May 2010

www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept

wfs.blogs.wesleyan.edu

Important Reminders
1. Year End –
2. Deposit Activity in WFS
3. Wes Station Chargebacks not in April Month End numbers
4. Accounting for Alcohol Purchases
5. Benefit Rate
6. Budget Planning

7. WFS Tips and Tricks – Finding Outstanding Documents

8. WFS Interfaces and Journal Prefixes

Other News
9. Foreign Payments – Reimbursements to Foreign Students
10. Accounts Payable – Memorial Day Deadlines
11. Purchasing Card – Expiring Cards
12. Who to Contact?

1. YEAR END
We plan to host an open Finance meeting in May to discuss any year end topics and questions you might have.  Stay tuned for scheduling information.  You can find the presentation from the previously held year end meetings and other year end information on the WFS Blog, the Finance Website or by clicking here

The following items are things you can begin thinking about now:

  • Budget Status – Request that any old PO’s, vouchers and/or journals be closed or deleted.
  • Necessary expenditures through June
  • Travel Expense Reports
  • Prepaid Expenses
  • Workflow backlog – All documents will need to by processed by year end.

2. WFS DEPOSIT ACTIVITY
We have noticed, and are working quickly to correct, some duplication of deposits in the WFS system.  We believe that we have identified where this has occurred and will be putting through a journal to reverse the duplicate.  You will know if this affects your smartkey as the Document ID in the Transaction Detail will say “MISSING”.

3.  WES STATION CHARGEBACKS NOT IN APRIL MONTH END
Due to the implementation of new software, Wes Station postage chargebacks for April have not yet been processed.  We will update this post as new information becomes available.

4. ACCOUNTING FOR ALCOHOL PURCHASED
Reminder that any alcohol purchased with University funds must be separately accounted for using account 84535.  This includes alcohol for events and in conjunction for travel regardless of what type of Smartkey it is charged to.  If alcohol is purchased with a PCard you will need to reallocate to 84535.

5. BENEFIT RATE
The budgeted full benefit rate for 2010/11 will be 32.4%, with the breakdown as follows:

18.1% Medical, dental and other
6.65% Pension
7.65% FICA

The 32.4% benefit rate represents a 1.3% increase from this current year’s benefit rate of 31.1% due to the increase in medical, dental and other.  The percentages for pension and FICA will remain unchanged from the current year. 

Operating, gift and endowed accounts will be charged the percentages above.  Grant and agency accounts will be charged actual medical, dental and other charges rather than the budgeted percentage for medical, dental and other.

Please note that the percentages above represent budgeted amounts only.  Actual amounts paid for pension will vary based on eligibility and participation in the retirement matching program and actual amounts paid for FICA will vary based on salary.  Any variances between budgeted rates and actual rates will be managed centrally.  

6.  BUDGET PLANNING
A third budget planning training session has been added for designated budget planners who could not attend the first two training sessions.  The training will take place on Thursday, May 6 from 2–3 pm in Usdan 108.  If you did not receive an email invitation to the training session, please check with Financial Planning at financialplanning@wesleyan.edu to confirm that you are a designated budget planner.

Training materials have been posted on the website: http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/budget/training.html.  Click “Budget Planning Training.”  For budget planning transactions that cannot be entered using the Budget Planning Smartdoc, please use the “Offline Budget Planning Form,” which is now available in your EPortfolio under “Forms.”  The completed form should be emailed to your fiscal manager.  Academic Affairs departments should email the completed forms directly to financialplanning @wesleyan.edu

**The deadline for the budget planning process has been extended from 6 weeks to 9 weeks to accommodate end users.  The new deadline is now June 25.  Departments are encouraged to email financialplanning@wesleyan.edu to schedule a one-on-one session for additional assistance, if needed.  **

7. WFS TIPS AND TRICKS – Finding Outstanding Documents
It is very important that all Smart Docs be fully processed by year end.  This means that all documents pending approval must be fully approved, denied or deleted.  In addition, any documents that have been denied should either be resolved for whatever caused the denial or requested to delete.

You can find open documents by using the attached instructions, which are also found on the WFS Blog.

8. WFS Interfaces and Journal Prefixes
The Wesleyan Financial System has various interfaces that create automated journal entries for transactions.  These journals are processed through an automated job and are differentiated from Smart Doc journals by a different prefix at the beginning of the journal ID.  The following is a list of some of the prefixes, and their meanings, that you will see and the appropriate department to contact for questions:

FDX – Federal Express Charges (WES STATION)
GMFA – Grants F & A (GRANTS OFFICE)
INF – Infinet (VARIOUS)
MIL – Millenium (UNIVERSITY RELATIONS)
PAY – Payroll
PCH – Posim/Chemistry
PIT – Posim/ITS
PSS – Posim/Scientific Support Services
TRN -ITS Training
WST – Wes Station

9.  FOREIGN PAYMENTS – Reimbursements to Foreign Students
Please see this month’s version of the Navigate newsletter for reminders regarding Reimbursements to Foreign Students.

10.  ACCOUNTS PAYABLE – Memorial Day Deadlines
On Monday May 31st, the University will observe the Memorial Day Holiday.

All Accounts Payable Vouchers that must be processed for Friday, June 4th, must be received in the Accounts Payable Inbox no later than Friday, May 28th, at 4:00pm.

Wesleyan’s net 30 payment terms determines when a payment is made. This is 30 days from the invoice date that you put in the voucher.  If a payment needs to be made prior to the 30 days, please follow these instructions when completing a voucher.

 In the Instruction for AP field type DD (For Due Date) followed by the six digit date that the check is needed by. 

**Important-Please make sure that this is typed before any other information in this field since our AP inbox only picks up the first 15 characters of this field.

 Please keep in mind that Wesleyan’s payment terms (Net 30 days) determines when a payment is made.

 Thank you in advance for your cooperation in adhering to our processing schedule. Please contact Tamara Harley at extension #2843 or Janet Gyurits at extension #2842 with any questions.

11. PURCHASING CARD 

Expiring JPMorgan PCards:  Distribution of new PCards will begin in May.  The Finance Office will contact all cardholders/departments with a distribution schedule.          

IMPORTANT PCARD REMINDERS:

  • Accessing you PCard Voucher in WFS – to access your PCard voucher, search on Invoice ID by entering cardholder’s email username.  Note, if you did not have activity during the billing cycle, no voucher is created in WFS and no submission is required.
  • Credit Limit – credit limits refresh at midnight on the 20th of each month.  If the 20th falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, credit limit refreshes at midnight of the previous business day.
  • Business Purpose Requirement – all PCard charges require a description of business purpose.
  • Receipt Requirement – all PCard charges require an itemized receipt, unless otherwise indicated by the University’s Travel and Other Expense Policy.  For audit purposes, if missing a receipt, please indicate “NR” in the description field of your PCard voucher and provide a detailed business description for the charge.  Per PCard policy, “Any charge not supported by a receipt is subject to personal reimbursement by the cardholder.  Consistent missing receipts will result in the suspension of cardholder privileges or permanent cancellation of the card.”
  • Cash Advances – if available, cardholders should use the cash advance feature on their card for minimal out of pocket travel expenses.  Travelers must include an itemized summary of expenses, including supporting documentation, for the full amount of all cash advances taken.  Any unused funds must be deposited back to the cardholder’s default SmartKey/Account 82450.
  • No Splitting transactions – splitting transactions to avoid the single transaction limit is prohibited per Pcard Policy.  Email pcard@wesleyan.edu to request changes in your monthly and/or single transaction limit.  CC your credit card supervisor and Fiscal Manager.  Permanent credit limit increases require an active email request from your Fiscal Manager.

Please note the following PCard dates:

 Billing Month     Voucher Available           Voucher Due

April                     4/26/10 (revised)                5/20/10
May                      5/24/10                               6/20/10

All Pcard vouchers are due 30 days after each billing period end date.  All April vouchers should be reconciled and submitted by May 20th.

Contact pcard@wesleyan.edu with any questions. 

For immediate assistance with your JPMorgan Purchasing Card, call the 24 hour Customer Service number on the back of your card (800)316-6056 or (847)488-3748 outside the U.S.

12. WHO TO CONTACT
Please save these sites as favorites for quick answers to questions you might have.
Finance Office Website http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/
Finance Monthly Blog http://financemonthly.blogs.wesleyn.edu
New Financial System Blog http://wfs.blogs.wesleyan.edu/
Contact Information http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/misc/contactInformation/

Email Addresses:
General Finance finance@wesleyan.edu
WFS Help wfshelp@wesleyan.edu
PCard pcard@wesleyan.edu
Accounts Payable ap@wesleyan.edu
Purchasing obookas@wesleyan.edu

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. Items for inclusion are due five business days before the end of each month and can be submitted to finance@wesleyan.edu