IRIS Financials and Grants Management Q & A

1. IRIS Financials and Grants Management Q & A September 28, 2005

2. Question and Answer Session Questions from the Town Hall Meeting, September 22, 2005

3. Question • Will ordering through Stores be the same as now, or will there be changes in that process?

4. Question • Will ordering through Stores be the same as now, or will there be changes in that process? ANSWER: The process will be the same.

5. Question 2. How do users handle contract orders when vendor won’t take the procurement card? Also, would a user create a requisition and then receive it immediately?

6. Question 2. How do users handle contract orders when vendor won’t take the procurement card? Also, would a user create a requisition and then receive it immediately? ANSWER: • There will be no such thing as a contract order in SAP.  There will be two ways to buy goods; pro-card and PO.  If a department needs to order something on contract the department will do an on-line requisition, get it approved, and Purchasing will create a PO and send to the vendor.  With SAP, a department will no longer be allowed to order goods without a valid purchase order or pro-card.  • For further answers to these questions, Purchasing will hold an open Q & A session on September 29 in the Worsham Theater.  Times are 8:30, 10:30, 1:00 and 3:00.

7. Question • How do departments get new vendors created in the vendor master?

8. Question • How do departments get new vendors created in the vendor master? ANSWER: This process will remain the same as it is now.  You will have the vendor fill out a Vendor Federal Tax ID Form located on the UK forms page at http://www.uky.edu/Purchasing/forms/vendorform092500.pdf and send it to Purchasing via mail, fax or email.

9. 4. How do we get to the FI standard hierarchy and will users be able to export the list into Excel?

10. 4. How do we get to the FI standard hierarchy and will users be able to export the list into Excel? ANSWER: The transaction code/t-code to access the FI standard hierarchy is OKENN. You can also download these to Excel.

11. 5. We do a lot of budget transfers in our area. How will these be handled in SAP?

12. 5. We do a lot of budget transfers in our area. How will these be handled in SAP? ANSWER: There will be no paper forms; everything will be electronic. The transfer creation will originate at the dept level and pre-post in the system. The creator will then manually route the document through the system to the next approval level. An example of the review and approval process is as follows: document created and pre-posted by dept, manually routed to college business officer who reviews and approves it and routes it to the area fiscal officer who reviews and approves it and routes to General Accounting who posts to SAP. This process will continue from October to December. From January the Area Fiscal Officers will post the document to the system.  

13. 6. Can the look-up for a g/l account be displayed in numerical order by old object code and not g/l account?

14. 6. Can the look-up for a g/l account be displayed in numerical order by old object code and not g/l account? ANSWER: That would require the old numbers be maintained indefinitely. New GL accounts are part of going to SAP. Additionally, there are new GL accounts created that would further delineate costs where there was no old code. For example, there are several new GL accounts created for employee health coverage for different types of positions (eg. individual codes were created for faculty, lecturer, executive/managerial etc.) however, in FRS there is only one code for employee health coverage. The old numbers are being added to allow searched to find the new numbers in the alternate account field.

15. 7. What about a new cash transmittal form? Also, how do the users pick-up cash?

16. 7. What about a new cash transmittal form? Also, how do the users pick-up cash? ANSWER: Independent of SAP, Treasury Services is changing to have separate CASH and CHECK transmittal forms.

17. 8. We want to verify that September ledgers will be generated (in paper) out of the old system.

18. 8. We want to verify that September ledgers will be generated (in paper) out of the old system. ANSWER: Correct

19. 9. When the user selects simulation during creation of an IDIV, the default layout does not include cost center, WBS element or a signature line. Will that be fixed?

20. 9. When the user selects simulation during creation of an IDIV, the default layout does not include cost center, WBS element or a signature line. Will that be fixed? ANSWER: This will be passed on to the Training team for them to resolve.

21. 10. When trying to determine allowable expenses (direct versus indirect) I do not see * in codes like in FRS. How do I know what is allowable?

22. 10. When trying to determine allowable expenses (direct versus indirect) I do not see * in codes like in FRS. How do I know what is allowable? ANSWER: A list of g/l accounts with direct vs unallowable expenses will be added to the web-site.

23. 11. I see no flags on cost centers, etc. denoting frozen or suspense as we have in FRS. How do we know this? Is the frozen indicator the ‘blocked’ field?

24. 11. I see no flags on cost centers, etc. denoting frozen or suspense as we have in FRS. How do we know this? Is the frozen indicator the ‘blocked’ field? ANSWER: Yes.

25. 12. New object codes were added in the July/August timeframe but we do not see them in the training sandbox. Should they be? Or will we need to wait until October to see SAP equivalent?

26. 12. New object codes were added in the July/August timeframe but we do not see them in the training sandbox. Should they be? Or will we need to wait until October to see SAP equivalent? ANSWER: They were on (and will be again) the IRIS web site.

27. 13.How long will we have display access to FRS?

28. 13. How long will we have display access to FRS? ANSWER: June 2006.

29. 14. Using the account format/conversion information on the IRIS web site, the user was able to convert all account numbers except the 0 ledgers. How do we do those?

30. 14. Using the account format/conversion information on the IRIS web site, the user was able to convert all account numbers except the 0 ledgers. How do we do those? ANSWER: Use the information on Fund conversion from the web site.

31. 15. We have heard there will be a conversion sheet listing a crosswalk between old account numbers and new.

32. 15. We have heard there will be a conversion sheet listing a crosswalk between old account numbers and new. ANSWER: It is being worked on and should be available soon on the IRIS website…stay tuned.

33. 16. We use the encumbrance system in FRS now. What rolls to SAP, how will it roll, and what will it look like?

34. 16. We use the encumbrance system in FRS now. What rolls to SAP, how will it roll, and what will it look like? ANSWER: No encumbrances roll; PO’s will be recreated in SAP and that will create encumbrances.

35. 17. Can an account number and object code look-up be put on the website prior to 10/1?

36. 17. Can an account number and object code look-up be put on the website prior to 10/1? ANSWER: It is being worked on.

37. 18. There was a many-to-one relationship in some cases when converting object codes to gl accounts, and when this is the case the alternative look-up doesn’t work.

38. 18. There was a many-to-one relationship in some cases when converting object codes to gl accounts, and when this is the case the alternative look-up doesn’t work. ANSWER: Some information on combinations and deletions of object codes can be found on the General Accounting web page, and the information contained there is being updated.

39. 19. Would like to verify if ledgers will only be available in electronic form in the new system.

40. 19. Would like to verify if ledgers will only be available in electronic form in the new system. ANSWER: Users can print as they wish. Printing of PI and Agency ledgers are still under discussion.

41. 20. How will we receive notification of new grants/WBS elements? For example, some expire at the end of September and new ones will be activated in October.

42. 20. How will we receive notification of new grants/WBS elements? For example, some expire at the end of September and new ones will be activated in October. ANSWER: This process will remain the same.  OSPA will notify the departments of the new grant/WBS element number once the new account is created in SAP.

43. 21. Availability control on grants will be problematic in some cases. What can we do?

44. 21. Availability control on grants will be problematic in some cases. What can we do? ANSWER: • Availability control will be on most grants at the overall award level.  This means that the overall award amount cannot be overspent for all grants except College of Ag federal appropriations and human clinical trials.  In addition, those grants that contain federal and federal flow thru funds will be restricted to spending the budgeted amount in a particular category of costs (eg. Materials and supplies, equipment), these are called sponsored classes in SAP Grants Management.  • In order to prepare for this, those departments with grants should review their existing budgets and verify that appropriate budget is available in a line item, prior to attempting to process documents to charge the grant in SAP.  If sufficient budget is available for the transaction, then the document will go through without difficulty.  • In those cases where sufficient budget is not available to process the document, a “Request for action/revision” form, available on the OSPA web site and the UK forms page, will need to be completed and forwarded to the Research Administrator.  Once the budget has been transferred, the document may be processed normally.  • In cases where an item is needed immediately, the department may charge a departmental cost center until such time that the budget transfer has been processed.  The department may then process an IDIV to transfer the charge to the grant/WBS element.    

45. 22. We’ve heard that CAS reports are no longer available on grants so how do we handle budget changes? Per someone from A&S, if entering a gl that is not available for grants, the system will not allow you to continue. Therefore, you no longer need CAS reports.

46. 22. We’ve heard that CAS reports are no longer available on grants so how do we handle budget changes? Per someone from A&S, if entering a gl that is not available for grants, the system will not allow you to continue. Therefore, you no longer need CAS reports. ANSWER: The availability control on grants will cause an error message to be displayed on the users screen for all items except salary and benefits.  An over budget report will still be required for items such as salary and benefits that will provide only warning messages and will allow the sponsored class categories to be overspent in SAP GM.  

47. 23. Do we still need a block of document numbers for the new DAV form? We would like to have a number besides that generated when AP enters online. Can we put the old DAV number in the reference field?

48. 23. Do we still need a block of document numbers for the new DAV form? We would like to have a number besides that generated when AP enters online. Can we put the old DAV number in the reference field? ANSWER: DAVs will be prepared just as they are now and the DAV block of numbers will remain the same as today. The only difference is they will include their new SAP cost object data instead of the FRS account number and object code.  If the DAV has an invoice attached the Invoice No. will be keyed in the Reference Field and will be used by the department to track the transaction. If it does not have an invoice attached, AP will key the DAV number in the Reference Field and departments can track the transaction by the DAV No.

49. 24. The new DAV form on the Forms page does not have an assignment field, but we need one.

50. 24. The new DAV form on the Forms page does not have an assignment field, but we need one. ANSWER: This is now available on the forms page.