Understanding ROEs

This topic discusses:

The Record of Employment.
Tips and techniques for ROE processing.
ROE data sources.

Payroll for North America supports legislated Canadian payroll reporting requirements, including the ROE form. The ROE reports an employee's record of earnings as a result of an interruption of earnings to Service Canada (SC). SC uses the employment history provided on the ROE to:

Determine whether an applicant qualifies for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits.
Calculate the EI benefit rate.
Establish the duration of eligibility for benefits.
Detect fraud and abuse of the EI program.

Note: The accuracy of the data on the ROE form depends on the integrity and timeliness of the information in the system. You must enter manual cheques that you issued to the employee and final earnings payable before generating a ROE.

This topic provides some tips and techniques to help you in processing ROEs.

Processing Job Status Changes

You must process the human resources data describing returns from leaves of absence and rehires in a timely manner to avoid creating a ROE for an employee who returns to active status without an interruption of earnings (as interpreted by SC).

Moving ROE Balance Amounts

Adjust EI insurable earnings and hours online using the ROE component (ADJ_UI_BAL_CAN). Use the Adjust ROE Balance page to move ROE balance amounts from one period to another. To protect the integrity of the EI earnings and hours balance details, the system does not allow one-sided adjustments that result in the addition or deletion of insurable earnings amounts or hours. For example, you cannot add 50.00 CAD or 5 hours to an EI period on this page. You must enter this type of adjustment by processing manual cheques. The system marks the INS_EARNS_BAL record as amended when it processes an online adjustment, which causes the ROE Mass Create Structured Query Report (SQR) Report process (PAY124CN) to generate a ROE amendment.

Managing Concurrent Multiple Jobs

If an employee has concurrent multiple jobs, the Create Mass ROE Data process generates a ROE reflecting the first date worked (original hire date) and last date worked (termination date minus one day) for the job that you are terminating. The system processes the ROE, although some concurrent jobs might continue to remain active. The system reports the total insurable earnings and hours accumulated during the required ROE reporting period for all jobs combined. This information assists SC in determining whether the reduction to the employee's work schedule entitles the applicant to receive EI benefits.

When creating ROE data for an employee with multiple jobs, the Create Mass ROE Data process generates an exception report to identify the situation. Review the first date worked and update it to correctly reflect either:

The hire date of the earliest job.
The termination date of the most recent job that required the issuance of a ROE.

Reallocating Insurable Earnings and Hours to Prior Pay Periods

Use the EI Period Correction (Employment Insurance period correction) check box on the paysheet to:

Allocate pay corrections (as defined by SC) to the pay periods for which they are earned.
Allocate earnings to the last pay period in which you paid regular wages upon termination, layoff, or leave.

If you select this check box, the system allocates insurable earnings and hours to the prior EI periods for which they were earned, according to the dates that you specify in the Earnings Begin and End Dates fields on the paysheet. When allocating the earnings to a prior EI period, the earnings begin and end dates on the paysheet must correspond exactly with the beginning and ending dates of the EI period that you're correcting.

When you use off-cycle payroll transactions to issue final payments or monies that you owe to employees upon an interruption of earnings, the earnings begin and end dates on the off-cycle paysheet must correspond exactly with the beginning and ending dates of the employee's final EI period. If the paysheet reflects earnings beginning and ending dates later than the interruption of earnings date, the system does not include those earnings for reporting on the ROE. The ROE process selects only Insurable Earnings Balance records with a period end date that is equal to, or prior to, the job interruption date.

Reporting Earnings When Pay Frequencies Change

If an employee changed pay frequencies during the ROE reporting period, you must complete the entire ROE form manually. The system's ROE automatic and manual creation processes cannot accommodate this situation. To identify the situation for special handling, the Create Mass ROE Data process creates an exception report containing the message: ROE not created due to Pay Frequency change. If you used the manual online data entry method to create the ROE, a message appears in the Comments box of the form to identify this situation.

Recreating ROE Data

Because of updates and corrections to ROE-related information, you might need to recreate the ROE Data pages before you generate a ROE (for example, when a termination date is changed or corrected). This situation is different from the ROE amendment process, which occurs when you make changes after you generate the ROE in Final Data Export mode and assign a ROE number.

You can recreate ROE Data pages repeatedly before printing a ROE in Final Print mode and updating it as completed.

The following table describes the sources of all the data that Payroll for North America uses during the Create Mass ROE Data process:

ROE Block Number	Description	Data Source
1	Serial number	The system stamps an internal ROE number on the Insurable Earnings Balance record (PS_INS_EARNS_BAL) when you generate the ROE in Final Data Export mode. The number comes from the Last ROE # (last Record of Employment number) field (ROE_NBR_LAST), in the Installation table.
2	Serial number of ROE amended or replaced	Applies to amended ROEs only. The Create Mass ROE Data process retrieves the ROE number of the original ROE record from the ROE_NBR_REPL field in the PS_ROE record.
3	Employer's payroll reference number	The ROE Print process links the ROE payroll reference number on the Report Parameters page in the Pay Group table (PS_PAYGROUP_TBL) with the ROE number for reporting into this block. This block is intended solely for your internal reference purposes.
5	Canada Revenue Agency payroll account number	Originates from the Employer’s Account Number field in the Wage Loss Plan table (PS_WAGELS_PLAN_TBL), which is derived from the Wage Loss Plan field in the ROE record. The employment record number on the Canadian Income Tax Data page defines the employee's wage loss plan.
6	Pay period type	Originates from the Frequency table (PS_FREQUENCY_TBL).
8	Social insurance number	Originates from the National ID field in the Personal NID table (PS_PERS_ NID). Define this field on the Personal Information Biographical Details page.
9	Employee's name, address, and postal code	Employee's name originates from the Personal Data table (PS_PERSONAL_DT_FST) table and the address originates from the Person table (PS_PERSON_ADDRESS).
10	First day worked	The system determines this date by retrieving the Insurable Earnings Balance records and identifying the earliest period earnings end date that has not been previously reported on a ROE. The system inspects the Job Data records for the Hire, Rehire, Recall, Return from Leave, or Return from Disability action record with an effective date closest to, but not after, the earliest period earnings end date. It uses the effective date of that action, if found. If no such action is found, the system retrieves the employee's First Start Date field (HIRE_DT) from the Employment Data record (PS_EMPLOYMENT).
11	Last day for which paid	The system determines this date by retrieving the effective date of the Job Data action that caused the ROE and subtracting one day.
12	Final pay period ending date	Originates from the ROE Print process. It is the EI period date of the latest Insurable Earnings Balance record (PS_INS_EARNS_BAL) reported on the ROE.
13	Occupation	Originates from the Job Title field in the Job Code table (PS_JOBCODE_TBL), derived from the job code in the employee's Job record.
14	Expected date of recall	The Expected Return Date field (EXPECTED_RETURN_DT) is entered into the Job Data component and retrieved from the Employment Data record (PS_EMPLOYMENT) if the employee's status is: L: Leave of absence. P: Leave with pay. S: Suspended.
14	Not returning	The system selects the Not Returning check box if the employee's status is: Q: Retired with pay. R: Retired. T: Terminated. U: Terminated with pay. V: Terminated pension payout. X: Retired-pension administration.
14	Unknown	If the Not Returning check box is deselected and the system cannot retrieve information for the expected date of recall, it selects the Unknown check box.
15A	Total insurable hours	Total number of insurable hours accumulated in the Insurable Earnings Balance record (PS_INS_EARNS_BAL) for the reporting period, as specified by Service Canada. For example, for a biweekly pay period, the system reports the total insurable hours for the last consecutive 27 pay periods (or fewer, if the period of employment is shorter).
15C	Insurable earnings by pay period	The system reports a breakdown of the insurable earnings from the Insurable Earnings Balance record (PS_INS_EARNS_BAL) by pay period. For example, for a biweekly pay period, the insurable earnings appear for the last 27 consecutive pay periods (or fewer, if the period of employment is shorter). If the pay period has zero or no insurable earnings, 0.00 appears.
16	Reason for issuing this ROE Separation Code	The system retrieves the reason from the Action and Reason fields in the Job Data record that caused the ROE, then translates it to the ROE reason codes that are provided by Service Canada.
16	For further information contact	The system retrieves the contact from the Contact ID field on the Report Parameters page in the Pay Group table that is associated with the employee's pay group. Note: The ROE Web export file for submission to Service Canada requires the ROE contact person’s telephone number. Ensure that the contact ID's telephone number appears in the Position Phone field on the contact person’s Employment Information page.
16	Telephone number	The system retrieves the telephone number of the contact from the employee's Employment Data record (PS_EMPLOYMENT).
17	Payments or benefits (other than regular pay) paid in, or in anticipation of, the final pay period, or payable at a later date	These boxes (17A, B, and C) require data if you pay benefits (other than regular pay) in, or in anticipation of, the final pay period, or for benefits payable at a later date. The system retrieves this information from the Box 17 (Future Pays Only) group box on the ROE Data 2 page. All vacation pay and other monies that you pay in the final pay period are automatically included in boxes 17 and 15C. For example, if you paid an employee 500 CAD of vacation pay in the final pay period, plus another 200 CAD of vacation pay after the final pay period, box 17A should report a total amount of 700 CAD. To correctly report 700 CAD, you must manually enter the 200 CAD paid at a later date on the ROE Data 2 page. Statutory holiday pay that you pay in the final pay period is not automatically included in box 17, although it is automatically reported in box 15C. Consequently, you must manually enter all statutory holiday pay that you pay or owe to the employee upon the interruption of earnings on the ROE Data 2 page. For example, if you paid an employee 200 CAD of statutory holiday pay in the final pay period, plus another 100 CAD of statutory holiday pay after the final pay period, box 17B should report a total amount of 300 CAD. To correctly report 300 CAD, you must manually enter both the 200 CAD entry plus the 100 CAD entry on the ROE Data 2 page. See ROE Data 2 Page.
17A	Vacation pay	Show check box with description Included with Each Pay.
17A	Vacation pay	Originates from the Box 17 (Future Pays Only) group box on the ROE Data 2 page.
17B	Statutory holidays: Holiday date Amount	Originates from the Box 17 (Future Pays Only) group box on the ROE Data 2 page.
17C	Other monies: Earnings description Amount	Originates from the Box 17 (Future Pays Only) group box on the ROE Data 2 page.
18	Comments	Comments in this box cause Service Canada to handle the claim to manually. SC therefore prefers that you use this box sparingly. Enter comments on the ROE Data 2 page instead. Use this box only if the situation requires SC intervention, in which case provide detailed comments to describe the situation.
19	Paid sick/maternity/parental leave or group wage loss indemnity payment (after the last day worked)	Complete this box if you pay the employee sick, maternity, parental leave, or a group wage loss indemnity payment after the last day worked. The system retrieves this information from the Box 19 (Special Payments) group box on the ROE Data 2 page.
19	Payment start date	Manually enter on the ROE Data 2 page.
19	Amount	Manually enter on the ROE Data 2 page.
19	Per day Per week	Select the daily or weekly Frequency on the ROE Data 2 page.
20	Communication preferred in: English French	From the Language Code field in the Personal Data table (PS_PERSONAL_DT_FST) that is associated with the issuer who is defined on the Report Parameters page in the Pay Group table for this employee's pay group.
21	Telephone number	The system retrieves the telephone number of the issuer from the employee's Employment Data record (PS_EMPLOYMENT).
22	Name of issuer	The system retrieves the issuer from the Issuer ID field on the Report Parameters page in the Pay Group table for the employee's pay group.