The fiscal period of March is now closed, and you can run final reports after 10 p.m. tonight when the dashboard updates are complete.

Payroll has this helpful instruction page (with screen shots) about the online guided learning for hourly time reporting.  It’s been sent to employees and supervisors, and you can download it here: Welcome to Time Reporting at Rice

I can’t reproduce screen shots on the blog, but the text is:

We write to introduce you to the – Time Reporting Tasks/Guides for Hourly Employees task list available through Online Guided Learning (OGL). Through video, online guides, tips, and links, the task list equips you with the information to accurately and promptly enter and edit your time, ensuring timely and correct pay.

These materials may be familiar to you as they have been available in the iO EvolutiOn Training Catalog for several years. We have repackaged them to make them more user-friendly and accessible to you right where you need them in iO via OGL.  We encourage you to review them as you complete the task list and refer back to them whenever you need a refresher.

If you’re new to Rice, these materials can help you get started reporting your time correctly and on time so please complete the task list during your first pay period. You can come back to the task list to refer to these guides as often as needed.

Select the dotted line to view the guides as Job Aids (printable as PDF) or Video.

​​​(download above for the screen shot)

The OGL Widget is your online tool to guide you in using many functions in iO.  We recommend that you explore How to use Guided Learning for additional iO and OGL functionality.

Keep visiting the Time Reporting at Rice OGL Category as we continue to grow the library of information, tools and tips for you.

Please join us on Monday, April 1st at 1pm for a Payroll Office Hour where we will demonstrate these tools and answer your questions.

Meeting ID 924 6828 1719

Passcode 714291

(link in sidebar)

For further assistance, contact us at payroll@rice.edu—we’re here to help!

Just a reminder that there is no office hour today since half the world is on spring break.  We’ll be back in April (4/10) talking about labor distributions with James Buggs and Rebekah Lindquist, May (5/8) with Emily Villarreal, the university Bursar, and June (6/12) for year-end.

The Controller’s Office uses two box folders quite a bit:

• FBDI templates and drop-off
• Controller’s Office resources and reference material

The FBDI folder is where you can pick up templates for general ledger journal vouchers (FBDI) and non-labor cost transfers, labor distribution, and more.  This is also where you drop off completed templates (although not LD, there’s a separate process) and can look at previously processed files.  The reference material sub-folder holds copies of the chart of accounts, the expenditure type list, a list of Bursar’s Office detail codes, written instructions for the templates, a mapping chart of expenditure type to expense type to account code, and so forth.  The Zoom sub-folder holds previous office hour recordings on a range of topics.

The “Controller’s Office resources and reference material” is largely the same stuff except (1) no drop-off spot and (2) the previously processed files are for prior years.  The FBDI folder has processed files for FY2024, but the older stuff is archived in this folder.  Also, users here are set to “viewer” and not “editor” so no one can accidentally delete all the templates and Zoom recordings (which has happened in the main folder a couple of times.)  It’s certainly not critical to have this folder, but if you are searching around for something you dropped off in FY2021 and wonder where it went… this is the answer.

If you are a user in either folder, you have the ability to share with anyone at Rice and add them as a user.  To do this, log into Box, go to the folder and click on the blue “share” arrow in the upper right-hand corner.  Flor Garica, David Christopher, and Crystal Davis are also happy to add new users if that is easier for you.

The general ledger and all subledgers are now closed for February.  You can run reports after the dashboard updates at 10 pm tonight.

We’re holding one more in-person workshop on the Finance Dashboard redesign.  This is a BYOD (bring your own device/laptop) opportunity at Cambridge Office Building, on Friday March 15 at 10 am.

The in-person workshop is just like the Zoom workshop, except in person.  The previous Zoom sessions are available in Box here https://rice.box.com/s/urm6jyo4kpxto3qm5qd2iwn3ulacah0o

You can watch the Zoom webinar or sign up for the in-person workshop here https://ioevolution.rice.edu/events

If none of these meets your needs, I’m also happy to offer individual assistance by Zoom or in person if you want to come over to COB.  My hours are generally 7 am to 4 pm and my Google calendar is open to anyone at Rice, or you can of course send me an email, a Zoom chat, or call me (x2478) to schedule.

Duplicate values when selecting chart of accounts values in the prompt boxes on the Finance Dashboard are often caused by selecting multiple hierarchy levels.

This is the org hierarchy:

A President

B Academic or Administrative (Provost or VP)

C Division (Dean or VP)

D Optional sub-level

E Department

# Org (only numbers no letters)

When you select org, you can only choose ONE LEVEL.  You can choose C level and select more than one C level, but you cannot select C level and D level.  You can choose E level and select more than one, but you cannot select E level and child value.

The computer is going to do exactly what you tell it to do.  If you select the E level and the child level, it will show you both of them.  When they are the same thing, that means you get double amounts.

Let’s use a real-life example.  Let’s say I want to look at my own org, General Accounting.  This is the hierarchy:

A0001  President

B7500    Operations Finance & Support

C7003 Finance and Budget

D7500 Controller’s Office

E7500 Controller’s Office

75005 General Accounting

If I select 75005 I get real amounts.  If I select E7500 and 75005, I get double.  If I select D7500 and E7500 and 75005 I get triple.  If I select C7003 and D7500 and E7500 and 75005 I get quadruple.

Now let’s say I want to look at orgs within the Controller’s Office:

E7500  Controller’s Office

75000 Controller

75005 General Accounting

75007 Tax

(Selected values for illustration purposes.  Don’t worry, Payroll still exists!)

I can choose EITHER E7500 OR all the child values 75000-75007.  If I choose BOTH, then I get double information.

I hope that illustration is helpful, but please let me know if you have questions – crystald@rice.edu or Zoom chat or x2478.

I was unable to demonstrate this during yesterday’s office hours, so I wanted to show these screen shots.

The Budget Status now allows you to drill into the detail of non-labor encumbrances (purchase orders.)  Alternatively, there is a new tab called Non-Labor Encumbrance Detail where one can query directly.

From the Non-Labor Encumbrance Detail, one can drill into the Related Document column.  I’ve circled one of the blue documents that are drill-able to show you where that field is located  Non-Labor-Encumbrance-Details

This is the detail available from drilling down, which includes the purchase order number Non-Labor-Enc-Drill-Related-Doc

The purchase order number is drill-able, and this is the information from that action Non-Labor-Enc-Drill-to-PO

There is a helpful guide to status codes here: https://controller.rice.edu/P2P-statuses