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ASU payroll glitch leaves hundreds with missing funds
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Hundreds of Arizona State University employees opened their paychecks this week to find a much smaller amount than usual — some receiving half-pay or nothing at all.
Watch Tribune reporter Nicole Beyer's report
The university overhauled its time-management and payroll software on July 2, leaving a glitch that shorted employees in several departments, ranging from administration, to science and student recreation, to the bookstore.
“I was like — what’s going on with this?” said Tiffany Duening, a computer lab aide and ASU student, who received about half her normal pay.
It was the first pay period under the new software, PeopleSoft Human Capital Management, and about 5 percent of employees were reported to be missing funds, according to ASU human resources officials.
In an e-mail to affected employees, human resources chief Mathew McElrath wrote: “As with any new system, problems may occur in the conversion process. Regrettably, we have discovered an error in the processing of your paycheck.”
Most people discovered the error themselves.
“We were surprised to find that we had less than half the normal amount,” ASU bookstore worker Diana Mahler said of herself and co-worker Dolmii Remeliik. “But they told us it would be resolved in a few days.”
ASU will reimburse employees on Thursday. But for employees with immediate financial strains, a program established with the campus-based Arizona State Credit Union provided short-term loans of one week’s pay.
Loans under the program have a 4.99 percent interest rate.
The e-mail didn’t explain what caused the glitch, and ASU public affairs didn’t return several phone calls from the Tribune. In addition to changing payroll software, the number of pay periods per year increased from 24 to 26, resulting in smaller checks.
Employees at the Student Recreation Complex who had problems with checks weren’t stressing about it, facility manager Clay Cates said.
“It might be kind of a big deal for some people now, but I’m sure we’ll laugh about this in a few months,” he said.
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