November 2007 previous issue back issues index by topic e-News home Contact us at: admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu or via the UIS Helpdesk at 6-2001 The Administrative Systems e-News is a monthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard's financial, human resources, and reporting systems. Click the links below to learn more about ... PeopleSoft Outage November 9 November Early Deadlines for Time & Labor Reporting, Absence Approvals and Payroll Processing Reporting Absences for Dec. 24 1/2 Day Holiday Thanksgiving Week P-Card Sweep Change Logging Out of Oracle Applications-A Best Practice Reminder BCD Travel Adds New E-mail Addresses for Feedback New Grants Management CREW Report Available About the e-News

PeopleSoft Outage November 9     top

PeopleSoft will not be available on Friday, November 9th starting at 5pm, through 7pm on Saturday, November 10th.

Two key items will be added during this outage:

• All employees' 2008 benefits elections will be loaded into the PeopleSoft system
• A job row will be inserted for approximately 4,500 employees who are changing salary tier, with an effective date of 1/1/2008. The salary tier is used in the calculation of the medical rates. The salary tier code is a field located on the job data page and it needs to be updated to reflect the new salary tiers

November Early Deadlines for Time & Labor Reporting, Absence Approvals and Payroll Processing    top

To ensure for timely processing of time & labor, absence and payroll information during the upcoming Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving holidays, the PeopleSoft deadlines have been adjusted as follows:

Reporting Absences for Dec. 24 1/2 Day Holiday    top

When reporting an absence for 12/24, please note the following:

1. Employees taking 12/24 as a day off should not report this day as a partial absence. December 24 has specifically been set up as a half-day holiday, and will be calculated as such. The hours will be calculated as follows:
• For Support Staff (HUCTW or Non-Represented) - Half-Day Holiday will be calculated as (Scheduled hours/2). For example, an employee who requests 12/24 as a Vacation day who is scheduled to normally work 7 hours will have 3.5 hours decremented from their balance (7/2=3.5)
• For Administrative & Professional Staff - Half-Day Holiday will be calculated as ((Total Scheduled Hours for Week/5)/2). For example, an employee who requests 12/24 as a Personal day who normally works 25 hours per week will have 2.5 hours decremented from their balance ((25/5)/2)
2. Please note: The Duration field will populate as zero when submitting an absence for 12/24. Holidays, even half-day holidays, are not considered in the duration calculation. Even though the duration is calculated as zero, the absence will still be decremented from employee's balances in accordance with the rules above.

Thanksgiving Week P-Card Sweep Change    top

PCard Local Administrators should be aware that due to the Thanksgiving holiday there will be a PCard-sweep schedule change during the week of November 19. The regularly scheduled 11/22/07 PCard sweep will be moved to Wednesday, November 21, at 5:00 PM. This change will be reflected in the settlement system on 11/13/07.

Logging Out of Oracle Applications-A Best Practice Reminder     top

To help keep Oracle systems efficient, it is recommended that users “logout” when finished with the application. Many users close their browser instead of logging out and this can result in inefficient use of system resources.

Logging out of Oracle is important because it facilitates better resource management: a logout informs the server that the user is finished with a session. Each time a user logs in, the server reserves an amount of system resource to support the session. Logging out informs the server that the user is done and those resources can be made available to other users.

How to logout? Click on the logout link found at the top right of the Oracle homepage screen:

Clicking Logout will result in the Oracle applications logout screen:

Users can then close their web browser.

Note that when working with Oracle Forms applications such as the General Ledger, you should exit the application by selecting the File Menu, then Exit Oracle Applications:

The user will then receive a confirmation dialog box:

After clicking OK, the user will see an applet screen. Note that since the user has correctly exited his/her Oracle application, it is now safe to click the x to close this window:

The user will then return to the Oracle homepage, and should click the logout link. Supervisors should pass these recommendations on to staff that use Oracle applications.

BCD Travel Adds New E-mail Addresses for Feedback      top

As part of the on-going effort to improve customer satisfaction with BCD Travel, two new e-mail addresses have been created to solicit feedback:

1. Customer Feedback: Harvard.custsvc@bcdtravel.com

This new e-mail address has been established to allow a Harvard customer to provide both positive and negative feedback on services provided by his/her travel counselor. A Supervisor will respond within 4 business hours of receipt of the e-mail.

2. “Second Opinion”: Harvard.airfares@bcdtravel.com

Occasionally, a traveler or arranger may think he/she has not been provided with the lowest applicable airfare by a BCD travel counselor. The “Second Opinion” e-mail offers an opportunity to have a BCD Supervisor research and review the itinerary (prior to ticketing.) The Supervisor will then provide an explanation of the fare or offer a lower one, if available. The Harvard customer will need to provide: the date(s) of travel, destination(s), class of service, and price quoted. A response will be received within 4 business hours of receipt of the email.

Reports will be provided to Harvard by BCD that will include feedback and any follow-up action taken. The information generated will be used to enhance future training and improve communication with BCD employees responsible for the Harvard account.

New Grants Management CREW Report Available     top

A new Grants Management report is now available. The GL Budgets for Sponsored Accounts report compares the GL Budget amount for an account with the GMAS Allocation amount.

CREW users such as Grants Management specialists, Sponsored Programs managers and Tub level Finance Managers may use this report to:

• Identify Sponsored accounts that do not yet have a GL budget
• Identify discrepancies between the budgeted amount and the allocated amount
• Retrieve the GL Budget amount and the GMAS Allocated amount for sponsored accounts. (It excludes accounts that have a GMAS Allocation equal to 0)
• Use Input Parameter limits to answer specific questions like:
  
  • What are the GL budget amounts for the sponsored accounts that my organization is responsible for?
  • Which active sponsored accounts have a variance of at least $1,000 (where GMAS allocated amount is at least $1,000 greater than the GL budget amount)?
  • Have we entered GL Budgets for all GMAS allocations? What's missing?

Sample of Key Output Columns (available in both PDF and MS Excel output formats):

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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