Fiscal Year-End Close Update

Business and Financial Services (BFS) aims to close Period 13 for June 2024 this week. Following the closure of June, the July period is projected to close approximately two weeks later. Similarly, August is anticipated to close about two weeks after July's closure. These upcoming closings mark an important milestone in completing our fiscal year-end tasks, helping departments stay on top of their financial management and reporting. 

What's New in Looker - Finance? 

New!  Finance Report Enhancements
Exciting improvements to procure-to-pay reports are on the way in the next few days: 

• 'Department Requester Name' will be added as an optional search field in the 'Prospective Supplier/Payee Status Summary Report,' allowing departments to efficiently search for all prospective supplier requests made by specific Requesters.

Boundary System Stabilization Continues

Significant strides are being made toward stabilization across several boundary systems: 

• Payroll Certification System development updates have been shared with the Extramural Funds (EMF) team, and testing has resumed as of mid-September to ensure the system is ready for campus users and aligns with compliance and reporting standards.
  
  
• Major issues with the Non-Salary Cost Transfer (NCT) tool have been resolved, with only a few outstanding items left to address.
  
  
• Web Recharge is making progress in three key areas:
  1. A "new service provider" request form is in final testing.
  2. A "service provider update" request form is in development.
  3. Template Billing will start testing more broadly now that additional functionality has been added to allow for splitting revenues by dollar amounts, not just percentage.

SAA Reminder: Role Assignments for Financial Applications

Recent assessments have identified two persistent challenges related to role assignments. First, BFS is receiving requests for role assignments that should be managed by a department System Access Administrator (SAA). Second, new hires' inquiries are covered in the training materials, especially for the procurement Department Requester and Transactor roles. It is important to remember that departmental SAAs are tasked with granting access to financial applications and reports, a function BFS cannot perform, and that staff needs to complete the required finance training before role assignment.

Website Transition In Progress

The content from the Impact23 website is transitioning to bfs.ucr.edu to improve your experience. As the Impact23 project wraps up, Business and Financial Services content is being refreshed to align with the updated financial systems, processes, and reports. Certain pages from the Impact23 site will now redirect to the BFS site to prevent duplication. The Impact23 website will undergo minimal updates as we shift our focus back to standard business operations.

Stay Informed with the Known Issues Tracker 

As we navigate the first fiscal close in new systems, please review the Known Issues Tracker for the latest information on issues affecting financial processes and reports.