Financials upgrade newsletter [Apr. 2006 (Issue 8)]

Issue 8

Financials Upgrade Newsletter

April, 2006

Important Dates to Remember...
March 31 - Train the Trainer Key User Spreadsheets Due
April 10 Deadline for Train the Trainer Session Registration (Participating agencies only)
April 12 -Change Champion Meeting April 12th and 13th Commitment
Control Budget Lab for registered participants (4 sessions) April 12 Agency Tester Kick-off April 18-20Train the Trainer Session 1 April 25-27Train the Trainer Session 2 April 27 InterUnit & Open Item Accounting Meeting April 21 BCM Tree Spreadsheets Due in both 7.02 and 8.8 Formats May 1-3 Train the Trainer Session 3

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

1

Important Dates to Remember

1

Change Management Sessions

2

Spotlight on Purchasing

3

Spotlight on PO Continued

4

Take a Look - New Purchasing

Pages

5

Take a Look Continued

6

Upcoming Events!

7

Training Update

8

ListServ

8

Contact Us

Change Management Sessions
The last few months have been very productive with the introduction of the Agency Educational Sessions and Change Champion Sessions. Shown below is a recap of what has been offered to date:
February 17, 2006 Agency Upgrade Kickoff Meeting was held in the Capitol Education Center located at 180 Central Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia. The agenda included: 9 Chart of Accounts 9 Commitment Control (KK) 9 Streamlined Banking 9 Allotment Process to Compliment Streamlined Banking 9 Interunit Transactions 9 Open Item Accounting 9 Preparations for Go-Live
March 2, 2006 The first Agency Educational Meeting was also held in the Capitol Education Center. The agenda for this meeting included: 9 Chartfield Structure 9 Chart of Accounts Values and Uses 9 HCM Account Code Changes 9 Upcoming Sessions
March 16, 2006 The first Agency Change Champion Meeting was held in the Capitol Education Center. The agenda for this meeting included: 9 Deployment Overview 9 Roles & Responsibilities 9 Agency Upgrade Activities List 9 Agency Readiness Assessment 9 Interface Update 9 Training Overview 9 Information Resources
March 23, 2006 The second Agency Educational Meeting was held in the Capitol Education Center. The agenda for this meeting included: 9 Program Budgeting and Allotments
All of the above sessions were web cast live during the morning session. Archived broadcast of the web casts may be seen on the State Accounting Office website @ www.sao.georgia.gov . Look for the PeopleSoft Upgrade>Presentations link!

Financials Upgrade Newsletter

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Spotlight on Purchasing Highlights
The Purchasing module allows processing and tracking of Purchase Orders, Requisitions, Request for Quotes (RFQ's), Receipts, Open Contracts (Statewide & Agency) and Releases against these contracts.
The Purchasing Module exists to facilitate the business process of procurement, capture related data for analysis and tracking purposes, capture financial data concerning encumbrances and pre-encumbrances for preparation of official Financial Statements, and facilitate accurate processing of payables associated with Purchase Orders.
Following are some of the major differences in the new version of PeopleSoft:
PO Edit no longer exists. Users will no longer have to run this process from the button on the PO Header
PO Post no longer exists. This process ran in batch flow and populated the PO_LINE_ACCTG table that fed the GL module. This table was also used in many queries including the 0PO025, 0PO013GL & 0PO014GL.
PO_LINE_ACCTG no longer exists and encumbrance and pre-encumbrance related accounting entries will no longer be written to the General (Actuals) Ledger.
Financial data related to encumbrances and pre-encumbrances are instead captured in the Commitment Control Module only in a new set of PeopleSoft records. The Trial Balance report will be modified to pull this information from its new location.
A new process called Document Tolerance will also run when a Purchase Order is budget checked. Although now a separate process, this is comparable to the BCM "over-liquidated" error from the current version of PeopleSoft. An additional "Doc Tolerance Status" field now also appears on the PO Header. POs or Vouchers with Document tolerance errors will not budget check, so this new status will be "Error" and the "Budget Checking Status" will remain "not checked" until the Document Tolerance error is resolved.
Receiving is required on all Purchase Orders before vouchering. PO Vouchers will be created by copying from the "Receiver" rather than copying from the Purchase Order.
PO Description is now 254 characters instead of 30 characters. The big red "X" on the PO Header is now the "Cancel" icon. Currently, the red "X" allows the user to
exit the transaction without saving (to start over). This icon is not available until the PO is saved, but clicking on it will now cancel the Purchase Order in its entirety. A warning message is displayed to confirm the cancellation. PO Cancel/Close: Purchase Order and Requisition cancellation will not be allowed by the system if activity has occurred against the document (receipts, vouchers, RFQ's, etc.). To close these transactions early, a PO or Requisition Reconciliation Workbench will be used (similar to the current PO Workbench) and the "Close" button will be used in lieu of the "Cancel" button. Zero Price Indicator: A new checkbox on Requisition Line used with the "Open Contract" flag to indicate that requisition is requesting the establishment of an "Open Contract" and therefore does not pre-encumber any funds (each line amount is for zero dollars). Defaults Page: Both Requisitions and Purchase Orders Header default pages now allows split distributions to be entered at the header level for default to all ones.
Continued on Page 3

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Spotlight on PO (continued)
Retrofit Page: Used with "Defaults" page to change values on existing PO or Requisition lines, schedules, or distributions up until the point that vouchers exist.
Finalize/Un-Finalize: Icons available on the PO and Voucher Header and distribution pages that allow user to immediately liquidate any remaining pre-encumbrance (for PO's sourced from Requisitions) or encumbrances (for PO Vouchers). This is similar to "Final Reference" in version 7.02, but allows the remaining balances to be immediately liquidated rather than having to wait for the PO to close.
Amount Only: Checkbox available on PO line used to specify that the line will be for a quantity of "1", charged by amount, for a net dollar value. Receipts and vouchers are then processed and matched by dollar amount rather than quantity, allowing partial payments against "1 lot" type PO lines without causing match exceptions.
Report Manager: New PeopleSoft component which allows a user to review and print reports that they have processed. This will be used to print or access .pdf versions of Purchase Orders, RFQs, Requisitions, and Receivers to the local Windows printer. It will no longer be necessary to have dedicated printers identified to Unix and PeopleSoft in order to print these documents.
Item numbers (10 digit NIGP codes) will be required on all Purchase Orders with a PO Type of `CON' (Statewide Contract Release). New Item Search functionality exists within the Purchase Order pages allowing search by Item Description, Item Group (will correlate with Statewide Contracts), or Item Category (5 digit NIGP).
A new Open Contract Module will allow entry of Statewide and Agency Contracts into the system. Formerly, the Statewide Contracts only existed as Item Catalogs. Total release activity can then be tracked against these contracts. These contracts can be manually entered in the Contract Module, or can begin as an RFQ and be created as a part of the RFQ award process.
Statewide Contract numbers will default to each PO line based upon the Item Number entered, thus automatically tracking PO releases against the Statewide Contracts without requiring manual entry of the Contract Number on each PO line.
Asset fields will now be displayed on the PO Chartfield Approval page so that the agency "Chartfield Approver" can verify correct Asset Profiles are used in addition to verifying the chartfields.
PO's can now be dispatched from a button on the main PO Entry page.
Ready for more on PO? Keep Reading!

Financials Upgrade Newsletter

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Take a

at some of the new Purchasing pages:

The new Defaults page

The new Retrofit Page
Financials Upgrade Newsletter

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New Purchasing pages (continued) Main PO Entry page

PO Item Search page
Financials Upgrade Newsletter

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Upcoming Events!

The State Accounting Office is offering Educational and Change Champion sessions over the next several months to communicate the major changes being made to the PeopleSoft system during the upgrade to version 8.8. Both the Educational Meetings and the Change Champion Sessions are open to all financials users and are to be web cast for those users that are unable to attend the live broadcast during these sessions.

Educational Meetings

The final Educational meeting will be held on April 27, 2006. This meeting will be held to discuss InterUnit and Open Item Accounting for Travel and Per Diem. This meeting will be web cast for those users that can't attend the live broadcast.

The PowerPoint presentation and the distributed handouts will be available on the State Accounting Office website at www.sao.georgia.gov . The archived web cast will be available soon for those users that didn't have a chance to view the live broadcast. Don't miss out; plan to attend the Educational Session today! An SAO Official Communication will announce the meeting. Keep an eye out for that communication!

Registration Information for Educational Meetings

Date April 27, 2006

Example Topics Interunit & Open Item Accounting

Course # 407FN15

Session # 0001 0002

Times 9:00 11:00 1:00 3:00

Change Champion Sessions

A Change Champion is an Agency's Primary person responsible for insuring a successful PeopleSoft upgrade for their Agency. The State Accounting Office is holding several "Change Champion" sessions which will disseminate important information to agency personnel concerning the PeopleSoft upgrade. These sessions are designed for these identified Change Champions, but are not closed. Any interested individuals may attend.

Schedule of Upcoming Change Champion Meetings

Date

Example

Topics

April 12, 2006 FY06 Close

Course # 407FN14

May 15, 2006 June 8, 2006

Agency Readiness Upgrade Activities List Review

407FN16 407FN17

Session #
0001 0002 0001 0002 0001 0002

Times
9:00 11:00 1:00 3:00 9:00 11:00 1:00 3:00 9:00 11:00 1:00 3:00

Have your Agency Training Coordinator sign you up today! If your agency has no training coordinator or the session is full, please email upgradefeedback@sao.ga.gov and someone will register you for the session. Please be sure to have your employee ID number ready.

Financials Upgrade Newsletter

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Training Update
The Train the Trainer kickoff meeting was held on March 20, 2006 in the SAO Training Room, Suite 1616 of the West Tower in the Sloppy Floyd Building.
We have over 100 agency trainers that will participate in the Train the Trainer program. The new training approach using the User Productivity Kit (UPK) was discussed in relation to navigation and changes made to the financials modules.
The Goal of the Train the Trainer program is to "Ensure that the end users are self-sufficient in the operation and maintenance of the PeopleSoft software by training on new functionality, process changes, new navigation and use of the UPK tool".
The Long Term Vision of the Train the Trainer program is "To provide State Employees web based training and problem solving resources whether on the work site or teleworking at any hour, on any day."
The Requirements of the Train the Trainer program is to train 100% of all identified Key Users and to Train at least 85% of all other users.
Expectations of the Train the Trainer program include: Agency Trainers Commitment to the program Advise SAO of Training Schedule Verify Completion of Training
State Accounting Office Provide Delta Training on 8.8 Application Provide Training on the UPK Instruction on Use of Enterprise Learning Module
Next Steps: Trainers only will register for one of three sessions: April 18-20th, April 25-27th, or May 1-5th
We look forward to working with our Train the Trainer program participants! Many thanks for your help!

Non Train the Trainer Agency Training
Any end users working in agencies not participating in Train the Trainer will register for SAO End User Training scheduled to begin the last week of May. Keep an eye out for upcoming communications regarding the training schedule. If you work in a Train the Trainer agency, please do not register for any of the SAO classes. Your agency trainer will schedule your training internally.

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Want to be "In the Know"?
"FS Official Communications" are e-mailed on a regular basis to users who have subscribed to the Listserv system. One way to be "in the know" and receive these communications is to sign up for a Listserv!
Put yourself in the "LOOP"! There is no cost to subscribe and it's easy to do! You can also unsubscribe at any time. Please be aware, however, that the more elists (modules) that you sign up for, the more emails you will receive in your inbox. We recommend only signing up for the lists applicable to your job duties.
Listserv is one of the most effective ways for you to obtain information and communications relative to your PeopleSoft system. If you have not already done so, sign up now.
Available lists include: AP, AR, AM, GL, PC, Labor, Budget, and PO.
Visit the SAO Website and click Financial Systems > Related Links > ListServ and subscribe today!

For more information on the Financials Upgrade Project or Comments / questions about the Project Newsletter, contact the Communications
Team at: upgradefeedback@sao.ga.gov
Additional information can also be found at the State Accounting Office Website:
http://sao.georgia.gov > News >PeopleSoft Upgrade
State Accounting Office - Financial Systems - 200 Piedmont Avenue, Suite 1604, West Tower Atlanta, GA 30334 - Phone: 404-656-2133 - Fax: 404-463-5089

Financials Upgrade Newsletter

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