The University will be in recess from Tuesday, December 24, 2019 until Thursday, January 2, 2020. The following table lists the special processing deadlines, cutoff dates, and system and support availability, leading up to and throughout the winter recess.

Financial and Sponsored systems/applications will be available during winter recess; however, transactions will not be posted to the General Ledger, or refreshed into the HART and DMSDWCENPRD ad hoc reporting environments, and the HUIT Support Center (617-495-7777) and FAD staff will be unavailable.

Due to Harvard's winter recess, it is necessary to shift the deadlines for the submission of paperwork and the reporting and approving of time. The tables below highlight of important deadlines. For a full schedule, please see the Payroll and Time & Labor Closings Calendar.

There will be a planned HUIT Major Maintenance Window that will begin Friday, January 10 at 8 p.m., through Sunday, January 12. The Oracle EBS Financial systems that will be offline during this time include:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Payable Adjustment Form for Assets
• Accounts Receivable
• iReceivables & Collections
• Bottomline
• CAPS
• Cash Management (CMRA)
• Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA)
• Chart of Accounts GL Validator
• ...

The following changes have been made to the Absence Balances Report:

• Termination Date was added to improve monitoring of balances for inactive employees (Retired, Terminated and Deceased)
• Last Hire date was added to allow users to determine if a temporary employee has completed their 90 day vesting period for MA Sick
• Removed PDF version of the report, the report will now download in CSV format only

On Friday, November 22nd new position tracking functionality and enhancements were introduced including:

PeopleSoft Position Form Enhancements:

• Display preparer name and submit date/time when viewing, editing or approving a position
• Modified summary of changes so it includes all proposed changes after being saved, pushed back or cancelled
• Modified reports to and dotted line reports field to include incumbent name in the search field and results grid and to only show active positions
• Added lookup...

The latest information about the Data Safety Application, ESTR-IRB, Agreements – DUA, ecrt, and GMAS.... Read more about Research Administration & Compliance Systems - December Updates

The December Newsletter from HR Analytics and Reporting is now available.  Headlines include:

• Where are my Bookmarks?
• Affirmative Action
• Mobility & Terminations
• My Workforce
• University Workforce
• HR Workforce Definitions
• QlikView Learning & Development... Read more about HR Analytics and Reporting (HRAR) - December 2019 Updates

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released the new Form W-4 for calendar year 2020.

Starting 1/1/20, all new employees and any current employee who wishes to change their withholdings will be required to use the new paper form or make changes directly in PeopleSoft. 

Existing employees who do not wish to change their withholdings do not have to take any action. 

The new form can be found at:...

In order to make sure there are no delays in receiving 2019 tax forms, be sure to make sure your address is up-to-date or better yet, sign up for electronic delivery!... Read more about Tax Season is Coming - Update Your Addresses for 2019 Tax Forms

Tax Treaty Renewal Deadline for 2020 (If a previously claimed tax treaty exemption is already being facilitated by Harvard in the current calendar year 2019. Per IRS regulations, certain tax treaties must be renewed annually. To meet these requirements, and claim a tax treaty exemption in calendar year 2020 (if previously determined eligible in 2019), foreign individuals MUST complete the treaty renewal process before 4pm on Friday, December 20th, 2019. The renewal process generally takes less than 15 minutes: ...

Please be sure that any individuals who started work without a government-issued SSN update their records as soon as possible for tax purposes. A Harvard-issued placeholder number (sometimes called temporary or dummy SSN) is for Harvard use only and not to be used on any external documentation and materials. Individuals without an government-issued SSN are ineligible for tax treaties and cannot apply for tax refunds. It is important that government-issued SSNs are submitted to Payroll/Student Services as soon as they are received. Please encourage individuals to bring...