Please share with the ConnectCarolina Finance users in your school/division. Updates are sent on an as-needed basis.
Top Issues
NEW! February 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 Tuesday, February 28 for February. 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! State Month-End Reports – Additional info is now added to the new State Month-end Report. Beginning with January’s report, if used, the information for all chartfields is included on the Detail report. This means, for example, that the State Detail report will display Project, Cost Code 1, Cost Code 2, and Cost Code 3 values if used on a transaction.
NEW! Salary Funding Report Is Now Live: Infoporte now shows funding sources for an employee’s salary, which may be useful to HR Users and Finance Users to make business decisions. Find out more in the Salary Funding Report Guide.
NEW! New Payroll Suspense Procedure: Payroll suspense went live with the M07 payroll, which paid January 31. Beginning with the M07 and B15 payroll distributions, funding end dates are treated as hard end dates in the payroll distribution process, and any payroll charges with expired funding end dates are sent to payroll suspense. For more information, view the communication sent on Jan. 19.
NEW! ITS Telecom Billing Journal Process Modifications: Previously, ITS Telecom charges showed an accounting date based on the month the charges were incurred in Bill Presentation, but in InfoPorte, they were displayed according to the accounting period in the journal date. Starting February and forward, the ITS Telecom charges will match. Please see the February 9 memo for details on how this change will show in the system.
REMINDER! Tax Withholding: Please remember with the new tax year, employees can update their tax withholding information W-4 and NC-4 through ConnectCarolina Self Service.
REMINDER! HR/Payroll January – June 2017 Calendars: The monthly HR/Payroll calendars for the first half of 2017 are available here: https://hr.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/222/2017/01/payroll-calendars-1H2017.pdf
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.