The Controller’s Office Announces the Retirement of John Downing

Posted February 3, 2014 in Accounts Payable, Controller, Financial Services.

The Controller’s Office would like to invite you to the retirement celebration of John Downing

Join us:
February 18, 2014 – 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
In the FS Training Room
404 Park Building

John Downing has served the University for 25 years primarily in Payables, through the PeopleSoft implementation and many upgrades, $1 billion plus in annual payments and over 400,000 transactions per year, ensuring a smooth operation. John has decided to pursue the next phase of his life, announcing his well-deserved retirement, to begin February 19th.

This is the official invitation for all those who wish to celebrate with John and we do not want to miss anyone.

Please click here for printable announcement!

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Spring Semester 2013 Momentum Newsletter

Posted January 16, 2014 in Financial Services and tagged .

The Momentum Newsletter is published each semester and is meant for the use and benefit of the University of Utah Campus Community.

A full printable version of this newsletter is also available to forward to your colleagues.

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The Facilities & Administrative (F&A) Rate Cost Study

Posted January 9, 2014 in Grants and Contracts Accounting, Management Accounting and Analysis and tagged .

On October 9th 2013, there were two informational sessions held on campus to inform and educate the attendees on the upcoming Space Survey to be conducted as part of the University’s overall F&A Rate Study. An FS News Post was sent out prior to the two sessions explaining why we are doing this Space Survey.

These sessions were filmed and are now available. Click here to view the video. Click here to review the slides from the video. More information regarding this survey will be included in the upcoming Momentum newsletter. F&A Study

Ask UsPlease ASK US if you have any other questions.

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Help the University go GREEN, Sign up for electronic W2!

Posted January 9, 2014 in Tax Services and tagged .

Employees can elect to receive Form W-2 electronically. Highlights include:

  • Access the W-2 earlier, don’t wait for it be delivered in the mail.
  • Green – For employees eligible to file a tax return electronically with the IRS, no paper copy of the W‐2 is required so natural resources are saved by not printing and mailing W‐2 forms.
  • Budget Savings – this will have a positive impact on the budget of the University.
  • Access to your W-2’s are available online year round back to 1999.

Employees should sign up to take advantage of this opportunity. To sign up:

  • Sign on to the CIS and click the Employee tab (if it is not your default tab).
  • Click Payroll, Taxes and Salary.
  • Click Paperless W2 and you will have the option to select to receive your W-2 electronically.

You also have the ability to view your W2 electronically year round. Your W-2 forms back to 1999 are now available to see all the time. To view your W-2:

  • Sign on to the CIS and click the Employee tab (if it is not your default tab).
  • Click W-2 W-2 Form Reprint and you will have access to your W-2’s back to 1999.

If you have any questions, Ask Us! Ask Us

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Awesome EOR Enhancements

Posted December 11, 2013 in Controller, Financial Reporting and Accounting, Grants and Contracts Accounting and tagged , , .

The Evidence of Review application was launched a year ago. Many on campus have used EOR to show “evidence” that they have reviewed their monthly financial statements. Several departments have given some excellent feedback. We reviewed your feedback and implemented some awesome enhancements to the EOR application. Thank you for your feedback; keep it coming!

Enhancements and Improvements to the Evidence of Review applications are:The latest Enhancements to the Evidence of Review applications are:

  • Search by PI in addition to Account Executive for Projects.
  • ExcelOnly see the excel icon for download if there has been at least one row selected. The icon is now more visible.
  • Account Executive, Org, Fund, and Activity/Project are now filterable (entry boxes under the columnar headings).
  • The PDF bundles for all selected Activities/Projects can either be sent in a single email (the way it currently works) or one email per Activity/Project.
  • There is a “Select Range” button that allows a block of rows to be selected. Just click the first and the last row, and then click the button!
  • The various buttons that are currently only at the bottom are now available via a context menu which will appear on a “right click” of the mouse. 
    • See the image below for the menu that appears on a “right click” of the mouse.
    • Note: the “right click” of the mouse will only work once the report has been run.

EOR Menu
Please visit the EOR help web page to learn more:

Ask UsPlease ASK US if you have any questions.

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Fraud Attempts Targeting University Suppliers

Posted December 10, 2013 in Procurement and Supply Management and tagged , .

The Purchasing Department has recently become aware of an active email fraud scam that is targeting suppliers in the United States. We wanted to alert you to this scam that involves requests for quotations, establishment of credit or submission of a purchase order, which purports to originate from the University but is in fact fraudulent. The requests are for large quantities of highly resalable items such as electronics, hard drives, memory, toner cartridges or scientific items, etc.

While the University cannot prevent this illegal activity, we are actively working with law enforcement to investigate these fraudulent email contacts and to address fraudulent purchase orders issued in the University’s name as we become aware of them.

Many suppliers receiving these requests contact the Purchasing Department to validate them and may also contact others on campus. Please direct suppliers to information that has been posted on the Purchasing website:

Fraud Notice to SuppliersFraud Notice to Suppliers

With questions you may have or problems that you encounter, please contact the Purchasing Department at 801-581-7241 or Glendon Mitchell, Purchasing Associate Director, at gmitchell@purchasing.utah.edu 801-587-3784.

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New Manager of Grants and Contracts Accounting

Posted October 24, 2013 in Controller, Grants and Contracts Accounting.

Financial & Business Services is pleased to announce that Dawn Atterbury has joined the Controller / Financial Management department as the Manager of Grants and Contracts Accounting and will report directly to Ken Erickson, the Associate Director of Grants and Contracts Accounting.

Dawn is a retired Major in the United States Air Force, where she served as an Administrative Contracting Officer and as a Procurement and Contingency Contracting Officer for the Defense Contract Management Agency (Salt Lake City, UT; Hill AFB, UT; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Bagram, Afghanistan; Al Udeid, Qatar; and Luke AFB, AZ). Dawn initially enlisted as an Airman in the USAF, rose to the rank of Master Sergeant (managing 8 maintenance shops, she was responsible for 500 personnel and for 50 F-16 aircraft), and then attended and graduated from Officer Training School as a commissioned officer.

Dawn is a graduate of Wayland Baptist University with a Master of Business Administration, along with a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Education and Business. Dawn has broad experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, and extensive post award contract administration (performance, technical details, compliance, and final closeouts). Dawn was most recently an Administrative Contracting Officer in the SLC, UT office of the DCMA.

Dawn looks forward to integrating her vast experience in her work at the University of Utah. Please join Financial & Business Services in welcoming her to the campus.

Ask UsPlease ASK US if you have any questions.

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Campus Rollout of Effort Distribution Report (EDR)

Posted October 21, 2013 in Management Accounting and Analysis, Payroll.

After a three month successful pilot, we are pleased to announce the Effort Distribution Report (EDR) Web Application has been rolled out to the entire campus! The link to access EDR is available on either the Financial & Business Services or Human Resource Management CIS menus.

What is EDR?

EDR is a Web Application that allows departments to see all the quarter-to-date earnings for EXEMPT employees. The main components are:

  • Effort-Based Earnings Distribution Report
    • Allows in-quarter reallocations to be generated, resulting in more timely and accurate recording of expenses to the correct funding source
    • Modeled after our current effort certification report (PAR)
      • Can be used for ANY exempt employee
      • But NOT for non-exempt (hourly) employees
  • Displays complete information for the employee
  • View and Manage future Funding Distributions and resulting Salary and Benefit Encumbrances
  • Will result in “more accurate” printed PAR reports for effort (after each quarter ends).
  • Should expedite Effort Certifications (fewer corrections should be necessary).

Who should use the EDR?

Business Officers, Payroll Reporters, Account Executives/PI’s, and/or Exempt Employees (you can view your own!) can all use EDR to:

  • Monitor salary and benefit expenses throughout a quarter
  • Make timely in-quarter corrections to expenses that have already posted
  • Calculate out-of-quarter corrections
    • These cannot be saved or submitted
    • Must be processed on either a PAR, Cost Transfer, or Payroll Reallocation

Questions?

Ask UsPlease ASK US if you have any other questions.

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EOR Enhancements Have Arrived!

Posted October 3, 2013 in Financial Reporting and Accounting, Grants and Contracts Accounting and tagged , .

The Evidence of Review (EOR) WEB application debuted last winter. Many of you have used this application to indicate evidence of review of your Activity/Project Monthly Management Reports. The feedback of EOR has been very positive, including several great suggestions for improvement. The new improvements now included in EOR are:

  • The ability to search by:
    • Account Executive -or-
    • Organization (including “roll-up” feature) -or-
    • Both
  • You can search by OrgID or Org Name
  • Status Filter:
    • Reviewed
    • Blank (Not Reviewed)
    • Both
  • Account Executive Name added to the results
  • Sortable Columns
  • Page break added for each Account Executive in the “Indicate Review PDF”

***IMPORTANT***

Please clear your browser cache and cookies before using the new EOR.

Please visit the EOR help web page to learn more:

Thank you for these great suggestions. Check them out in the new improved EOR!

Ask UsPlease ASK US if you have any questions.

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Federal F&A Cost Study Information Sessions

Posted September 13, 2013 in Grants and Contracts Accounting and tagged .
re: Upcoming Space Inventory/Survey

October 9, 2013

WHAT?

Overview of the University’s current efforts to renegotiate new F&A (Facilities & Administrative) rates with the federal government – especially the role that the upcoming SPACE SURVEY plays in maximizing the F&A rate to be charged in future years.

WHO?

Anyone who is interested in learning about the process and how they can help. Faculty, Principal Investigators, Researchers, and Administrators involved in organized (sponsored) research on campus would all benefit from attending.

WHY?

Increasing the current F&A on campus research rate (49%) will take some effort, and much of our success in increasing the rate will be dependent on identifying and maximizing the space on campus identified as “research space.” This session will help attendees understand how they can help.

WHEN/WHERE?

Main Campus:

October 9, 2013
9:00 – 9:30am
INSCC Auditorium (north of Park Building), Room 110
Sponsor: Cynthia Furse, Associate Vice President, Research

Health Science Campus:

October 9, 2013
1:30 – 2:00pm
College of Nursing Eccles Auditorium, Room 2300
Sponsor: Dean Li, Health Sciences Chief Scientific Officer and Associate Vice Dean for Research.

Federal F&A Cost Study Information SessionsPlease share this information with the appropriate personnel in your college/department/unit. We have some important information to share with you, and would like to see a good turnout for these sessions.

Click here for a printable Version of this news post.

Questions? Contact Jeffrey West – Associate VP, Financial & Business Services ( or 801.581.7520)

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