Business Matters June-July 2015

Upcoming Business Forums

The next Business Forum is scheduled for Tuesday, August 4, from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm in Walter 145. The meeting will be broadcast via Adobe Connect Login: (https://adobeconnect.oit.ohio.edu/vpfabusinessforum/). The agenda will be distributed via email and also posted to the Business Forum webpage: https://www.ohio.edu/finance-administration/business-forum. 

As a reminder the agenda and presentation from the May Business Forum, along with all materials from past meetings, are also posted on the Business Forum webpage.

Deposits

Please submit any deposits or pcard refunds to the Bursar’s Office by 3:30 pm on Tuesday, June 30 so that the activity can be recorded in the appropriate fiscal year.

Questions? Contact the Bursar (bursar@ohio.edu or 740.593.4130).

All contributions for the Ohio University Foundation must be submitted to the Foundation Office located in WUSOC 168 by noon on Wednesday, July 1.

Questions? Contact the Foundation Office (castoc@ohio.edu or 740.593.1901).

Petty Cash and Change Funds Reconciliations

All petty cash and change fund reconciliations are due in the General Accounting & Financial Reporting (GAFR) Office by end of day on Tuesday, June 30. 

For questions related to the reconciliation process please refer to the Petty Cash and Change Fund Policy at: http://www.ohio.edu/policy/41-122.html.

Questions? Contact the GAFR Office (hoguen@ohio.edu or 740.597.3133).

External Billing Authorizations (Accounts Receivable)

External billing authorizations must be submitted to the Bursar’s Office to by Thursday, July 2. 

Questions? Contact the Bursar (bursar@ohio.edu or 740.593.4130).

Internal Billing Authorizations and Accounting Corrections

Final FY 2015 internal billing authorizations must be submitted to the General Accounting & Financial Reporting (GAFR) Office by Thursday, July 2. Departments that fail to submit internal billing authorizations by this date run the risk of the billings not being processed in the appropriate fiscal year.

Final FY 2015 accounting corrections must be submitted to GAFR by Wednesday, July 15 in order to be processed for June yearend second close. 

Questions? Contact the GAFR Office (haehl@ohio.edu or 740.597.1417).

Budget Updates

Budget packet submission deadlines are as follows:

• Group A and B – Friday, June 26
• Group C – Friday, July 3

Planning units are divided into three groups for budget packet submissions. Group assignments by planning unit can be found at: https://www.ohio.edu/finance/budget

For additional information related to the FY 2016 budget process please visit:

https://www.ohio.edu/finance/budget/budget-development-tools

FY 2015 final budget transfers are due in the Budget Planning & Analysis Office by Tuesday, June 30.

Questions? Contact your planning unit’s budget office designee via e-mail budgetplanning@ohio.edu.

Procure To Pay (P2P) Year End Reminders

Pre-entry of FY 2016 purchase orders began on Monday, May 4. During this pre-entry period, BobcatBUY allows users to edit accounting dates. For FY 2016, please remember to pre-date (using July 1, 2015) purchase orders for future purchases. PO’s will be issued to vendors on July 1. 

Starting July 1, post-entry for payments for goods and services purchased or provided by June 30 must be processed in BobcatBUY by a Direct Payment as purchase orders cannot be issued for prior fiscal years. The Accounting Date field remains editable in BobcatBUY through July 10, 2015; therefore, please enter June 2015 as the date for expenses that occurred on or before June 30, 2015. Direct payment requests for FY 2015 will be accepted through 5:00 pm, Friday, July 10. After the deadline, the accounting date field in BobcatBUY will revert to a fixed, non-editable date.

Please submit invoices for payment against any open PO’s by July 10 at 5:00 pm to: accounts.payable@ohio.edu

PCard transactions (including airfare and travel) posted on or before June 30 must be reconciled in FY 2015.

PCard transactions posted on or after July 1 will be held and released in Concur for reconciliation beginning July 20 (FY 2016).

Blanket and Lease Purchase Orders with remaining balances for fiscal year 2015 will be closed on Thursday, July 16.

Reminder: Create a backup plan for Concur and BobcatBUY. If you are going on vacation, be sure to assign a BobcatBUY Substitute for Approvals. Also make sure that you have approval delegates setup in Concur.

Questions? Contact Procure to Pay (financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446).

Payroll Accounting Corrections

All Payroll Accounting Expense Corrections for FY 2015 should be submitted to Payroll no later than July 15. If the correction is past 60 days an exception request form must be completed in order for Payroll to process the request. Forms submitted without the exception request form will be returned to the originator. 

This form can be found on the forms webpage: https://www.ohio.edu/hr/forms/index.cfm

Choose Payroll Expense Accounting Correction (the 60 day exception is on a separate tab). 

Questions? Contact Payroll (payroll@ohio.edu or 740.597.1474).

Sick Leave/Vacation Rollover process

HR will be running the process to rollover both vacation and sick leave for biweekly staff on Monday, July 6. Classified NBU, Admin Hourly, FOP and AFSCME employees, can carry over up to a maximum of three times the employees’ accrual. 

Once an employee (both biweekly and salary administrative) accumulates 15 days of sick leave (120 hours), the rollover process moves 24 hours (three days) of sick leave to personal time. An employee is limited to a maximum of three personal leave days in any fiscal year.  If unused, it reverts back into the sick leave balance, to be used in the next fiscal year calculation. 

Those with Administrative exempt appointments are allowed to accumulate up to 32 days of vacation time. If an Administrative exempt employee has more than 32 vacation days at the end of the fiscal year, and is unable to use them because of pressing departmental needs, his/her department head may request additional carry-over in writing. The rollover process will be run on Wednesday, July 8 for Administrative exempt sick and vacation time.

Please submit final paid time off (PTO) forms to HR by Thursday, July 2 so that balances are up to date prior to running the sick leave/vacation rollover process.

See http://www.ohio.edu/policy/41-001.html for additional details. 

Questions? Contact Employee Service Center (uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636 if you have any questions). 

OUCU Deduction Converting to Direct Deposit Effective July 1

Payroll is currently in the process of eliminating the Ohio University Credit Union (OUCU) deduction. Employees wishing to continue to have funds deposited into their Ohio University Credit Union account can do so by converting it to a direct deposit. A letter was mailed to each employee impacted by this change in the spring. Employees were asked to complete a form specifying to either stop the OUCU deduction or convert it to a direct deposit. Action must be taken by Tuesday, June 30 to convert the deduction to a direct deposit. Payroll will stop all deductions effective June 30. Please remind staff to complete and return the form to the Payroll Office at HRTC 221, or fax to 740.597.2137.

Questions? Contact Darlene Cecil, Payroll Specialist (cecild@ohio.edu or 740.593.1858).

Status of Group III Administrative Transition

Administrative Group III appointments continuing beyond Tuesday, June 30 will transition into the current compensation and job structure effective Wednesday, July 1. University Human Resources worked closely with each planning unit to coordinate this transition. A communication was sent last week to the 263 individuals who will transition. Open forums were held and broadcast online to provide information to departments and individuals impacted by the transition. A recording of one of those sessions is available for your review at: https://adobeconnect.oit.ohio.edu/p9bbwd8ybp9/

The 263 appointments will transition from Group III contract pay to one of the following categories:

• Admin Hourly (non-exempt):  238
• Admin salaried (exempt):  6
• Classified Non-Bargaining:  19

The 263 appointments have been identified to be in one of the following employment types:

• Full time regular:  5
• Full time temporary:  3
• Full time term:  3
• Part time regular:  52
• Part time temporary:  5
• Part time term:  19
• Intermittent regular:  176

The Admin Hourly and Classified appointments (total of 257) will require a transition from the semi-monthly to the bi-weekly pay cycle. Those who have been notified of this transition will enter hours worked in Workforce and will be paid according to the hours worked starting July 1. The pay period in which July 1 occurs begins on Sunday, June 28. Only hours worked beginning July 1 should be entered into the online timesheets. 

There will be a window of time that the timesheets will not be available in order for UHR to process these transitions. During the week of July 6, the new appointments should be available within Workforce, and individuals should enter time worked beginning July 1. Instructions for Workforce users and supervisors can be found here:  https://www.ohio.edu/hr/payroll/training.cfm

Questions? Contact Employee Service Center (uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636 if you have any questions). 

BobcatBUY 15.2 Software Upgrade

BobcatBUY will be unavailable during the SciQuest 15.2 software upgrade beginning on Friday, July 17 at 5:00 pm and will be available again on Sunday, July 19 around 12:00 noon. Be sure to check out changes which may affect you at http://www.ohio.edu/finance/systems/bobcatbuy.

Questions? Contact Procure to Pay (financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446).

Ohio University Preferred Suppliers

Preferred suppliers for Ohio University have been identified through a bid process that encompasses the entire university or via a publicly bid consortia agreement in which the university is participating. Preferred suppliers for services do not require a full contract as master agreements have been executed. Instead, a Statement of Work should be included with the requisition before the service occurs.  See the full listing of preferred suppliers that can be used without a bid event at https://ohio.edu/finance/purchasing/preferred-suppliers

Questions? Contact Procure to Pay (financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446).

Contract and Insurance Decision Matrix

The Contract and Insurance Decision Matrix is a handy tool that will assist you in determining both the insurance level for the type of purchase as well as the type of contract needed. Please visit https://ohio.edu/finance/purchasing/contract-services for additional information.

Questions? Contact Procure to Pay (financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446).

Procure to Pay (P2P) Open Lab Training

Procure to Pay Services offers “Open Lab Training” where you work in a lab setting with a trainer on all your P2P questions and hands-on work. Don’t miss this great opportunity!  Register at https://ohio.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bpFOLNGCVjcJVlj.

Questions? Contact Procure to Pay (financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446).

Amazon Begins Sales Tax Collection in Ohio

Amazon has begun to collect sales tax in the State of Ohio on purchases at the point of checkout. Procure to Pay Services, along with our partners at other public institutions, are negotiating business agreements with Amazon which will include the sales tax issue among other business terms. As we work over the next few months to execute a business agreement, Procure to Pay Services advises that our customers either attempt to work with Amazon with an Ohio University Tax Exempt form or simply pay the sales tax for the interim.

Please visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468512 for Amazon tax information.

Questions? Contact Procure to Pay (financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446).

Promotional Items – New Supplier

Effective July 1, Consolidus replaces ASW as Ohio University’s promotional item preferred supplier. The new, improved, easy to use catalog will be available as a punch-out catalog in BobcatBUY. The new website/catalog will have a variety of popular items pre-branded with the Ohio University woodcut logo. The website will allow for department names to be added to the standard logo without the fuss of custom artwork. Consolidus will also provide a dedicated representative to help find any item you may need or help with custom artwork. Consolidus will follow Ohio University’s brand standards to provide us with a quality product. NOTE: the Attack Cat and Arched Ohio logos are not available for use without permission from UCM. Check it out, we think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Questions? Contact Procure to Pay (financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446).

Chart of Accounts Redesign Project

Ohio University has begun the planning and assessment phase of the Chart of Accounts (COA) Redesign Project. With the implementation of Responsibility Centered Budgeting (aka RCM) there have been many reasons that have necessitated the need for a new COA. In determining why the COA needs to be redesigned the following issues were considered:

• The need to Implement a more meaningful Chart of Accounts to address the reporting and programmatic needs of the University as it relates to
  • Responsibility Centered Budgeting (RCM)
  • Management and financial reporting
• Provide flexibility to categorize data through the use of a user defined account segment
• Expose relevant information in the COA and not in a hidden defined flex field (which is hidden from campus view)
• Repurpose duplicative segments
• Enhance fund source identification
• Create account hierarchies that allow units the ability to “drill down” to lowest level
• Review and improve categorization of natural accounts
• Increase the flexibility of reporting for end users
• Position the University to develop and implement
  • Grants Accounting System
  • Budgeting System

The University has selected Navigator Management Partners as the implementation partner for this project. Navigator is a Columbus, Ohio based firm that has experience in public sector higher education, as well as, specific experience redesigning chart of accounts in the Oracle E-Business environment. Finally, the project management approach was a good fit for the Ohio University culture and addressed the University’s desire to engage the campus community in the redesign process of the COA.

Our road to success depends on input from campus stakeholders who use the chart of accounts. Therefore, the project plan will include opportunities for campus feedback and input. As the planning phase of the project progresses, updates will be shared with the campus community through various written communications and public forums.

Questions? Contact Julie Allison, Assistant Vice President, Finance (allison@ohio.edu).