Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: News

Eastern is starting a new green initiative this week with their paperless payroll program. Pay stubs for direct deposits will no longer be available in a paper version after today, April 30, according to Financial Affairs. Instead, employees will be able to access their pay stubs through their EKU Direct account.

Financial Affairs and the Information Technology department at Eastern have been working together on this initiative for several months to in an effort to make Eastern more green.

IT's role is to provide technical support for the payroll, said Mona Isaacs, assistant vice president of Information Technology. IT set up the online capability to make an electronic copy of the payroll documents and pay stubs available through EKU Direct.

Pay stubs have already been available online through EKU Direct for several years, said Brooke Mohallatee, Eastern's accounting and financial services director.

"In preparation for paperless payroll, IT reformatted the online check stub to mirror the paper pay stub to make the transition to paperless payroll more seamless for employees," Mohallatee said.

Eastern has been moving toward more paperless procedures to increase the university's efficiency, Mohallatee said. The Direct Deposit initiative began in October 2007 and most employees have been receiving their pay electronically. Student refunds are now being received electronically by most students as well. Mohallatee said this had reduced accounts payable's check processing costs by over half.

Eastern will receive many benefits from the paperless payroll.

"First, there are savings related to the actual printing costs - paper and toner," Isaacs said. "But there are also significant savings in time, which may not be as easily calculated."

Isaacs said employees can use their time and energy on other things now that printing and handling checks is no longer needed.

"A great deal of time is dedicated to a 'paper' payroll," she said. "Printing, folding, sealing, sorting, delivery - all of these take time and effort, from the payroll staff to the mail delivery staff."

Isaacs said the paperless payroll will also save employees time because instead of waiting two or three days for their payroll information to be printed and mailed to them, they will be able to access their information online as soon as the payroll is processed.

The switch is expected to cut energy costs associated with running printers, folders and sealers, and save approximately 100,000 sheets of check stock paper every year, Mohallatee said.

This green initiative is not the first for Eastern's printing departments. A new e-mail policy was passed at Eastern last year to eliminate printing and mailing information to students. With the new policy, all official communication from Eastern to students is sent through E-mail.

IT is also currently working with Student Billing to eliminate printed student bills in order to save money on printing and postage. This could save approximately 60,000 sheets of paper stock per semester, according to Financial Affairs.

Financial Affairs is also working on adding more green initiatives.

Mohallatee said W-2 tax forms from Eastern are now available exclusively online, saving another 6,500 sheets of paper stock a year.

Information about Eastern's paperless payroll and directions for employees to access their pay stubs and payroll information can be found at http://www.accounts.eku.edu/payroll.

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