1st Edition

On July 5th, the core Impact23 systems were deployed. The overall system implementation has been successful. Several hundred individuals have completed the online and live training sessions, are able to access the new systems, and have successfully processed transactions. The campus community has diligently reported issues and the team is actively working to respond to inquiries and coordinate the resolution of issues. It is important to keep the campus advised of known issues, temporary workarounds and the status of resolution. The program team is working diligently to prioritize and promptly address these situations and will provide regular updates through this digest and the Impact23 website. Your collaboration, patience and support are sincerely appreciated.

Contracts and grants projects (i.e., project values beginning with “K”) may not utilize the Flex1 and Flex2 fields.  As discussed in COA training, the Projects Portfolio Management (PPM) module uses the POETAF values. Any boundary system that utilizes the GL chartstring involving a “K” project will automatically interface with PPM using the POETAF. To keep all systems synchronized, a GL chartstring using a “K” project value must use the default Flex1 and Flex2 values (i.e., all zeros).  

Friendly reminder, non-contract and grant funds associated with a faculty member’s portfolio of resources should be coded using the appropriate Flex2 value in the budget and financial transactions. These actions will enable the generation of non-contract and grant faculty portfolio reports.

Several departments have requested additional K project values to assist with tracking expenditures for contract and grant awards. The Accounting Office will be developing criteria and procedures for these requests in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for further updates and information to be shared soon.

Department SAAs play an important role in provisioning access to our campus users. Various requests have been distributed to Department SAAs regarding important role provisioning related to the new systems
to enable the appropriate workflow of transactions and system integration, such as the need to immediately provision:

• Concur Phase II roles, specifically PCard Holder and Financial Approver, to enable the US Bank interface of PCard transactions. Click for guidance. 
• All roles involved in the procurement workflow, such as Procurement Financial Approver, Payables Financial Approver and Receiving roles for every Accountability Structure containing a Procurement Transactor. Without these roles, the routing will fail and the transactions cannot proceed.
• Oracle Financials Training Roles: Please note that participants cannot join training workshops without appropriate roles assigned by the Dept. SAA in Oracle Financials Training, which is separate from production (Oracle Financials). Click to view roles. 
  

As part of the system integration with the Oracle Financials, all Concur Requests and Expense Reports undergo a COA Validation check between the systems. During this process, the Requests and Expense Reports status will display as "Pending ERP Validation" until the check is completed. It is important to be aware that requests/reports will not be sent for approval until the check has passed. The COA Validation check is conducted at regular intervals, approximately every 20 minutes. This validation helps maintain the integrity of the financial data and ensures that any potential discrepancies or errors are promptly identified and resolved. 

 

Before submitting a request or report, please ensure that the "Header" information is complete. This includes verifying the validity of Org, Accountability Structure, and Chart of Accounts information; otherwise, the submission will be returned.

Budget Search

Most budgets were loaded into Oracle without using Flex fields. Therefore, when viewing the budget in Oracle, defaulting to the NO FLEX option is recommended unless any budgets have explicitly moved.  Friendly reminder to code the Flex2 value on non-contract and grant faculty portfolios to facilitate reporting to our faculty.

The COA validation process involves a check to ensure that the COA elements (entity, fund, activity, function, program, project) are linked via a valid budget entry.  Permanent budgets as of 5/31 converted to Oracle Budget, but the carry forward balances associated with COA combinations in permanently budgeted funds were not.  If a COA combination does not exist AND it is anticipated that there will be carry forward funding into FY24, the current workaround is to do a Temp Adjustment moving $1 from BC75 to another BC to process transactions (similar to a Zero$ BEA).  Note this workaround should only be performed if the COA combination is valid and a carryforward budget is reasonably expected. Final 6/30 Perm Budgets will be loaded by 7/24, and Final Rollover (CFD) Balances will be loaded in early August.

The conversion of budget data included a function clean-up. The administrative functions in Colleges/Schools used to be function 40, but it should be function 43, for example. Please run the Activity Summary in Oracle Budget to see the correct function to use for your transactions.

To request new Flex2 values, the Org CFAO should submit the request to stephm@ucr.edu. Please ensure the request includes the following: 1) First and Last Name, 2) NetID, 3) Employee ID, and 4) The non-C&G fund sources that require tracking with the Flex2 value.

Auto-rejection errors are resolved for Departments that have established Transactors/Financial Approvers at the Org-level vs. the Department-level. In cases where routing is set up solely at the Org-level, the Requisition/PO will now search up the Accountability Structure and locate routing up to the Org-level.

The issue regarding transmitting Purchase Orders (POs) to punchout Suppliers in Oracle Procurement has been successfully resolved. All orders generated since the go-live phase have been effectively communicated to the respective suppliers for fulfillment. As a result, no further action is required from the departments, with the exception of new orders for suppliers CDW and Grainger:

Specific base criteria were used to determine conversion eligibility for each PO type. However, due to variances in data structures between eBuy and Oracle, it is possible that certain POs meeting the criteria may not have successfully converted. Read Purchase Order Conversion for Oracle Procurement for guidance and next steps.

Invoice Approval Notifications

Department Fiscal Approvers are receiving notifications for invoices outside their Accountability Structure. This issue is in testing; we expect a resolution this week.

Requisition Approval Workflow

There are known issues with approval routing. To understand how it should function, view this slide.

Freight Line, and 
Only the Freight Line!

When a requisition you created is approved, the next steps are creating the PO, completing the freight lines, and then communicating it to the supplier. Caution! ONLY complete the freight line (if there is one). Closing all the rows will close the PO. 

Where is “Okay to Pay”?  for Receivers

Reminder, “Okay to Pay” is not an Oracle term. A department-designated Receiver is identified for each department (due to the separation of duties, this should be a different person than the Transactor). If you are a Receiver that needs support, many Oracle Guided Learning guides are available to walk you through new processes (ex., Receipt Types, Create Receipt, and Partial Receipting).

If you are getting Receiver notifications but are not the Receiver, create and submit a change order to the PO to update the Receiver to the correct individual. 

This column was added to reflect the Burden Cost, aka "indirect costs" associated with Contract and Grant PO purchases. For further guidance on this topic, you can refer to the resource: Contract and Grants Burden Costs Guide. 

The column was added so that the encumbrance total on the Financial Transaction Detail Report would align with the amounts reported on the UCR Purchase Order Encumbrance Report.

Tier 1: Self-service options include training, Oracle Guided Learning (OGL), and information on the website. Take the learning paths relevant to your role, focusing on the specific modules you need. OGL guides can be printed or emailed for step-by-step instructions.

Tier 2: Ask your peers for help using SLACK channels. There are two types of channels: Org-channels and Community of Practice channels. Visit the website to learn more and find the Channel Owners for each Org. Department SMAs and Extended Testers are supporting inquiries and helping identify issues during stabilization. If your question or problem persists, attend Office Hours  and/or submit a ticket!

Tier 3: Reach out to the Concierge team for further assistance. You can submit a ticket in the Finance & Administration Support portal and click "Request Help." Alternatively, you can call the Concierge helpline at
951-827-9990. Agents are available M-F from 9 am to 4 pm (closed for lunch from 12 - 1 pm).

If you have a question, check out the frequently asked questions (Oracle FAQs, Concur FAQs) to see if the question has been answered there! Many of these questions bubbled up from the Workshop portion of the training paths.