Bi-weekly Time Reports   Email     Print   PDF

Policy Information

• Issue Date: December 27, 2006
• Primary Contact: Director of Human Resources
• Responsible Member of Directorate: President and Director
• Responsible Office: Human Resources

Contents

Overview

A. All employees, except marine personnel and educational appointments must submit a time report on a bi-weekly basis for approval by their supervisor or designee. This is the only document which authorizes the Payroll Office to prepare a paycheck. In addition, it serves as the basis for assigning salary costs to grants, contracts, cost centers and all other cost activities. The procedures described below will standardize the preparation of time reports in conformance with the requirements of the Institution's cognizant federal auditor, the Defense Contract Audit Agency. 

B. Pay periods end on alternate Saturdays with pay days falling on the following Friday. 

C. Time reports must be received by the Payroll Office no later than, and preferably before, noon on Monday prior to the pay day. Time reports may be submitted earlier due to necessary early approvals, processing or holidays. If the charge to a cost center or project is different from what was originally recorded, a timely salary redistribution must be made to reflect the time worked. 

D. Time reports must be recorded, signed and approved in black or blue ink. Pencil entries and/or signatures are not acceptable. 

E. Time reports must reflect the hours the employee actually worked or compensated absences taken (e.g., vacation, holidays, sick leave, etc.). Time reports must be completed daily or when different tasks occur and not at the end of the pay period. Regular recording will insure the accuracy of time charges for the tasks worked on. In addition, exempt employees must adhere to (N.).

F. Time reports must be signed by the employee only at the end of the pay period and then submitted to her/his supervisor. 

G. Supervisors should review and sign each employee's time report only at the end of the pay period to insure proper completion. 

H. In the Science Departments, the Department Administrator is authorized to approve time reports for employees supervised by the Department Chair. In the Department Administrator's absence, the Department Chair will approve the time reports. In all other cases in the Science Departments, the employee's direct supervisor must approve the time report or, in her/his absence, the next higher supervisor. 

I. In all other departments and only if authorized formally by the Administrative Manager, persons considered assistant supervisors may approve time reports in the absence of the supervisor. 

J. When corrections or changes to time reports are required before submission to the Payroll Office, the revisions should be made by drawing a line through the original entry and then showing the correct entry on a new line. Changes to the cost center/project or hours worked can be made only by the employee, not the supervisor. The employee should affix her/his initials next to each change. Erasures and/or use of "white out" are not permitted. Time reports should not be destroyed. If the original time report becomes unreadable, the employee should obtain a new time report from the department/unit designee and, after completing the new one, attach it to the original. 

K. The Payroll Office will return to the employee any time report with incomplete cost center or project allocation.  This action could cause a delay in the preparation of the employee's paycheck.  To process a paycheck, the time report must include an employee or authorized signature.  Any time report submitted without an employee and authorized signature, will be returned to employee before processing payment.  

L. Blank time reports will be controlled by department/unit designees. New time reports for the next pay period will be distributed just prior to the end of the current pay period. 

M. The overtime policy for Graded Employees is covered in Payment for Overtime. Overtime reporting is referenced in Section IV.

N. Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime compensation.  To account correctly, if an exempt employee works more than 8 hours in a day and more than one cost center or project is to be charged, the maximum 8 hour period must be allocated to each cost center or project proportionately to the actual hours worked (rounded to the nearest 1/4 hour). For example, if an exempt employee works 14 hours in one day, spending 10 hours on Project A and 4 hours on Project B, the ratio on the time report would reflect the following: 10/14ths of 8 hours recorded for Project A and 4/14ths of 8 hours on Project B.

O. If an employee is not present at the Institution (e.g., on vacation or sick leave, travel, at-sea, jury duty, etc.), advance completion of a time report is acceptable. If the cost center or project charged is later determined to be incorrect, it is understood that a salary redistribution must be submitted. 

P. The following reporting forms are to be used: 

1.PR-5 (Blue Time Reports) are used by all non-marine, full-time and part-time employees to record regular work hours including compensated absences and repaid O/T for graded employees at sea. 

2.PR-6 (Salmon Time Reports) are used by graded (non-exempt) personnel to record overtime work ashore. 

3.(Pink Time Reports) are used by graded (non-exempt) employees while at sea to record hours worked and compensated absences. 

4.PR-8 (Gray Time Reports) are used by Shop personnel and CIS programming & analysis personnel to record regular and overtime hours and compensated absences. 

5.PR-9 (Yellow Time Reports) are used by casual-status employees to record hours worked. 

6.PR-14 (White Reports) are used by all non-marine employees to make corrections to time reports previously submitted. 

7.PR-16 (White Reports) are used by all exempt employees to record cruise leave and sea duty accrual. 

8.PR-17 (White Reports ) are used by all non-marine employees to make time report corrections that are over three months old. 

9.The Marine Overtime Form is used by marine employees to record bi-weekly overtime hours.

Copies of the above forms can be obtained from the Payroll Office. 

A. Form PR-5 (Blue) is to be used by all full and part-time employees except ships' crew members, Graduate Research Assistants, shop personnel and the Programming and Analysis Group in CIS to report up to 40 hours per week or 80 hours per pay period. A separate form, PR-6 (Salmon), must be used for overtime worked ashore. 

B. Hours actually worked ashore are to be entered each day on the line identifying the cost center or project to be charged. The upper part of the form is to be used for this purpose. 

C. Paid absences, except Cruise Leave and Sea Duty compensation, are to be entered on the appropriate line on the day of occurrence, in the lower part of the form. This includes holidays occurring while an employee is at sea.

D. If an employee is at sea for all or part of a pay period, the Department Administrator will, on behalf of the employee, enter the assigned project and the total hours to be paid. These hours, which are provisional in nature, should appear only in the total column on the right and equal eight times the number of days at sea or en route to join a ship. Graded employees at sea are prepaid 8 hours per day on the blue time report for every Saturday, Sunday and holiday worked at sea. Exempt employees' time reports should not exceed 80 hour per pay period. Actual hours worked for graded employees will be subsequently reported on Form PR-7 (Pink). Exempt employees are required to review the reports submitted on their behalf and submit corrections if appropriate. Exempt employees, upon return from sea, will submit Report of Cruise Leave and/or Sea & Ice Duty Compensation (PR-16). 

E. Shop personnel and the Programming and Analysis Group use Form PR-8 (Gray) to report all hours worked, regular and overtime, where appropriate. It is important that this form be filled out completely, including "Work Order Number". 

F. Cruise Leave and Sea Duty Compensation used in lieu of working normal hours are to be reported in the upper portion of Form PR-5, assigned to the project on which they were earned. However, in the daily total line for those hours, the initials "CL" or "SD" should be entered rather than the usual daily total of hours. 

A. A provisional report will be submitted by the Department Administrator for each employee at sea which will insure that regular paychecks will be issued during the period absent. 

B. To provide for overtime compensation and to confirm the provisional time reports, when participating in a cruise a record of all hours worked while away from Woods Hole and the project(s) to be charged must be submitted by the employee using Form PR-7. The period covered by these reports is to include all travel time. Mid-day commencement or conclusion of the travel period is to be considered travel time for the whole day and reported on Form PR-7. In the upper right hand section of Form PR-7, each cruise participant should enter the dates actually embarked and disembarked. Time spent in port prior to ship departure or following ship arrival is not "at sea" time and should be considered routine travel, work in port, vacation, etc., as appropriate. Sea Duty Compensation will be credited to individuals only on the authority of the Department Administrator, evidenced by endorsement of Form PR-7, and will include the time elapsed from date of joining the ship until date of departure. 

C. The reports, completely and accurately prepared, are to be submitted at the end of each pay period and/or upon departure from the ship, to the Chief Scientist who is responsible for their approval and delivery to the Payroll Office by the most appropriate means. Compensation for properly reported and approved overtime will be added to the employee's regular earnings on the pay day occurring not less than seven days following the date received in the Payroll Office. 

D. When reporting travel days, print the word TRAVEL vertically in the column(s) of the day(s) in travel status charging the hours to the appropriate project. 

E. If an Institution holiday occurs while at sea, record eight hours on the holiday line in addition to the actual hours worked (Form PR-7). 

A. The Institution's policy on overtime is covered by Payment for Overtime. 

B. Reporting of overtime at sea is explained in Section III, paragraph B.

C. Overtime worked ashore by employees other than shop personnel and the Programming and Analysis Group is to be reported only on Form PR-6. These reports must include a description of the work performed and must be properly approved. 

D. Travel time which fits the definition of overtime, except for travel en route to join a research vessel, is reportable on Form PR-6. 

E. Shop personnel and the CIS Programming and Analysis Group will report overtime on their regular reporting form, PR-8. 

A. Casual employees are defined in Definitions/Types of Employment. 

B. Time worked is to be reported on Form PR-9 (Yellow). 

A. Whenever it becomes necessary to correct any information on a time report which would change the cost center, project or the hours charged, audit authorities require such corrections to be properly documented. 

B. Form PR-14 (White) will be used to provide the necessary documentation to support changes which must be fully explained, signed by the employee, properly approved and returned to the Payroll Office. 

A. Regular earnings for crew members are based on bi-weekly notices from the Port Office to the Payroll Office. 

B. Overtime and time off are reported bi-weekly on Marine Overtime Report, signed by the crew member, endorsed by the Marine Operations Manager, and submitted to the Payroll Office as soon as the ship's schedule permits. The Institution's policy on marine overtime is covered by Marine Crew Member Procedures (pdf). 

A. Graduate Research Assistants are paid on a biweekly basis.  Pay periods end on alternate Saturdays with paydays falling on the following Friday.

B. Although their work may be directly related to one or more of the Institution's research projects, primary stipend support for Graduate Research Assistants is provided by the Education Program to which all their stipends are assigned.

C. Time reports are not submitted by Graduate Research Assistants.  Authorization for payment is based on notification to the Payroll Office from the Education Office in the form of a Financial Assistance Award Notice.  The Financial Assistance Award Notice includes the biweekly stipend amount, number of payments to be made, and which project number to be charged to.

D. Should it be necessary to make corrections to a Financial Assistance Award Notice, a Financial Award Notice Correction Form is submitted to Payroll.  The correction form is initiated by the appropriate department, sent to the Education Office, and then forwarded to payroll for the transfer of funds.