Vehicle Titles and Registrations

Posted February 10, 2006 in Property Accounting.

Property Accounting is responsible for storing and tracking all titles and registrations for all motor vehicles & off-highway vehicles with the Utah Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV). These vehicles include, but are not limited to: snowmobiles, boats, all terrain vehicles, & motorcycles. There is a concern that since some of these types of vehicles can be purchased for less than $5,000, the registrations and titles are not being sent to Property Accounting.

If you have purchased one of these vehicles and you hold the title and/or registration, forward it to Property Accounting at 416 Park. In the future, if your department will be purchasing a vehicle, please send us a copy of the purchase document and have our address listed on the title as illustrated below:

University of Utah
Property Accounting
201 Presidents Cir Rm 416
Salt Lake City, UT 84112

If you have questions regarding this procedure, please do not hesitate to call Kay Christensen at 581-8673.

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New Guidelines for Quasi-Endowments

Posted February 8, 2006 in Endowment & Investment Accounting, Financial Reporting and Accounting and tagged .

A new form has been created, Agreement to Establish a Quasi-Endowment, which is to be used in requesting the creation of a fund functioning as an endowment. This form should accompany the Activity/Project Set-Up Request form when a new quasi-endowment is being proposed.

The approval of new quasi-endowments, previously under the purview of the University’s Board of Trustees, has recently been delegated jointly to the VP for Administrative Services and the Associate VP for Financial and Business Services. These guidelines formalize and clarify the process and establish new rules for creating these funds. The most significant new rule is the establishment of a minimum dollar threshold for creating a fund functioning as an endowment. The new form and guidelines were presented to the Council of Academic Deans and approved in their January 19, 2006 meeting.

The form can be found through the Campus Information System portal, under the Administrative Financials section (Forms). It is listed under Financial Reporting & Accounting in the departmental list sort; and under “Q” (for quasi-endowments) in the alphabetic list sort. Questions regarding the new guidelines can be directed to Jeffrey J. West, Associate VP for Financial and Business Services.

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Mark your Calendars for Business Officers Meeting & Other Training Opportunities

Posted January 31, 2006 in Accounts Payable, Financial Reporting and Accounting and tagged .

Financial and Business Services (FS) is excited to present additional training and professional development opportunities for support, teaching and research staff throughout our campus community. Training sessions will complement existing skills of our workers, provide a forum for communication regarding updates and improvements within our systems, and prepare newly hired individuals for the challenges of administering business processes at the University of Utah.

First, new and existing regularly scheduled courses have been published on the FS web site. Second, the format of Business Officers Meeting (March 7, 2006) has been changed to better meet the needs of our campus participants.

All information, schedules and registration can be found at the FS Training web site:

https://fbs.admin.utah.edu/training/

  1. New and On-going training opportunities:We have consolidated all listings for training courses to the above site. New and on-going courses are being offered from many of our departments, and include new topics such as an ethics course designed specifically for higher education. New courses, including those taught by Accounts Payable and Financial Reporting & Accounting will offer career enrichment information to seasoned participants as well as newly hired support staff.
  2. Business Officers Meeting: Tuesday, March 7, 2006Mark your calendars now for the Business Officers Meeting presented by Financial and Business Services. Sessions will begin as early as 9:00 a.m., with final sessions concluding at 4:00 p.m. Based upon campus feedback, we have changed the format to accommodate longer, more personal break-out sessions that may run concurrently offering more variety in courses and contact with experts. Participants may attend sessions detailing both system updates as well as new courses taught by staff experts from academic departments.

Complete schedule for the Business Officers Meeting will be made available beginning February 22 at https://fbs.admin.utah.edu/training/.

Space will be limited for many sessions.

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Management Report Changes

Posted January 25, 2006 in Financial Reporting and Accounting and tagged .

Due to recent changes in our enterprise financial software, we are unable to accurately report the encumbrances on prior months; therefore, the following changes have been made to the Management Reports.
Prior Month Management Reports

  • The Summary of Revenue & Expense Report for prior months will no longer have an Encumbered column and the Budget Variance column has been renamed Budget Less Rev/Exp to reflect that encumbrances are no longer included in the calculation.
  • The Encumbrance Report has been eliminated for all time periods prior to the current month.

Current Month Management Reports

  • The Budget Variance column on the Summary of Revenue & Expense Reports for the current month has been renamed Budget Balance.

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Temporary SSN Process

Posted January 20, 2006 in Payroll, Tax Services and tagged , .

Payroll Accounting Process for Issuing Temporary Working Numbers for Employees Without SSNs

The University may hire an employee who does not yet have a Social Security Number (SSN). Typically, such employees are nonresident alien (NRA) visitors. Internal Revenue Regulations require an employer, such as the University, to obtain an employee’s SSN within seven days of employment. Due to such regulations, an SSN is a required entry on a PAN form.

Homeland Security now provides that each NRA visitor goes through a verification process through the former INS. Such verification is required before an SSN is issued. Therefore, it now takes an NRA longer to secure an SSN. An NRA without an SSN can continue employment after the seven day period, if such employee can produce a receipt for SSN application. In such a situation, Payroll Accounting will issue a temporary working number to be processed with the PAN form as an SSN substitute.

Payroll Accounting can generally issue a temporary working number immediately to a department that brings the following information to 411 Park:

  1. A receipt for the individual’s SSN application from the Social Security Administration.
  2. Copies of the individual’s visa and International Center issued work authorization letter.
  3. A written acknowledgement by the department (via short memo or email from Payroll Reporter to e-mail) that a copy of the employee’s social security card will be provided to Payroll Accounting when it becomes available.

If a department requests a temporary working number via fax (587-9855) or via campus mail (411 Park), Payroll Accounting will issue the temporary working number the next business day.

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PO Voucher Timing Problem

Posted January 10, 2006 in Accounts Payable, Financial Reporting and Accounting, Grants and Contracts Accounting, Procurement and Supply Management.

Incident to a recent upgrade in our enterprise financial system, a problem was inadvertently introduced. There may be timing glitches between the date a PO voucher for a project is disencumbered and the date the expense is recorded. For example: a PO voucher could be disencumbered in December and expensed in January. We are working to resolve the problem.

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Jan Scholarship/Fellowship Payments posted in Dec

Posted January 10, 2006 in Accounts Payable, Financial Reporting and Accounting, Grants and Contracts Accounting.

In order to disburse January scholarship/fellowship checks on time, payments were posted in the December Accounting Month due to problems resulting from a recent upgrade in our enterprise financial system.

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Financial and Business Services Website

Posted December 16, 2005 in Financial Services, Financial Services Technical Support and tagged .

Welcome to the improved Financial and Business Services Website
The Financial and Business Services website has many new features.
For more information about our website see this message from Jeffrey J. West.

The functional features in the top header are as follows:

  1. News, Departments, and Search links
    Links to FS News, Department list, and Search page.
  2. Financial Department Links
    Links to Financial and Business Services Departments.
    Hover your cursor over the department pneumonic and the full department name will be displayed.

The functional features in the right column are as follows:

  1. Search
    Type a search string in the search box and click search. All news items that contain the search string will be displayed.
  2. News Categories
    To display news items in a particular category only, click on the news category link.
    Examples:

    • To display All News click on “All News”.
    • To display Purchasing News click on “Purchasing”. This will display news posted under Purchasing as well as Purchasing Card.
  3. Archives
    To display news items for a particular month, click on the month link.

Who should I call for more information about a news item?

  • All news items are filed under one or more news categories.
    1. Hover your cursor over the news category a news item is filed under.
    2. A tool tip will appear that displays the contact information for the news category.
  • To see an example of a tool tip, hover your cursor over the word tool tip.
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Ethical Standards and Code of Conduct

Posted November 29, 2005 in Financial Services and tagged .

The Ethical Standards and Code of Conduct handbook has been developed as a guide for all employees at the University of Utah to support us in our different stewardship roles. The Handbook is not intended to be exhaustive but to provide direction to appropriate resources to assist us in acting responsibly and doing the right things as we navigate our way through the many different and complex situations we encounter. The handbook is available at https://www.hr.utah.edu/ethicalstandards/index.php

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Suppress Advice Print

Posted November 15, 2005 in Payroll and tagged .

Employees are now able to use a new function that allows them to suppress the printing of their own direct deposit advice. To access this new Suppress Advice Suppress Advice function on the Campus Information System, go to Payroll, Taxes and Salary Payroll, Taxes and Salary on My Human Resources/Payroll.

If the box is checked, it will stop the printing of your direct deposit advice. If the box is unchecked, your direct deposit advice will be printed and delivered to your home department.

You always have the option in “View Paycheck” to print your current check stub/advice along with check stubs/advices from previous pay periods.

Important Information

All Payroll self-service functions including the new Suppress Advice function are turned off during payroll processing, which begins on the final day of the pay period at 5:00 PM and ends on payday.

If you have further questions please call Payroll at 581-7873.

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