1. Year End
2. Benefit Rate
3. Local Travel
4. Purchasing News – WB Mason Swap and Save
5. WB Mason Charges
6. Expiring PCards
7. Summer Student Employment
8. Wesleyan’s Technology Policy for Faculty
9. Checklist for Payments to Foreign Individuals
1.YEAR END
It is not too early to begin thinking about year end. The year end schedule will be distributed and posted on the Finance website this month and we will be hosting Year End Seminars in May and June. Stay tuned for additional information. 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.
•Prepaid Expenses – If you have a voucher that pertains to the next fiscal year, please ad hoc Susan Pavis into Workflow after AP.
•Travel Expense Reports – get them in as soon as possible for completed trips.
•Necessary expenditures through June – be sure you are not headed over budget.
•Workflow backlog – All documents will need to by processed by year end.
2. BENEFIT RATE
The budgeted full benefit rate for 2012/13 will be 36.3%, with the breakdown as follows:
21.3% Medical, dental and other
7.35% Pension
7.65% FICA
The 36.3% benefit rate represents a .9% increase from this current year’s benefit rate of 35.4% due to the increase in medical, dental and other benefits. The percentage 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.
3. LOCAL TRAVEL
On occasion, employees may be asked to conduct university business away from campus. A number of different responsibilities can take us away from our offices ranging from the very critical to the relatively minor. In those instances when employees do leave campus there are a few things to keep in mind. Many trips involve the purchase of supplies or materials for our daily work or special events that we find at competitive prices or that may be unavailable on campus. When comparing prices keep in mind that your own valuable time and effort should be factored in as well. We encourage you to use campus resources when available, even if marginally more expensive, in order to maximize your time.
Local trips less than 5 miles per day are not reimbursed. Also, when you use your personally owned vehicle on university business, please be aware that Wesleyan’s commercial automobile policy does not provide collision or comprehensive coverage when an employee’s vehicle is used for business travel. The vehicle owner’s policy will provide the only coverage for these types of claims; Wesleyan will not reimburse for these losses (see Wesleyan’s Travel and Expense Policy at www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/accounts/travel_and_other_exp_policy.htt). For that reason, you may instead prefer to use a rented vehicle through Enterprise, Wesleyan’s preferred vendor, or through Zipcar when leaving campus on university business.
4. PURCHASING NEWS – WB MASON ORDER TRAINING
On Thursday, April 26, 2012 WB Mason will be offering training sessions at the Usdan Center Room 108. The purpose of this training is to share with you a new program called Swap and $ave. When placing an order, this new program will let you know if there is a less expensive item available compared to the one you ordered.
Example: End user orders 10 of 3” blue binders. If there is a product with the same fit, form and function with a lower cost you will be alerted, at which time you can change the product if you would like before you check out. WB Mason will also provide training on searching for items and give a brief overview of the system for new staff members. WB Mason is interested in your feedback of this new program.
Attached is the information about the times for the three sessions available. If you know of anyone else who places orders, please pass this along. Purchasing and WB Mason hope to see you there.
5. WB MASON CHARGES
WBMason has identified the duplicate transactions that were paid by both the monthly electronic file and the pcard process. These transactions will be corrected with the March monthly electronic file that will be provoded to the University mid April.
Thank you for your patience while waiting for the credit to be posted to your smartkey/account.
6. EXPIRING PCARDS
Cardholders with JPMorgan PCards due to expire on 05/2012 will be contacted at the end of April 2012 to receive a new PCard. Current PCards are active until the end of the expiration month. If you will not be in campus to receive your new card during this time, please contact pcard@wesleyan.edu.
7. STUDENT SUMMER EMPLOYMENT
Wesleyan will again coordinate a summer employment program for Wesleyan students. The funds available for the summer program are limited; therefore, the number of students employed in the program is limited. Preference will be given to students who are working toward meeting their expected student contribution from summer earnings (this does not necessarily need to be with one department) and will be evenly distributed among qualified departments. Given the increasing number of applications for summer employment eligibility, we anticipate that not all students will be approved for the summer earnings wage-split.
The summer employment program period will be for May 21st to September 2th.
Please keep in mind the attached guidelines for the summer employment program as you plan your needs for the summer.
8. WESLEYAN’S TECHNOLOGY POLICY FOR FACULTY
Please review this policy using the following link.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/its/facultystaff/faculty_technology_policy.html
9. CHECKLIST FOR PAYMENTS TO FOREIGN INDIVIDUALS
Please remember to consult the following when paying a foreign individual www.wesleyan.edu/finance/financeDept/foreignTax/NRA_Visitor_Payment_Checklist.pdf
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