|
November/December, 2006 In this edition: 1. Business Community Open Forum - 1/18/2007, 2:00-3:30, SU North Ballroom **************************** One of the goals of the Open Forums is to provide an opportunity for networking. To achieve that goal, the next open forum will be devoted to small group sessions. Tables will be set up for you to visit with a representative on the topic or area of your choice for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, you will change tables so you can visit with another area. We look forward to seeing everyone there! http://bizcomm.arizona.edu/BCOF.html. **************************** 2. Employee Link – Select Early Electronic Delivery of Tax Form W-2 Spread the Word! UA Employees who choose the No-Print Option for their tax forms by December 31 of this year will have access to their W-2 form as early as January 8, 2007. By authorizing the UA to provide your original W-2 in an electronic format through Employee Link, your Federal Form W-2 will be available to print as soon as 1/8/2007. To set your Tax Form No-Print Option: -Log Into Employee Link, http://emplink.arizona.edu. You will receive an email confirmation of your selection, along with instructions for printing your form W-2 and answers to frequently asked questions. For more information, contact Joy Trent, FSO Operations, at mailto:trentj@arizona.edu. **************************** Phase 2A development is underway: On the surface things appear to have quieted down after the release of phase 1 and from the testers point of view they are exceedingly quiet. However, things on other fronts are humming along: -Functional Subject Matter Expert groups for both phase 2A and 2B are working diligently to finalize functional specifications for developers. -Phase 1 clean up and refactoring is well underway with developers busy finishing issues discovered in phase 1 that were not resolved in time to make the release, completing additional base line functionality such as global documents, org reversion, year end processes and phase 1 enhancements. -Phase 2A development has also begun and maintenance documents are being churned out at a rapid pace. Preliminary testing has begun on Contracts and Grants post award maintenance docs. Most of the Purchasing/AP, Labor and Budget Construction maintenance docs are also nearly completed and testing will begin on those shortly. Arizona hosted the third Kuali Days in mid November and it was a roaring success, over 300 people participated. Attendees and slides are available at: http://kuali.org/events/kualidays-nov06.shtml The Kuali Board approved a proposal made by the Kuali Financial Functional Council to extend the timeline of the Phase 2A and 2B modules by 3 months so that all proposed functionality would make it into these releases. The new timeline can be viewed at: http://kuali.org/communities/kfs/timeline.shtml Kuali Research Administration (KRA) News: -Lori Schultz has been named the Functional Council chair for Kuali Research Administration. -A team of KRA developers and COEUS developers met at MIT before Thanksgiving to review the technicalities of moving COEUS to the Kuali Architecture. Both the COEUS developers and KRA developers are looking forward to "kualifying" COEUS. COEUS is the acronym used for a Research Administration application developed by MIT. The Kuali Foundation has received permission to "kualify" COEUS and it will be the basis for the Kuali Research Administration module. -SPS and FSO are in the process of hiring 4 new Kuali developers, 3 to work on KRA and one to replace Andrew Hollamon on the Kuali Financial System. Andrew has moved to CCIT to work on the UA Kuali Enterprise Workflow project. Andrew will also be managing the Kuali Development team. For more info: http://kuali.org/ **************************** To provide more accurate and timely financial reporting, FSO and representatives from across campus have revised FRS Departmental Manual policy 6.10, Account Management to include the following: "Payroll Expenditure Transfers (PET) and Requests for Accounting Assistance (RFAA) should be completed within 90 days following the accounting month end close in which the expenditure posted. Specific fiscal year end deadlines will supersede the 90 day requirement and must be met to properly report expenditures in the correct fiscal year. Payroll Expenditure Transfers and Requests for Accounting Assistance completed beyond 90 days may be subject to additional review, approvals, and documentation. For additional requirements associated with sponsored projects accounts, please see www.sps.arizona.edu/handbook/fiscalresponsibilites.htm." The 90 day deadline will be in effect starting January 1, 2007. If you have any questions or problems, please contact your Fund Accountants (http://www.fso.arizona.edu/fso/fa/default.asp). --Your Question: Regarding the FSO Department Manual, Section 9.17, Communication Service Plans. I would like some clarification on the definitions of "occasional and incidental use" as it applies to cellular phones paid for by the University, through the Alltel Strategic Alliance. These phones include features such as free evening and weekend minutes (generally outside work hours) and "MyCircle" definitions of phone numbers to which calls are always free. Would a large volume of calls on a University-provided cell phone that occur after business hours (i.e. that do not affect an employee at work) and that do not incur any extra cost on the department's monthly Alltel bill still be considered beyond incidental and occasional? Is this kind of allowance up to a departmental administrator? With an increasing number of Alltel phones in my area, I would like to be sure I fully understand the policy in the most practical sense I can. Thank you. --Reply: University provided wireless phones are intended for business use conducted for the benefit of the university and not for personal use. Personal use should be limited to “occasional or incidental use” “Occasional and incidental” meaning infrequently or without intention such as calls that are not within the control of the employee, wrong numbers or vendor solicitations. Local personal telephone calls without additional costs to the university may be made and received by employees as long as they are not detrimental to the interests of the university. Although there are no additional costs to the university for local calls made on cell phones, departments should evaluate service plans annually to ensure that the plan minutes are reasonable compared with actual business use. The wireless plan chosen should be at an appropriate level to meet business needs. The employee’s department is responsible for documenting the business purpose of a university provided wireless phone. Departments are responsible for establishing procedures to ensure that university provided cell phones are used in compliance with this policy. It is important that employees understand the university policy and that departments routinely monitor telephone usage for potential misuse FSO maintains a database of frequently asked questions. Visit our FAQ page at http://www.fso.arizona.edu/fso/fm/faq.asp to review previously asked questions, search by category or keyword, or ask a question of your own. **************************** **************************** Elisa Tapia, Program Coordinator, FSO Operations Contact: Kymber
Horn |