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PeopleSoft upgrade (a.k.a. HR release 11) planned for this weekend top
The PeopleSoft HR System will be upgraded this weekend. As a result, the entire PeopleSoft system will be down from Friday, September 23 at 2 p.m. until Monday, September 26 at 8 a.m. This will require that hours worked for the week ending Saturday, September 24 be entered by 2 p.m. on Friday. Deadlines for adjusting and approving are unaffected. As always, local deadlines may be earlier.
In addition, HIRES will be prevented from transmitting forms to PeopleSoft during the HR release 11 weekend. The "transmit" button will be grayed out at 2 p.m. on September 23, as will the PeopleSoft access button on HARVie. All other HIRES functionality will continue to be available during this period.
A summary of changes associated with the release follows in this e-News.
Job Data Change form now processes Termination and Retirement job actions top
Beginning on September 26, local units should begin to use the Job Data Change form to process all termination and retirement job actions and stop using the Terminations / Retirement form. Central Payroll will no longer be accepting the Terminations / Retirement form.
How does the process work?
With release 11, the Job Data Change form will be enhanced, as described and depicted below.
- The Last Day Worked field was added to the Job Data section. This field is only available and required if either the TER or RET action codes are used. When using either of these codes, the field will default to a date equal to the form's effective date minus one day (for example, if the form's effective date is 9/1/2005, the Last Date Worked field would default to 8/31/2005). You may change this date if necessary.
- After entering either the termination or retirement job action, the form will execute a benefits validation to determine whether the action code you selected is valid for the employee's benefit status. If the wrong action code was selected, you will receive an error message instructing you to either change the action code (e.g., change it to RET if it was TER) or to contact the Benefits Services Group if you believe you chose the correct action but it is not being accepted.
The bullets described above are highlighted in the screen shot below:
Here are two questions and answers relating to this new process.
What should a local submitter do if the employee has a future-dated row?
If you are submitting a termination or retirement action and the Future Row Exists box is checked on the form, you will need to have the future-dated row(s) deleted before you can submit the form. Contact your Central Payroll customer service representative to delete the future-dated row(s). Once the future-dated row(s) has been deleted, you can submit the form.
How do I pay out an employee's remaining vacation time and/or severance pay?
After you have completed the Job Data Change form, use the Additional Pay Upload (on-cycle check) or Payline Transaction form (off-cycle check) to pay out the employee's remaining vacation time and/or severance pay.
Updated quick reference
For more information on this process, an updated Job Data Change Form quick reference document is available on ABLE.
Payroll and Time & Labor changes in release 11 top
Auto inactivation of general deductions and direct deposit for terminated employees
Starting on September 28, a weekly process will run that will inactivate all general deductions (except garnishments) and direct deposit accounts for any employees who have been terminated in PeopleSoft for 60 days or longer. This will prevent employees from receiving unexpected deductions or having pay go to inactive or old bank accounts upon rehire. Some examples of general deductions are union dues, parking, charity deductions, and T-passes.
View default costing links
Links have been added to three PeopleSoft pages to allow users to view default costing associated with an employee on either the appointment level or the department level:
- Time & Labor adjust time page: This page currently provides a link to view an employee's appointment-level costing, if it exists. Starting on Monday, September 26, if an employee does not have appointment-level costing, clicking the link will display the department default costing for that employee.
- Quick Hire pages: A link has been added to the Quick Hire pages that will display the department default costing in the current fiscal year for the department that an employee is being hired into. This can be useful for employees being processed as New Hires or via an Add Concurrent Job, since the preparer can now determine whether appointment-level costing is necessary for this person. However, if an employee is processed as a Rehire, this will not tell you whether s/he already has existing appointment-level costing in the current fiscal year for that department.
- Job Data Change form: For employees being processed as a transfer, a link is provided that will show appointment-level costing for the department the person is being transferred into, if it exists. Otherwise, the link will display the department default costing for the department the person is being transferred into.
CREW HR reporting changes in release 11 top
In addition to the HR functional changes described above, there will be a number of enhancements made to HR reports in CREW and the HR database. Click here to get the details. After reading the release notes, please contact the Information Management Services Group at 617-496-0166 with questions or comments.
Accounts Payable business process changes announced top
Payment Authorization Form (PAF)
What's changing?
Since February 1, 2005, all web voucher and web reimbursement transactions over $50,000 have required local review and approval by authorized signers prior to payment.
Central Accounts Payable has modified the current payment procedures to further ensure the integrity of the voucher packages throughout the disbursement process. Effective October 1, any payment request received by Central Accounts Payable that does not comply with the Payment Approval Form (PAF) requirements will be returned to the submitter for resolution before being processed. The PAF must be attached to the voucher package. In addition, all payments over $250,000 now require additional review and approval by the University Controller.
There are separate PAF requirements for goods/services and construction payments. The related forms are available online at:
http://able.harvard.edu/forms/payment_approval_form_goods_and_services.pdf
http://able.harvard.edu/forms/payment_approval_form_construction.pdf
Why?
There is increased focus on internal controls, best practices for procurement, and the process of committing University funds by the Office of the President, the University's Audit Committee, the University Controller, donors, and alumni. In the absence of a procurement system requiring pre-commitment reviews and approvals of purchases, interim steps were needed to enhance controls over the procurement to payment cycle at Harvard.
Vendor Registration Form
What's changing?
Effective October 1, phone calls will no longer be accepted for vendor setup or vendor maintenance requests. A new Vendor Setup Request form has been developed. This form will be available on the Accounts Payable website and be PIN protected. It will be required to process requests for vendor setup and changes.
All requests must be sent in writing via email, fax, or interoffice mail.
Email to: ap_vendorhotline@harvard.edu
Fax: 617-496-3196 (to the attention of the vendor hotline group)
Interoffice mail: Accounts Payable, Holyoke Center 380, Cambridge
All vendor setup and maintenance requests will require 48 hours for processing. Vendor validation will be completed prior to vendor setup, which will result in the need for additional processing time. Central Accounts Payable will verify vendor information using defined criteria identified as “best practice."
Central Accounts Payable will generate and distribute tub-level reports reflecting vendor setup/maintenance activity to local financial offices.
Why?
Harvard needs to develop greater accountability and ensure controls by establishing an audit trail identifying who requested a new vendor record or a change to an existing vendor record. These business process changes are aimed at increasing visibility of vendor setup activities at the local management level by providing monthly reporting on vendor request activity. This change also allows Central Accounts Payable to validate vendor information prior to setup.
Travel and Expense Reimbursement Policy
What's Changing?
Submission of expenses related to a trip or event
- Required no more than sixty days after the completion of a trip or event
- After ninety days expenses will be processed as additional pay or 1099 (taxable)
- After six months expenses will NOT be reimbursed
Extended Business Trip
- Required no more than 120 days after the beginning of a trip
- After 120 days expenses will be processed as taxable income
- Expenses submitted for reimbursement that exceed six months from the date incurred will NOT be paid
Non-Employees
- It is strongly recommended that expenses be submitted no more than sixty days after the business or travel expense has been incurred.
Allowances (non-travel only)
- Up to 12 months from the date the expense was incurred
- After 12 months allowances cannot be reimbursed or paid
Why?
To decrease the large number of exceptions processed (primarily for non-employees), which create a significant administrative burden for local financial offices.
Also of note:
The Procurement Management Department is working with Harvard's vendor partners to assess the impact, if any, of rising fuel costs and Hurricane Katrina on our strategic relationships. The information will be posted on the PMD website as it becomes available.
AWS2 / HUDINI financial reports migrating to CREW in March / April 2006 top
The March 2006 phase IV of the ongoing initiative to consolidate University reporting in a common environment will be completed when all financial reports – including the Detail Listing, Budget Variance, and Summary Actuals reports – currently available in AWS2/HUDINI are migrated to CREW (Common Reporting Environment for the Warehouse).
Phase 1 |
Phase II |
Phase III |
Phase IV |
completed |
completed |
completed |
March / April 2006 |
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In addition to migrating the full suite of financial reports, the CREW financials project also plans to deliver enhancements to CREW that will provide features currently available to AWS2 / HUDINI users, including:
- Chart Sets (sets of chart parameters to be applied across reports)
- Request Sets (sets and grouping of reports)
- A "Favorite" reports designation
The project will also take advantage of CREW's more robust scheduling capability. It will offer a long-anticipated feature, events-based scheduling, which will allow users to schedule their reports to kick off as soon as a particular “event” (like the month-end close) takes place.
In order to assist in the transition (which will be supported with regular end-user communications, updated training materials, and user workshops), AWS2 and HUDINI will run in parallel with the CREW versions of the financial reports from the initial March 2006 release through the end of April 2006. Once the migration has concluded successfully, the AWS2 and HUDINI applications will be retired and no longer available to the user community.
Additional detailed communications will follow as the project progresses. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the impact of this transition, please direct them to the project team via the UIS Helpdesk at 617-496-200, or via e-mail to helpdesk@harvard.edu.
About the e-News top
The Office of Human Resources publishes this monthly 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 15th 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