OFFICE OF STATE UNIFORM PAYROLL MEMORANDUM #98-33


December 11, 1997

To: All UPS Agencies
From: Ronald S. Mitchell, Director
Subject: Bond Changes Update

As per OSUP Memorandum #98-24, OSUP is required to purchase Savings Bonds through the Federal Reserve Bank instead of through CNB beginning with the January 1998 purchase (December deductions). This has required some changes to be made to the bond screen (M219), as well as changes in how savings bond information is entered into the system.

Attached documentation identifies the programming changes to be effective for payday 1/2/98 (12/15/97 - 12/28/97). The major change involves punctuation in the bond name fields (owner, co-owner, beneficiary) on the bond screen. There can be no punctuation for any bond name fields (except hyphens for double last names). There also cannot be any titles included in the name fields. By utilizing the current Bond Control Register, BL1515-01, agencies must update and correct employee bond records by removing all punctuation (except noted above) and all titles (e.g., Mr., Mrs., Miss, etc.) from all bond names, and by correcting owner SSN's. Remember that all bond names must be entered in first name middle initial last name format. Any punctuation or titles remaining on the master record will be removed during the creation of the bond purchase tape (batch process), not from the master record.

Currently, if the bond owner is the employee and an ' * ' is entered in the OWNER SSN field, the system automatically completes the OWNER NAME, SSN and ADDR (Home Address) fields from the Basic Data screen once ENTER is pressed. Additional/changed on-line edits will be applied if an agency uses this automatic feature when adding or updating a bond record.

In addition, the CO/BEN field has decreased from 30 characters to 28 characters. Those agencies affected were contacted by OSUP and bond records were corrected.

The Federal Reserve Bank does not require the CO/BEN SSN and it will not be included on the bond purchase tape. Until the change request is fully implemented, this field will not be removed and will continue to be an optional field on the bond screen. No additional edits were implemented on this field.

If you have any questions concerning these changes, please contact Penny Jones at (504) 342-0716.

RSM:ACV:mmh

Attachment

NEW EDITS:

  1. If co-owner or beneficiary name contains the titles: ( _ = space)
    2.    CAPT./CAPT_        MISS
   COL./COL_          MR./MR_
   DR./DR_            MRS./MRS_
   GEN./GEN_          MS.
   LT./LT_            REV./REV_
   MAJ./MAJ_          SGT./SGT_

    Msg: 'INVALID CO-OWNER/BENEFICIARY NAME. NAME CANNOT CONTAIN A TITLE.' or the punctuation:

    , . ' "

    Msg: 'INVALID CO-OWNER/BENEFICIARY NAME. PUNCTUATION IS NOT ALLOWED.'

    and if a comma ( , ) is the error, will also receive the additional current WARNING message:

    Msg: 'OWNER NAME SHOULD BE - FIRST MIDDLE LAST NAME.'

  2. If owner name contains the titles: ( _ = space)
    3.    CAPT./CAPT_        MISS
   COL./COL_          MR./MR_
   DR./DR_            MRS./MRS_
   GEN./GEN_          MS.
   LT./LT_            REV./REV_
   MAJ./MAJ_          SGT./SGT_

    Msg: INVALID BOND OWNER NAME. NAME CANNOT CONTAIN A TITLE.' or the punctuation:

    , . ' "

    Msg: 'INVALID BOND OWNER NAME. PUNCTUATION IS NOT ALLOWED.'
    and if a comma ( , ) is the error, will also receive the additional current WARNING message:

    Msg: 'C/B NAME SHOULD BE - FIRST MIDDLE LAST NAME.'

  3. Prevent ' * ' in: C/B Name, Owner Name & Owner Address. This will edit an ' * ' in any position of each of the listed fields. These new edits will help prevent the automatic ' * ' feature being entered in the wrong field ( ' * ' must be entered in the first position of the OWNER SSN field for the automatic feature - current edits will prevent ' * ' in any other position of this field).

    Msg: 'ASTERISK IS INVALID IN OWNER ADDRESS.'

    Msg: 'INVALID BOND OWNER NAME. ASTERISK IS NOT ALLOWED.'

    Msg: 'INVALID CO-OWNER/BENEFICIARY NAME. ASTERISK IS NOT ALLOWED.'

    4. MODIFIED EDITS:

    1. Msg: 'INVALID OWNER SSN.'

      2. Modified to include all SSN's 000000000 thru 999999999 (SSN cannot be like numbers).

    FIELD CHANGES:

    1. Co/Ben Name field decreased from 30 to 28 characters.

    2. Co/Ben SSN is not required by FRB. This is currently an optional field and current on-line edits will remain. No new edits were added. This field will be removed when the change request is fully implemented.

    ON-LINE CHANGES EFFECTIVE FOR:

    Payday 1/2/98 (12/15/97 - 12/28/97); Bond Purchase February 1998. Tape (batch) conversions will remain in place.

    Current tape (batch) conversions only (no on-line edits) will be run for December deductions, January 1998 Bond Purchase.

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