Overview: Salary Commitments

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Salary Commitments Defined

Salary commitments represent future payments to salaried employees and graduate student employees and are created for planning and forecasting purposes. Salary commitments are only created for salary (SAL) earnings. Commitment lines are not generated in the system for employees paid hourly, including Bargaining Unit employees, nor for supplemental earnings such as housing allowance (HAS and HAP) and supplemental pay (SUP).

For salaried employees, salary commitments are entered in the PeopleSoft HR module and then allocated via Oracle Labor Distribution schedules. For graduate student employees, salary commitments are entered in the PeopleSoft Graduate Financial Support (GFS) module and are posted to Oracle twice a month. Burden charges (i.e., fringe benefits, indirect costs, etc.) are applied to all salary commitment transactions. For additional information on student salary and financial aid commitments, see Overview: Student Commitments.

Commitment transactions for salaried employees will be updated on a daily basis in Oracle Financials. The following changes entered in PeopleSoft (PS) HR and Oracle Financials by the transaction deadline will be reflected on Oracle Financials (ReportMart3) reports run the following day.

PeopleSoft HR and Oracle Financials
Change Types and Daily Transaction Deadlines
PeopleSoft HR
Noon Transaction Deadline
Oracle Labor Schedule
4pm Transaction Deadline
Oracle PTA Setup
4pm Transaction Deadline

Changes including:

  • Salary
  • Status
  • Pay group
  • Job code

Changes including:

  • End date schedule line
  • Percent allocation
  • New schedule lines

PTA changes including:

  • Start date
  • End date
  • Status
  • Allowed cost
  • Transaction controls
  • etc.
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How Salary Commitments Are Determined and Validated

Salary commitment calculations for staff are based on 24 pay periods in a year. Salary commitment calculations for faculty vary depending upon how they choose to spread their salary over 9, 10, or 12 monthly periods.

Salary Commitments for Employees and Faculty Paid Over 12 months

  • The amount of the commitment is calculated by dividing the employee's annual salary by the number of annual pay periods (24) and multiplying that amount by the PTAE percentage allocations reflected on the employee's labor schedule in Oracle.

    For example:  If an employee has an annual salary of $48,000 and their Labor Schedule allocates 50% of their salary to PTA1 from 01-MAR-08 through 31-AUG-08, the amount of the commitment generated for PTA1 would equal $12,000. $48,000 (annual salary) / 24 (pay periods) = $2000 X 50% X 12 pay periods = $12,000.


  • For faculty who are paid over 12 months for a 9- or 10-month appointment, it is important that their labor schedule lines reflect the correct PTAs to be charged during the term as well as during the summer months to ensure commitments will be accurately reflected on the appropriate PTAs.

Salary Commitments for Faculty Paid Over 9 or 10 months

  • The amount of the commitment for faculty paid over 9 or 10 months is calculated by dividing the faculty's annual salary by either 18 (for those paid over 9 months) or 20 (for those paid over 10 months) and multiplying that amount by the PTAE percentage allocations on the faculty's labor schedule.

  • Commitments will only be generated for months in which the faculty will actually be paid (October through June for those paid over 9 months and September through June for those paid over 10 months).

    For example:  If a faculty member has an annual salary of $54,000 paid over a 9-month period and their Labor Schedule allocates 100% to PTA1 from 01-MAR-2008 through 31-AUG-2008, the commitment generated for PTA1 would equal $24,000. $54,000 (annual salary) / 18 (pay periods) = $3000 X 100% X 8 pay periods - $24,000 [01-JUL through 30-SEP will not include commitments for Faculty paid over 9 months (October through June).]

Salary Commitment Validation Rules

All salary commitment transactions are validated using PeopleSoft HR, Oracle Labor Schedule and Grants Accounting data. Employee assignments must have a status of "Active" or "Leave with Pay".

If the total percent allocation on a Labor Schedule is less than 100% and/or the PTA(s) are invalid, commitments, similar to actual payroll transactions, are posted to the Organization Suspense Account (OSA).

  • Commitment transactions will post to the employee's OSA determined by the employee's HR Org. For additional information related to managing Organization Suspense Accounts, see Overview: Organization Suspense Accounts for Labor.
  • Unlike actual payroll transactions, departments are not required to clear commitment transactions from OSAs.

    Important Note:  Commitment transactions on an OSA indicate there is an issue with the commitment not being reflected on the appropriate PTA(s), and may indicate that an actual expenditure is destined to be posted to the OSA in the future if no action is taken.


  • Salary commitments posted to OSAs will only be displayed on Expenditure Statements, not Labor Reports.

Salary Commitment Start and End Dates

The start date of a salary commitment is the first day of the current pay period (the day after the last payroll run). End dates vary for sponsored or non-sponsored projects, capital projects and organization suspense accounts (OSAs) as outlined in the table below:

Salary Commitment Start and End Dates
Sponsored or Capital Projects (PTAs) Non-Sponsored Projects (PTAs)

Start Date:  The first day of the current pay period (the day after the last payroll run)

End Date:  The earliest of one of the following end dates:

  • Labor Schedule (LS) line
  • Project, Task, Award
  • Latest Active Award Installment Date (ID)

End Date:  The earliest of one of the following end dates:

  • Labor Schedule (LS) line
  • Project, Task, Award
  • Fiscal Year-End

End Dates and Organization Suspense Accounts (OSA):

  • If the earliest end date shown above is before the Fiscal Year-End date, commitments will post to the OSA through the end of the current fiscal year.
  • Commitments for an assignment will be posted at least through the end of the current fiscal year.
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How Salary Commitments Are Relieved

  • When payroll is posted, the actual amount is recorded as an expense. The salary commitment balance is reduced by the actual payroll amount for that payroll period.
  • If the PTA on the employee's Labor Schedule is changed, the original transactions will be removed and new transactions will be generated and posted to the new PTA reflected on the Labor Schedule.
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How to View Salary Commitments

Salary commitments can be seen by Oracle Financials report users on certain expenditure reports, notably the Monthly Expenditure Statement (FIN_EXP_285_Mo_Detail_Statement) available in ReportMart3. Transaction source codes for all types of commitments (salary, student, and purchasing) begin with "E". Salary commitment line items can be identified with source code "E_LD". For additional details about source codes (expenditures and commitments), see Resources & Job Aids: Oracle Reference Code Table.

Graduate student salary commitments are updated twice a month. Commitments for salaried employees will be updated on a daily basis with the exception of the 6-day Month-End Close period. During Month-End Close, similar to "actual" expenses, commitments will not be updated until processing is complete and the month is closed. Therefore, reports run during the 6-day Month-End Close period may not have complete commitment data.

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