|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PeopleSoft 8.9 Upgrade and Absence Management Projects - Key Dates top
There are two significant PeopleSoft projects occurring in 2007. The first project is the PeopleSoft upgrade that is scheduled to go-live on April 16, 2007. The training materials to get you ready for the upgrade are available now. See the articles below for complete details.
The second PeopleSoft project is the implementation of Absence Management, scheduled to go-live on June 1, 2007. This will enable employees to request and receive approval, in advance and on-line, for paid time off (vacation, personal, sick, etc.). Initially, only administrative/professional and clerical/technical staff will use the system to report absences. To learn more about the Absence Management project, click here.
The key dates for both projects are shown below:
PeopleSoft 8.9 Upgrade - Go-Live 04/16/07 top
On Monday, April 16th, the University will be releasing a major upgrade to its PeopleSoft Human Resource Management System (HRMS). This upgrade, which will move us from version 8.0 to version 8.9, will introduce a new look and method of navigation. In addition to the new features, the upgrade will entail a "retrofit" of the Harvard Data Warehouse and related CREW HR Reports. This upgrade also creates the necessary foundation to support the implementation of the Absence Management (AM) module, which is scheduled for release June 1, 2007.
Some of the general changes that will occur due to the 8.9 upgrade include:
|
Same Launch Page, New URL Address As with 8.0, HARVie provides the main link into 8.9, and offers single sign-on due to the PIN integration between HARVie and PeopleSoft. If you have bookmarked direct entry to PeopleSoft or have provided a link from your local intranet (not recommended), please be advised that after the upgrade you will be directed to a static page that has a link to the HARVie home page. |
HARVie Login  |
|
No More Breadcrumbs and No More Getting Lost The most significant and noticeable change is 8.9's new navigation menu. The new menu groups tasks into categories. Unlike 8.0, the menu in 8.9 is accessible from every page, allowing you to quickly jump to another category and/or page. This new design eliminates the need to return Home when viewing a different page. |
New 8.9 Menu  |
| Harvard Employees PeopleSoft 8.9 Training and Support To improve the accessibility of support materials for Employee Self Service, Time & Labor, and eventually Absence Management users, all of the training materials (how-to instructions, web-based training, etc.) related to these topics will be available on the HARVie website. ABLE will remain in place and contain content for the 8.0 version of PeopleSoft along with the financial and reporting applications support materials. Employees should bookmark this site for future reference: http://harvie.harvard.edu/ess. |
Employee Training and Support  |
| HR Administrators PeopleSoft 8.9 Training and Support The PeopleSoft 8.9 training materials (online courses, job aids, etc.) to support HR administrators and other designated users who have responsibility for performing HR transactions on behalf of the Harvard workforce are now located in a new learning management and performance support system called Eureka. ABLE will remain in place and contain content for the 8.0 version of PeopleSoft along with the financial and reporting applications support materials.
HR administrators should bookmark this site for future reference: http://eureka.harvard.edu. |
HR Administrator Training and Support  |
For more information regarding the changes described above, view the documents below:
PeopleSoft 8.9 Upgrade Training Now Available top
A blended learning approach is being used to prepare PeopleSoft users for the upgrade. This approach includes:- Online Courses:
Online courses have been developed to instruct on the changes between 8.0 and 8.9. All courses use simulations to provide learners with hands-on experience in using the new navigation menu and features of 8.9. Quiz questions are used at the end of the course to reinforce key points about the upgrade. The questions are not scored and learners are provided feedback to assist them in selecting the correct answer. - Instructor-Led Classes:
For HR administrators and the Central Business Units (e.g., Payroll, Benefits, etc.) there will be instructor-led classes available beginning in the last two weeks of March. These classes are designed to give 8.0 users the opportunity to practice their tasks in the 8.9 environment prior to go-live.
- Updated Work Instructions:
All of the 8.0 work instructions have been re-written and include a section that identifies any of the key changes between 8.0 and 8.9.
Getting Started on Your Training
Depending on your role, please review either the Harvard Employee or HR Administrator section below.
A Harvard Employee is defined as someone who:
- Reports their hours worked in the Weekly Elapsed Time screen.
- Approves time.
- Adjusts time.
- Uses Employee Self Service to view their paycheck, etc.
Harvard Employee 8.9 Training |
||||||||||
The main page for employee training and support is http://harvie.harvard.edu/ess. Please bookmark this page in your browser for future reference.
|
||||||||||
* To use the online courses, you must have Adobe's Flash Player 7 or higher installed on your browser. For most Harvard employees, Flash Player 7 or higher is already installed. A help link is provided above the course link that can assist you if you have problems with the course. |
An HR Administrator is defined as someone who:
- Has responsibility for performing HR transactions (e.g., Job Data Change Form, Quick Hire forms, etc) on behalf of the Harvard workforce.
HR Administrator 8.9 Training |
All of the training support information for HR administrators is located on Eureka (http://eureka.harvard.edu). Please bookmark this site for future reference. |
Online Courses* and Work Instructions
|
Instructor-Led Classes |
FINDINI 3.2.1 Release to University financial and reporting systems top
Due to a scheduled upgrade to University financial and reporting systems, users should expect the following systems outages during the month of February 2007.
- Oracle Financials will be unavailable after close of business on Friday night, February 23 until 6 a.m. on Monday, February 26
- CREW Reporting Application and Ad Hoc environments will be unavailable as follows in order to install the scheduled CREW APP 1.4.3 & CREW FIN 3.2.1 releases.
- Unavailable from 5:00pm, Thursday, Feb. 22nd to approx. 11:00am on Monday, Feb. 26th:
- CREW Financials, Grants Management, Student Data Warehouse, & CAPS reporting, and DWCENPRD & HDWUTS ad hoc reporting.
- Unavailable from 5:00pm, Friday, Feb. 23rd to 7:30am on Monday, Feb. 26th:
- CREW Human Resource reporting only; ad hoc on DWHRPRD unaffected.
- Unavailable from 5:00pm, Thursday, Feb. 22nd to approx. 11:00am on Monday, Feb. 26th:
- GMAS financial data will reflect data of the close of business on Wednesday, February 21st from Thursday, February 22nd until Monday, February 26th at which time the schedule will be back to normal.
Payroll Contact: |
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. |
Due to the planned upgrade, 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 February 23 or after 6:00 am on February 26.
Transactions with no GL ValidationTask |
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. |
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. |
CREW Financial and Sponsored, and Ad Hoc Reporting Release Details top
In addition to the following problem fixes and enhancements, technical infrastructure upgrades including the Oracle 10g database upgrade for financial and ad hoc reporting, and the Hyperion server upgrade for sponsored CREW reports, will be deployed in this release.
CREW ReportingMajor Category |
Report Code |
Report Name |
Description of Problem Fix and/or Enhancement |
| Financial | GLDTLR172, GLDTLLT174 | Detail Listing Report Detail Listing Report - Lite |
1. Show Employee Name and ID in Description 1 and 2 columns for Object Codes 6452 and 0071 via Manual Journals. |
| Financial | GLFGUUB179 | Funds, Gifts, Unrest Unexpd Bals | Correction so that Local Attribute value displays when “Page Break by Subtotal” is checked. |
| Financial | GLSCNAC188 | Stmt of Changes in Net Assets - Comparative | Formatting modification to correct issue where lines print over one another when certain parameter options are chosen. |
| Financial | GLECOMP177 | Extra Comp Detail Report | Rewrite of report against dwgl_je_lines_details table instead of dwps_paycheck_distrs in order to improve nightly load processing. |
| Financial | BDSMACT155 | Summaries Actual and Budget | Formatting modifications to align column and row data. |
| Financial | ARPRINV144 | Reprint Selected Invoices | Increase report column width to accommodate invoices that are greater than twelve characters long. |
| Financial | AROCAGE142 | Outstanding Customer Aging Sum | Correction to the dropdown values displayed in the “Order By” parameter. |
| Sponsored | GMMSALC080 | Monthly Salary Certification | A Total Salary column has been added to the Control Report. |
| Sponsored | GMRPPTS099 | Scheduled Reports | This report used to return only Financial reports. It has been modified to return Non-Financial reports also. |
| Sponsored | GMSBAGT087 | Subagreements | This report had been suspended from CREW due to an anomaly where dollar amounts were being erroneously multiplied in certain cases. This anomaly has been corrected and the report will be restored. |
DWCENPRD View(s) |
View Column(s) |
Description of Problem Fix and/or Enhancement |
| DHR_EMPLOYEES views | DW_Last_Update_Dt | Add a last update date column. |
| Point in time (PIT) Chart of Account segment views | PIT_(segment)_Budget_Only_ Flag | Include budget only flags to coa pit segment views. |
| DW_TUBS_DV, DW_PIT_ROOTS_D_V |
Rename columns to be consistent with naming conventions. | |
| DW_TRANSACTION_DETAILS_F_SV and DHR_EMPLOYEES views | Populate historical data in the general ledger transaction view for object values 0071 and 6452 to include Employee Name and ID when present. | |
| DAR_CUSTOMER_AGING_F_SV | Creation of new accounts receivable customer aging view. | |
| DAR_TRANSACTIONS_F_SV | DW_Customer_Key | Correct column for mapping between transactions and cash receipts views. |
| DAR_TRANSACTION_F_SV | DW_(segment)_Key, DW_Code_Combination_Key |
Correct mapping between code combination key and individual chart of account segment keys. |
Daylight Saving Time Changes top
As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, beginning this year, Daylight Saving Time (DST) will begin at 2 am on Sunday, March 11, 2007 and Standard Time will resume at 2 am on Sunday, November 4, 2007. This is a change from the former standard of moving our clocks ahead one hour when DST began on the first Sunday in April and moving them back when it ended on the last Sunday of October.
The change in DST affects the way time zone information is calculated. For most users, DST is a behind-the-scenes change that invisibly keeps the time correct on your PC. However, users who have “direct” database access will be affected by DST and will need to adjust their local PC settings.
Who DST Affects
Individuals with direct connection access. This includes people who use SQL*Plus, InfoMaker, TOAD, Brio or any other query tool, to connect to and query any University database such as DWCENPRD, etc. These users will need to configure their local PCs and/or laptops to use the new time zone files.
Individuals who only use web-based applications will not be affected. This includes all applications that are accessed via Internet Explorer or other web browsers, such as CREW, Oracle Financial Applications (Web Voucher, PCard, Budget Tool, etc.), PeopleSoft and GMAS.
What affected audiences need to do (Important information for users with direct connection access)
Users with direct connection access need to reconfigure the Oracle product directories on their local machine(s) to use the new time zone files. The configuration process is fast and easy and simply requires swapping out a couple of files on the local hard drive. Step-by-step specifications and instructions are provided by UIS at http://uis.harvard.edu/server_hosting/dst_info.php.
Users who are identified as having direct connection access to University databases will be contacted directly via e-mail in the coming weeks to notify them of the need to reconfigure their local machine(s), and to provide every opportunity to troubleshoot configuration issues prior to the upgrade.
Direct connection users include “export” users who pull data into local systems.
Key Dates
| Direct connection user direct e-mail: | February 14 |
| Direct connection user conversion: | February 14 – March 9 |
| DST change: | March 11 |
Help resources and additional information about DST
A sample group of “pilot” users have tested the configuration process and instructions to ensure that the instructions are clear. The UIS Help Desk has been trained on the process and will be prepared to walk users through any issues that may be encountered.
For more information about Daylight Saving Time, refer to:
If you have any questions or concerns, please call the DLS Help Desk at 617-496-2001.
Accounting Policy Issuances: Expense Recognition and Facilities & Equipment top
The Expense Recognition Policy and Prepaid Expense, Accounts Payable and Accrued Expense, and Deposits Paid Procedures have been issued and are available via the following links:
Harvard University Financial Policy - Expense Recognition
Harvard University Financial Policy - Expense Recognition - Prepaid Expense Procedures
Harvard University Financial Policy - Expense Recognition - Accounts Payable and Accrued Expense Procedures
Harvard University Financial Policy - Expense Recognition - Deposits Paid Procedures
The Facilities and Equipment Policy, Capitalization and Depreciation Procedures, and Disposals and Impairments Procedures have also been issued and are available via the following links:
Harvard University Financial Policy - Facilities and EquipmentHarvard University Financial Policy - Facilities and Equipment - Capitalization and Decapitalization Procedures
Harvard University Financial Policy - Facilities and Equipment - Disposals and Impairments Procedures
As noted in the policy documents, these policies are effective as of February 15, 2007, but application retroactive to July 1, 2006 is allowed and encouraged.
Questions regarding these documents may be directed to your tub finance office. Tub finance offices with questions on the Expense Recognition Policy and related procedures may contact the University Accounting Services analyst or manager assigned to their tub or Amanda Gates, Senior Manager of Accounting Policy, at 617-496-7131 or amanda_gates@harvard.edu. Tub finance offices with questions on the Facilities & Equipment Policy and related procedures may contact the University Accounting Services analyst or manager assigned to their tub or Devin Advani, Manager of Fixed Asset Accounting, at 617-495-3766 or devin_advani@harvard.edu.
Learning more about your W-2 top
If you have questions about your W-2, a number of resources can provide additional information.
You can visit the payroll department's website to request a duplicate copy of your W-2 or visit Understanding Your W-2 Wages to learn more.
If the information on your W-2 is incorrect, please call 5-3001.
To find additional information, visit the IRS website or the Massachsetts Department of Revenue website.
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.
For information about subscribing or unsubscribing to the eNews notifications, visit our who gets the eNews page.