The December 2004 Financial Management System (FMS) Grant & Plant (M-200, M-210), Payroll (M-940, M-941), and Purchase Order (M-910) reports are now available to you at: http://epprod.cats.ohiou.edu:8900/OA_HTML/US/ICXINDEX.htm. 

The remainder of the December reports (M-100, M-110, M-900, M-316) will be distributed the week of January 17 to allow final processing of December contributions for OU Foundation accounts. You will be notified via email once the remainder of the reports are available. In the meantime, please use the OU Funds Available View to access your M100, M110, and M900 information for your general operating and auxiliary accounts.

Be sure to read BU$INE$$ MATTER$ below for important information related to your reports and other Division of Finance services.

If you need assistance accessing your reports or FMS in general, please contact:
Frontline at 7-8000 or frontline@ohio.edu

If you have further questions or comments, please contact:

Diane Lucas at 7-1380 or lucasd1@ohio.edu OR

Tanya Bibler at 7-1417 or biblert@ohio.edu

BU$INE$$ MATTER$

• P-CARD: P-card transactions posted through December 3, 2004 are in your December reports.

• MEETING: The next Campus Financial Meeting will be held Wednesday, January 26 from 2:00 p.m. in the Human Resources and Training Center, Room 141-145.
  
  If you cannot make it to the meeting, please visit the web site at: http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/campusfmtg/ for access to information discussed at the meeting. This information is usually posted by the end of the day on the Friday following the meeting.

• NEW FOUNDATION REPORT: Included in this month's reports is a new Foundation report called M-316. This report provides information for endowment accounts within the Foundation. Each endowment account could have up to three fund types (100, 130, 160) which when added together provide the market value of the endowment. Please review these accounts for accuracy and contact Cindy Strausbaugh, 3-1884, with questions or concerns.

• EMS (Employee Management System) change effective Feb 1, 2005: For some time we have had the request from departments to be able to enter pay information for new hires through EMS.
  
  Payroll has developed a new form in an effort to limit/eliminate the need for departments to complete paper part time appointment forms for new hires. This New Hire Checklist (available on the Payroll web site) can be submitted with the necessary payroll forms. The Payroll office will then hire the employee into your department so you can process their payment information via EMS. This should speed up the process and eliminate searching for appointment information in multiple places. This will allow us to maintain a complete history of all part time appointments in one place (EMS).
  
  Jennifer Martin will be available to assist anyone who currently does not use EMS. She can be reached at 3-0080.

• FORM 1099: Please forward any 2004 Form 1099 received from outside vendors to Tressa Ries, HDL Center, Room 279. This includes Form 1099-MISC (Miscellaneous Income), Form 1099-INT (Interest Income), Form 1099-DIV (Dividends and Distributions), Form 1099-B (Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions) or Form 1099-G (Certain Government Payments). If you have any questions regarding these forms, please contact Tressa Ries via email at riest@ohio.edu.

• EMPLOYER PROVIDED VEHICLES: FAccording to I.R.S. regulations, the personal use of an employer provided vehicle is considered a taxable benefit and must be reported on an employee's W-2. Ohio University must report the personal use of any vehicle by its employees whether the vehicle is titled, leased (from a third party or the motor pool) or donated for use by the University or Foundation. This affects any employee who was permitted personal use, including commuting mileage of any University vehicle during any part of calendar year 2004. If you have used any University vehicle for personal use during 2004, please contact Tressa Ries at 7-1721 or riest@ohio.edu.

• NEW MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT RATE: The 2005 mileage reimbursement rate is 40.5 cents per mile for business mileage incurred in a personal vehicle. Be sure to use the CORRECT travel expense report form when filing your travel expense report. Both forms, for business travel during 2004, and 2005, will be on our web site for three months, at which time the 2004 forms will be removed. The travel expense report form can be found by visiting the following web site:
  
  http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/forms/index.htm#travel

• EQUIPMENT INVENTORY: The Equipment Inventory office will be sending out quarterly inventory reports in January via electronic mail. These reports are solely for your records, but any changes, corrections, or questions should be submitted via campus mail to Michelle Schall, Equipment Inventory, HDL Center, Room 276. Also, any department that has not yet returned the certification sheet from the July 30, 2004, inventory audit needs to do so immediately. Thank you for your continued support.

• NEW OFFICE LOCATION: The office location of the Grants and Contracts Accounting staff has been moved from 279 HDL Center to 280 HDL Center. All contact information for the staff will remain unchanged.
  
  The office location of the Financial Reporting and Analysis staff has been moved from 213B HDL Center to 279 HDL Center. All contact information for the staff will remain unchanged.

• PAYROLL CHECKS: Departments should distribute payroll checks for any individuals not on direct deposit as quickly as possible upon their receipt from the Payroll Office each payday. Checks should be properly safeguarded until their distribution and should be returned to the Payroll Office if not distributed within one week of receipt if the department does not feel it can reasonably make contact with the employee. The check should be accompanied by an explanation of why it has not been distributed.
  
  Payroll strongly encourages direct deposit and would appreciate departments also encouraging any employees receiving paychecks to choose direct deposit. Pay distributed via direct deposit is more cost effective for the institution and places payment in the "hands" of the employee faster. For information about getting set up on direct deposit, please contact Robin Zeisler at 3-1857. It is important to note that Payroll can direct deposit an employee's pay to almost any bank in the United States.

• W-2 FORMS: With the calendar year ended, please make sure that Employee Records Services and Payroll Services have been apprised of anything that affects the accuracy of an employee's W-2. Make sure all terminations have been communicated and that no employee checks are being held in the department, particularly those which might need cancelled and would affect an individual's taxable income. Payroll can be contacted at 593-1860.

• PAYROLL TRANSFERS: For all requests regarding costing corrections for payroll expenses, use the Payroll Expense Accounting Correction Form located on the forms section of the Division of Finance web page:
  
  http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/forms/index.htm#payroll.

• FMS M-910 REPORT: Please review the balances on your current FMS M-910 report, Open Purchase Order by Cost Center. To verify the balances, compare the amount in the "Open Amount" column for each "Cost Center Total" line on your FMS M-910 report to the amount in the "YTD Encumb" column on your FMS M-110 report. IF you find any discrepancies between these reports, notify Diane Lucas at lucasd1@ohio.edu.

• OU FUNDS AVAILABLE VIEW: Over the past few months enhancements have been made to the OU Funds Available View. One of the enhancements has been to significantly improve the drill down time of viewing detail. The OU Funds Available View can be used to obtain up-to-date M110, M100 and M900 data for general operating and auxiliary accounts. If you have not used the new, faster, OU Funds Available View you will want to give it a try.
  
  If you have any problems or questions regarding this view, please contact Frontline at 7-8000 or frontline@ohio.edu.

• FORMS REMINDER: Please be sure to download the latest version of the Division of Finance forms from our web page at:
  
  http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/forms/index.htm.

• PHONE NUMBER FOR ACCOUNTS PAYABLE, ASSISTANT MANAGER: The phone number listed in the green pages (p. 9) of the 04-05 Directory for the Accounts Payable, Assistant Manager is incorrect. The correct phone number for the Accounts Payable, Assistant Manager is 593-1873. Please manually update your current directory.