Bridges Advisory #70 – July 29, 2005
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.
OPEN ENROLLMENT IS COMING – IS YOUR ADDRESS CORRECT? The UF Directory is the sole source of contact information at the University of Florida and is used to populate the myUFL systems and the on–line phonebook. As reported in last month’s InfoGator, Fall Open Enrollment is coming soon and all faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to make sure their address information is correct and up to date in the UF Directory. Importantly, we urge directory coordinators and department administrators to distribute this message broadly to their unit’s employees and provide assistance where needed.
To update your address, sign on to the myUFL portal, then click on ‘My Account’, then ‘Update My Directory Profile’. In the Directory, click on the orange “Addresses and Phone Numbers” header to add or modify your addresses.
Review this list of addresses that are stored in the Directory and why you need to make sure they are up to date and not blank:
- UF Business Mailing Address (BUSN1): Open Enrollment Supplemental benefits package, campus–wide publications, and other official communication are sent to this address. Should be a Campus PO Box.
- UF Business Physical Location Address (WORK): May be used to locate you for a delivery or a meeting. Travel reimbursements for non–employees are sent to this address. Should be a campus street address or building name and room number. The County is used to report employees’ salaries and wages for unemployment compensation purposes to the Florida Department of Revenue, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, and the U.S. Department of Labor.
- Permanent Home Mailing Address (HOME): Required by the IRS for all employees for income tax reporting (i.e., W–4, W–2, and W–2c). Communications from the State of Florida Division of Retirement are sent to this address. Nonresident Aliens must have their foreign country address in this field for 1042–S reporting with Country Code of NUSA. With the exception of foreign nationals, part–time residents and students, this address is typically the same as one’s local home mailing address. Must be a street or rural route address.
- Local Home Mailing Address (MAIL): Tax information, including your Form W–2, and travel reimbursements (if not using direct deposit) are sent to this address. UF Benefit information (including the upcoming 2006 Fall Open Enrollment summary statement) and communications from benefit vendors are sent to this address. Nonresident Alien payments and Treaty Exempt Wages are sent to this address. Other official communication may be sent to this address. With the exception of foreign nationals, part–time residents and students, this address is typically the same as one’s permanent home mailing address. May be a street address or a PO Box. Important: The Florida County listed for this address determines your choice of HMO plans and workers’ compensation coverage.
- Local Home Physical Location Address (PHYS) or Emergency Contact: If you use a PO Box for your permanent or local home mailing address, you should make sure one or both of these fields is populated with a street address in case your family needs to be personally contacted in case of an emergency or crisis.
- 1 The four character code indicates the corresponding address in the myUFL systems. This information is primarily provided for the benefit of department administrators who enter new hire information in Workforce Administration > Personal Information.
Additionally, many official communications are sent to your UF Business Email Address. Please make sure this email is correct in the Directory via My Account > Modify My UF Business Email.
If you need help updating your Directory information in the portal’s My Account > Update My Directory Profile, please read the appropriate instruction guides on the Directory services page at http://www.bridges.ufl.edu/directory or contact your department’s Directory Coordinator.
SEVERAL IMPROVEMENTS TO myUFL SYSTEMS. This past week, Bridges implemented more than 30 “fixes” or enhancements to the myUFL systems. The upgrade resolved several specific problems as well as improved general system performance. Some of the more noticeable changes include:
Anyone who changed their direct deposit information since July 1, 2004 has not been able to get their travel reimbursements via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). This issue has been resolved and all employees who have the direct deposit for their salary should now receive their travel and expense reimbursements via EFT to the same bank account as their salary.
A new pagelet was added to the myUFL portal to help campus monitor active tropical storms or hurricanes this season. Add the National Hurricane Center pagelet by signing on, clicking on ‘Personalize Content’, check the appropriate box under the Weather category, and click the ‘Save’ button.
The final work was completed on the worklist notification problem. Users should no longer get the error message stating “You are not authorized to access this page” when they select a worklist notification from their worklist. Users should now be able to take action on the worklist notification items for financial and human resources systems.
The Search functionality for Budget Header is fully operational and will now operate like those for Proposal, Budget Line Summary and Submit Proposal. Users should no longer receive error messages when searching by Project and another search criteria in the Budget Header section.
A ‘workflow submit’ button will appear when a new position page is saved, an enhancement that saves time for departments to initiate workflow. Some HR Level 1 approvers do not authorize their departments to use this feature because they require comments on the workflow. Please check the policies set up by your Level 1 Approver. If you are required to include comments, do not use the button, but instead navigate to the workflow page to initiate as you have done in the past. If you are using the new Workflow Submit button, please review the ‘Additional Pay’, ‘Providing Additional Pay for Someone Not in Your Department’, and the ‘Add a Position’ instruction guides.
To reduce the occurrence of creating duplicate UFIDs for new hires, the UF Hire Employee page has been modified. A new required “Confirm SSN” field has been added so that the social security number entered can be validated. The page displaying possible duplicate entries was also improved for better ease of use.
Based on user feedback, a new HR Account Code Search Screen was created and is now available via Set Up HRMS > Common Definitions > Payroll > Account Code Table. (If you have this page as a ‘favorite’ or bookmarked, please clear your cache and cookies and you may need to resave the link.) The search page now includes the ten most commonly used ChartFields on the first page. It is no longer necessary to use the “Search Additional ChartFields” for DeptFlex or SOF criteria. The less frequently used ChartFields are located on the second page. This enhancement will allow departments the ability to do most of their searches from the first screen and provide for more accurate searches. It will also enable Finance and Accounting to more accurately review data when receiving requests for new account codes. This enhancement applies only to those with the UF_PY_DEPT ADMIN, UF_HR_MGR/DEPT ADMIN, and UF_HR_DEPARTMENT HIRING security roles.
Changes were made to the Payroll Distribution screens for cross–college or cross–department distributions that will improve system performance for core offices, but has no impact on end users except the display now makes it clearer as to whether or not they have security for a particular posted row. There is no change in procedure with this enhancement, and departments must continue to submit a Form 260 to General Accounting to enter a cross–college distribution.
A link to the Effort Tracking services page was added to the myUFL portal > Help > Bridges Services. This provides single sign on access to the instruction guides for Effort Tracking or any other myUFL system.
ENTERPRISE REPORTING INITIATIVES UPDATE. A two–week consulting engagement with Informatica began this week to provide ways in which UF can improve the data warehouse structure. The reporting software vendor, Cognos, met with Bridges this week about the functional aspects of reporting and working with us to develop a better reporting strategy. Bridges is also working on additional Cognos development training, and implementing best practices for daily operational management of Cognos. Past technical recommendations and suggestions from Cognos have been implemented and further additional changes are coming in the near future. Many of these changes will not be visible to the end user but will improve stability and performance.
In the area of reliability and stability, we have experienced more problems in this area over the past week. We have identified the source of the problem and are working with Cognos to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
Improvements over the past two weeks for outreach and communication include a standard and continuing alert notice called “Enterprise Reporting – Daily Status Report.” This alert covers the more popular reports and will be a quick way for campus end users to check what data are available in Enterprise Reporting. Additionally, the UF Help Desk and Bridges Help Desk have modified the process for handling Enterprise Reporting calls. These changes should result in shorter help desks calls, quicker resolution of problems, and more consistent posting of alerts for reporting issues.
In the area of report improvements and additions, with the closing of the 2005 fiscal year slated for today, the July 2006 Project and Department reports should be available in mid–August and will incorporate many of the suggestions submitted to us by campus end users. Work continues on the cash–based reports and we anticipate having a new set of high–level “Manager Reports” in the months to come.
On usability, Bridges continues to implement changes recommended by Cognos. Enterprise Reporting currently uses ReportNet and an older product Impromptu Web Reports (IWR) to deliver reports. Cognos has recommended that we move all reports to ReportNet and discontinue the use of IWR to stabilize the system and simplify access to reports. On August 31, Bridges will discontinue the use of IWR. All reports currently provided by IWR will be provided by ReportNet. Bridges will identify and contact current IWR report users to make sure they are aware of the discontinuation of this product, and provide instructions on finding corresponding reports in ReportNet. This change will simplify the reporting environment for users and improve the stability of the system. In addition to this simplification, Bridges will soon begin a project to evaluate and reduce the number of Enterprise Reporting user security roles. This will simplify security requests and streamline the process for requesting and approving Enterprise Reporting access.
Bridges will continue to update you periodically on the reporting initiatives. If you have any suggestions or comments about this update, please send us an email via the myUFL Suggestion Box.
FISCAL YEAR-END CLOSING. As previously announced, UF is closing fiscal year 2005 general activity at the end of business today. Beginning this weekend, Bridges will run some month–end administrative tasks including the posting of transactions to projects, commitment control, and the general ledger. Once those processes are completed and evaluated, the year–end close processes will be run.
NEW INSTRUCTION GUIDES. Eighteen new instruction guides are available this week on the Bridges Web site for the following services:
- Enterprise Reporting > Personalize the Enterprise Reporting Portal (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Completing an Internal Hire (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Hiring Courtesy Faculty (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > OPS Hires (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Student Hires (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Posting & Re–Posting A Student Assistant Position (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Add a Position (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Update a Position Description (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Reclassifying a Position (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Leaves of Absence (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Personal Leaves of Absence (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Change FTE: TEAMS, USPS, and Academic Personnel (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Change FTE: All Categories of OPS (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Change OPS Hourly to Student Assistant (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Special Pay Increase (Updated)
- Hiring and Job Actions > Terminating an Employee (Updated)
- Payroll > Additional Pay (Updated)
- Payroll > Providing Additional Pay for Someone Not in Your Department (Updated)
NEW RESOURCES. One new resources is available this week on the Bridges Web site for the following service:
- Hiring and Job Actions > Guide to Employment Actions (New)
For frequent updates about the project, subscribe to the UF Bridges pagelet in the myUFL portal. For a quick tutorial on how to use myUFL, please sign on to the portal and click on Help > How to Use myUFL.
For more information about myUFL systems, 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.
