BU$INE$$ MATTER$

December, 2003
Colleagues:

The December 2003 Financial Management System (FMS) reports are now available to you. Be sure to read BU$INE$$ MATTER$ below for important information related to your reports and other Finance Division services as well as for instructions on how to access your reports.

If you have further questions or comments, please contact:
Tanya Bibler at 7-1417 or biblert@ohio.edu
Diane Lucas at 7-1380 or lucasd1@ohio.edu
April Henderson at 3-1864 or hendersa@ohio.edu

BU$INE$$ MATTER$
  • P-CARD:  P-card transactions posted through December 5, 2003 are in your December reports.
  • OUF ACCOUNTS:  With the calendar year ending, the Foundation Accounting office is still processing December transactions. Please be aware that Foundation account balances may change for the month of December. Updated reports may be distributed at a later date. Also, remember that the OUF account balances are unaudited at this time and audit adjustments may be necessary to some accounts once the audit is complete. We have also run across some incorrect beginning balances for OUF accounts due to purchase order rollover and incorrect account combinations. Our goal is to have these balances straightened out for January reports.
  • MEETING:   The next Campus Financial Meeting will be held Thursday, January 29 from 3-4:30 in the Human Resources and Training Center room 141/145.
  • 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 ˇ°handsˇ± 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.
  • OUF and OU AGENCY TRANSACTIONS:  Transactions between the Ohio University Foundation and OU Student Organizations should be submitted on a Direct Payment form. These two entities cannot be processed as internal transactions and checks must be issued through Accounts Payable. If you have questions regarding transactions involving these types of accounts, please contact the Ohio University Foundation office at 593-1882 or the Bursar office at 593-4127.
  • 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 FY 2004 the expense for each employee on a biweekly pay, is $318.91 PER PAY PERIOD (26 PAYS) and for each employee on a monthly pay the amount is $921.30 PER PAY PERIOD STARTING IN OCTOBER OF EACH YEAR (9 PAYS). This expense hits 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.
  • M200/M210:  Closed accounts in Project Accounting (grant and plant fund accounts) will cease printing the following month. This will allow departments to receive only those accounts that are still considered active. The Grants & Contracts and Plant Fund Accounting offices are in the process of reviewing all of their accounts and will continue to close those accounts that have been completed through the remainder of the fiscal year.
  • M910:  The FMS-M910 is included in your December reports. This report will be redesigned in the future to portray a much clearer picture of open encumbrances for each cost center. Please remember that the M910 includes purchase order encumbrances only. If you have any questions or issues with this report, please be sure to contact one of the individuals above. We appreciate your patience.
  • M100/M110:  The M100 and M110 reports now include an encumbrance column. This column should tie to your M910 and the Month column should tie to your M900 for each of the reports. If you have any questions or issues with the new version of these reports, please contact one of the above individuals for assistance.
  • BUDGET TRANSFERS:  Budget transfer forms for any month should be submitted to the Division of Finance by the last business day of that month to ensure entry. Any forms received after the last business day will be processed in the new month.
  • PAYROLL:  When submitting requests for payroll transfers to the Payroll Office or Grants and Contracts Accounting Office, please reference the employee's employee ID rather than social security number.
  • TRAINING:  Please remember that the Division of Finance offers FMS training sessions including Report Reading. Please go to the bottom of this email for a listing of courses offered and instructions on how to sign-up.
  • DECEMBER "TIDBIT":  Just wanted to point out that the OU Funds View (navigation path - OUFMS: View Only > General Ledger > OU Funds View) results are comparable to the M100 report but with up to the minute information. The OU Funds View uses the same logic as the FMS-M100 report, can be generated at any given time, and is downloadable into Excel. If you have any questions on how to execute this query, please contact Frontline at 7-8000.
  • ISSUES:  Please be sure to communicate any issues you may have regarding DECEMBER reports ONLY to one of the three contacts above. We are working very hard to resolve any outstanding issues and need to focus on the latest version of the reports to do so.
  • BROWSER:  If you are currently using FMS or accessing your reports successfully using Internet Explorer, please do not upgrade your browser to version 6.0.2600. It seems we have run into problems accessing reports and FMS with this version of Internet Explorer. If you experience any difficulties, please be sure to contact Frontline at 597-8000 or at frontline@ohio.edu
  • REPORT ACCESS:  To access your reports and other enterprise business system services, open the following URL: http://www.finance.ohiou.edu/portal

    Enter your OAK ID and password for access. If you are having trouble locating your OAK ID, please refer to the following link and follow the instructions there:
    http://www.cns.ohiou.edu/email/youroakid.html

    On your main menu, select "OU FMS Reporting" then "FMS Reports". When you select a report, the PDF file will be downloaded and opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you have accessibility issues contact Frontline at 7-8000 or at frontline@ohio.edu. . We recommend you view the reports on-line and utilize Acrobat Reader's "Find" feature to navigate.


    Financial Management System
    Training Available as of January 2003


    Financial Management System (FMS) 101A and 101B- Entry level training which provides an overview of the Finance Division, the chart of accounts, completion of forms (requisitions, travel expense reports, etc.), as well as how to navigate and run queries in Oracle.This class is particularly useful to administrative assistants who process forms and look up detail transaction information.
    Transaction Inquiry- This session is intended for those who process requisitions, direct payments, travel expense reports, etc., and need the ability to find information related to these transactions on line. Transaction inquiry is also covered in FMS 101A and 101B.
    General Ledger and Report Reading- The General Ledger module provides summary level information, however, it is possible to drill down into other modules for detail information. This is recommended if your duties include managing actual expenditures to budget(s) and/or analysis of financial reports.This session introduces the user to on-line queries of the General Ledger.
    Project Status Inquiry Seminar- The Oracle Financial Management System has a Projects module dedicated specifically to grants, contract and plant funds. This seminar is designed for those who manage, track or work with externally funded projects. Participants will learn to navigate Oracle and query their projects for actual expenditures, encumbrances and account balances at both the project and task levels. We will also cover project reports and how they integrate with, and supplement, the on-line information.
    Employee Management System- This application allows Budget Unit Managers and Employee Managers to see employee human resources and payroll data on line.It is also used to process reappointment, summer session and academic and administrative overload appointments. To schedule training, call Sari Bailey (3-1862) or Jennifer Martin (3-0080).


    To sign up for training, please go to the Finance Division web site: www.finance.ohiou.edu
    Click on the link to Training, and follow the instructions.
    If you have questions, contact Joyice Childs, at 593-1908 or childs@ohio.edu