approving the payment request.
How to Correct Errors
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A FZMFRAC disallows error means that graduate student payments are not eligible on this index. Please enter an alternate index.
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An index closed error means that the index is either closed or will terminate before the end date of the payment term. Please change the term of the payment or choose an alternate index.
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An initiator does not have posting authority error means that you do not have access to input expenses against this index. Please ensure the index number is correct.
If you require access to this index you may request it through the FAAM system. See https://carleton.ca/facts/faam/ for instructions.
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A payee is not registered error means that the payee is not registered in graduate classes for the term of the payment. Please ask the student to register. If the payee is not planning to register for this time period, there are alternate ways you can pay them:
- If you need to submit a Type A (stipend) payment, fill out the Graduate Student Requisition for Payment Form and submit to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs.
- If you need to submit a Type B payment, fill out a Payroll Profile and submit to Research Financial Services.
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If I try to save or submit my requisition, I get an error saying “There are no FOAPAL entries on this page that match the Primary Research Account on the Assign Job Page. Please ensure that the Primary Research Account is among the FOALs in the Financial Details section.”
What is the issue?
In the first page (Requisition Setup), you selected the dates, the student, the primary research account, and the type of job are indicated. However, on the second page (Payment Details), you changed the account in the Financial Details section and as a result the primary research account indicated on the Requisition Setup page is not part of the payment details.
Solution 1
- Select ‘Return to List’
- Select ‘Requisition Setup’ for the requisition in question
- Change the primary research account
- Select ‘Save’
- Select ‘Payment Details’
- Double check the information and submit as normal
Solution 2
- On the Payment Details page, change the index under the Financial Details section to include the primary research account
- Save and submit requisition as normal
Cancelling a Job
If you need to cancel a position that has made it through the approval process and has been accepted by the employee, please contact HR at humanresources@carleton.ca to arrange to have the position terminated.
Notifications
Each time the requisition is sent on for approval, the next recipient will be notified via email that they need to approve the requisition in Carleton Central.
Students are only required to accept Type B payments. Type A payments are automatically applied to their student account in Carleton Central.
Students are required to complete new employee documentation for Type B payments if they have not been previously setup as an employee. If your students have not yet completed their employee documentation, they will be notified to do so. New employees can go to the HR website to complete their documentation.
Fund Access
Fund access is granted through the Finance Access and Authority Management Tool in Carleton Central. For more information about this tool see the FAAM Tools and Support website.
Contract Information
For assistance with the system please contact humanresources@carleton.ca.