Schedule Announced for FY2012 Financial Closings

Overview

Harvard's fiscal year 2012 will end on Saturday, June 30, 2012. 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
• 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
• CAPS deadlines

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 6, Friday, July 13 and Friday, July 20, 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 FY2012 year end, there will be two additional data refreshes to the Data Warehouse (HDW) on Sunday night, July 8 after the first close and on Sunday night, July 15 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 22 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 Wednesday, 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 Thursday, July 5 and will be in the HDW on Friday, July 6.
• Any journals entered on Friday, July 6 after 2 p.m. and before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 8 will be posted to the GL on Sunday night and available in the HDW on Monday, July 9.
• Any June journals entered on Friday, July 13 after 2 p.m. and before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 15 will be posted to the GL on Sunday night, July 15 and available in the HDW on Monday, July 16.
• Any June journals entered after the third close deadline of 2 p.m. on Friday, July 20 will be deleted.
• Be careful to select the proper period (JUN-12 or JUL-12) when you are entering a journal. Beginning July 1, the default period will be JUL-12. If you want to post a journal to FY2012 during July 2012 you will need to select JUN-12 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 HUIT 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-12 close) is the last date that values will be disabled in FY2012. Any CSMA requests not successfully disabled on June 7 will be held until the JUL-12 close on Tuesday, August 7.

Requests to disable CoA values that require approval should be submitted through CSMA before 5 p.m. on Friday, May 18. Disable requests that do not require approval should be submitted through CSMA before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 5.

Funds and subactivities with the status of "Ready to be disabled" in GMAS will be sent to CSMA on June 1 for processing on June 5. This is the last time sponsored funds and subactivities will be sent to CSMA to be disabled in FY2012. The next time "Ready to be disabled" sponsored values will be sent to CSMA is September 1.

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-12 period any CoA changes entered from July 1 through August 7 (the date of the July close) should enter 30-JUN-2012 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 2012 close dates will be displayed in the Detail Listings report period names until July 1. On July 1, these dates automatically update to the FY2013 dates. This does NOT preclude setting up and scheduling reports in advance. The FY2013 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 FY2013. To retrieve FY2012 year-to-date transactions, select the Prior Fiscal Year date period from the period pick list.

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CAPS Fiscal Year End 2012 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.

• Friday, May 11th - completed Project Proposals (PPs) and Construction Authorizations (CAs)
• Monday, June 11th (12pm)- completed Construction Close Requests (CCRs)

Forms submited by the specified dates will be processed in FY2012; forms submitted after the deadline will be held in a queue and processed in FY2013 when the CAPS system re-opens for approval on Monday, July 2, 2012.

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Summary Schedule for FY2012 Transactions and Reporting

This is the summary schedule for all FY2012 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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PeopleSoft 9.1 Upgrade Is Live!

Harvard is happy to announce that the PeopleSoft Human Resources/Payroll system upgrade went live successfully at 8am on Monday, April 23. As part of the upgrade, all time worked by overtime-eligible (non-exempt) staff must be reported and approved each week in order for those staff members to be paid.

Major enhancements have been made to time reporting and approval functionality and business processes. Here is a quick update about the first 24 hours of usage of the upgraded Time & Labor. As of 10:45 am on Tuesday, April 24:

1. 1,606 employees have reported time in 9.1

AND


2. 1,198 of the employees who have reported time have already had their time approved!

As a reminder, Time Reporter, Time Approver, and Time Adjuster/Administrator training is still available. Depending on your Time and Labor role, complete the appropriate online course(s):

• Time Reporters: 20-minute online course available at: 9.1 Time Reporter Upgrade Training
• Time Approvers: 30-minute online course available at: 9.1 Time Approver Upgrade Training
• Time Adjusters/Administrators: 30-minute online course available at: 9.1 Time Adjuster/Admin Upgrade Training

Thanks to everyone who has been involved with the go live and the successful adoption of the new functionality!

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Notice of Change in the Posting Date of the July 6, 2012 Weekly Payroll

In order for the University to comply with financial statement reporting requirements, the weekly payroll for Friday, July 6 will be processed in the first close of FY2012; the General Ledger posting date will be June 30, 2012. This payroll is for time worked in June which should be reported in FY2012. The weekly payroll includes the pay period Sunday, June 24 through Saturday, June 30. All entries, which include regular payroll, overtime, bonuses (those with an effective date of 6/24/12 or before), on the files will be posted. Employees will not be affected by this posting date change and will still receive their paychecks on Friday, July 6 as scheduled.

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Reminder about the Costing Copy Process

This year's costing copy process will run on Sunday, June 10th to insert the new FY 2013 costing rows. The FY 2013 costing rows will be inserted with a 07/01/2012 effective date. For tubs/units, this means:

• Existing Employees
• Any changes to an employee's costing occurring between June 10th and June 30th will need to be entered on both the employee's FY 2012 and FY2013 costing row. Make sure to choose the Override Future Costing radio button in the Job Data Change form to ensure the FY 2013 row is updated. If you fail to update the employee's FY 2013 costing it will reflect what was copied on June 10th.



• New Hires, Rehires & Transfers
• For any new hires, rehires and transfers being processed with an effective date between June 10th and June 30th, you will need to add their FY2013 costing as only the FY2012 row will be created via the hire process. Failing to add the FY2013 costing will result in the employee's costing getting charged to the department-level costing starting on 07/01/2012. To add the FY2013 row, you can:
• Use the Department Budget Table and Add a New Value for the employee - make sure to indicate 2013 for the Fiscal Year field value
• Use the Costing Upload process - indicate FY2013 in the Excel spreadsheet
• Use the Job Data Change form with an effective date of 07/01/2012 - this will automatically create a costing row for FY2013

For more information, please visit Eureka Harvard Processes section.

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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, 3.2.18, is scheduled for June, 2012. 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, 3.2.18, is scheduled for June, 2012. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

HR (PeopleSoft)

PeopleSoft Version 9.1 was implemented on April 23, 2012. See article 6 for information about the impact and training available for the time reporting communities.

HDW HR Release 33

The HDW HR 33.0 Release is tentatively scheduled for September 2012. Details will be available in an upcoming issue of 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

• GMAS release 1_31 was released on Friday, April 13, 2012. Please see the Release Notes for more information.
• A HIRBERT release was deployed in Feburary 2012. Please see the April 2012 e-News for more information.

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 HUBS release is scheduled for May 18-20, 2012. Details about the May release will be provided in an upcoming issue of 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.

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