FSO News

To: Department Business Offices
From: Bethany Prim, Assistant Comptroller
Subject: 2019 Fiscal Year-end

As Financial Services reviews current year unrelated business income (UBI) activity, we want to take a moment to remind departments to notify Tax Services of any potential UBI activities.

Revenue generating activity may be subject to federal unrelated business income tax (UBIT) when the following conditions exist:

Accounts Payable is excited to announce a new secure upload feature available for users to submit forms that contain information considered to be regulated data such as social security numbers, credit card numbers or financial banking information. This secure method follows guidance set forth by the International Standards Organization regarding protection of personally identifiable information.  

The Employee Related Expense (ERE) rates used by the University must be negotiated through the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Cost Allocation Services; this negotiation has been successfully completed. The ERE rates for fiscal year 2020 commencing on July 1, 2019 have been approved and are posted at:

https://www.fso.arizona.edu/financial-management/ere-rates

In collaboration with the Division of Human Resources, the Financial Services Office has created two new object codes for search firm expenses in order to meet reporting needs.  The following guidelines, along with additional information, are available on Human Resources’ Search Firm web page.

HUMAN RESOURCES GUIDELINES

Once you have identified the search firm you will collaborate with, please be sure to:

The University of Arizona receives ACH and wire payments that post in the UAccess Financials Electronic Payment Claim area. There are 40 payments dating back to December 2016 that remain unclaimed and require review. We encourage you to please review the Unclaimed ACH and Wire Transfers application for any payments that belong to your department. If a payment(s) belongs to your department, please claim the ACH or wire via the Electronic Payment Claim screen in UAccess Financials.

The Financial Services Travel Office is proud to announce the release of a new Travel Authorization Form, including an electronic approval process.  The new electronic routing process will eliminate the submission of paper Travel Authorization forms. Financial Services Manual Policy 14.10 Travel Authorization has been updated to reflect these procedural changes and reformatted to follow the standard University policy template to include:

On behalf of Financial Services Accounts Payable, the deadline for submission of all Purchase Order invoices, Disbursement Voucher coversheets with supporting documentation, and appropriate approvals is Friday, December 14 at 5:00 PM to guarantee payment prior to the University closure. Please submit all invoices and reimbursements to Accounts Payable by the December 14 deadline to ensure adequate time to review and disburse payments by Friday, December 21.  UAccess Financials edocs must receive full department approval in order to be processed.