Finance Monthly - AUGUST 2005
Tenth Edition

Systems
        1. Month End Reports
        2. ELF, FRS, Inquiry, HRMS:  ELF Delay; FRS Default
Deadlines
        3. Accounts Payable Deadlines:  Labor Day
Other News
        4. Fiscal 2006:  New Year Budgets and ABR
        5.  Travel: New Mileage Rate; Advances
        6. Updated Policies and Procedures for Paying and Employing Non U.S. Citizens. 
        7. Who to Contact?
        8. Finance and Administration Website
        

1. MONTH END REPORTS: 
The July month end jobs have successfully run and the reports are currently available on Eprint.  Users can access Eprint through the Administrative Applications area in their employee portfolio and by using their FRS operator number as the UserID and FRS Password as the Eprint password.

In addition, 3rd close for Fiscal 05 has run and the fiscal year default is 2006.  At this point, all Fiscal 05 accounts should be final.  Auditors will be on campus next week for three weeks.  Thank you all for your cooperation with our year end process. 


2. ELF, FRS, INQUIRY, HRMS: ELF Delay; FRS default
There are no longer two fiscal years open in ELF.  Therefore, there is no longer a one day delay.  Approved entries will be reflected in FRS the following day.

In addition, FRS default is now Fiscal 2006. 

Finance and Administration offers training sessions on a variety of subjects for all Wesleyan employees.  All sessions are held in the ITS training room, SC523 on a regularly scheduled basis during the academic year.   Attendance is on a first come, first served basis. Employees may register for these sessions by completing the online form which can be found at:

http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/misc/trainingScheduleRequest/index.html

Individual training on FRS can be requested by contacting Susan Pavis, spavis@wesleyan.edu, x2839. 


3.  ACCOUNTS PAYABLE DEADLINES
On Monday, September 5, the University will observe the Labor Day holiday.  All Accounts Payable Vouchers that must be paid on Friday, September 9 must be received in the Accounts Payable Office no later than Wednesday, August 31 at 4:00 pm.

Payment requests received beyond this deadline will be processed for payment on September 16^th.
 
Please contact Tamara Harley at extension #2843 or Regina Sipples at extension #2842 with any questions. Your cooperation is appreciated.

All vouchers received by 4:00 pm on Thursday will be processed for payment for the following week's Friday check run. 

Please see the Finance and Administration website for additional policies and procedures related to Accounts Payable. 

Contact Tamara Harley at x2843 or Regina Sipples at x2842 with any questions


4.  FISCAL 2006:  New Year Budgets and ABR
Fiscal 2006 operating budgets are now reflected in the object code subgroups.  New for Fiscal 2006 - for most operating accounts, budgets will initially be put in the previously discussed object code subgroups.  These subgroups were established for budget implementation.  The actual expenditure relating to that subgroup budget should be charged to the specific expense code.   See our website document at http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/reporting/objcodes.html for more detailed information on the subgroup concept.

In order to facilitate reporting, we have turned on the financial system tool called ABR (Automatic Budget Reallocation).  This tool flags the subgroup object code for ABR and identifies that code with a particular range.  Whenever an expense is charged to an object code that falls within that range, budget will be pulled from the associated group code, to the specific code, resulting in a balance available amount at the subgroup level.

Please contact Sun Chyung at x2249 or Ellen Milstone at x3153 in Financial Planning if you have any questions regarding new year operating budgets or concepts.

In addition, please note that we have also been successful in entering Fiscal 2006 endowment budgets on July 1.  These are 6-ledger accounts and the budgets will be on object code 2001.  These accounts do not utilize the ABR feature. 

The endowment budgets will reflect new year budgets only. Endowment carryforwards cannot be reflected until the old fiscal year is closed.  This is tentatively scheduled for late August.  In the interim, you can see the carryforward balance that will be rolled forward by viewing the 2005 ending balance in Inquiry.   If you have any questions with endowment, gift or grant budgets, please contact Kimberly Savinelli.


5.  TRAVEL:  New Mileage Rate; Advances

Effective July 1st 2005 the new mileage rate is 0.38 cents a mile.

Administration of travel advances is now being handled by Valerie Nye.  All travel advance requests should be sent directly to Valerie in the form of an Accounts Payable voucher.  In addition, all travel expense reports and payments that clear an advance should also be sent to Valerie for processing.

 
6.  Updated Policies and Procedures for Paying and Employing Non U.S. Citizens. 
The policies and procedures for paying and employing non U.S. citizens have been updated, effective July 2005.  The new policies and procedures should be used as a reference tool while paying non U.S. citizens and may they be accessed online at http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/foreignTax/policyForiegn.html . A hard copy of the policies and procedures will also be mailed to departments in early August.  Contact Christine Rodrigue, crodrigue@wesleyan.edu, x3502 with questions.



7. WHO TO CONTACT
Do you need assistance on an issue or problem and don't know who to contact? Find your contact by clicking on the following link:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/misc/contactInformation/


8. FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION WEBSITE
The Finance and Administration website offers an abundance of information.  Be sure to check out www.wesleyan.edu/finance. for answers to your most frequently asked questions.  We welcome comments and suggestions as we work in making this a reference destination for your daily work.




SUBMISSIONS FOR FINANCE MONTHLY
What topics would you like to see included in this monthly communication?  Do you have a system tip you'd like to share?  Finance Monthly will be emailed on a monthly basis, corresponding with the availability of month end financial reports.  Items for inclusion are due five business days before the end of each month and can be submitted to Valerie Nye, vnye@wesleyan.edu.