Student Payroll Electronic Processes

Supervisors of student employees will use two different software applications to complete the payroll functions of a supervisor. A Supervisor Guide (PDF) provides detailed instructions regarding how to use both applications.

To hire a student, you must create and submit an online Work Authorization Form. To approve student timesheets, you use the application called "Student eTime Approval."

Supervisors are responsible for training their student employees on how to enter time worked. A Student Guide (PDF) is provided by student payroll and Minnesota State system office provides a video that demonstrates how to enter time worked.

Student employees use the same payroll schedule (PDF) as full-time staff employees. Please make sure a payroll schedule is available to all student employees in your department.

Student employees should be required to enter their time on a daily basis. If students do not develop the habit of entering time worked as they work, it will be very difficult to change that practice later on.

Supervisors must ensure that hours recorded and submitted on a time sheet accurately reflect the time actually worked by the student. If any kind of fraud is suspected, the student should be contacted immediately. “Holding back” hours because a student has exceeded the maximum number of hours in a particular pay period is not permitted. If a student worked the hours during the time frame being reported, those hours must be submitted at the end of the pay period. Inflating the number of hours worked to “use up” work study is considered to be a misuse of federal/state work study funds.

At the end of each pay period, time sheets must be reviewed for accuracy and approved. If a student has worked during the pay period but has not completed a time sheet, the supervisor should follow up with the student. 

Note: A supervisor should designate a “proxy” (back-up) person who can approve time sheets in their absence. The supervisor is always, ultimately, the responsible person for the hours the student recorded on the timesheet. The proxy's role is simply to get the timesheet approved by the deadline in a supervisor's absence. It is always expected that the supervisor will review the timesheet for accuracy at their earliest convenience and report any discrepancies to student payroll immediately.