Accounts Receivable and Billing

An integrated services model will be used for Accounts Receivable and Billing. Under this model, departments will handle customer relationships, bill entry, and adjustments, and a new central service center will be responsible for customer maintenance, bill distribution, payment processing, and collections.

Most departments will key billing information directly into PeopleSoft. Sponsored activity originates in the Grants, Projects, and Contracts module. Sponsored Financial Reporting will continue to be responsible for sponsored billing and for managing the associated receivables.

The AR/Billing module will be fully operational at go-live; however, it will be used first by lower-volume departments and those departments that do not currently have a reporting system in place. Once the AR/Billing process and the new service center are fine-tuned, additional departments will be added. The goal is to have all departments reporting their receivables through the University’s AR/Billing system either via direct entry or via an interface.

Asset Management (AM)

All University-owned capital assests will be recorded in PeopleSoft through the implementation of the Asset Management module and its connections with the other PeopleSoft financials modules. Assets will be automatically fed from the Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Projects modules directly into the AM system, and will be posted to the General Ledger. Inventory Services and Accounting Services will retain the responsibility to review and edit the interfacing data. All assets will be recorded in balance-sheet accounts rather than as an expense to allow for the reporting of depreciation.

General Ledger and Budgets

General Ledger (GL)

PeopleSoft delivers multiple ways to get journal entries into the GL, including journal generator, direct entry, standard journals (journals that can be used on a repetitive basis), flat-file import, and spreadsheet upload. The majority of journal entries will be created by journal generator, which transforms submodule transactions (AP, AR, etc.) into journal entries. All journals will be edited and budget-checked prior to posting to the GL. Journals created through the journal-generator process will be approved in the subsidiary modules prior to submission to the GL. Journals should be created in the department where the background knowledge of the transaction exists.

Specific enhancements to GL baseline functionality include:

• the inclusion of carry-forward balances
• the ability to assign/track expenditures at an employee ID level (as appropriate)
• a systematic approach to tracking internal sales using a feed from procurement

The GL module team is also responsible for processes and strategies related to Management Reporting, including:

• assessing risk
• analyzing trends
• forecasting
• maintaining internal controls
• monitoring/overseeing/tracking activity and financial status
• supporting external audits
• fulfilling regulatory requirements
• developing rates
• supporting ad-hoc information needs

Budgets

The budgeting process in the new financial system will be similar to today's process at a macro level. Departments will create line-item budgets from historical data; current year instructions and assumptions; and forecasts from the campus/college/administrative unit compact.

Implementation of the new budgets module will require modifications to the General Ledger module and to the HRMS system. The budgets solution will take advantage of existing functionality and integration points in the General Ledger. The technical team is currently creating "bolt-on" functionality for budgets, including line-item budgeting, position budgeting, and asset budgeting.

There will be three types/pages of budgets available in the new financial system: a detailed budget, a position budget, and an asset budget.

The detailed budget page will be the primary tool for budget entry and analysis at the DeptID level. It will be used during the final stage of the University budget process, after budget development worksheets and target allocations are completed.

The position budget page will be optional. If this page is used, the position budget data will be summarized and transferred to the detailed budget page. However, if users prefer, they can enter summary position budget data directly into the detailed budget page. Position data will be loaded into the position budget page from HRMS. Users will then be able to make modifications to the data as needed, and will even be able to budget for anticipated positions.

As with the position budget page, the asset budget page will be optional. Users can choose to enter summary asset budget data directly into the detailed budget page if they wish. On the asset budget page, users will have the ability to view year-to-date ctuals and the current-year asset budget with adjustments. The asset budget will also be able to extract data, so depreciation calculations for existing assets will already be done, based on the depreciation schedule from the extract. New-asset depreciations will be based on a blended depreciation schedule from Asset Management.

Once the entire budget for a fiscal year has been submitted, users will still be able to view the budget pages but no additional entry to the pages will be allowed.

Budget functionality will be ready July 1, 2008, and will be used for the FY10 budget prep process. For FY 2009, departments will directly enter their budgets into CUFS and the data will be converted into PeopleSoft. Since budget preparation within PeopleSoft will not take place until 2009, training for budgets will occur after go-live of the new system.

Specific enhancements to the budget solution include:

• the creation of capital asset budgeting functionality
• there will be spreadsheet upload/download options
• budgets may be created offline and uploaded
• RRC-level budget cannot "submit" unless it balances to the Budget Office allocations
• ability to view year-to-date actuals
• ability to view current-year asset budget with adjustments

To learn more about budgets in the new financial system, click here to view a Breeze recording of a recent EFS Sneak Peek on budgets.

Grants, Projects, and Contracts

The PeopleSoft system allows the integration of all sponsored data into one system. Preparing proposals is expected to remain largely unchanged for an initiator within the Electronic Grants Management System (EGMS). All pre-award activity that resides in Sponsored Projects Administration will migrate to the PeopleSoft system, and PeopleSoft will be used for most post-award grants activity. EGMS information will be interfaced with PeopleSoft to create the proposal record and to utilize delivered functionality to create the subsequent Award, Project, and Contract records. Material transfer agreements will not be entered into the financial system.

Specific enhancements for Grants, Projects, and Contracts include:

• cost sharing will be linked to projects within the system
• F&A processing will be daily instead of weekly
• the system will allow multiple payments regardless of contract status
• Sponsored Financial Reporting (SFR) Workbench
• a reporting and billing worksheet

Procurement

Procurement includes Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Employee Expense functionality.

The eProcurement module will be the entry point for requisitions, including blanket orders, contracts for professional services, and requests for proposals. The system will match goods purchased with goods received. It provides for a more robust vendor file.

Accounts Payable functionality allows the University to implement a standardized, streamlined approach for University Accounts Payable, including one point of entry for all Accounts Payable transactions. Users will complete a voucher by entering information on the first one or two pages. Many of the other pages automatically default information into the voucher from the Payables control hierarchy. Payments will be processed daily and express payments will be used for on-demand check requests. 

PeopleSoft also provides online expense reports and online travel authorizations.

Specific enhancements to procurement functionality for go-live include:

• the ability to encumber blanket purchase orders
• more robust approval and routing for voucher entry
• more robust vendor files to provide better tracking and reporting
• internal sales transactions initiated through the procurement process
• U-stores will be a "punch-out" from PeopleSoft to the vendor's Web site
• new procurement specialist role

Click here to view details about printing needs for purchasing.

Click here to view a recent EFS Sneak Peek on requisitions and receiving.

Click here to view a recent EFS Sneak Peek on expenses.

Treasury and Endowments

Five modules represent Treasury and Endowments: Cash Management, Deal Management, Risk Management, Banking, and the Financial Gateway. These modules provide the ability to perform automatic bank pooling, payment processing, automatic generation of daily cash positioning and forecasting, and Investment Pooling (functionality that will be used to accommodate Endowment Management processing and reporting).

Specific enhancements to the Treasury and Endowments functionality include:

• endowment processing and automation will be streamlined
• investment pooling by investment managers and participants will be possible
• ability to manage money market investments
• deals can be collapsed by the Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures (CUSIP)
• ability to view Permanent University Funds (PUF) in one location
• bank reconciliation will be more efficient
• optimization of cash resources
• new business process: bank fee analysis
• debt deals will be entered outside the Office of Asset Management (OAM)