May 12 2004 previous issue back issues index by topic e-News home Contact us at: admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu Or via the UIS Helpdesk, 6-2001 The Administrative Systems e-News is a semimonthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard's financial, human resources, and reporting systems. Click the links below to learn more about ... Schedule announced for FY04 financial closings Fiscal year-end reporting tips Summary schedule for FY04 transactions and reporting (includes a printer-friendly version) Whom to call list for closings New purchasing initiative for basic white paper Speaking of paper... cessation of paper pay advices now scheduled for August Central Administration travel policy may provide a useful model Plan now for June release to University administrative systems New version of Costing Upload Spreadsheet available Get your new GE Capital Corporate Card now! About the e-News

Schedule announced for FY04 financial closings      top

Overview

Harvard's fiscal year 2004 will end on Wednesday, June 30. As in the past, we will close the books through a series of steps called "closings."

In the paragraphs that follow, you will find closing deadlines and submission information for the following financial transactions (click on a transaction to jump to that section of the e-News):

• Accounts Payable web vouchers
  • Petty cash fund settlement
  • New vendor setup
• Credit vouchers (cash receipts)
• Massachusetts taxable sales deposits
• Foreign check deposits (credit vouchers)
• Voided checks
• Stopped checks
• Foreign currency payments (drafts and wires)
• U.S. wire transfers
• Purchasing Card sweeps
• Web Voucher travel authorization forms (WV-TAFs)
• WebEx reports
  • WebEx reports with advance settlements
• General accounts receivable billings
• Manual journal entries
• Interdepartmental billings
• Cost transfer requests on sponsored funds
• Chart of Accounts maintenance requests

The deadlines provided are the last allowable dates to submit transactions.

Note that these are the Office of Financial Services deadlines. Since some departments have internal deadlines that differ from these, you should check with your department's financial office to obtain any departmentally defined deadlines.

Reporting tips are also included in this e-News. We expect exceptional reporting demands during the year-end closings. Following our suggestions on reporting will reduce the time required to run your reports.

Manual Journal Entries

Journals are entered directly by tubs. Please keep in mind the following:

• The University is closed on Monday, July 5 for the holiday. Therefore, there will be no journal vouchers posted to the General Ledger or recorded in the Data Warehouse on that day. Thus, any journals entered in the system after 6:30 p.m. on Friday, July 2 until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 6 will be posted to the General Ledger on Tuesday, July 6 and available in the Data Warehouse on Wednesday, July 7.
  
  
• For the first, second, and third closings, from Monday through Thursday, journals for the month of June will be posted to the General Ledger at 6:30 p.m. Therefore, journals must be entered by 6:30 p.m. in order to be posted and recorded in the Data Warehouse for the next day. Note that any June journals entered on Friday after 9 a.m. during the first, second, and third closings will not be posted until the following Monday at 6:30 p.m. and will be in the HDW on Tuesday.



• Be careful to select the proper period (JUN-04 or JUL-04) when you are entering a journal. Beginning July 1, the default period will be JUL-04. If you want to post a journal to FY2004 during July, 2004 you will need to select JUN-04 as the proper period.
  
  
• Entries may not be processed to another tub after the second closing without authorization from the financial office of the tub being charged. Individuals processing journals have personal responsibility to ensure they follow this requirement.
  
  
• A journal should only be reversed by the person who created the journal, or with the permission of that person.
  
  
• Based upon departmental activity and the reports you run through the month of May, please make any necessary adjustments as early in June as possible.
  

Interdepartmental billings

• All interdepartmental billings – whether on a journal or via a feed to the General Ledger – must be processed by the end of the second closing. (GL billing feeds are generally submitted by service centers like UIS and UOS.) An interdepartmental billing journal may be processed in the third closing only if permission has been obtained from the financial office of the tub being charged.
  
  
• As described above under Journal deadlines, during the first three closings, from Monday through Thursday feed activity for the month of June will be posted to the General Ledger at 5 p.m. and manual journals will be posted at 6:30 p.m. (The one exception is July 5, when the University is closed. Any feeds or manual journals entered in the system on that day will not be posted until Tuesday, July 6.) Therefore, feeds must be entered by 5 p.m. and manual journal vouchers entered by 6:30 p.m. in order to be posted and recorded in the Data Warehouse for the next day. Note that any June activity entered on Friday after 9 a.m. will not be posted until the following Monday evening.
  
  
• A journal should only be reversed by the person who created the journal, or with the permission of that person. Interdepartmental billings should provide a name and contact number on the journal for questions or concerns the tub being billed may have.
  

Cost transfer requests

• These dates apply to ALL requests for cost transfers to federally sponsored funds (funds in the range from 100000-199999). Note that these requests may require supporting documentation.
  
  
• Cost transfer requests should be submitted directly to OSR. OSR will review the request and any necessary documentation for appropriateness. OSR will then enter the cost transfer journals into the General Ledger. Note that OSR only enters cost transfer journals during the year-end closing process.
  

Chart of Accounts maintenance requests

Disable Requests:
June 7 (MAY-04 close) is the last date that values will be disabled in FY2004. Any CSMA requests not successfully disabled on June 7 will be held until the JUL-04 close on Wednesday, August 11.

Requests to disable CoA values that require approval should be submitted through CSMA before 5 p.m. on Monday, May 24. Disable requests that do not require approval should be submitted through CSMA before 10 a.m. on Monday, June 7.

Add / Modify / Re-enable Requests:
Requests to add, modify, or re-enable CoA values submitted through CSMA will be processed according to the normal daily schedule (7 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday - Friday) throughout year-end. CSMA requestors wishing to specifically designate for the JUN-04 period any CoA changes entered from July 1 through August 11 (the date of the July close) should enter 30-JUN-2004 as the effective date for their request.

Fiscal year-end reporting tips      top

We expect exceptional reporting demands during the year-end closings. Following these suggestions on reporting will reduce the time required to run your reports.

• Schedule your closing reports to run over the weekend whenever possible. HUDINI and AWS2 offer the option of running reports immediately or at a later date:

• If you would like closing results, closing periods will be available as selections in the Detail Listing reports. You will be able to choose the specific close (First Close, Second Close, etc.) from the report period pick list. Note that the start and end dates populated for these periods will display July dates. For these closing periods only, these dates refer to the actual entry dates of fiscal month June entries. We strongly recommend that you take advantage of using the close dates to narrow the scope of your data rather than capturing all of the Prior Fiscal Year data throughout the close periods.
  
  
• For Fiscal Year 2004 the close start and end dates are:
  • First close: Fiscal June entries from June 1 through July 8
  • Second close: Fiscal June entries from July 9 through July 15
  • Third close: Fiscal June entries from July 16 through July 22

   

• HELPFUL TIP: You can use the close date period options in conjunction with your scheduling features to set up your reports in advance. For instance, starting in mid-June you can create a Detail Listing using the first close date period and then schedule it to run on Saturday, July 10.
  
  
• Enter all of the chart segment parameters you can for a given report request to increase performance for yourself and the whole University. Never use your security view to filter your data. For example, let's say a user wants to see amounts for a range of objects within the tub and org for which they have a view. Because of their view limitation, the user will get the same result whether tub and org are entered as parameters or not. However, not including tub and org will make the query take much longer to run, tying up system resources and slowing things down for all users.
  
  
• Last fiscal year, a permanent modification was made to the Detail Listing reports preventing them from being submitted with all of the parameters being left "ALL." The report will require that at least one chart value be entered.
  
  
• You should only use transaction reports like the Detail Listing when you really need to see the transaction line detail. Summary-level balances can be retrieved in reports such as the Summary Actuals Listing report, the PER (sponsored only), the Fund Summary report, the Fund, Gift, & Unrestricted Unexpended Balance report, and the Budget Variance report.
  
  
• Deleting unneeded reports will be a big help in keeping disk space available for report output. For reports you no longer need, you can use the functionality in AWS2 to delete multiple reports at once. This is especially important if you have report output that you know is large.
  
  
• As of July 1, the Current Fiscal Year to Date option will reflect FY2005. To retrieve FY2004 year to date, you will need to select Prior Fiscal Year to Date from the period pick list.

Summary schedule for FY04 transactions and reporting     top

Please follow this link for a "printer-friendly" version of the summary schedule.

Whom to call list for closings      top

New purchasing initiative for basic white paper      top

A new purchasing initiative undertaken by the Office of Financial Systems' Procurement Department and Harvard Printing and Publication Services to leverage the University's purchasing strength will result in cost savings through coordinated paper purchasing. In developing this program, we have taken into account the needs of individual buyers of small quantities of paper as well as to those buying more than 40 cases at a time.

Recently, several paper vendors were asked to submit proposals for the purchase of paper in large quantities of 40 cases (one pallet) or more. At the same time we entered into negotiations with Staples, our strategic partner for office products, to achieve more competitive pricing on paper purchases of between 1 and 39 cases.

Upon review of the competitive proposals, Lindenmeyr Munroe was chosen as Harvard's preferred vendor for large quantity purchases of standard white paper.

We were also successful in negotiating lower prices from Staples on smaller orders of between 1 and 39 cases.

The following table shows the pricing from Staples and Lindenmeyr for the recommended paper types used for basic copying and printing.

Lindenmeyr pricing is estimated to be 25-30% below standard retail pricing for large quantity orders, while the new Staples pricing is estimated to be 20-25% below standard retail pricing on non-recycled paper and 5-10% below standard retail pricing on recycled paper.

We are continuing to negotiate with Staples on prices for recycled paper and are hopeful that we will be able to offer lower prices in the near future. To realize these savings and to ensure that we can continue to provide you with low prices for all your copy and printer paper needs, all orders for the recommended paper types should be made through Staples or Lindenmeyr, depending upon your specific volume needs:

• Smaller purchases of between 1 and 39 cases should be made directly through Staples at (877) 826-7756 or www.stapleslink.com, or through the new Electronic Shop and Pay (ESP) application (currently in pilot). The new negotiated Staples prices are now available through both of these sites.
  
  
• Purchases in quantities of a pallet or more should be ordered directly from Lindenmeyr Munroe. To set up an account, call Bill McDonough at (508) 528-9823 ext. 250.

Please contact either jay_bounty@harvard.edu or joanne_silva@harvard.edu with questions or comments about this purchasing initiative.

Speaking of paper... cessation of paper pay advices now scheduled for August      top

As described in the February issue of the e-News, the University is planning to stop sending out paper stubs (advices) to those who are paid via direct deposit. This change is being made to save money (several hundred thousand dollars annually) and is more environmentally sensitive. However, the date has now been pushed back to August (rather than June/July as previously communicated). The first paperless paydays will be:

August 6 for those on weekly and biweekly payrolls
August 13 for teaching fellows, and
August 31 for faculty.

Service and trades workers and those who do not have direct deposit will continue to receive the paper pay advices.

To make the transition easier, we are asking for the following help from local administrators:

1. Encourage faculty and staff in your area to discontinue receiving the advices now. This helps Harvard save more money sooner, and makes the transition a “non-event” for more people (about 600 people have already opted out). To do this:

    i. Go to harvie.harvard.edu.

   ii. Click the PeopleSoft button in the top right-hand corner of the home page.

   iii. Log on to PeopleSoft using your HUID and Harvard PIN.

   iv. Navigate using the path Self Service > Employee > Tasks > Direct Deposit.

   v. Check the box to suppress the printing of your pay advice, and click .

2. For those faculty and staff who wish to keep receiving paper advices until August, make sure that they have a PIN (www.pin.harvard.edu) and know how to log on to PeopleSoft and view their pay advices using the navigation path Self Service > Employee > View > View Paycheck.

Central Administration travel policy may provide a useful model      top

Recently, the Central Administration (those units reporting to a Vice President, the President, or the Provost) adopted a new travel policy that mandates use of Expedia Corporate Travel (the “corporate” version of the consumer travel website familiar to many of us) for all University-funded air travel. The policy also provides guidelines for booking car rentals and hotel stays. At present, this is a self-imposed mandate that applies only to units in the Central Administration. However, it may provide a useful model for those units wishing to make better use of Harvard's strategic vendor partnerships for travel.

The Expedia Corporate Travel site can be accessed most easily through the Financial Applications log-in page. To use the site, a traveler or travel arranger will need a user ID and password, which can be obtained by emailing fad_travelmgr@harvard.edu. Corporate card information, frequent flyer numbers, and other needed information can be stored in an Expedia “traveler profile,” making it easy for arrangers to support multiple travelers.

Expedia Corporate Travel can be used to arrange business travel, or business/personal combination trips. It can be used to arrange travel for either Harvard employees or non-employees (visitors, etc.) as long as the travel occurs in the conduct of University business.

For more information, or to receive a consultation or briefing about implementing Expedia Corporate Travel in your area, please contact Priscilla Campbell (priscilla_campbell@harvard.edu, 6-4599). A presentation explaining more about how Expedia Corporate Travel works is also available on the Travel Office's web page.

Plan now for June release to University administrative systems      top

Over the weekend of June 11-14, a major upgrade (or release) to Harvard's administrative systems will occur so that system improvements can be made, along with a full-scale replacement of the current AWS3 system for HR reporting with CREW (see below).

Users should tentatively plan on the following outages. Any change in these dates or times will be posted on the ABLE Systems Hours of Operation page and in some cases on the log-in page of the applications themselves:

As mentioned above, CREW (the Common Reporting Environment for the Warehouse) will replace AWS3 for HR reporting beginning in June. AWS3 will be decommissioned.

If you want to find out more about what to expect with CREW, here's how:

1. This presentation, originally given at the April HR Users' Group, provides the details and a guided tour of the new system.
   
2. Preliminary information about CREW was provided in the April 21 e-News.
   
3. Final information about the go-live will be provided in the June 1 e-News along with links to a web-based tutorial and other online documentation for users on ABLE. Specifics about hands-on labs for users who would like more support using the new system will also be announced.

New version of Costing Upload Spreadsheet available     top

Some financial and HR administrators use a spreadsheet template to perform a “mass” upload of salary costing data to PeopleSoft, particularly when we approach the start of the new fiscal years.

If you are a user of the Costing Upload Spreadsheet, you should know that a bug was identified in the previously released version. Specifically, the fiscal year and effective date sometimes populated incorrectly when the button labeled "Turn Salary Increase Window On" was selected. That bug has been resolved in the new version (version 1.17) of the spreadsheet, which is available in the ABLE forms area.

Get your new GE Capital Corporate Card now!

The GE Capital corporate card, which is replacing American Express as Harvard's corporate card provider on June 30, 2004, may now be requested from the Travel and Reimbursement Office website at www.travel.harvard.edu. Click on the GE MasterCard link under the Corporate Card section.

If you are a current Amex corporate cardholder (or you support one), you must complete the profile form. If you are not a corporate cardholder, you'll need to complete the application form. New applications must be approved by the cardholder's immediate supervisor and tub financial dean's office.

Once you have submitted the appropriate form, it will take approximately 12 to 14 business days for your new GE Capital corporate card to arrive. American Express will be deactivated on July 30, 2004.

Questions? Contact margarita_rivera@harvard.edu.

About the e-News   top

The Office of Human Resources publishes this semimonthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard University's financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies, and procedures. Generally, the e-News is published on or around the 12th and 26th of each month.

It contains:

• updates on projects underway to build or improve University administrative systems;
• information about new University policies, procedures, and forms;
• reminders about upcoming deadlines and cut-over dates;
• tips and tricks for working more easily or productively.

We welcome questions and suggestions for improvement from readers. If your questions are of general interest, we will answer them in future issues.

Please send comments, questions, or suggestions for improvement by email to us at: admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu