This Finance Division Update email is for Business Managers, MOU Leads, ConnectCarolina Finance Liaisons, Finance Council, Finance TIPs, Finance Campus Working Groups and Finance Division staff. Please share with the ConnectCarolina Finance users in your school/division. We will send updates weekly and as needed.
Top Issues
- NEW! June Month-End Close: Central offices have officially closed the month of June. This includes the transmission and reconciliation of all June transactions, and state approval to close the month.
- NEW! New Process to Request Reports: There is a new form and some new options for requesting new reports! Use this New Report Information Request Form and follow this process, which is outlined in printable PDF format.
- NEW! Workflow Issue: Finance transactions that were submitted between Friday, July 31, and Monday, August 3, for workflow did not populate worklists and deliver email notifications for a small number of users. The issue has been corrected and the team is working to resubmit these items back into workflow.
- NEW! Retroactive Inactivation of Two GL Accounts: Wednesday, a communication was shared with MOU Financial Leads regarding inactivating several GL accounts based on review of GL accounts and discussions with campus users. Please contact your MOU Financial Lead for more information about how this affects your school/department.
- NEW! August Month-End Close Deadline: Validated campus journal entries should be received by Accounting Services by close of business Friday, August 28, and data collect batches (journal imports) should be received by Accounting Services by close of business Monday, August 31. It is critical that journal imports with state funds are submitted on or before Monday, August 31.
- NEW! Finding Budget Balances Guide: Check out the new Finding Budget Balances Guide for detailed instructions on finding your budget balance on the Ledger Rollups tabs in InfoPorte. The guide explains the difference between a budget balance, fund balance and cash balance, and shows how to export search results to Excel.
- NEW! 2016 Budget Allocations: The following FY 2016 budgets have now posted: Permanent State Budget, Permanent F&A Budget, F&A Carryforward, F&A Formula Allocation, Trust Carryforward for Trust sources that are set up as associated budgets. Carryforward for State funds is expected to post in August. See the budget memo sent last week.
- NEW! Vendor Create Reminder: Once a new vendor has been created, there is no need to re-enter the vendor again, even if the vendor is only used once per year, for example. Remember that in ConnectCarolina, once you CREATE a vendor, it is not inactivated unless someone requests inactivation. Please search for the vendor before requesting that it be added. Note: A vendor address change still requires a New Request but it will be a CHANGE.
Important Reminders and Resources
- Independent Contractor SSN Masking Feature: Effective Saturday, Aug. 1, field-level masking occurs for Independent Contractor (IC) forms. When viewing an IC form, campus users see a number that is “masked” or not viewable except for the last four digits of the IC’s social security number, for example [***_**_1234]. When creating a new IC record, campus users will notice that after entering a social security number (SSN) and tabbing to the next field, the SSN is locked and masked. Note: Users should double check entry of the SSN because it won’t be entirely visible after users tab out of the field. If users make a mistake when entering the SSN and have tabbed out of the field, they will need to cancel the record and start over. Training materials will be updated to reflect this enhancement.
- Associated Budgets Webinar: The Understanding Associated Budgets (For Anyone Who Works with Trust Funds) webinar that took place on July 30 was recorded and is now online. If you work with trust funds, it’s important you understand the Associated Budgets concept, and whether or not it applies to a particular trust source. Check out this recorded webinar to learn how associated budgets work, when it applies, and how it affects your available balance.
- Turning Off Legacy Systems: Last October, a number of the University’s administrative systems were replaced by ConnectCarolina and InfoPorte. Some of these legacy systems have already been turned off and soon, more of these systems will be decommissioned. Find out more on the Legacy Systems page which we will continually update with additional details and by viewing the legacy systems memo sent July 30.
Questions
Users should utilize the Business Systems Help Desk when they are unsure who to contact for issue resolution. This is the fastest way to obtain assistance and allows the project team to be able to track issues to determine the scale of the impact to all users.
Users can reach the Business Systems Help Desk at 919-962-HELP or via a remedy ticket submitted online at help.unc.edu (select ConnectCarolina > ConnectCarolina Finance > the appropriate area of concern).
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.