[Plantsci] Critical and Important Information regarding purchasing and payment processing during the Financial System Rollover

[Donna-Rae Marquez]

Hello All,

 

I cannot stress enough how important it is for everyone in the School of
Plant Sciences to read this email thoroughly and  as carefully as possible
regarding the transition period and the processes to close out the current
University Financial Reporting System and the new financial system UAccess
Financial between  September and October 2011.  I will be sending out weekly
reminders regarding this process.  But, please pass this email along to
every member of your laboratory.

 

This transition process and new Financial System with all of the deadlines
and information will affect every single person at the University of Arizona
and in the School of Plant Sciences.   This will impact on teaching,
research and extension activities.  Therefore, we must plan accordingly and
follow all the guidelines.   There will not be any exceptions to the
Deadlines because we will not have the platform (computerized systems) to
perform any type of exceptions.  

 

As I have mentioned in the past, the University of Arizona has/is
transitioning the former and current legacy systems for Payroll, Human
Resources, Student, Financial and Grant Processing.  We are two years into
the new Payroll / Timesheet process UAccess Employee, and approximately a
year into UAccess Student.   Now, the University will be going live with
UAccess Financial on October 4, 2011 (this date is referred to as Go Live).
UAccess Financial will replace the current FRS system which is the
accounting system for the General Ledger and Sub Ledger financial reports
and balance sheets.  This systems handles all the budgets and cash which the
UA processes.  Also, being replaced is the systems and processes, that we
purchase items for teaching, research, extension and administration.   The
Systems and Processes are payments, Purchase Orders, reimbursements
(expenses and travel), Arizona BuyWays and the Purchasing Card program.  

 

On September 1, 2011, I will be discussing with the Faculty, at the PLS
faculty meeting, some of the new policies that we will have to implement due
to the system.  But, I want everyone to have the knowledge of when and what
systems / accesses that will be temporarily shut down and not available
during the transition and Go Live period between the new systems (September
20, 2011 to October 4, 2011.)

 

Major Change on October 1, 2011:   All of the current FRS account numbers
that are assigned to you will change.  The numbers will be changing in order
to accommodate the new UAccess Financial System.  The change is small but
significant.   At the end of September, I will send each faculty member a
list of their new account numbers.

 

First the good news - the Purchasing Card program and your P-Card will work
during the transition period with no work stoppage and continue to work the
same with the new UAccess Financial Systems (KFS.)   All of the current
procedures, restrictions and guideline will be in place even when the other
purchasing and reimbursement systems are not working during this transition
(moratorium) period approximately September 20, 2011 to October 4, 2011.

 

Now the deadlines and important information.

 

Purchase Orders:  September 20, 2011:  We will temporarily not be able to
create requests to generate Purchase Orders until the new system is
functional on October 4, 2011.   Which means if you have a quote to purchase
an item or items over the $5,000 limit, this must be sent to me for
processing no later than the morning of September 20th.   Please remember
you will not be the only one who may need to submit a quote for a PO.
Therefore, we can only process the requests in the order that we receive it.
I cannot guarantee that it will be approve on time by the various UA
Financial Services Office throughout campus as they have to approve the
entire UA requests.    The computerized system that we process this request
will be shut down at 5 p.m. on September 20,2011.  The new platform to do
these requests will not be available until October 4, 2011.   This time
frame is needed to convert the financial data from one system to the next.

 

Please note, you cannot purchase an item over $5,000 on your P-card.   Nor
can you have the purchase of said item broken down smaller incremental
charges on our P-Card, that is call pyramiding which is  strictly
prohibited.  Your p-card can be suspended or revoked for this violation.

 

Expenses Reimbursement to Employees/Vendors and/or Payments to Vendors or
Outside Speakers: September 20, 2011:   We will not be able to create a
Check Request to reimburse an employee or pay a vendor or approve an invoice
for payment on an existing PO from September 20, 2011 until October 4, 2011.
Therefore,  if you have receipts for reimbursement or an invoice to be paid
- turn it in as soon as possible.  The 90 day rule for reimbursement being
taxable after a 90 day period from the date of purchasing will not have a
forbearance due to this inaccessible transition period.   

 

During this time there will be PLS invited seminar speakers during this time
frame, I have a procedure in place for their reimbursement documents  but
the payment will be delayed until the new system is functional in October
2011.    As well as the payments and reimbursements to the faculty members
who will be taking the seminar speakers to dinner during this transaction
period.  The moratorium is also applicable for payments to research visitors
who are receiving some type of stipend from an active UA account of faculty
in the School.   

 

Travel Expense Reimbursement and Advances:  September 20, 2011:  The same as
above, we cannot process any travel expense reimbursement or advances
between September 20, 2011 and October 4, 2011.  Therefore, if you have the
receipts and all of the appropriate / required documentation (agenda,
itineraries, and such) now, do not wait to turn in your receipts to the
Admin Office.   During the moratorium period, you can turn in your receipts
- we just cannot process them until we Go Live with UAccess Financials on
October 4, 2011.

 

Payments and/ or purchases to UA Department/Units via the Interdepartmental
Payment Form (IDB) September 20, 2011: This is applicable to payments to the
UABookstore, ARL, BioCommunications and such.   IDB's will no longer be an
acceptable form of Payment to the UABookstore with the new system. 

 

Arizona BuyWays: September 23, 2011 Noon:   The Arizona BuyWays website will
become inactive and close for all future use on September 23rd at 5:00 p.m.,
but you will need to stop buying and purchasing items at Noon on September
23,2011 in order to allow me and Purchasing time to  approve the orders.

 

Important:  Arizona BuyWays will be accessible on October 4, 2011 but not on
the same website but through a new portal in UAccess Financial.  The
purchasing of items will still be the same but the checkout of your shopping
cart is drastically different.   Therefore, my staff and I will hold
training sessions throughout the months of September and October for the new
system.

 

For your part in the process - AZBuyWays and electronic approval, you will
need to ensure that your web browsers are functioning properly.  Which means
clear history, temp files, and cache files - often.  Have available to you
more than one web browser - such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome,
FireFox, and Safari.  Please consult with Mario Marquez and Carlos Acevedo
about your web browser.   Also, keep your computers free of viruses, and the
such.

 

During the months of September and October, the work load on the
Administrative Staff (myself, Joy Rogers-Caron, Renee Ammons, Laura de
Steiguer, Gabe Rodriguez, Michael Hawkins and Chris Large) will be
immeasurable due to this transition from one system to the next. We will be
working overtime to make the transition as smooth as possible for everyone
in the School as well as capturing all of the financial data from the old
system. Therefore, we ask for your understanding that processes will be
slower because we will not have access to our normal operating systems.
Once, we Go Live with UA Financial on October 4, 2011, we will have to
process all of the financial documents in record speed on the new system  in
order to get you reimbursement, vendors paid, items order and contracts
written with a new web based system.   The system is web based with new and
bigger servers but with quadruple the amount of users due to the AZ BuyWays
portal and the electronic approval process.   Therefore, the system will be
slow and may crash from time to time.  As it did with UAccess Employee and
UAccess Student.

 

The next few months will be a very intense time due to all of the changes in
the financial systems and how we operate and function with these systems.
Therefore, I will be communicating as often as possible regarding the
processes, policies and transition.   Please read everything I send about
this matter.

 

As always, please contact me if you have any questions about this new
system, deadlines and other information.

 

Sincerely,

Donna-Rae 

 

 

Donna-Rae M. Marquez

Manager, Business & Finance

School of Plant Sciences

The University of Arizona 

Forbes 303B

Tucson, Arizona 85721

520.621.8689 Telephone

520.621.7186 FAX

 

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