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News, Enhancements & Tips for Financial Reporting at Stanford

OBI Payroll and Labor Management (PLM) Report Updates

As a result of enhancements to the Labor Distribution Adjustments (LDA) system in February, two PLM reports have been updated with several improvements.

  • Bulk Adjustment Upload Report:
    The new Bulk Adjustment Upload report displays salary information which can be downloaded to easily build a bulk adjustment file for upload in the LDA system. Refer to How To: Bulk Upload Labor Distribution Adjustments for steps or submit an LDA support request for questions or assistance.
     
  • Labor Distribution Adjustments (Real-time) Report:
    - New user-friendly format: Reformatted in November, the LDA Real-time Report was reduced from two tabs to one, making it easier to use and read.
    - New “Parent Adjustment Batch Name” prompt and attribute: New LDA system functionality includes the ability to perform bulk and mass adjustments, so the real-time report has a matching prompt and attribute. This will allow users to search by a Parent Adjustment Batch Name and see an Adjustment Batch Name’s associated Parent Adjustment Batch Name, if it has one.

FYI: The deadline to clear Organization Suspense Accounts (OSA) through labor distribution adjustments has been extended from March 15 to April 15 for all payroll transactions posted through March 31, 2022. View the revised schedule on the OSA Clearing Deadlines policy page.

To learn more about the LDA system’s new features and find helpful resources, visit the LDA Enhancement Project news page. To get one-on-one support for LDA reports, sign up for an upcoming OBI Open Lab.

FAQ: Managing Your Aging and Force Cleared Transactions

To reduce the amount of aging Purchasing Card (PCard), Travel Card (TCard) transactions, and advances on Stanford’s financial statements, Financial Management Services (FMS) launched a quarterly clearing process in FY22. Clearing transactions and advances in a timely manner protects the university from risk and supports good financial stewardship. 

Here are answers to common questions around how aging transactions are cleared and managed.

1. When must transactions or advances be verified or approved?

2. What happens if they are not verified or approved by the 60-day deadline?

Any PCard or TCard transactions or advances aged over 60 days by the next approval deadline could be force cleared by FMS, and budget units would be charged $35 per transaction. Force clearing also triggers a tax reporting expense, which may have personal financial consequences for the payees.

The next deadline for departments to approve transactions is May 4, 2022. FMS will send a reminder to all school/unit deans prior to force clearings. For details, as well as the FY22 clearing schedule, view Policy: Clearing of Aging Transactions.

3. How do you track aging transactions and what should you do when they are force cleared?

The Expense Requests and SU Card Activity OBI Dashboard is your go-to tool for identifying and monitoring your department’s aging transactions. With this dashboard, you can run reports on aging credit card transactions, aging expense requests or aging advances

If your aging transactions have been force cleared, follow these steps:
  1. Identify your force cleared transactions with the appropriate OBI report.
  2. Determine what is owed to Stanford for personal expenses and collect.
  3. Create and store documentation set.
  4. Use iJournals to move charges to an appropriate PTAE if needed.
For detailed instructions, please view “What To Do After a Transaction is Force Cleared: Best Practices” in the Force Clearing of Aging Transactions section of Topic Overview: Managing Aging and Outstanding Expense Transactions.

Deadline to take the Financial Stewardship Expectations Course

Financial Stewardship Expectations (FIN-PROG-0020) is the prerequisite training for any faculty, staff or students who need access to Oracle Financials systems (e.g., Expense Requests, PCard, Labor Distribution, etc.) and OBI Financial Reporting. This course replaces the Financial Confidentiality Agreement (FIN-PROG-0010) and annual completion of the new course is required to maintain access to Stanford's financial systems.

Action required:

  • New employees needing access to these systems should take the course as a part of their onboarding process.
  • All faculty, staff or students accessing these systems need to take the course by May 9, 2022 to maintain access.
FIN-PROG-0020 will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Subsequently, you will be prompted for recertification (a requirement to retake the course) each year. This ongoing recertification helps to foster a shared understanding amongst the university community of the key concepts that are foundational to our stewardship of university resources.

Learn more:

View the Fingate new course announcement for more details on:
  • The complete list of systems requiring this course
  • Key course concepts
  • Related resources

If you need support with financial training, please submit a support request. Thank you for supporting excellence in financial stewardship.

Reminders

OBI Ad Hoc User Forum


Do you have questions about using the OBI Financial Reporting ad hoc tool? The OBI Ad Hoc User Forum is a great resource for community members to share solutions with each other. In addition to posting questions and answers, you can comment, filter answers and up vote questions for ranking.
 
Note: If you have general OBI questions, urgent requests or dashboard reporting issues, please submit a support request or sign up for an OBI Open Lab.

OBI Open Labs:
One-on-One Support


Get live customized one-on-one support for any of your OBI reporting and ad hoc questions. These remote sessions are geared towards user support rather than training demos and are offered every Friday and Monday via Zoom.

Please ensure you have access to OBI Financial Reporting before attending a session.

Register for an OBI Open Lab now!
 







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