Please share with the ConnectCarolina Finance users in your school/division. Updates are sent on an as-needed basis.
Top Issues
NEW! November Month-End Close: Central offices have officially closed the month of November. This includes the transmission and reconciliation of all November transactions, and state approval to close the month.
REMINDER! December Month-End Close Deadline: Validated campus journal entries and data collect batches (journal imports) should be received by Accounting Services by close of business
(5 p.m.) on Friday, December 23 for December. Please remember that accounting will not receive the journal entries until the journal has been budget checked valid and has passed through all required approvals (including OSR, if necessary).
It is critical that journal imports with state funds are submitted on or before this date. Valid entries received past deadline, including valid entries pending departmental approval or with error status, will be deleted from the system.
Month End Close Clarification: Accounting Services targets the fourth (and no later than the fifth) business day of the month for month-end close and submits data to the State. State funds data may be affected after the fifth business day. Final approval is announced regularly in ConnectCarolina Finance Updates and via the ConnectCarolina portal page. Final month-end close is announced after the State accepts the data and is certified by the Controller’s office. Trust F&A and State Budget Transaction Guidelines:
- State: State fund budget transactions should be submitted to the Budget, Planning and Analysis Office one day prior to the end of the month to have sufficient time for posting in the month. Please be aware some State budget transactions do not route to Central Office for approval and posting: it will be up to you to monitor and see those approved and posted. With the closing of the month’s activity, budget transactions will be deleted on the first working day in the following month. An email will be sent to alert you of budget entries that have not posted.
- Trust: Trust budget transactions (journals/transfers) should be budget pre-checked, approved by department, and submitted to Accounting Services for approval one day prior to the end of the month. Please note that trust budget transactions not received by Accounting Services before month-end, will be deleted by Accounting Services.
- F&A: Please be aware F&A budget transactions do not route to Central Office for approval and posting, it will be up to you to monitor and see that transactions have been approved and posted.
Helpful Hint: Budget Pre-checking all budget transactions will catch errors and help Central Offices approve and post more efficiently.
Month-end close deadlines are continually updated on the Accounting Services webpage, so check there in between updates for the latest info.
NEW! New State Monthly Management Reports Webinar Friday, Dec. 16: A new set of static snapshot reports for State funds will be available soon. These reports are created right after Accounting Services closes a month and are delivered as PDF and Excel (CSV format) files. All you have to do is go to InfoPorte and find the reports for your department. Whether you look at a report right after a month has been closed or several months later, the report does not change. To learn more about these reports, tune in to our webinar on Friday, December 16 from 10 to 11 a.m. Please join at least ten minutes prior to the beginning of the session to allow time to download Blackboard Collaborate if necessary. Join the webinar.
NEW! .5% SHRA and EHRA Bonus and Carryforward: As of November, the .5 percent bonus budget for SHRA and EHRA have posted for State Appropriations. This budget journal is .5BON80229 (AA) and .5BON80234 (HA-AHEC). Also the budget office has posted your FY16 Carryforward budgets. This budget journal is STCF280601.
You can expect the EHRA and SHRA merit bonus budget in December. These budget journals will begin with SHRMERXXXX for SHRA and EHRMERXXXX for EHRA.
NEW! Payroll Calendars for 2017:The payroll calendars for 2017 have now been released and are available on the Finance website under Payroll Schedules.
NEW! Correcting Campus Journal Entries Webinar: Yesterday’s webinar was recorded and is now posted on ccinfo.unc.edu. The path to finding the webinar is: CCinfo.unc.edu > Resources Tab > Search Resources. Or here is a direct link: http://ccinfo.unc.edu/resources/search/
REMINDER! Airgas Holiday Schedule: Airgas/National Welders will be closed Friday, December 23 and Monday, December 26. In addition, for the New Year Holiday, they will be closed Monday, January 2, 2017. For more information, see the memo of December 9.
REMINDER! Cashier’s Office Campus-Directed Deadlines
Please note the Cashier’s office is adjusting deadlines related to the December 2016 month-end processing of cash, checks, credit card and electronic payments. Holiday changes to the deposit schedules will start Thursday, December 22 and continue until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 4, when normal business hours resume.
To understand how your deposit schedule may be affected , read the full memo for exact deadlines and applications of payments and ensure you have staff available to respond to these adjustments.
REMINDER! Revised Mileage Reimbursement Policy: The University received notice from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) regarding a revised reimbursement policy for personal vehicle use. The new policy went into effect December 1, 2016, and is applicable to travel physically taken on or after Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016. Any travel initiated prior to December 1 should be processed according to the prior policy.
Although the standard mileage rate for short trip remains at 54 cents per mile, the mileage mark for this reimbursement is now at 100 miles or less. For miles exceeding 100 round trip, the reimbursement rate has been reduced to 19 cents per mile when an individual uses a personal car when a state car is available.
For more details, see the revised mileage reimbursement policy memo and Policy 1310.
REMINDER! 2-Step Verification and Online W-2 Access: A reminder that 2-Step Verification, a process to secure and safeguard personal information and vital University data and credentials, is now used for online W-2 access. More information about online W-2 access and other employee tax form info can be found on the Online Employee Tax Forms webpage.
REMINDER! Subscribing to Business Managers listserv: Finance and accounting personnel who would like to subscribe to the business managers listserv can do so by following the instructions at https://finance.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/298/2016/09/joinbusinessmgr.pdf.
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).
Suggestions for content can be emailed to financecomm@unc.edu.