Technical upgrade, January 2018
Users are reminded that FMS will be unavailable from 23 December to 3 January, to allow an upgrade to take place.
This is largely a technical upgrade, introducing additional servers to improve security and performance, and moving to the latest version of the software to ensure compatibility with Windows 10, current versions of browsers and the forthcoming replacement for the pFACT research costing tool.
The upgrade will not result in any significant changes to FMS functionality, but will provide a foundation on which a number of enhancements can be delivered in 2018.
December 2017
Report on Outstanding Workflow Tasks (Standard Dept Reports/Workflow Tasks Outstanding)
Reminder to relevant staff that a report on Outstanding Workflow Tasks is available. This is generally available to department administrators and can be used to check whether tasks within the cost centres they have access to are being progressed.
Process when staff leave who have tasks outstanding
Alert to the Systems Team each week regarding any leavers. The Systems Team checks if leavers have any tasks and reallocates to substitute (if there is one) or will contact the department to advise (for example, will contact the sub-project manager relating to task outstanding). In addition, an alert is sent to Cost Centre managers when approvers leave as noted in the Update from February 2016 below.
Change to Access to Accounts - Account 5100 no longer available for data entry
- For entries relating to salary costs, the relevant X5001 or X5005 code should be used in order to preserve the detailed level information within the correct accounts. Any entries to X5001 or X5005 will automatically generate entries to 5100 and X5999 which can then be viewed in relevant reports
New linked report from Pcard report (Your reports/Purchase Enquiries/Pcard Report)
- Provides more details re Purchase Card transactions
New report List of sub-projects where I am SPM (Your reports/General Information/List of sub-projects where I am SPM)
- Provides a list of sub-projects per sub-project manager
- New report for relevant staff on how to Find users RESNO (Staff Cost Reports/ Find users RESNO)
- Allows relevant staff with access to the Staff Cost Reports folder to identify the RESNO of staff from the staff name. This can then be used to quickly search on GL transactions etc. using the other reports in the folder
New report for relevant staff on Research sub-projects (Standard Dept Reports/ Research Subprojects (incl completion date)
- Allows relevant staff with access to the Standard Dept Reports folder to identify easily the completion date for Research sub-projects (Including Research Studentships)
- Change to report Purchase order enquiry (Your reports/Purchase Enquiries/Purchase Order Enquiry).
- A new field was added regarding the Last Invoice date paid. This will allow the user to check when the last invoice relating to a Purchase Order was paid
Update to FAQ section for Invoices
How to check if an invoice has been paid
To check whether an invoice has been paid, access the Purchase Order Enquiry report (Your reports/Purchase Enquiries/Purchase Order Enquiry) and enter the relevant PO, and select search. Scroll along to the field Last Invoice date paid.
If this is not populated the invoice has not yet been paid. If there is no date but there is an amount in the column Net Invoiced Amount the invoice has been posted to the system but not yet paid. Payment will normally take place within 30 days of the invoice being posted to the system. If there is no amount in the Net Invoiced Amount
Check the relevant columns:
- Last Invoice date paid - reflects the date the latest invoice relating to the purchase order was paid. If this is not populated the invoice has not yet been paid. If there is more than one invoice further detail can be obtained by selecting the linked report Payment enquiry - Invoices (at the far right of the screen)
- Net Invoiced Amount - If there is no date but there is an amount in the column Net Invoiced Amount the invoice has been posted to the system but not yet paid. Payment will normally take place within 30 days of the invoice being posted to the system
- Net Invoice Amount in workflow - If there is an amount in this column the invoice has been received but not yet approved
- Delivery date - if this is not populated the goods have not been receipted
Update to FAQ section for Journals
Reminder of how to delete a journal
- if a termination is required please contact the Systems Administrator: financial-systems@strath.ac.uk Include 'Delete Journal' and the Trans No in the e-mail header
- once a journal has been posted it is not possible to change it - if the journal is not correct, a correcting journal should be raised (for example, to reverse the journal posted in error)
Update to FAQ section for Budget Transfers/Virements
Reminder of how to delete a budget transfer/virement
- the approver must reject the virement (follow the steps in the Journal and Budget Transfer Approval guidance (pdf) (SharePoint login required) on page 9).
- this will send a task to the Systems Administrator who will then complete the rejection/deletion.
- once a virement has been posted it is not possible to change it - if the virement is not correct a correcting virement should be raised (for example, to reverse the virement posted in error).
Reminder of how to attach backup for a Budget Transfer
- same as guidance for journals - note Document Type will default as Virements Backup
Update to FAQ section for Sales Orders
- we are currently working on some FAQs for sales orders which will be added to the Hub next week
15 February 2016
Purchase Cards
Purchase Card functionality is now fully live on FMS, with all historical data uploaded, and ongoing weekly uploads about to commence.
Many of you attended the initial training sessions. We can see that a number of users across the University are now checking and approving transactions. We will advise of further PCard training sessions shortly for those of you who could not attend the initial sessions.
Reports
In response to feedback, we have enhanced a number of FMS reports:
- Expenses Enquiry (within Your Reports). You can now check whether your Expenses have been paid using the new link within this report. Note that this report has been moved to a new ‘Expenses’ subfolder within ‘Your Reports’
- Expenses Enquiry - All (within Standard Dept Reports). A link has also been added to this report to allow you to check whether an Expense Claim has been paid within any Sub Projects to which you have access
- Budget Statements (All versions). Amended so that ‘Awaiting Approval’ and ‘Approved Amount’ are only displayed where there is an amount remaining, which we hope will simplify and improve the performance of the report
- Purchase Order Enquiry. Includes a link to check whether an invoice has been paid against the order. A guidance note on using the report is available on the FMS Training Portal Purchasing page. To remove confusion where multiple GRNs relate to a single order, the GRN details have also been removed from the Purchase Order Enquiry. A separate GRN/Invoice enquiry has been created (see below)
- GRN/Invoice enquiry. This new enquiry allows you to identify the GRN(s) relating to a Purchase Order, or the PO relating to a GRN
- A number of reports now include the ‘Posted Date’ (the date the transaction was recorded within FMS) as well as the ‘Transaction Date’ (the date the transaction took place, which might, for example, be the invoice date)
- A number of reports have been created to allow departments to enquire on user access permissions. The reports are listed on the Access - Reports section of the Knowledge Hub, along with guidance on how to use them
- A number of reports are available to provide general information, such as lists of account codes, budget accounts and products. These can be found within Your Reports / General Information
We have updated the FMS Reports web page to link to a list of the reports currently available within the FMS 'Reports' folder. This list outlines the purpose of each report, who can access the reports and the information contained in each report. The list will be added to and amended as we release additional reports and respond to requests for changes to existing reports.
We have also added a note on how Salary Costs are reported within FMS to the FMS Training Portal Managing Sub Projects page (SharePoint log in required).
We will continue to work on further reporting enhancements, with the following due for release shortly:
- a ‘sundry supplier’ invoice enquiry, for invoices from suppliers who are not on the FMS supplier Masterfile
- a non-staff expenses enquiry
- a supplier invoice enquiry for those invoices where a purchase order is not appropriate.
New customers
Requesters will now receive an email notification when a new customer has been approved.
Goods receiving
We are finalising some additional and refreshed documentation around the goods receiving process, which we appreciate has proved challenging in certain areas and for certain types of transaction. We will support the additional guidance with a number of training sessions, which will provide the opportunity for users to discuss any goods receiving queries face to face.
Alerts to Cost Centre Managers when Approvers leave
We will shortly be releasing new alerts to Cost Centre managers to identify when someone in an approval role (for example, a Sub Project Manager, Project Manager or Supervisor) leaves the University. These alerts will highlight to Cost Centre managers that action needs to be taken to arrange for a replacement to be set up, in order to ensure transactions do not workflow to a user account that is no longer in use. The relevant Faculty / PS Accountant will contact Cost Centre Managers regarding any staff who have already left and where a replacement has not yet been identified. Please note that if someone in an approval role is due to leave, you should notify Financial Systems of a replacement in advance. Where replacements are not known in advance, please ensure the leaver activates a substitute, so that any tasks are redirected until a replacement is identified.
3rd February 2016
Changes to the Purchase Order Enquiry:
- Link has been added, allowing you to check if an invoice has been paid. See the 'Quick Guide -Purchase Order Enquiry' at the FMS Training Page on Suppliers and Purchases
- GRN details have been removed from the Purchase Order Enquiry and a separate GRN/Invoice Enquiry provided
Other New Reports:
- Expenses Enquiry (Under 'Your Reports / Expenses' in the menu). Allows you to check if your own Expenses have been paid
- Expenses Enquiry - All ( Under 'Standard Reports' in the menu) – Allows you to check if Expenses has been paid against accounts you have access to
- all versions of the Budget Statements - the Awaiting Approval and Approved Amount columns now only show where the remaining amount is not zero. (In previous versions the statements had included transactions where the remaining amount was zero (i.e. no longer Awaiting Approval) to allow users to identify the PO that a GRN related to. However, the separate GRN/Invoice enquiry is a better way of providing this information
Access & Roles
A range of reports, together with guidance on how to use them, have been released. These can be found at the Access - Reports section of the Knowledge Hub.
Request for New Customers
Requesters will now receive an email notification when a new customer has been approved.