Cell Phone Policy

Beginning with October 2009 earnings, the University has returned to the former (March 1, 2007) cell phone policy as published in Business and Finance Bulletin G-46, Guidelines for the Purchase and Use of Cellular Phones and Other Portable Electronic Resources.

The imputed income and cash allowance requirements implemented in June 2009 for employees with University-provided cell phones ended on September 30, 2009. The termination of HCM/Payroll distributions associated with cell phone imputed income and cash allowances is being handled centrally, and employees will see these changes reflected on their paychecks beginning October 23 (semi-monthly paid employees) and October 30 (monthly paid employees).

Steps for Departments that Provide Cell Phones to Employees

• Notify employees who currently have University-provided cell phones about this change.
• Beginning with October 2009 earnings, employees should not have any pay transactions associated with CEL or CE2 earn/DOS codes.
• Beginning on October 15, 2009, departments should review employee HCM distributions entered by the central HCM systems group to validate that CEL and CE2 earn/DOS codes were ended properly.  Contact your department HR administrator to update the HCM record appropriately before the relevant deadline if CEL or CE2 distributions are incorrect.
• If CEL or CE2 distribution lines appear on the OPTRS online roster, this indicates that the imputed income/cash allowance distributions were not ended correctly.  Do not process pay on these distributions and notify your departmental HR administrator to end the distributions as of September 30, 2009.
• Departments should NOT reverse the imputed income/cash allowance transactions for University-provided cell phones for the June to September 2009 period.
• Continue to have employees sign a usage agreement prior to receiving covered equipment/devices/services. The Employee Usage Agreement is available here as well as in Appendix A of G-46.
• Review statements for University-provided cell phones monthly.
• Obtain reimbursement from employees for incremental costs for personal use of a University-provided cell phone. The University should be reimbursed for any personal calls associated with excess minutes at the excess minute rate.
• Review and adjust cell phone plans annually to reflect average business use.
• Reimburse employees for business use of a personally-owned cell phone in compliance with policy.