Graduate Assistant-Change of Status

Steps

  1. From Actions, select HR Forms: Pay & Cost Actions.
  2. From Select Employee Process, choose Change an Existing Appointment/Assignment.
  3. From This employee will be, choose Graduate Assistant.
  4. Click Start Employee Process.
  5. Enter the APID, and the Start Date and End Date for the Change of Status. Click the Start button to populate student data.
  6. Select the current assignment from the list.
  7. Select Change of Status from the option list. Click the Continue button to proceed.
  8. Complete the required fields marked with an asterisk (*).
  9. Use the drop-down lists and Matchcode  matchcode button for field entry.
  10. Click the Evaluate button after the corresponding field has been completed.
  11. Click the Continue to form button to open the form.
  12. Complete the required fields with an asterisk (*). Use the Matchcode  matchcode button to search and enter data where applicable.
  13. Click the Add Attachments button at the top of the window, then select General Attachments to attach documents.
  14. Click the Check and Send button to check for errors, then click the Send button to start the form through workflow.

Variations

  • At step 2, if the student's APID is not readily available, click the Open Extended Search button to find the student by name utilizing the Personnel Number matchcode  matchcode button. Be sure to fill in the APID after conducting the search to ensure that information validates correctly. Validation is based on the APID.
  • If a message appears red error "Justification for selecting Level 3 job should be provided since calculated Graduate Level is 2. Please enter a justification in the Relevant Experience field," enter the justification in the free text field provided.
  • If changing the Graduate Assistant from a Research Assistant to a Teaching Assistant (or vice versa), note this change in the Comments Section of the form.
  • If a red flag red error with an informational note appears, enter or correct the item(s) before proceeding to the next step or submitting the form.
  • If a yellow flag  yellow error appears with an informational note regarding support items or field entries, read and respond appropriately. However, this will not prevent submission of the form.

This document covers the change of status form for graduate assistants. The change of status form can be used to:

  • Change Employee %
  • Change Job Level (I,II, III)
  • Change End Date
  • Change Job Title (RA/TA/TE)

To navigate to the Change of Status Form:

  1. From Actions, select HR/Payroll Forms & Cost Redistributions .
  2. From Select Employee Process, choose Change an Existing Appointment/Assignment.
  3. From This employee will be, choose Graduate Assistant.
  4. Click Start Employee Process.

Select the Employee

Search for employee

  1. Enter the StudentID.
    1. To search for the StudentID, click on the search button (two overlapping boxes) in the StudentID field.
  2. Enter the Start Date and End Date for the Change of Status
  3. Click the Search Employee.
  4. If the student has existing assignments, you will be prompted with the question ‘Do you wish to modify an existing grad appointment?’
  5. Select ‘Yes’.
    A table of assignments will display. Select the assignment to change from the list.

Select the Information to be Changed

Once you have selected the assignment, you then need to indicate the changes to be made by checking the appropriate boxes under ‘How would you like to change this employee’s record?’. The checkboxes you select control which parts of the change of status form are editable, and which business rules apply. If you select an item to change, you must change that information on the form. 

To select changes to the employee's record

  1. Check the boxes for the changes to be made.
    1. If ‘Change Employee %’ is checked, select the Employment Percent from the dropdown menu
    2. If ‘Change End Date’ is selected, enter the End Date or click on the calendar icon to select the date. Hit enter.
  2. Click Continue

Enterprise Structure

This indicates whether the graduate assistant will be a teaching assistant or research assistant, and if a teaching assistant, whether or not they are union.

  1. If ‘Change Job Title’ was selected, select the new job from the list of jobs in the Enterprise Structure table.
    1. If ‘Change Job Title’ was not selected, the current job will display and no other jobs will be available for selection.
  2. Click Next Step Position Header

Position Header Information

  1. Select new level from Job Title dropdown (if ‘Change Job Level’ was selected)
    1. If ‘Change Job Title’ was selected, the job level can be increased if desired.
  2. Enter Relevant Experience (if applicable)
    1. This is a required field that will be displayed if the job level selected is higher than the calculated grad level.
  3. Select TE Exclusion Code (if applicable)
    1. This is a required field if ‘Change Job Title (RA/TA/TE)’ was selected and new job title is Teaching Exempt Assistant

Supervisor

 If desired, update the supervisor information. Search for and select the Supervisor Position number. If there is more than one entry for the person, choose the entry whose dates correspond to the hiring dates. Click the Position Overview button when finished.

Position Overview

Review the position information for accuracy, clicking the tabs to view each subject. You may change editable fields as needed. Once you have determined the position is correct, click the Change of Status button to proceed to the Change of Status Form.

Fill out the Form

Saving the Form

If at any point you wish to save the form and finish it later, click the Save Draft button. Clicking the Save Draft button will close the form. You can access the draft form in your HR/Payroll Inbox.

Navigation

  • Click any step in the Navigation Bar to go directly to that section of the form. 
  • Use the Tab key on the keyboard to move from field to field.
  • Where you see a search button (two overlapping boxes), you can press the F4 key to open the search window, rather than clicking on the button.
  • Click on the Download PDF link in the upper right corner of the form at any time to generate a PDF of the form.
  • Click on the Forms and Workflow Path menu in the upper right corner of the window to view:
    • links to policies and procedures that may apply
    • forms that can be attached and submitted.
  • the workflow path for the form

Personal Details

Data is populated here from SAP for students who have been previously been employed by the University. Some fields can be edited.

Organizational Assignment

The position information shown here cannot be edited. If any information listed here is incorrect, you must start again from the beginning.

Pay and Cost Distribution

For pay and cost distribution, you enter the amount (the amount the graduate assistant will be paid each biweekly period), the different funding lines, and the dates for each funding source. The system then helps you compute the amounts to fund from each source based on either amount or percent.

When employed within the same organization unit and function (RA/TA/TE) as a previous year, graduate assistants shall not be paid less than they received in any prior year. If the graduate assistant had a previous appointment with these same attributes relative to the semester of this appointment, the previous stipend information will display.

To calculate stipend

Enter the Amount in the box provided.
Press Enter. The system calculates the Total Stipend.
To enter funding lines

The current funding for the employee is pre-populated on the Change of Status Form. To edit a funding line, click on the pencil icon. To remove a funding line, click on the x.

To enter a new funding line:

  1. Click on the + to enter a funding line.
  2. Enter a Start Date and End Date in the boxes provided.
  3. Search for and select a Fund. If you type the account number, press Enter after typing it to default the other required accounting information.
  4. If necessary, search for and select other funding elements.
    1. If no sub-account is entered, WBS Element defaults to “No_Sub-Account.”
    2. If no functional area is entered, the value will default to “99999999”
  5. Click OK to add the funding line.
  6. Repeat the above steps for each additional funding line.

To validate cost distribution

  1. Click the Compute Cost Distribution button. The system creates the correct funding lines for each funding period. If only a single fund and period is selected, it populates the Amount and Pct.
  2. Do any combination of the following to edit each line until you reach full funding for each period:
    1. To enter an Amount, click Edit Amount if necessary and enter an amount.
    2. To enter a Percentage, click Edit Percent if necessary and enter a percent.
    3. To calculate an amount based on a percent, click the Validate Cost Distribution button.
    4. To calculate a percent based on an amount, click the Validate Cost Distribution button.

Green or red indicators appear in the ‘Status’ column indicating whether or not the person is fully funded for that period. 

If you need to add accounts once you’ve started computing the cost distribution or you need to change the amount, click the Change/Edit Cost Distribution button.

Additional Information

Depending on the answers to Additional Information questions, additional detail may be required.

 Data Changes Table

The Data Changes table shows any changes that will be made to the employee’s record as a result of submitting the form (excluding pay and funding changes).

Ad Hoc Approvers

The form can be submitted to ad hoc approvers (2 maximum). If more than 2 ad hoc approvers are entered, you will receive a hard stop error upon clicking ‘Send’ when submitting the form into workflow. To add an ad hoc approver:

  1. Click on the + sign.
  2. Enter the MSU NetID.
    1. Alternatively, you can search by employee name by clicking on the search button (overlapping boxes) or hitting F4 on your keyboard.
  3. Click OK .

Notes

To enter Notes:

  1. Enter notes in the field.
  2. Click on the > (right arrow) to submit.
    1. To delete a comment that has been submitted, click on the ‘Delete’ link above your comment.
    2. To edit a comment that has been submitted, click on the ‘Edit’ link above your comment.  Edit your comment in the field above. Click on the > (right arrow) to resubmit.

Acknowledgment Section

The acknowledgement section must be completed in order to submit the form into workflow. You will be prompted to certify that you verify the form is complete to the best of your knowledge. To do this, click on the box next to the statement “I verify this form is complete to the best of my knowledge”.

Once the certification has been completed, the form will display any important messages that require your review and acknowledgement. Please review each message carefully and acknowledge the message by checking the box that appears next to it. All messages must be acknowledged before the form can be submitted.

Attachments

If an attachment is required and not attached, you will receive a hard stop error upon clicking ‘Send’ to submit the form into workflow. Links to forms that can be attached and submitted can be found in the ‘Forms & Workflow Path’ menu in the upper right corner of the form.

To upload an attachment

  1. Select the attachment being uploaded from the Attachment Type drop-down list.
  2. Click on the + sign to locate and select the attachment.
    1. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the attachment to the attachment upload section denoted with a paper icon.

Repeat this process for each additional attachment.

 Submit Form

Review the completed form, making any needed changes to the information. 

If desired, generate a PDF by clicking the Download PDF button. The PDF version of the form opens in a new window and can be saved or printed. 

Click the Send button to have the system perform a final check of the information and route the completed form for approval. If there are hard stop errors that need to be corrected before submission, the errors will appear upon clicking Send. If hard stop errors appear:

  1. Correct the errors.
  2. Complete the Acknowledgement Section of the form.
  3. Click Send to submit into workflow.

Upon successful submission, the HR/Payroll system displays a process reference number.      

The form then enters workflow. The form routes for all unit approvals, then goes to central HR. Central HR reviews and approves the form to update the HR/Payroll system.

As the form routes for approvals, Approvers are able to view the form in the HR/Payroll Inbox and generate a PDF by clicking the Download PDF button. 

Attachments are an important part of the appointment process. To ensure that all appropriate attachments are available to all approvers, Approvers cannot add or remove attachments. If attachments must be changed, the approver should reject the form back to the initiator.