Bridges Advisory #41 - Dec 23, 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.
Note: The Bridges Advisory will not be issued the week of December 27-December 31.
MORE IMPROVEMENTS MADE TO myUFL SYSTEMS THIS MORNING. Early this morning Bridges implemented the numerous improvements to the myUFL systems. Most of the changes are not visible to end users. The upgrade did fixed several specific problems as well as improved general system performance. Bridges applied 17 "fixes" or enhancements in Portal, eRecruit, HRMS, Payroll, Security (ARS), Budget, General Ledger, Asset Management, and Travel.
SEVERAL NEW SOURCES FOR NEWS IN myUFL-NPR, ESPN, REDNOVA, ORLANDO SENTINEL. Today we introduce six new information sources added to the portal: NPR - All Things Considered; NPR - Morning Edition; ESPN - Top Headlines; RedNova - Science; RedNova - Space; Orlando Sentinel - State News. The Orlando Sentinel replaces the Miami Herald as the source for state news.
You may add these pagelets to any tab on your portal. To subscribe to any of these new pagelets, please sign on to the portal, click on the appropriate tab (i.e., Top, Faculty, Custom, etc.), then click on Personalize Content. These six new pagelets are found in the News and Special Interest categories. Check the box next to the pagelets in which you want to subscribe and click the "Save" button. You can move the pagelets to a new location on the page by clicking on the Personalize Layout link.
The Bridges Portal team is continuously looking for new news sources. If you have any news sources that you think would appeal to the UF community, we welcome your suggestions. Please send them via the myUFL Suggestion Box in the portal.
DEPARTMENTS CAN BEGIN ENTERING MERIT PAY RAISES INTO myUFL. This week, those with UF_HR Manager/Dept Admin and UF_HR Level 1 Approver will find in myUFL a new menu item under Workforce Administration > Job Information called "UF Raise Review." The UF Raise Review page is used to enter raises that are awarded by University of Florida administration or the Florida Legislature to a large UF population. Please see the December 22 DDD memo for more details.
Before using this new functionality, please review the new instruction guide called "Using UF Raise Review to Implement Merit Increases" that describes the process for 2005 TEAMS and USPS Merit Increase Payments.
A Department Raise Report is now available in Enterprise Reporting > Human Resources Information > My UFL HR and Payroll > Pay Information > Current Pay Cycle > Raise Reports > 2005 TEAMS & USPS Merit Raise. If you are have UF_HR Manager/Department Admin or UF_HR_Level 1 Approver role but can not access these reports, please ask your Department Security Administrator to request the UF_ER_HRPR_PAY or UF_ER_HRPR_CurrPayCycle role on your behalf.
Department administrators must enter all merit increases by 5:00 pm on Friday, January 14, 2005. The merit increases will become effective on Friday, January 28, 2005
ENHANCEMENTS TO ENTERPRISE REPORTING THIS PAST WEEKEND. The Cognos software was enhanced over the weekend of December 18-19. Thanks for your patience while we applied necessary server upgrades. Below are a few highlights that you might notice as you are using the upgraded reporting environment:
- Enhancement to PowerPlay will affect the Department Ledger (DL) summary cubes. A new feature is available that affects the zero suppression option. Before the upgrade, both rows and columns of the cubes were zero suppressed. This caused columns to disappear in the DL summary Cubes when no activity for that column. The upgraded DL Summary cubes now allow for zero columns to appear. Many users have sought this enhancement and we a glad to provide this in conjunction to the upgrade.
- Enhancement to PowerPlay will affect the toolbar. Upgraded PowerPlay has additional features. The toolbar reflects some small changes and a document describing these changes is available. Please review the updated "PowerPlay Toolbar instruction guide" to familiarize yourself with the changes.
- Enhancement to Paylist and Cost Distribution. A new prompt allows from one to all employees within a department to be selected when running any of the following reports:
- Preliminary Payroll Listing with Paycheck Status
- Retro Payroll Cost Distribution Detail by Person List
- Retro Payroll Cost Distribution Detail by Person
- Payroll Cost Distribution Detail by Person
- Payroll Cost Distribution Detail by Person List
- Payroll Paylist with Earnings Hours and Rate
- Payroll Paylist with Earnings Hours and Rate Off Cycle
Please read the new instruction guide entitled "Payroll Listings and Cost Distribution Reports" before getting started.
SCHEDULED CLOSINGS FOR myUFL FINANCIALS.UF is now closing periods on a regular schedule based on previous announcements in the Bridges Advisory. With the December closing coming up, we are presenting this information so you can prepare for these closings going forward. Please note transactions with a valid budget checking status that are not posted to the General Ledger (GL) from a subsidiary ledger (i.e. purchasing, payables, billing, receivables, travel, projects, and grants) in a closed period will process to the GL with the current date as the journal date. The subsystem will always maintain the transaction detail.
Accounts Payable (AP)
Users cannot change the accounting date on vouchers with a date in
a closed period. Prior to closing periods AP core users will
identify existing unposted vouchers that do not have a valid
budget checking status. Since users would experience accounting
date errors if they adjusted vouchers in a closed period, core
users will change the accounting date on the vouchers to a date in
the current period whenever we close an AP period.
Travel (EX)
Users cannot submit or approve pending expense transactions with a
date in a closed period. Unlike AP users do not have the option to
change the accounting date so Bridges will systematically change
the accounting date. Prior to the end of the month, users should
ensure they submit all valid transactions and manager should
ensure they approve those transactions. Users should also deny,
cancel, or delete any transaction they no longer require at month
end.
Purchasing (PO)
UF does not close Purchasing periods during the fiscal year.
Contracts (CA)
This module does not close although individual contracts can and
will close. Basically this subsystem feeds billing items to the
Billing module in the current period.
Billing (BI)
Users cannot process new or modified bills in a closed period, but
they can execute the credit and rebill process on bills already
posted to a closed period since the original transaction is
already posted; the new bill will post to the current period.
myUFL will process any new bills created from a previous period or
a current period with an invoice date in the current period based
on the billing cycle (i.e. weekly, monthly) for your Billing
business unit during the nightly batch schedule.
Grants billing for a given month cannot run until the period is closed for all of the other subsidiary ledgers. Otherwise there is a possibility that the bill will not contain all the correct data and would not match the back up data. Regardless, the grant bills will always post to the current period when we actually run billing (i.e. we will close December for all subsidiary ledgers then populate billing with the applicable billing items and prepare invoices with a January date that post to BI, AR, and the GL in January).
Accounts Receivable (AR)
Users cannot enter or process deposits, pending items, or AR
worksheets in a closed period. Of course, you will be able to
apply payments in a deposit to open items generated from a closed
period as long as the deposit is in an open period since the open
item already posted to AR and the GL. UFS must complete the
budget checking process for all applicable transactions when the
closing of a period is imminent.
General Ledger (GL)
Users cannot process journals in a closed period. Any journal
generated from a subsystem must complete processing prior to
closing the GL. Core users will change the journal date on any
transaction that remains in a closed period.
Project Costing (PC)
PO, AP, EX, Payroll, and GL must close and all FnA calculations
(i.e. Facilities and Administration) must run before UF closes PC.
Users must use the current date on all transactions to post to PC.
During the nightly batch on the last day of the month, Bridges
will systematically update the accounting dates on items in error
status with an accounting date in the closed period to a date in
the current period so they can post those transactions.
Projects uses Collect Costs to create copies of transactions from the subsystems (PO, AP, EX, GL, Payroll), into the Project Resource table. myUFL uses AP, EX, Payroll, GL and the associated FnA costs to create BIL rows (i.e. billable), which the Contract and Billing modules use to produce bills for Cost Reimbursable contracts.
OPEN LAB SCHEDULE FOR JANUARY. In January, Bridges Open Labs will be held on Tuesday mornings (8:30 am - 11:30 am) and Thursday afternoons (1:30 pm - 4:30 pm) in Suite 211 (Dodge Island Training Room) downtown at Union Street Station. All sessions will be Open House - All Topic labs and no registration is required.
As stated in Bridges Advisory #39, Bridges encourages departments and units to schedule a customized open lab session for their area's faculty and/or staff. To set up a session, please call the UF Bridges office at (352) 846-2504.
NEW INSTRUCTION GUIDES.Some new or updated Instruction Guides are available:
- Enterprise Reporting: PowerPlay Toolbar (Updated)
- Payroll: Payroll Listings and Cost Distribution Reports (New)
- Hiring and Job Actions: Using UF Raise Review to Implement Merit Increases (New)
- Time and Labor: Part-time Employees and Compensatory Leave (New)
- Time and Labor: Personal Leave Days (New)
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.
