Paying for PERS

Locating your statement

EDX invoices you every two weeks. To find your invoice, go to the View Your Statement function in the EDX site navigation menu. Select the second tab, Employer Statement, to open your statement.

Understanding your statement

For a detailed explanation of your EDX employer statement and invoice, read employer reporting guide 26, Understanding Your Statement.

Signing up for Automated Clearing House (ACH) to pay your invoice

Complete the agreement form

To sign up for ACH, complete the PERS Employer: Automated Clearing House (ACH) Agreement form. You can also request the form by calling the Employer Service Center at 503-603-7788 or 888-320-7377.

Once completed, mail the form to:

Important: The form must be an original, not a fax. Once PERS receives the completed form, the enrollment process begins.

Choose debit or credit

On the form, you need to choose between two payment options.

• ACH debit (pull) (preferred)

  Choose ACH debit if you want PERS to initiate an ACH transaction that will deduct payments from the bank account you designate. Neither PERS nor the state of Oregon charge transaction fees for this service.

  This method is preferred because it is on time and accurate.

  To choose this method, mail the Authorization Agreement for Employer ACH Debits form to the Employer Service Center.

• ACH credit (push)

  If your organization prefers to initiate the payment of funds from your bank to the account PERS designates choose ACH credit. You need to work with your financial institutions before initiating ACH credit transactions.

  To choose this method, contact ESC for account information and then work with your bank. To reach ESC, email the Employer Support inbox or call the Employer Call Center line between 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at 888-320-7377.

ACH confirmation

Once PERS accepts and processes the ACH agreement, WHO sends an ACH confirmation letter that identifies the first remittance statement in which the ACH process takes effect. Remittance statement dates are the 5th and 20th of each month (or prior business day if either date falls on a weekend or holiday).

Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment dates

Check when ACH payments are due this year on the ACH Transfer Dates webpage.

Changing bank, account number, or payment option

Complete a new PERS Employer: Automated Clearing House (ACH) Agreement form and send it to PERS, as directed on the previous page of this guide.

Receiving invoice adjustments

If you or PERS make a change to a previously posted report — such as adjusting the hours an employee worked, the job classification of the employee at that time, or any other adjustment that affects their salary — the PERS system will credit or debit your account to reflect the difference in billing. The credit or debit is applied to your current invoice in only the account affected.

Your PERS IAP, Pension, and RHIA/RHIPA accounts must be kept separate. Therefore, a credit in one account cannot be applied to a debit in another account. For example, a positive balance in your RHIA account cannot be applied to the amount owed for your IAP account.

Controlling your costs

For tips on trying to reduce your PERS bill, read employer reporting guide 28, How to (Potentially) Reduce Your Bill.

Avoiding prior-year earnings charges

PERS members’ IAP accounts are invested* to enable them to grow in value over time. Earnings (or losses) on these investments are allocated to members’ IAP accounts each year.

For each calendar year, your organization must post all member records and pay all invoices by the March 5 statement of the following year. Your employees’ IAP accounts are then credited with earnings for that calendar year (if there are any) paid by the PERS Trust.

However, if you do not pay all your contributions by the March 5 statement due date, you will be invoiced for the earnings due to members for the previous year.

Avoiding penalties

To avoid penalties, report on time, pay your invoice on time, and pay using Automated Clearing House (ACH). You can incur a penalty for the following:

• Late report: submitted four or more business days after the end of each reporting period. Regular reports must be in released status in EDX to be considered received.
• Late payment: paid six or more business days after the statement date.
• Using a payment method other than ACH, such as sending a check.

Penalty dispute

If you believe PERS incorrectly or unfairly assessed a penalty, email your ESC representative and explain what you want to appeal and why.

Employer appeal rights

PERS employers may appeal PERS staff actions and determinations. For instructions, read the Employer Appeal Rights webpage.

*The Oregon Public Employees' Retirement Fund (OPERF) is invested by the Oregon Treasury under the direction of the Oregon Investment Council. Learn more on the OPERF Returns and Asset Allocation webpage.