Issue 9 Financials Upgrade Newsletter May, 2006 Important Dates to Remember... May 30, 2006 End User Training begins for NonTrain the Trainer agencies! June 8, 2006 Change Champion Meeting to be held at the Capitol Education Center INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1 Important Dates to Remember 1 Change Management Sessions - Update 2 Spotlight on Reports/Queries 3 Spotlight on Reports/Queries Continued 4 Take a Look Reporting Tools 6 Upcoming Events! 6 Training Update 7 SAO End User Training Schedule 8 ListServ 9 Contact Us Change Management Sessions Update April 12, 2006 Change Champion Session was held at the Capitol Education Center. Topics included: Agency Upgrade Activities List Cleaning up transactions in 7.02 FY2006 June close FY2006 Year End Close Conducting Business during system downtime Preparing subsystems for Go-Live Go-Live Contingency Plan April 27, 2006 Agency Educational Session. This session was cancelled and combined with the May 15th and June 8th Change Champion Session. Inter-Unit functionality was discussed at the Change Champion Session on May 15, 2006 and Open Item functionality will be discussed at the Change Champion Session scheduled for June 8, 2006. Don't miss out on this new functionality! Sign up for this session today! Course # 407FN17 June 8, 2006 The April 12th Change Champion session was web cast live during the morning session. An archived broadcast of the web cast will be available soon on the State Accounting Office website @ www.sao.georgia.gov . Look under the PeopleSoft Upgrade>Presentations link. Financials Upgrade Newsletter Page 1 Spotlight on Reports/Queries Highlights The Report and Queries functionality in PeopleSoft version 8.8 is still undergoing construction. A variety of Reports and Queries will be made available in PeopleSoft version 8.8. New "review" functionality available in version 8.8 will substitute for several reports and/or queries that were available in PeopleSoft version 7.02. Several Financials modules have "Report" manuals located on the SAO website (www.sao.georgia.gov ) which will be updated and made available to the Financials User community. Report manuals will be available for the following financials modules: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Asset Management, and General Ledger. The Purchasing module contains only "Crystal" reports and does not have a `report' manual available. However, listings of all available reports and queries will be made available for each module via a link from the UPK tool. Reports retrieve data to aid agencies with data validation, reconciliation and preparation of other reports. Report Highlights in version 8.8 Since most reports will be available as PDF documents and may be printed locally, there is no need for a "PeopleSoft Printer ID". There is no need for a printer to be associated to the PeopleSoft system in order to print reports. Example: Purchase Orders will now be viewed as PDF documents and may be printed at your desk. Some reports will be available for viewing immediately and printed to a local printer. Overnight processing will continue to provide daily reports as in version 7.02 and will continue to be viewed using Document Direct. Some reports may be `run' to Excel and manipulated using Excel functionality. Version 8.8 will continue to use Run Control technology in order to `run' a financials report. Run Controls previously set up in version 7.02 will continue to be used in version 8.8. Users will continue to use the Process Scheduler and Process Monitor to enter report parameters. Financials Users will be able to use the "Details" link to view message logs as they pertain to error messages. Crystal Reports will continue to be used in version 8.8. They may be run as PDF documents and stored on your hard drive to be viewed and/or printed later. "Sparky" has been replaced by the "REFRESH" button. Financials Upgrade Newsletter Page 2 Spotlight on Reports/Queries (continued) Query Highlights in version 8.8 Query access in PeopleSoft version 8.8 will be determined by security roles. Users must be assigned the "role" of XXQUERY (where XX = Module Name) in each module that they use in their job duties. Query Manager will be used to list all available queries in a drop down listing to be selected by the user. Query results may be run to an Excel spreadsheet and manipulated using Excel functionality. Often used Queries may be saved as "Favorites" in query viewer. Query results may also be run to your desktop as in version 7.02. Take a at the new Reporting Tools page: This page will be used to run Queries and Mange Reports in PeopleSoft version 8.8 Financials Upgrade Newsletter Page 3 Take a at the new Query Viewer page: This page will be used to view a listing of all available queries By leaving the `begins with' field blank, all available FN queries will be listed when the Search button is clicked After the Search button is clicked, the available Queries are listed and are available for selection. Note: This query search contains sample data. Financials Upgrade Newsletter Page 4 Upcoming Events! Change Champion Sessions The last of the Change Champion Sessions is listed below. These sessions will disseminate important information to agency personnel concerning the PeopleSoft upgrade. The June 8, 2006 session will include Open Item Accounting. Schedule of Upcoming Change Champion Meetings Date June 8, 2006 Example Topics Upgrade Activities List Review Open Item Accounting Course # 407FN17 Session # 0001 0002 Times 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. Training Update The Train the Trainer sessions have concluded and the agency trainers are now working to train their respective employees. Three Train the Trainer sessions were held during April & the first week in May and most all participants gave very positive reviews on the sessions. Each financials module "Delta" lesson was presented by the SAO Subject Matter Experts over a period of 2 days. Participation on the part of the agency trainers was incredible! Questions were answered and concerns addressed. We want to send out a Really BIG Thank You to our trainer partners. We really appreciate your help! Financials Upgrade Newsletter Page 5 End User Training (Non-Train the Trainer Agencies) Any end users working in agencies not participating in Train the Trainer should register for SAO End User Training. If you work in a Train the Trainer agency, please do not register for the SAO classes. Your agency trainer will schedule your training internally. If you are unsure as to whether your agency is participating in Train the Trainer, please visit the SAO Website, click on PeopleSoft Upgrade > Training >Schedules. A listing of participating agencies is shown. Course Name 407DL01 Modules Covered: Purchasing Accounts Payable Vendors Asset Management Time 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Session # 0001 0002 0003 0004 0005 0006 0007 0008 0009 0010 0011 Day Tuesday Thursday Tuesday Monday Tuesday Thursday Monday Tuesday Thursday Tuesday Thursday Date May 30 June 1 June 6 June 12 June 13 June 15 June 19 June 20 June 22 June 27 June 29 Course Name 407DL02 Modules Covered: Customers Accounts Receivable Commitment Control (Budget) General Ledger Labor Distribution Time 9:00 am to 12:30 pm Session # 0001 0002 0003 0004 0005 Day Date Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday May 31 June 7 June 14 June 21 June 28 All Classes will be held in the SAO Training Room 1616 - W. Floyd Tower Atlanta All Classes will begin promptly at 9:00am 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 Page 6 We will miss you! In case you haven't heard the news, Betsy Prior is leaving state government after nearly 10 years. Betsy's last day with the State Accounting Office is May 12. Most of you know Betsy as the SAO Change Management team lead. Betsy began her career with state government in 1996 as a consultant and trainer on the SPIN (procurement) system for DOAS. She has since worked on the PeopleSoft 7.02 implementation team and then in the SAO Business Strategy group to assist in the Statewide Financials study. Betsy has been an integral part of the Communications & Training team for SAO and we will miss her very much! We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. Good Bye Betsy! 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! Financials Upgrade Newsletter Page 7 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 Page 8