Business Matters March 2005

BU$INE$$ MATTER$
March, 2005

Colleagues:

The March 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$

Features of this edition:

P-CARD: P-card transactions posted through March 11, 2005 are in your March 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.

CLARIFICATION: PAPERWORK FOR UNRESTRICTED RESEARCH ACCOUNTS: Paperwork and general questions regarding accounting for UNRESTRICTED Research Accounts such as Research Incentive (RIxxxxxxx) and Start Up (SUxxxxxxx) accounts established by the Office of the Vice President for Research should be forwarded to the General Accounting Office. An SOP has been developed, Funding Research Accounts (Unrestricted), to address issues related to these accounts. This SOP is now available in the Accounting Manual by clicking the following link:
http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/accounting/research_accounts_fund.htm

The Grants and Contracts Office handles the accounting for RESTRICTED research accounts that are awarded to researchers by agencies external to the University.

FISCAL YEAR CLOSING SCHEDULE: A fiscal year end schedule is now available on the Finance web site at: http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/gafr/closing.html
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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 need 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.

Please be sure to review expense natural accounts 796900 and 797900 for each of your cost centers. These codes should have a zero balance at June 30. All corrections for these entries should be submitted on an Internal Billing Authorization/Accounting Correction form located on the Division of Finance web site at: http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/forms/index.htm

All unrestricted research accounts must have a zero or positive available balance by fiscal year end. These accounts are identified by the following project numbers: RIXXXXXXX (Research Incentive), SUXXXXXXX (Start-up), RCXXXXXXX (Research Committee), and IAXXXXXXX (Internal Awards).
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PAYCHECKS: 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. A complete procedure for distributing paychecks accompanied checks when they were delivered to the departments.

Direct deposit advices do not need to be signed for and can continue to be distributed in the current way. Direct deposit advices are identified by a DD right underneath the name and delivery information on it. Paychecks are identified by a CK in the same place. For example:
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 change.
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Cell Phone Policy: Effective February 3, 2005 University-owned cell phone users must not renew cell phone contracts, or establish new ones. Effective February 3, 2007 (two years from the policy effective date) 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 available to cover business expenses on personally-owned cell phones. To learn more, see the 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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GROUP INSURANCE CHARGES: If an employee IS ELIGIBLE FOR the group health insurance program, the departmental account will be charged the benefit charge in the following manner for fiscal year 2005:
Employees on a biweekly pay: $304.18 PER PAY PERIOD (26 pays)
Employees on a monthly pay: $878.73 PER MONTH (Oct through June)

This expense posts to expense natural account 242000 for all employees. For employees who are costed to multiple accounts, the benefit charge for each account will be PROPORTIONATE TO THE CHARGE FOR SALARY /WAGES FOR THAT EMPLOYEE, i.e. 75%, 25%, etc.