Payroll and Usage Deadlines
- April Salary Benefit Usage Summaries: Due today, Thursday, May 14, 2026, at 4:30 PM
- Individual salary employee April benefit usage (employees on leave): Was due by end of day May 7, 2026 (email to payroll@niu.edu)
- Hourly Summary and Timesheets (PPE 5/15/26): Due to the payroll office by NOON on Monday, May 18, 2026
- Timesheet corrections window: Email corrections to payroll@niu.edu (no need to resend full timesheet) until NOON on Tuesday, May 19, 2026
- Looking ahead to Hourly PPE 5/31/2026: May 25th is a holiday
- Holiday pay is based on the employee’s FTE, not their schedule
- Any employee working on May 25th needs a comment added confirming they were approved to work that day
- Review eligibility requirements to determine if employees qualify for holiday pay
General Reminders
- Have employees verify their position numbers on timesheets match what’s on the summary
- Ensure all timesheets use the new timesheet format with Premium Pay lines (or they’ll be sent back)
- Don’t email timesheets if you’re dropping them off in person
Timesheets are due each pay period when the summary is due. Timesheets can be emailed to payroll@niu.edu or dropped in the drop box outside of the main HR building at 1515 West Lincoln Highway. As always, please place in the subject line: “Hourly Payroll for Pay Period [insert current pay period].”
To help ensure accurate and timely processing as well as compliance with the retention schedule for timesheets, please note the following:
- The preferred method of certifying a timesheet is to capture ink signatures from the employee and the supervisor.
- The department doesn’t need to retain email correspondence if ink signatures are used.
- Electronic signatures are also acceptable from both the employee and/or supervisor.
- If electronic signatures are used, or a combination of ink and electronic, it is unnecessary for the department to retain email correspondence.
- Typed signatures – if the employee and/or the supervisor cannot ink or electronically sign, they should type their name in the appropriate field on the timesheet and email it from their NIU email account.
- If typed signatures are used, email correspondence between the employee, supervisor, and timekeeper should be retained at the department level for three years in a shared location (department one drive or printed and stored in a central location) for audit purposes.
Payroll Summaries
To help ensure accurate records for audit purposes, HRS is capturing meta-data within the OneDrive Payroll Summaries folder to confirm the authorized payroll reviewer in each unit has reviewed it. Please note that the authorized payroll reviewer must ‘view’ the summaries in all cases.
Salaried Employee Benefit Leave Usage Form (for employees on leave)
Individual, salaried employees’ Benefit usage for all leaves must be emailed to payroll@niu.edu by the end of the date listed above. Please place “[EMPLOYEE ID#] [Last Name] Monthly Benefit.
