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National Finance Center

U.S. Department of Agriculture

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National Finance Center: The Right Choice for Shared Services

Compensation Management Overview

NFC's Payroll and Personnel System (PPS) is an NFC built and owned payroll and personnel system that currently provides back-end payroll processing to more than 156 Federal entities and over 661,000 Federal employees.

NFC also has several applications that allow customers to electronically transmit, update, and view personnel and payroll transaction requests not handled by the automated system.

Our Core Payroll Solution

Salary Processing

NFC maintains over 150 different pay plans across three branches of Government. NFC’s stringent internal processes ensure pay is accurate for all employees. Our payroll system supports automatic Pay Calculation rules as defined by OPM, including determining the Pay Rate Determinate Code and Pay Tables. Additionally, the system also supports Agency-specific custom pay calculations. Pay calculations, pay rate determinant codes, and pay tables are built into our system to support both Federal Agencies and quasi-Federal Agencies. NFC will work with your Agencies to effectively implement your specific Agency’s regulations into our system ensuring accurate pay for employees.

Additionally, NFC systems are configured to handle all aspects of Title 5 processing. NFC’s system can also support HR and payroll processing services for Agencies not subject to Title 5. NFC’s customers include FDIC, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Capitol Police, Library of Congress, Transportation Security Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Architect of the Capitol, and Smithsonian Institution to name just a few.

NFC can also support a model where our PPS could interface with another provider’s HR and/or T&A solution and currently, NFC has numerous customers using this model. NFC remains vendor agnostic and can integrate with any noncore point solution a customer desires.

Here at NFC we are dedicated to working with our customers to create the solution suite that best meets their needs in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

Allowances

NFC offers the ability to process and disburse overseas allowances as permitted by the Department of State Standardized Regulations (DSSR). NFC processes both Separate Maintenance Allowances and Post Differentials. We can work with your Agency to address any required foreign allowances.

Benefits

NFC provides for processing employee's benefits for retirement or termination such as retirement funds, insurance, and leave. We offer a Web-based employee self-service capability for benefits enrollment via our Employee Personal Page (EPP) during open enrollment season. Benefit enrollments requests are submitted directly to the NFC payroll system. Additionally, all benefits and dependent information is stored in our EmpowHR product and can be accessed by your Agency.

Taxes

Mandatory and Voluntary Deductions

  1. Retirement
  2. OASDI (Social Security Tax)
  3. HITS (Hospital Insurance Tax)
  4. Federal Tax
  5. Health Benefits Deductions (basic)
  6. Federal Employee Life Insurance (FEGLI) (basic)
  7. State Tax
  8. City Tax
  9. County Tax
  10. Meals
  11. Quarters
  12. Commissary
  13. Imprest Fund
  14. Occupational Privilege Tax
  15. Tax Levy
  16. Receipt Accounts
  17. Child Support and Alimony (Court Costs)
  18. Child Support and Alimony (Deductions)
  19. Child Support and Alimony (Arrears)
  20. Bankruptcy
  21. Commercial Garnishment
  22. Demand Letter Flexfund (Healthcare)
  23. Travel Separation
  24. Flexfund (Healthcare)
  25. Health Benefits (Vision)
  26. Health Benefits (Dental)
  27. Health Savings Account (HSA)
  28. Life Insurance Option A
  29. Life Insurance Option B
  30. Life Insurance Option C
  31. Long Term Care
  32. Flexfund (Dependent Care)
  33. Long Term Disability (FDIC)
  34. Extra Federal Income Tax
  35. Extra State Tax
  36. Extra City Tax
  37. Extra County Tax
  38. TSP (Financial Allotment)
  39. TSP Deductions
  40. TSP Deductions (Catch-up)
  41. Military Service Deposits
  42. Association Dues
  43. Union Dues
  44. Charitable Contributions
  45. Receipt Account (Separated Employees or Less Than $10)
  46. Discretionary Allotments
  47. Financial Allotments
  48. TSP (Collections)

Allotments

NFC offers Direct Deposit/Electronic Funds Transfer (DD/EFT) for salary deposits and voluntary allotment deposits into an employee’s checking or savings account. The DD/EFT system transfers payments electronically from Treasury, through the Federal Reserve System, to the payee. NFC can also process discretionary allotment payments electronically in accordance with the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996. Allotments are recurring deductions from the employee’s salary for voluntary payments to a financial organization. Our systems allow for several types of allotments including:

Employees control every aspect of allotments, from defining the financial organization to the allotment amount. They simply submit a new direct deposit sign-up form or manage their allotments online through their Employee Personal Page (EPP).

Special Payments Processing

NFC offers processing services for manual payments and adjustments. Our system allows Agencies to enter, process, calculate, and disburse the following manual payments for:

  1. Cash Awards
  2. Credit Hours
  3. Settlement Back Pay (Lump Sum)
  4. Annual/Restored Leave
  5. Compensatory Time
  6. Miscellaneous Payments
    • Canceled/Undeliverable Checks
    • Cell Phone Payment Taxable (Federal Housing Finance Board)
    • Certification/License Fees
    • Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA)
    • Comparability Taxable
    • Customs Officer Pay Reform (COPR) Overtime (O/T) Double (DBL) Base Taxable (CU)
    • Customs Officer Pay Reform (COPR) Overtime (O/T) Triple (TRP) Base Taxable (CU)
    • Danger Pay Taxable
    • Education Non-Taxable
    • Examiner Stipend Non-Taxable
    • Examiner Stipend Taxable
    • Extended Assignment Incentive Taxable
    • Foreign Advance Salary Non-Taxable
    • Foreign Language Taxable
    • Gym/Fitness Reimbursement
    • Hazardous Duty Taxable (CP)
    • Hazard Pay Differential Taxable
    • Health Subsidy Taxable (AJ)
    • Holiday Pay Taxable
    • Horse Non-Taxable
    • Hostile Fire Pay Non-Taxable
    • Hostile Fire Pay Taxable
    • Life Cycle Account Taxable
    • Max Out Overtime for Protection
    • Nights Out Stipend
    • New York City (NYC) Commutation Stipend (AJ)
    • Overtime Over 8 Taxable
    • Overtime Over 40 Night Differential Taxable
    • Overtime Taxable
    • Post Allowance Non-Taxable
    • Post Differential Taxable
    • Quarters Non-Taxable
    • Quarters Taxable
    • Reassignment Taxable
    • Recruitment Taxable
    • Relocation Taxable
    • Remote Worksite Taxable
    • Retention Taxable
    • Separate Maintenance Non-Taxable
    • Separate Maintenance Taxable
    • Standby Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUO) Available Taxable
    • Severance Payment
    • Travel Non-Taxable
    • Uniform Taxable
  7. Student Loan Repayment

Reconciliation and Certification

NFC customers can depend on our ability to not only process salary payments timely every two weeks; they can rely on our certification and reconciliation process to ensure that those payments are accurate.

Our dedicated staff reconciles salary-related payment vouchers and certifies them for release and issuance through the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). This process includes a daily reconciliation of both daily and bi-weekly salary related payment vouchers from our manual pay systems and the payment vouchers generated through our biweekly payroll processing cycle. In addition, as part of our payroll certification process NFC reconciles gross wage expenditures for USDA-serviced agencies and the associated payroll accounting records generated by PACS and released for update to USDA's corporate accounting system. We also certify OPM 2812 records generated from our biweekly payroll cycle.

NFC services also include conducting payment traces on all EFT salary payment claims of non-receipt and certifying SF-1184s (stop payments) with BFS.

Employee Debt Management

Automated Billing and Debt Collection

NFC offers an automated database management system that provides a method for billing and collection of outstanding debts from Federal employees (current, separated or retired) having outstanding debts with the Government.

Our Automated Billings and Collections (ABCO) system interfaces with the Payroll/Personnel System (PPS), Document Tracking System (DOTS), Special Payroll Processing System (SPPS), and Travel systems. This integration between systems provides a comprehensive approach that allows our customers to monitor debts and track collections until the debts are resolved. Bills may be established in ABCO for collection for:

Centralized Offset Program

NFC’s centralized offset program allows for the collection of delinquent debts owed to Federal agencies and states. Our Administrative Billings and Collections System (ABCO) interfaces with the Treasury Offset Program (TOP). This interface not only allows NFC to facilitate the collection of debts through our Payroll/Personnel System (PPS) but also provides our customers with the ability to run reports on the amount collected each pay period.

Last Updated / Reviewed: July 03, 2024