This session was presented at RECONNECT Dive Deep 2025.

Universities face unique challenges in accurately accounting for employee fringe expenses due to the complexity and diversity of their workforce. To streamline this process, many institutions employ a simplified General Ledger (GL) accounting approach by estimating fringe costs and grouping employees into broadly defined fringe categories. This methodology enables more efficient budgeting and financial planning throughout the fiscal year. At year-end, actual expenses are reconciled against these estimates, and fringe rates are adjusted as needed to maintain accuracy. To achieve this, robust and efficient systems must be developed to ensure accounting accuracy and to meet service level agreements (SLAs) for the university’s largest expense. This presentation will provide insights into a high-level architectural and modular framework, as well as scheduling techniques, designed to efficiently process fringe benefit assessments. This presentation could be helpful for higher ed institutions working on building or streamlining the payroll fringe expense accounting.