Enhanced Reporting — Gold Certification
Legacy reporting will be decommissioned in 2024. If your organization hasn’t switched to enhanced reporting or scheduled a transition plan with us:
Registering now will ensure you can continue submitting monthly reports and meet your obligations as a participating employer.
Gold Certification will get you started in four easy steps, and we’ll provide all the training and support you need to successfully use enhanced reporting.
If you are already using enhanced reporting, bookmark our Employer Reporting page for links to our enhanced reporting guide and other resources.
Not sure whether your organization has made the switch? See which employers and payroll companies have completed Gold Certification.
Benefits of Enhanced Reporting
Here’s what you can expect once you switch to enhanced reporting:
For Employers
- Easier enrollments — enroll multiple employees at once with the enhanced report file.
- More data now means less work later — report breakdowns of pensionable and non-pensionable earnings now and receive fewer requests for information when employees retire.
- Eliminate need for corrections — see real-time feedback so you can make sure your enhanced report information is ready for submission.
Benefits for Your Employees
- Requests processed quickly — having more accurate benefit and service credit information on file makes transactions with NYSLRS easier for your employees.
- Accurate payroll deductions — receive start and stop changes to service credit purchase and loan payments faster.
Gold Certification: 4‐Step Process
In this section, you’ll find a description of the enhanced reporting transition process, important reference tools and training resources you need to complete Gold Certification.
Step 1: Data Mapping
Working with your NYSLRS transition coaches, you’ll associate the specific payroll/personnel codes used at your location (job codes, HR transactions, and earnings codes) with the new enhanced report standards.
This one-time exercise provides a number of long-term benefits. It ensures new hires are automatically enrolled in the correct pension plan, streamlines HR processes such as leaves of absence and rehiring, and reduces the need for deficiency payments.
The resources below will help you get started:
Step 2: Complete Self-Paced Training
Reporting staff at your organization will take online training courses to learn how to submit the enhanced report in Retirement Online based on their reporting method (file upload or manual):
- Employer Reporting Fundamentals: Employer Reporting Dashboard
- Enhanced Reporting Fundamentals: Manual Reporting
- Enhanced Reporting File Upload: Transactions 1 & 2
- Enhanced Reporting File Upload: Transactions 3 & 4
- Enhanced Reporting File Upload: View and Edit
- Enhanced Reporting File Upload: Adjustments
Step 3: Instructor-Led Training
In a live session with your transition coach, you will practice these enhanced reporting activities in the training environment:
- Enroll new members, hire eligible employees and retirees, and other key HR activities.
- Submit a regular report and make adjustments.
- Resolve errors and warnings.
- Verify member data and contribution rates.
Step 4: Enhanced Report Submission
Working together with your transition coach, you will submit your first enhanced report in Retirement Online:
- Update member information as needed.
- Enroll any new members.
- Hire all NYSLRS eligible employees and retirees of NYSLRS reciprocal systems.
- Submit the first regular enhanced report.
When you have completed Gold Certification, your transition coach will be available to you for assistance for an additional three months so that you’re comfortable with the new process.
Enhanced Reporting Resources
Here are additional support materials to refer to as you transition to enhanced reporting.
All Enhanced Reporters
Manual Reporting
File Upload
Errors and Warnings
Tips and Tricks
Frequently Asked Questions
The enhanced report will change the way you report employee information to NYSLRS. Below are some frequently asked questions from employers who already transitioned to enhanced reporting.
Eligibility
What is the definition of an eligible employee?
An eligible employee is any employee who meets the criteria for mandatory or optional membership.
- Mandatory Enrollments: Full-time, permanent, regular, 12-month positions earning at least the current state minimum wage, and all police officers and paid firefighters (including part-time positions).
- Optional Enrollments: Temporary or provisional positions (under Civil Service Law), employment of less than 30 hours per week, or less than the standard number of hours for full-time employment as established by the employer for this position, duration of employment for less than one year, or employment on less than a 12-month per year basis, annual compensation less than the New York State’s minimum wage multiplied by 2,000 hours.
Enrollment and Hiring
Will non-members have NYSLRS IDs and employment instances?
Yes. All employees who meet mandatory membership criteria, employees who are eligible for optional NYSLRS membership regardless of enrollment status, and public retirees should be reported on the enhanced file. They will receive NYSLRS IDs and employment instances when you hire (not enroll) them at your location through Retirement Online. If an employee is in another retirement system, such as NYSTRS, you do not need to report them to NYSLRS. Employees who are not eligible for NYSLRS membership should NOT be reported.
If we are using the NYSLRS ID moving forward, will we still need to have the registration number for reporting purposes?
The registration number will not be reported by the employer after they have transitioned to enhanced reporting. However, registration numbers will continue to be issued for all new employees until the transition to enhanced reporting is complete, at which time registration numbers will become obsolete.
How will we get reporting information (NYSLRS ID and employment instance) for employees currently working in our system in reportable positions?
You will need to hire (not enroll) your new and non-member optional personnel that work in NYSLRS-eligible positions as one of the final steps in the Gold Certification transition process in the Retirement Online training environment. “Hiring” an optional member into the system allows NYSLRS to collect days and earnings information that can be referenced if they choose to enroll in NYSLRS later. At the end of the transition process employers will complete this step again in the live Retirement Online system before submitting their first enhanced report.
If a new hire is already a member from a prior employer will we still need them to complete an enrollment application?
No, NYSLRS membership is for life. If you hire an employee who participates in NYSLRS, they are already enrolled. However, you will be required to hire them at your location and report them using their new employment instance.
How often can an enrollment-only report be submitted?
An enrollment-only report can be submitted at any time on an as-needed basis. Please note, biographical data for a member can only be entered once, as it generates their unique (permanent) NYSLRS ID.
Reporting
Will ERS and PFRS be reported on the same report or will they still be separate?
In enhanced reporting, ERS and PFRS can be reported together.
How many earnings transactions can one employee have on an enhanced report?
An employer may report as many earnings transactions as necessary per employee to NYSLRS.
If an employee with a single employment instance had three different types of earnings for the month (for example, regular, overtime, and holiday), each of these earnings would be reported as separate earnings transactions. The result would be one days and contributions transaction and three separate earnings transactions.
Will we be reporting days worked or hours worked?
You will be reporting both days worked and hours worked. In the days and contributions field, you will be reporting the number of days the employee worked for the reporting period. This is what NYSLRS uses to determine the service credit owed to an employee. In the earnings transaction, you will be reporting the number of hours worked at each relevant earnings type (such as regular, overtime, etc.).
Contact Us
Call your transition coach: 866-805-0990 | Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
- When prompted, choose option 1 to be connected to employer resources.
- You will then be asked for your location code, followed by the pound “#” sign.
- After you enter this code, you will begin to hear our traditional options for employer-related questions. At this point, you can dial your transition group code and be connected to a Gold Certification transition coach. This is a special code that was provided on your transition plan. It is not listed as an option on the Help Desk line.
Send an email: NYSLRSGoldCertification@osc.ny.gov
Rev. 2/24
