Small Agency Services Bulletin - November 2025

Nov. 2025

Important Dates Important Messages Small Agency Financial Services News Travel Tips Contact Us

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Please send your feedback about the Department of Enterprise Services' (DES) Small Agency Financial Services (SAFS). Your feedback helps us improve and better meet your needs. Finance welcomes your feedback at any time.

Important Dates

Oct. 27 - Nov. 24

  • HCA/PEBB Open Enrollment

Dec. 1

  • Payroll timesheets due

Dec. 5

  • DES Accounts Receivable will transfer Combined Fund Drive (CFD) deposits in fund 525 to the Office of the Secretary of State.
  • To reflect in your agency's Nov. monthly financial statements. All invoices and travel reimbursement requests are due to Accounts Payable.

Dec. 15

  • 2025 gift card recipients – Please ensure that all gift cards given to employees are reported to payroll.

Dec. 16

  • Timesheets for the Dec. 1-15 pay period are due. This is the final pay period of 2025. Questions – email despayroll@des.wa.gov or submit a Payroll Request form.
  • 2025 IRS 1099-MISC reporting invoice cutoff. See more details in "Payment pause – AP IRS form 1099 analysis" section below.

Dec. 20

  • Statutory deadline for Governor to release supplemental 2026 budget proposals to the Legislature.

Dec. 31

  • Payroll timesheets due

Jan. 12

  • The 2026 regular session begins on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. It is a short session, lasting up to 60-days, with an expected end date of Thursday, March 12, 2026.

Jan. 15

  • Payroll timesheets due

Jan. 30

  • 2027-29 Compensation Impact Model (CIM) due to OFM

Feb. 2

  • Payroll timesheets due

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Important Messages

Open Enrollment is ending soon

Calendar year-end 2025 is approaching

The end of the calendar year is quickly approaching. Here are a few important reminders:

  • Update your W-4: Make changes only if your financial or marital status has changed. You can check your current withholding status in the upper-right corner of each earnings statement. The 2026 W-4 form is not yet available but should be released soon.
  • Update your address: Have you moved? Now is a good time to update your address. You can do so in MyPortal and can send a follow-up email to DES HR at saa@des.wa.gov.
  • Review beneficiary info: Now is a good time to review your beneficiary information for your life insurance, retirement, deferred compensation program, and your health savings account (HSA).

OFM budget preparations are under way

The Office of Financial Management (OFM) is busy reviewing agency requests and preparing recommendations to the Governor's 2026 supplemental budget. Be sure to contact your DES budget analyst should you receive any questions or make subsequent changes to your budget submittal. The Governor's budget proposal is required by statute to be submitted to the Legislature by Dec. 20.

Compensation Impact Model (CIM) - Update of agency compensation data for 2027-29 for collective bargaining and budget development is due Jan. 30, 2026

With the start of a new biennium, the Office of Financial Management (OFM) State Human Resources and Budget divisions are gearing up to collect compensation data for the 2027-29 collective bargaining process that begins in March 2026 and for budget development later that year.

Please review OFM's instructions.

Your DES small agency budget analyst will send you a salary projection system (SPS) report for your review and updates. Once you've provided the updates, we will submit them through SPS by OFM's deadline.

Payroll news & reminders

  • We recommend that all correspondence and forms are sent using the Payroll Request form or to the despayroll@des.wa.gov inbox. Items sent via these methods are ticketed and monitored for completion.
  • Reminder that payroll journals need to be signed prior to payday per SAAM 25.20.30 & RCW 41.06.270 and returned by the due date mentioned in the email that is sent with the journal.
  • Once the payroll journals are signed, they should be sent back to DES payroll for retention.

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Small Agency Financial Services News

DES travel workshop

On Nov. 6, the DES SAFS AP team hosted a successful travel workshop.

This workshop covered:

  • Travel volume stats
  • SAAM travel policy review
  • Meals with meetings & light refreshments
  • Telework & travel
  • TEMS demonstration
  • An interactive Q&A section

Special thanks to DES SAFS Accounts Payable team Diana Huynh, Riley Hyland, Kaler Pearson, Bryn Parker, Forest Pope, and Kyler Oblad.

The presentation and resources have been updated and posted on our Workshop Materials webpage. Enjoy!

Payroll reminders

Payment pause – AP IRS form 1099 analysis

  • Send payments by Dec. 16, 2025 to guarantee payment before the payment pause
  • Last 2025 payment day is Dec. 19, 2025
  • No payment processed from Dec. 22-31, 2025
  • Payments will resume Jan. 1, 2026

This payment pause allows the AP team time to accurately analyze for IRS 1099 reporting, thank you for your understanding.

US Bank online portal transition

SAFS Accounts Payable continues working to support our small agencies with shifting to the US Bank Online Portal.

We are meeting with agencies in phases and will contact your agency by email once we are ready to schedule a kick-off meeting and discuss implementation. If you have not heard from us yet, please hang tight and continue to submit your credit card statements as usual. This is a lengthy process and involves many agencies. With the size of our team, this process will likely span the remainder of the fiscal year to complete.

SAFS (Small Agency Financial Services) team updates

Did you know? Your DES financial support team consists of ALL of our SAFS team members. Even though you may work with specific SAFS members regularly, other SAFS members often step in to assist and provide continuity of services. We would like you to know about our whole SAFS team. Below is a list of each work group within SAFS, the members you may hear from, and recent news or a message from each team.

Accounts Payable

Team members:

  • Diana Huynh - Supervisor
  • Riley Hyland - Senior lead
  • Kaler Pearson - Senior lead
  • Bryn Parker - Lead
  • Forest Pope - Accounting analyst
  • Kyler Oblad - Accounting analyst

Team update:

  1. Diana Dikhamindzhiya decided that she won’t be returning to DES and will instead be dedicating this next chapter to her growing family. We are currently recruiting for her old position, the accounting analyst (FA2) on our team.
  2. We are excited to share that Forest was recently promoted into an in-training lead analyst position within SAFS AP! Please help us congratulate his first step into leadership.
  3. Diana Huynh has welcomed a beautiful new baby girl into the world! Baby Cerise and Mama are doing well.

While Diana Huynh is out, May Davida-Jackson will be working closely with the SAFS AP team to ensure continuity of service.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate changes within our team.

Accounts Receivable

Team members:

  • Betti Bartoldo - Supervisor
  • Stacey Millsap - Senior lead
  • Jenifer Mobley - Accounting analyst
  • Brandy Leitgeb - Accounting analyst
  • Sarah Palazzo - Cash receipts specialist
  • Sean Garcia - Cash receipts specialist

Budget

Team members:

  • Diann Lewallen
  • Seth Flory
  • Ian Shelley
  • Christina Shearer
  • Annis Jones

Payroll

Team members:

  • Rachel Rodgers – Manager
  • Molly Guinan – Supervisor
  • Kayla Preble – Lead
  • Nichole Dahlin – Processor
  • Amber Roberts – Processor
  • Vanno Non - Garnishments
  • Adam Oskvig – Out of state taxes
  • Treyson Ramos – Retirement specialist
  • Brandy Butterfield – Benefits specialist
  • Malachi Riedl - Time and attendance processor

Team message: "Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved." - Mattie Stepanek

Administrative Assistance

Team members:

  • Makaila Barbella

 

DES Accounts Payable statistics for Oct. 2025 (34 agencies served)

Invoices received from agency 1,769 68% $9,400,417
Invoices paid on delegated authority 674 25.90% $1,849,444
Travel requests paid through TEMS 147 5.60% $66,412
Payments reissued (SOL, Lost Warrant) 13 0.50% $126,659
Total payments processed 2,603 100% $11,442,932

DES Payroll statistics for Oct. 2025 (42 agencies served)

Total employees paid 1,144
Appointment changes 8
New hires/rehires 15
Separations 9
Supplemental payments/walk throughs 1
Overpayments 5

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Travel Tips

Per diem taxation

Per diem is taxable and will be included on the employee's W-2. When utilizing the Travel and Expense Management Systems (TEMS), the meals must be marked as taxable when applicable.

As always, if you have any questions regarding travel: call SAFS AP at 360-407-8183 or email travel.safs@des.wa.gov.

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Contact Us

If you would like to know what budget analyst, payroll analyst and HR business partner is assigned to your agency, see our Agency Assignments webpage.

If you would like to get contact information for DES SAFS and HR staff, see our Contacts webpage.

If you have suggestions or feedback about the Small Agency Services Bulletin, please send your comments to SmallAgencyBulletin@des.wa.gov.

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