Required for creating appointments for any non-affiliated individual. Also required for re-appointing, extending or ending an appointment or for changing the funding source for research employees.

Research employee appointments will need to be identified as either conducting research or supporting research on the PAF. This fact sheet explains the difference. 

Employee Information

CHECK:

• Appointment/Re-appointment when an individual who is new to SFU is being hired or an individual who has been on SFU payroll in the past is being re-hired after a true break in employment; and/or, the nature of their work is being changed from the previous employment contract.
• Extension when an individual whose current appointment is being extended beyond the end date noted in the employment offer, with no break in employment.
• Early end when a current appointment is being ended early.
• Funding Source Only when only the accounting string of a current appointment is being changed.
• Correction/Update when a PAF that has already been submitted for a current appointment contains incorrect information and is being corrected; or when an update is being made to pay, hours, duties, vacation and/or benefits during the term of an appointment.
• Lump Sum when a one time payment is required (eg. residual Mitacs payout, vacation payout).  A comment with the intent of lump sum must be provided. Lump Sums should not be used to pay for regular hours worked. Please contact rp_info@sfu.ca if you have questions. 

CHECK:

• “Research Assistant” or "Research Support" and be sure to complete page 2. This is not required for individuals receiving scholarship income, as they are not eligible for employment status.

ENTER:

• SFU ID if known - leave it blank if the employee is new to SFU.
• Employee's email, name, department they’ll work in and what title they will hold: choose a title that accurately reflects the work being performed (while the category at the top of the page is “Research Assistant”, other titles may be used when creating an appointment).
• Position number (if a position number already exists it can be found in the bi-weekly Payroll YTD Actuals or Encumbrance Report).

• Effective date and end date for the appointment (YYYY/MM/DD).

Rate of Pay

ENTER:

Hourly Rate - use this option for employees who will have irregular working hours.

• Hourly rate must meet BC’s minimum wage requirement.
  
• Hours worked must be recorded on myINFO timesheets.
• Employee will be paid bi-weekly based on the number of hours worked and entered in myINFO timesheets in that pay period.
• Note that the % vacation pay you offer will be added to the pay rate, and deducted from your grant: be sure to factor this cost into budget planning.

- OR -

Bi-weekly Payment Amount - use this option for employees who will work regular hours.

• The bi-weekly pay amount divided by the number of hours to be worked bi-weekly must meet BC’s minimum wage requirement.
• Employees will be paid the same amount on each bi-weekly paycheque.
• While required for compliance with ESA, timekeeping is not required to inform Payroll. Supervisors may continue using current tracking practices or download the time recording tool on Links & Resources.
  

Please do not enter both Hourly and Bi-weekly rates!

Number of hours and minutes expected to be worked on a bi-weekly basis (format = HH.MM or HH:MM)

Lump Sum Adjustment

ENTER:

Dollar amount requested if needing a lump sum payment:

• Please use a separate PAF for lump sum payment i.e. do not combine a lump sum payment with an hourly or bi-weekly rate on the same PAF.
• Payroll deductions will be taken off lump sum payments.
• An explanation of the intended use of the lump sum payment must be provided in the Comments box.
• Don't forget to enter the start and end date for the lump sum payment.

Hours and minutes the lump sum payment is intended to cover (format = HH.MM or HH:MM).

Health Benefits

Check to indicate whether the employee is eligible for extended health and dental benefits - some grants do not allow for the provision of these discretionary benefits; be sure to check first.

Funding Source(s)

To change the source(s) from which the employee is paid:

ENTER:

• Project #: 6-8 digits (How to record account codes for PAFs)
• Object Code: 4 digits (lookup table)
• Fund #: 2 digits
• Department: 4 digits
• Program #: 5 digits, enter 00000 if no program code
• % Split
• Bi-weekly Rate (if applicable): for salaried appointments that are funded from more than one funding source. Multiply bi-weekly salary by the % split and enter that value into the bi-weekly payment amount box
• Start date

Comments 

Please provide any information that helps to clarify the request, especially if it relates to a lump sum payment. Also, please include any additional contacts that need to be added to the Docusign Envelope containing the Employee contract when being sent.

Signatures

Only the grant holder can authorize the expense against their grant, however others may complete the form. 

• The 'Signature Authority' line must be signed by the grant holder
• The ‘Reviewed By’ section will be signed by Research Accounting or Finance

COMPLETE ADDITIONAL SECTIONS IF CREATING AN APPOINTMENT, RE-APPOINTING OR EXTENDING A RESEARCH ASSISTANT 

All appointments and re-appointments require a formal Offer of Employment. The following information is required to create a legal offer of employment between SFU and the employee, and to enter employees into SFU’s payroll and human resources system (myINFO).

TERMS OF THE APPOINTMENT

CHECK:

Box at the top to indicate whether the appointment is Fixed-Term:

• For appointments with a duration of less than 60 days and not likely to be renewed. 
• Note: this type of contract will result in a payout if the appointment ends earlier than the original end date.

ENTER:

Supervisor's name, position number and email address.

Please also provide the employee’s SFU email address or their external email address if they do not yet have an SFU email - this is where the Offer of Employment will be sent.

Vacation 

CHECK:

"Salaried" or "Hourly" - vacation offered is at your discretion but must meet ESA minimum standards:

• minimum 4% for hourly (will be added to hourly rate when the contract is created)
• minimum 2 weeks per year for salaried 

NOTE that the annual vacation entitlement for salaried employees must be entered on the PAF regardless of the term of the appointment in order to meet employment standards, however, actual vacation entitlement will be prorated based on the length of the employment.

Also note that employees paid bi-weekly are expected to take time off in order to avoid payout of vacation time owing at the end of their appointment.

ENTER: 

Number of annual vacation weeks or the % of vacation pay you are offering.

Job Duties

ENTER:

All duties that will be expected of the appointee.

• duties should reflect what the employee will be doing; these will be included in the offer of employment, which is a legally binding document once signed.
• a comprehensive checklist of potential duties can be found under Planning Tools and Calculators on Links & Resources.

NOTE that all employment contracts will contain wording to allow for a degree of ‘other duties as assigned by the Supervisor’.

Document Checklist

check:

All relevant boxes that identify which documents will be attached when the PAF is submitted.

When Complete

REVIEW EVERYTHING to ensure all information is included and supporting documents have been gathered.

• Incomplete forms cannot be processed and may cause delays with the appointment process and the individual receiving pay.

SIGN the bottom of page 1. 

Note: Research Accounting and Finance will accept emails from the Signing Authority on a project, in lieu of the Signing Authority’s signature on the PAF.

CLICK ‘save’ or ‘print’ at the top right to save the PAF to your desktop or drive.

PROCESS as usual.

RE-APPOINTMENT

Any existing appointments for research employees are not available to the RPI team, and as such, the same information is required to create an Offer of Employment for a re-appointment during this transition period. Please complete the PAF as you would for a new appointment.

For existing appointments that are being extended beyond the end date noted in the employment offer, with no break in employment, check the Extension box at the top of the PAF and complete the fields on page 1.

Note that the Effective Date on the PAF should reflect the start date of the extension, and the End Date is to reflect the appointment's new end date 

If there are to be changes to an individual's terms of employment (namely job duties), please also complete Section 1 on page 2 of the PAF.

ENTER:

Amount of vacation pay or hours to be paid out of the grant (if applicable) - vacation payout is equal to the vacation entitlement earned less vacation time taken.

NOTE: Employees should be encouraged to take their vacation time in order to refresh. See Planning for more information on vacation time and vacation payouts.  

When Complete

REVIEW EVERYTHING to ensure all information is included - incomplete forms may cause delays with processing and could result in overpayment.

SIGN the bottom of page 1.

Note: Research Accounting and Finance will accept emails from the Signing Authority on a project, in lieu of the Signing Authority’s signature on the PAF.

CLICK ‘save’ or ‘print’ at the top right to save the PAF to your desktop or drive

EMAIL the completed PAF to rp_info@sfu.ca

Appointments that are being ended earlier than planned must be documented 

• Completion of page 1 as well as Section 2 of the PAF is required to document an early ending.
• Appointments that end naturally (on the expected date) do not require submission of a PAF.

On Page 1

CHECK:

"Early End" at the top to indicate that a request is being made to end an appointment earlier than what's in an existing employment contract.

ENTER:

Employee information:

• SFU ID
  
• Name, department, title and position number
• Current funding source information

On Page 2 - In Section 2

CHECK:

"Resignation" or "Appointment Ended by PI/Supervisor" to indicate the reason for the appointment's early ending.

• If the employee is resigning, attach the notification from the employee (ensure it includes the effective date).
• If the Supervisor is ending the appointment note the reason in the box.

ENTER:

Last Day Worked - the employee’s last work day.

CHECK:

"Work out notice period" or "Be paid out for notice period" to indicate the Supervisor’s preference for paying out the terms of the employment contract.

ENTER:

Amount of vacation pay or hours to be paid out of the grant (if applicable) - vacation payout is equal to the vacation entitlement earned less vacation time taken.

NOTE: Employees should be encouraged to take their vacation time in order to refresh. See Planning for more information on vacation time and vacation payouts.  

When Complete

CLICK ‘save’ or ‘print’ at the top right to save the PAF to your desktop or drive

See Concluding for more information.

The process to change the source(s) from which RAs are paid has been simplified.

Note that only the funding source may be changed using this section of the form - if there are changes to terms and conditions of the employment contract e.g. duties, end date, decrease in pay) a re-appointment must be processed.

On Page 1

CHECK:

If "Funding Change Only" click the corresponding box at the top of the PAF to indicate the form is being completed only for a change to the funding source.

ENTER:

Employee’s information:

•    SFU ID
•    Name, department, title and position number

New funding source information:

•    Project #
•    Object Code (lookup table)
•    Fund 
•    Department
•    Program #: enter 00000 if no program code
•    % split
•    Salaried appointments that are split require a Bi-weekly Rate (multiply the bi-weekly salary times the % split and enter that value into the Bi-weekly Payment Amount box)
•  Start date

When Complete

REVIEW EVERYTHING to ensure all information is included - incomplete forms cannot be processed and may cause delays to processing.

SIGN the bottom of page 1.

Note: Research Accounting and Finance will accept emails from the Signing Authority on a project, in lieu of the Signing Authority’s signature on the PAF.

PROCESS as usual. 

EMAIL SUBJECT LINE - Please provide the following information:

• Action required (New Appointment/ Re-appointment, Extension, Early End, Funding Change Only, Update/Correction or Lump Sum)
• Employee last name and first initial
• Effective date 
• Example: Funding source change, Doe J, Sept 15 2021
• Groups of PAFs may be submitted together IF they are the same type - please indicate the earliest effective date in the subject line, to help us prioritize.

Regardless of single source or split fund: 

• Financial Reporting Funds (13, 21, 23, 61, 62)  > irfhelp@sfu.ca
• Research Accounting Funds (25, 30s)  > res-acct@sfu.ca
• Operating Funds (11, 40)  > rp_info@sfu.ca