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ISDS
Works with Central Offices
to Identify Solutions
ISDS has been working with central
offices over the past several months
to identify the best products to bring
improved and mandated functionality
to the University. These include:
- Working with University
Human Resources to plan and
procure an applicant
tracking system
- Working with Treasury Operations
to plan and procure a new
treasury
system
- Working with Procurement
Services to procure and begin
implementation
of an electronic procurement solution
(see On-Line Shopping
at U.Va. Due in December).
Correct
Labor Encumbrances (almost)
Ready to Roll
Oracle has delivered new
functionality to address long-standing
labor encumbrance issues. This
is a result of a lot of
hard work on the part of the
PI Usability Task Force and
the Multi-University Grants
group initiated by U.Va. Of
greatest interest to users is
that:
- < 12 month
faculty will encumber for the
correct pay amount only for
the months paid
- GTAs & GRAs
will encumber in addition to
Faculty and Classified
Staff
- Labor encumbrances for
Sponsored Program grants will
match the
sponsor’s budget period
rather than the U.Va. fiscal
year.
ISDS has just received the changes
and is beginning to evaluate and
thoroughly test the functionality,
as well as assess the impact to
both processes and end users.
The goal is to roll out the new
functionality before FY 2007 encumbrances
are generated. We currently anticipate
this to happen in the late August
timeframe. This is an aggressive
schedule, and the actual rollout
date will depend on how smoothly
the testing goes.
More information will be forthcoming
on both the functionality and
how it might affect how to do
month-end reconciliation and/or
schedule labor.
Oracle has delivered new functionality
to address long standing labor
encumbrance issues. This is a
result of a lot of hard work on
the part of the PI Usability Task
Force and the Multi-University
Grants group initiated by UVA.
Of greatest interest to users
is that:
• < 12 months month
faculty will encumber for the
correct pay amount only for the
months paid
•
GTA & GRA’s will encumber
in addition to Faculty and Classified
Staff
•
Labor encumbrances for Sponsored
Program grants will match the
sponsor’s budget period
rather than the UVA fiscal year.
ISDS has just received the changes
and is beginning to evaluate and
thoroughly test the functionality
as well as assess the impact to
both processes and end users.
The goal is to roll out the new
functionality before FY 2007 encumbrances
are generated. We currently anticipate
this to happen in the late August
timeframe. This is an aggressive
schedule and the actual rollout
date will depend on how smoothly
the testing goes.
More information will be forthcoming
on both the functionality and
how it might affect how to do
month-end reconciliation and/or
schedule labor.
New ISDS
Staff
- Tina Collins joined
the ISDS staff on June 19 as a
Grants Accounting Functional Analyst.
Tina formerly worked at Biotage,
Inc., a local company that uses
version 11i.10 Oracle eBusiness
Suite, where she served as support
person for the Oracle applications.
-
Dana Abbott will
join ISDS as Technical Director
beginning August
25. Dana will be responsible
for the day-to-day technical
management.
She comes to U.Va. from the
University of Mary Washington,
where, for
the last 10 years, she was
in charge of the IT group
that manages
administrative applications
and their technical infrastructure,
as well as the portal and
course
management systems. (Teresa
Wimmer has been promoted
to Senior Technical Director.
She will work with ISDS
20 percent time and serve
as Technical Integration Lead
for the Student
System Project 80 percent
time.)
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Current
Usability Task
Force Projects
ISDS has been
focused on the 11i.10
upgrade, which has required
a code freeze for changes
to the system. Despite
this, the usability groups
have been busy.
FUSS (Financial
Usability & System
Solutions)
The
FUSS team has completed
a design specification
and a proof-of-concept
prototype of a
new Cash Balance by Org
report. The Cash
Balance by Org
report
is designed to
be run from Discoverer
and will allow
users to request a Cash
Balance report
for
all revenue projects
owned by a specified
organization or
MBU. Data from this Discoverer
report can also
be
downloaded for
use in other applications,
e.g., Excel. ISDS
is currently in
the process of
developing the
required views
and report.
The scheduled implementation
date is by the
end of December.
Payroll Reconciliation
Report Task Force
The Payroll Reconciliation team has completed a new discoverer report called
IS.PAY_Payroll Reconciliation Report. For the first time, holders of a UVA ODS
Specialist-Limited responsibility will be able to view the complete picture of
how gross pay was calculated at the assignment level and how that gross pay was
charged to PTAEOs.
The first tab of the report shows pay elements for which hours are entered as
well as pay elements created via HR such as ‘Acting Pay’. ‘Military
Leave’, etc. It will also show pay elements with hours earned as well as
hours paid, example: ‘Comp Special Earned’. A second tab uses the
same selection and sort criteria as the ‘Payroll’ tab to show how
gross pay was charged to PTAEOs.
HR will be sending
out an email notification
shortly announcing
the report’s
availability. For more information, see the Pay_Payroll Reconciliation Focus
on Reports Session.
PI Reporting Usability
Group
The PI Reporting Usability
group will be participating
in the testing of the
latest labor encumbrance
enhancements received
from Oracle. Meanwhile,
the group has been
working with OSP to
map existing expenditure
types to roll up “budget
categories” for
the new streamlined
PI Funding Summary
and PI Expenditure
Detail reports. The
new reports will available
to all Discoverer users
in late August, coinciding
with the implementation
of the labor
encumbrance enhancements.
BACK
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Hints
and Tips
The following tips are in response
to comments by users who responded
to the 2006 IS Users Survey.
Discoverer
The Integrated System provides a
number of pre-defined reports in
Discoverer. Unlike traditional
reporting tools, Discoverer allows
the end-user to modify an actual
pre-defined report specification
and/or interact with the result
set once the report has been run
and the data returned.
The links below highlight the
use of some Discoverer features.
For more in depth information, enroll
in a Discoverer Class.
Training
- Follow-up training sessions:
Any user can attend any scheduled
training sessions at any time.
In addition, drop-in sessions or
specialized work-sessions can be
scheduled based on demand. If there
is a session you would like to
see scheduled, contact the IS Customer Support Center at 3-7550.
- Printed training manuals
may not reflect most current
information:
Training materials are constantly
being updated, which means that
the printed manuals you receive
during classroom training will
become outdated. However, the on-line,
HowDoI pages are always kept current.
Please use the on-line information.
Getting “kicked out” of
the system: While ISDS is exploring
this issue further, there are two
things to try if you frequently
are kicked out of the system and
it is not a “timed-out” situation
(no key strokes for 90
minutes).
1. Be sure you are on the latest
version of VPN (version
4.05).
2. Check to be sure
your spyware is not
creating the problem.
Time it takes to get a responsibility
assigned:
The Office of Human
Resources Development
and Training is investigating
this issue to
see if there are ways
to expedite the process.
In the meantime,
you can track the progress
of your IS responsibility
assignment
to see if it is hung
up somewhere by going
to Integrated
System Responsibility
Tracking, entering
your user ID, and clicking
"continue."
Communicating problems or
solutions:
Be sure to view the Current
News pop-up website when logging on
to the Integrated System. That
is where ISDS posts problems
and solutions. If the problems
or solutions relate to users
with specific responsibilities,
targeted emails are sent directly
to those individuals.
Payslips
- Some users who are on the “semi-monthly
paid monthly” payroll
objected to receiving
two payslips
each month.
This format
will not change
because a) to
change it would
require a system
customization,
and b) the statements
match the
deposits in the
bank
accounts.
- Leave balances are not on
the payslips.
To include them
would require
a customization,
and the balances
are available
to users on their
time sheets.
- The ability
to print a payslip
onto one
page is dependent
on the number
of elements
each individual
has on their
payslip. However,
to minimize
the amount of
information you
are printing,
highlight your
payslip without
including the
header
or footer,
select File
-> Print, and click the “Selection” button,
then Print.
Reports that take a long
time to run: ISDS continues to monitor
long-running reports and makes
adjustments when possible. Please
pass along examples of long-running
reports to the IS Customer Support
Center at 3-7550.
Reports on donations:
There is no donor information in
the
Integrated System.
However, departmental development
offices have information on their
donors. Information can also be obtained
from the
University Development
Office.
Printing multiple reports
in landscape: When
running multiple standard reports
that
you want
to print landscape
(Discoverer reports are formatted
to print
landscape), you
can reset the setting in Windows,
then
reset
it when you are
done. Depending on your version of
Windows,
the
process is: Start
-> Printers
and Faxes ->Select printer
->Printing preferences ->Advanced
->Layout options ->Orientation
->Landscape.
You also may
reduce the
size of the data
on the page by
reducing
the scale
to less than 100%.
Two windows/responsibilities
open simultaneously: You can log on twice
to have two windows open simultaneously.
Purchasing comments:
Because the new UVA Marketplace implementation
will change many
of the purchasing
procedures, current
issues may become obsolete in December
(see
On-Line
Shopping at U.Va.
Due in December)
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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