FY11 TIP

TIP will run on Dec. 31.   
See attached memo.

FY11 TIP Memo_12 8 10.PDF

RRC Summary 12/8/2010

See below and attached for several items from the RRC meeting.  DJP
*

RRC 2010-12-08.doc

RRC Meeting Summary -
December 8, 2010

Budget:  The budget update is
basically the same as it has been for the last 2+ years, so I will make this
short and sweet.  The state has a large
deficit, and the appropriation to the University will be cut.  The only question is by how much, and we
won't have a better sense of that for several months.

EFS:  A new round of EFS
improvements will be occurring in the coming months.  Details will come in January, but there will
be three aspects to the process:

 

1)     
Reporting - the new "BI Tool" will address this.

2)     
Continued technical fixes to specific EFS-related
problems.

3)     
Consideration of the larger issues more fundamental to
EFS - combo codes, the chart of accounts, workflows, org. structure, etc. 

Numbers one and two will move quickly.  Number three will require many conversations
and consultations and may involve peer review and/or outside consultants.

A letter will go out to the entire financial community on
this in the next few weeks.

TIP:  A new TIP memo is
out.  I will forward it as soon as I
receive the electronic version.  As I
previously announced, TIP will be applied to deficits (cash basis) on
12/31/2010.  I don't believe you will find
any surprises in the memo.

Cost share and F&A redistribution: 
In order to close out projects, SFR needs to have all cost share
lines funded to the penny and all ICR redistributed.  When SFR feels a project should be closed and
these transactions have not occurred, Nayubel Bernard will send an email about
the cost share to the appropriate departmental accountant, and all ICR emails
will go to me (RRC Manager).  You should
be able to resolve the cost share in the departments, but if you run into
problems, please contact Katherine Lindsay. 
I will handle all ICR/F&A issues. 
ICR comes into the Dean's Office, so the transactions do not involve
departmental chartstrings.

Hospitality policy revisions: 
Next week, a revised hospitality policy will go up for 30 day
review.  You will see clarification of
hospitality expenses while on travel, student group charitable donations,
revisions to the allowability matrix, and further guidelines on selling and
serving alcohol on campus.

Position budgeting:  Position
budgeting will be mandatory for FY12.  If
you took the training last year, you will not have to go through it again.  There will be an online refresher course, and
a guide to some improvements they made to the system.  I do not believe there will be a required
assessment.

FY11 TIP

Message from the Budget Office on FY11 TIP:  

Paying Sales Tax

The U is exempt from paying sales tax on many, but not all, items.  

RRC Summary -- 10/20/2010

Notes from the 10/20/10 RRC meeting:  

RRC 2010-10-20.doc

RRC Meeting Summary -
October 20, 2010

TIP:  As I previously
announced, TIP will not run on Oct. 31. 
In the future, TIP will run twice a year, on December 31 and June
30.  Departments are always expected to
keep positive cash balances, even in fund 1701. 
Accruing deficits for six months and then doing all the Foundation transfers
is not an acceptable way to manage Foundation funds.  A central memo will come out on this in
November.  Also, central is going to work
with the Foundation to look at ways to make fund transfers more efficient.

 

Audits:  Gail Klatt made some
observations about FY10 audit results.  Reconcilers
and approvers should be on heightened alert because employee fraud is on the
increase. 

 

P-card transactions are under
particular scrutiny.  Sophisticated
schemes to modify receipts have been uncovered. 
Employees have scanned receipts, electronically modified them, and then
submitted them as documentation.  Forged
signatures on the paper "force-swept" documents have also been found.  Gail noted that p-card justifications are frequently
insufficient.  She also said that in some
of the recently-uncovered fraud cases, supervisors have also been held
accountable for inadequate supervision of the employees committing the fraud.  The special handling process for vendor
payments has also been a vehicle for fraud.   

 

Other observations from Gail
included:

 

Accounts receivable practices are
lacking University-wide.  Typically the problems
are with separation of duties in small and mid-sized units.

 

The number of payroll
overpayments and late payments are of concern.

 

Excessive hospitality expenses
(over $75/person) are frequently found by auditors.

 

Effort certification is not being
completed in a timely manner.

 

Fees:  Central's initial
review of University fees is complete. 
In FY12, revisions will be made to the Technology/Collegiate fees.  (The CSE Tech Fee has been under review and
revision anyway.)  In FY13, all course
fees will be evaluated, and those that are not for consumables or unique
services required by the course will be eliminated.

 

Budget Model Peer Review:  Some
minor adjustments will be made to the budget model in FY12 in response to the
peer review that was done a few months ago. 
The changes mainly involve how cost pools are allocated to colleges and will
not directly impact departments.  The
Budget Management Advisory Group will also consider other changes that may have
a bigger impact, e.g. the 75/25% tuition split and what statistics to use to
allocate the graduate cost pool as a result of the Graduate School
reorganization.

FY11 Commitments

I'm working on FY11 commitment lists.

RRC Summary 9-15-2010

RRC summary:  
Summary from the September RRC meeting attached and below:

RRC 2010-09-15.doc

RRC Meeting Summary -
September 15, 2010

 

 

Closed projects:  On Sept. 26^th
a report will be generated by SFR listing all closed projects where the cost
share hasn't been funded.  The list will
go to me, and I will distribute it to departments with projects on the
list.  We will have about two weeks to process
JEs to fund the cost share on these projects.

 

Budget Framework:  The Board
of Regents will review and approve the University's budget request in October/November.  We won't know much about the next biennial budget
until we reach two milestones - the election and the new governor's budget
(early February).

Query Presentation

Presentation from the 9/7 accounting meeting:
Katherine's presentation from the 9/7/10 accounting meeting is attached.  It contains copy/pastable language to run several queries in the data warehouse, as well as general information on running queries and links to several useful resources.  DJP

DATA WAREHOUSE.pdf

FY11 COA manual

The new chart of accounts manual is out. 

http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/trainingservices/materials/financial/index.html#efscoa

DJP

Queries

Two queries from Katherine Lindsay -- 
Attached are two queries, one regarding 1026 POs and another pertaining to pulling your chart of accounts.  DJP

DEPT QUERY_TRACKING_1026_PO.doc

CSE_COA_NAME_GAME.ppt

RRC Summary 7/21/10

Notes from today's (7/21) RRC meeting.  DJP
Attached.

RRC 2010-07-21.doc

ICR Fund and Encumbrance Report

A reminder and information on a new report.

New UM Report

There is a new UM Report out that displays actual activity by accounting period --

Cost share best practices and examples

Thanks to Katherine for putting together the attached information on cost share. DJP
As promised, here is the Institute of Technology Cost Share 'CSR' best
practices & examples training presentation. 
Hopefully this presentation will provide a solid overview of the 'CSR'
funding process and give you insightful examples that you can apply to
your own cost share funding to-do lists.



The three most important aspects about funding cost share from now until
the end of FY10...



1) Begin with projects that have ended as of 3/31/10

2) Use ONN as routing source for JEs

3) Please ensure revenue aligns with expenses at the FULL optional chart
string level



Special thanks to Ginny Olson, Dr. Priscilla Cushman, Pam Wilson, David
Pappone, Jay Delaney, Kamala Upadhyaya, & Sue Paulson for their valuable
input on this training presentation.  IT_CSR_JE_EXAMPLES_052110.pdf



Best regards,

Katherine Lindsay

Institute of Technology Dean's Office

Finance Team

Summer

We've had a few summer HR questions, so I'm posting this link to central's guidance: 

RRC Summary -- May 2010

A couple items from today's RRC meeting and information on FY11 allocations.
Attached are RRC notes.  RRC 2010-05-19.doc

I'll also take this opportunity to say that FY11 allocations to IT units should be out late this week and/or early next week.  IT's allocation from central was in line with expectations, so the tentative allocations that departments have been working with are very close to the final allocations.  The only adjustments will be for recent hires, and a few minor items that I have talked to some of you about.

I hope people are entering budgets in EFS.  The deadline to have them submitted in EFS is June 4, but I don't believe you will be able to submit them until the unit allocations are input in EFS.  Central just put the collegiate allocation in the system, and it needs to be fully distributed to units before anyone will be able to submit their budget (even deptids that don't get O&M allocations).  I will have it distributed in the system next week, and I will send an email to everyone letting you know when it's done.  You can still fully budget in EFS prior to this happening, it's just the final act of hitting submit that you can't do until the collegiate allocation is distributed.  DJP

Commitments spreadsheets updated

Departmental commitment spreadsheets were just updated.

RRC Summary -- April 2010

Just a few notes from April's RRC meeting.
RRC 2010-04-21.doc

Asset Forms -- RRC Signature

Asset transfer and disposal forms no longer require RRC signature.

Budgeting for FY11 compensation

Guidelines and examples from the budget office to help with budgeting for FY11 compensation are attached.  DJP

Salaries -Guidelines for Calculating for FY11 Budget Entry.doc
Salary Calculations-FY11 Examples.xls

Scholarship changes

For those who work with scholarships...
There are changes taking place with the scholarship automation process that should be in place by the end of April.  The changes will affact item type generation, approvals, and spreadsheet uploads.  Please review the information and contact the Office of Student Finance with questions.

SCHOLARSHIP AUTOMATION.pdf

Thanks for the information, Katherine.

DJP

ICR Fund 1024

ICR will have a new fund in FY11 -- 

Budget Instructions

Budget entry deadline:  June 4.

New project documentation in EFS

Did you know new project documentation can be found in EFS?
See attached for step-by-step process to view new project documentation in EFS.

Thanks to Katherine Lindsay for this information.  DJP

TIPS and TRICKS_finding_new_project_documentation.pdf

RRC Summary -- March 2010

Notes from the March 2010 RRC meeting.
RRC 2010-03-17.doc

Notes from the March 2010 RRC meeting.

RRC 2010-03-17.doc

Budget Prep Instructions

Central issued FY11 Budget Prep Instructions.  

Summer 2010 Planning

Summer 2010 instructions from central.
I forwarded this information to everyone in October.  I'm posting it, too, because I can't find it posted anywhere else.  DJP

SummerARG2010.pdf

RRC Summary -- February 2010

Notes from last week's RRC meeting.

CSE Financial Practices

An explanation of the college's operational and research financial practices.
Attached is a document describing the financial practices in the college on a number of matters.  In special circumstances, requests for exceptions are considered.  Let me know if you have questions.  I hope you find this helpful.  DJP

IT Operational and Research Financial Practices.doc

Topics include:

O&M Allocations
TA Allocations
Summer Session Targets
Returned Faculty Lines
Phased Retirements
ICR Returns
Matches
Setups

Naming Strings Fact Sheet

The sheet handed out in the 2/12/10 administrators meeting about naming chartstrings in EFS:

Naming strings.doc

A link to the sheet handed out in the 2/12/10 administrators meeting about naming chartstrings in EFS is below.  I created this document, not central, so if you have questions, please direct them to me.  DJP

Naming strings.doc

Departmental Commitments Updated

Updated departmental commitment spreadsheets were just uploaded (2/8/10).  DJP

UM Reports enhancements went in

You will notice some changes to UM Reports.

UM Reports Delay

UM Reports enhancements have been delayed.

FY11 Budget Instructions

FY11 budget instructions are out for academic units.
See attached.  Soon I will send an email to relevant units requesting the usual information (ISO info, units with non-standard tuition/fees, etc.).  DJP

FY11_BudgetInstructions_AcademicUnits.pdf

RRC Summary -- January 2010

January RRC Meeting summary:
RRC 2010-01-20.doc

January RRC Meeting summary:

RRC 2010-01-20.doc

Pivot Tables in Excel 2007

Learn to Create Pivot Tables in Excel 2007
We held a tutorial on using pivot tables in Excel 2007 on Jan 8th.  To assist those who could not attend, Katherine and I created a step-by-step guide that goes through the examples we worked through as a group.  It is very detailed, and I expect that people who have never done a pivot table will be able to work through these examples.

If you have interest in this Excel functionality, please go through this document.  After doing that, if you feel it would be beneficial to have another pivot table session, let me know and we'll schedule something if there is sufficient demand.  Good luck!  DJP

Pivot Tables Step-By-Step.pdf

IT EFS Access Roles

This file reflects staff EFS roles for each IT unit as of December 2009.  Change requests should be routed to Jay Delaney.
IT EFS Access Roles.xls
Per Jay Delaney's 1/6/10 email:

Greetings,



Central sent out a file of every University employee's EFS access role. 
I have edited the file to just reflect the Institute of Technology.  The
file has been posted to our collegiate blog at:
http://cse.umn.edu/x_hosted/itcomm/fiscaladmin/2010/01/it-efs-access-roles.html.



The first tab contains a list of approvers who have left the University
but are still listed as approvers in the ChartField attributes of the
DeptID.



The second tab contains all the non-central roles held by end users of
the system. Please review the access held by each individual in your
unit.  Some people have Origin codes associated with them that may not
be accurate. If the person holds a role in the procurement area,
updating the Origin code has an impact on that person's ability to work
transactions that are still not fully processed/complete. Those marked
as "pending delete" have transactions that are not yet fully processed.



The third tab contains all of the approvers for each DeptID. The fourth
tab contains a format to use if you find that you'd like to rearrange
the approvers for one or more DeptIDs (provided the users already have
the appropriate roles).



Any updates to erroneous Origin codes, rearrangements of existing
approvers, or access removals can be requested via email from the
cluster director.  New access for an existing user or for a completely
new user requires an access request form (ARF).  Please review the file
and identify changes that need to be made.  Whether you are utilizing
the format in the fourth tab or completing an ARF and access forms, send
your changes to my attention, Jay Delaney, delan022@umn.edu or IT Dean's
Office, 105 Walter Library, Mail Code 3731.  I will collect and forward
them onto Central.  EFS access changes are due end of the day,
Wednesday, January 20, 2010.



Thank you,

Jay


IT EFS Access Roles.xls