In
This Issue:
Update
on the Financial Review and Control Team
Email Event Notification
Parent and Child Cost Objects
Year End Closing Schedule for Fiscal
Year 2000
New School Coordinators
_______________________________
Update
on the Financial Review and Control Team
The
Financial Review and Control team was formed in July 1999
to review existing policies and procedures for reconciliation.
The team has members from the Audit Division, the Controller’s
Accounting Office, Financial Systems Services, the Administrative
Services Organization, the Center for Environmental Health
Sciences, and Information Systems.
The
major recommendations of the team are to:
- Require
less back-up–only packing slips, credit card receipts,
timecards, and signed DACCAs; discontinue the "four-way
match"; and no longer require departments, labs,
and centers (DLCs) to keep copies of transactions that
are available in central systems or kept by a central
administrative department (like CAO);
- Develop
new tools for review of charges;
- Institute
a new way to indicate that the review is complete (a
sign-off form);
- Have
reviewers use a risk-based analysis of charges focused
on areas where risk of error or loss is greatest (e.g.,
large dollar amounts, unusual transactions, JVs), and
check low-risk transactions on a test basis.
The
team has produced:
- New
guidelines to replace the old 78-page "how to reconcile
an account" booklet;
- A
"quick guide" with expected month-end review
procedures;
- A
series of BrioQuery reports that allow the review of
transactions by type across a group of cost objects;
and
- A
training program for administrative officers, financial
officers, and administrative assistants.
Eleven
pilot DLCs began testing the new procedures, guidelines,
and reports in May 2000. The pilots will participate in
a focus group to give feedback to the team. The nature
of the feedback will determine any changes that should
be made to the procedures, guidelines, and reports, and
the timing for the broader rollout to the rest of MIT.
Training will be offered in the form of two-hour demos
around campus. School and area coordinators will be available
to help with the new BrioQuery reports.
_______________________________
Email
Event Notification
SAP
Email Event Notification
is a new optional service developed in response to requests
from SAP users. It is now in a six-week pilot and will
soon be made available to the MIT community. With the
service, users will be able to receive email messages
notifying them of changes to the status of SAP documents
that they have created. Users can subscribe to the service
for one or more of the following events:
- A
requisition is approved or rejected
- A
purchase order is created from the user’s requisition
- A
requisition needs the user’s approval
- A
journal voucher is approved or rejected
Because
SAP is a "line item" purchasing system, users will receive
one email message for each line item of the transaction,
so the volume might be large. Eudora users can route these
notifications automatically to a specified mailbox using
a Eudora
filter.
_______________________________
Parent
and Child Cost Objects
Are
you a Data Warehouse
user who wants to generate a report that groups together
transactions or balances for multiple cost objects? Parent
and child cost objects are just such a grouping device
that can be used for purposes such as looking at overruns
across all cost objects in a department.
The
"parent" field in cost center and internal order master
data is not a separate structure (as in the legacy system).
It is a master data field on a cost object, which can
be changed at any time.
If
you decide to group cost objects using this parent field,
the parent cost object number must also be entered in
the parent’s own parent field. Otherwise, when the
report is run at the parent level, the activity on the
parent cost object would not be included along with the
activity on the child cost objects.
The
use of this grouping is limited. You only can have the
two generations–no grandparents or great-grandparents.
Here
is an example of a set-up that will work:
|
"Child"
Cost Object
|
"Parent"
Cost Object
|
|
1500100
1500101
1500102
|
1500100
1500100
1500100
|
But
since any cost centers and/or internal orders can
be grouped using this technique, the following set-up
will also work:
|
"Child"
Cost Object
|
"Parent"
Cost Object
|
|
3700100
3800000
3850100
|
3700100
3700100
3700100
|
To
get the parent cost object field maintained, just contact
the office that sets up master data, and ask that office
to update this field: the Office of Budget and Financial
Planning for cost centers, the Treasurer's Office for
Pool A and Pool C cost objects, and the Office of Sponsored
Programs for all other internal orders.
For
more information on how to use parent and child cost objects
in Data Warehouse reporting, please contact your school
or area coordinator.
_______________________________
Year
End Closing Schedule for Fiscal Year 2000
|
DATE
|
ACTIVITY
|
|
Monday,
June 26
5:00pm
|
Invoice
cutoff, Period 12
|
|
Tuesday,
June 27
3:00pm
|
E-Sandi
cutoff, Period 12
|
|
Tuesday,
June 27
5:00pm
|
Travel
voucher cutoff, Period 12
|
|
Friday,
June 30
12:00pm
|
Journal
voucher cutoff, Period 12. All internal provider
activity closed. All JVs must be approved
by 2:00pm at which time period 12 closing
process will begin.
|
|
Saturday,
July 1
|
Period
13 open:
- closing
journal vouchers
- review
JV activity in SAP
- review
FY00 credit card transactions
|
|
Monday,
July 3
|
Notice
of completion of Period 12 processing (actuals):
all June activity can be reviewed online in
SAP (EB and Overhead applied).
|
|
Thursday,
July 6
|
June
SAP statements - start mailing to departments.
|
|
Thursday,
July 13
12:00pm
|
Period
13 Journal Voucher cutoff. All JVs must be
approved by 1:00pm at which time period 13
closing process will begin.
|
|
Friday,
July 14
|
(1)
Period 14 Open
(2) Notice of completion of Period 13 processing
(actuals): all activity can be reviewed online
in SAP (EB and Overhead applied).
|
|
Thursday,
July 20
12:00pm
|
CAO
JV cutoff, only Budget Office can post activity
after this point. Run costing sheets only.
|
|
Wednesday,
July 26
|
Meeting
with Sr. Mgmt to discuss Operating Results
(completed by this date).
|
|
Thursday,
July 27
12:00pm
|
Budget
Office cutoff, all FY00 activity closed.
|
|
Friday,
July 28
|
Notice
of completion of Period 14 processing (actuals):
all activity can be reviewed online in SAP
(EB and Overhead applied).
|
|
_______________________________
New
School Coordinators
Janet
Sahlstrom and Robert Mehrez recently joined the Financial
Systems Services community support team as school coordinators.
One
of the first staff members in the MIT community to use
SAP was financial analyst Robert Mehrez in the Sloan School
of Management. Nearly three years later, Bob has taken
his active interest (and expertise) in SAP and the Data
Warehouse to the next level. His first school coordinator
assignment was the Sloan School, and he is now also responsible
for the School of Architecture and a number of the departments
and offices that report to the executive vice president.
Bob will be the community support team’s expert on
the SAP Account Manager’s Report (AMR).
Janet
comes to FSS from the School of Humanities, Arts, and
Social Science, where she was the administrative officer
of the Political Science Department. She also has held
positions in a variety of other MIT organizational units
including the Literature Section, the Physics Department,
the Media Lab, EAPS, and EECS. Janet will be the school
coordinator for the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social
Science, as well as for a number of DLCs in the School
of Engineering. In addition, Janet will continue to serve
out her term of membership on the MIT Administrative Advisory
Committee. She also will be a member of the editorial
board of this newsletter.
Bob
and Janet report jointly to FSS Associate Director John
Hynes and to Assistant Provost for Administration Doreen
Morris. These two new school coordinators are looking
forward to helping their clients prepare for future enhancements
to the SAP enterprise system. They are eager to serve
both the SAP users and the Data Warehouse users in their
assigned areas.
_______________________________
|
Current
Issue
Back
Issues
At
a Glance...
|
|
Roles
Database Status
There
are now 43 departments using the Roles application
to manage their authorizations. See the I/S
Roles Database web page for information
about Roles, how to get access, and documentation
for using it.
<top>
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Publisher's
Box
Financial
Systems Update
is an occasional Web-based publication designed
to keep the MIT community informed about the
Institute's new financial tools. Comments
and suggestions for future articles are welcome!
E-mail the entire editorial board at fss-eboard@mit.edu
or contact individual members. They are:
|
|
EDITORIAL
BOARD
John
Hynes
Financial Systems Services
hynes@mit.edu
Linda
Lancaster
Controller's Accounting Office
lindal@mit.edu
Peggie
Mc Grath
Information Systems
mmcgrath@mit.edu
Robert
Murray
Financial Systems Services
rmurray@mit.edu
Shirley
Picardi
Financial Systems Services
picardi@mit.edu
Daniel
Pope
Financial Systems Services
dpope@mit.edu
Janet
Sahlstrom
Financial Systems Services
janets@mit.edu
Janet
Snover
Office of the Executive
Vice President
jsnover@mit.edu
Peg
Warner
Office of Budget and
Financial Planning
pwarner@mit.edu
Production
Staff
Nancy Gift
Financial Systems Services
Contributing
Writers
Eileen Nielsen
Financial Systems Services
|
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mail for
Financial
Systems Update
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|
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Systems
Services
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