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PeopleSoft HR Release 13 scheduled for next weekend top
Due to a system upgrade (HR Release 13), the entire PeopleSoft system will be down from Friday, April 28 at 5 p.m. until Monday, May 1 at 8 a.m. This will require early time entry of hours for the workweek ending Saturday, April 29.
HIRES will be prevented from transmitting forms to PeopleSoft during the HR Release 13 weekend. The "transmit" button will be grayed out at 5 p.m. on April 28 in conjunction with the PeopleSoft access button. All other HIRES functionality will continue to be available during this period.
AWS2 and HUDINI to be decommissioned on April 30, 2006 top
The migration of financial reports to the Common Reporting Environment for the Warehouse (CREW) was successfully implemented on March 20 and the period when reports are simultaneously available in AWS2/HUDINI is nearing an end.
As of today, over 700 financial report users are now running their reports in CREW and their feedback has been very positive. Even the user who swore she wouldn't give up AWS2 and HUDINI until the bitter end has already converted!
As planned, beginning at 9 p.m. on Sunday, April 30 access to AWS2 and HUDINI will no longer be available. From then on, use the CREW link from the Financial Applications website ( http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/applications/ ) to access financial reports.
All users who have an active login to AWS2/HUDINI have automatically been given the same access in the CREW application.
Please note that reports scheduled to run for the April month-end close in AWS2/HUDINI will NOT be retrievable via AWS2/HUDINI. You will need to recreate these report schedules in CREW by Friday, May 5. The good news is that scheduling reports has never been easier.
To learn how to create Request Groups and schedule them to run on month-end, quarter-end, and year-end event dates, or to learn about CREW's many other great features, check out the CREW Financials website at http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/ofs/frds/fin_crew.shtml or walk through the step-by-step tutorials on ABLE at http://able.harvard.edu/crew/.
If you have any questions, please call the Help Desk at 6-2001.
New University policies and procedures for Accounts Receivable announced top
Bad Debt Write Off Policy
In order to allow Harvard's Accounts Receivable (AR) to more closely align with industry best practices, there will be a change to the AR Bad Debt Write Off policy. Effective July 1, 2006, invoices will remain open for nine months (270 days) before being written off to bad debt, as opposed to our current write off time period of six months (180 days). For this purpose the beginning date is the invoice transaction date, i.e., the date on the invoice document.
If prior to the write off a local unit believes that an invoice will be collected in the immediate future, the local unit may request that the invoice remain open an additional thirty days by submitting a Write Off Extension Request form (available on ABLE) and emailing it to AR_Collections@harvard.edu.
Bad Debt Reserve Policy
Each tub with a receivable balance in object code 0131 (CO^ Central Accounts Receivable) is required to carry a reserve for bad debts. In June, this reserve is determined by multiplying the average of the tub's past three years' write off percentages by the tub's June 30 balance. Starting in June 2006, this amount will be net of recoveries made in the current fiscal year on invoices that were bad debted.
Central AR will perform the bad debt reserve calculation at the end of each fiscal year and will post the journals to the GL.
Local units billing individuals through Central AR
Beginning in June , Central Accounts Receivable will require that local units billing Harvard ID holders provide us with a valid ID when completing the Customer Setup and Maintenance forms available on ABLE. By storing Harvard ID numbers in our database, Accounts Receivable will be better able to manage address changes, avoid duplicate customer accounts, and help us identify and track employee and affiliated individuals' purchases at the University.
Both the Word and Excel versions of the Customer Setup forms have been updated and are available for download from ABLE.
Local unit record retention
Harvard University's policies for record retention may be found at: http://grs.harvard.edu/0400.shtml#0425. Here is a summary.
- Activities relating to the billing of customers for goods sold or services rendered. Records include customer lists, work orders, sales invoices, customer billing worksheets and edit documentation, account reconciliation materials, collection letters and responses, and related correspondence.
Retention plan:
- Collection records: 4 years after final payment or settlement
- All other records: 4 years
- Records of cash received or disbursed and all monies received and deposited to bank accounts. Records include petty cash balance sheets, cash receipt slips, credit card sales slips, cash register tapes, parking chits, departmental deposit vouchers, bank deposit slips, bank advices, bank statements, and related correspondence.
Retention plan:
- All records except data entry source documents and data verification reports: 4 years
- Data entry source documents and data verification reports: 6 months after final verification
- General Accounting Records. Records include fund receipts and disbursements documentation, financial transactions documents such as invoices, journal vouchers, credit vouchers, requisitions, purchase orders, fund authorizations, billing documents, data entry source documents, data verification reports, and related correspondence.
Retention plan:
- All records except data entry source documents and data verification reports: 4 years
- Data entry source documents and data verification reports: 6 months after final verification
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@harvardedu