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Finance Division Daily Update – Dec. 12

 

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This Finance Division Daily Update email is for Business Managers, MOU Leads, Finance TIPs, Finance Campus Working Groups and Finance Division staff. Please share with the ConnectCarolina Finance users in your school/division.

Beginning next week, we will move to a reduced schedule for the daily update emails. We will send updates twice per week and as needed.

Top Issues

  • New! Airgas Holiday Schedule: Airgas/National Welders will be closed only on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. During this time no scheduled deliveries will be made. Dry ice will be delivered on Monday, Dec. 22, Wednesday, Dec. 24 and Wednesday, Dec. 31.Also, please advise Airgas by Friday, Dec. 19, if you need more product than usual so Airgas does not over-order and waste product.
  • New! Annual Labor Encumbrances: After annual labor encumbrances were calculated, we discovered several bugs that are causing encumbrances to be overstated. We are working to fix these bugs and correct the encumbrances as quickly as possible.
  • New! System Access Reminder: Individuals that register for training and complete that course must still submit an Access Request form in order to be granted appropriate access. Access Request Forms can be found in InfoPorte’s Data Dictionary Documents and no login is required to view or use the forms in InfoPorte. The Finance System Access Form and others can be found under Tools, Data Dictionary tab, General Info tab, then select from the first column titled Label (or click the hyperlink above).For more information about access, check out the most recent Access Newsletter.
  • New! Remedy ticket categories for Submitting a Retro Journal: The project team has received a few questions about the Remedy ticket categories for submitting a retro journal. Please see this screenshot and tip for this issue.
  • New! Reminder – Timing of Longevity Pay for SPA Employees: As a reminder, longevity pay to be paid to eligible SPA employees is paid in the biweekly pay period that includes the first day of the month. In most cases, this is usually NOT the first biweekly paycheck of the month. For example, SPA employees who are eligible to receive longevity pay in December 2014 will receive their longevity payment on Dec. 23. This is because the biweekly paycheck dated Dec. 23 covers the biweekly pay period Dec. 1-14.
  • Retroactive funding swaps on ePARs: As referenced in the Nov. 12 memo “Instructions regarding the use of retroactive funding swaps in ConnectCarolina,” retros are not yet ready for any effective date between 9/1/14 and 9/30/14. The Commitment Accounting team is still testing the fix that allows ePARs effective between 9/1/14 and 9/30/14 to create the appropriate debits and credits to actuals.
  • Requesting a Retroactive Journal Entry clarification: The instructions currently state that “only one retroactive journal entry may be made per employee.” The instructions will be revised, to “only one employee per retroactive journal entry.” This is to clarify that you will not be prevented from using the retroactive journal entry more than one time on an employee, if necessary.
  • OSR Cash Advances issued prior to 10/1/2014: Campus units can now submit cash advance settlement vouchers for OSR advances issued prior to 10/1/2014 via the campus voucher functionality in ConnectCarolina. Instructions for entering a cash advance settlement can be found at the following links:

    Original receipts and any associated reconciliation forms should be sent to OSR via campus mail at the time of the settlement submission. In addition, please reference the specific advance that is being reconciled (i.e. check request #, voucher # or journal ID) in the comments section of the voucher. An open item conversion is not necessary to settle the OSR cash advances as is required by Accounting Services for the non OSR cash advance settlements.

  • New OSR Project ID range (3xxxxxx): In addition to 4xxxxxx and 5xxxxxx project IDs, OSR will be generating project IDs that start with a 3xxxxxx. These projects represent federal and indirect federal clinical trials and capitation (per patient reimbursement) projects. These projects are subject to the same workflow as the 5xxxxxx series projects; budget will be created based on cash received and the commitment control options will be set to track without budget on the parent and child mirroring the 4xxxxxx series projects.
  • Travel processes: A communication was sent yesterday to clarify travel processes such as advance, reimbursement and authorization.
  • Finance Worklist: ‘Mark as Worked’ functionality has been added to the user’s worklist within the Finance application. This functionality allows users to remove specific approval routings from their worklist. This does not affect the user’s ability to approve or deny the transaction in question. This will allow the users to keep a clean and streamlined directory of active routings which require action.Related note: There is a known issue that commitment control (KK) entries are not removed from a user’s worklist when a KK journal is deleted. This issue is actively being worked.
  • November Month-End Close: Central Offices (OSR, Accounting Services and the Budget Office) should conclude processing November transactions this week and will ensure journals are posted if received by the deadline to be processed through departmental workflow which was November 24.
  • October Month-End Close: Central offices continue to work with State-level agencies to complete the transmission and reconciliation of all October transactions, and to obtain approval to officially close the month of October. Additional transactions to chart strings of campus departments for October are not anticipated.

Important Reminders

  • New! Query Viewer: A reminder was sent today to MOU Leads and Finance TIPs about a set of queries that has been created to help monitor your department’s transactions for errors. One set of queries lets you identify edit errors for each finance transaction type, and another set lets you identify budget errors. There is also a query that shows all GL journals that are not in Posted status, which is important for the month-end close process. Anyone who has any Finance role in ConnectCarolina has access to these queries, so there’s no need for a separate access request.
    To learn more about the queries, you can:

    • Watch the recorded webinar: Managing Finance Transactions Using Query Viewer
    • Refer to the guide: Queries Guide

    Note: The name for the unposted GL journals query has changed slightly since the webinar. The new name is NC_GL_JRNL_NOT_POSTED_DEPT1.

  • GradStar: We’ve added some GradStar walk-in clinics to the training schedule. These sessions are a great opportunity for you to get informal, one-on-one assistance with GradStar award entry, if needed, and are not full training classes. No registration required. The clinics are being held December 15, 16, and 17, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon, in the AOB Finance Training room (3101).

Questions

All technical questions should be directed to the Business Systems Help Desk at 919-962-HELP, or submitted via a help ticket online at help.unc.edu (select ConnectCarolina > ConnectCarolina Finance > the appropriate area of concern). Your help ticket will be answered by a team dedicated to working on Finance questions and issues. Business Systems Help Desk hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Functional or business process questions – plus any tips you have to offer – can be added to the ConnectCarolina user discussion forums.
Suggestions for content can be emailed to janet_kelly-scholle@unc.edu.

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