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How does Reliant determine the available balance to use towards your paycheck from the MTD fund from which you are responsible?

The steps below outline the process for determining the available balance used towards each payroll. The specific amounts related to each employee can be viewed in their Account Statement section of Toolbox and shown in amounts for both month and year to date. The specific location on the Account Statement outlining each amount type is listed below.

• Donations are given towards the MTD fund, but the full amount of that donation is not what is used for each paycheck.
  • Amount under Giving and Fees: Restricted Giving
• Admin fees are deducted. 
  • Amount under Giving and Fees: Administrative Fees
• If a donation was given via credit card there are credit card fees to deduct as well
  • Amount under Other Expenses: Bank and Credit Card Charges

Other items that could increase the balance in the MTD fund:

• Some employees may also be receiving a subsidy
  • Amount under Payroll Expense: Salary Subsidies (positive amount)
• Some employees may receive a transfer from another fund
  • Amount under transfers: Transfers In (positive amount)

Reliant's Order of Pay determines how the remaining balance is used to process payroll and employment costs.

• First, insurance and benefit costs are paid. This would include medical, dental, applicable employment taxes (paid leave, disability, unemployment, etc.), Reliant's employment insurance (which is around 1% of each employee's salary and is used to cover Reliant's employer liability insurances as well as the employee's life and disability insurance and HSA (employer contributions)). These charges can sometimes take the MTD fund negative as they are guaranteed paid expenses regardless of the fund balance. In extreme cases of ongoing monthly MTD fund deficits, where guaranteeing these items continues to take the account negative, the employee may be moved to a part-time status (changing their eligibility for receiving insurance and benefits) if the MTD fund balance is insufficient to cover the recurring charges. 
  • Amount under Payroll Expenses: Medical and Employment Insurance
• Next, in the order of pay are the direct charges to the MTD fund such as costs for Reliant training and coaching. These expenses are directly charged to the MTD fund when incurred and will lower the funds remaining available for payroll.
  • Amount under Transfers: International Event Charges (for trainings)
  • Amount under Payroll Expenses: Salary Subsidies (negative amount) for coaching charges
• Payroll expenses are deducted next. Some payroll expenses have employer portions that are deducted directly from the MTD fund for which you are responsible. These include employer portions of 403B retirement and FICA taxes. The employer portions are estimated first to ensure the MTD fund can cover them and that estimated deduction is then used to create a final available fund balance to use towards the paycheck. 
  • Amount under Payroll Expenses: FICA (Employer Portion)
  • Amount under Payroll Expenses: 403b (Employer Portion)
• The remaining amount in the MTD fund is used towards paycheck items (earnings, deductions, and taxes). The earnings amount is all that is visible on the account statement of Toolbox.
  • Amount under Payroll Expenses: Wages, Salaries & Parsonage
  • Deductions and taxes withheld from the paycheck are not shown in the Toolbox view since they do not affect the balance in the MTD fund, only the amount of netpay received on the paycheck. Those deductions and taxes can be seen in line item detail on the paystub. As a reminder, some deductions can be reduced if there is not enough taxable income to deduct from. (See Order of Pay)
• The optional cell phone bonus is unique. It is a recurring reimbursement but it is added to the paycheck as a non-taxable earning. Because of this, instead of being included in the wages, salaries and parsonage section on Toolbox, it is included with the other reimbursement expenses on the account statement.
  • Amount under Other Expenses: Phone and Internet
• Whatever portion of your pay that you do not receive that month because it was shorted then becomes eligible to be received in a future month through what we call backpay. We keep track of this eligible outstanding backpay, and if in a future month you have enough for your full paycheck, and still have money left over in the MTD fund you are responsible for, we will then pay that outstanding backpay, giving you additional pay for that month. Backpay remains eligible for payout for up to three years.
  • Outstanding backpay amounts can be found on the Toolbox dashboard under the Account Balance History. It will show the Account balance as of the end of the specific month as well as showing the outstanding eligible (current year, last year, and 2 years prior to the current year) backpay available to be paid for each month.

• If you have no outstanding backpay and the MTD fund still has a remaining balance, then that balance can be used to pay any submitted reimbursements.

  • Reimbursement expense amounts will be shown under Other Expenses: then listed under the type of expense that was submitted
• If you still have remaining funds you are allowed to request an MTD transfer. 
  • Amount under transfers: Transfers Out (negative amount)
• You can also request advances on your net pay or an advance on an expected reimbursement expense.
  • Amount under Advances: Salary Advance, Expense Advance
• The ending balance shown under Balance on the account statement will be the balance remaining in the fund as of the last time that Toolbox was updated. Toolbox is not updated in real time, so it may not be showing all income and expenses. The account statement will be updated in Toolbox on the night of each pay date. As a reminder, after the paycheck is finalized then the employer portions are deducted from the MTD fund for which you are responsible. Because those employer portions were originally estimated when determining available balances for payroll, the MTD fund will typically not have a $0 balance as the estimates are not usually exact but we try to ensure that they are fairly close.