State Accounting Office newsletter

State Accounting Office Newsletter
Sound Fiscal Leadership for Georgia

Inside This Edition: 1 Purchase Order UPK
Update 2 9.0 Financials Upgrade
Update 3 Mileage Reimbursement
Rate Increase 3 Announcements 3 System Availability 4 9.0 Financials Upgrade
"Delta" Training 5 New HCM Query 5 Guidelines to Use When
Setting up Part-Time Board Members 6 Streamlined Banking Updates 6 GTA announces qualifying bidders for upcoming GAIT 2010 RFP's 7 Fiscal Year End Calendar 7 Employee Corner 8 Want to be in the know? 8 SAO Helpdesk and Options 8 Contact us
We're on the Web! See us at:
www.sao.georgia.gov

Issue 6

Purchase Order UPK Update

The State Accounting Office (SAO) received a request to update several topics in the Financials UPK, Purchasing module, relating to Contracts.
The request suggested that SAO revise and separate Agency Contract information from Statewide Contract information in an effort to clarify these processes for their customers.
In the spirit of meeting and/or exceeding the customer service standards set by the Governor's office, SAO collaborated with DOAS to identify and incorporate the desired changes to the following purchasing topics:
UPK Topic 9.2.5 "Add Agency Contract" has had some bubble text added which relates to the Renewal of a contract;
UPK Topic 9.3.2 "Create a Statewide Contract Release PO" has been reworked to include only information related to Statewide Contracts.
A new UPK topic has been created to address Agency Contracts. The new topic #

is 9.3.12 "Create an Agency Contract Release PO".
It was also decided to add Maximo Topic # 2.4.1 "Maximo to SAO PeopleSoft Function" to the Financials PO module topics. The new topic # is 9.3.13 "Process a Purchase Order from Maximo".
Follow this link to the Financials UPK and check out the changes!
SAO Financials UPK
These changes will help to clarify some of the questions we have received regarding the UPK's for Purchase Orders. They will also be incorporated into the Purchase Order UPK's that will be updated for the PeopleSoft 9.0 Financials Upgrade that will take place later this year.
If you or your co-workers have suggestions regarding changes or additions to either the Financials 8.8 or the HCM 8.9 UPK topics, please don't hesitate to contact us at:
fscommunications@sao.ga.gov.

May 2008
We will give your suggestions every consideration possible.

State Accounting Office Newsletter

9.0 Financials Upgrade Update

The PeopleSoft Financials The implementation team is

9.0 Upgrade is on track and also actively preparing for

continuing to make

User Delta Training (dates

significant progress. The and more details about User

implementation team has Delta Training is on page 4),

successfully completed Test and User Acceptance

Move to Production 4,

Testing (UAT) which is

upgraded the Oracle

scheduled for July 15, 2008

database from 9i to 10g,

August 15, 2008. The

and completed Integration PeopleSoft Financials 9.0

Testing, Batch Testing and Upgrade Project Timeline is

Security Testing. Test Move listed below.

to Production (TMTP5)

began on April 22, 2008 and

System Testing began on

May 1, 2008.

PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade Project Timeline

Technical Unit

Testing (12/1 1/31)

1

Functional Unit

Testing (1/7 2/11)

2

TMTP4 (2/28 4/2)

TMTP5 (4/22 5/30)

TMTP6 (6/17 6/26)

TMTP7 (7/21 7/28)

TMTP8 (8/20 8/28)

Create Integration, Batch, Security, and System Test Scripts (2/1 4/13)

31

Integration/

Interface

Testing

(4/14

4/23)

4

Performance Testing (5/16 8/18)

Completed In Progress, on track Planned Task

Batch

Testing

(4/22

4/25)

5

Security Testing

6

7

8

(4/28 4/30)

System Testing Cycle 1 (5/1 6/6)

End User Delta Training

(6/2 6/13)

9

SAO Financials 9.0 Upgrade Project

System Testing Cycle 2 (6/9 7/7)

10
UAT (7/158/14)

11
Upgrade Go Live
(9/8)

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State Accounting Office Newsletter

Mileage Reimbursement Rate Increase

Effective April 1, 2008, the mileage reimbursement rate for State employee use of personal vehicles (when such vehicle is determined to be the most advantageous form of travel) is $0.505 per mile. This mirrors the increase adopted by the (U.S.) General Services Administration upon which

the State's rates are based. The Travel Expense Form (available via the Team Georgia web site) has been updated for this change. A version of the Form with the previous rate will also be available for a period of time to allow for the submission of reimbursement requests for travel that occurred prior to April 1, 2008.

Please refer to the State Accounting Office web site:
http://sao.georgia.go>Finan cial Reporting>Statewide Travel Regulations
This site will list links to the Mileage Reimbursement Rate Policy and the Statewide Travel Regulations.

Announcements
Financials Reconciliation Training Scheduled for Budgets and Allotments entered in BudgetNet/Reconciliation to PeopleSoft Financials
Training Overview:

This course will give participants the tools to ensure that Budgets and Allotments transactions entered into BudgetNet balance to the data in SAO PeopleSoft Financials. Upon completion of this training, the participant should understand what PeopleSoft reports are necessary to perform the three point reconciliation process, how to complete the three point reconciliation process, and the common types of reconciliation differences.

The schedule for these classes is as follows:

Date May 13, 2008 May 13, 2008 May 14, 2008 May 14, 2008 May 15, 2008 May 15, 2008

Begin Time 9:00 am 1:00 pm 9:00 am 1:00 pm 9:00 am 1:00 pm

End Time Noon
4:00 pm Noon
4:00 pm Noon
4:00 pm

To register for this training, click this link http://www.cviog.uga.edu/sarp and select one of the classes listed above that best suits your schedule and then submit your registration. All classes will be held in

System Availability

Normal Weekdays

Financials HCM

7:00 a.m. 7:00 p.m. 7:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m.

Financials HCM

Saturdays 8:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. 8:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m.

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State Accounting Office Newsletter
9.0 Financials Upgrade "Delta" Training Approach
As we move forward to the next phase of the PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade project, our focus has shifted to End User Training. (EUT) Below is an explanation of our approach to "User Delta Training"....that is, training on any transactions / processes that were changed as a result of the upgrade from PeopleSoft Financials 8.8 to 9.0.
User Delta Training
We have completed our assessment of the "Delta" between PeopleSoft Financials 8.8 and 9.0 (essentially, any transactions / processes that were changed between the two versions) and will be posting these documents to the SAO website the week of May 12, 2008. We will send a communication notifying all PeopleSoft Financials agencies that the documents have been posted along with a link to our website.
Functional leads in each area of expertise will present the Delta topics, to the PeopleSoft user audience during the first two weeks of June at the Capital Education Center. Details about the training sessions will be sent out in the next week or so.
An overview of the End User Delta Training timeline is provided below.

4/14/2008

4/21/2008 4/28/2008

5/5/2008

5/12/2008

5/19/2008 5/26/2008

6/2/2008

Communications to Agencies on
overview of deltas to date and UAT
strategy (4/7 4/14)

Update deltas in presentation format (4/21 5/5)

Publish delta documentation on the SAO website (5/5 5/12)

End users/agencies review delta documentation (5/12 5/26)

Dry Run of Presentation (5/26 6/2)

Delta Training Delivered at CEC 6/2, 6/5, 6/9 6/12

To date, the "Deltas" (or changes) are very minimal. The most common changes that we have confirmed are differences such as:
A field has been moved to a new location on the screen. The names of certain fields have been changed for screens already in use. Additional fields have been added (in very few instances) to screens already in use.
These minor changes are currently being captured and will be included in the "Delta" training. In addition, each User Delta Training session will be facilitated by Financials 9.0 Upgrade team members who will be there to answer any questions and to provide guidance as needed along the way.
Additional information about User Delta Training will be distributed during the week of May 12, 2008.
Thank you for your help in this very important effort!!

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State Accounting Office Newsletter

New HCM Query

Recently, the State Accounting Office has added a new HR query to the HCMQUERY database titled
0HR046_EMAIL_ADDRES S_BY_COMP.
The purpose of the query is to allow agencies a more efficient way to clean up their data in preparation for the E-Performance project. This query is designed to help identify email

addresses missing for employees within their agency who are listed as active. The query results lists the Employee ID, Employee Name, Department ID, Company Number, Email Type, Email Address and Preferred Email field; which indicate if the e-mail displayed is the preferred e-mail in the record or not.

rows. Generally this means that the employee has multiple e-mail addresses entered in the e-mail field. Employees can have up to three e-mails entered, but only one e-mail will have a preferred check mark box checked

Note: For some employees, the agency will see multiple

Guidelines to Use When Setting up Part-Time Board Members

Reminder: Part-time Board Members should NOT be set up as hourly employees in HCM. Making them hourly with the Comp Rate set to the equivalent of the daily rate, then leaving the Standard Hours at 40; causes substantial problems with reporting.
When asked to provide data on employees who receive "over $150,000 annually", (frequently requested by the General Assembly and/or the Governor); Board Members set up as hourly employees will show an annualized salary that will

put them in this category. This is incorrect.
The correct method for setting up Board Members is as follows:
1. Create one or more positions using Job Code A0048 - Board Member (a single position may be multiencumbered)
2. Assign the position on an appropriate hourly Pay-group (SCOA 510, 512, 513)
3. Leave Standard Hours blank (or hours may be left at 1 for positions set

up under previous instructions) 4. The Salary Plan/Grade will default to APOAdditional Pay Only. Keep these values. Leave the employee's Compensation Rate and Annual Benefits Base Rate blank.
For Payroll, the employees will be paid as Additional Pay only (no salary), with a component code of BMB.
Thank you for your help in addressing this issue!

5

State Accounting Office Newsletter

Streamlined Banking Updates

The Cash Management Team is currently refining and reengineering many of our daily and monthly account reconciliation processes. This will ensure that potential automation processes are deployed to achieve efficiency in processing.
This review includes design research on the possibility of uploading online credit card information received from the four major credit card companies (AMEX, VISA, MasterCard, and

Discover). Additionally, the group is currently updating the credit card procedures for the Accounting treatment of fees and charge backs.
A special "Thank you!" to the Banking and Finance team for their help in developing this procedure
Additionally, the lockbox for the Department of Public Safety has been deployed to Bank of America, which is the Streamlined Banking depository bank. This better positions Public

Safety for future implementation to Streamlined Banking and completes an extensive list of deployment tasks.

GTA Announces Qualifying Bidders for Upcoming GAIT 2010 RFP's

The Georgia Technology Authority received 31 responses to the Request for Qualified Contractors (RFQC) from its request dated January 29th. There was a high level of interest in the project, as evidenced by the large number of responses among the External Service Providers (ESP).
The purpose of the RFQC was to make sure the bidding process would be manageable by prequalifying service providers who are interested under the terms of the RFQC. Key IT and business managers from 13 state agencies developed the RFQC using a collaborative process that included state procurement procedures and guidelines. This included strict adherence to nondisclosure

agreements to make sure the bidding process was competitive and handled with the utmost integrity.
GTA intends to qualify the following ESPs to bid on the consolidation and outsourcing of infrastructure services, which includes data centers, mainframes, servers, PCs and laptops:
EDS IBM Northrop Grumman
GTA intends to qualify the following ESPs to bid on the managed network services, which include the state's wide area network:
AT&T EDS Northrop Grumman
The next steps in the

process are as follows:
Release RFPs, competitive bidding - April through October
Transition to external service providers November 2008 to March 2009
GTA expects the contracts to be 5 7 years with an estimated value of $1.2 $1.4 billion.
Current information about the GAIT 2010 is available at www.gta.georgia.gov/transfo rmation.
If you have any questions, please email them to GAIT2010.gta.ga.gov.

6

State Accounting Office Newsletter
Fiscal Year End Calendars
To keep up to date on the Financials Fiscal Year End Close dates please go to the SAO Website and click on Fiscal Year Close Schedules:
Financials Fiscal Year Close Schedules
Employee Corner
SAO Welcomes New Employees To Our Team!!
Streamlined Banking New Employees Elliott Davis Accounting Manager; Consuelo Ravelo Fiscal Operations Accountant Lewanna Tomlinson PR Support Leslie Collins Check Administration/AP
HCM Technology Group New Employees Daniel Merck Database Administrator
Aqeel Tawaalai ERP Developer 2
Statewide Accounting New Employee Rotimi Omotoso Accountant 3
Training and Communications Group New Employee Kimberly Allen-Harris Training and Communications Specialist
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State Accounting Office Newsletter

Want to be in the Know?

SAO Helpdesk and Options

Remember to continue receiving the latest PeopleSoft Financials and HCM updates from the State Accounting Office you need to have a current address on ListServ. If you have moved or changed jobs please revisit the ListServ link on the SAO website listed below, and remove your old address and update to your current address.

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: Financials -AP, AR, AM, GL, PC, Labor, Budget, and PO HCM - Human Resources, HR Budget, Payroll and CSB's Financial Reporting - PeopleSoft Agencies, NonPeopleSoft Agencies, Audits and CPA Audits
Visit the SAO Website and click Financial Systems > Related Links > ListServ and subscribe today!

404-657-3956 or 888-896-7771 Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm Option 1 - Financials Help Desk 1 Financial Accounting (GL, AR, CU, Budgets, AM) 2 Financial Distribution (Vendors, AP, PO) Option 2 - HCM 1 HCM Application Support Option 3 - ID, Password, Security Option 4 - Connectivity, Printing Option 5 - Streamlined Banking Operational Support 1 Streamlined Banking for Payroll 2 Streamlined Banking for Accounts Receivable 3 Streamlined Banking for Accounts Payable 4 Streamlined Banking for Bank Administration 5 Streamlined Banking for Check Reconciliation Option 6 Fleet Management System

Contact Us State Accounting Office 200 Piedmont Avenue Suite 1604, West Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334
PHONE: (404) 656-2133
FAX: (404) 463-5089
E-MAIL: stateaccountingoffice@sao.ga.gov
We're on the Web! See us at:
http://sao.georgia.gov

State Accounting Office of Georgia COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
Toni Kennelly Mario Covington Kimberly Allen-Harris 404-651-2133
sao_communications@sao.ga.gov
http://sao.georgia.gov
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