Thursday, December 4, 2014

Upgrade Update

In January and February, there will be many opportunities to prepare yourself for the PeopleSoft upgrade. 

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Upgrade overview

An overview document relating to the upgrade is available.  
Everyone reading this post should be well aware of the PeopleSoft upgrade coming in February.  However, you may want to share the attached document with those in your area who may be learning about it now.  This on-page document is not specific to Finance.  It also addresses HR and Student, so it is relevant to a very broad audience.  DJP

The Upgrade Backgrounder.pdf


Thursday, November 13, 2014

Upgrade training

The first EFS upgrade training has been made available. 

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

TMOGs

What is a TMOG?  

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Electronic time and absence reporting

The upgrade will take time and absence reporting online.  Please review this email and the sneak peeks, and share them with others who would find them useful.  

Monday, October 6, 2014

Annual ISO Certification

The ISO certification form for FY15 was due last week. 

If you have not yet submitted this form (attached) for an ISO under your responsibility, please take care of this ASAP.  It was due on 9/30.  Thanks.  DJP

Certification of Annual Review of Internal Sales for FY15 Rates UM1743.docx


Thursday, October 2, 2014

Late Reimbursements

A new travel reimbursement policy is under 30 day review.  

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Non-capital equipment on capital equipment accounts

Please see the message below from Accounting Services regarding non-capital equipment purchases charged to capital equipment accounts.


Tuesday, July 15, 2014

P-card default

Most deptids in the college have something other than $0 in their p-card default account for FY14.  

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Year-end requirements

Some reminders about year-end.  

Monday, June 16, 2014

MnDRIVE Documentation

Documentation for all MnDRIVE transactions on deptid 11055 needs to be sent to Cathy Burke.  

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Budgeting on payroll default

Some departments budgeted in the payroll default chartstring:  1026-xxxxx-21853.  

Thursday, May 29, 2014

FY15 Fringe Rate Revisions

Don't panic, but FY15 fringe rates are changing slightly from the figures that we have been using. 

Please see the below message from the Budget Office.  It is far too late in our budgeting process to coordinate college-wide changes in response to these very small (0.1%) adjustments.  We will do an assessment of the impact of these changes after the budget is submitted, and we may or may not make post-budget adjustments as a result.  The good news is that the rates went down, so the changes will not pose financial burdens on anyone.  DJP

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The new fringe benefit structure of the Simplify Fringe plan has been approved by the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), our federal cognizant agency.  Through that review process, the rates for FY15 have changed slightly from the estimates previously communicated. In all cases, the rates went down by 0.1% or 0.2%:

- Academic (A) - from 33.9% to *33.8%*
- Non-Academic (N) - from 26.4% to *26.3%*
- Graduate with UPlan Health (GU) - from 21.5% to *21.4%*
- Graduate with GA Health (GA) - from 16.8% to *16.6%*

The rate for the Partial Benefits (PB) group at *7.7% *did not change.

Two attachments provide more details:

+ *Fringe Matrix FY15 Revised*includes a fringe rate matrix showing fringe components, a job code to account summary with FY15 accounts and fringe rates, and the hourly tuition component for tuition-eligible student positions.

+ *FY15 Job Codes to Account Mapping*is an updated version of the reference document provided related to the Simplify Fringe account changes and includes an account to job code summary (without fringe rates) and a comprehensive list of current job codes with FY14 accounts, FY15 accounts, fringe rates, and other information.

You are /not/ required to recalculate the FY15 non-sponsored budgets entered in EFS since the impact of the change is negligible overall and the deadline for budget submission is only slightly more than a week away. However, if the impact on specific budgets will be relatively significant, you have the option to manually recalculate and enter a fringe amount based on the new rates. The rates have /not/ been updated in the EFS UM Budgeting setup tables for FY15 (used to automatically calculate the fringes that apply to salaries in Position Budgeting). Many department budgets have already been submitted, and an update to the setup tables would require that each department budget be reopened and the Detailed Budget pages refreshed for the dollars in Position Budgeting to reconcile to the Detailed Budget pages:  If you choose to make updates in Position Budgeting, Detailed Budget pages must be refreshed before submitting. Changes for Graduate Assistants and PostDocs are entered in the Detailed Budget pages directly.

*In support of your authority to set requirements within your RRC, the fringe benefit rate changes are being distributed to the RRC Managers e-mail list only at this time.*The rates will be published more broadly after the budget submission deadline.  Please provide direction for your units regarding this matter and share the attached documents as needed.

Thank you!

Fringe Matrix FY 2015 Revised 2014-05-28.xlsx
FY15 Jobcodes to Account Mapping 2014-05-28.xlsx



Friday, May 23, 2014

Budget entry deadline 5/30

A reminder -- the CSE budget entry deadline is a week from today.  

Friday, April 25, 2014

Appointment entry

Appointment entry in HRMS should not occur outside of the collegiate payroll group.  

Thursday, April 17, 2014

RRC notes -- 4/16/14

There was an RRC meeting on 4/16/2014.


Risk-based approach to external sales

There has been a significant change to the external sales policy.  

Monday, March 24, 2014

Budget Entry Instructions and Deadline

FY15 budgets are due to the CSE Dean's Office by close of business Friday May 30th. 

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

RRC notes -- 3/19/14

There was an RRC meeting on 3/19/2014.  
M-Key to Duo transition for authentication:  Between 3/23 and
5/21, M-Keys and the new Duo authentication will be available for
logging into PeopleSoft and other two-factor authentication
applications.  On 5/21, M-Keys will no longer work.  You will be able to
get a replacement for the M-Key, called a "token," which will function
like the M-Key.  You also will have options to use your mobile device or desk phone in place of a token.  For many people, utilizing one's one mobile device will be much more convenient than carrying an M-Key, but for those who wish to have an M-Key-like device, that will still be an option.  Details on these
alternatives will come from central soon. 

CERT system:  The University now has access to the CERT System, which allows you to search for certified vendors using their names, locations, classifications, ratings, and other criteria.  Please see the attached presentation.  If you or someone in your department would like access to the system, let Dave Pappone know.

OBCED CERT Presentation__20130927.ppt

UMarket:  Adoption of UMarket has been strong, but there is
still room for growth, particularly when non-UMarket processes are being used to purchase from vendors that are on UMarket.  The UMarket process is easier for vendors than other procurement methods, and one vendor has introduced a 5% markup on products bought by the University by any means other than UMarket, and other vendors are considering similar policies.  Purchasing Services is meeting with high-volume purchasers in departments to further improve UMarket, for example by enhancing the search feature and product descriptions.




Monday, March 17, 2014

Fee Deadline Reminder -- 3/21/14

This is a reminder that CSE's fee deadline is Friday, March 21st.

Friday, March 7, 2014

EFS Approvals

After the upgrade, there will be changes to EFS approvals.


Thursday, February 20, 2014

RRC notes -- 2/19/14

There was an RRC meeting on 2/19/2014.   
Fringe Simplification:  A new methodology will be implemented for calculating fringe in FY15.  Over time, it will be a simplification, but the transition will be a challenge.  Other than the academic rate, all fringe rates will go down.  (Academic will go up slightly.)  While the rates will decline, the base will grow.  For example, the same rate will apply to full-time and part-time employees. 

The change has a neutral impact University-wide, but units will be impacted differently based upon their mixes of employees.  O&M allocations will be adjusted to account for the new methodology, and the Dean's Office will examine the impact on other non-sponsored funds.  More details will follow on this topic.

FFATA:  Federal law requires the University to report on orders $25K+ on federal contracts (not grants).  Vendors must fill out a form, and central wants CAs to hold off on approving such transactions until the form is returned because some vendors have been unwilling to comply.  Purchasing runs queries to find these transactions, and they work with the vendor to get the form filled out. 

New Account Values:  There will be new payroll account values added for FY15 (see attached).  Some changes are required by fringe simplification and the HRMS upgrade, and other changes were requested by a joint central/user work group to ease reporting on certain employee groups.

new account codes FY15.pdf

ESUP:  The go-live date for the upgrade will be in February 2015.  The project was working toward an unofficial target of October 2014, but based upon recent analysis a February go-live date presents many advantages.



Thursday, February 13, 2014

ISO Information for Budget Submission

ISO information for the collegiate budget submission is due to the Dean's Office by March 7th.


Friday, February 7, 2014

CSE Fee Deadline

The fee submission deadline in CSE is March 21, 2014. 


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

FY15 Budget Instructions

The FY15 Budget Instructions are posted on the Budget Office website.  

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

UMF Payouts

At the start of this fiscal year, there was a change to UMF's payout calculation. 


Thursday, January 16, 2014

RRC notes -- 1/15/14

There was an RRC meeting on 1/15/14.


* HR Entity and Finance zDeptid will be brought into alignment to ease reporting across systems.  If the deptids under you zDeptid and HR Entity are not in alignment, the Dean's Office will contact you soon.  In most cases in CSE, they are already aligned.

* Please see the attached revision to the University Plant Fund policy.  The Dean's Office will be running collegiate reports to ensure a transition to the new policy.  e.g. "Any plant fund with a negative balance should be eliminated by transferring in existing current fund balances."  (This does not apply to ISOs.)  Plant fund policy.pdf

* A new external sales policy is under 30 day review.  It will result in a risk-based approach to external sales transactions, and for low risk activities there will be no contract required.  An 8-question online survey will determine whether your transaction is low, medium, or high risk.  The policy is attached, and the online tool is already available at this link:

http://survey.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5aRRLQqukOnYA17

Ext sales policy.pdf

* The University is switching PCard vendors.  U.S. Bank will replace Wells Fargo in the coming months, see attached presentation.  PCard vendor transition.pdf