State Accounting Office newsletter

State Accounting Office Newsletter
Sound Fiscal Leadership for Georgia

Inside This Edition: 1 PeopleSoft Delta Training 2 Year End Fiscal
Worksheet 2 Fleet to DOAS 3 Georgia Nine-0 UAT 4 PeopleSoft v9.0 project
update 5 System Announcements 6 Redesign of the Job
Classification system 6 SAO Communications
Tips and link 7 New Employees 8 Want to be in the know? 8 SAO Helpdesk and
Options
Upcoming Events: Financials 9.0 Upgrade
The Streamlined Banking Deployment Team continues to work on analysis of agency needs while a deployment schedule is being developed.

Issue 7

July 2008

PeopleSoft v8.8 to v9.0 Delta Training

We want to extend a special and 9.0

Please take the time to

Thank You to the over 300 transactions/processes are review the "Delta"

agency members that

minimal.

documents prior to

recently attended the

implementation and keep

delivery of the PeopleSoft The most common changes the link handy for referral

Financials v9.0 Delta

or differences are:

when you begin

training held at the Capitol Certain fields have been processing in the 9.0

Education Center during the moved to new locations PeopleSoft Financials

first two weeks of June.

on the application

environment.

As the presentation

PeopleSoft screen.

emphasized,

If you have any

The names of certain questions, please contact:

"You are integral to the

fields have been changed

success of the upgrade"!

for screens already in Training and

use.

Communications at

The training was delivered

sao_communications@sao.

and scheduled so that users had two days to choose
from for each course. In
addition, a web cast was
available in each of the four

Additional fields have ga.gov or 404-651-2133 been added (in very few instances) to screens already in use.

sessions for those that

A few new tabs have

couldn't attend in person.

been added.

There were very few questions as the training documentation was extremely detailed, thus providing users with a document they could use as a job aide when the upgrade is implemented on

These changes are included in the "Delta" training presentations. To find the presentations, FAQ's, and individual module documents, please use the link below:

September 8, 2008.

Delta Training

The "Deltas" (or changes) between the Financials 8.8
1

Year-End Financial Reports

State Accounting Office Newsletter

The Financial Reporting team is preparing for Year-End. Please note the due dates for Financial Reporting Forms. A communication from Financial Reporting is coming soon regarding changes to the information included on several of the reporting forms to assist you with their completion.

Financial Reporting Forms Due Dates

Analysis of Fund Balance

August 13, 2008

Program/General Revenues

August 20, 2008

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

August 20, 2008

Revenues Based on Encumbrances

August 20, 2008

Capital Assets/Depreciation

September 5, 2008

Capital/Operating Leases (Including Lease

September 12, 2008

Agreement Data)

General Long Term Debt

September 12, 2008

Cash and Investments

September 19, 2008

General and Other Information

September 26, 2008

CPA Reports

September 30, 2008

The Maximo Support team moves to the Department of Administrative Services (DOAS)

The Fleet Management System Currently, the Maximo users Additionally, the support and

(Maximo) application support will continue to contact the

development team will continue

development team was

SAO Help Desk line and select to work with SAO for any

officially transitioned to the Option 6 for Maximo Help

Maximo PeopleSoft Integration

Department of Administrative Desk support until the new

requests as well as participate in

Services (DOAS) as part of the number and ACD can be fully the upcoming PeopleSoft 9.0

Office of Fleet Management transitioned and tested. We are upgrade.

effective July 1, 2008. This anticipating that this will be

group has administratively

completed over the next couple

reported to DOAS since

of weeks and we will have the

November 2007, but budget forwarding number posted on

and HR related activities

the voicemail should any of our

continued through the State customers call the original

Accounting Office (SAO).

support line.

2

State Accounting Office Newsletter
PeopleSoft v9.0 User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

The State Accounting Office (SAO)

Resources (DHR)

has enlisted key representative State Department of Natural

PeopleSoft agencies to assist in the

Resources (DNR)

performance of the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase of the Georgia Nine-O project to upgrade the PeopleSoft Financials to v9.0.

Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ)
Administrative Offices of the Courts of Georgia (GAAOC)

There will be 15 agencies working with SAO and their BearingPoint partners to complete the end-to-end business process testing. We asked our partners in the agencies to review the test scripts, which represent business processes that most agencies perform on a daily, weekly, monthly, and/or yearly basis and provide feedback.

Department of Driver Services (DDS)
Department of Community Health (DCH)
Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL)
Department of Corrections (DCOR)
Technical College System of Georgia (formerly DTAE)
State Accounting Office

These detailed test scripts document the systematic methods used to execute the processes outlined in the testing scenarios, and tells the tester what the expected outcome should be. The agencies were asked to document any additional scenarios

(SAO) Department of Education
(DOE) Department of Revenue
(DOR) Office of Planning and
Budget (OPB)

that they feel should be incorporated

into the testing plan.

Once we have refined our script

documentation, we conduct UAT as a

A Special THANK YOU to our final testing phase before production.

partners:

The purpose of UAT is to ensure that

the upgraded PeopleSoft 9.0

Department of Administrative Services (DOAS)
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Department of Human

application performs as well as or better than the 8.8 PeopleSoft version. UAT also allows Agency users a chance to work within the newly upgraded 9.0 environment, allowing them to feel comfortable that the system will function according to

specifications and designs upon Go-Live. This process helps ensure that the transition is successful for all of our users. At the end of UAT phase, users should walk away with a feeling of assurance that transactions are designed to operate reliably and accurately.
We will use a software package called HP Quality Center to house the scripts, document the testing results, and to track/resolve any issues found.
UAT is scheduled to run from July 15, 2008 through August 14, 2008.
Stay tuned for updates on the UAT in our next edition!

3

State Accounting Office Newsletter

9.0 Financials Upgrade Update

The PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade (Georgia Nine 0) is on track and continuing to make significant progress toward reaching the final milestone of implementing the PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 upgraded application into the production environment. June was a very active and productive month!
The Upgrade Implementation Team held End User Delta Training Sessions at the Capital Education Center June 3rd, 5th, 11th and 12th.
The Functional Team completed System Test (cycle 1) and completed over 85% of System Test (cycle 2) with very few defects being discovered.

The Functional and Technical Teams are making significant progress conducting Batch Testing and Performance Testing. Load Runner scripts were developed to automate the performance testing cycle; this will greatly improve the testing speed, accuracy and efficiency.
The Technical team completed the Test Move to Production 6 (TMTP6), in which they are streamlining the implementation process and tuning the application to optimize performance.

The Implementation Team held a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) FAQ conference call on June 24th. This call gave the UAT participants an opportunity to ask questions relating to UAT.
The Implementation Team is actively planning and prepping for User Acceptance Testing (UAT), which is scheduled for July 15 August 14.

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)
A

TMTP5 (4/22 5/31)
B

TMTP6 (6/17 6/30)

TMTP7 (7/15 7/31)

C

D

TMTP8 (8/8 8/15)
E

Completed In Progress Planned Task

Create Integration, Batch, Security, and

System Test Scripts (2/1 4/13)

3

Performance Testing (5/16 8/18)

Integration/

Interface

Testing

(4/14

4/23)

4

Security Testing (4/28 4/30)

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

Batch Testing (4/22 7/7)

SAO 9.0 U p g r a d e P r ojec t

7

End User Delta Training (6/2 6/13)

8 10

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

UAT (7/158/14)

11
Upgrade Go Live
(59/8)

4

Announcements

State Accounting Office Newsletter

Georgia Nine-0 User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

User Acceptance Testing for the upgrade to PeopleSoft v9.0 on September 8, 2008 will start on Tuesday July 15, 2008 and run through Thursday, August 14, 2008. Sessions will be held daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Extended Hours - PeopleSoft System Availability
The PeopleSoft Financial and Human Capital Management (HCM) systems will be available for extended hours in July from 8am on Saturday, July 12th (or after Friday's batch finishes) until 2pm on Sunday, July 13th.

Normal Hours PeopleSoft System Availability:

Normal Weekdays
Financials
HCM

Normal Saturdays
7:00 a.m. 7:00 p.m. Financials
7:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. HCM

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

Have a Safe and Happy 4th of July Weekend!

5

State Accounting Office Newsletter

Redesign of the Job Classification System

The State Personnel Administration has rolled out a new statewide job classification system effective July 1st. The new system will provide consistency across all agencies and will allow for better comparison with the private sector labor market. Several agencies and subject matter experts have worked to consolidate approximately 3,500 jobs with 17 occupational areas.
The initial change in the new system is updated job titles and descriptions.

The new job descriptions will be based on broader categories of work similar to national job data. These changes took effect on July 1st, and will be reflected on your July 15th paycheck. Please note: your specific assigned job code, salary and pay grade will not change as a result of the new job classification system. In addition, departments may continue to use "working" titles for business reasons if they so choose.

Employees have been allowed access to the new descriptions on the SPA website as of July 1st. Further, you'll receive additional communication next week, which will provide you with a link to the site. In the meantime, you may also find additional background information on the redesign on the SPA website http://www.spa.ga.gov/employee s/employeeJobDescriptions.asp .

SAO Communications Troubleshooting and Tips

This section is dedicated to

We need your assistance to

keeping our readers updated on continue cleaning up the data in

all State Accounting

"Pending" status within

communications that contain

PeopleSoft Asset Management

useful tips for our users. We will module. Can we count on you?

provide a link that will direct you

to our website just in case you

missed any of the

Were you looking for the July

Communications sent from the through September 2008 Payroll

FS Communications mailbox. Processing Calendars?

Did you know that the Personal Services Projection-SHBP Employer Rate has been decreased?

Did you need to learn more about the Copy-Up Process that will insert a future dated row of 7/1/08 for Fiscal Year 2009 in the Departmental Budget Table?

The PeopleSoft PO Reconciliation Workbench process has been updated. There is new navigation to allow it to run in a reasonable amount of time. Do you know where to find it?
The Amend Identifier field used to track Annual Operating Budgets, Amendments, Allotments and Internal Revisions in PeopleSoft now have their own unique identifier. Would you like to learn more?

The answers to all of these questions can be found in the following location on our website. Click each Communication title to access the information.
Communications

6

Employee Corner

State Accounting Office Newsletter

SAO Welcomes New Employees To Our Team!!
HCM Business Strategy Team New Employee Vernica ( Nikki) L. Williams ERP Business Solutions Consultant
Financial Reporting New Employee Harriman Clemons Accounting Manager 1 Melesse Siratu Accounting Manager 1
Statewide Accounting New Employee Mary Hogan Accountant 3

7

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 e-lists (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, Labor, Budget, and PO HCM - Human Resources, HR Budget, Payroll and CSB's Financial Reporting - PeopleSoft Agencies, Non-PeopleSoft Agencies, Audits and CPA Audits
Visit the Listserv Sign up Page 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

8

9

- 9 -

State Accounting Office Newsletter

Thanks to everyone for taking the SAO Customer Service Survey! We appreciate your cooperation and support in our mission to
provide you with outstanding Customer Service! Look for the results in the next newsletter!

Contact Us
200 Piedmont Avenue Suite 1604, West Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334
PHONE: (404) 656-2133
FAX: (404) 463-5089
E-MAIL: stateaccountingoffice@sao.ga.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
Thank you for reading our SAO Newsletter. We want to know what you think about us. Please share your feedback by clicking
on the link below.
Customer Service Survey

9