How to accurately account for charges such as fringe allocations, terminal leave allocations, and tuition remission charges at UW–Madison.
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Fringe allocations
These are typically charges that appear in Workday on a cost center funding string. These are the employer’s share of an employee’s fringe benefits charged to the cost center.
How fringes are calculated
The move to Workday means a change to usage of a Composite Fringe Benefit Rate that is applied to the salary ledger account and spend categories. The fringe expenses now post to the same funding string as the employee salary expense and do not post to any pool project accounts.
Fringe expense is calculated and posts after the payroll expense posts in Workday. There is no separate allocation to calculate and post fringe expense in Workday.
Salary categories and associated fringe rates
There are eight (8) major salary categories, which have different rates to calculate fringes. Faculty/Academic/Unclassified, Classified/University, Graduate Assistants, Research Associates, LTE’s, Post Doc Fellows, Under Graduates/Ad Hoc, and Students.
Fringe rates are updated on July 1 of each fiscal year and can be found on the Research and Sponsored Project website.
All salary accounts are grouped into one of these categories and has its own fringe rate which is determined by Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP):
| Salary category | Fringe rates | Salary account codes on which % is calculated | Account codes where fringe is posted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Faculty and Academic Staff | 34.70% | 5006, 5007, 5008, 5009 |
|
| University Staff | 43.10% | 5010, 5016 |
|
| Research Associates and Grad Interns | 25.30% | 5013 |
|
| Research Assistants, Project Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Pre-Doc Fellows and/or Trainees | 20.70% | 5003, 5004, 5005, 5014 |
|
| Post-Doc Fellows and/or Trainees | 15.80% | 5011 |
|
| Limited Term Employees (LTEs) | 10.10% | 5002 |
|
| Ad Hoc Program Specialists, Undergraduate Assistants and Undergraduate Interns | 14.60% | 5012 |
|
| Student Hourly Employees | 1.90% | 5001 |
|
Terminal Leave Allocations
UW’s Vacation policy (UW-5052) allows employees to bank unused annual leave. The banked leave does not expire and may accumulate from year to year. At the time an employee retires or terminates employment, they may elect to receive a lump sum payment of the ALRA or sabbatical account balance.
UW has moved away from cash basis payouts and has now created a pool for these lump sum payouts.
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Funds charged a monthly terminal leave allocation
Terminal leave rates will be charged on all funding strings associated with salary payments with the exclusion of the standalone GPR and related PR funds:
- Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) – Funds FD0117, FD0127, FD0130
- Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (WVDL) – Funds FD0126, FD0165, FD0166, FD0199
For all other funds (excluding those noted above), there is a monthly charge to Account code 9999 for non-grant funds, and posts to 5100 for the grant funds which follows the funding for each employee’s salary payment.
For FY27, the grant funds below are not assessed terminal leave charges:
- FD0133 Non-Federal Grants and Contracts
- FD0142 Federal Aid – Hatch Adams – Land Grant Research
- FD0143 Federal Aid – Smith Lever – Land Grant Extension
- FD0144 Federal Aid – Special Projects
- FD0232 Wisconsin Partnership Program
- FD0114 Merit and Market-Based Compensation
Current (and previous) fiscal year terminal leave rates
Terminal leave rates are updated at the beginning of each fiscal year (July 1) and are calculated based on a three-year average of lump sum payouts. Deficits or surplus would be considered in the development of future rates.
The rates are broken into two salary categories:
- Faculty/Academic Staff
- Classified/University Staff
The ledger accounts below are assessed terminal leave charges:
- 5006: Salaries – Faculty
- 5007: Salaries – Academic Staff – Professional
- 5008: Salaries – Academic Staff – Instructional
- 5009: Salaries – Academic Staff – Clinical
- 5010: Salaries – University Staff
- 5016: Salaries – University Staff Project
These spend categories on the above ledger accounts are not assessed terminal leave charges:
- SC00383 – Base Pay – Academic
- SC00385 – Summer Service
- SC00386 – Summer Session
- SC00396 – Legal Settlement – Faculty
- SC00397 – Terminal Leave – Lump Sum
Employee lump sum payout codes and funding strings in Workday
All salary expense posting to the pay component Term Banked Leave Payout will post to the terminal leave pool program PG000032155 UW | Terminal Leave Reserve. Please do not move any terminal leave expenses under this pay component to the employees divisional funding.
All other pay components under Term Leave payout should post to the employees funding string.
Tuition remission surcharges
Tuition remission is a benefit to graduate students holding a Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Lecturer (SA), or Program/Project Assistant appointment to help alleviate the cost of tuition. The tuition charges, although not segregated fees, are waived for eligible graduate students. A 33.3% FTE per semester is required to remain eligible for tuition remission.
Find eligibility requirements on the Tuition Remission webpage.
As part of this program, tuition remission surcharge is a policy to help recoup the waived tuition costs by University and Wisconsin State Statute. The tuition remission surcharge is calculated based on the percentage of stipend charged/student’s level of work, and is automatically allocated to the funding source(s) where the assistant is appointed.
The monthly tuition remission surcharge process looks to see which employees have at least a total of 33.3% FTE earnings between all of the below salary account codes and is then charged a monthly rate of $1,333.33.
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Surcharge rates
Tuition Remission Rates – Through Spring 2015
Semester – $4,000
Acedemic Year- $8,000
Tuition Remission Rates – Fall 2015 – Spring 2016
Semester – $5,000
Acedemic Year- $10,000
Tuition Remission Rates – Fall 2016 – Present
Semester – $6,000
Acedemic Year- $12,000
Account codes
Account Code 1211
Title: Project/Program Assistant-Annual
Account Code 1212
Title: Project/Program Assistant-Academic
Account Code 1222
Title: Teaching Assistant-Academic
Account Code 1231
Title: Research Assistant-Annual
Account Code 1232
Title: Research Assistant-Academic
Tuition Remission Surcharge Estimation Workbook for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025
The workbook can be used to help estimate the monthly surcharge amount by appointment and funding string.
Tuition Remission Estimator Workbook (Excel)
Tuition remission processing schedule
The current fiscal year tuition remission processing schedule, as well as a breakdown of the monthly tuition remission surcharges and when they will hit during the fiscal year, is available on the Tuition Remission Surcharge Rates web page.
Surcharge calculation exemptions
There are two cases where the monthly charges are assessed, but then reversed out in the same journal entry:
- Teaching Assistant appointments: Teaching Assistant appointments are used in the calculation of the total employee’s eligibility, but are not charged directly to the department funding like the RA and PA appointments are. These charges are covered via alternative means.
- Fund 142 appointments: Tuition Remission charges are covered by CALS via alternative means.
Sponsored grants
For sponsored grant related questions, please refer to the Research and Sponsored Programs website.
Bursar tuition remission eligibility
For eligibility information and resources, please refer to the Bursar’s Office website.
For eligibility questions, please contact Ginger Perkins at the Bursar’s office: remissions@bussvc.wisc.edu or (608) 262-3334.
For tuition remission surcharge questions, please contact Aaron Ranke at Business Services: aaron.ranke@wisc.edu
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Where can I look up the tuition remission calculation detail by employee in WISER?
- Login to WISER
- In WISER, select “Main Menu”
- Under the Payroll heading, select “Find Tuition Remission”
- Then type the known information into the available search fields and click “Search”:
- The results will show all RA, PA, LSA, and TA appointments and funding for the semester chosen.
What happens if the FTE drops below 33.3% during the semester?
Once an employee drops below the 33.3% FTE, all charges posted to date for that semester will be reversed out in the month that the FTE falls below the 33.3%.
What if a student has two appointments, a 25% PA appointment and a 15% PA appointment (both below the 33.3% FTE), do they receive the tuition surcharge?
Yes, the combined appointments equal a 40% FTE, therefore qualifying them for the tuition remission surcharge.
If a graduate assistant’s appointment is split between two projects, will the tuition remission surcharge be split between the projects?
Yes, the tuition remission surcharge will be split between the two projects based on the percent of appointment on each project.
For some departments, it is quite common for their graduate assistants to work as teaching assistants during the academic year and then serve as RAs or PAs during the summer months. How much tuition remission surcharge will be charged for these summer only positions?
There will be no tuition remission surcharge for PA and RA appointments during the summer. The tuition remission surcharge only is applied during the fall and spring semesters (September through May).
If a graduate assistant has a 25% TA appointment and a 25% PA appointment for a semester, what would the tuition remission surcharge be?
In this case the tuition remission surcharge will only apply to the PA appointment, however the surcharge process will initially charge both appointments evenly. The PA appointment would be charged $3,000 per semester or $666.66 per month (4.5 months). The TA appointment, although initially charged $3,000 per semester, would have that charge reversed with the net effect of no surcharge applied to the TA appointment.
What happens if the graduate assistant has a TA appointment at 33% and a RA appointment at 11.2%? Would the TA appointment cover the tuition remission surcharge, or would the RA appointment be charged too?
The surcharge is not applied to the TA appointment. The tuition remission surcharge would only be applied to the RA appointment. In this case the RA funding source would be responsible for 25% of the tuition remission surcharge or $1,500 per semester, because the RA appointment at 11.2% is 25% of the graduate assistant’s total appointment of 44.2%.
What happens with appointment funding that changes from month to month?
The tuition remission surcharge will automatically be adjusted through the monthly tuition remission process to match the cumulative funding source for the graduate assistant stipend.
Does the tuition remission surcharge transfer automatically after a salary transfer is processed?
Yes, but for FY22 – FY25 semesters only. All SCTs that are entered that relate to FY21 or earlier (before single pay) will need a NSCT to move the surcharge – it will not move by itself.
What happens when a student leaves mid-semester?
It depends on the specific case. In the event a graduate student leaves during the course of a semester, the graduate student still may qualify for a remission, while the remission surcharge may or may not be applied, depending on the cumulative appointment level. Contact the Bursar’s Office for eligibility questions and Business Services for questions about the remission surcharge.
