The NASC State Government Payroll Group first met at the annual NASC Conference in March 1996.

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia completed the 1995-96 State Payroll Survey which was compiled at the Office of the Idaho State Controller.

The Payroll Survey is a basic body of information about the payroll function in state government. This information will serve as points for deliberations and projects at the State Government Payroll Group's meetings.

The 1997 Survey information is being compiled into the 1995-96 Survey. States that are being added or updating their payroll function for the 1997 Survey will have an asterisk(s). As of June '97, six new states have been added.

The first section of the survey was Environment questions:

Questions 1 & 2 on the same page

1. State, Name, Title, and Telephone Number of person filling out Survey.

2. Government Department and Division of person in question #1?

Questions 3, 4 & 5 on same page

3. Do you process payroll in house or do you out source. If you process in-house, who developed the software?

4. How many employees do you pay?

5. Do you charge any service fees? If yes, what kind of fees?

Questions 6 & 7 on same page

6. Do you have multiple pay cycles, what are they and how many employees are on each cycle?

7. How many of your employees are on direct deposit? What percent is this of the total number of employees?

The second section of the survey was Hardware questions.

8. What type of computer do you use?

9. What kind of operating system do you use?

10. What kind of data processing environment do you use?

The third section of the survey wasStaff questions?

11. How many people do you have processing payroll?

12. How many people do you have providing support?

The fourth section of the survey was System Function questions.

13.Are the following functions (13a through 13f) part of your payroll system? If not, who does them?

13a through 13c. 13a.human resources

13b.position control

13c.time collection

13d through 13f. 13d.overtime calculation

13e.check or warrant writing

13f.garnishments

Questions 14, 15 & 16 on the same page

14. How do you feed your labor costs to accounting?

15. Do you have an outside provider for your tax package? If yes, who is it?

16. What kind of audit trail system do you have (e.g., microfiche)?

Questions 17, 18, 19 & 20a on the same page

17. How do you make your federal tax deposit (e.g., ACH, coupon)?

18. How do you transmit your W-2s to S.S.A. (e.g., paper, diskette)?

19. How do you make your vendor payments (e.g., warrant, EFT)?

20a. Do you allow voluntary deductions? If so, how many are presently available?

Questions 20b & 21 on the same page

20b. What are the requirements for adding or retaining a deduction?

21. Do you have any fees or charges associated with voluntary deductions? If so, what kind of charges are they, and how much do they run?

Questions 22a & 22b on the same page

22a. Resources you are using to be Year 2000 compliant?

22b. Your Year 2000 compliant start date?

23. Payroll Off-Site Disaster Recovery Plan