FIS BULLETIN Number 12

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

September 5, 1997

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

GENERAL: SCHEDULED FIS BANNER DOWNTIMES

FIS will be UNAVAILABLE on the following weekend days for system maintenance tasks. (For details, please read the FIS Status Section of this Bulletin):

ACQUISITIONS:

Selected Taxes Feature for vendors now implemented. See & TRICKS/QUESTIONS & ANSWERS"Questions & Answers for details.

Self-paced buyer training for extended purchasing authority now available. See & TRICKS/QUESTIONS & ANSWERS">Tips & Tricks for details.

BANNER REPORTS: None

OTHER FIS / BANNER ITEMS:

FZIGBAL form is now available. More on this in the FIS Status Section.

Your feedback is needed. Please see Odds and Ends at the bottom of the Bulletin.

CALENDAR OF FIS / BANNER EVENTS

MONTHLY INTERFACE SCHEDULE (Financial data from other admin systems)
All interfaces begin running at 5pm; dates subject to change

FIS STATUS

FIS PROJECT STATUS
Now that fiscal year end closing is safely behind us, we can give some thought as to what lies ahead in the future. We in FIS expect to pursue the following tasks and projects over the 1997-98 fiscal year. (Estimated project timeline is noted in parenthesis):

FIS DAILY MAINTENANCE: About half of each FIS staffmember's time is spent maintaining the daily operation of the system. Tasks include security and queue maintenance, troubleshooting, interface production, report production, running of various processes, general maintenance, and implementation of reporting and processing modifications resulting from UCOP, state, and federal mandates. (Ongoing.)

FIS DISTRIBUTED DIRECT PAYMENT PROCESS IMPROVEMENT: This project was conceived in the Business Practices and Process Workgroup. FIS will be contributing some project support. In addition, there are likely to be several modifications made to FIS acquisitions-related input forms in support of the improved process. (9/97-2/98)

DISTRIBUTED FIS BUDGET RESERVATION FUNCTIONALITY ("MEMO LIENS"): This functionality will enable Service Centers to create and liquidate informal liens in FIS.

CONTRACT & GRANT INCEPTION-TO-DATE (ITD) REPORT ENHANCEMENTS : The current report is being revised in order to more effectively present grant-related financial information. (8/97-10/97)

REPORT PRODUCTION COORDINATION: The purpose of this work is to better systematize the process of producing reports and other FIS processes. This will also reduce the occurrence of problems related to interfaces (i.e. feeds to Banner from other systems like PPS), daily Banner maintenance processes, and report production (including microfiche and monthly electronic data feeds of financial data to UCOP). (4/97-9/97)

1997-98 FISCAL YEAR END MODIFICIATIONS TO THE BUDGET ROLL: This project involves determining the feasibility of making additional changes to the 1997-98 budget roll process. This may result in planning and implementation of program modifications. (9/97-12/97)

ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER (EFT) PROCESS FOR FACULTY AND STAFF EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENTS: This project will involve enabling FIS to provide the necessary transaction data to the bank and to ensure the corresponding entries are recorded in FIS. (12/97-4/98)

IMPROVED CAMPUSWIDE REPORTING: This involves a number of different tasks: 1) rethinking the way in which reports are produced in an effort to improve production efficiency; 2) correcting "bugs" in existing reports; and 3) as time allows, developing new reports that are of campuswide benefit (Ongoing)

FIS BANNER UPGRADE TO VERSION 3.1: Analytical work will begin 1/98. Programming work will begin in earnest in 4/98. More on this in a future edition of the Bulletin. (1/98-3/99)

FIS PRODUCTION AND TUNING PROJECT
Over the course of the next couple months, CATS ADS and CSO staff will be performing hardware and software related upgrades/tune-ups on dinky (the server that Banner FIS runs on). These procedures will require downtime for FIS as scheduled in the Announcements section of the Bulletin, above. Here is a brief description of the tasks that will be performed:

Sat 9/14/97 The FIS Database Administrator will be performing a defragmentation of all the Banner FIS tables. This will allow for more efficient data access. We expect that this will mitigate the posting delays we have been experiencing during month-end processing.

Sun 9/15/97 The FIS User Analysts will conduct a system test to ensure that the defragmentation process did not inadvertently introduce any system problems before re-opening up access to users.

Sat 9/20/97 CATS CSO staff will be upgrading the operating system software that manages the disk storage space on dinky. This upgrade is necessary to accommodate the new disk drives (or disk array, in technical terms) which will also be installed.

We will post reminders of these downtimes to fis_user, as well as notifications of any changes to this schedule. Also, be sure to watch the "Scheduled Non-Availabilities" section of the Banner login screen for up-to-the-minute updates!

STEALTH II: FZIGBAL - UCSC AVAILABLE NON-REVENUE BALANCE STATUS FORM AVAILABLE
The FZIGBAL form functions similarly to the FZIABAL form, but returns balances only for non-revenue FOAPALs. In other words, balances associated with Rxxxxx account codes will not be included in the result block of the GBAL form. Access to FZIGBAL was automatically granted to all FIS Users who have access to FGIBDST (Organization Budget Status). Please review FIS Bulletin #11A (distributed 8/26/97) for complete details about FZIGBAL. If you need more information, please contact Monique Leduc mleduc@cats

TIPS & TRICKS / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

TIPS & TRICKS

Now available: A self-paced buyer training package for BANNER certified service center buyers and managers. Upon successful completion, the employee may be delegated authority to complete or approve purchase orders up to $2800 for common goods and services. This training can be completed by the service center buyer or manager at his or her desk with the assistance of the WWW.

Please note: This extended training is ONLY for Service Center buyers who have already completed the Banner FIS Acquisitions training.
Contact Lisa Rose lrose@cats for complete details.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

What is the new Selected Taxed Feature and how will it affect me?

Accounts Payable has implemented the Banner "Selected Taxes" feature, effective 7/1/97. Many vendors collect only the basic sales tax rate of 7.25%, and are not obligated to collect district taxes. In those instances, the purchaser (UCSC) is obligated to pay the district tax directly to the State. Note, district taxes are determined by the county to which the goods are shipped.

The Selected Taxes feature supports a process which (with accurate vendor set-ups) ensures sales tax is paid correctly to vendors, and that any differences (between what the vendor collects and what the campus owes) is accrued correctly and paid directly to the State.

FIS users may notice a small change to the code that defaults into the Collects Taxes field when they prepare a purchase order. Distributed Invoice units will also notice a difference in the invoice processing form, FYAINVE. Some vendors formerly set up in the vendor database with "N - Collects No Taxes" or "A - Collects All Taxes" are now set up as "S - Collects Selected Taxes". This change to the code that defaults into the Collects Taxes field is the only difference apparent to the users. The calculations, or "nuts and bolts" of the functionality are transparent to users. Regardless of the vendor set-up ("N", "S", or "A"), users will view the entire tax obligation (basic State tax of 7.25% plus the applicable district tax) as one figure in the "Tax" field of the PO and Invoice forms, based on the tax group selected for the commodity. The payment amount reflected on their ledger reports will reflect the entire tax obligation - even though all of the tax ("N" vendors) or some of the tax ("S" vendors) is paid directly to the State.

To help the Accounts Payable Office update vendor records set up prior to July 1997, FIS users are asked to contact the AP staff should you notice a vendor that 1) is NOT set up as an "S," and 2) collects sales tax at the basic 7.25% rate (i.e. the vendor does not collect district sales taxes). Please contact AP at aphelp@cats or call an AP staffmember. Updating vendor records can be done quickly and will result in eliminating future vendor payment problems.

________________________
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, Other - Monique Leduc mleduc@cats

INSIDER'S PEEK AT FIS

A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF DINKY (or It Just Keeps on Ticking)

It probably comes as no surprise to you that Banner FIS processing (running on the mighty server dinky) continues beyond our standard 8-5 workday (or is it more like 8-6 these days?) But we thought it might be interesting to find out exactly what is going on in Bannerland during "off" hours. (Dinner and dancing? or perhaps pizza and keggers? Inquiring minds want to know...) So we sent our intrepid reporter B. Slug undercover to the CATS funhouse to investigate. Here's his firsthand report:

5:00pm OK, I've established a good location over here behind the disk storage arrays; got a clear view of both dinky and inky (the data warehouse server). Dinky is still hopping - about 75 on-line users (down from a high of about 175 earlier), still pushing through documents. I expect activity to taper off rapidly.

5:30pm Yup, I was right! Down to 40 on-line users, with the posting and approvals processes barely utilized...but wait! What the-- It's an interface file, full of journal vouchers! Looks like about 15,000 transactions...that's almost five times as many as are posted by on-line users all day! This is gonna take a while...

7:00pm Still posting those interface journals. Only 4 on-line users left; hope those folks get to go home soon!

8:00pm Still posting...wonder where I can get some coffee around here...

8:30pm Phew! Three hours of continuous posting! That oughtta do it - the dinkster sure deserves a rest...

9:00pm Well, the posting and approvals processes have officially shut down for the night. The only activity in the last 1/2 hour was a PO or two from a night owl over in Nat Sci...

9:05pm Here's some action--five programs have just been submitted simultaneously...we've got CPUs singing all over the place! Let me see--looks like 2 of the programs are siphoning off data to the data warehouse on inky. Another one is loading up the Available Balance table with today's posted data...and the last two are creating the daily cash and control reports for Central Accounting. Wow! It's a madhouse in here!

10:45pm Ah, blessed silence! All the 9pm processes have ended. Looks like dinky gets a break while sister inky gets backed up.

12:00am The witching hour...dinky backups have begun and the tape drives are humming. Sure does give me a warm fuzzy secure kind of feeling to watch our data being so carefully preserved. This is going to take a while; think I catch a few Z's.

1:00am Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

:00am Done yet? No? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

3:00am OK, backups are done, tapes are labeled and tucked away in case of an emergency. A quick little housekeeping job just finished to clear out some temporary data residue that posting left behind and that should do it...done and ready for the first on-line early birds! I'm off to my cozy bungalow for a few hours of...huh? Why is that processor spinning? ... Reports! There are campus financial reports running! This could take hours! Aw man...

4:00am Reports still running, and now the bi-weekly checkwrite has started! Looks like data is being grabbed from the Student Information System for student checks and being posted as invoices into FIS...

5:00am The FIS checkwrite process has run, and vendor and student checks are being posted and printed. Everything during this process has been double and triple checked...can't b6:00am Checks have finished posting and the printed checks are ready to be delivered to Accounts Payable for MORE checking. And look at that...the first few on-line users have started to appear. I guess the new day has officially begun! Although I'm a little unclear as to when the old day actually ended. Well, Dinky, you may be able to run on a 24 by 7 schedule, but this old slug is bone (or is it slime?) tired...I'm just going to drop off these notes then turn in for a long day's nap.

ODDS & ENDS

FIS / BANNER: None

REQUEST FOR FEEDBACK ISSUES:

FIS BULLETIN FIRST ANNIVERSARY ISSUE FEEDBACK REQUEST: In anticipation of the first anniversary of the publication of the Bulletin, we cordially request your response to the following "deep" question:

How has the FIS Bulletin changed your life?

In keeping with the occasionally informative, but always amusing nature of the FIS Bulletin, only the most humorous (and tasteful) responses will be included in the First Anniversary Issue of the FIS Bulletin (Lucky #13). Unless you tell us otherwise, you will be given credit (notoriety?) for your thoughts. Send your responses to Monique Leduc (mleduc@cats) by September 26.

Contributors: Jane Kling, Lisa Rose, Kirk Lew, Monique Leduc
Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please direct them to the Editors, Monique Leduc (mleduc@cats) or Kirk Lew (kllew@cats)

Financial Affairs | Accounting Offices | Campus Controller | FIS

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