Final Paycheck

When you leave SMU, you may still receive one or two paychecks following your last day of employment. Your net pay will still be directly deposited into your bank account as usual. If you will be changing your bank accounts once you leave SMU, you should submit new direct deposit information via my.SMU before you leave SMU - to avoid a delay in receiving your payment.

Although your direct deposit stays in effect for your remaining payments, you may not have continued access to view your pay statements online. Only Adjunct Faculty who have consented to receive their Form W-2s electronically from SMU will retain partial access to their payroll information in my.SMU. For all other separating employees, your SMU network access will be disabled when you leave which means you will not be able to view your pay statements online. Instead, you will receive a direct deposit statement in the mail for each payment you receive after your employment at SMU ends. Before you leave SMU, please review your Home and Mailing addresses in my.SMU.edu and update them if necessary.

Regular staff and faculty should review the Exiting Process on the Department of Human Resources website.

Non-exempt (biweekly-paid) employees

Since SMU pays its non-exempt employees one week after the pay period ends, you may still be owed wages for the current and/or previous pay period. 

Any wages owed to you will be processed with the scheduled payrolls. For example, if you leave SMU at the end of a pay period you will be paid for your wages one week later on the scheduled pay date.

In a different example, if you leave on a Friday that marks the end of the first week of the pay period, your wages will be processed with the next regular payroll when the pay period ends. Your net pay will be directly deposited into your bank account on the scheduled pay date (the following Friday). In this scenario, you will be paid two weeks after you leave SMU. 

Exempt (monthly-paid) employees 

SMU pays its exempt employees on a “current” basis so there should not be any additional wages due to you when you leave. However, sometimes HR and Payroll do not know of your leaving until after the monthly payroll has been processed, and the amount processed for you may be incorrect because of your departure. In this case, you will be issued a negotiable (“live”) check issued instead of having your net pay directly deposited. The check will be mailed to the address that appears on your pay statements.

Payroll Deductions 

All regular payroll deductions remain active for the final payment of wages owed to you. Your benefits coverage remains in effect until the end of the pay period, so you will have your benefits premiums deducted in full – regardless of your actual termination date. (You will receive information regarding your benefits coverage upon termination during your exit interview with the Department of Human Resources.) 

When you leave SMU, you may owe the university some money for outstanding fines or fees, unsubstantiated travel advances, etc. Therefore, you may have a one-time Miscellaneous or Cashier deduction from your paycheck to satisfy any account balance.

Payment for accrued vacation hours 

If you are eligible to be paid for accrued vacation hours, that payment will be processed with the next regular payroll following the final payment of wages owed to you. This applies to exempt and non-exempt employees. The payment will be made via direct deposit (if you have active banking data on file) and a printed pay statement will be mailed to your Home address as recorded in my.SMU. If you do not have active banking data on your my.SMU direct deposit record, a negotiable check will be mailed to your Home address for any final payment.

There will be no deductions from the vacation payout unless something was not deducted from the final payment of wages owed to you. Typically, this would be a deduction resulting from miscellaneous charges on your SMU account (parking or library fines, travel account balances, etc.).