Retirement Online Updates & Fixes
We are continuously making improvements to Retirement Online to better serve your needs. Please review the list below for the latest updates and fixes to Retirement Online.
| Description | Category | Status | Date | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Addition of new fields to the ‘New Hire Summary’ and the ‘Member Contribution Rates’ pages. | Reporting | Fixed | 08/12/2019 | The ‘Member Contribution Rates’ and ‘New Hire Summary’ page were both updated to include the following fields, which are now accessible for use by employers on behalf of their members and employees: • Job Code • Benefit Plan • Annual Wage • Standard Work Day • Pay Frequency • Report Code |
| Remove the ‘Standard Work Period’ field from the ‘Enter Job Details’ page. | Enrollment | Fixed | 08/02/2019 | Employers no longer need to specify the work period. All work is assumed to have a period of “Daily.” |
| Rename the ‘Standard Hours’ field on the ‘Enter Job Details’ page to ’Standard Work Day’ and add a validation to only allow values between 6 and 8 hours. | Enrollment | Fixed | 08/02/2019 | The ‘Standard Hours’ field has been renamed ‘Standard Work Day,’ and the ‘Standard Work Day’ field will now only accept values between 6 and 8 hours in alignment with NYSLRS statute. |
| Members and employers were being locked out of their Retirement Online account repeatedly. | Signing In | Fixed | 06/07/2019 | Affected members and employers have been unlocked and can now access Retirement Online without issue. |
| Correspondences and notifications were being incorrectly generated for employers and members due to the duplicate job data rows for elected and appointed officials. | Notifications | Fixed | 05/28/2019 | The incorrect correspondences and notifications for elected and appointed officials have been removed and employers will be able to more easily determine what actions need to be taken. |
| Employers were receiving “Duplicate row errors” when using masked Social Security numbers (SSN) because the location, report, and last four digits of the SSN match. | Reporting | Fixed | 05/28/2019 | Employers no longer receive “Duplicate row errors” when using masked SSNs and can report these members through their legacy file upload. |
| Multiple employers reported seeing a ‘Beneficiary Change Error’ pop-up when enrolling an optional member. | Enrollment | Fixed | 05/22/2019 | The ‘Beneficiary Change Error’ pop-up no longer appears when employers enroll optional members. |
| Multiple employers were receiving termination notifications, but when they tried to confirm the termination date, the page wouldn’t save. | Notifications | Fixed | 05/16/2019 | The page will save after the employer confirms an employee’s termination date. |
| Elected and appointed officials were displaying duplicate job data rows, which meant employers could not report these members. | Reporting | Fixed | 05/16/2019 | Employers may report elected and appointed officials without issue. |
| Employer Contacts were getting an error while uploading PDFs during new enrollments. | Enrollment | Fixed | 05/14/2019 | Employer Contacts no longer receive an error while uploading PDFs during new enrollments. This means employers will be able to use Retirement Online to enroll a larger population of optional members. |
| Members and employers should be notified at the same time when a deficiency account has been created for the member. | Notifications | Fixed | 10/01/2019 | Members are now notified at the same time as employers when a deficiency account has been created for a member. This should decrease questions to employers when deficiencies are deducted from member paychecks. |
| Local employers who received new location codes to report separately from their parent entity are experiencing issues when reporting due to not always having the correct report code for use in their legacy report. | Reporting | Fixed | 12/02/2019 | Local employers who received new location codes have had their report codes updated to use either 010 or 020. These employers received the updated FY20 contribution rates for their Tier 6 members, and had the employees jobs moved from the parent entity to the new location code for easier reporting. |
| The notification generated by the service credit purchase process doesn’t provide enough context and information for the employer. | Notifications | Fix In Progress | When complete, the notification for service credit purchase will provide more detailed information and instruction for employers. | |
| Members who have both an ERS and a PFRS position at one employer or who have two different positions covered by the same retirement system at one employer are not having their employment instance correctly identified when reported. | Reporting | Fixed | 12/12/2019 | The reporting process has been updated to accommodate these unique data scenarios, which allows employers to submit reports without these file level errors. |
| The employer refund letter was populating with the incorrect address for the recipient and was being delivered to their home address. | Correspondence | Fixed | 11/22/2019 | The employer refund letter now populates with the correct address and is sent to the business address for the recipient. |
| Users with member and employer access to Retirement Online were able to see some employer documents from their member accounts. | Accounts | Fixed | 10/30/2019 | Users with member and employer access to Retirement Online are now only able to view employer documents when signed in with their employer account. They will not be able to access employer documents from their member account. |
| The Loan/SCP Deduction page currently displays post go-live updates to Loans and Service Credit Purchase (SCP) deductions. The page structure can be confusing, does not include deficiencies, and employers are unable to determine expected deductions if there has been no change. | Usability | Fix In Progress | When complete, the Loan/SCP Deduction page will include expected loan, SCP, and deficiency deductions for all active members at the employer’s location. Any changes will be communicated through this page, and employers will only need to make sure their deduction for any member on payroll matches the NYSLRS-expected deduction for that member. | |
| Based on Employer feedback, a more robust Notifications page is needed. | Usability | Fixed | 03/18/2020 | Employers are now able to sort/filter by location code, search by EMPL ID, view dates created/closed for notifications and see when notifications have been actioned/completed. |
| On the Member Contribution Rates page, the Standard Work Day amount is incorrect for employees who have a Standard Work Period Frequency other than weekly (e.g., daily). | Reporting | Fixed | 06/02/20 | The formula that determines the Standard Work Day amount has been corrected. It should now return a value greater than or equal to 6. If there is a value less than 6, please check the inputted data. |
| Employers are able to report over or under their expected contribution payment by $.01, but anything more triggers a warning or is flagged as improper withholdings. Since some employers are consistently over or under reporting due to differences in rounding or multiple pay cycles, employers need a larger threshold. | Reporting | Fixed | 12/01/2020 | When reporting contributions, employers now have a larger threshold of +/- $.10 before they see a warning or improper withholdings. |
| Employers are receiving an error message that the Projected Invoice is not available. | Billing | Fixed | 04/07/2021 | Employers are now able to view the Projected Invoices link on the Employer Billing Dashboard. |
| When a member files for retirement, the Retirement Notice notification is sent to four security role holders: Contact Administrator, Employer Reporting Submitter, Payroll, and Personnel. Each security role can be held by multiple people at a location resulting in several form submissions on the member’s behalf. | Notifications | Fixed | 05/04/2022 | The Retirement Notice notification will only be sent to the Payroll and Personnel security roles. The Contact Administrator and the Employer Reporting Submitter security roles will no longer receive this notification. |
| Employers using enhanced reporting do not receive a warning when reporting members whose earnings/days are split between mandatory and optional. They need to be aware of the split because it could impact the required contribution amount. | Reporting | Fixed | 09/27/2022 | Enhanced reporters will now receive a warning message when reporting members whose earnings/days are split between mandatory and optional. |
| Employers reviewing the Amortization Schedule Review page cannot confirm if their payments have been processed. | Billing | Fixed | 10/04/2022 | The Amortization Schedule Review page has been updated to more accurately reflect paid off amortizations. |
| Employers and NYSLRS staff reviewing the Current Year Earnings on the Pre-Billed Fiscal Year Earnings page are having trouble determining which account received a prior years' adjustment. | Billing | Fixed | 10/04/2022 | Two additional fields have been added to the Pre-Billed Fiscal Year Earnings page: Account Type and Earnings Type. This will help employers and NYSLRS staff determine which account the prior years' adjustment has been applied to. |
| Employers need to be notified of Tier 6 member contribution rate changes. Some employees' rates were recalculated due to legislation enacted in April 2022, which temporarily removes overtime from the calculation of Tier 6 contribution rates. | Notifications | Fixed | 10/04/2022 | Employers will receive a notification, which directs employers to the Member Contribution Rates pages to see the impacted members, and update their rates. NYSLRS is also sending letters to affected members regarding their rate changes. |
| When employers receive their annual invoice, there are no instructions on how to make a payment by Automated Clearing House (ACH) or by check. | Billing | Fixed | 10/25/2022 | When employers receive their annual invoice, instructions on how to pay by Automated Clearing House (ACH) or by check are now included at the bottom of the invoice. |