Schedule Announced for FY2011 Financial Closings

Overview

Harvard's fiscal year 2011 will end on Thursday, June 30. As in the past, the University will close the books through a series of steps called "closings."

In the paragraphs that follow, you will find closing deadlines and submission information for the following financial transactions (click on a transaction to jump to that section of the e-News):

• Accounts Payable / Web Voucher
• Petty Cash Fund Settlement
• Vendor Setup, Maintenance & Reactivation
• Credit Vouchers (Cash Receipts)
• Credit Vouchers (Validated Deposit Slips)
• Massachusetts Taxable Sales Deposits
• Foreign Check Deposits on Credit Vouchers
• Voided Checks
• Stopped Checks
• Escheat Checks
• Foreign Currency Drafts and Wires
• U.S. Wire Transfers
• ACH Payments (Benefits/Tax)
• Purchasing Card Sweeps
• Web Voucher Travel Authorization Forms (WV-TAFs)
• Web Voucher Reimbursement Reports
  • Web Voucher Reimbursement Reports with Advance Settlements
• Central Accounts Receivable Billings
• Journal Entries
• Interdepartmental Billings
• Cost Transfer Requests on Sponsored Funds
• Chart of Accounts Maintenance Requests

Note the journal entries deadlines this year. In order to allow the tubs more time to process manual journal entries on the day of the closings, the manual JV entry deadline will be 2:00 p.m. On Friday, July 1, Friday, July 8 and Friday, July 15, the days of the first, second and third closes, any journals entered into the General Ledger by 2:00 p.m. will be included in that close and will be available in the HDW the next day.

In addition, in order to provide the tubs with more timely information during the FY2011 year end, there will be two additional data refreshes to the Data Warehouse (HDW) on Sunday night, July 3 after the first close and on Sunday night, July 10 after the second close. This means that June journals entered after the deadline on the day of the close and before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday night will be posted and reflected in the HDW on Monday morning. Note that there will not be a data refresh on Sunday, July 17 after the third close. Any regular invoice batches and invoice imports that have been processed by the Accounts Payable department from Friday through Sunday after the first and second closes will also be uploaded on Sunday evening and reflected in the HDW on Monday morning.

The deadlines provided are the last allowable dates to submit transactions.

These are the FAD (Central Financial Administration) deadlines. Since some departments have internal deadlines that may be earlier than these, you should check with your local financial office to obtain any departmentally defined deadlines.

Reporting tips are also included in this e-News. We expect exceptional reporting demands during the year-end closings. Following our suggestions on reporting will reduce the time required to run your reports.

Journal Entries

Please keep in mind the following:

• The University is closed on Monday, July 4 for the holiday. Therefore, there will be no journal vouchers posted to the General Ledger or recorded in the Data Warehouse on that day. Rather these journals will be posted to the General Ledger on Tuesday, July 5 and will be in the HDW on Wednesday, July 6.
• Any journals entered on Friday, July 1 after 2 p.m. and before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 3 will be posted to the GL on Sunday night and available in the HDW on Monday, July 4.
• Any June journals entered on Friday, July 8 after 2 p.m. and before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 10 will be posted to the GL on Sunday night, July 10 and available in the HDW on Monday, July 11.
• From Monday through Wednesday of the first , second and third closes, any feeds or manual journals for the month of June will be posted nightly to the General Ledger at 6:30 p.m. The journals entered by 6:30 p.m. on these days will be posted and recorded in the Data Warehouse for the next day.
• Any June journals entered after the third close deadline of 2 p.m. on Friday, July 15 will be deleted.
• Be careful to select the proper period (JUN-11 or JUL-11) when you are entering a journal. Beginning July 1, the default period will be JUL-11. If you want to post a journal to FY2011 during July 2011 you will need to select JUN-11 as the proper period.
• Entries must not be processed to another tub after the second closing without authorization from the financial office of the tub being charged. Individuals processing journals have personal responsibility to ensure they follow this requirement.
• A journal should only be reversed by the person who created the journal, or with the permission of that person.

Based upon departmental activity and the reports you run through the month of May, please make any necessary adjustments as early in June as possible.

Interdepartmental billings

• All interdepartmental billings, whether entered manually or via a feed to the General Ledger, must be processed by the end of the second closing. (GL billing feeds are generally submitted by service centers like UIS and UOS.) An interdepartmental billing journal may be processed in the third closing only if permission has been obtained from the financial office of the tub being charged.
• An interdepartmental billing should only be reversed by the person who created the entry, or with the permission of that person. Interdepartmental billings should provide a name and contact number on the journal for questions or concerns the tub being billed may have.

Cost transfer requests

• These dates apply to ALL requests for cost transfers to federally sponsored funds (funds in the range from 100000-199999). Note that these requests may require supporting documentation.
• Cost transfer requests should be submitted directly to OSP. OSP will review the request and any necessary documentation for appropriateness. OSP will then enter the cost transfer journals into the General Ledger. Note that OSP only enters cost transfer journals during the year-end closing process; during the fiscal year, these transfers are entered directly by the tubs.

Chart of Accounts maintenance requests

Disable Requests:
June 7 (MAY-11 close) is the last date that values will be disabled in FY2011. Any CSMA requests not successfully disabled on June 7 will be held until the JUL-11 close on Friday, August 5.

Requests to disable CoA values that require approval should be submitted through CSMA before 5 p.m. on Friday, May 20. Disable requests that do not require approval should be submitted through CSMA before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 7.

Funds and subactivities with the status of "Ready to be disabled" in GMAS will be sent to CSMA on June 4 for processing on June 7. This is the last time sponsored funds and subactivities will be sent to CSMA to be disabled in FY2011. The next time "Ready to be disabled" sponsored values will be sent to CSMA is September 3.

Add / Modify / Re-enable Requests:
Requests to add, modify, or re-enable CoA values submitted through CSMA will be processed according to the normal daily schedule (7 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday - Friday) throughout year-end. CSMA requestors wishing to specifically designate for the JUN-11 period any CoA changes entered from July 1 through August 5 (the date of the July close) should enter 30-JUN-2011 as the effective date for their request.

GMAS will continue to send Add/Modify requests as usual during year-end. Requests to re-enable a sponsored fund or subactivity should be sent to the OSP Team Manager as usual.

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Fiscal Year-End Reporting Guidance & Tips; HUBS Actuals Updates Following Scheduled Year-End Close Dates

Every year-end we experience exceptional reporting demands during the closings. Following these suggestions on reporting will reduce the time required to run your reports.

• Use the Detail Listings "close" dates to limit to the specific transactions that occurred in each close. Choose the specific close (First Close, Second Close, etc.) from the report period pick list. Note that the start and end dates populated for these periods will display July dates. For these closing periods only, these dates refer to the actual entry dates of fiscal month June entries. It is strongly recommended that you take advantage of using the close dates to narrow the scope of your data rather than capturing all of the Prior Fiscal Year data throughout the close periods.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Fiscal Year 2010 close dates will be displayed in the Detail Listings report period names until July 1. On July 1, these dates automatically update to the FY2011 dates. This does NOT preclude setting up and scheduling reports in advance. The FY2011 dates will automatically repopulate all scheduled reports.
• Schedule your closing reports to run on the Year-End "Event" dates.
• Enter all of the chart segment parameters you can for a given report request to increase performance for yourself and the whole University. Never use your security view to filter your data. For example, let's say a user wants to see amounts for a range of objects within the tub and org for which they have a view. Because of their view limitation, the user will get the same result whether tub and org are entered as parameters or not. However, not including tub and org will make the query take much longer to run, tying up system resources and slowing things down for all report users.
• Only use transaction reports like the Detailed Listing when you really need to see the transaction line detail. Summary-level balances can be retrieved in reports such as the Summary Actuals Listing report, Fund Summary report, Fund, Gift, & Unrestricted Unexpended Balance report, and the Budget Variance report.
• Preserve server disk space by deleting unneeded reports instead of waiting for them to purge. (Note: Report requests are systematically purged after seven days.) This is especially important if you have report output that you know is large.
• Keep in mind that, as of July 1, the Current Fiscal Year to Date option will reflect FY2012. To retrieve FY2011 year-to-date transactions, select the Prior Fiscal Year date period from the period pick list.

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CAPS Fiscal Year End 2011 Deadlines

To ensure that all necessary approvals are in place and all accounting entries are completed in time, appropriate CAPS Forms must be submitted to central administration by your School/Unit's Authorized Requestor through the CAPS Automated System by the dates below.

• Monday, May 9 - completed Project Proposals and Construction Authorizations submitted by this date will be processed, and CIP activities enabled where applicable, for FY11.
• Monday, June 6- completed Construction Close Requests submitted by this date will be processed, and CIP activities disabled for FY11.

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Summary Schedule for FY2011 Transactions and Reporting

This is the summary schedule for all FY2011 transactions and reporting. Please click on the Print button found at the bottom of this article if you wish to print a version for quick reference.

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Whom to Call List for Closings

Please click on the Print button found at the bottom of this article if you wish to print a version for quick reference.

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Notice of Change in the Posting Date of the July 1, 2011 Bi-weekly and Weekly Payrolls

In order for the University to comply with financial statement reporting requirements, the bi-weekly and weekly payrolls for Friday, July 1 will be processed in the first close of FY2011; the General Ledger posting date will be June 30, 2011. These payrolls are both for time worked in June which should be reported in FY2011. The bi-weekly payroll includes the pay period Sunday, June 12 through Saturday, June 25; the weekly payroll includes the pay period Sunday, June 19 through Saturday, June 25. All entries, which include regular payroll, vacation payroll, overtime, bonuses (those with an effective date of 6/25/11 or before) and supper money payments, on the two files will be posted. Employees will not be affected by this posting date change and will still receive their paychecks on Friday, July 1 as scheduled.

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Reminder about the Costing Copy Process

This year's costing copy process will run on Sunday, June 5th with the new FY 2012 costing rows now available. The FY 2012 costing rows will been inserted with a 07/01/2011 effective date. For tubs/units, this means:

• Existing Employees
• Any changes to an employee's costing occurring between June 6th and June 30th will need to be updated to the employee's FY2011 costing row. Make sure to choose the Override Future Costing radio button in the Job Data Change form to ensure the FY 2012 row is updated. If you fail to update the employee's FY 2012 costing it will reflect what was copied on June 5th



• New Hires, Rehires & Transfers
• o For any new hires, rehires and transfers being processed with an effective date between June 6th and June 30th, you will need to add their FY2012 costing as only the FY 2011 row will be created via the hire process. Failing to add the FY 2012 costing will result in the employee’s costing getting charged to the department-level costing starting on 07/01/2011. To add the FY 2012 row, you can:
• Use the Department Budget Table and Add a New Value for the employee - make sure to indicate 2012 for the Fiscal Year field value
• Use the Costing Upload process - indicate FY 2012 in the Excel spreadsheet
• Use the Job Data Change form with an effective date of 07/01/2011 - this will automatically create a costing row for FY 2012

For more information, please visit Eureka at: Personnel Actions>Update Costing.

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Absence Management Year-End Reminders

For all Absence Reporters:

All time off taken through June 25, 2011 should be reported in the Absence Management system by the end of day on Thursday, June 23. Please take a moment to make sure that your time-off has been accurately reported for the past year. Please see your local Absence Adjuster or Absence Administrator for any missing time-off outside the allowable reporting range.

For all Absence Approvers, Adjusters and Administrators:

All reported paid time off for FY 2011 through June 25, 2011 must be approved by 3:30 pm on Friday, June 24. This will ensure accurate reporting of the University's vacation liability as we close out the year. Please take a moment to review any new or outstanding requests and take the appropriate action. Your timely adherence to this request is very much appreciated.

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Important System Outage Information for June 2011

Users of administrative applications should be aware of at least two important system outages that will occur in June

• All-System Outage, June 10-June 13
• FINDINI Release Outage, affecting Oracle and CREW applications, June 17-19

All-System Outage

All systems, including email, will be unavailable to users on at various schedules on Friday, June 10. Most systems are expected to be available on Saturday, June 11, also at varying times. The list below detail outage information for most of the major administrative applications; users should expect additional communications from owners of additional applications (such as email) as the June 10 date approaches.

Please note the following information for each application:

PeopleSoft

PeopleSoft will be coming down at 2 pm on Friday June 10th. The Time Reporting deadline and Absence Approval deadline for the week of June 5 - June 11 will be pushed up to Friday, June 10th at 2pm. PeopleSoft will be tentatively available as of 9 am on Saturday, June 11.

Oracle applications

Oracle applications will be coming down at 9 pm on Friday June 10th. This will allow time for system feeds into the General Ledger. Oracle will be tentatively available as of 9 am on Saturday, June 11.

CREW

CREW Reporting will be coming down at 6:30 pm on Friday June 10th. CREW will be tentatively available as of 6 pm on Saturday, June 11. Users who log into CREW on June 11 will see data as of Thursday, June 9th. A special data load will take place on Sunday, June 12th, and users will be able to see up-to-date CREW information on Monday morning, June 13th.

HUBS

All features of HUBS, including SmartView, will be unavailable beginning at 6 pm on Friday, June 10th. All normal nightly processing activities originally planned for Friday night will be rescheduled to the night of Sunday, June 12th. On Sunday night the following activities will occur:

• Addition of new chart of accounts segment members to HUBS
• Processing of User Defined Fact files uploaded to HUBS between Friday and Sunday
• Employee and Position dimension files uploaded to HUBS between 12 pm Thursday and 12 pm Sunday
• Creation of TFO data extract files available in the HUBS Workspace
• Processing of security changes made on Friday by HUBS administrators

GMAS

GMAS will be unavailable starting at 8pm on Friday June 10th, and will remain unavailable until Sunday, June 12th. Financial data in GMAS will remain as of the close of business June 9th from June 10th through June 12th. Financial data will be updated as normal for the start of business on Monday, June 13th.

For more information concerning the all-systems outage, please contact the UIS Help Desk at 617-496-2001, or via email.

FINDINI 3.2.14 Release

Due to FINDINI Release 3.2.14, Oracle Financials will be unavailable starting on Friday, June 17th at 6:00pm until Monday, June 20th at 6:00am.

The Oracle Financial Applications are:

• Sponsored Budget Tool
• Accounts Receivable
• Web Voucher
• Procurement Card (Pcard)
• Applications Administration
• Cash Management Reconcilation Application (CMRA)
• General Ledger (GL) Validator
• Electronic Shop and Pay (ESP)
• Harvard Crimson Online Marketplace (HCOM)
• Capital Project System (CAPS)
• Web Reimbursement
• Online Vendor Request Form
• Accounts Payables
• Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA)
• Chart of Accounts (CoA) Validator

The CREW Reporting and Ad Hoc environments will be unavailable as follows during the CREW FIN 3.2.14 software release:

• All CREW Financials reporting will be unavailable from 8 pm, Friday, June 17 (the usual down time) to approx. 12:00 pm, Monday, June 20. This includes:
• Financials
• Grants Management
• Student Data Warehouse
• CAPS
• The DWCENPRD & HDWUTS databases for ad hoc & exporting will have the same outage as CREW Financials reporting above.
• Both CREW nightly Financials & HR data loads will be cancelled for Friday, June 17th. A special data load will run on Sunday night, June 19th.
• The DWHRPRD, DWHRHST and IMSUTS databases will become available for ad hoc reporting around 10am on Saturday, June 18th.
• CREW will be in validation mode through Saturday afternoon; once it is out of validation mode, CEN zones will still be down, but HR zones will be up. HR users will be able to login once CREW comes out of validation mode, which should be approximately around 1pm

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the outage, please contact the UIS Help Desk at 496-2001 or via email.

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Announcement of the New Travel Website and Travel Portal

The Travel & Reimbursmenet Office is pleased to announce the launch of its new website and travel portal for University travelers and visitors to the Harvard campus.

• The new travel website, www.travel.harvard.edu contains policy and travel resource information. The site was developed to provide individuals with information on how to travel for Harvard in a convenient and cost effective manner.
• The new travel portal, http://www.campustravel.com/university/harvard/index.html includes information about the University's preferred travel vendors, and related savings opportunities.

Special thanks to the FAD and Campus Services teams for their support in the development of the new web site for the University's Travel Services program.

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Upcoming Releases

FINDINI Release Schedule

A software release 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 next FINDINI release, 3.2.14, is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of June 17-20, 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

The Oracle Financial Applications are:

CREW FIN Releases

The Common Reporting Environment for the Warehouse (CREW) is a reporting system that draws data from a variety of sources which are updated on a nightly basis. Users can submit report requests for immediate processing or schedule reports to automatically run on a recurring basis. Types of CREW reports include financial, budget, receivables, HR management, benefits, costing, payroll, pension, security, grants management, and sponsored reports.

The next CREW FIN release, 3.2.14, is tenatively scheduled for for the weekend of June 17-20, 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

HR (PeopleSoft) and CREW HR Release 29

The next PeopleSoft Release (HR 29) is scheduled for May 20-23, 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

The CREW HR 29.0 Release is scheduled for May 20-23, 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

CREW Reports

In addition to the CREW Financial and CREW HR releases which correspond with the FINDINI and HR releases listed above, changes and enhancements to new and existing CREW reports are also released the 3rd weekend of each month.

Sponsored Systems Releases

The GMAS release (1_28) was deployed on Saturday, March 12, 2011. As always see the Release Notes about releases to date.
The HIRBERT release was deployed on Saturday, March 19, 2011. As usual, please see the Release Notes for details about releases to date.

HUBS Releases

The Harvard University Budgeting Sytems (HUBS) is a set of web-based Oracle Hyperion Planning applications used for budget data entry, estimates, annotations, reporting, and submission associated with the annual budget and planning cycles.

The next major HUBS release, Release 1.0.10, is tenatively scheduled for June 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

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About the e-News

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.

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