Frequently Asked Questions for Federal Work Study Timesheets
When can a student employee start working?You may not allow a student to start working until you have received paperwork showing the awarded Federal Work Study allocation for the student and the first day of classes for the semester has arrived. Student employees will not receive a paycheck until all paperwork has been processed by Human Resource Services. Any student employees working prior to that time will not be paid retroactively for hours worked. As student employees must be paid for all hours worked, the work sites are responsible for paying the students out of their own funds if the student starts working prior to being awarded by Student Financial Aid.
Who is responsible for keeping track of hours worked and remaining
hours that a student may work within the semester?
The supervisor is solely responsible for ensuring that hours have been
calculated accurately prior to entering the student’s time. Please
remember that student employees can work up to 20 hours per week while
classes are in session, including finals week. The supervisor should keep
a biweekly running tally of the amount of hours worked and dollars earned
by the student employee to ensure that the student's Federal Work Study
award will continue to cover the wages for hours worked. Supervisors will
receive written notification of the remaining Federal Work Study award
amounts for their student employees twice a semester to verify the tally
of hours that has been kept to that point.
Who must sign the student employee's timesheet?
Both the student employee and supervisor are required to sign the timesheet
in order for it to be processed. The supervisor's signature must be legible
in order to verify that the supervisor on record has signed the timesheet.
For students working at Community Work Sites, any timesheets not signed
by both the student employee and the supervisor will be returned to the
supervisor and not processed for that time period.
When should timesheets be submitted?
All timesheets must be entered into WebTime according to the schedule
available at http://www.umsl.edu/asp/pdf/payschbwkly04.pdf.
Community Work Site supervisors should fax the completed timesheets to
Financial Aid.
Are student employees required to take lunch breaks?
All student employees are entitled to have a 30-minute lunch break
if they work six to eight consecutive hours. If a student employee works
eight or more consecutive hours, he/she is entitled to take a lunch break
of one hour. The student employee should sign out on his/her timesheet
for lunch and sign back in when returning from lunch.
What should a student employee do if the timesheet needs to be turned
in prior to finishing work hours for that time period?
Since timesheets must be turned in every other Friday by 5:00 p.m., hours
may be projected if they are to be worked after the deadline for getting
timesheets into the mail. If there is a difference between the projected
and actual hours worked, this difference should be reflected in hours
reported on the next pay period's timesheet.