The February 2005 Financial Management System (FMS) reports are now available to you at: http://epprod.cats.ohiou.edu:8900/OA_HTML/US/ICXINDEX.htm. 

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$

1. Paychecks - change in distribution
2. OPERS rate increase
3. Major changes to Cell Phone Policy
4. Direct deposit for AP payments to employees
5. Procedure for Report Distribution Maintenance (RDM) requests
6. Tips for searching for Expense Natural Account Codes
7. Inventory Change Worksheet (EI-8 form) - remove OU equipment from department's inventory list
8. Sales Tax - OU is exempt from paying Ohio Sales Tax
9. Reviewing accounts - monitor your accounts year-end is approaching
10. Please review your monthly M910 reports - there could be errors
11. Paperwork for Research Accounts
12. New topic in Accounting Manual - Funding Research Incentive Accounts
13. Previous issues of Business Matters

• P-CARD: P-card transactions posted through February 04, 2005 are in your February reports.

• MEETING: The next Campus Financial Meeting will be held Wednesday, April 27, at 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.

• PAYCHECKS: Beginning soon, employees who do not utilize direct deposit, i.e., those who receive a paycheck, must begin signing for the check at the time of pick-up. This change in procedure is a result of a management comment from external auditors strongly suggesting that we standardize the check distribution procedure, which should include signing for paychecks.

This change in procedure is for all employees, including student employees. The first payrolls for which this will be effective are:


	March 31 for salaried administrators
	April 1 for faculty
	April 1 for hourly employees


A complete procedure for distributing paychecks will accompany those checks when delivered to the departments.

Direct deposit advices do not need to be signed for and can continue to be distributed in the current way.

Employees who are interested in avoiding the inconvenience of signing for their paycheck are encouraged to sign up for direct deposit. The direct deposit form is located at http://w3test.finance.ohiou.edu/components/dirdepauth.xls. Questions about direct deposit can be referred to Robin Zeisler in Payroll at zeislerr@ohio.edu or at 3-1857.

Questions about this change in procedure can be referred to Gina Fetty, Controller, at coen@ohio.edu or at 3-0342.

Please communicate this information to employees in your area so they are aware of the up-coming change.

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• OPERS RATE INCREASE EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1ST 2006: Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) is implementing rate increases for both the employee and employer rates effective January 1, 2006. The new rates will be 9.0% for employees and 13.54% for employers. The new employer rate will affect budgeting for the FY 06 year.

  There will also be additional increases in January 1, 2007 and January 1, 2008. OPERS plan is to increase the current 8.5% employee and 13.31% employer rates to the authorized maximums of 10.0% employee and 14.0% employer over the next three calendar years.

  These increases are part of a long term plan by OPERS to fund future health care for retirees.

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• MAJOR CHANGES TO CELL PHONE POLICY: Effective February 3, 2005, University-owned cell phone users should no longer renew cell phone contracts, or establish new ones. Effective two years from that date (February 3, 2007) the University will no longer own cell phones - i.e., payments to cell-phone providers will not be made by the University. Cell phone allowances are now available to cover business expenses on personally-owned cell phones. To learn more about the details and reasons for the change, see the new policy at http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/policy/55-075.html, and cell phone guidelines at http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/purch/cellphone.htm.
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• DIRECT DEPOSIT FOR AP PAYMENTS TO EMPLOYEES: Beginning March 1, 2005, payments to employees from the Accounts Payable office have been direct deposited, for anyone who has signed up (or will sign up) for Direct Deposit through the Payroll Office. This includes payments for Travel reimbursement, Travel Advances, and other employee reimbursement requests. An email notification will be used to inform the payee that the amount has been deposited. Contact Mary Patacca, Director of Procurement Services at 3-1965 or patacca@ohio.edu with any questions or concerns on this topic.
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• RDM REQUESTS: All requests for Report Distribution Maintenance (RDM) should be submitted via email to Texanna Well-Wehrung (wellt@ohio.edu) with a cc to Tanya Bibler (biblert@ohio.edu) through your planning unit's Budget Unit Manager. We originally intended for these requests to filter through Budget Unit Managers, but we have not always followed this procedure. Beginning with this notice, Budget Unit Managers should make the determination as to whether a request should be honored or not. We have enhanced our OU Funds Available View so that it may take the place of reports in some instances. The report distribution process requires an enormous amount of technical, system, and human resources and our goal is to minimize this effort as much as possible. Also, if you currently receive reports you do not need and you are not the organization or project manager for the account, please notify your Budget Unit Manager so we may remove unnecessary reports from your distribution. If you have questions or concerns regarding this procedure, please feel free to contact Tanya Bibler at biblert@ohio.edu.
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• EXPENSE NATURAL ACCOUNT CODES: Search for an Expense Natural Account Code online at http://casplus.finance.ohiou.edu/object/index.asp. In the upper right hand corner of that web page type the word to search for (when singular or plural is questionable, use the root of the word; for example, troph instead of trophy or trophies) and click on the search button. You can then use the Internet Explorer "Find on This Page" feature found in the Edit menu, to look for the specific occurrences of the word you're searching for.

  Expense Natural Account Code descriptions are updated regularly based on questions that arise. Questions indicate clarification is needed in the descriptions. The expectation is that descriptions will not be read in their entirety, but rather Search and Find features be utilized to help identify the appropriate code.

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• INVENTORY CHANGE WORKSHEET (EI-8 form): Do you have equipment with a green OU Inventory tag that you need to scrap, send to surplus or recycling but you're not sure how to remove it from your department's inventory list? It's easy, just print the EI-8 form located on the Division of Finance Forms web site under Equipment Inventory at: http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/components/EI8.xls. The completed EI-8 form should be forwarded by campus mail to Equipment Inventory Department, 276 HDL Center. Once forms are processed, the equipment will be removed from your department's inventory list, keeping it up to date. This will make auditing your equipment much easier. Contact Michelle Schall, Equipment Inventory at 3-1904 or schall@ohio.edu with questions about the EI-8 form.
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• SALES TAX: When making purchases, keep in mind that Ohio University is exempt from paying Ohio Sales Tax. Additional information can be found in the Accounting Manual located at http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/accounting/index.htm.
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• REVIEWING ACCOUNTS: The end of the fiscal year is approaching. It is our expectation that departments are monitoring their FMS reports and notifying the Division of Finance of any corrections immediately. Also, any overspent Grants and Contracts needs to be resolved with the Grants and Contracts Accounting Office. As June approaches, it becomes even more critical for departments to stay on top of their accounting since there is very little time once the year ends for accounting corrections to be processed.
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• 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.
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• PAPERWORK FOR RESEARCH ACCOUNTS: Paperwork and general questions regarding Research Accounts should be forwarded to the General Accounting Office not the Grants and Contracts Office. Also, don't forget to review the SOP for Funding Research Accounts in the Accounting Manual by clicking the following link: http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/accounting/research_accounts_fund.htm
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• ACCOUNTING MANUAL: Find the Accounting Manual web pages by following this link:
  http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/accounting/index.htm

  Recent changes to content include:

  ADDED: Research Accounts, Funding http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/accounting/research_accounts_fund.htm