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Oracle Financials Release 11.5.10 top
The University is releasing an upgrade to its Oracle Financial applications that will require a business outage. The outage will begin at the close of business on Thursday, October 12 and will extend through Monday, October 16. The upgraded applications, which will take the University from version 11.5.9 to 11.5.10 within the Oracle E-Business Suite, will be available on the morning of Tuesday, October 17.
This release will give Harvard greater flexibility with future upgrades and enhancements to Oracle Financials and will enable the University to undertake initiatives that it now has under consideration. In addition, users will also notice some changes to the systems. Larger screens and better layouts of fields allow for easier navigation with fewer tabs and screens. Examples of these new screens can be viewed below in the Application changes section. After reading this issue, current users will be able to easily make the transition to Oracle 11.5.10.
To determine what impact the outage might have on your business, please read through the Key Dates below and plan your work accordingly.
The Financial Systems that will be unavailable during the upgrade include:
| Accounts Payable | ESP |
| Accounts Receivable | General Ledger |
| ADI | GL Validator |
| Budget Tool | PCard |
| Cash Management | Reporting (see below) |
| CoA Validator | Web Voucher |
| CSMA | Web Reimbursement |
CREW Financial and Sponsored reports will be unavailable starting at 5:00 pm, Friday, October 13 through 8:00 am Tuesday, October 17. Ad hoc reporting via DWCENPRD will also be unavailable during that period. Ad hoc reporting via HDWPROD will be permanently decommissioned at 9:00 pm Friday, October 13.
Logging on for the First Time After the Upgrade
(J-Initiator Installation) top
When logging on and selecting a responsibility from the Oracle home page for the first time after the upgrade is completed, users will be prompted with the J-Initiator Security Warning . When this appears, select the “Grant Always” button.
A new J-initiator software plug-in (version 1.3.1.26) will be required to use Oracle Financials once the upgrade to 11.5.10 is completed. The Harvard version of the new J-initiator is currently available from the UIS Helpdesk website and can be installed on your desktop in advance of the upgrade. It will also be available for download from the VPF applications log-in page on October 16. Because installation requires that you have administrative rights to your desktop, we recommend that you request help from your local desktop support to assist in installing the plug-in. Detailed J-initiator Installation Instructions are also available.
Key Dates by Business Area top
| Business area | Key Dates and System or Service Impact |
|---|---|
| Accounts Payable Contact: AP Customer Service, 5-8500 |
Prior to the scheduled outage, all invoices processed by Accounts Payable that come due between October 12 and October 17, based on their payment terms, will be paid Thursday, October 12. Any invoices that must be paid by the October 12 cut-off, must reach Accounts Payable by 9:00 am, Tuesday, October 10, to allow adequate time for processing. Accounts Payable will resume data entry and payment processing on Tuesday, October 17. Requesting emergency checks to vendors is strongly discouraged. According to University policy, this service is limited to student emergencies, mortgage checks, and gold purchases. However, emergency checks can be processed manually if authorized by the local unit's Financial Dean or equivalent (on letterhead, with coding, authorizing signature, and original invoice provided) and delivered to Bill Duffy (the manager of Accounts Payable) for approval. If using this emergency service, a web voucher for the invoice will still need to be created and approved when the system comes back up on Tuesday, October 17. |
| Accounts Receivable Contact: Kathy Hallman, 5-4598 |
The last sweep of AR invoice feed files will occur at 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 12. Files may be sent during the systems outage, but will not be processed until Tuesday, October 17, when normal business operations resume. If submitting an AR feed during the outage, please make sure that file extensions are unique so that they are not overwritten. |
| Budget Tool Contact: Helpdesk, 6-2001 |
All Fiscal and Sponsored Budget Tool input and upload entries must be submitted by 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 12. New Budget Tool entries may resume on Tuesday, October 17. The new entries will be reflected in the HDW on Wednesday, October 18. |
| Cash Receipts Contact: Cash Receipts, 6-8332 |
To ensure Credit voucher posting to the GL on Thursday, October 12, deposits must be received by 1:00 pm. All transactions received after that time will be posted after the Oracle upgrade has been completed on Tuesday, October 17, in the order in which they were received. During the outage the Cash Receipts office will remain open and will receive and deposit funds. |
| Cash Management Contact: Gary Grinnell, 5-1647 |
Voided Checks: All checks that need to be voided and/or re-deposited must be received by Cash Management no later than noon on Thursday, October 12, for the credit to be posted in October. Foreign Currency Drafts and Wires: Web Voucher payments to be made in a foreign currency must be entered and approved by the tub and the related invoices must be received by Cash Management in Holyoke 453 no later than 10:00 am on Wednesday, October 11. Note that a bank draft authorization or a wire transfer form must be attached to the front of the invoice. US Wire Transfers: Wires will not be sent on Friday, October 13th. Web Voucher payments to be wire transferred must be entered and approved by the tub and the related invoices must be received by Cash Management no later than 10:00 am on Thursday, October 12 for all payments needing to be sent via wire on Monday. There will be no wire transfers on Monday that have not been entered, approved and matched in AP. Note that a wire transfer authorization form must be attached to the front of the invoice. |
| Chart of Accounts Contact: chart@camail.harvard.edu (for chart requests) cvrrequest@harvard.edu (for cross validation rule requests) |
Chart Requests: After the last sweep at 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 12, the CSMA application and uploads will not be available until business resumes on Tuesday, October 17. Cross Validation Rule Requests : CVR requests will be accepted (i.e. the department's email accounts will be up and working), but will not be processed until Tuesday, October 17. |
| Financial Reporting Systems Contact: Helpdesk, 6-2001 |
CREW Financial and Sponsored reports will be unavailable starting at 5:00 pm, Friday, October 13 through 8:00 am Tuesday, October 17. Ad hoc reporting via DWCENPRD will be unavailable starting at 5:00 pm, Friday, October 13 through 8:00 am Tuesday, October 17. Ad hoc reporting via HDWPROD will be permanently decommissioned at 9:00 pm Friday, October 13. |
| General Accounting Contact: Joe DeCristoforo, 5-4592 |
All journal entries entered by 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 12 will be included as part of the normal nightly processing of financial transactions. On Tuesday morning, October 17, users may enter new journals into the General Ledger as soon as it is available. The last sweep of journal feed files will be at 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 12. The next sweep of journal feed files will occur at 7:00 am on Tuesday, October 17, when normal business operations resume. If submitting a GL feed during the outage, please make sure that file extensions are unique so that files will not be overwritten. |
| Oracle Security Contact: appadmin@camail.harvard.edu |
Oracle user security requests will be accepted (i.e. the department's email accounts will be up and working), but will not be processed until Tuesday, October 17. |
| Payroll Contact: University Payroll Help Desk, 5-3001 |
There is no change to the published payroll schedule. Questions about this schedule should be directed to the University Payroll Help Desk at 5-3001. Specific payroll-related transactions that are affected by the Oracle business outage are detailed in the PeopleSoft restrictions article below. |
| PCard Contact: John Bostwick, 6-2958 |
The PCard settlement system will unavailable from Friday, October 13 through Monday, October 16. The regularly scheduled PCard sweep on October 19 will not be moved, so PCard reviewers should plan accordingly. All transactions that are scheduled to be swept at 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 19 will be loaded into the settlement system and ready for review by Friday, October 6. |
| Sponsored Programs Contact: Helpdesk, 6-2001 |
New sponsored accounts in GMAS must be flagged for posting to the general ledger by 4:00 pm on Thursday, October 12. Accounts created after 4:00 pm will not reconcile until Tuesday, October 17. On Friday, October 13, GMAS financial data and CREW sponsored report data will appear as of the close of business on Thursday, October 12 and will not be updated until Tuesday, October 17. Budget uploads (via Sponsored Budget Tool or GMAS) will be on hold beginning Friday, October 13 and will resume on Tuesday, October 17. NE interest will be credited in the GL on October 18. |
| Travel and Reimbursement Contact: Helpdesk, 6-2001 |
GE Corporate Card : The Travel and Reimbursement Office must receive all GE corporate card payment requests by 5:00 pm on October 10 to ensure that payments post in time for the close of the billing cycle on October 17. Please note that while Oracle is down, Web Voucher travel authorizations cannot be processed. |
Details of the Application Changes top
While this upgrade is making significant "under-the-hood" changes to the financial applications, the impact on users will be fairly limited. The only systems which will have visible changes are General Ledger and CSMA (Fiscal Budget Tool and Web Voucher will have minor related changes). Details of these changes are listed in the tables below.
General Ledger| Feature / Change | Description | Screenshot (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Journal Entry Screen | The new Journal Entry screen is a good example of how some of the General Ledger screens are changing with the upgrade. The upgraded application has fewer screens with with more information on each screen. | Journals Entry Screen |
| View Journals | The larger screens in the new version allow for a better presentation of information. For example, the full 33-digit ccid can now be displayed on the Journals page. Therefore, the customized Journals>View screen has been eliminated. | Journals View Screen |
| Batch Screens | Fields are longer and show more characters. | |
| Change Period | When changing the Accounting Period on a Journal, the "Change Period..." button is now a menu item under Tools > Change Period... | |
| Reference Field and Date | On the Journals Enter screen, the "Reference" fields, which have been moved to the front screen, can be used to search for your journal. A suggested use for this field is to input the Current Fiscal Year, which would allow a user to search for what journals have been done for the year. | |
| Reversing Journals | On the Journals screen, be aware that the "Reverse" Period expects users to use the "Generate – Reversal" from the Navigator. The only periods available to set up for reversal are the current open period and the future entry period. | |
| T Accounts and Drilldown buttons on screen | T Accounts are now on the Journals Enter screen, instead of the menu bar. | Journals Entry Screen |
| Feature / Change | Description | Screenshot (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| CSMA Worklist | The look and feel of the CSMA Worklist has changed, however, the functionality and flow of data have not had any significant changes. A separate email will be sent to the CSMA user community explaining the changes. |
| Feature / Change | Description | Screenshot (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Journals - General Report in Fiscal Budget Tool | Effective October 17, the Journals - General report will be available through the Fiscal Budget Tool, while a number of infrequently used reports will be eliminated. |
Budget Tool - Journals General Report |
| Feature / Change | Description | Screenshot (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Travel and Expense Form | The vendor name on the Web Voucher Travel Authorization Form changes from World Travel Partners to BCD Travel. |
PeopleSoft Restrictions During Oracle Financials Outage top
Due to the planned upgrade, the Oracle Financials system will be down from 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 12 through 9:00 am on Tuesday, October 17. During this business outage, the PeopleSoft system will not be able to perform costing validation against the GL Validator. Listed below are the results that users can expect if they process certain types of transactions during the outage. It is recommended that users perform these transactions prior to 5:00 pm on October 12 or after 9:00 am on October 17.
Transactions with no GL Validation| Task | Result |
|---|---|
| Time & Labor – Rapid Time Entry |
No costing data will save regardless of whether or not it was previously used. If users enter costing data, they will receive an error message upon saving with a reference to the GL Validator. It will then appear as if the data has been saved, but it will not have been saved. |
| Time & Labor – Rapid Time Upload |
No costing data will load regardless of whether or not it was previously used. The session will have a status of "SUCCESS", but no costing will have uploaded. |
| HIRES Interface | No costing data will load regardless of whether or not it was previously used. The job data will transmit; but the employee will have no costing data. |
Transactions with Limited GL Validation – No New Chart Field Combinations
| Task | Result |
|---|---|
| Time & Labor – Adjust Time Page |
Users will not be able to enter costing combinations that have not been previously used. If users do enter new combinations, they will receive an error message upon saving. |
| Employee Costing (Dept Budget Page) – Online Entry |
Users will not be able to enter costing combinations that have not been previously used. Users will receive an error message upon saving with a reference to the GL Validator. It will then appear as if the data has been saved, but it will not have been saved. |
| Costing Upload | Users will not be able to upload combinations that have not been previously used. Users will receive a "GL Validator is down" error message on the inquiry page for any new combinations. |
| Additional Pay Page – Online Entry |
Users will not be able to enter combinations that have not been previously used. Users will receive an error message upon saving with a reference to the GL Validator. It will then appear as if the data has been saved, but it will not have been saved. |
| Additional Pay – Upload |
Users will not be able to upload combinations that have not been previously used. Users will receive a "GL Validator is down" error message on the inquiry page for any new combinations. |
| Job Data Change Form | Users will not be able to enter combinations that have not been previously used. If users do enter new combinations, they will receive an error message and the form will not save. |
| Quick Hire Forms | Users will not be able to enter combinations that have not been previously used. Users will receive an error message upon saving with a reference to the GL Validator. It will then appear as if the data has been saved, but it will not have been saved. |
| Payline Transaction Form | Users will not be able to enter combinations that have not been previously used. If users enter new combinations, they will receive an error message and the form will not save. Off Cycle Deadline: Payline Transaction Forms must be submitted to Central Payroll by 5:00 pm on Thursday, October 12 in order to be included in the off cycle on Friday, October 13. |
About the e-News top
The Center for Workplace Development publishes this electronic newsletter for users of Harvard University's financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies, and procedures. The e-News is generally 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.
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