Overpayment Policy

Policy Background

A recent management review conducted by the OSU Internal Audit Office made the College of Engineering aware that overpayments are occasionally made to employees for various reasons, including late terminations, late entries of changes to appointments, etc. Although it is the responsibility of employees to return overpayments, the unit is responsible for assuring that this is completed in a timely and accurate manner.

Policy

The OHR Overpayment Policy may be viewed here. Proper and timely execution of terminations and changes to appointments are necessary to safeguard University assets and prevent incorrect compensation payouts. It is imperative that supervisors notify their HR administrators of terminations or changes to appointments in a timely manner and that HR administrators enter contract ends/changes, and other terminations/changes before appropriate deadlines. To assist with this process the College of Engineering has developed the College of Engineering Termination Policy and the Employee Transfer/Termination Form.

The payroll certification process, which requires supervisors to review payroll distribution, is expected to detect any terminations and appointments changes that have not been reported or previously entered, as well as other types of overpayments. In cases where overpayments are made to employees, units must recover the overpayment as soon as possible.

Procedures

When an overpayment notification is discovered, the HR administrator must report the overpayment to the OHR payroll department through the online reporting tool here. From this reporting, Payroll will initiate procedures to calculate and recover the overpayment. The employee and home department HR administrator will be notified in writing with amount due and payment instructions. After the overpayment is recovered in full, the amount will be credited back to the employee's department based on the funding sources originally charged.

If repayment is not made within 90 days, the HR administrator should work with the OHR payroll department to report the overpayment to Accounts Receivable for collection.

If payment is received by the unit, the HR administrator completes the Overpayment Information for Repayment form. The form and repayment check is hand-delivered to the Payroll Office, where a representative from the Payroll Office completes the bottom section of the form. The original form and a copy of the repayment check are maintained by the HR administrator for audit and reconciliation purposes.

The unit is expected to monitor HR and financial reports to ensure the check is deposited and the funds are recovered.