Virginia Department of Accounts

Interested in participating in the Bureau? Here are a few questions often posed by an Agency when investigating potential use of Bureau services.

A: Agencies must follow standard business processes outlined in the HCM Handling and Materials Required document and utilize Bureau provided standard forms. As outlined on the Bureau provided Key Dates Schedules, Agencies must also adhere to processing deadlines to ensure handling timeliness.

The Bureau holds no management authority over these administrative functions; however, to ensure the timely and accurate employee pay, the administrative functions must be in compliance with CAPP and Human Resources/Benefits Policies and Bureau standard business processes. Bureau personnel perform these functions at the approval of the participating Agency's Human Resource and Fiscal management, providing the approvals comply with CAPP and Human Resources/Benefits Policies.

Authorization of payroll expenditures remains with the Agency. Required reconciliations and information returns are prepared by the Bureau and forwarded to the Agency, however final approval of required reconciliations and information returns remains within the Agency.

Once an Agency becomes a participating Agency, the Agency must update DOA’s Authorized Signatories Form (DA-04-121-Cardinal) to reflect Bureau participation and submit it to General Accounting for processing.

A: When an Agency joins the Bureau, there is a transition process. During the transition period, meetings are held between Agency and Bureau personnel to review distinctive characteristics about the Agency. Agency-specific processing information is shared and required authorizations are documented. During the transition period, the Bureau's HCM Handling and Materials Guide is reviewed with HR and Fiscal partners so the Agency will know what to expect from Bureau services and HR and Fiscal partners understand the delineation of responsibilities.

Each Pay Cycle, the Agency submits required materials via the Secure Portal and/or makes required authoritative system updates in HCM (HR Admin role, Benefits Admin role) and does so timely, in accordance with the Key Dates Schedule. The Bureau reports back to the Agency during the pay cycle so that the Agency is aware of the progress of the payroll and identifies outstanding items needing further handling. A detailed reconciliation is provided to highlight updates made to Job Data that affect Regular Pay and the Bureau provides key reports for Agency review and timely handling.

A: All participating Agencies are subject to the Bureau processing fee. The processing fee is charged on a fiscal year basis, calculated based on the number of W-2's processed in the preceding calendar year and the processing characteristics associated with the Agency's payroll.

A: There is no obligation on behalf of the Agency to inform their employees of the transfer of these processing responsibilities. The Bureau can be as transparent or as obvious to an Agency's employees as that Agency's management desires. Participating Agencies continue to serve as the point of first contact for employees' questions regarding pay, benefits or leave.

A: The Bureau does not provide its services to an Agency for strictly a temporary timeframe.