To: Major Organizational Unit (MOU) Leads
University Business Managers
FROM: Kevin Seitz, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance
Date: September 12, 2014
This memorandum is a reminder of impending cutover dates, some starting as early as Monday, Sept. 15, and is to be used in conjunction with the initial Finance cutover memo sent on July 10 and an update sent on Aug. 27. There are several updates since the August cutover memo, which are in blue text below.
While both this and previous memos aim to provide planning information concerning ConnectCarolina Finance cutover actions and deadlines, this memo concerns the time period Sept. 15 through Sept. 30, 2014. It is important that these deadlines be met to ensure adequate preparations prior to the go-live period. A communication detailing post go-live information and contingency plans for the time period of Oct. 1 and beyond, will be sent closer to the go-live date. ConnectCarolina for Finance and HR/Payroll is scheduled to go live as of 8 a.m. on Oct. 1.
Procurement Services Dates
| Sept. 15, 7 p.m. | Last day to approve new Web Vendor requests in legacy system. |
| Sept. 15 | Last day to purchase from legacy systems using current Financial Records System (FRS) chart of accounts. No purchases will be allowed between Sept. 16 – Oct. 1. Any purchases made on Oct. 1 or after will require new department number and chartfield string. |
| Sept. 15, 7 p.m. | Last day to get approval for check requests, ePro Small Order Process (SOP) invoices/transactions and web requisitions, including appropriate documentation. All approved invoices in the queue by this deadline will be paid between Sept. 16 – Sept. 26. |
| Sept. 15, 7 p.m. | Last day to get approval for Web Travel documents. If it is not approved by this time, it will need to be reentered in ConnectCarolina after Oct. 1. |
| Sept. 15, 7 p.m. | Last day to approve new Central Airfare Billing System (CABS) requests, including travel agent purchases. CABS will be disabled and no access will be permitted between Sept. 16 – Oct. 1. Any CABS document not completely processed to travel agent billing by this time will need to be re-entered into ConnectCarolina after go-live. At go-live CABS will be integrated with Web Travel. During this outage, airfare will need to be charged to the traveler’s Diner’s Club credit card for reimbursement after go-live. |
| Sept. 15,7 p.m. | Last day to have bid process completed, awarded and purchase order prepared for all purchase requests over $5,000. |
| Sept. 19, 5 p.m. | Last day to enter accounting changes, including transaction detail, in P-card system. |
| Sept. 20 | Last FRS-generated MMD billing statement that includes e-commerce. This will be the month-end statement for September. |
| Sept. 22, 5 p.m. | Last day Surplus Property Management System can be used for surplus requests. From this time until go-live, the surplus property store will be available for cash-only purchases and internal purchases will be in hiatus. |
| Sept. 26, 5 p.m. | Last day to get approval for ePro 8.9 Vendor Catalog orders. Vendor Catalog will be unavailable after 5 p.m. on this date until Oct. 1. Purchases completed and approved before this deadline will be delivered normally by vendors. An exception to this is that Apple will not be live in ePro until at least Oct. 6 due to technical issues at Apple. |
Accounting Services Dates
| Aug. 27 | Last day to submit new account requests online (including trusts and endowments) to be established in FRS. |
| Aug. 31 | Freeze initiated for all chartfields except projects. |
| Sept. 25 | Last day to submit paper account adjustments (including internal invoices) for processing in September in FRS. |
| Sept. 26 | Last day to submit supporting documentation for the online cash advance settlement account adjustments submitted on or prior to Sept. 22. Online cash advance settlements submitted after Sept. 22 will not be posted and cleared in FRS, and must be re-entered for clearing and posting in ConnectCarolina after go-live. |
| Sept. 26 | Last day to submit approved outgoing wire transfers for execution in Sept. |
| Sept. 29 | Last day to submit data collect batches, interdepartmental billings and batch files from campus subsystems and Infoporte. |
| Sept. 30, Noon | Last day to submit account adjustments via online Journal Entry system for State and non-State funds. |
Budget Office Dates
| Aug. 27 | Last day to submit new State and Facilities and Administrative (F&A) account requests via email to be established in FRS. |
| Sept. 1 | Last day to submit school-based tuition increases and other State receipt budget changes. Changes not received by Sept. 1 will be processed in ConnectCarolina on Oct. 1. |
| Sept. 15 | Last day to submit budget revisions in FRS. |
Office of Student Accounts and University Receivables Dates
| Sept. 15 |
Last day to enter graduate student awards for fall 2014. More detailed information was communicated by the Graduate School. |
| Sept. 26, 5 p.m. | Last day to enter all student system transactions in Student Administration system until outage ends Sept. 28 at 8 a.m. |
| Sept. 26, 4:30 p.m. | Last day to create and deliver cash/check deposits. Departments will be able to enter deposits in the standalone Departmental Deposit system until ConnectCarolina Finance is live. Deposits received after the Sept. 26 deadline will be processed and deposited in accordance with state law and will have to be re-entered in ConnectCarolina as deposits to be recorded in the new financial system in October. |
Purchasing Considerations
Please plan ahead for purchases that will be needed during September. As communicated in July, major purchases should have been initiated by Aug. 1. Make plans to process purchase orders no later than Sept. 1 for the Sept. 15 deadline.
If you have an emergency need that is critical for operations during this four-day outage, please contact Bernard Law, Director of Purchasing Services, at 919-962-3774 or Martha Pendergrass, Director of Procurement Services, at 919-843-5048 to facilitate the purchase of critical supplies.
If your department expanded their department numbers, new requisitions will need to be entered into PeopleSoft referencing the old Purchase Order (PO) number. POs with chartfields that mapped over one-to-one will be entered by Purchasing Services. POs with chartfields that did not map over one-to-one will need a new requisition referencing the old PO number to be entered by that campus department. If you have questions about any of your documents, please contact Procurement Services and schedule a conversation about all your in-flight purchase orders. Please keep paper documentation during this transition period.
Due to downtime surrounding the go-live period, P-card limits may be increased in advance for emergency purchases during the outage. As part of the unit’s business continuity plan, a University Purchasing Card (P-card) should be obtained now if one is not already assigned. Finance Division Policy 1252 offers information and instructions on how to obtain a P-card. Contact Procurement Services at purchasing_team@unc.edu if you anticipate needing an increased limit on your P-card.
Disbursement Services Considerations
Travel advances will not be issued between Sept. 16 and Oct. 1.
Web Travel is being updated and will interface with ConnectCarolina on Oct. 1. The New FRED system is now available for route administrators to set up new approval groups and routes for post go-live use (and uses the new six-digit department structure) in the new Web Travel system. The system is live for Web Travel setup only; the groups and routes will activate on Oct. 1 and will only apply to Web Travel documents created on or after Oct. 1. Users can set up groups and routes as usual in Finance Central until Oct. 1.
October stipends and rents will be paid on Sept. 26. All stipend and rent payments due for Nov. 2014 and afterwards will need to entered into ConnectCarolina. No in-flight vouchers will be converted.
Accounting Considerations
Every effort will be made to pay all vouchers in the FRS system by Sept. 30. Pre- encumbrances dated after Oct. 1 will require new chartfields, so users should not enter any future-dated pre-encumbrances. Future-dated open vouchers, e.g., dated after Oct. 1, will not be paid. Users should delay entering anything needing payment after Sept. 30 (future-dated items) in legacy systems and hold those items to be entered in ConnectCarolina after go-live.
September 2014 month-end processing will be the last month-end processing in FRS. September FRS transactions will be converted to ConnectCarolina after the September month-end close.
Reporting (Financials)
Reports should not be created using WebFOCUS, but existing reports will be supported until fiscal year-end 2015.
Payroll Considerations
The last biweekly payroll recorded in the current system will post on Sept. 16 for the period ending Sept. 7 (paid on Sept. 19). The last monthly payroll recorded in the current system will be for the period ending Sept. 30 (paid on Sept. 30), which will post on Sept. 19.
Assistance and Feedback
Your assistance in processing documents, monitoring your budgets and purchase orders, and adhering to deadlines is very important. If you have questions, suggestions or comments, please use the Finance Division web form located at: https://finance.unc.edu/contacts/question/ and select the drop-down issue titled “ConnectCarolina Financials”.
The information in this memo, along with other guidance can be found on the ConnectCarolina User Information site and on the Finance Division News Archives pages. Thank you for your support and cooperation during this transition.