September 2008

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www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept

Important Reminders
1. CT Minimum Wage Increase
2. Vacancy Savings
3. Chronicle of Higher Education Subscriptions
4. Earnings Redistribution Request Web Form
5. Finance Meeting

New Financial System
6. WFS – Chart of Accounts

Other News
7. Accounts Payable –Limited Staff Sept. 8-12
8. Purchasing Card
9. Student Activies Fair
10. Month End Reports – Eprint reports
11. Who to Contact?

1. CT MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE
The Connecticut state minimum wage will increase by $.35 from $7.65 to $8.00 on January 1, 2009.  The recommended pay rates are here.  Similar to previous increases, we do not plan to provide additional budget for this change.

2.  VACANCY SAVINGS
Staff salary and benefit savings from vacant positions are now centralized and departments will need to request the use of the funds from Human Resources. 

 
3. CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION SUBSCRIPTIONS
The Library has acquired campus wide access to the online edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) http://ezproxy.wesleyan.edu:7790/login?url=http://chronicle.com/. Online access starts with 1995 through the most current issue. http://chronicle.com/search/guide/.

To save money, offices and individuals across campus who have their own subscription to CHE may want to consider using this site license instead.  Since there are some differences between the paper version and the online version, please take this opportunity to compare/contrast.  For example, although there is more information available through the online version (e.g. blogs, podcats, videos), the online version may not contain all the photos available in the paper format version due to copyright restrictions.

Since the access is available to the entire University network, you can gain access to the articles if you are off-campus, provided you log onto the University network.

Finally, the terms of the agreement with CHE grants each Wesleyan member a variety of benefits of which you may wish to avail yourself.  For example, a daily e-mailed edition of Academe Today, The Chronicle’s Daily Report, can be sent directly to your e-mail account.  For a summary of CHE features, please visit CHE’s site map at

If you have any questions about access to CHE or need assistance in using some of the personal access benefits, please call Helen Aiello (x3828)

4. EARNINGS REDISTRIBUTION REQUEST WEB FORM
A new web form, the “Earnings Redistribution Request Form,” is now available through your employee portfolio. This form should be used to request a redistribution of earnings that have posted to the financial system, either to correct position information or accounting information tied to the earnings.  This form will replace the “Personnel Compensation Redistribution Request Form.” 

This new form will provide many benefits including improved communication, built-in workflow and approvals, and automated transactions.  Once a request has been successfully submitted, the user will receive an email confirmation of the submission.  On the back-end, the form will be routed to the correct department (Grant and/or Financial Planning Office) to obtain the necessary approvals.  Once approved, the redistribution will be processed automatically and the user will receive notification.

Please note that all earnings redistribution requests must be submitted within 90 days of the original pay end date.

Click here for a detailed explanation of the form. If you have any questions about using this form please contact Chris Andrews at candrews01@wesleyan.edu or x3153.

5. FINANCE MEETING
The Finance Office will host an open meeting on Monday, September 15 from 11:00 – 12:00 in Usdan 108.  The agenda will be announced soon.

6. NEW WESLEYAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM (WFS)
The proposed WFS chart of accounts was discussed at two open Finance meetings in August.   A chart of accounts is the core functionality of a financial system and is the first step to this implementation.   Based on the discussion and feedback provided during this process, the Chart of Accounts structure in the presentation materials will be used with one modification to the Fund chartfield.  

The Fund chartfield will be a numeric value, rather than an alpha character as previously presented.  This will facilitate faster data entry.  An example of what this might look like is:

100 – Operating Budget Funds
500 – Grant Funds
600 – Gift and Endowment Funds
700 – Capital Funds

Thank you for all of your participation and feedback.  Over the next few months the project team will be developing a crosswalk of FRS accounts to the new WFS structure.  Now would be a good time to think about your current use of FRS accounts and make any changes before moving them over the new WFS structure.   

7. ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
The Accounts Payable department will be at off campus training September 8 through September 12. There will be very limited staff for processing & questions during this time.

To ensure payment for the September 12th Accounts Payable check run, please forward all vouchers as soon as invoices or receipts are received. A special deadline of Wednesday, September 3rd at 12:00 noon has been set for the September 12th run.

Please contact Lynne Gambell for urgent requests. 

Checks will still be cut on the regular schedule.

Note-Checks marked hold for pick up that week will only be available for pick up from Lynne Gambell on Friday the 12th  from 8:00am to 1:00pm.

Normally, vouchers received by 4pm on Thursdays will be processed for payment in the following week’s Friday check run.

For accounts payable questions please contact Tammy Harley at x2843 or Janet Gyurits at x2842 or email ap@wesleyan.edu

8.  PURCHASING CARD

The download of August PCard activity to the financial system will be done on September 4.  Therefore, the August activity is not reflected in the August month end reports.  We apologize for the inconvenience.

Cardholders are required to submit receipts and document a business purpose for all transactions or group of transactions within 21 working days after the close of each billing cycle. Users are not required to provide a receipt for travel and entertainment charges less than $20.  Other PCard benefits and procedures can be found in the Purchasing Card Program Policy .

Cash Advance Option – If you have a cash advance option on your card there are PCard cash advance procedures that must be followed to create a PIN and access the cash advance.

Tami Sabo (x2958), is the P Card Program Administrator. Questions can also be addressed to the general P Card email pcard@wesleyan.edu

9. STUDENT ACTIVITIES FAIR
The 17th Annual Student Activities Fair will take place on Friday, September 19, 2008 from 2-6 pm in the Spurrier-Snyder Hockey Rink located in the Freeman Athletic Center.  This event allows students, faculty and staff an opportunity to share information about their club, association, or department. This is one of the largest events that attracts the student body and will allow the opportunity to recruit individuals, get free publicity or simply discuss your services or activities. In order to reserve a table or space, go to the WSA website (www.wesleyan.edu/wsa), select “Resources”, select “Forms” and complete the Student Activities Fair reservation form.

WSA will provide the tables, chairs, poster board, snacks and vendors. All you have to do is make a sign for your table, bring any materials you have about your organization and people to staff your table. Due to the large number of groups participating last year, we may ask that you share a table with another group or department. The event is sponsored by WSA.  Please contact Lisa Hendrix at x2410 for questions.  

10. MONTH END REPORTS – Eprint Reports
The August month end jobs have successfully run and the reports are currently available on Eprint. Users can access Eprint through the Administrative Applications area in their employee portfolio and by using their FRS operator number as the UserID and FRS Password as the Eprint password.

11. WHO TO CONTACT

Please save this site as a favorite for quick answers to questions you might have.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/

General Finance finance@wesleyan.edu.
PCard pcard@wesleyan.edu
Accounts Payable ap@wesleyan.edu
Purchasing obookas@wesleyan.edu
Other http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/misc/contactInformation/

SUBMISSIONS FOR FINANCE MONTHLY
What topics would you like to see included in this monthly communication? Do you have a system tip you’d like to share? Finance Monthly will be e-mailed on a monthly basis, corresponding with the availability of month end financial reports. Items for inclusion are due five business days before the end of each month and can be submitted to finance@wesleyan.edu