Nov-22 fiscal period is now closed.
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October is closed
Fiscal period Oct-22 is closed.
College treasurers
This is a short guide written for residential college treasurers and other student leaders on looking up their funds in IO: College treasurers
(This could be used by any department as a guide for designated or gift funds, but does not discuss unrestricted general operating (fund type 100, formerly known as A1) or endowment distribution budgeting.)
Office hour November 2
On November 2 we discussed the Finance Dashboard. The Zoom recording is available in the FBDI folder in box here https://rice.box.com/v/FBDI-folder-for-dropoff
The notes on the session are in Word here: Office hour Nov
And the access details for who can automatically see what are here: Dashboard Access Guide
Next week on November 9 we’ll discuss some Excel skills and resources and take a quick look at why you may prefer Access for some advanced tasks.
Office hour Oct 26 comparing faculty fund project to GL
The example reconciliation problems we covered in the office hour are in the PDF here: Office hour October 26
The job aid for working with faculty funds and adjusting the budget is here: Managing Faculty Fund Tasks 10 15 (1)
The office hour Zoom recording will be available in the FBDI box folder https://rice.box.com/v/FBDI-folder-for-dropoff
Primary suggestion is to check the project coding under “additional information” and maintain a chart of project + task and the related chart string. This step will make any other part of reconciliation easier. Remember that corrections may be needed in the general ledger or in the project or both.
Payroll news – effort reporting now weekly
We have great news to share with you! Starting this week, Labor Distribution (LD) and Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC) commonly known as “Effort Reporting” will run weekly instead of twice a month.
- LD will run on Thursdays and will include all pay data for the current week. For example, this Thursday’s LD run on October 20 will include payment dates from 10/16-10/22. Campus can expect to access the data in the Gross Pay and Pay Actual reports in the Finance Dashboard on Fridays.
- ECC will run on Wednesdays and will include changes since the last run. For example, next Wednesday’s ECC run on October 26 will include all changes since October 19. Campus can expect to access the data on Thursdays.
Office hour October 19 Faculty Club, FedEx, General Accounting tile
There is a Zoom recording of today’s office hour in the FBDI folder here https://rice.box.com/s/2eqm5w3nlc0tzb40hy0m6pm105cmf867
The written material / screenshots we covered is available as a Word doc here: Office hour October 19 and is reproduced without screen shots below.
Faculty Club
You will get an automated email every time the department card is used. You may keep the form for your records, but please do not mail it in. The department charges appear in journal batches that begin Isabel Urbina (currently, formerly Kevin Yuen) on account 8180
If the coding is acceptable, you do not need to do anything. If the coding should be changed, please use a general ledger FBDI and/or non-labor cost transfer to credit the charge as posted and debit on the desired coding. The Faculty Club can change the default coding for each department card if instructed before the start of a new fiscal period, but cannot apply custom coding per charge.
Personal charges are deducted from payroll and the cardholder will receive an automated email every time the personal card is used.
Contact the Faculty Club at club@rice.edu
- To change default coding on department card
- To look up reservation to see who used department card
Finance Dashboard – multiple periods in Budget to Actual
Using multiple periods on budget to actuals gives you a broader range of data in period net, which can be useful. It leads to unexpected outcomes in the YTD and available balance columns. If your focus is on those columns, use a single period.
FedEx
FedEx charges appear as Payables transactions in the general ledger under account 8261. In the subledger detail the subledger header includes FedEx and the subledger line description includes the invoice and tracking number.
The detail of shipping address / shipper / weight continues to be available in Edgar web apps under Finance, Payment Queries, Federal Express Invoice Detail and at fedex.com.
If the coding you see in the general ledger is acceptable, you do not need to do anything. If the coding should be changed, please use a general ledger FBDI and/or non-labor cost transfer to credit the charge as posted and debit on the desired coding. David Hudson can change the default coding per department if needed, but cannot apply custom coding per charge.
General Accounting Dashboard
Some users have a “financial analyst” role that permits some limited access within this tile in Oracle. If you do not have this role, the tile will give you an error message.
The general accounting dashboard includes a Close Status section that shows the open/closed status of each subledger for each period.
The right-hand task drawer includes two useful options, Inquire on Detail Balances and Manage Journals. Inquire on Detail Balances is basically the same as Journal Detail on the Finance Dashboard, but is updated in real time rather than at 10 pm every night. Manage Journals has no equivalent on the finance dashboard, and is most similar to the Edgar web apps option under Finance, Financial Queries, Journal Voucher Document Detail.
Office hour on P2P cycle
Today’s office hour covered the P2P cycle. Many thanks to Brian Soika for joining us today to take questions! The Zoom recording is available in the FBDI folder under Zoom recordings here: https://rice.box.com/v/FBDI-folder-for-dropoff
The general ledger accounting information is here:P2P encumbrance accounting
The cycle is requisition, approval, PO, receipt, invoice, and payment. You must have a Procurement Requestor role to initiate a requisition, and an Approver role to approve a requisition. The Procurement Requestor can receive or designate another employee to receive, no special role required. Requisitions are entered by punchout (catalog), quantity (for goods), or amount (services). The supplier must be set up in advance, by creating an HR/Finance Help Desk ticket. View the progress of the transaction through the Procurement tile in Oracle, under Manage Requisitions particularly on the View Life Cycle option. Receipts are required for purchases for any amount.
The expense account is charged at the time the PO is issued and the encumbrance is relieved when the vendor is paid and the PO is liquidated.
Once a purchase order has a status of Validated with a paid amount it is complete. If the receipt and paid amount does not match the original PO, you can change the PO to the paid amount in order to close the PO. If a purchase order is charged to a project and the project cannot be charged for some reason (usually a conflict between the project date and the expenditure date) then a commitment will be created on the project but no expense will be recorded. You must resolve this conflict to close the project or close the PO; please contact your research accountant or capital accountant if you need assistance.
Non-standard disbursements are used only if the supplier does not accept purchase orders, and are limited to a specific list of transactions such as non-employee expense reimbursement, honoraria, sports officials, cash awards and prizes, and similar payments. NSD volume is high, so current processing times are 10-14 business days.
NSD payments are issued immediately, but other vendor payments are issued 30 days from the invoice date. Checks are cut by our bank (JP Morgan Chase) daily at present due to volume, but usually twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday. SUA (credit card) and ACH payments are processed daily.
Some useful reference material and job aids for P2P:
Procure-to-Pay (P2P) Instructor-Led Course Presentation Slide Deck
View Purchase Requisition Lifecylce and Invoice Payment Status
September is closed
September is closed.
Oct 5 office hour materials – basic salary encumbrance and NLCT detailed instructions
The office hour today covered very basic salary encumbrances (slides here Salary encumbrance very basic) and detailed instructions for the general ledger FBDI and project non-labor cost transfer (instructions here Instruction on Cost Transfer POET to-from COA).
Remember the key point on salary encumbrances if they look high
- it’s a faculty fund and the assignment end date or project end date is far in the future (2099 or 4712, definitely zombie territory.)
- it’s a student and the HCM assignment hours are blank (in HCM blank = 40.)
The Zoom recording is available in the FBDI box folder https://rice.box.com/v/FBDI-folder-for-dropoff under “Zoom recordings” (because I, as an accountant, am very literal.)