Educate Yourself

New File Layout Questions & Answers

REPORTING CODES

Contract types, examples:

Our teachers work either 191 or 194 days each school year. Our school clerks work 190 days.   We consider them 9 1/2 month employees. For TRS should we report them as 09 or 10?  Assistant principals and psychologist work 210 days - we consider them 10 1/2 month employees. For TRS should we report them 10 or 11 months?  We have other similar groups, but the answer to these should apply to other similar groups.

Round up 9 ½ to 10 and 10 ½ to 11.  The contract type controls when a member earns service credit.  It is important that the contract type be reported correctly.

Employees on Leave:

Employees who are on leave without pay do not receive a paycheck.  Are we required to include these employees on the monthly TRS file?

If possible, these employees should be reported with a payment reason code of “04”,  indicating to TRS that no contributions were sent to TRS for that member.

Employer Code:

What is the 8 byte 'Employer Code'?

The current employer code (4 characters) is the system number assigned by TRS that identifies the reporting employer.  The field size is expanded for potential future uses.

Payment Reason code, examples:

Which of the payment reason codes should we use for certificate downgrades? 

Payment reason code “03” indicates a certificate downgrade. 

Which of the payment reason codes should we use when we receive verification of prior experience and upgrade their steps (this may occur several months into the new school year)?  Would this be 'P' prior period - '00' regular pay? 

The upgrade to the steps that occur several months into the school year should be reported as a prior period adjustment for the appropriate posting month(s).  The “02” promotion payment reason code now includes step increases.

Termination Codes:

Regarding 'Termination Reason', what is the difference between '01-Left Employment' and '04-Other'?   Which code should be used if someone is fired, or their contract is non-renewable, or we have an employee cut-back situation?

You may use “01-Left Employment” for all the conditions you listed. '04-Other' is provided for your use and definition.