Changes Are Coming to Budget Checking & to When Transactions Show in InfoPorte. January 2018

Transcription

1 Changes Are Coming to Budget Checking & to When Transactions Show in InfoPorte January 2018

2 Our Presenters Jackie Treschl, ConnectCarolina Change Management Becky Arnold, ConnectCarolina Director of Finance Business Analysis Krishna Bheemireddy, ConnectCarolina Business Systems Manager

3 Webinar Format Presentation, followed by Q&A Use the chat window to type your questions We ll answer questions during the Q&A segment in the order they re received The webinar is being recorded and will be posted on the Finance > Budgets page of

4 Useful Documents The Budgets page on ccinfo.unc.edu contains these documents you may find useful: ConnectCarolina Financial Concepts 1: The Steps Transactions Go Through ConnectCarolina Financial Concepts 2: Why do my unposted vouchers seem to disappear at the end of the month ConnectCarolina Financial Concepts 4: Why do my balances go up and down throughout the month? Transactions in Commitment Control and GL Actuals Ledger Quick Reference Card Why the KK Ledgers and the GL Actuals Ledger May Not Equal

5 Today s Topic Changes are coming to budget checking for vouchers and purchase requisitions and to when these transactions will show up in InfoPorte.

6 Changes to Budget Checking Timing

7 Changes to Budget Check Timing In a nutshell, your budget isn t going to be affected until a voucher or purchase requisition has been approved completely, and the transactions don t show up in InfoPorte until they ve been approved. Change applies to: Campus Vouchers epro orders Purchase Requisitions All approvals (including central offices) will be in place before budget checking and reserving funds.

8 Create Voucher or Purchase Req Current Process Budget Check Funds are reserved. Transaction shows in InfoPorte the next day. Submit for approval Approve

9 Create Voucher or Purchase Req Future Process Pre-Budget Check You won t be able to submit until you pass pre-budget check. Funds are NOT reserved. Submit for approval Approve Budget Check Approved by Departmental approvers, and central offices. Runs automatically. Funds are reserved. Transaction shows in InfoPorte the next day.

10 Here s One Example Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Create a voucher, prebudget check it and submit it for approval Departmental approver reviews and approves OSR approver reviews and approves Disbursement Services approver reviews and approves Budget checked overnight Voucher shows in InfoPorte and Budget Overview in ConnectCarolina During this time, you can find a voucher using the Find Existing Value tab on the Campus Voucher page in ConnectCarolina.

11 What if It Fails Budget Check If a purchase requisition fails budget check, the person who submitted it receives an alert (like the one already received for vouchers). This also means, the transaction won t show in InfoPorte.

12 Benefits of Changes

13 Benefits of Changes 1 Funds are reserved after a voucher or purchase requisition has received all required approvals. 2 Simplifies reconciliation

14 Questions About What s Changing

15 Questions About What s Changing Question: How will approvals be changing? Answer: They won t. No changes are being made to the approval process. The approvals that are in place today will remain in place when the timing changes take effect. The approvals will just happen before your transaction is budget checked and the funds are reserved.

16 Questions About What s Changing Question: What will transactions look like in ConnectCarolina vs. InfoPorte? Answer: Transactions will look the same as they do today. The only difference is the timing of when they show up. Budget Overview in ConnectCarolina shows transactions after they ve been budget checked, which will be after they ve received all approvals.

17 Questions About What s Changing Question: I ve created a requisition or voucher where can I find it if it s not in InfoPorte? Answer: As you can now, you can find a voucher, and see where it is in the approval process, by using the Voucher Inquiry option in ConnectCarolina. For purchase requisitions, you can go to Manage Requisitions to see the purchase requisition and where it is in the approval process.

18 Questions About What s Changing Question: Will the changes affect when transactions show in the Open Requisitions and Campus Vouchers queries? Answer: These two queries, NC_CPS_OPEN_REQ_PROJECT_QRY and NC_CPS_VCHR, are not changing. NC_CPS_OPEN_REQ_PROJECT_QRY: The Open Requisitions query lists the requisitions and purchase orders as long as they re not canceled or closed. NC_CPS_VCHR: The Campus Vouchers query shows information related to payments, which happen after vouchers are approved and then budget checked. The change to when budget checking happens won t change this query.

19 Questions About What s Changing Question: Do I need to do anything different at month-end close? Answer: The short answer is no, but one of the benefits of the new timing is that when you re reconciling, using InfoPorte, at month-end, you ll only see vouchers that have all of their approvals.

20 Questions About What s Changing Question: What does this mean for the Commitment Control (KK) Ledgers versus the GL Actuals ledgers. Answer: This change means that the KK ledgers and the GL Actuals ledgers will have fewer differences, because the vouchers and purchase requisitions will have received all of their approvals before being recorded in the KK ledgers.

21 Questions About What s Changing Question: Do I still need to use the Recon Ready? flag in InfoPorte when I m reconciling? Answer: Yes, you ll still use the Recon Ready? flag to identify transactions that are ready to be reconciled. Another benefit of the timing change is that there will be much less time between when a transaction shows in InfoPorte and when it is marked Recon Ready.

22 Questions About What s Changing Question: Does this change affect the PI Dashboard? Answer: The change to budget check timing doesn t change any of the information on the PI Dashboard, but purchase requisitions will show up on the dashboard later. The Pre- Enc/Encumbrance column won t reflect a transaction until it has been budget checked, which could be days after it is created.

23 Questions About What s Changing Question: What about vouchers that are created but haven t received approval before the timing change is made? Answer: Vouchers that are created before February 1, 2018 will continue on the same path they re on. They will remain as an expense in the Commitment Control ledgers, the way they do today. Vouchers that are created on February 1, 2018 and beyond won t show as an expense in the Commitment Control ledgers until they re fully approved. This means that when vouchers roll at the end of the month, you need to look at the Accounting Date on individual vouchers to see if they ve impacted your budget.

24 Q & A 24