How to find a Banner payroll earn code

Banner HR/Pay users can find existing earn codes on the Banner form PTREARN. For a known earn code, the user can view its configuration details by entering the code and clicking Next Block. To search for an unknown code, the user clicks the “…” button next to that field.

The search opens the Banner query-only form PTQEARN. This list can be browsed and sorted, or queried by preset Filter options. In a common use case, a unit is looking for an appropriate premium or differential code that pays a specific amount designated in a union contract. The Filter options include earn codes with a fixed rate (like 1.0 dollars) and “multiplication factor” to distinguish codes which have built-in time-and-a-half or other multipliers (Multiplication Factor 150), as shown in the screenshot below.

Users can see in the list or by pulling up regular-time earn codes that most have a multiplication factor of 100, meaning they pay as straight-time hours. Typically when earn codes are created, both a straight-time and time-and-a-half overtime code are established, so employees and payroll processors do not have to pre-calculate in any multiplication to the hours reported on the timesheet.

Confirming the earn code is eligible to be paid

The next step to ensure that an identified earn code can be used for a given employee is that the earn code needs to be available to use for the e-class needed. The Banner form PTRECLS defines configuration settings for e-classes, which are the two-character code defining whether a given employee or job record is faculty, academic professional, civil service, etc. 

On PTRECLS, enter the e-class code in question and click Next Block. The Eligible Earnings tab lists the earn codes payable to an e-class. It also shows which will be on the employee’s Web Time Entry timesheet list in the Time Sheet Print Sequence, for units that continue to use Web Time Entry. How payroll feeder systems display the earn code options depends on their specific user interface, but the payroll data they transmit to Banner (the "feeder file") will abide by the Eligible Earnings list for the e-class of the job being paid. This is why some counter-intuitive combinations, such as overtime earn codes on overtime-exempt e-classes, appear in the Eligible Earnings, because there are situations where a non-exempt employee could have a job in an exempt-coded e-class.

Both Banner forms, PTREARN and PTRECLS, should be visible to department users. They are query-only and non-editable for anyone outside AITS & UPB.

What to do if you need a new earn code

Please contact IHR Compensation (ihr-compensation@illinois.edu) for review. IHR Compensation will confirm that no appropriate earn code exists or is eligible for the e-class needed, consulting with other groups like IHR Data Operations as needed, and make any appropriate system edit request to University Payroll & Benefits.