Financial Management Services (FMS) has partnered with University IT (UIT) on an enhancement project to streamline, standardize, and automate the capital projects closeout and cancellation process by adding new functionality to PTA Manager. PTA Manager is a system in Oracle Financials that enables schools and departments to request, approve, track, and close non-sponsored and miscellaneous accounts (PTAs).

The new functionality, PTA Manager Capital Projects Closeout and Cancellation (abbreviated as PTAC Closeout), launched Oct. 9, 2023. Those identified as Form 1 users and approvers with a need for access to PTAC Closeout will be granted the appropriate authority by their unit’s budget officer or designee. Setting up a capital project PTA will remain unchanged and follow the process in Topic Overview: Request New Account (PTA).

Why the change?

  • Opportunity (current state): The current capital project closeout process is manual and inefficient. Schools/departments email closeout/cancellation requests and the FMS Capital Accounting department manually creates iJournals transfers to return funds. In fact, closeout/cancellation is the only capital project lifecycle function process not yet automated.
  • Improvement (future state): The new functionality will leverage existing PTA Manager system capabilities to create an integrated interface and workflow for closeout/cancellation requests and the return of unused funding. The interface will include: automated PTA validations, financial reporting details to help users review their capital project financial position before submitting their request, and fields for schools/units to provide detailed instructions to Capital Accounting for fund return (see screenshot below for a sneak peak at the interface).
Screenshot of PTAC Closeout detail screen under Request in Progress tab

Benefits

The new functionality will provide many benefits to distributed users across Stanford schools/units:

  • Standardization/documentation: Maintain central record of capital project closeout/cancellation requests and attachments (versus manual emails that do not have tracking mechanisms and/or can get lost with employee turnover).
  • Internal controls/accuracy: Automated validations prompt users to confirm that the in-service date is correct and all purchase orders and work orders are closed before allowing the closeout/cancellation request to proceed.
  • Process improvement/efficiency:
    • Action can be taken first by those most knowledgeable about the fund, enabling more thorough information provided and efficient review/completion of requests from Capital Accounting.
    • Automated processes (validations, routing of requests, and follow-up email notifications) will enable financial analysts to spend less time manually collecting/processing data and gain more time for reviewing/analyzing the data.
    • Return remaining capital project funds faster to schools/units, enabling them to recommit these funds earlier for other purposes.

Resources and Support

To learn how to use the new functionality and get support, refer to the following resources:

Known Issues

No current issues.

Learn More and Stay Informed

Stay tuned to this page for updates and resources. In addition, you can stay informed in the following ways:

  • Follow our Slack channel, #Stanford-FMS-news for the latest on this project and more.
  • Contact the project lead, Jason Taloma, Manager, Financial Systems & Reporting.
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