March 2011

www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept

wfs.blogs.wesleyan.edu

1. Monthly Reports
2. Payments to Individuals for Services
3. Gift Card Reminders
4. Budget Transfers
5, Vendors on Hold – Updated panel to include Operator ID

1.MONTHLY REPORTS
The Finance Office  utilizes the last business day of the month and the first couple business days of the following month to ensure that monthly transactions have posted and rectify any journals in error or missing interface transactions.  Examples include payroll charges, gift interfaces and various chargebacks.  Going forward, the distribution of the newsletter will be an indication that budget vs. actual reports for that month can be run and be reasonably accurate for the month.  If anything is missing we will try to provide specifics in the newsletter. 

If you ran a budget vs. actual report for February prior to today it is important to note that it would not reflect February month end payroll.  Therefore, you should rerun that report today for the most accurate information.   In addition, February ITS Store Charges will not be reflected in Inquiry until Monday, March 7. 

If you are a chargeback center, please be sure that all of your activity is charged to departments each month or email Valerie Nye at vnye@wesleyan.edu if it has not been done so that it can be included in the newsletter.

2.  PAYMENTS TO INDIVIDUALS FOR SERVICES 
Payments to employees and students for services performed are always paid through payroll except in rare circumstances. 
 
In addition, employees and students (third party payers) are not allowed to pay for services and then seek reimbursement. Wesleyan is required to report payments for services to the Internal Revenue Service, thus, these types of payments must be paid directly to the individual or company by Wesleyan.

Please be sure to review any payments to individuals carefully to determine the nature of the payment and how to process.  Additional guidance and policies can be found at  http://www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/accounts/indPayPolicy.html

 3. GIFT CARDS
Gift certificates and gift cards in any amount given by Wesleyan as an employer for any reason are considered cash equivalents for IRS purposes so the value of the gift certificate is taxable.  We strongly recommend that this form of reward is not followed but if a gift certificate is given to an employee (including students), the supervisor should advise Payroll (payroll@wesleyan.ed) so that it will be included in taxable income.

   4. OPERATING BUDGET TRANSFERS IN WFS
The deadline for original operating budget transfers is March 31.  It is important that we freeze the 2011 original budgets in preparation for 2012 budget planning and implementation.  Adjustment budget transfers will still be allowed in the last quarter of the fiscal year, but we generally anticipate very little budget transfer activity from this point forward.  As a reminder, operating budget transfer training materials can be found on the WFS Blog at http://wfs.blogs.wesleyan.edu/   Offline budget transfer requests must be submitted to fiscal managers and financialplanning@wesleyan.edu for approval.      If you have any questions, please email financialplanning@wesleyan.edu.

5. VENDORS ON HOLD – Operator ID now available
Due to popular demand, the WFS technical team has added Operator ID to the Vendor on Hold search panel.  This allows you to filter the results based on the new vendors that you requested.  To filter results, place your operator id in CAPITAL LETTERS (e.g. VNYE, NPETERS, SCONDON, etc.) in the “Originating OprID” search field.

Again, vendors may be put on hold by the Finance Office for different reasons but primarily waiting for a W-9 or W-8BEN form.  If you have payment questions and want to see if a Vendor has been put on hold, navigate to  Vendors>Vendor Information>Add/Update>Vendor and “Find an Existing Value” in WFS and change “Hold Payment Status” to Yes.  The system will return a list of vendors whose payments are being held for additional information.   If you still have payment questions don’t hesitate to contact the Accounts Payable Staff (Tamara Harley x2843, Janet Gyurits x2812, Lynne Gambell x3802).

SUBMISSIONS FOR FINANCE MONTHLYWhat 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