Do
You Have Suggestions to Improve
Integration System Usability?
You are the best people to let us
know what would make the Integrated
System more useful to you. We received
some very helpful suggestions through
the IS User Survey that we have
been able to parlay into improvements
to the system. Do you have more
suggestions? Send them to ISSuggestionBox@virginia.edu.
Current Usability Task
Force Projects
FUSS (Financial
Usability & System
Solutions)
•
Focus on Reports:
FUSS is continuing the series
of
sessions at the end of
each Fiscal Administrators
meeting
to explain in detail specific
aspects of reports and
how to read them. Four have
been
held.
o Session 1: the FM_Expenditure
Detail by Project and FM_Project
BBA by Expenditure Type
reports
o Session 2: Scheduling Discoverer
and Standard Reports and
Printing and Reprinting
Standard Reports
o Session 3: LD_Pay & Distribution
Adj History report
o Session 4: FM_Personnel
Costs by Fiscal Year report
These sessions may be
viewed on the Integrated
System
Reports
web site • With FUSS and
Grants Usability
Task Force assistance,
two new FM Discoverer
reports were
published on October 1,
2004:
o FM_Expenditure
Detail by Award
This report shows award
managers, or those responsible
for award oversight, all
expense and encumbrance
transactions at the PTAEO
level for all awards owned
by a specified organization
and period. It contains
all the same data as its
project counterpart, the
FM_Expenditure Detail by
Project report.
o FM_Award BBA by Expenditure
Type
This report shows award
managers, or those responsible
for award oversight, the
relationship of award budget
to actual and encumbered
expenses, and calculates
a Budget Balance Available
(BBA) for all awards owned
by a specified organization
and period. It contains
all the same data as its
project counterpart, the
FM_Project BBA by Expenditure
Type report.
•
New FUSS initiatives include:
o Improving the speed of
running FM reports for
single projects or awards
o Dropping prior year
F&A
labor encumbrances from
the Expenditure Detail
reports (this would affect
sponsored programs, i.e.
awards that begin with
G)
o Beginning to brainstorm
on a class on awards and
cash management.
HR Task Force
• Reports:
o With HR Task Force
assistance, a new FM
Discoverer report
was published on October
1, 2004: FM_Personnel Costs
by Fiscal Year
This is a cross tab (or
pivot table) report which
lists personnel costs by
project, task, award, expenditure
type and employee for each
period in a specified project
or award carrying out organization
and fiscal year.
o Added Supervisor name
to Employee Label Information
view.
o Developing
a date-tracked employees
by supervisor and organization
report.
• New HR Task Force initiative:
Explore dropping assignments
that have end-dated from
Labor Schedule reports
BACK
TO TOP
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Hints
and Tips
Grants Management
To view the tasks assigned to
your projects, open the Active and Inactive
Award-Project-Task Combinations
report. Pull Project Carrying Out
Org to Page Item and pull Award
Carrying Out Org down to column
headers. You will see all the projects
and related tasks for your org. – from
ISDS
Submitting and Baselining Budgets:
On the "Award Budgets" screen, after
selecting the "Submit" button, you
can simply select the "Find Draft"
button to refresh the screen. When
the "Submit" concurrent process completes,
the "Baseline" button will appear
and can be selected. Using the "Find
Draft" button is easier than closing
out the Award Budget screen, retyping
the award number, finding the appropriate
project, and then selecting the "Submit"
button. – from
Melissa Clarke, FUSS member
Do not fund at the Task level: U.Va.
does not fund at the Task level.
All funding should be at the Project
level. If you mistakenly fund at
the Task level, please contact the
Integrated System Customer Support
Center at 243-7550 for assistance
in correcting the mistake. – from
ISDS
When NOT to baseline budgets:
ISDS recommends that you avoid baselining
budgets from 12 Noon to 1:00 p.m.
each day, if possible. A program
is
running during that time to update
actuals, including Award Status Inquiry.
As a result, the baselining process
is delayed until this program completes,
and you will experience delays in
baselining during this time. – from
ISDS
Purchasing
Receiving for Purchase Orders: If
a Purchase Order line has multiple
distributions, there will be a
blue plus (+) sign on the Receipts
form when you open receiving. You
are required to click on the +
symbol to open another Receipts
screen, where you will find the
multiple lines to use for receiving.
If you have any questions when
processing a Receipt, please call
the IS Customer Support Center
at 243-7550.
NOTE: Receiving must be entered
into the Integrated System for all
purchases greater than $5,000. – from
the Integrated Services Customer
Support Center
Human Resources
Selecting a position for an employee's
assignment: When completing an
employee's assignment, after
selecting
a position,
a decision
box asks: "You have selected
a different position. Where the
new position has default values
for one or more of the following,
and they are applicable to the
current Person Type, your position
will adopt these values: Grade,
Payroll, Supervisor, Probation
Period, Bargaining Unit, Salary
and Pay Basis. Do you want to accept
the values for this position?" You
should ALWAYS choose “yes” at
this decision box. – from
the Integrated Services Customer
Support Center
Reports
Standard IS Reports Printing
Tip: To reprint a system report
such as the UVA Cash Balance Report
by Project or the UVA PA Installment
vs Funding vs Expenditures Report,
you do not have to rerun the report.
Simply select "View," "Requests," "Find." Then
select the request you want to
reprint and select "Report," "Tools," "Reprint." This
is helpful if you run the report
initially with the designation
of printing zero copies and then
later determine you need a paper
copy. – from Melissa
Clarke, FUSS member
Warning about Exporting to Excel
from Discoverer
It is now possible to export the
results of a Discoverer query directly
to Excel by clicking on the Excel
logo in the upper right hand corner
of the report display. BEWARE: Discoverer
uses an older Excel standard to ensure
maximum backward compatibility, but
it also can cause some data from
large files not to be retrieved.
To be sure that all data rows are
retained, select “YES” when
asked whether you want to save to
a later version. – from
Rick Seaman, FUSS member, and Gary
Young,
Director of Fixed Assets
General
Check your SPAM email box regularly.
SPAM blockers are blocking a number
of legitimate messages, including
Integrated System approval notices.
Be sure to check your SPAM email
box by going to https://www.mail.virginia.edu/,
entering your email username and
password, clicking on the uva-potential-spam
mailbox, and reviewing the messages
there. – from ISDS
Changing your password: To change
your password, you need to be in
the Navigator window; then Edit>Preferences>Change
Password. – from the Integrated
Services Customer Support Center
Please send your hints and tips to Carole Horwitz at crh5y@virginia.edu so
they may be included in the next issue of IS Exchange. If your tips are published,
we will send you a thank you gift for helping out your fellow users of the Integrated
System.
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