Payroll Guidelines
Both students and agencies need to be aware of and follow the payroll guidelines.
There are certain procedures mandated by the Federal Work Study Program that must
be followed in order for the student to be paid. Adhering to the guidelines below
will make the process run smoothly.
Every student hired through the Community Work Study program is appointed to
the University Payroll and receives payroll training and a payroll schedule, which
includes the due dates for timesheets and paydays. Students need to contact the
Public Service Center to sign up for an orientation and to become appointed to
the payroll. Until this is done, the student will not be paid.
- Students must complete all areas of the blue time sheet in pen (pencil will not
be accepted), and both the student and the supervisor must sign and date the time
sheet.
- The pay period and dates must match the Cornell pay period. (Students cannot
combine dates from two pay periods on one time sheet or list dates randomly).
- Students must write both the in and out hours they worked, as well as the total
number of hours worked for each day.
- Any required meal period(s) that were not recorded on the time sheet will be
deducted by the Public Service Center.
- If not working in whole or half-hour increments, students must also take into
consideration the partial hours rules that Cornell uses. Since each and every
time sheet has to be checked by the Public Service Center to make sure that calculations
are correct, we ask that employees work whole or half-hour increments.
- Supervisors should encourage students to adhere to the payroll schedule and avoid
turning in time sheets late; late timesheets can create a huge backlog of work,
since we process a 250+ student payroll. Late timesheets also create problems
for billing cycles.
- Once the supervisor has reviewed and signed the time sheet, the agency should
keep the yellow copy for their records.
- Legally, we are required to keep five years' worth of student time sheets for
auditing purposes. Therefore, students must submit the blue original to this office
before they are allowed to pick up a check.
- Students cannot be paid for hours that exceed their work study award or for timesheets
submitted after the end of an academic or summer payperiod.
- These end dates are listed on the hiring addendum and on the payroll schedule.
- Students receive warning notices from the Student Employment Services office
once they have earned 75% of their award, and again when they have used all of
their award and have been terminated from the payroll. This ensures that students
are aware of their gross wages and earning potential.
