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Issue 7
January 1999
Table of Contents
1. Attention SAPweb Users: Most Personal Web Certificates Expire by March 1
- Avoid Duplicating SAPweb Requisitions
- SAP requisitions should not be used for Office Depot, VWR, and BOC Gases
- Put Long Descriptions into "Item Text"
- OSP Review
- Closing Out PO's
- Approver-Deleted Requisitions
3. Department of Facilities Work Orders to be Tracked in SAP
4. Plans to Improve Classroom Lighting at Learning Center
1. |
Attention SAPweb Users: Most Personal Web Certificates Expire by March 1 |
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SAPweb users who obtained personal certificates prior to November 23, 1998 need to get a new certificate in the near future. All SAPweb personal certificates issued before 11/23/1998 will expire on either February 28 or March 1, 1999. (The site certificate does not expire.)
Your certificates are your key to several MIT services available over the Web to authorized users, including SAPweb. Certificates provide authentication and set up a secure connection that insures privacy of transactions via the Web. When your personal certificate expires, you can't use SAPweb until you get a new one.
We recommend you obtain your new certificate as soon as possible. The new certificate will be valid through 12/31/1999.
From the I/S web page on certificates, you can find the date your certificate was issued.
To obtain a new certificate, see Obtaining MIT Certificates: Quick Guide. If you have any questions about the process, please contact the Computing Help Desk: for PCs, pc-help@mit.edu or 253-1102; for Macs, mac-help@mit.edu or 253-1101.
For more information on certificates, see the I/S page Web Certificates at MIT.
2. |
SAP Requisitioning Tips |
During December 1998, MIT SAP users created over 1200 SAP requisitions, and the number continues to grow. All the organizations supporting procurement are doing their best to answer questions, identify problems and concerns and address them as quickly as possible. We thank the community for its support and patience as we identify and work out the remaining issues.
Based on experience to date, the Procurement Office has the following tips and recommendations:
Avoid Duplicating SAPweb Requisitions
Be careful not to create duplicate requisitions for the same purchase. This occurs most commonly when a requisitioner clicks more than once on the "Create Requisition" button on the SAPweb form. Once you have clicked on this button, wait until you receive a message back in the frame (box) at the bottom of the web screen: either a requisition number or an error message. It takes some time for SAP to create your requisition and send the requisition number back to SAPweb. A short wait is normal. If you don't see a requisition number immediately, please don't press the "Create Requisition" button a second time because this creates a duplicate requisition.
If you don't get either a requisition number or an error message, contact the Business Liaison Team for assistance: business-help@mit.edu or (617) 252-1177.
SAP requisitions should not be used for Office Depot, VWR, and BOC Gases
SAP requisitions should not be used for these three partners except for equipment over $500. This is an interim situation. When ECAT2 development is completed for these vendors, you will be able to create a shopping list from the vendor's on-line catalog that will be turned into an SAPweb requisition when you submit the order. This requisition will go through SAP approvals like any other SAP requisition. These three ECAT1 vendors are currently working on converting to ECAT2 technology.
Until then, please use SAP requisitions only for equipment >$500, and, for all other orders, use one of the ordering methods shown in the table below.
Methods of Buying from Preferred Partners
|
Vendor |
|
|
|
|
Phone Number |
|
Office Depot |
ECAT 1 <$2500* |
Yes, <$2500* |
Only for equipment >$500 |
Requisition or laundry list - mail to 56-022 or fax to: 252-1500 |
253-4760 |
|
VWR |
ECAT 1 <$2500* |
Future: <$2500* |
Only for equipment >$500 |
Requisition - mail to 56-070 or fax to: 253-8374 |
253-1881 |
|
BOC |
ECAT 1 <$2500 |
No |
No |
Requisition or laundry list - mail to 56-022 |
253-4761 |
|
Shading |
=Preferred buying methods. |
|
*Note: |
No equipment -- either capital (>$3000) or minor (between $500 and $2999) -- may be purchased through ECAT1 or the VIP Card. |
Put Long Descriptions into "Item Text"
Some requisitioners are trying to squeeze all line item description information into the 40-character "Short Text" field. This sometimes makes it hard for the Procurement Office -- and vendors -- to understand what you want to order. There is plenty of room for additional description. In SAPweb, just click on the down arrow next to "Add more text to line item" to open a window for more text. In the SAPgui, use the long text option in the "Item Text" field. (See the Quick Guide for Requisitioning in SAP for information on Item Text in the SAPgui.)
OSP Review
Equipment requisitions over $3000 and any requisition over $25,000 charged to WBS Elements (sponsored accounts) must be reviewed for compliance before a PO is issued. In order to speed up this compliance review, Procurement now has access to COEUS and most reviews are now handled within the Procurement Office. However, Procurement still routes requisitions to OSP for review when:
- The requisition total is over $25,000.
- It is not certain from COEUS whether equipment may be purchased on the sponsored account (WBS element).
- Procurement has any other questions about the requisition.
Closing Out POs
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There have been a number of questions on how to close out the remaining balance of a purchase order. In the future, we hope to develop a Web-based PO closeout form that will be available from both the SAPweb page and at the Procurement Office.
In the meantime, here are two options:
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*** This Information Updated March 30, 1999 *** Option 1: Email Send email to pocloseout@mit.edu. Write "Closeout POs" in the subject line. In the body of the message, list the purchase order numbers to be closed. Option 2: Closeout Form Send a paper closeout form to the Procurement Office. You can request a closeout form from Kim Harmon kharmon@mit.edu. *********************************************** |
Approver-Deleted Requisitions
If you are an approver who wants to delete an entire requisition, you need to delete ALL the line items in the requisition, not just the ones in your workflow inbox. If you delete an item that has been routed to you for approval (e.g., a computer purchase), but do not delete other line items that do NOT require approval (e.g., peripherals for that computer), the remaining line items will be forwarded to Procurement for conversion to a PO as soon as you save the requisition. (For information on how to delete a requisition, see page 13 of the Quick Guide for Approving SAP Requisitions.)
3. |
Department of Facilities Work Orders to be Tracked in SAP |
The Department of Facilities (formerly Physical Plant) is converting its cost accounting from the legacy PPL system to SAP. Conversion is taking place in a number of phases, which started in 1997 and are scheduled to be completed by July 1, 1999.
On December 1, 1998, each Custodial and Grounds Services work order was assigned a unique SAP internal order number. All expenses charged to work orders after 12/1/1998 will be accumulated in the Internal Order. Once a month, the total charges for the month will be transferred to the customer's cost object (MIT account).
Departments will see the impact of this change starting with their December financial statements.
Work order charges will appear in the Materials and Services section of your statements under cost element 600601 "Settlement Custodial and Grounds Internal Orders." (See below.) This is the equivalent of object code 476 "Physical Plant Expense."
Sample Summary Statement:
The DTR text contains:
- The Internal Order number
- The Facilities unit responsible for the work
- The customer location
- The customer name
- A brief description of the work
For example:
Where 1900140 is the internal order number, BDS (Building Services) is the Facilities group doing the work, the customer address is Room 11-331, customer name is J.Doe, and "Granite Sign" indicates the type of work -- installation of a granite sign, in this case.
Departments can see their work order expenses at any time by running the on-line SAP DTR/Summary statement report on the Internal Order number which has been assigned to their work order. Click here for documentation on running the DTR/Summary statements.
During a transitional period, Facilities will send customers monthly SAP statements on their Internal Orders. These will replace the monthly Detail Accounting Reports (DAR's) from the PPL system.
Since departments now have the ability to view (and print) their work order expenses in SAP anytime they wish, the Facilities Department will eventually phase out mass paper distribution of the internal order statements.
This conversion represents a significant change for Facilities, but we believe there will be many benefits from it.
The Department of Facilities welcomes your feedback, comments, and questions on this new process. If you have questions regarding one of your work orders, please contact either Kevin Healy (x3-3618 or khealy@mit.edu) or Bob Long (x3-1647 or rlong@mit.edu).
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4. |
Plans to Improve Classroom Lighting at Learning Center |
We have received numerous requests from MIT staff attending training at the Professional Learning Center (Bldg. W89) for brighter lighting in the technical training classrooms. The facilities staff at the Learning Center have responded to these requests and have consulted a lighting specialist for recommendations.
The recommended additional lighting will be installed in a single classroom in about 4-5 weeks. The new lighting will be evaluated, and if it is acceptable, it will be installed in other classrooms.
5. |
January SAP Training Schedule |
The January training schedule is available on-line:
http://web.mit.edu/sapr3/training
The February schedule will be published the week of January
18.
Note that the next SAPweb class is Tuesday, January 26, 10-11 am, Room 10-250.
Other courses offered in January:
- SAP: Basic Skills
- SAP: SAP Requisitions
- SAP: Approve Requisitions
- SAP: Reporting (note: this replaces "Display and Reporting")
- SAP: Journal Vouchers
- SAP: Journal Voucher Upload
Registration is via the on-line registration form. Please note that before you attend an SAP course, you should be authorized in SAP for that function. Otherwise, you will not be able to do it when you return to your office. Also, some courses have prerequisites. Please see the course descriptions for more information.
Note that there is now open enrollment for requisitioning and approving classes, meaning that you can register via the on-line registration form for these classes. It is no longer necessary to schedule this training through your School or Area Coordinator.
If you would like people in your department to attend a particular class together, please contact Nancy Gift (ngift@mit.edu) and tell her the course you wish to attend, names of attendees, etc., and we will make every effort to accommodate your request.
If you have questions about SAP training, please send email to ngift@mit.edu.
6. |
SAP Quick Reference Booklet Now Available |
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A new SAP Quick Reference booklet is available and will be mailed to everyone who attended SAP training at W89 in the past 18 months. The quick reference is a synopsis of useful information about SAP in a very concise format. Contents include:
Logging On and Off SAP
- Key SAP Terminology
- - MIT Accounts in SAP
- - MIT Object Codes in SAP
Frequently Used G/L Accounts
Frequently Used Material Groups
Frequently Used Buttons
Frequently Used Fastpaths
Fiscal Year Conversion Chart
Frequently Used Web Addresses
Getting Help with SAP
If you do not receive a copy via campus mail by January 22, or if you want additional copies, send email to mr-doc@mit.edu to request a copy.
