Bridges Advisory #31 - October 15, 2004
Printable versionThe University of Florida is committed to keeping you informed as we continue our transition to the new myUFL systems. To help you with the transition, each week you will receive a Bridges Advisory.
REMINDER: myUFL FINANCIALS UNAVAILABLE THIS WEEKEND. Please remember that the myUFL financial systems will not be available from Friday, October 15 at 6:00 pm to Monday, October 18 at 6:00 am in order to perform some budget checking maintenance on the Finance applications—Purchasing, Payable, Billing, Receivables, Grants, etc. If you try to process any financial transactions such as purchase orders, vouchers, travel authorizations, expense reports, invoices, deposits, and the like, you may receive error messages and other results that you would not expect. Please do not try to use the myUFL financial system this weekend for these reasons. All other systems in the myUFL Portal will be available this weekend for use.
NEW HANDS-ON WORKING LAB SESSIONS COMING SOON. Beginning Monday, October 25, UF Bridges will be offering hands-on open lab sessions for several financial, human resources, and payroll functions. At these open labs faculty and staff may bring problems or work with which they need assistance based on the topic for that particular day and time. At the sessions, Bridges team members and core users (i.e., central office staff) will be available to do demonstrations or to help you one-on-one with a specific issue or task.
Further details, including the schedule of lab sessions, will be announced in next week’s Advisory and in portal articles. The sessions will be held in the Dodge Island training room at the UF Bridges offices downtown at Union Street Station. Open lab sessions will run through November and longer if there is sufficient demand.
IMPROVEMENTS IN eRECRUIT THIS WEEK. UF Bridges recently performed an upgrade to the eRecruit system that improves the Jobs at UF (http://jobs.ufl.edu) Web site. This is the site where external applicants go to apply for UF positions. To improve the user experience, we have added browser requirements and clearer instructions for using the system.
In addition, applicant screening questions are now available in eRecruit. Applicants for all non-faculty positions must fill out screening questions as part of their on-line application. These questions cover criminal background, eligibility to work in the U.S., selective service registration, etc. The responses provided to these questions are now available to Originators, Authorizers, and Recruiters as part of the on-line application. For any answers in the affirmative to criminal background questions, related details are displayed at the bottom of the page by referencing the appropriate question number.
SPEEDCHART USE EXPANDED TO OTHER ROLES. SpeedCharts were introduced a few weeks ago as a means to more accurately and conveniently complete your department’s required ChartField string(s). ChartFields are used for financial transactions and make up the backbone of UF's accounting system. Next week, Bridges will provide individuals with the following roles the ability to both enter and correct SpeedCharts:
• UF_PO_INITIATOR
• UF_PO_DEPATMENT_APPROVER
• UF_PO_PCARD_RECONCILER
• UF_PO_PCARD_APPROVER
• UF_AP_VCHR_PROCESSOR
• UF_VCHR_MANAGER
• UF_CR_AR_CASHIER
An instruction guide is available called "Using SpeedCharts for ChartField Strings."
Please note that SpeedCharts are not available for Travel and Expense but users can use the Default Accounting link on the General Information page of Travel Authorizations or Expense Reports to populate all lines of those transactions with the same ChartField distributions. This link will also work for split distributions should that be necessary. If you need to change every line, simply change the Default Accounting as was explained in the training classes.
F&A OVERHEAD CALCULATION PROCESS AND PAYROLL GENERAL LEDGER POSTING MOVED TO WEEKEND BATCH SCHEDULE. Due to the long amount of time these processes take, we are currently unable to process the F&A Overhead Calculation and the posting of Payroll journals to the General Ledger (GL) during the nightly batch schedule. Instead, we will be running these processes on a weekly basis during weekends. This is a temporary schedule as we work to fine-tune these processes so that we may run them nightly as originally planned. As a result of a weekly schedule, departments will not see overhead calculations and payroll journals posted to the General Ledger until Monday mornings.
PAYROLL DISTRIBUTIONS – USE THE “POST” BUTTON. As of October 14, payroll processors will notice that the Post button is no longer grayed out when entering payroll distributions. Early in the "go live," payroll processors were asked to use the "Post" button. Bridges later removed this ability due to technical problems. We have resolved those issues and once again want Payroll Processors to use the Post button.
Navigation: Setup HRMS > Product Related > Commitment Accounting > Budget Information USA > UF Payroll Distributions > enter the payroll distribution > click "Save" > click "Post."
PLEASE CANCEL UNUSED TRAVEL AUTHORIZATIONS. Travelers and Originators should be canceling any unused Travel Authorizations. Failure to cancel an approved Travel Authorization or to copy the approved Travel Authorization to an Expense Report will result in a permanent encumbrance in your budget ledger. Canceling unused Travel Authorization will release the encumbered funds. Please read the new instruction guide, “How to Cancel an Approved Travel Authorization in Travel and Expenses,” before getting started.
PREPAID ITEMS CAN NOW BE INPUT ON TRAVEL AUTHORIZATIONS. The issues with the double charging of travel-related prepaid items (Purchasing Card and Direct Billings) have been resolved. Prepaid items may now be input on a Travel Authorization. This will not encumber the funds, but will allow for a more accurate reflection of all the anticipated expenses on a travel and will also allow you to populate the Travel Expense Report with all the required information. These transactions will still be paid unencumbered either through the Purchasing Card (PCard) module or the Accounts Payable (AP) Module for direct billings.
You may now also input prepaid items on the Travel Expense Report. When you select a “Payment Type” of either “UF PCard” or “Payment Authorization”, you must also use a “Billin Type” of “Prepaid Expense” instead of In-State, Out-of-State, or Foreign. This transaction will not post to the ledger when inputting the Expense Report but will when the item is paid in the PCard module or Accounts Payable module. Make sure you use the correct account code when processing a PCard transaction or an AP voucher to properly account for the In-State, Out-of-State, or Foreign travel classification.
EMAILS TO UF HELP DESK. When contacting the UF Help Desk via email, please be sure to include them (helpdesk@ufl.edu) in the TO: field. Some users are contacting Bridges or central offices and copying the Help Desk (i.e., CC:), assuming a ticket will be created. The Help Desk is only opening a formal ticket if they are contacted directly. In addition, an upgrade to their system will further automate this process in the near future. Please remember to include a UFID number and GatorLink username.
INSTRUCTION GUIDES. Some new or updated Instruction Guides are available:
Travel and Expense
• How to Cancel an Approved Travel Authorization in Travel
and Expenses (New)
Hiring > Staff, OPS, and Student Positions
• Preparing to Complete a Hire (Updated)
For frequent updates about the project, subscribe to the UF Bridges pagelet on the myUFL portal. For a quick tutorial on how to use myUFL, visit: http://wla.erp.ufl.edu/media/PersonalizeContentLayout.html.
For more information about the transition, visit the Bridges Web site.
For help or support in using the new systems, including the portal, contact the UF Help Desk at 392-HELP or helpdesk@ufl.edu.
