News To Use
Department Request Form Modification
07/24/2007
Modifications have been made to the Department Request form. This form is used to request a new department, change an attribute, or make a deparment inactive.
Users who have questions should contact Scott Dills (257-2949 or sdill2@email.uky.edu) in General Accounting.
Year-end Posting Period Information
06/29/07
As part of the year-end processing, various document cut-off and processing dates are approaching. FI users should be mindful of the following information on posting periods:
Different posting periods will be used to differentiate the types of activities taking place.
The completion of the preliminary closing for June should be done on the evening of July 13, at which time posting period 12 will be closed. Authorized FI end-users have access to park documents in period 12.
Period 13 will open on Saturday, July 14. Departments may make corrections July 14-19. Corrections to grants must have prior approval by Jennifer Miles in Sponsored Projects Accounting before departments can park the documents. The secondary preliminary closing will occur on Friday, July 20, at which time posting period 13 will be closed.
Period 14 will open on Saturday, July 21, and will extend through August 6 (approximate date). Entries to the system during period 14 will be limited to Office of the Treasurer staff only. While end-users will be unable to make entries during period 14, they can review data online and through reporting.
Period 15 will open on or about August 7 and is expected to close on September 5. Period 16 will follow on September 6 and will close on September 30 (approximate date). Entries to the system during periods 15 and 16 will be limited to certain Office of the Treasurer staff only. During these periods, end-users will be able to review data online and through reporting.
Certain reports such as ledgers require end-users to enter the posting period and fiscal year for which data should be reported. Users may wish to select through period 16 whenever they want ledgers through June; if a period is not yet open, no damage will occur, and they will get in the habit of selecting the possible periods that might include reportable data.
FI users should use the proper posting date to ensure that entries are made to the correct fiscal year.
Last year there were numerous entries made to the wrong year, because improper posting dates were used. Departments can reduce problems with posting by being careful when entering the posting date on each document.
New Agency Cost Center Form
06/01/07
A new form has been created for agency cost center requests. This form should be used for all new agency requests, as well as agency renewal/change requests for the 2007-08 fiscal year. View Agency Cost Center Form
Users with questions should contact Scott Dills (257-2949 or sdill2@email.uky.edu) in General Accounting.
Go Live Help and Support
05/01/07
The Phase Two Procurement Card enhancements now are live in production. In addition to the open demonstration offerings, there are other resources available for Go Live Help and Support:
Manuals
Manuals for both the Phase Two Card Master and Phase Two editing are now available at http://www.uky.edu/EVPFA/Controller/aphome/procard/welcome.html .
Questions
For questions concerning the procurement card program, users should contact one of these individuals:
Scott Lutin, Procurement Card Administrator
procard@email.uky.edu
(859) 323-4404Melanie Rizk, IRIS Project
Marvin1@email.uky.edu
(859) 323-8620Cara Bischoff, Assistant Manager Accounts Payable
Cjnels0@email.uky.edu
(859) 257-5251
Procurement Card Go Live - May 1
04/16/07
The IRIS Phase Two effort to enhance the Procurement Card process is nearly complete, with Go Live scheduled for May 1. The new procurement card processing features include a card master and a web-based application for reviewing, editing, and posting transactions. The enhancement also offers improved reporting for users.
Several opportunities are scheduled to help the UK community prepare for the new Procurement Card roll out.
Demonstration for Business/Budget Officers, Supervisors, Deans, Administrative Officers
These sessions will include information on the card master and administrative controls, as well as a demonstration of the web-based application. At least one representative from each area/unit/division should plan to attend one of the following:
April 23, 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., MN 563 Medical Center North
April 24, 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., 230 Student Center
April 30, 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., 230 Student Center
Open Demonstrations for Users
The emphasis in these demonstrations will be on the use of the web-based application for transaction review, edit, posting, and reporting.
May 1, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., 115 College of Nursing Building
May 3, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., 230 Student Center
Additional training is not required in order to access the new version of the procurement card program. Employees with current access to the procurement card application will be able to sign on May 1 and use the new version immediately.
Open Labs for employees who would like some individualized help have been scheduled as follows:
May 7, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., 204 McVey Hall
May 8, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., 204 McVey Hall
May 16, 1:00pm - 4:00 p.m., 204 McVey Hall
May 24, 8:30am - 12:00 p.m., 204 McVey Hall
Beginning mid-May, FI_PC_300 will be modified to include instruction on the new procurement card processing. Employees who have already taken FI_PC_300 and wish to repeat the course will need to contact the Training Team (IRISTraining or 257-2435) for registration assistance.
Procurement Card Enhancements Nearing Completion 10/31/06
The Phase Two effort to enhance UK’s procurement card processing is wrapping up, with testing and validation taking place now. Users may recall that this enhancement is two-part, that is, includes the creation of Master Data files for card and cardholder data and a web-based application for editing transactions. The developments will translate into more appropriate control of procurement card access and editing.
With Master Data readily available online, end-users will see detailed information about their departmental cards and cardholders, such as the authorized editors, specified limits, and billing address. Information that once was available only on an application form will soon be added to IRIS for easy access.
End-users can anticipate several improvements with the roll-out of the web-based application for procurement card edits. Information (like vendor name, cardholder name, multiple charges/credits) will be consolidated on one screen. Edits of several purchase transactions will be accomplished with a single process. Better controls for posting are on the way, eliminating the possibility of mass deletions or cancellations. Printed output also will be enhanced, with additional details appearing on the documentation.
End-users can expect to hear more about procurement card process improvements soon, as these Phase Two enhancements should be available by late December or early January.
GASB Financial Statements Presented 10/26/06
October 10 marked a milestone for the IRIS Project, when the UK Board of Trustees received draft financial statements one year after the FI Go Live. These statements were subsequently approved by the external auditors in final form on October 20 and will be presented to the Audit Sub Committee of the board on October 31, 2006.
The complexities of the new accounting system, along with new reporting mechanisms, necessitated the redevelopment of all financial statements required by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Developing these required reports proved to be a challenging undertaking within the IRIS Project.
The Office of the Treasurer departments, the IRIS FI and BW Teams, and consultants from LSI accomplished this feat in record time as compared to other institutions installing ERP systems.
Sessions on FI Reporting Scheduled for August 10 08/04/06
End-users who want to learn more about FI reporting, plan to attend one of the two special sessions scheduled for next week
Thursday, August 10
9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
115 College of Nursing Building
Thursday, August 10
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Worsham Theatre
Project consultants Shyam Jajodia and Hannes Lombard have prepared the material for the Reporting Session in an effort to address numerous end-user questions:
How can I better understand the data?
Where is the data that I need for my report?
When do I go to what area to see what I really want to see?
What reports are already available?
How can I personalize and simplify the reports?
When will additional reposts be available?
What do I do if I need a report that isn't available?
Why are we using BW for reports?
This special session has been developed to improve understanding and ease of use of the present reporting tools for IRIS.
June Preliminary Closing 07/18/06
June Preliminary Closing was completed the evening of July 17. Except for Grants and Capital Projects, corrections will be accepted through 3 p.m., Friday, July 21.
Because the closing was later than expected, Period 13 will not be open for manual corrections. Period 13 will be used only for system-generated adjustments.
Period 12 will continue to be open for processing through 3 p.m., Friday, July 21. All corrections will be made to Period 12. Once activity for Period 12 is completed, the system will go directly to Period 14 for year-end closeout. As a rule, access to the system during Periods 14-16 will be restricted to Office of the Treasurer staff.
To gain a complete picture of a cost object’s activities, users may need to report for activity through Period 16, as there may be adjusting entries made in the periods after Period 12. If an end-user only reports activity through Period 12, adjusting entries may not be included, therefore showing an incomplete picture of the activity for the cost object.
Carry Forward of Encumbrances/Commitments 07/18/06
In SAP, when all types of encumbrances/commitments (POs, requisitions and earmarked funds) are carried forward to the new fiscal year, the encumbrances are liquidated from the old fiscal year and carried forward to the new fiscal year. Note that this is in contrast to FRS processing, wherein encumbrances/commitments were carried forward to the new year, but were not liquidated from the old fiscal year. As a result, FRS encumbrances/commitments could be seen and reported against in the old fiscal year.
As users run the GR55 report or a BW report, encumbrances in the old fiscal year will not be displayed, but will be seen in the new fiscal year. In running a year-to-date report, if Period 12 is selected, the encumbrance will appear. If Period 13 is selected, however, the encumbrance will not be available because it was deleted in Period 13. To determine the encumbrances that were carried forward into the new year, users can drill down into the total encumbrance field from a GR55 report run for the old fiscal year and select the amt type field = 0300. If running for the new fiscal year, then the amt type is 0350. This field can then be sorted to obtain the total carry forward amount for the funds center.
March Month-end Closing News
04/06/06
March month-end closing occurred on the evening of April 5. The waste charge program for cost centers proved problematic in this processing. As a result, only grant waste charges posted.
When the problem with the waste charge program is corrected, charges to cost centers will be posted. These charges should appear as April postings.
Tips for GR55
Users should try these steps for improving performance when running GR55 for the Z100 Report Group .
- When selecting/entering a fund center (or range of fund centers), select/enter the associated fund that you want to see.
- If you enter a range of funds, you will see improvements in response time approximately inversely proportional to the number of funds (i.e., the fewer the funds selected, the greater the improvement in performance.)
December Closing
01/20/06
The month of December is closed and units should be able to generate ledger reports from Business Warehouse.
All processing is not complete, however, as a problem with Accounts Receivables for Grants has surfaced. Pending resolution of this problem, accurate balance sheets for Grants cannot be created. The month will be re-opened when this issue is resolved.
The AR problem in Grants should not affect most departments and units for month-end information purposes.
Grants Management News
12/19/05
Grants Analysis role released
The Grants Analysis role has been released and will be available tomorrow. December 13.
UK employees who completed the FI_GM 300 Grants Analysis class and demonstrated competency are eligible for the Grants Analysis role. Their information/access will be automatically loaded this evening. No other action is required.
New Report Transaction available
With the release of the Grants Analysis role comes a new report transaction – GMAVCOVRW. This report is similar to the FRS screen 019. GMAVCOVRW will display budget and actual expenses by sponsored class.
Variant News for S_ALN_01000003
Users should be aware of EXP_ONLY, a variant that will display budget and expenses by line item. This variant excludes conversion and revenue sponsored classes.
Ledger Simulation ready for viewing
12/05/05
The BW Intro to Ledgers simulation provides step-by-step instructions for producing four basic Business Warehouse reports: Ledger Summary, Ledger Detail, Grant Summary, and Grant Detail. Information on how to fill in variables, obtain desired detail in a summary report, and export data to Excel is included.
