October,
2008
In this edition:
1. Kuali Update - Implementation and Development
2. Bankcard (Credit Card) Merchant Services
3. Tax Services Website
4. Frequently Asked Questions
5. Introducing FSO's New Employees
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1. Kuali Update - This will be the first update to report on implementation and development. Many thanks to everyone who supported the development effort - as the old song goes - "it looks like we made it"
Implementation -The Kuali Financial System (KFS) implementation was officially kicked off on Wednesday, 10/22 - materials from the presentation are available at the Mosaic website - http://www.mosaic.arizona.edu/ under Project Documents. The Kuali Implementation team is nearly complete and is located in the basement of the Computer Center (UITS 130) please stop by to visit us any time.
How can you get involved? Full time positions with backfill to the contributing department:
- Business Systems Analysts - responsible for documenting current processes, developing new processes using Kuali and then assisting with testing and training.
- Testing Coordinator - responsible for running the Kuali testing lab, developing or modifying testing scenarios and ensuring testers have what they need to test.
-Business Intelligence Functionals and Technicals - the functionals will be paired with the technicals to develop dashboards and reports using the new Kuali financial data.
Part time positions - Testers - 2-4 hours/week working in the UITS Kuali Testing lab testing and learning the new system.
If you are interested in any of the above positions or have any questions, please contact Kymber Horn (mailto:kymber@arizona.edu).
KFS implementation is in the "Assess and Design" phase and the KFS Business System Analysts are receiving training on how to analyze current processes and propose new processes. The KFS Implementation developers are also learning the new system and will be writing interfaces and making modifications as we discover we need them and they are approved.
Development - Release 3.0, the final baseline functionality that includes Capital Assets will be released to the world mid March 2009. After this release KFS will go into sustainability mode with regular releases coordinated by the Kuali Foundation. We had originally expected a mid December release, but a critical piece of functionality related to workflow is being integrated with KFS and it was better to include it with the final release rather than waiting for a future upgrade. We are mitigating the risk associated with the delay as follows:
- The database structure will freeze November 1st, so that we can complete our data conversion without having to worry about drastic changes to the database.
-The code will be frozen mid-December and KFS will start a 3 month Quality Assurance (QA) period. Only bugs will be fixed during this period.
-Arizona will join the Quality Assurance effort by testing release 3.0 with our data, several of you have offered to help test and our goal is to get at least 60 dedicated testers contributing 2-4 hours/week from mid-January through end of March.
-We are also determining the feasibility of loading FRS transactions into KFS - if we are successful, this will allow us to go live a few months after July if we are not ready.
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2. Merchant (Bank Card/Credit Card) Acceptance Policy and Procedures
New FRS Policy - 8.14 Merchant (Bank Card/Credit Card) Acceptance Policy and Procedures
http://www.fso.arizona.edu/fso/deptman/8/814merchant.html has been created to outline policies and procedures pertaining to the authorization granted to University units and affiliates to accept bank cards (credit and debit cards) as a form of payment for services performed or for merchandise sold. For additional information on Bankcard (Credit Card) Merchant Services see http://www.bursar.arizona.edu/departments/bankcard/index.asp
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3. Tax Services - A new "Tax Services" section has been added to the FSO Webpage to provide quick access to tax forms, documents and tax compliance information. See
http://www.fso.arizona.edu/Tax/
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4. Frequently Asked Questions
Your Question: Once I have submitted a check request to pay a vendor, how do I track it to see when the date the check is actually mailed out.
Reply: When the check request is received in FSO Operations the document and all supporting receipts/invoices are scanned into an imaging program. These images can be viewed via ISW for review/tracking purposes. To determine if the check request has been paid, please do the following:
-Log into Information Services Web @ https://www.fso.arizona.edu/isw/default.asp
If you have access to view these documents you will see an icon marked AP Invoice Document Images. If you do not have this icon please contact your business manager or equivalent in your department as they can provide access.
-Once on the search screen enter the check request (K######) into the field marked "document number". Click Search
-In the search screen (if document available) you will see the check nbr, check date, dept # and processor. If no information is indicated in these fields this means we have not finished the review of the document and you can call our office (621-9097) for more information or allow 2/3 days for payment to be initiated (if all supporting information has been provided).
NOTE: You can click 'view' to see the image or 'notes' to add a note to the document that is sent to the AP specialist that has been assigned this check request.
FSO maintains a database of frequently asked questions. Visit our FAQ page at http://www.fso.arizona.edu/app/faq/faq.asp to review previously asked questions, search by category or keyword, or ask a question of your own.
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5. Introducing FSO's New Employees - The following employees have joined FSO this fiscal year:
Denise Dellinger, Accountant, Senior - Financial Management
Steven Froehlich, Accountant - Capital Finance
Peter Homstad, Analyst - Office of Investments
Ashley Hasan, Financial Services Specialist -Bursar's Office
Deborah Hyder, Financial Services Specialist - Operations
Guanpi Lai, Applications Systems Analyst - FSO Information Technology
Melinda Pelusi, Accountant, Associate - Financial Management
Rahul Sharma, Applications Systems Analyst - FSO Information Technology
Sarah Trotta, Accountant - Financial Management
Lin Wei, Accountant, Financial Management
Christina Weiss, Financial Services Specialist - Bursar's Office
Xuemei Yang, Accountant - Capital Finance
Contact: Betsy Van Valkenburg
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