Transmittals are based on the Multiple Record Layout (MRL). MRL has six types of records, and within these records are fields. Below are the descriptions of the fields listed in alphabetical order. The fields that are contained in more than one record type are identified with ** signs.
Use "Y" to update a member's or participant's mailing address or report "N" if you have included address information, but do not want to update the DRS member database.
Three fields are provided for mailing address information.
Use this field to report the date a member begins employment that is eligible for retirement system coverage. The begin date should only be submitted on the first transmittal report. (See the note for LEOFF employers below.) To avoid reported data being rejected, the first time you report an employee who is eligible for retirement system membership, ensure a valid begin date, gender code and birth date are on the transmittal report.
Use this field to provide the member's or participant's birth date.
Use this field to report the name of the city within the mailing address for the member or participant.
In general, the salaries or wages earned by a member for personal services during a calendar month, payroll period, or fiscal year are reported as compensation. Each retirement system and plan has different requirements for reporting compensation.
Use this field to indicate how you want DRS to sequence members' annual statements (these statements are mailed to employers for distribution to members). The Reporting Group, Control Number and the last name of a member are the three qualifiers used by DRS for sequencing the statements. The organizational display number can be used in conjunction with the control number for display purposes only. (See Sequencing Information for further information.)
For TRS Plan 1 members, service is reported in days. Use this field to report the days the TRS Plan 1 member worked during the earning period being reported. Days must be reported to the nearest tenth.
Member contributions for members of all systems and plans other than PERS, SERS, and TRS Plan 3 must be reported in this field. (Plan 3 member contributions are reported on the defined contribution record.)
Refer to Chapter 6 for rate tables showing which rates apply to each earning period.
Use this field to report member contributions for Plan 3 members and deferrals for DCP participants. Once a member chooses Plan 3 all member contributions should be reported in Plan 3--including any contributions on previously unreported earnings as a Plan 2 member.
All defined contributions for members in Plan 3 must be calculated on the rate in effect at the time the compensation is paid. If you need to adjust contributions previously paid, base your corrections on the contribution rate in effect when the original compensation was paid.
Refer to Chapter 6, for contribution rates from which Plan 3 members may choose. Review Chapter 8, Plan Choice Reporting - Contribution Rate Options for contribution rate option reporting rules.
Refer to Chapter 8, Reporting a New Member Plan Choice and Existing Plan 3 Member Changing Employers for when to begin reporting defined contributions.
Refer to Chapter 11, Employee Enrollment for when to begin reporting Deferred Compensation deferrals.
Use this field to report the disability/leave end date. Disability leave and other types of leave for LEOFF members must be reported if the period of leave exceeds three days.
Use this field to report the disability/leave start date. Disability leave and other types leave for LEOFF members must be reported if the period of leave exceeds three days.
The earning period is the year and month in which the compensation was earned. Only one earning period can be reported per transaction. Create transactions for each earning period that needs to be reported.
Use this field to report the termination date for retirees, members and participants on the last transmittal report you expect to use for a member or participant.
Retirement Systems
Use this field to report the date a retiree ends employment or changes his or her position status. Use this field to report the date a member ends employment that is eligible for retirement system coverage. This date may be equal to the employment termination date or an earlier date if the employee is originally hired into an eligible position and later moves into an ineligible position. This date should be on the last transmittal report you expect to use for a member.
Deferred Compensation Program
Use this field to report the date a participant terminates employment. This includes participants who have previously suspended their deferrals.
Retirement Systems
Use this field to report the date a retiree begins employment or changes his or position status. Use this field to report the date a member begins employment that is eligible for retirement system coverage. This date may be equal to the employment start date, or a later date if the employee is originally hired into an ineligible position and later is hired into an eligible position. This date must be on the transmittal report for each retiree and member you are reporting for the first time. If you report a retiree and member without an eligibility start date, all of the information on the transmittal report will be rejected.
Deferred Compensation Program
Use this field to report the first payday that an employee has a DCP deduction (deferral) taken from his or her compensation.
Employer contributions are due on all compensation reported for each earning period.
Contributions must be the product of the following calculation:
contributions = (compensation) x (employer contribution rate), computed to four decimal points (200.0159) and rounded to two decimal points (200.02)
Refer to Chapter 6 for rate tables showing which rates apply to each earning period.
Use this field to report the date a member ends employment that is eligible for retirement system coverage. The end date should only be submitted on the last transmittal report. (See the note for LEOFF members below.)
When separating a member from the transmittal report, report the end date. Paper reporters must also report status code S. The year and month of the earning period on the report transaction must match the year and month of the end date.
Note: For LEOFF employers-This field is also used to indicate the end date of an authorized disability leave of more than three days for LEOFF Plan 1 members. It is used to indicate the end date for leave without pay of more than three days for LEOFF Plan 1 or Plan 2 members. Status code E for Plan 1 and status code B for Plan 2 must be reported with the end date.
Employers who are not using the multiple reporting option should always enter 01 in the Expected Monthly Reports field.
Employers using the multiple reporting option must use the Report Version Number and Expected Monthly Reports fields to identify which report this is in the month's sequence of reports.
Note: Employers who participate in DCP and have more than one pay date in a month must submit a DCP report for each payday. (DRS does not want employers who have a bi-weekly payroll system to send more than two reports in a month.)
Use this field to provide the member's gender. Valid values: F or M
For all retirement systems and plans except TRS Plan 1, service is reported in hours. Use this field to report the hours the member worked during the earning period being reported. Hours must be reported to the nearest tenth.
Report the number of hours or days for which a member receives compensation. Hours or days must be reported to the nearest tenth.
Note: All systems except TRS Plan 1 report hours. Days should be reported for TRS Plan 1 members.
For Plan 3, fill this field with
Note: If a non-transferring Plan 3 member fails to select an investment program within 90 days of eligibility, your system must report "WSIB."
Member contributions are due on all compensation reported for each earning period.
Contributions must be the product of the following calculation:
contributions = (compensation) x (member contribution rate), calculated to four decimal points (200.0159) and rounded to two decimal points (200.02).
Note: DRS does not edit Plan 3 member contributions or deferrals according to this formula.
Refer to Chapter 6 for rate tables showing which rates apply to each earning period.
Use "Y" to update the member's or participant's name or report "N" if you have included name information, but do not want to update the DRS member database.
Use this field to provide the legal extension of the member's or participant's name, such as III, SR or JR. Use capital letters, but no punctuation.
The name identifies the employee being reported. Three fields (Last Name, First Name, Middle Name) can be used to report the name. The middle name is not required.
Use this field to report abbreviations indicating degrees earned through the educational process, such as PHD. Use capital letters, but no punctuation.
This field accepts only two titles: DR or REV.
Entries such as Mr, Mrs, Miss, or Ms will be ignored and default to a blank field.
Use this field in conjunction with the Control Number field for purposes of managing the distribution of annual statements. DRS displays the information in this field on the bottom of the member's annual statement.
Fill this field with the 2-character code that describes the member's choice.
PERS, SERS with no prior PERS Plan 2 service, and TRS members only:
Plan 2 Members of PERS, SERS or TRS transferring to Plan 3 per the January Transfer Option:
Note:
Using the information taken from Section 2 of the Member Information Form (MIF), fill this field with the date
Use this field to identify the retirement plan being reported. Valid values: 0, 1, 2, or 3.
There are currently six rate options: A, B, C, D, E or F. Fill this field with the applicable value, to indicate the rate option the Plan 3 member has selected.
Note: If a non-transferring member fails to select a rate option within 90 days of eligibility, your system must report A.
Option B and C-coordinating rate changes with birth dates.
For members choosing options B and C, rates must increase following the 35th and 45th birthdays. If a rate change is necessary following a member birthday, you will begin using the new rate on the first of the following month.
Example: if a member who has chosen option B turns 35 on January 15, you will deduct 6 percent contributions for all reportable compensation beginning on February 1.
The record sequence number identifies the order of transaction entries on the transmittal report. Sequence numbers must be listed in ascending order. Sequence numbers within one retirement plan cannot be duplicated.
Each record has a unique record type identifier. If you are using a spreadsheet to create the transmittal report or the file contains rows that are not filled with transmittal report data (such as column headings), mark them with "L" so the DRS system will not read them as data.
This field is used to indicate whether the report is a regular transmittal report or a correction report. Valid values: R, C.
You may always include correcting transactions within your regular transmittal reports. In addition, DRS will accept separate correction reports. This allows you to submit correcting transactions any time during a month. Depending on your method of reporting, you may need to flag Use the Report Type field as "R" to identify a regular transmittal report, or "C" to identify a correction transmittal report to identify the type of report you are submitting.
DRS can arrange for employers who report electronically to submit multiple regular transmittal reports for each calendar month. The Report Version Number and Expected Monthly Reports fields identify the expected number of regular transmittal reports for a specific month.
Employers who are not using the multiple reporting option should always enter 01 in the Report Version Number field
Employers using the multiple reporting option must use the Report Version Number to identify which transmittal report this is in the month's sequence of reports.
Employers submitting a correction report should always enter 01 in the Report Version Number field. (Correction reports are given version numbers by the DRS system.)
This is a DRS - assigned number and is system specific. An employer who participates in multiple systems has a specific department number for each system.
Fixed length ASCII format - The field length must be 6 characters. If the reporting group number is less than 6 characters long, add blank spaces at the end. Example: 9076bb.
The reporting period identifies the year and month of the transmittal report. The same reporting period should be used for all entries within the report.
The member's Social Security number must be 9 digits in length. The Social Security number entered on the transmittal report must match the number on the employee's Social Security card.
Use this field to report the state abbreviation within the mailing address.
Status codes identify the status of the compensation, contributions, and hours or days being reported for a member. Only one status code can be reported per transaction. If more than one status code needs to be reported for a member, use additional transactions for each status code.
The system code identifies the system being reported. Valid codes are: D, E, J, L, N, P, R, S, and T.
Fill this field with a "T" to indicate that member contributions are taxed. Leave the field blank if the member contributions are deferred from federal income tax.
Enter the grand total (sum of the transactions within either the benefit record or defined benefit record) of member compensation for all plans reported on the transmittal report.
Enter the grand total of days for TRS Plan 1 members reported within the Defined Benefit Record. Total days must be reported to the nearest tenth.
Enter the grand total (sum of the transactions within either the benefit record and/or the defined benefit record) of employer contributions for all plans reported on the transmittal report.
Enter the grand total of hours for all plans (except TRS Plan 1) reported within the Defined Benefit Record. Total hours must be reported to the nearest tenth.
Enter the grand total of hours/days for all plans within the Benefit Record. Total Hours/Days must be reported to the nearest tenth. For TRS employers, Plan 1 members are reported with days, Plan 2 and Plan 3 members are reported with hours. If both plans are included on a transmittal report:
Note: This total is used in a balancing process to verify data transmitted in the reporting process; this total does not affect service posted to members' accounts.
Enter the grand total of member contributions for all plans included in the detailed transactions on the transmittal report. Include member contributions from both the Defined Benefit Record and the Defined Contribution Record if you use the MRL. The sum of all DCP participant deferrals should be entered in this field. If you are using the SRL, the sum of all detailed transactions in the Benefit Record should be reflected in this field.
Enter the total number of detailed transactions on the transmittal report. Do not include the Summary Record in this count.
Using the information taken from Section 2 of the Member Information Form, fill this field with the date a Plan 2 member of PERS, SERS or TRS chooses Plan 3 per the January Transfer Option.
The Type Code identifies the type of employer, and in some cases, the type of work performed by the member.
Use this field to report the zip code within the mailing address for the member or participant.
Use this field to report the zip code extension within the mailing address for the member or participant.