EFS : SP_Important Notices

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Home > Important Notices (full list)

Important notices are listed below in chronological order - click on one to jump to it

EFS-SP NOTICE 037: Processing Journal Entries on Transactions from Previous Years

Prior to PeopleSoft, if a transaction on a project that was recorded from a pervious fiscal year needed to be moved to a non sponsored account, SFR had to process the transactions. With the new COA and PeopleSoft, SFR no longer has to process the transactions. If an academic department needs to process a journal entry on a project related to a transaction recorded in a previous fiscal year, they can do so.

For non salary journal entries, the only difference when processing the journal entry is the CF1 value should be YR000020XX (the XX represents the FY of the original transaction).

For salary journal entries, if an HSA can not be processed, process a journal entry directly against the salary and fringe accounts, including the CF1 value of YR000020XX. See the Job Aid called “When and How to Use a Journal Entry to Move Payroll and Fringe” for more details.

Please contact Sue Paulson, Kevin McKoskey or Pamela Webb with any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 036: GPC Processing Box Change

We have fielded lots of questions and complaints about the timing of nightly jobs, and especially how the jobs impact the sponsored reports. Each module has what is called a processing box, which is really a series of posting and updating jobs that processes nightly. The GPC processing box is scheduled to start after the Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Employee Expenses and General Ledger processing boxes have completed. The GPC then starts the Cost Collection jobs, which go out and cost collect the transactions from Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Employee Expenses and manual Journal Entries from GL. Then our F&A job starts, followed by a series of other GPC jobs. Lastly, the copy of Production (PRD) to the Reporting Instance (RPT) starts at 6:00 AM.

This is a very tight schedule – some jobs run long, and at times we are still processing the previous day’s GPC processing box when the copy of PRD to RPT starts. As many of us know, this is problematic for report users, as most of the time the expense is there, but the F&A isn't, as the copy of PRD started before we were done with the F&A job, etc.

After reviewing several options and working with the module support team, we have arrived at a long term solution to the situation: change the GPC processing box to begin at 7:00 pm. This would ensure that the box is complete by the time the copy of PRD to RPT is made, as well as remove the dependency on the other module processing boxes being complete before the GPC box starts.

How does this change impact the academic departments? Transactions processed on a project on Monday in the feeder modules are cost collected into GPC on Tuesday's nightly processing box run, which starts at 7:00 pm and will be in the reporting instance Wednesday morning. This gives consistent and accurate data, and departments should be confident that everything is there when running sponsored reports out of PS Reporting Instance or UM Reports.

Please contact Sue Paulson, Kevin McKoskey or Pamela Webb with any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 035: Guide for EFS Sponsored Reports

To better understand and use the sponsored reports we have developed a couple of new resources. Guide for EFS Sponsored Reports explains the detail on the report, how to use the report, caveats to using the report, and how the data pulls.

The Sponsored Transaction Detail Expense Report Numbers job aid explains the three different transaction numbers that show up on the Transaction Detail Expense report. This job aid explains how to identify which module each number comes from and demystifies the actual numbers.

Additionally, the Subcontract Purchase Orders Job Aid has been updated.

As usual, if you have any questions, please contact Kevin McKoskey, Pamela Webb or Sue Paulson.

EFS-SP NOTICE 034: Sponsored Reports and Proposal Notes

Sponsored Reports - We are happy to announce that the eight delivered sponsored reports in PeopleSoft are now in UM Reports. The reports can be found under the Category called Enterprise Financials and the Sub Category called Sponsored. Please follow the link below on how to run financial reports in UM Reports. http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/prod/groups/ohr/@pub/@ohr/@trainingservices/documents/asset/ohr_asset_096172.pdf

Proposal Notes – Departmental end users are now able to view Negotiate Award notes on their Proposals/Awards. This allows the user to monitor the progress of proposal submission and award set up.

As always, please contact Sue Paulson, Kevin McKoskey or Pamela Webb with any questions you may have.

EFS-SP NOTICE 033: Payments Received for Sponsored Projects in Academic Departments

Sponsored Receivable Payments

Forward the payment to SFR for handling.

Program Income Payments

1. Checks - must be processed via a departmental deposit.

The Distribution Lines section should be completed as follows:
Fund =Fund of the Project
Dept ID = Dept Id of the Project
Account = 220205 (Sponsored Program Income)
**All other chart fields should remain blank**

The Reference Information section should be completed as follows:
Reference Code = SP
Reference value = Project ID
Description = Program income
Amount = payment amount

2. Credit Card Payments and Interdepartmental Transfers – must be processed via a journal entry.

Journal Header Long Description should start with the Project ID the program income belongs to. Journal entry Distribution lines should be completed as follows:

Debit: non-sponsored program chart field string
Credit: Fund =Fund of the Project
Dept ID = Dept Id of the Project
Account = 220205 (Sponsored Program Income)
** All other chart fields should remain blank**

3. SFR will run a query to identify the above transactions and process the necessary transactions to transfer the program income on to the sponsored project.

Vendor Refunds Payment

1. Payments received from a vendor/subcontractor related to expenses on a Sponsored Projects received in the department must NOT be deposited via a departmental deposit against the sponsored project as a negative expense. Projects does not cost collect from Accounts Receivable. Payments should be handled in the following manner:

All checks received in the departments for refunds against expenses on a sponsored project must be routed to Disbursement Services for processing with the complete chart field string. The chart field string should include the Fund-DeptID-Project-Account. Please provide the actual Account code of the original transaction and not the Budget account code.

2. Disbursements Services will deposit the checks and process a credit voucher against the sponsored project using the chart field string provided. The resulting negative expense entry will be cost collected by the projects module.

If you have questions, please contact Sue Paulson or Marjorie Nebo.

EFS-SP NOTICE 032: PS Production Fixes Update

The following fixes went into PS Production over the weekend:

HRMS combo codes that have a project in the chart string are only created if the budget comes from the Projects module. See the December 15, 2008 EFS Update for a full description of the issue http://www.finsys.umn.edu/news/news.html#Dec15

Proposal Inventory Report (Grants Interactive Reports Proposal Inventory) runs to success. Previously, users report that the report timed out.

On a limited number of awards, a project is funded by more than one contract (award). This most frequently happens when a project is funded by multiple sponsors, such as an industry affiliates program. This week's release fixed a problem with the Sponsored Project Detail and Sponsored Award Overview and Sponsored Award Summary reports on these awards, which had previously been incorrectly displaying duplicate budget or expense data based on the number of awards funding the project (awards set up with one project associated with multiple contract lines). This error has now been fixed.

Additionally, a new Job Aid – How to look up the Grant Administrator or SFR Accountant in EFS has been posted on the EFS-SP website (http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/index.htm) - refer to the section called EFS Training and Job Aids. You may also download the job aid directly from http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/GALook-up.doc

As always, please contact Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb or Kevin McKoskey with any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 031: Three New Sponsored Reports in EFS

We are pleased to announce the addition of three sponsored reports in EFS.

- UM Sponsored Aged Pre-Award Summary – the report lists a row for each proposal/award in pre-award status, summarizing inception to date expenses and encumbrances, along with age in days from state date. This report can be run by PI (EmplID), DeptID or College. This report will be able to run from inception through a specified accounting date (e.g., 09/30/08), with that date showing in the header of the report.

- UM Sponsored Pre-Award Overview – this report is run by EFS proposal number and through a specified accounting date. The report displays current month (based on accounting date entered) as well as inception through accounting date requisition, encumbrance and expense. The balance is subtotaled by project (1 or many) and budget account (e.g., “Travel”). The header will display sponsor, award start and end date and pre-award age.

- UM Sponsored Pre-Award Detail - this report is run by project_id and through a specified accounting date. Project level report that displays Inception to date Requisition, Encumbrance and Expense summarized at the budget account level. Descriptive information on the header displays, Sponsor, Proposal #, Department, Project Start and End Date and Principal Investigator name.

- UM Sponsored Pre-Award Expense Detail – Coming Soon!

As always, if you have any questions please contact Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb or Kevin McKoskey

EFS-SP NOTICE 030: Human Subjects

Just a reminder: when paying human subjects, do not enter any name (first, or last or any combination of name) in the description field of the document. The description should read “documentation on file.” For further details, please see the FAQs- Paying Human Subjects document at http://www.policy.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/faq/human_subjects_faq.pdf

Please contact Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb or Kevin McKoskey with any questions you may have.

EFS-SP NOTICE 029: 3 Enhanced Sponsored Reports Now in Production/New List of Existing and Forthcoming Sponsored Reports

Colleagues,

Enhancements that you requested over the summer on three key sponsored projects reports have now been completed, and updated versions of these reports have been put into production. The updated reports include:

Sponsored Award Overview
Sponsored Project Detail.
Sponsored Projects Detail - Expenses

For convenience, we've prepared a list of all of these reports, plus brief descriptions. We've also summarized what is being enhanced on the existing reports; and provided samples of those already in production. A summary of some key information posted on EFS-SP is also included. This document can be found as a single .pdf on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/EFSSponsoredReportsSnapshot-November-PDFVersion.pdf

Enhancements on the NOGA and on the Sponsored Award Summary reports are nearing completion, and four new reports for pre-award accounts are expected to be released in December.

Please continue to provide us feedback on what you need and how well these reports work for you, so that we can continue to develop and maintain a solid set of core sponsored projects reports.

As always, feedback can be sent to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson, or Kevin McKoskey.

EFS-SP NOTICE 028: Subcontract Purchase Orders Job Aid Posted

A new job aid, "Subcontract Purchase Orders," has been posted in the EFS Training and Job Aids section of the EFS-SP web site, at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/index.htm#training

Alternatively, you can download the job aid directly from the web by following this link: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/JOBAIDSubcontractPurchaseOrders.doc

If you have any questions, please contact Kevin McKoskey, Pamela Webb or Sue Paulson.

EFS-SP NOTICE 027: Analysis Type Job Aid Posted

Journal Entry and Journal Entry Approvers should be aware that there is a change in information they received in training regarding manually created Journal Entries that use Project related ChartField strings. Beginning immediately, when entering a Journal Entry relating to a sponsored project, the AN Type (Analysis Type) ChartField needs to correspond to the activity being performed. The job aid is available on the Training Services Web site at:
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/trainingservices/materials/financial/index.html#je
and under the Job Aids section of the EFS-SP Website at:
http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/Journal_Entry_Adden-9-19-08.pdf

As usual, if you have any questions, please contact Kevin McKoskey, Pamela Webb or Sue Paulson.

EFS-SP NOTICE 026: Job Aids Posted: Running Sponsored Transaction Detail Reports to Excel

Colleagues,

Many of you have asked how to run the Sponsored Transaction Detail Expense Report to Excel. The initial steps are the same for this report as the reports developed in Crystal, the difference being when you navigate to the report manager to view the report, there are a few additional steps. Job Aids for running the report to Excel 2007 and Excel 2003 & lower have been posted on the EFS-SP website, at
http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/SponsoredTransactionDetailReporttoExcel07.pdf
and
http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/SponsoredTransactionDetailReporttoExcel03orlower.pdf

Note, the header information for the report also exports to Excel, so you need to arrow over a little way to get to the desired detail.

As always if you have any questions, feel free to contact Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb, or Kevin McKoskey.

EFS-SP NOTICE 025: Updated Status of 4 Key Sponsored Reports

*** UPDATED 11/21/08***

Please see EFS-SP NOTICE 029 for further information regarding these reports.

*** UPDATED 11/5/08 ***

Colleagues,

The three sponsored reports listed below now display data for capital equipment transactions that occur after October 26th. Capital equipment transactions are now being budget checked and written to Commitment Control (which is where the reports pull the capital equipment information from). For all the capital equipment transactions that occurred between July 1 and October 25 an approach is currently being developed to insert/post them to Commitment Control. We will keep you updated on that effort. In the meanwhile, click here for an updated list of the projects that have open Requisitions or Commitments related to to Capital Equipment.

Please let Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey know if you have any questions.

*** UPDATED 10/3/08 ***

Colleagues,

The payroll encumbrance issue referenced below for the following reports is fixed and with this change, the following reports are now fully accurate for all sponsored projects (except those listed in the exception list shown below.)

* UMGPCSAO Sponsored Award Overview
* UMGPCSPD Sponsored Project Detail
* UMGPCSAS Sponsored Award Summary

Exception List

Below is a link to a list of 146 projects on 136 awards that currently have open Requisitions or Commitments (Balance) related to capital equipment and are currently impacted. Reports on these projects will not show the correct encumbrances for the items of capital equipment purchased since July 1. The fix for the capital equipment encumbrance issue is being tested and we will let you know when it is ready to roll into Production.

Currently Impacted Projects (.xls)

Finally, as a reminder, UMFGM061 Sponsored Transactional Detail Report continues to be available and accurate for all sponsored projects (it does not include encumbrance data.) A job aid with more detail about what is included in each of these reports and step-by-step instructions to help you run these reports is available on the EFS-SP web site at:
http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/SponsoredReportsJobAid.pdf.

Please let Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey know if you have any questions.

*** ORIGINAL NOTICE FOLLOWS ***

Colleagues,

I know that everyone is extremely anxious about the health of the sponsored financial reports, and I wanted to send you the latest information we have.   This update relates to the four released reports available for general use:

UMGPCSAO Sponsored Award Overview
UMGPCSPD Sponsored Project Detail
UMGPCSAS Sponsored Award Summary
UMFGM061 Sponsored Transactional Detail. (this report is fully accurate as it does not include encumbrance data)

All expense data on these reports are now accurate. All known bugs related to expenses have now been fixed in the reports and the updated versions of the reports are in production.   You should have confidence that the data in these columns are correct for sponsored projects.

Encumbrance data (which in turn impacts "available balance" columns) is not yet working properly.   Although the problems originally reported were fixed, two new problems have been identified in the last few days. These issues results in certain encumbrances being counted twice, and a subset of capital equipment encumbrances not being counted at all. The programmers have identified the cause of both problems and fixes are underway. The first fix is expected to complete the programming cycle and go into testing sometime this week; we are currently awaiting word on the second fix.   If all goes well with testing, the reports could be available within a few days after testing is complete.    As soon as we have more information about when the updated versions will be available, we'll immediately let you know.

You may have heard about the carryforward issues on non-sponsored funds. This is not an issue for sponsored reports, since we brought in all expenditures related to active sponsored projects and don't use carryforward balances in the way that non-sponsored funds do.

As a reminder, a job aid with more detail about what is included in each of these reports and step-by-step instructions to help you run these reports is available on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/SponsoredReportsJobAid.pdf.

We'll keep you updated as we know more. As always, though, if a report is not working properly for you or you encounter a problem other than those listed here, or if you find data that appears to you to be wrong, please make sure you lodge a help desk ticket so that we can check it out right away.

Please let Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey know if you have any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 024: Cost-Sharing Clarifications #1

We know that there has been a lot of confusion about handling cost-sharing in EFS, so we wanted to provide some clarifications that supplement the cost-sharing procedure document already available on the EFS-SP web site. Please note that the PS-Friendly Budget form and the Sponsored Rebudgeting Form (both available on the EFS-SP web site under the "Forms and Tools" section at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/index.htm) have also been updated recently to allow for CF1, CF2 and FinEmplID on cost-share budgets. This clarification covers the following topics:

Cost-Sharing Definition
Departmental Tasks before a Cost-Share Budget Can Be Established
How to Request SPA to Establish a Cost-Share Budget
How Account Codes are Managed on Cost-Share Budgets
Use of CF1, CF2, and FinEmplID on Cost-Share Budgets
Additional Information on Cost-Share Conversions
How to Retroactively Apply Cost-Sharing to a Sponsored Project
Getting Reports on Cost-Sharing/Matching

You can view the clarification in its entirety at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/costshare2.htm

An additional clarification memo is in the works to clarify how to identify and calculate unpaid effort and to better identify when a cost-sharing budget is required.

As always, please contact Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey if you have questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 023: Fund Numbers on Sponsored Reports and NOGAs

Colleagues,

A number of you have requested that the fund number be included on sponsored projects reports (particularly the NOGA Report) and we are working with the programmers to have the reports adjusted to add fund number wherever appropriate. We don't yet have a date by which this can be accomplished but we'll let you know when you can expect this to be included.

As an interim step, SPA will be adding the fund number to the subject line of the NOGA distribution emails. The fund number will be the one associated with the Primary Project. The subject line of these emails will now read:

Award: Dept ID - Primary Project PI Name - Agency Abbrev - Award ID - Primary Project - Fund

Sample: Award: 10010 – Gorder – NIH – CON000000000001 - 04416598 - 3002

If you need to predict a fund number for an existing project, the fund numbers are assigned as follows:

3000   Business and Industry - Sponsored
3001   Foundations - Sponsored
3002   Federal Government - Sponsored
3003   Local Government - Sponsored
3004    Foreign Government - Sponsored
3005   State of Minnesota - Sponsored
3015   State of Minnesota - Appropriations
3006   Other Private - Sponsored

The following funds are used for federal pass through dollars (e.g, when the U is a subrecipient to another entity that received federal funding):

3010   Sponsored Business and Industry - Federal Pass Thru
3011   Sponsored Foundation - Federal Pass Thru
3012   Sponsored Other Government - Federal Pass Thru
3013   Sponsored State of Minnesota - Federal Pass Thru
3014   Sponsored Other - Federal Pass Thru

EFS-SP NOTICE 022: 4 Key Sponsored Projects Reports Now Working

Colleagues,

We are delighted to let you know that the issues that had been identified after Go-Live when running the four main sponsored projects reports listed below have now all been remedied.   Feel free to now run these reports to obtain accurate information on your sponsored projects.   Please remember that the data will always be one day behind production, since you will be running these reports from the reporting instance of EFS.

As a reminder, a job aid with more detail about what is included in each of these reports and step-by-step instructions to help you run these reports is available on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/SponsoredReportsJobAid.pdf.

UMGPCSAO Sponsored Award Overview
UMGPCSPD Sponsored Project Detail
UMGPCSAS Sponsored Award Summary
UMFGM061 Sponsored Transactional Detail.

While the fixes to these reports have all tested satisfactorily, you should - as always - immediately notify the EFS Help Desk if you encounter any problems with the reports. The reports do not capture expenses on pre-award accounts; reports are being developed for these transactions and we'll let you know when they are available. Until such time, expenses on these accounts can be captured via system queries.   To learn how to do that, you can use the Sponsored Projects Inquiry job aid on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/index.htm We are also aware of the desire to have the fund number and data ranges added to several of the reports and will be discussing these changes with the programmers along with other priority items.

We have experienced intermittent timing issues with large overnight batch jobs (e.g, payroll runs or large feeder system input files) that prevent the F&A costing job from having sufficient time to run before the next morning.   The programmers are working to solve this on a permanent basis.    If the nightly F&A job is delayed, we will post that on the EFS-SP web site.    In that instance, if a department needs an immediate balance that day, they can manually calculate the F&A as they used to have to do in CUFS.

Thank you for your patience as we worked with the programmers to get these bugs resolved. As always, please contact Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson, or Kevin McKoskey if you have any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 021: Sponsored Projects Labs

Sponsored Financial Reporting and the Office of Sponsored Projects Administration are holding labs in September to assist with finding information related to sponsored projects. At these labs, experts from both offices will help users navigate inquiry screens, reports and queries to get the information needed to manage a sponsored account. Users coming to the labs should bring their Mkey and their account numbers or PI names.

All labs will be held in Walter Library room 310 and users will be helped on a first come basis.

Sept 10 8:30-4:00
Sept 19 8:30-4:00
Sept 25 1:00-4:00

If you have any questions, please contact Sue Paulson.

EFS-SP NOTICE 020: Job Aid "Sponsored Projects Inquiry" Posted

A new job aid, "Sponsored Reports," has been posted in the EFS Training and Job Aids section of the EFS-SP web site, at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/index.htm#training

Alternatively, you can download this job aid directly from the website by clicking on this link: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/JobAidSponsoredProjectInquiry.pdf

This job aid walks you through how to look up summary type information on sponsored projects in PS. The online inquiry is similar to the GSUM and EXPB tables in CUFS. This is a very useful online inquiry.

NOTE: The sponsored reports currently don't pull payroll encumbrances or converted equipment (the fix is in the works). This online inquiry displays both.

If you have any questions, please contact Sue Paulson.

EFS-SP NOTICE 019: Special Award Processing for the Next Month

Colleagues,

At the present time, SPA has a large backlog of awards that are in the process of having NOGAs produced and account numbers established. Despite some considerable overtime and many strong efforts on the part of SPA (and SFR) staff, it is clear that more time will need to be devoted to eliminate the backlog. SPA is in the process of hiring two additional temporary staff to help with award processing, but we are well aware of the need to address the issue quickly as well as in the middle and long-term. The current backlog is primarily due to an unusually high volume of proposals in July (which in turn limited award processing time), the high volume of awards that are typically received in July and August, plus the fact that it is taking considerably more time in the new system to process an award than in the old system. To help us catch up, SPA will be doing two things over the next month (8/26 - 9/24):

Setting Up Older New Awards as Advance Accounts. All new fully-executed (or accepted) awards that SPA has had for 10 days or longer will be set up initially as advance accounts. This will enable investigators to begin spending. You need not provide pre-award/advance account forms for these awards, since the award documents have already been received. Your GA will contact you if they need additional information from you before they can setup these accounts. You will receive an email from your GA with the chart string, and the email will include an annotation that this project is being setup up to facilitate award initiation, and a full NOGA will follow. SPA is currently reviewing all of the awards that are in the office and has begun setting up advance accounts that have been here longer than 10 days.

Dedicated SPA Award Processing Times. From Tuesday, August 26th through Wednesday, September 24th, SPA will be instituting dedicated "SPA Award Processing Hours" to allow SPA staff to catch up on our backlog of awards that need processing. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during this month*, SPA staff will be working on awards from 8 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. I am asking them not to answer phone calls or respond to emails during these three hours unless there is an emergency need to do so. This will enable staff to have quiet, dedicated time to perform the complicated and high-focus task of award setup. If you do have an emergency need to speak with your GA during the 8-11 a.m. time slot on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays, we ask that you call the SPA Front Desk at x40327 and tell them who you need to speak with and the nature of the emergency. Please note that this period of reserved time ends with Wednesday, September 24th. After that time, we will be heavily engaged in proposals for the early October deadlines and all regular time frames will be available for contacting SPA staff.

*Except Tuesday, September 2nd. There will be no reserved hours on this day.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact Kevin McKoskey or me. Thank you for your patience! -- Pamela

EFS-SP NOTICE 018: Job Aid "Sponsored Reports" Posted

EFS-SP NOTICE 017: Two New Job Aids Posted

Two new job aids, "Extending Commitment Control Dates" and "Start Date/End Date Synchronization" have been posted on the EFS-SP web site, at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/GAJobAids.htm

They can also be downloaded directly from
http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/JobAidextendingCommitmentControldates.doc or
http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/JobAidStart-enddatesync.doc

If you have any questions about these updates, please contact Sue Paulson

EFS-SP NOTICE 016: How to Look up an Accounts Receivable

A new Job Aid, How to Look up an Accounts Receivable, has been added to the EFS-SP website under the EFS Training and Job Aids section or by following the link: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/JobAidAccountsReceivable25Jul08.pdf

Please contact Sue Paulson with any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 015: Billing and Accounts Receivable

A Billing and Accounts Receivable procedure update has posted to the EFS-SP website at:
http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/BillingandAccountsReceivable.htm

Please contact Sue Paulson if you have any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 014: SPA New Account/Project and Rebudgeting Request Form Posted & Preaward/Advance Project Request Form Updated

The SPA New Account/Project and Rebudgeting Request Form is now ready for use and posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/NewAccountRequestrebudgeting3Jul08FINAL.xls

The Preaward/Advance Project Request Form has been updated and is also posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/form/preaward_form1.cfm

If you have any questions, please contact Kevin.

EFS-SP NOTICE 013: E-Award Distribution Procedure and Distribution Lists

As you may have already heard, SPA will now be sending NOGAs and copies of award documents out electronically rather than via paper copies. A copy of the new E-Award Distribution procedure is available on the EFS-SP web site at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/eAwardDistributionProcedure.htm, and summarizes the changes and the expected benefits of this new mode as well as details about what you can expect to see.

In this new mode, we want to make sure that we have the proper contact information for your unit. Our current distribution list was shared with the Research Associate Deans at their June meeting and they have provided us with a number of updates. If you have additional updates, we will happily accept those as well. The current version of the list (containing all updates received through 6/26/08) may be found at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/EFS-SPE-AwardDistributionDeptandUnitMailingList26Jun082Jul08.pdf

Updates should be sent from the Dean, Research Associate Dean, Unit Head, existing contact person, or RRC manager, but others may send updates as well provided that they include a sentence in their communication to us that they have the necessary authority to act on behalf of their unit (see below).

You may wish to consider using a "generic" email distribution address (e.g., "dentistryawards@umn.edu") so that you do not need to update it as personnel change. Please note that if your unit is one where a dean has previously designated that all 3 copies of the NOGA/award (PI, unit, dean) go to the dean's level (for further distribution), you may not override that preference absent the permission of the designated dean's contact.

We will accept updates at any time and generally are able to update our distribution lists within a couple of days. To update information for your area, please send the:

Department/Unit Name (and associated DEPT ID(s), if possible)
Old Contact Name
New Contact Name
New Contact Email Address

This information should be emailed to Jean Delutri in SPA, at jean-d@umn.edu or via fax to 624-4843. To avoid confusion, we prefer to receive the changes in writing rather than over the phone. If you are not the Dean, Research Associate Dean, Unit Head, existing contact person, or RRC manager for your area, you must include the following statement in your email "I have obtained the approval of my unit head and/or have the authority to authorize this change on behalf of the unit named above." We will retain these emails in case there are questions about a change that was made. If your unit wants certain NOGAs sent to specific people, we would appreciate your establishing a group email address or designating a primary point of contact so that you can further customize distribution once the award documents arrive at your unit.

Please feel free to contact Kevin McKoskey, Jean Delutri, or Pamela Webb if you have any questions.

EFS-SP NOTICE 012: Job Aids Available for Grants, Projects and Contracts Modules (7/01/08)

SPA and SFR have teamed up to prepare several jobs aids that may be of use as we first begin to use the EFS Grants, Projects and Contracts Modules. The job aids include step-by-step instructions and screen prints for how to perform a commonly-needed activity. Please feel free to share these with others, including faculty, in your area who might be interested. We anticipate adding new job aids to this list as time goes on. The inital set of job aids is listed under the "Training and Job Aids" section of the EFS-SP web site and includes:

Please don't hesitate to let Sue, Kevin or Pamela know if you have any questions or if you have a particular request for a job aid.

EFS-SP NOTICE 011: F&A Allocations (6/27/08)

The new procedure describing how F&A Allocations will work in the new system has now been posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/F_and_A_allocations.htm This procedure describes how F&A jobs are run, how F&A expenditures are posted to the financial system, and how you can establish or modify revenue sharing for F&A.

In CUFS, revenue sharing occurred on a main or child account on an account-by-account basis. To split F&A revenue, units had to either do journal transfers of F&A between departments behind the scenes, or split up their budget so that each partner sharing in the F&A revenue had its own child account. In EFS, F&A revenue may be captured either on a project-by-project basis (same as in CUFS) OR divided on a single project on a percentage allocation basis between two or more departments/units (new). To create shared F&A revenue, you may complete and submit to SPA either:

    1) PS-Friendly Budget Form (best for proposals or new projects being awarded)
    2) Establishing or Modifying F&A Allocation Form (best for splits that are added after the original award budget is created, or for changes in splits during the course of a project)

It is expected that a single individual (usually the PI of the Primary Project or his/her representative) will assume responsibility for obtaining and retaining documentation of the revenue-sharing arrangements. The easiest documentation for a split revenue-sharing agreement is an approved PRF with the appropriate percentages listed in Section 17, but emails or other authorizing correspondence from a Dean or Research Associate Dean (or others authorized by them to make such decisions) also meet this requirement. It is the responsibility of the individual certifying the percentages on the form to obtain the necessary approvals. The sharing arrangements need to be kept on file in the department and available in the event that there is a later question about the revenue allocations made. Until the PRF can be changed to add Dept IDs in Section 17, please submit one of these forms whenever you wish to establish a new F&A split or or modify an existing project to add F&A revenue sharing.

Revenue splits can only be done on a go-forward basis. Please allow up to 10 business days from date of submission of the form to SPA for the new splits to appear in EFS; expenditures after the system has been updated will be calculated nightly per the updated policy.

If you have any questions, please contact Sue, Kevin, or Pamela.

EFS-SP NOTICE 010: PS-Friendly Budget Now Available (6/26/08)

The PS-Friendly budget is now ready for use and posted on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/PS-Friendlybudget-Final26Jun08.xls

Primary Project and Subsequent Projects
The budget is an Excel workbook that has been designed so that the Primary Project (the old "Main") is Tab 1, and four subsequent projects (previously known as "Multiples" or "Child" accounts) can be loaded into Tabs 2-5. If you have additional projects, please use a fresh workbook.

PS Budget-Only Cost Categories
In Peoplesoft, most costs are budgeted at the category level (e.g., "Travel/Mileage/Moving" rather than "Travel-Domestic"). Some of the object codes that we used for budgeting in CUFS can no longer be used but instead need to be budgeted at the category level. To help you manage this rollup - and to know what the equivalent CUFS object code is to the new PS account category, please use the cross-walk table provided by the Budget Office at: http://www.budget.umn.edu/FY09docs/CUFS_PS_conversion_grid.xls (Tab 1).

Cost-Sharing
Please note that these spreadsheets have been designed so that you can enter both the sponsor budget and, if needed, a cost-sharing budget for a project. Please see the instructions on the form itself for how to handle the case where a single program is the cost-share fund source or where there are multiple programs serving as cost-sharing fund sources.

F&A Split on a Single Project
In EFS, F&A can be distributed either on a project-by-project basis (same as in CUFS), or within a project (new). If you have split an award into multiple projects and each project will be allocated its own F&A, this section of the form need not be completed (100% of F&A will be credited to the project's DEPT ID). If you are splitting F&A within a project, complete the bottom section of the form to designate which DEPT ID will receive what % of that project's F&A. One individual must assume responsibility for verifying that the F&A split has been agreed to by all parties (e.g. on an approved PRF or by agreement after the proposal has been submitted).

Completed workbooks should be emailed to your SPA grants administrator. If you have any questions, please contact Sue, Pamela, or Kevin.

EFS-SP NOTICE 009: New Online Training for Sponsored Projects Users is Available (6/20/08)

SPA, SFR, and Training Services have partnered together in creating an online presentation for sponsored projects users.

The presentation is located at: https://umconnect.umn.edu/sponsoredpresentation/

Highlights of the presentation include:
- Updates to sponsored business processes throughout the proposal, award, management, and closeout phases
- Navigational paths on where to find information in the new financial system such as: proposal status, award status, and
budget information
- Sample NOGA
- Sample reports
- Other resources

The presentation is approximately 37 minutes long. This staff development training is optional for users to complete. Its
purpose is to help sponsored users prepare for the implementation of the new financial system.

The full presentation may also be downloaded by clicking here.

For more information, contact Training Services at: 612.626.1373

EFS-SP NOTICE 008: eResearch Systems Scheduled Outage Notice (6/19/08)

As a part of the EFS transition, the systems run by the OVPR (including EGMS, RSPP, REPA, ROC, RCR, ROHP, and MTARF) are being updated to contain certain fields needed by the new financial system (for example, replacing Area with DeptID in the PRF). We have arranged for this update to take place outside of business hours to minimize impact on our users. The systems listed above will be unavailable from *6:00 p.m. on Monday, June 30th until 8:00 a.m. the next morning, July 1st*. All data and records in these systems (including in-progress records) will be retained and available for use once the system comes back up. No action is required by users.

Principal Investigators or departmental administrators who are working on proposals for early July should be particularly aware of this temporary shutdown, as PRFs and EGMS budgets will not be able to be accessed on that evening. NIH R01 proposals with a due date of July 5th and other proposals due on July 1st should NOT be impacted, as all of these proposals should have already arrived at SPA by this time.

If you have any questions, please contact the EGMS Help Desk at help@egms.umn.edu or 624-1600 for assistance.

EFS-SP NOTICE 007: Key Policy and Procedure Changes: Revenue Recognition and Small Business Reporting (6/11/08)

As of June 11, two new updates have been added to the EFS-SP web site, in the Key Policy and Procedures section. The first update concerns Revenue Recognition in EFS, and how that process differs from the current system, and can be viewed at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/revenuerecognition.htm . The second update is an alert regarding Small Business Reporting – it is located at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/smallbusiness.htm

Any questions you may have about these updates should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.

EFS-SP NOTICE 006: EFS Contract for Professional Services Overview (6/03/08)

The latest update to the EFS-SP web site concerns another Key Policy and Procedure Change: the new structure for Contracts for Professional Services. The four new transaction types for CPS are as follows:

VCPS - For services under $3,000

QCPS - Services from $3,000 - $25,000

CPS - Services at $25,000 and above

PCPS - Request for entertainer / performer contracts

To learn more about these transaction types, as well as various other issues related to these contracts, please visit the “Contract for Professional Services” page on the EFS-SP website, located at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/cps.htm

Any questions you may have about this change should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.

EFS-SP NOTICE 005: EFS Key Financial Policy and Procedure Changes (5/27/08)

As of 5/20/08, the Policy Office, in partnership with the Policy owners, has compiled a list of all the major financial policy and procedure changes that relate to the EFS transition. A complete list of these changes, in areas ranging from Procurement to Sponsored Projects, can be found on the EFS-SP web site, at http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/policy-procedure.htm

EFS-SP NOTICE 004: Conversion Strategy: EFS-SP Conversion (5/22/08)

Colleagues,

As you know, Sponsored Projects conversion is very complex. In the upcoming months, we will need to convert data from several systems (CUFS, EGMSi, JDE) into one, sometimes using the same conversion script. Conversion scripts must follow a specific order, and some scripts are dependent on previous conversion scripts.

For a summary of the conversion scripts that will have the most impact on academic departments, please see the EFS-SP Conversion Strategy document recently uploaded to the EFS-SP web site. All conversions described therein take place between June 21 and June 30, unless otherwise noted.

As always, any questions you may have about this change should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.

EFS-SP NOTICE 003: Key Policy and Procedure Change: EFS Cost Sharing (5/20/08)

As of Tuesday, May 20, SPA and SFR have announced a key policy and procedure change concerning the tracking and recording of cost share in EFS. At present, there are various ways of tracking and recording matching and cost share, but there is no requirement that transactions be identified and tied to the sponsored project in the financial system. However, in EFS, all cost share (reportable and non reportable, committed, mandatory) will be identified and tied to the sponsored project in the financial system using the COA account string.

To read the complete procedure change and its ramifications, please visit the EFS Cost Share web page on the EFS-SP site. Additionally, you will find several excel workbooks for reference purposes posted on the website, here, here and here.

Any questions you may have about this change should please be directed to Pamela Webb, Sue Paulson or Kevin McKoskey.

EFS-SP NOTICE 002: Transaction Processing during the Transition and at Go-Live (4/25/08)

Colleagues,

As we all know, sponsored projects don't magically halt in mid-stream while we migrate from one financial and grants management system to another. SPA and SFR have been working on plans to help ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, downtime is minimized and that processing of transactions before, during and after Go-Live happens in an orderly, sensible, and efficient manner.

Toward this end, please see the EFS-SP Transaction Processing during Transition and After EFS Go-Live document to understand how proposals, awards, subawards, financial reporting, invoicing, and other key transactions will be handled during the transition period and right after Go-Live. We have also prepared this information in an abbreviated "Quick Guide" for use as a rapid reference document.

We hope these documents will be useful tools as we plan for the migration. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb, or Kevin McKoskey know.

EFS-SP NOTICE 001: Sponsored Projects Cutoff Dates Announced (4/25/08)

SPA and SFR have now established cutover dates for processing of various sponsored projects transactions prior to converting to EFS. The most important dates for Principal Investigators and departmental administrators are as follows:

MONDAY, JUNE 16, 5:00 p.m. – Last day for SPA to receive proposals, awards, departmentally-approved sponsored rebudgeting requests (NBUDs )and Contracts for Professional Services (CPS), PI-approved subaward invoices, and departmentally-approved pre-award spending requests to ensure that transactions are completed and data converted into EFS for Go-Live. Transactions received after this date will be held and manually entered into EFS after Go-Live.

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 5:00 p.m. – Last day for SFR to finalize sponsor financial reports and invoices.

TUESDAY, JULY 1, 8:00 a.m. – System processing of sponsored projects transactions resumes. . This is the first day for completion of proposals, awards (including NOGAs) into EFS, as well as establishment of EFS chart-strings (including chart strings for new awards and for pre-award spending accounts), sponsored rebudgeting (formerly “NBUD”), payment of subaward invoices, and finalizing new and modified subawards. Period 12 for FY08 closes.

MONDAY, JULY 7, 8:00 a.m. – Financial reporting and invoicing sponsors in the system resumes. Reporting copy of EFS with project detail and balances becomes available today.

A complete, downloadable copy of the master cutover calendar and additional detail about what information is needed in order to process each type of transaction is available on the EFS-SP web site at: http://www.ospa.umn.edu/efs_sp/documents/EFS-SPCutover.doc.

We have established these dates in concert with the EFS Project Team and the existing plans for conversion of sponsored projects data, and believe them to be reliable. It is always possible, however, that changes in the project schedule (including conversion requirements) will mandate an earlier cutover date. If this occurs, SPA/SFR will immediately notify departments; however, units are encouraged to submit transactions as early as possible to minimize the impact of any such change.

Questions about these dates may be address to Sue Paulson, Pamela Webb, or Kevin McKoskey.

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