Cathy Holmes Welcomed Everyone for Coming. Cathy Indicated That Ruth Fruehling Was Unable

FINANCIAL MANAGERS MEETING SHARED FINANCIAL SYSTEM (SFS) JULY 10, 2001

I. Cathy Holmes welcomed everyone for coming. Cathy indicated that Ruth Fruehling was unable to attend, and that Sandy Jaeckel would be handling Ruth’s parts of the agenda instead.  Al Benzschawel gave an update of developments with the UW-System SFS. Al noted that Oshkosh, Superior and River Falls are coming up on the SFS this year. The four interface campuses, Stevens Point, Eau Claire, Stout and La Crosse will start feeding their data into the System SFS from their own GLs, rather than sending it through Legacy. System administration is currently working with DoIT on a payroll interface directly to SFS, which they expect to have up and running by July of 2002.

 Al mentioned that Payroll Detail files are in the midst of development. At some point users should have the ability to drill into Payroll detail from WISDM, as the files might not need to be put on the GL. As of July 1, 2002, all campuses that want to do Salary Encumbrances will be using the new Encumbrance process.

 Al indicated that they are currently looking at Summer Session salaries and how they will be handled in the future. Salaries that post in May and June are handled as pre-payments and are charged to next year’s 101 Expenditures. The SFS team will investigate what kind of monitoring will be available on these transactions before they are posted to the new 101 Fund source in July of each year.

 At this point introductions were made around the room.

 Cathy Holmes alerted the attendees to the upcoming PeopleSoft Financial software upgrade to version 7.51. UW-System is currently working on a schedule for rolling out the upgrade, and the expectation is that it will be ready by Thanksgiving. The upgrade should have little impact on the UW-Madison, but will impact the SFS database. Members of the SFS team will be involved in testing the upgrade before it is implemented.

 Cathy mentioned that the SFS implementation team has been meeting with Campus Auxiliaries. In particular, she noted that Housing and the Union use an accrual accounting system, and that the SFS team has been working with them to figure out how the movement from legacy accounting to the SFS will impact their software.

 Cathy Holmes then gave an update on WISRD, which is the new name for the old ESIS system. The SFS team has been working closely with the WISRD team to identify areas of overlap between the two systems. Cathy pointed out that a lot of processing in ESIS affects Accounting, and vice-versa. Members from the SFS and WISRD teams have met with UW-Milwaukee and Extension to discuss how they handle using SFS and the current ESIS system.

 Cathy noted that action teams have been established, consisting of members of both SFS and WISRD, in order to more effectively work on synchronizing the two

Fmmin7/10/01 1 6 systems. Sub-groups have been established to research the following areas: End of Month tasks; End of Year tasks; Daily tasks; PARs; Billing; Reporting; and Data Access. The overall goal of these teams is to determine how we are going to put together data processes that draw on both systems. Cathy expressed the hope that another update would be given at the next SFS/FMM meeting, probably by Diane Barrett, who is leading the WISRD team.

 Eric Engbloom from UW Systems Trust Funds gave an update concerning developments with the Trust Fund website. Trust Fund transactions have now been posted to the Legacy system. Trust Fund’s Accounting system (Sungaurd) now posts monthly for Fund 161 earnings and Fund 162 monthly earnings. Yearly Fund 162 earnings will be posted quarterly.

 Eric noted that access to the new Trust Fund website has changed some from the previous website. Users will click on the same link for Balances as was used in the old website, but will now have to enter a User ID and a password. His office will make a list of User ID’s available. Everyone will use the same password, which at this time is “trust;” this password should not be changed. To exit from the website, it is important to use the blue link on the upper right-hand corner of the web pages; failure to do so may cause your computer to crash. Eric noted that there are many improvements of the websites functionality. Later this summer his office will be setting up training for use of Trust Fund data. He asked for feedback on the question of providing a link from the Financial Administration web page; specifically he would like to know where users would like the link to lead them, to the Trust Fund home page, or directly to the Balances page (or somewhere else?).

 Cathy Holmes suggested that a WISDM component could be added to the Trust Fund training program, supported by the SFS project team. The feedback on this suggestion from attendees was positive. Cathy and Eric agreed to move forward on coordinating this addition to the training program later in the summer.

 Eric stated that he would be announcing the Trust Fund site through e-mail to all DBRs and all departments on Campus.

 Lynn Quamme gave an update on developments with the Legacy to SFS conversion. Lynn stated that ITD Budgets for Project/Grants had been loaded into SFS as of the end of May for any accounts that were still active as of July 1, 2000. Daily interface for Budgets for FY02 has been held up by the need to incorporate the programming of Scenario Code for Budgets. Lynn will make an announcement when daily Budget interfaces return.

 Lynn explained that a unique situation developed in the loading of Trust Fund Project/Grant data to SFS. In order to determine which accounts belonged to Madison and which belong to other Campuses, they had to rely on Legacy information. This could have affected the accuracy of the budget load for Madison for 161 funds. She will be analyzing the data in SFS to determine whether these budgets were loaded correctly.

 Lynn addressed the subject of Year-end closing, and how it has affected the Legacy to SFS conversion. They have cloned the Legacy fiscal year conversion

Fmmin7/10/01 2 balance-forward process from last year and will be using it again this year in SFS. Lynn noted that this process would still require some fine-tuning. She explained that SFS and Legacy would be a little out of sync, due to the closing first in Legacy and then in SFS. Cathy Holmes encouraged users to keep a close eye on the announcements on the WISDM Main Page, which will provide updated information about the closing status of SFS.

 Sandy Jaeckel gave a presentation on WISDM reporting formats. Sandy affirmed that there are no plans to print Detail Reports. She said that the current plan is for Summary Reports will be distributed monthly on a subscription basis. The details of distribution of these Summary Reports are still being worked out. Plans include electronic distribution of reports in a PDF format; for these, it would be helpful if those interested in using the PDF files to print reports locally could let Sandy know where the printers that they would use to print the reports are located. Sandy pointed out that the PDF file format has superior formatting functionality, and can render the data in a nicer graphical form than a browser screen-print.

 Sandy then showed handout examples of draft formats for Summary Reports, one in a GPR format, a conventional PR format, a Cash Flow PR format, and a Project/Grant format. Sandy asked for feedback on these draft formats, and whether people felt they would address their reporting needs. She noted that versions of these draft formats would be available on the SFS web site (look for http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/acct/sfs/back.html). Janet Eubanks at DoIT is currently working on a production version of the report generation function from WISDM, and any feedback germane to her efforts would be appreciated.

 Don Miner asked that the PR Cash Flow report include a column of previous year’s numbers, so as to provide a Comparative report. He would like previous year’s numbers added to the GPR report as well.

 Dennis Olson wondered what purpose the blank Column 6 in the GPR and conventional PR report served. Sandy explained that a number of people had expressed the desire to have a space available in which to make comments/notations of their own, and that this column was provided to allow for this. Sandy reminded everyone that the entire Campus has ideas and desires for the reporting formats, and that the final product may include features that some users would not personally have chosen.

 Cindy Blewett asked if there will be line item Budgets available for Project/Grants. Sandy replied that there will be much more discussion with the WISRD team before determining the final form of the Project/Grant report, and that all suggestions are encouraged and will be considered.

 Maggie Roth asked if the detail would be available in the PDF file format. Sandy answered that DoIT is working on making report generation functionality available off of the Detail View. Maggie also asked that the Length-of-Service data be taken out and be put below the total line, so as not to distort the Budget balances. Sandy acknowledged the value of this request, and affirmed that between the SFS team and DoIT staff they would work out the details of this change.

Fmmin7/10/01 3  Sandy asked that attendees send comments on the draft reporting formats to her or other members of the SFS team within a week and a half. She said that it is impossible to say at this time when exactly the reports would go into production, but affirmed that it would happen as soon as reasonably possible.

 Sandy Jaeckel then spoke on the subject of WISDM training. She noted that the SFS team has moved into the phase of training at the Departmental level, and is currently holding general training sessions at the Pyle Center, to be signed up for on a first-come, first-served basis. Sessions are scheduled for July 11th, at 9:00 a.m., and on July 25th, at 1:00 p.m. (Note – since the July 10th meeting, the July 25th demo has filled up. A new demo has been scheduled for August 22nd, at 9:00 a.m. at the Pyle Center) Financial Managers who wanted to attend, or who wanted to send staff, should contact herself or Gareth Green, in order to reserve attendance. Sandy asked that people let her or Gareth know if there were more staff that couldn’t attend the currently scheduled sessions, and that the SFS team will schedule more training sessions if it becomes apparent that there is enough of a demand to justify the additional training.

 Paul Jelle noted that CALS is planning to do internal training on WISDM, and wondered if it was a good idea to send staff that would conduct this training to one of the SFS team’s training sessions in order to have more familiarity with WISDM. Sandy stated that this was an excellent idea.

 Gareth Green gave a presentation of a WISDM web tutorial he has been developing. Gareth noted that the text of the tutorial is largely a paraphrase of the WISDM users’ manual that is already used in WISDM training. He explained that this tutorial is not particularly interactive, but provides a high-level view of how to use WISDM. Since it is web accessible, it could prove useful to departments that have trouble sending staff to training sessions. Gareth said that the tutorial was ready for production, and that he would provide a URL in these minutes so that attendees could experiment with the tutorial and provide him with feedback (there are many e-mail links on the site to provide for this). The URL is: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu:8080/acct/sfs/tutorial.html (use the links from this page to navigate the tutorial).

 Gareth also noted that he will be meeting with Don Schutt of the Office of Human Resource Development to discuss how OHRD could take over the development and maintenance of the tutorial as the SFS implementation continues. The hope is that eventually OHRD could provide a tutorial with a higher degree of interactivity.

 Sandy Jaeckel led a demonstration and discussion on the subject of potential future enhancements to the WISDM reporting site. Sandy presented a handout listing enhancements that had been requested by users on Campus. She asked that the attendees review the enhancements described in the document and prioritize them as to which five would be most useful to them. Cathy Holmes asked that they respond to Ruth Fruehling with their top five desired enhancements by July 17th.

 Dennis Olson wondered why the Purchase Order column in WISDM was being populated with req numbers. Cathy explained that since Madison is not using the SFS Purchasing Module, req numbers were being used to populate the PO field

Fmmin7/10/01 4 for reference purposes. During the conversion period between Legacy and SFS we will continue to populate the PO field with req numbers. Cathy said that a final solution to this situation is yet to be determined.

 Cindy Blewett asked what a reasonable timeline is to expect completion of the asked-for enhancements. Cathy replied that, once the implementation team has a better sense of what are the top-priority items on the list, they would be able to more effectively communicate with DoIT about what the schedule of enhancements will be.

 Cathy Holmes then spoke about the End of Year accounting period (Period 13 in SFS). Cathy explained that transactions processed during the first two weeks of July for FY2001 will be posted to Period 13, and will have a Transaction Date of 6/30/01. All FY2002 transactions processed in May and June will show up at the end of the month (7/27), and will have a Transaction Date of 7/01/01. FY2002 data processed in the meantime will already be populated at that point, so Cathy warned attendees to not get confused. FY2002 Encumbrances will show up after 7/27 also, and will also have a Transaction Date of 7/01/01.

 Don Miner asked if Period 13 data alone could be seen on WISDM. Cathy replied that you could set the Period Option from the WISDM drop down menu to show Period 13 Only.

 Cathy Holmes announced the availability of the new ACTRAN data view from the Data Warehouse. Documentation for the new view is available on the web. Cathy assured everyone that the data is accurate. The next update will include fields for Tree Name and Tree Node. The Data will be updated on Tuesday mornings, synchronized with the old ACTRAN view.

 Cathy also announced that FMR Data Views on Legacy have been expanded to have the previous six months data as well as the current month. She said that the expanded view should be available by the week of 7/16.

 Cathy mentioned that the next Data Views that will become available with SFS data would be the FMR views. She also asked that users give feedback on how useful the new Data Views would be, so as to best prioritize DoIT’s workload.

 Cathy Holmes presented a draft of the new Account Code Request form. Cathy explained that since UW-System is the official guardian of SFS and the account (class) codes, we will have to submit requests for new codes to them. The hope is that use of the request form will help the SFS team more effectively petition UW- System for new account codes. Crosswalks for account codes for FY2002 are now available on the UW-System SFS web site; the URL was provided in the meeting agenda. Cathy also noted that Crosswalks written specifically for UW-Madison use are available on the SFS web site. Look for them on: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/acct/sfs/wisdm.html.

 Pennie Maclean asked when Madison would switch to the new account codes. Cathy replied that the exact date was still being discussed. Cathy did say that this would be a difficult transition, and that she hopes to be able to support some kind of staggered implementation.

Fmmin7/10/01 5  Dennis Olson asked if we had received input from other Campuses as to their experiences with implementation. Cathy allowed as to how we had received input from other UW Campuses, but reminded the room that the Madison implementation team had consciously chosen to emphasize the reporting aspect of SFS, causing UW-Madison to be in this situation where it is using both Legacy class codes and SFS account codes  Al Benzschawel announced that by Tuesday, July 17th an End of Year report on expenses should be available for FY2001. He noted that the report would not necessarily be complete, since they were still waiting for UW-System to close the year.

 Cathy Holmes then thanked everyone for coming. She reminded the attendees that the next FFM meeting would be on September 11th, and that they should contact her to submit any item that they would like to see addressed for inclusion on the agenda for the meeting.

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