FIS BULLETIN Number 1

Inaugural Collector’s Edition

Announcements | Calendar | Status | T&T-Q&A | Training | Inside Peek | Odds & Ends

October 4, 1996

We are pleased to present to you the first edition of the FIS Bulletin.
We hope you find the information in it useful.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

GENERAL:

UNITS USING PAYROLL ENCUMBRANCES: September payroll charges posted last night (10/3/96), but the entries adjusting payroll encumbrances will not post until next Tuesday night(10/8/96). Please be aware of this in reviewing data in Banner or the data warehouse. Improvements in the processing of payroll entries led to this unexpected event. We are working on better synchronizing these two independent processes so that it will not happen again. If you have any questions, please contact Monique Leduc at mleduc@cats.

ACQUISITIONS: (Editor’s Note: Please be aware that this article was written and distributed to fis_users earlier this week and, as a result, some dates have passed.)

PROBLEM INVOLVING INVOICES AWAITING APPROVAL AT CLOSE OF PERIOD: It has been discovered that invoices remaining in approval queues until after the period in which they were created has closed, occasionally get through approvals and posting, and post to the closed period. As a result, these transactions will not appear on current month’s detail ledger reports as expected. Instead the amount of the transaction will be included as part of the "Beginning Balance."

To avoid this problem, we consulted with several other BANNER Finance users and the software vendor, SCT/Banner. All of them advised us to make sure that our approval queues are cleaned out each month prior to closing the period. Consistent with this advice, starting this month, we will send out a list of documents still in approval queues. This will alert you of any documents still needing approval. On the day the period closes, the technical team will disapprove all current month documents still in these approval queues. A more detailed schedule follows:
Prior month documents (August and prior)
9/30/96: disapproval of all remaining documents, send list to fis_users advising of the document numbers that have been disapproved.
Current month documents (September)
10/1/96: Send list of documents in approvals to users & A/P by 5:00
10/7/96: Send to users an updated reminder list of all documents that must be approved by 5:00, Oct 8th
10/9/96: Technical staff to disapprove all remaining documents
10/9/96: Period closes at 5:00
If you have any questions, contact Karsen Jones at kjones@cats.

BANNER REPORTS: None

OTHER FIS / BANNER ITEMS:

FIS ADVISORY GROUP: We are interested in possibly forming an FIS Advisory Group. Members of this group will meet with FIS Technical Support Team members on a regular basis to discuss various FIS/Banner issues. The purpose of the group is:

To assist in providing the technical team with a broader perspective from which to address FIS/Banner-related functional and technical questions.

To provide an initial assessment of the impact of potential Banner changes and enhancements and to assist in developing the most effective means to obtain additional feedback or to plan for implementing a change.

To discuss items of widespread interest among FIS/Banner users.

We plan to form a group of six volunteers, who, hopefully, represent a wide range of campus units. Members of the group will meet with the members of the project team on a monthly basis for about two hours and will serve a term of one year. Three members of the first group will serve a term of 18 months. New volunteer members will replace members whose terms expire. In this way, we hope to maintain both a fresh perspective and continuity.

If you are interested in volunteering to serve on this group, please contact Kirk Lew at kllew@cats. Selection will be based on establishing a group representing a wide variety of campus units in terms of acquisitions, accounting, and budgeting needs. Those not selected to serve initially will be considered for later terms. Our intent is to allow everyone who volunteers a chance to serve.

WAITING FOR INVITATIONS: At the last FIS Users Group Meeting, Kirk Lew, asked to be invited by Service Centers to find out more about how each service center operates and about its accounting and budgeting information needs. During his visit, he would be happy to talk to you and your coworkers about the future of the project and answer questions. The response to date has been extremely underwhelming, and he again asks service center managers to contact him at kllew@cats if they are interested in talking with him. His visits to date have been very helpful in giving him a better understanding of the diverse accounting and budgeting processing and information needs of the campus.

CALENDAR OF FIS / BANNER EVENTS

PROJECT STATUS

PAYROLL ENCUMBRANCE DEMONSTRATION: We are attempting to organize a demonstration of the Banner payroll encumbrance process for the benefit other potential users of the feature. Service centers currently using payroll encumbrances are urged to participate in the demonstration and share their knowledge. If you are interested in helping us, please contact either Kirk Lew at kllew@cats or Linda Rhoads at rhoads@cats. Those service centers already familiar with the process who want to be able to use it, who have not already made the request, should direct their requests to Kirk.

BANNER UPGRADE: Work continues on the Banner system upgrade which involves installing and testing four upgrades from version 2.04 to 2.07. Each upgrade usually consists of "bug fixes" and minor enhancements, and, frequently but not always, significant enhancements. For example, the version 2.0.6 to 2.07 upgrade consists of 123 "bug fixes" and minor enhancements, and significant enhancements to the Stores Inventory Module (which eventually will be used by some service centers) and the handling of Federal Form 1099 information(useful for the purchasing and accounting offices). Be aware that many of the "bug fixes" and minor enhancements are to features not used at UCSC or to "behind the scenes" features. Initial analysis of the upgrades indicate that there will be minimal impact on FIS users. Completion is still expected by the end of the calendar year. We are in the process of updating user documentation to reflect changes in functionality resulting from the upgrades which will be provided to you in advance of the implementation of the upgrade.

STUDENT WORKER ACCESS TO BANNER: Work also continues on developing policies and training requirements for extending Banner access to student workers. Because of training considerations, current plans are to phase in access to various Banner features beginning with requisitions and direct payments. Responses from service center managers to Peter Fullenwider’s survey regarding who should be conducting training indicates that nearly all respondents would prefer computer classroom training outside of the service centers. Currently trainers are not available to present separate classroom training for student workers. To generate the necessary resources to pay for trainers, we are considering, among other things, establishing a nominal recharge. Another idea under consideration is establishing a service center training cooperative, where "power" Banner users would contribute their skills to training student workers. Any comments or suggestions you might have in this area would be appreciated. Please send them to Kirk Lew (at kllew@cats).

TIPS & TRICKS / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

TIPS & TRICKS

Please send any Banner tips or tricks that you would like to share with other FIS/Banner users to Kirk Lew kllew@cats. We’ll make sure you receive due credit, unless you request anonymity.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

How do I get included on the "fis_users" list?

Answer: The FIS users email list is maintained by Monique Leduc. Send her an email message that includes your email address and name to mleduc@cats.

I need to get a monthly ledger report reprinted. Who do I need to request it from?

Answer: Monique Leduc also serves as production coordinator and can handle your requests for monthly ledger report reprints.

During the 1995-96 fiscal closing, our service center opted to have its balances rollover on an activity code basis. This resulted in lots of small balances appearing on the July ledgers. Is it possible to have the balances rolled for 1996-97 at a combined activity code and pooled budget level?

Answer: We have included this request among the list of items for the FIS/Banner team to consider for the next year end closing. We will be assessing what programming changes are needed and the amount of programming involved. We will keep you informed of the situation.

________________________
Questions or problems regarding the Banner system can be directed to:
Acquisitions, Accounts Payable - Karsen Jones kjones@cats
Ledger Reports, Fiscal Closing - Vicki Gutzwiller vickig@cats
Banner Security, Access - Monique Leduc mleduc@cats
Other questions - Kirk Lew kllew@cats

INSIDER’S PEEK AT FIS

ANATOMY OF A UNIVERSITY ACCOUNTING SYSTEM

Part 1

A Bucket for this, A bucket for that - Fund Accounting

In order to better understand the complexities of the Banner Finance System, it is important to understand the purpose of a college or university accounting system, which is to accurately and consistently identify, track, and report on the sources (revenue-including state funding and recharges) and uses (expenditures) of a variety of resources (usually always $).

A specialized type of accounting for not-for-profit entities, fund accounting, developed to meet these requirements. It includes principles and practices developed for not-for-profit organizations that enable them to account properly for the diversity of resources that they receive and use. Fund accounting enables the University to identify and track a variety of different resources, such as state general funds, student fees, donations, contract and grants, endowment income, and income from self-supporting units. It also enables the University to track expenditures by their use, by the campus unit, and by the funding source. By establishing an accounting system based on fund accounting principles, readers of the University's financial statements, like the Regents, can determine how well the University is using its resources to fulfill its mission of teaching, research, and public service. (For those of you involved in the accounting and budgeting process, pat yourself on the backs, the Regents thank you.)

Fund accounting involves setting up funds (a.k.a. buckets) which are used to accumulate revenue and expenditures according to how the revenue may be spent. Each fund can be thought of as a separate set of accounting books which must always be in balance. As a result, an institution such as UCSC has thousands of funds, representing such diverse sources as student fees, state funding, many federal grants for specific research projects, donations, and revenue from housing operations.

As those of you who have to work with multiple funds know, having to track revenue and expenditures for a variety of funds can be complex and difficult (or to be official, "challenging"). These same complexities and difficulties haunt the SCT people who developed the Banner system and the FIS/Banner team that attempts to maintain and customize the system for the purposes of the Santa Cruz campus. Not only does the campus’ fund accounting system have to work like a regular profit-making company’s system, which has essentially one set of books, it has to worry about handling what amounts to thousands of little and big sets of "books" and keep track of all the activity that takes place between them. (Sort of makes you want to hug your Banner screen, doesn’t it - just kidding).

In the next issue: Part 2
Programs! Get yer Programs! Can’t Tell the Transactions Apart without ‘em! - The Banner Program

ODDS & ENDS

FIS / BANNER

REQUEST FOR FEEDBACK ISSUES

If you have not already responded to the fiscal closing survey distributed by Vicki Gutzwiller, we would appreciate your response. For questions, contact Vicki at vickig@cats.

Contributors: Kirk Lew, Karsen Jones, Monique Leduc, Linda Rhoads, Laura Martin, Vicki Gutzwiller
Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please direct them to Kirk Lew kllew@cats

Financial Affairs | Accounting Offices | Campus Controller | FIS

Comments to: controller@ucsc.edu - Maintained by FIS, Updated