In the enhanced report file, you report employee information through transactions. There are four transaction types:

• Transaction 1 (Biographical Information) — for enrollment;
• Transaction 2 (Job Data) — for enrollment or status changes;
• Transaction 3 (Days and Contributions) — for days, contributions and payments made during reported pay periods; and
• Transaction 4 (Earnings) — for employee earnings.

For detailed information about how to format these transactions, please read our enhanced reporting file format guide.

Transaction 1 (Biographical Information)

A Transaction 1 (Biographical Information) row is only required when reporting a new employee for the first time.

Certain employees are required to join NYSLRS and for others, membership is optional. Read our Mandatory Membership and Optional Membership pages for more information.

Transaction 1 is used, in conjunction with Transaction 2, when you enroll an employee into NYSLRS membership whose membership is mandatory.

You can also “hire” an employee who is not joining NYSLRS (an employee whose membership is optional) for reporting purposes, and for the purpose of receiving a NYSLRS ID, using these transactions.

If you are enrolling an employee whose membership is optional (they are joining NYSLRS), you must enroll them through the Enrollment Dashboard and upload a signed membership application to Retirement Online when you submit your report file. You can also hire a NYSLRS-eligible employee using the Enrollment Dashboard. For instructions on hiring employees for the purpose of receiving a NYSLRS ID, please see the “For Optional Members” section of our Enroll a Member quick guide.

Once the report is uploaded and posted through the Reporting Dashboard, you can select the report and view the employee’s NYSLRS ID in the New Hire Summary. Be sure to save the NYSLRS ID for use in future reports. If you enroll mandatory members using the Reporting Dashboard, you will not need to upload a membership application in order to receive their NYSLRS ID.

A Transaction 1 row must be included with a Transaction 2 (Job Data) row in the report file when enrolling or hiring an employee who has never been reported to NYSLRS.

Transaction 2 (Job Data)

A Transaction 2 (Job Data) row is required when enrolling a new member into NYSLRS or hiring a NYSLRS-eligible employee or retiree for reporting purposes. Once reported, this transaction will provide us with the employee’s job information (standard work day, annual compensation rate, part-time/full-time status, etc.), and create a new employment instance for the employee. After Transaction 1 and 2 are submitted, you’ll be provided with the employee’s NYSLRS ID.

An employment instance refers to the specific job the employee holds. Employees may have more than one job under the same employer. If the standard work day, retirement plan or pay frequency for each job is different, a separate employment instance is needed. The employment instance identifies the earnings and service credit being reported for each job. If the employee has multiple employment instances at your location, be certain to report their earnings under the correct instance.

Once the report is uploaded and submitted through the Employer Reporting Dashboard, you can select the report and view the employee’s employment instance in the New Hire Summary. Be sure to save the employment instance for use in future reports.

This transaction should also be used to notify us of a change in an enrolled employee’s job status, for example, a leave of absence, a return from leave, military leave or termination.

Transaction 3 (Days and Contributions)

A Transaction 3 (Days and Contributions) row is used to report an employee’s days worked, member contributions and any loan payments or service credit purchase (SCP) payments for the payroll period. You must also report the number of pay cycles in the payroll period you are reporting (pay frequency) in this row.

This transaction must be paired with a Transaction 4 (Earnings) row when submitting a regular report file.

Transaction 4 (Earnings)

A Transaction 4 (Earnings) row is used to report employee earnings. You must report all earnings, both pensionable and non-pensionable, for your employees. Earnings are what you pay your employees before deducting health insurance, dental insurance, etc., and are considered pensionable if they can be used in the calculation of a member’s retirement benefit.

To identify the pensionable and non-pensionable earnings that make up an employee’s pay, you assign them NYSLRS earnings codes that are matched to the payroll codes you use internally. It’s important to use the proper earnings codes to help ensure that member benefits are calculated accurately. The use of earning codes in your report reduces the need for payroll records requests and breakdowns of salary when an employee applies for certain member benefits or retirement. Earnings codes also determine which earnings will be included in your annual invoice.

Earnings codes are only for NYSLRS reporting purposes. You do not need to change the payroll codes you currently use to label earnings in your own internal systems/records to match the NYSLRS earnings codes.

This transaction must be paired with a Transaction 3 (Days and Contributions) row when submitting a regular report file.

Rev. 2/23