AP UCPath:  - Deadlines, Reminders and Best Practices

UCPath Entry for the New Academic Year

AP-Path Deadlines:

To ensure academic non-student transactions are input in UCPath to meet payroll deadlines, please submit transactions to AP-Path by the AP Deadlines. Upcoming Deadlines:

Lecturer Appointment Workloads – AP Deadline: June 25^th at 5pm:

To ensure time for post-audit and UCPath entry by the July payroll deadline, Lecturer workload/appointment approvals must be received by the central AP Policy Analysts by 5pm on June 25^th. Paperwork received in AP after this deadline may not be entered in time for the July paycheck. Please refer to deadlines set by the Colleges to determine when departments need to submit paperwork in order to meet these central deadlines.

Late submissions and the corresponding entry into UCPath will often require missed or overpayment tickets with BFS once changes appear in Job Data. Departments should monitor Job Data and employee paychecks to determine when additional action is needed to correct pay issues.

Prioritization of Actions:

Due to the high volume of transactions to set up appointments for the new academic year, transactions will be prioritized as follows:

1. Base pay impacting
2. 7/1/21 Hires & June/July Terminations/Retirements
3. Benefit impacting transactions
4. Summer Salary transactions
5. Additional Compensation (Stipends and OTP)
6. Job Data changes (non-pay impacting)

End Date Monitoring

Departments are responsible for monitoring appointments with upcoming end dates and taking appropriate action to extend continuing appointments, terminate ending appointments, or apply Short Work Break (SWB). Proactive action is necessary to avoid unintended impacts such as erroneous termination, missed-/over-payments, loss of benefits, or system access interruptions. Refer to the End Date Monitoring job aid in the Resources for Department Analysts>UCPath section of the AP website for additional guidance.

Short Work Break

Short Work Break (SWB) changes an employee’s Payroll Status to Inactive to stop pay during a break period while keeping their HR Status as Active. This allows departments to avoid terminating and rehiring when the eligible employee is expected to return to work within a certain period of time; this also allows benefit eligible employees to continue on UC benefits with direct billing through UCPC. Refer to the Short Work Break Matrix to determine eligibility.

Academic Student Employees: 

Use SWB to place a position on hold through the summer when a student employee is expected to return to a position in the fall. This will allow the department to easily return the student to work, and allows Summer Session and other departments to hire these students into summer positions using the Concurrent Hire function. If the student does not return to the department position in the fall, initiate a Termination template to end the job.

Lecturers: 

Use SWB for 9/9 Lecturer appointments during summer months to stop pay from being issued. Departments must submit SWB requests via the AP Folio UCPath Certification form. SWB may also be applied for non-working quarters or to mitigate certain pay impacts. Please see the new SWB: Lecturer Best Practices Job Aid for detailed guidance. 

Merit and Promotions

Merit and promotion outcomes for academic employees are entered centrally via batch uploads during June and July. Departments should review the Job Data component prior to July payroll deadline to confirm data points are correct; if issues are identified, email ap-path@ucsb.edu. Note: Late decisions (finalized after 7/20/21) entered into UCPath after the July payroll deadline will pay out automatically on the next on-cycle check following UCPath entry via the Retro-module.

Summer Salary

The Additional Compensation training and workshop classes presented by Academic Personnel provide detailed information on Summer Salary processes and practices; department analysts responsible for processing Summer Salary should refer to the recorded sessions  as well as the following resources:

• Detailed UCPath Job Aids, including a new Action Steps document with links to all available resources by category, can be found at AP.ucsb.edu > Resources for Department Analysts >Summer Research Additional Compensation Tool Kit. https://ap.ucsb.edu/resources.for.department.analysts/ucpath/
• Questions related to the management of summer compensation may be directed as follows:
  • Policy and procedure:  Helly Kwee  helly.kwee@ucsb.edu or Lia Cabello  lia.cabello@ucsb.edu
  • UCPath processing:  AP-Path@ucsb.edu
  • Funding Entry and missed/over-pay: BFS ServiceNow

Administrative Stipends

All EVC approved administrative appointments and stipends, including new appointments, reappointments and termination of existing appointments, are provided to the AP-Path team for processing: Position, Hire/Termination & Additional Comp entry. 

Departments are responsible for:

• Managing funding entry
• Verifying Additional Pay data is correct, and notifying AP-Path of any issues
• Following up on any pay issues with BFS, as needed

Detailed information on the stipend process and how to review information in UCPath can be found on the AP website under Resources for Department Analysts > UCPath -  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FeTaTGaU_PJNZTjAiAwVT2l8ygz6opWf/view