Heartland AEA’s fiscal year will end on June 30, 2019. In order for the Agency to close its books in a timely and accurate manner, the Business Office needs your assistance in returning date-sensitive items.
- For payroll-related work completed on or before June 30, turn in timesheets and submit addendum online forms with appropriate approvals to the Payroll Department by July 5, 2019.
- Review open Addendum Online assignments. Close addendum assignments that will not have any additional hours logged.
- For travel, mileage and purchases occurring on or before June 30, turn in claim forms, expense claims, invoices for services or professional development/travel forms with appropriate approvals to the Business Office by July 10, 2019.
- Do not put dates from two different fiscal years on the same timesheet, vacation request or in-area travel form. In-area travel forms with two fiscal years will be returned for correction.
IMPORTANT: If extenuating circumstances cause a delay in submitting expenses related to fiscal year 2019, Aug. 31, 2019, is the last date the Business Office will accept and process any claims for expenses occurring on or before June 30, 2019.
If you have any questions, contact Brian Whalen, Business Manager, at ext. 14005 or Heng Fongkhamdeng, Accountant, at ext. 14417. Thank you for your assistance!
The Agency recently made some changes to the Hourly Addendum interface. When an employee goes to fill out hours for an hourly addendum, the main links will now read “Add/Modify Hours” and “Submit Hours” instead of “Edit” and “Confirm.”
Additionally, by going to the "Add/Modify" screen, employees will also be able to see the dates their submitted hours were approved by the Addendum Approver and by Payroll. A new column, the "Paycheck Date" column, has been added to indicate the date the funds were or will be distributed to the employee.
If you have any questions, contact Rod Howell, Information Systems Manager, or Sean Boyle, Computer Software Engineer Tech Lead.
Mileage
The Agency will increase its mileage reimbursement rate to 42 cents per mile effective July 1, 2019. The new rate applies to work-related miles driven after June 30, 2019. The Agency's mileage rate is indexed to changes in the IRS mileage rate.
Meals
The Agency will increase its in-state per diem maximum meal reimbursement to $35 and its out-of-state per diem maximum to $50 effective July 1, 2019. Both rates include tax and tips. These rates have not changed in the past five years.
If you are off contract for the summer months, we ask that you set your out-of-office messages accordingly.
Change Gmail Vacation Responder (Out-of-Office Message) (sample below)
Thank you for contacting Heartland AEA. I will be off contract and out of the office from June *** until Aug. ***, 2019. I will return your message as soon as I can. If you need immediate assistance, contact *****. Thank you.
Change Voicemail Greeting to Unavailable (sample below)
Thank you for calling Heartland AEA. You have reached Sally Smith. I am currently off contract and out of the office from June *** until Aug. ***, 2019. Please leave a message, and I will return your call when I am back in the office. If you need immediate assistance, contact ******. Thank you.
Tip: If you want to change your voicemail greeting from your home phone or cell phone, you may do so by calling either (515) 270-0405 or (515) 473-7450 and pressing # when you begin to hear the greeting. This gets you into your voicemail, and you can then follow the prompts to access your messages, change your voicemail greeting or set it to out-of-office. Please be mindful not to refer a customer to another staff member who is also scheduled to be out of the office. Check with that person to make sure he or she will be available and aware that you are forwarding calls to them during your absence.
As many of you are transitioning to a well-deserved summer break, the Heartland AEA leadership team asks that staff who have time off during the summer check their agency email at least once a week during June, July and August.
The Agency relies heavily on email to communicate valuable agency and regional messages and timely responses are oftentimes requested. If you have any questions about this request, contact your supervisor.
Observed annually in June, National Safety Month focuses on reducing leading causes of injury and death at work, on the road and in our homes and communities. Topics for 2019 include:
- Hazard Recognition
- Slips, Trips and Falls
- Fatigue
- Impairment
For additional information, visit the National Safety Council's website.
As the end of the fiscal year begins to approach on June 30, 2019, please keep in mind the following dates:
- Calendar exchange requests for 2018-19 must be submitted and approved by June 28, 2019.
- The deadline to enter leave requests for the 2018-19 year is July 1, 2019.
- Supervisors need to approve all 2018-19 leave requests by July 5, 2019. This will allow us to calculate and display actual, rather than estimated, leave balances for 2019-20 by the end of July.
If you have any questions, contact Heather Rinderknecht, Human Resources Associate, at ext. 14427.
Many of you know, but some of you may not know, that the Agency maintains a warehouse space to store items for the Agency and for staff. Staff items would be things you don’t need access to on a regular basis or things that need to be archived for an agency purpose.
As summer begins, now is a great time to do a little cleaning and tidying up. If you have items you need taken to our warehouse, please keep the following guidelines in mind.
- Contact Jason Elliott, Operations Worker, for boxes, labels and logistical questions related to the warehousing process.
- Box items in standard agency boxes and label with agency warehouse storage labels.
- Appropriately fill out the label. Put your name, department, contents of the box, approximate time to be stored and most importantly, the box number.
- Do not pack any liquids or pack boxes too heavily.
- Keep track of what you have at the warehouse to call for retrieval.
- Remember, the Operations staff doesn’t keep track of your inventory; they just store it. You must keep up-to-date records of what the warehouse has stored for you.
Shipping to Warehouse
- To ship items to the warehouse if you are in a regional office/school, put boxes in the AEA van delivery/pick-up location.
- If you are in the Johnston REC or Administration Center, place your boxes on the REC van loading dock.
Retrieving From Warehouse
- To retrieve a box from the warehouse, check your records to see how you labeled the box and send Jason Elliott an email with your name, department and box number and where you would like the box sent.
- The delivery of the item will be by van route, so check your route to be sure there is time to get the item. Please order your items two days in advance.
- In the event of an emergency, contact Dustin Gean, Operations Manager, for retrieval of your items.
