This issue of the Financial Management Office Newsletter includes information about the following:
- eKFS – Sandbox Envrionment Open for Testing
- Annual Nonresident Alien (NRA) Assessment for 2026
- Updated Â鶹´«Ã½WH-1 Form Available for 2026
- Same Day Travel Completions Received After the WIK Deadline
- Reporting of Prize Distribution, Third Party Payments and Research Participant Compensation for Tax Year 2025
- Quarterly Interest Rate for Late Vendor Payments
- Consent to Opt Out of Paper W2s (CY 2025)
- Reprints of W2s Prior to 2018
The Financial Management Office Newsletter is distributed monthly. Should you have any questions about this newsletter, contact Amy Kunz via email: amykunz@hawaii.edu
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eKFS – Sandbox Environment Open for Testing
Target Audience: KFS Users
Per FA Town Hall Meeting on November 19, 2025, the eKFS Sandbox environment is used for testing functionality of the various documents, ensuring the fields and attributes are correct, as well as the routing to the appropriate approvers. The Sandbox is open and ready for user acceptance testing. Thank you to those who reached out to FSO in the prior months with interest in participating with the testing. We will provide you with the link to access the Sandbox. If you have not contacted FSO yet and would like to participate in the user acceptance testing, please email fissrv@hawaii.edu and we will provide you with the link as well.
Please note that the Sandbox environment is KFS data as of October 10, 2025. There are some functions that Kuali is still working on, but most of our modifications have been implemented. Please test all of the critical functions you would handle on a daily basis, and provide any questions, feedback, issues or other findings to fissrv@hawaii.edu.
The user acceptance testing is scheduled to run through the month of January 2026. We will provide updated user guides and other resources as soon as they become available, followed by End User Training in February and March 2026.
If you have any questions, please contact the Fiscal Services Office at fissrv@hawaii.edu.
Annual Nonresident Alien (NRA) Assessment for 2026
Target Audience: Administrative Officers, Fiscal Administrators, Business Office Staff
To determine if an individual working at the University of Hawai’i on an F-1 or J-1 type visa has been in the USA long enough to qualify as a Resident Alien, the Disbursing Office will be conducting its annual January NRA assessment of all foreign individuals.
The individual benefits from this assessment whereby if they pass the IRS Substantial Presence Test (SPT), the University is no longer required to withhold 1042 taxes from their payments. In addition, providing an updated WH-1 during the annual assessment will facilitate payments and tax forms going to the correct mailing address.
All departmental business offices are required to have their NRA personnel fill out the updated 2026 version of the Â鶹´«Ã½WH-1 form and attach copies of all supporting documentation as required and listed at the top of the first page of the WH-1.
Please scan the supporting documentation and submit an EDIT vendor request on KFS. The vendor request should list in the DESCRIPTION field the following: FO Code #, NRA Update, LAST NAME. Please remember to review your scanned images before attaching to ensure scanned documents are readable, passport ID or visa numbers and dates are clear to avoid your vendor request being disapproved.
NRA assessments must be completed before a payment can be made each calendar year.
If there are any questions regarding this process, please contact Donnie Feng, Disbursing Office at donnie@hawaii.edu.
Updated Â鶹´«Ã½WH-1 Form Available for 2026
Target Audience: Administrative Officers, Fiscal Administrators, Business Office Staff
The Â鶹´«Ã½WH-1 has been revised and posted to the FMO website. You can find the form at this site page: Payment/Reimbursement -> Forms-Disbursing -> Miscellaneous Forms
All previous versions of this form should be discarded. Please update your forms accordingly.
We have identified instances where programs inadvertently sent pre-filled WH-1 forms to vendors or students, resulting in the exposure of Regulated (SSN) data. To prevent this from happening, please discontinue sending PDF attachments directly to individuals. Instead, direct vendors and students to the official website links to download blank WH-1 and other forms.
Thank you for your assistance in protecting Regulated data. If there are any questions regarding this process, please contact Donnie Feng, Disbursing Office at donnie@hawaii.edu.
Same Day Travel Completions Received After the WIK Deadline
Target Audience: Administrative Officers, Fiscal Administrators, Business Office Staff
The Wages-in-Kind (WIK) processing deadline for Tax Year 2025 was November 28, 2025. Same Day Travel completions will be denied by the Disbursing Office and the department will need to resubmit in January 2026.
If the same day travel includes out-of-pocket expenses (e.g. airfare, car rental, etc.), the Disbursing Office will process the completion provided it does not include the same day per diem. The same day per diem can be processed separately in January as a revision.
If there are any questions regarding this process, please email the Disbursing Office at etravel-help@lists.hawaii.edu.
Reporting of Prize Distribution, Third Party Payments and Research Participant Compensation for Tax Year 2025
Payments totaling $600 or more during the Tax Year 2025 will have a 1099 MISC or a 1099 NEC issued. All payments regardless of amount should be reported to Disbursing. Payments are manually tracked to determine if the $600 threshold has been met to issue the 1099. Supporting documents should be sent via FileDrop to Jan Murakami (jmura) by Wednesday, December 31, 2025.
Please visit our FAQs on this topic.
If there are any questions regarding this process, please contact Jan Murakami, Disbursing Office at jmura@hawaii.edu.
Quarterly Interest Rate for Late Vendor Payments
Target Audience: Fiscal Administrators and Fiscal Support Staff
Pursuant to Section 103-10 of the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, the interest rate for obligations related to goods delivered or services performed remaining unpaid after 30 days is equal to the prime rate for each calendar quarter plus two percent. The interest rate is adjusted quarterly using the prime rate as posted in the Wall Street Journal on the first business day of the month preceding the calendar quarter. Please refer to the for the 1st quarter interest rate and calculation.
Should there be any questions regarding this change, please call the Disbursing Office at (808) 956-5535.
Consent to Opt Out of Paper W2s (CY 2025)
Target Audience: Fiscal Administrators, Human Resources Representatives
Encourage your employees to consent to receive their W-2s electronically no later than Friday, December 26, 2025. Electronic W-2s significantly reduce the cost of preparing and distributing W-2s, as well as protect employees' information in the event that paper W-2s are accidentally routed to the incorrect department. Employees who consent to receive electronic W-2s can access their W-2s at least one week prior to when paper W-2s are distributed. Instructions on how to update W-2 consent status can be found at the following link: .
For more information, please contact the Payroll Office at payroll@hawaii.edu.
Reprints of W2s Prior to 2018
Target Audience: Fiscal Administrators, Human Resources Representatives
Effective December 1, 2025, requests for W2 reprints prior to 2018 will no longer be accepted due to the legacy payroll system not being supported on the State’s mainframe.
For more information, please contact the Payroll Office at payroll@hawaii.edu.