July 2009 previous issue back issues index by topic e-News home About the e-News 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. Systems Updates & Enhancements PeopleSoft – A midsummer night release (23.5) Longer Service Balance Adjustments Not Processing Updates to FY09 Financial Reporting Year End Calendar of Events 2009 CREW Financial, Sponsored, CAPS, and Student Release Items Review CREW Report Enhancements: Journals - General Report, Individual-Oracle User Security Report Sponsored System Updates HUBS Update: Training and System Demonstrations Upcoming Releases New Forms Revised HR Department Request Form

PeopleSoft – A Midsummer Night Release (23.5)    top

The following changes in PeopleSoft will be available starting on Monday, July 27th:

HR Data Related

SIP Extract Fixed

• What:
• When using the Salary Increase Extract process and leaving the Department ID field blank, the extract would fail. This has been fixed.
• Bottom Line:
• The extract now works as it did before where the Department ID field can be left blank and it will retrieve all EEs within the user's security

Modifications to the Personnel Actions History Report

• What:
• A signature and date line has been added to the report
• Added column to display the last name of the user who performed the action specified on the report
• Bottom Line:
• Formal signature and date line has been added to comply with SAS 112 control recommendations and added last name of users who submitted the action to the PeopleSoft database

Payroll, Time Labor, Absence Management Related

Manager Self Service Absence Request Pages

• What:
• The default has been changed on the Manager Self Service pages to not display terminated employees on employee listing pages. Prior to this change the default was to include terminated employees.



• Bottom Line:
• To include terminated employees in certain Absence Management pages, users must uncheck the Exclude Terminated Employees checkbox.

Time and Labor Unsubmitted Time Report

• What:
• The date parameter fields have be modified to allow for time periods greater than one week



• Bottom Line:
• Report users can now retrieve unsubmitted time data for employees greater than a week in a single report. For example, with this change to the report, tubs/departments can use this report to:
• Check for Temps, LHTs, and Student Temps (non-schedule employees) that have not submitted any hours for the past month. For those listed on the report, tubs/departments can contact their managers to determine if the employee forgot to enter their time or the employee is no longer employed and their job record needs to be terminated.

Time and Labor Possible Underpay Report

• What:
• A signature and date line has been added to the report
• New selection criteria has been added to the report to allow users to run the report by:
  • By Week – Evaluate time reported for the entire week and only return employees whose total hours reported for the week are less than their scheduled hours for the week (default), or;
  • By Day – Evaluate time reported for each day and return any employee whose daily hours reported are less than the employee’s scheduled hours for that day

  

• Bottom Line:
• Report will allow users to identify employee’s whose total hours are correct for the week but daily hours are short due to an unapproved absence. The report would now allow a user to identify an employee based on the scenario below:
• Employee works 35 hours per week with a schedule of M-7, T-7, W-7, R-7, F-7. Reported hours are M-7, T-6, W-8, R-7, F-7 for a total of 35 hours
• If the report is run By Week, this employee will not appear on the report as total reported hours equals total scheduled hours
• If the report is run By Day this employee will appear on report as reported hours of 6 on Tuesday are less than their scheduled of 7 hours for that day

Time and Labor Possible Overpayment Report

• What:
• A signature and date line has been added to the report
• Report can now be run for a prior period and will return all payroll statuses (the report is no longer limited to Estimated, Not Approved, and Approved) which prevented data from being returned if the report was run for a prior period.
• Bottom Line:
• By including all of the statuses on the report, users can identify possible overpayments from prior period adjustments. For example:
• A ZPTO row was used as a placeholder for a 7-hour absence that was not processed. The following week, the prior period vacation absence was approved but the ZPTO was not removed (creating an overpayment). Prior to this modification, the report would not return this employee on the report because the ZPTO time type has a status of PD (paid). With the modification, the ZPTO time type (PD- paid) and VAC (AP-approved) statuses are captured, which results in the employee appearing on the report.

Time and Labor Additional Date and Signature Lines

• What:
• In addition to the reports mentioned earlier in this article, these reports have also had a date and signature lined added to the report:
• Approved/Unapproved Time Report
• Payable Status Report

Longer Service Balance Adjustments Not Processing    top

A business process change is required with adjusting and/or zeroing out Longer Service Vacation balances using the Global Payroll & Absence Management > Adjust Balances page. Essentially, these balance adjustments are not being picked-up for processing.

If you have processed or are planning to make an adjustment to a Longer Service balance, please use the following workaround:

1. In PeopleSoft, navigate to: Global Payroll & Absence Management > Payee Data > Maintain Absences > Assign Accruals and Takes.
2. On the Elements tab, add an entitlement row by clicking the “+”, and then select from the Element Type dropdown the appropriate LSV award that is being adjusted (e.g., 15 year LSV).
3. In the Enter Begin and End Date enter the same date in both fields using the 15th of the month in which you would like the adjustment to take effect (to have the adjustment process in the next Take Cycle, use the prior month).



4. On the Unit Element tab, make the Unit Element Type ‘numeric’ and make the Entitlement Unit the amount of the adjustment (in the case of zeroing out a balance you want to enter a negative number [e.g., the example below the user has 40 hours that needs to be zeroed-out, to make it zero, a -40.00 is entered]).



5. Click Save.

Additional Steps (cleaning up adjustments that are not processing)
If you have already made an adjustment to a Longer Service balance using the Adjust Balance screen, there are a few additional steps you must take.

6. Navigate to the Global Payroll & Absence Management > Adjust Balances page and choose the employee and accrual calendar used to make the Longer Service balance adjustment.
7. On the balance adjustment screen click and open the Details link copy your comments about the adjustment, and then paste those comments into a Word document*
• a. NOTE: for those used to working with more than one PeopleSoft window, you can open the Assign Accruals and Takes page, open the adjustment you made in steps 1-5, click the Details link and paste your comment directly into the page. Click Save.
8. Once you have captured your comments, delete the absence balance adjustment row by clicking the “-“. Click Save.

* If you paste comments in a MS Word document, copy the comments and navigate Assign Accruals and Takes page, open the adjustment you made in steps 1-5, click the Details link and past your comment directly into the page, and then click Save.

Updates to FY09 Financial Reporting Year End Calendar of Events    top

• A special financials load is planned for Sunday, August 2nd so Balance Forwards and August Opening Balances will be available to CREW Financial and Ad Hoc users on Monday, August 3rd instead of Tuesday, August 4th.
• CREW Saturday down-times to run the FY10 Budget Processes have been reduced to three Saturdays in August, instead of five.

These updates and more can be found on the Year End Website @ http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/ofs/frds/fy09_ye.shtml

2009 CREW Financial, Sponsored, CAPS, and Student Release Items Review     top

FSS Reporting Release Items as of July 15, 2009

This list covers report changes and enhancements for financial, grants management, public, student reports and to the CREW application since January, 2009:

Financial

Grants Management/Sponsored

Public

Student

CREW Application

CREW Report Enhancements Available  top

Move over Detail Listing, the Journals-General Report Just Got a Brand New Bag…

Available as of 3/29/2009

To verify transactions, users often reach for the Detail Listing. It’s not the only choice anymore.

Availabe as of 3/28/2009, the Journals - General Report now offers an enhanced view of financial transactions, for example:

• Want to track a journal as close to the source as possible?

The Journals - General (GLJRGEN182) report shows the full originating journal, based on a myriad of criteria available to enter in the much enhanced parameter page options.

• Ever see a charge on your Detail Listing and wonder, "where did this come from?"

The Journals - General report will display the name of the person who processed the journal.

• Want to review all of your “first close” journals?

That’s easy, use the “Created By” parameter and the “First Closing” option in the “Posted Date” parameter.

• Only interested in the Batch Names?

The Journals - General report also provides the option to see journals at three levels of detail - choose the Batch Level of Detail option.

You can also enter any combination of chart segment values to capture all the journals that include at least one journal line that matches the criteria you entered.

Early adopters of the Journals - General report are giving it great reviews, and we are working on a few more moves to make it even better. Look soon for the “Transaction Amount Operator” parameter that will allow you to filter journals whose journal lines meet the dollar threshold you specify, such as greater than or equal to 500.00, or less than 0.00.

Also coming soon, search by any combination of journals source and categories, and by more than one “created by” users, and/or batch names.

The report is available in CSV and PDF outputs.

Individual - Oracle User Security Report…Not Just for Authorized Requestors

Available as of 6/20/2009

When it comes to understanding what systems you have access to, and the type of access you have to them, it sometimes feels like you’re piecing together a “crazy quilt” out of the various bits and pieces of what you believe you know, or can recall, about your security access.

A new report now collects and stitches together these pieces from various financials systems, providing a ready-made, comprehensive view of an individuals Oracle Financial Systems access.

The “Summary Layout” of the Individual-Oracle Security (OSUSRIN223) report shows you a listing of the history and current status of your access to:

• Accounts Receivable
• CSMA
• General Ledger
• Oracle Budget Tool
• Procurement/AP
• Reporting in the Harvard Data Warehouse (HDW)

The “Detail Layout” of the report breaks down “Responsibility Names” to show you exactly the range of chart segment values for which you are allowed access.

In breaking down “Responsibility Names” to show you which chart segment values you have access to, if a “Responsibility Name” has no restrictions, or the restrictions are not secured by segment values, or the segment values are restricted in such a way as they cannot be properly interpreted, the segment value from and to columns remain empty.

For example, if a “Responsibility Name” only shows you a restriction to “Org” values you can access, it means you are allowed to access any and all other chart values within or associated with the Org.

The potentially exciting news for Ad Hoc reporters is that because the Individual Oracle User Security Report is a “Hyperion” report using an optimized underlying “Star-Schema” as the data source, users can be granted the “BQY Privilege” in CREW and download the .bqy output version of the report to customize, extend, and/or otherwise modify.

The “HDW^ADHOC^REPORTING” Responsibility Name will allow users to access the underlying views supporting the report. Tub Authorized Requestors can request the “CREW BQY Privilege” for users who want to download the underlying report query for local usage.

Sponsored System Updates       top

GMAS and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Wondering if your sponsored award is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)? Search for your fund and then take a look at the segment home:

The ARRA flag was added to GMAS on June 27, and central administrators have since updated the flag for every ARRA award. To date there are 41 ARRA awards across the University. Central administrators record and flag all new incoming ARRA awards in GMAS within three days of receipt.

Check the ARRA awards checkbox and press Search to retrieve all ARRA awards. In the search results note when a segment’s status is pending. The pending status means the segment is “at-risk” -- the award is not received yet, or it is received but under review. You can exclude at-risk segments by selecting the active checkbox for status. You can also narrow the search results by using the usual search criteria of TUB, ORG, PI, etc. As usual, only segments for which you have been granted access (security) are included in the search results.

The ARRA proposals checkbox searches for segments that contain one or more requests where the following question is answered yes: Does this proposal include funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009? This question is found in a request’s school specific questions.

For those of you who are “ad hoc” reporters:

• The new ARRA awards flag will soon be added to Harvard’s Data Warehouse (HDW)
• The request school specific question is already available in the HDW

Recent Releases

• On June 27 GMAS was updated with Release 1_21. See Release Notes for details
• On July 17, HIRBERT and HETHR were updated with a few items. See the Release Notes for details

Future Releases

• The new Letter of Credit module for GMAS is scheduled for release on September 27
• To support the “FFATA” versions of Grants.gov forms, a GMAS release is planned for system-to-system submissions. The release date is TBD but will be coordinated with NIH’s implementation of the new versions.

Questions

• For more information regarding above contact Andrew Malone
• For help using GMAS contact the help desk at contactgmas@harvard.edu



HUBS Update: Training and System Demonstrations       top

The EBPS project team is hard at work getting ready for its next big release in Winter 2010 when the rest of the University will go live with the Harvard University Budgeting System (HUBS). As part of the process, the team has created a wealth of reference information available to all users:

• Training materials available on Eureka (the Center for Workplace Development's Learning Management System) – There are two *new* online training courses available: the HUBS Basic Navigation and Reports Overview and Using the HUBS Planning Application. There are also numerous work instructions on topics ranging from the basics of using HUBS (getting started, setting preferences, etc.) to individual work instructions written for each artifact (webforms, reports, and business rules).
• CINA Budgeting Demonstration – This online demonstration gives an overview of the standard webforms and business rules associated with the non-employee (CINA) budgeting. The demonstration can be located on the homepage of the EBPS Project iSite.
• Employee Budgeting Demonstration – This is a demonstration of the standard webforms, reports, and business rules associated with employee budgeting and it will be given in early August to the Local Implementation Managers at each unit preparing for Go-Live in Winter 2010. It will be available to all users on the homepage of the EBPS Project iSite in the second week of August.



Revised HR Department Request Form  top

In an effort to help guide Authorized Requestors assign the appropriate Central Reporting Tree affiliations to new departments, we have added a new tab to the HR Department Request Form.  The new tab lists all Central major and sub affiliation codes as well as their corresponding descriptions.  Please refer to this list when determining Central Reporting Tree affiliations for new departments.  If you have further questions, please contact the help desk at 617.496.2001 and ask to be referred to the HR Reporting Team.

The new HR Department Request Form is available in Eureka under the HR Security section – AR Forms and Instructions.



Upcoming Releases     top

FY2010 FINDINI Releases

A significant upgrade to the Oracle Financial Applications, known as a "FINDINI release", is done every two to four months. Each upgrade introduces needed bug fixes, enhancements, and technical upgrades into Harvard's financial systems. Generally, releases are performed on weekends to assure maximum availability during the business week. Most outages occur from 6 pm Friday evening-6 am Monday morning.

The first FINDINI release, 3.2.9, is scheduled for October 19, 2009. Please check future issues of e-News for more information.

The Oracle Financial Applications are:

• General Ledger & ADI	• Electronic Shop and Pay (ESP)
• Budget Tool	• Harvard Crimson Online Marketplace (HCOM)
• Accounts Receivable	• Capital Projects Services (CAPS) Automated System
• Cash Management (CMRA)	• Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA)
• Accounts Payable	• Chart of Account Validator (CoA)
• Web Voucher	• Web Reimbursement
• Procurement Card (Pcard)	• Online Vendor Form

HR Release 24

The next PeopleSoft and CREW HR Reporting releases are tentatively scheduled for the weekend of September 12-14, 2009. See future editions of e-News for more information.

CREW Reports

In addition to the CREW Financial Reporting and CREW HR Reporting releases which correspond with the FINDINI and HR releases listed above, changes and enhancements to new and existing CREW reports are also released monthly.

• CREW HR 24.0 which corresponds to Peoplesoft HR 24.0 is scheduled for production release the weekend of September 12 – 14
• The CREW RPT 5.8 report release is scheduled for August 21

GMAS Releases

See the details concerning GMAS Release 1_21 above.



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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