NewsLink Articles
Report Enhancement: Flexible Payroll Expense Data (Tableau Report)
The "Flexible Payroll Expense Data" report allows users to customize worktags to display when reviewing payroll expenses. As of Monday, August 21, the Tableau report interface for the custom worktag selection will be enhanced to improve the end user experience. Instead of users selecting the "select column" icon from the top right of the report, now all column selections will appear above the column’s headings and will remain displayed.
New Reporting on Business Process Approval Times Now Available
As of Monday, August 21, a new series of reports will be available that offer insight into the amount of time transactions spent in pending approval steps during workflow. These transaction types include Requisitions, Spend Authorizations, Expense Reports, Miscellaneous Payment Requests, Supplier Invoice Requests, Supplier Invoices, and Purchase Order Change Orders.
For each transaction type, two different report styles will be available. The "Detail" reports will provide the amount of time the transaction spent pending approval from each approval step in the workflow, as well as the approving workers for each transaction. The "Summary" reports will provide a high-level overview of the average approval times for each approval step per cost center hierarchy. These summary reports will also be placed on a dashboard called "Business Process Approval Times - Finance/Supply Chain." See the full NewsLink post for more details.
FDM Worktag Reference Guide Updates: Driver and Related Worktags
The downloadable FDM worktag reference guide has been updated to include information on “Driver” and “Related” worktags and how they function. It is highly recommended for related worktags to only be used if that is going to be the associated worktag value 100% of the time. It is important to understand that related worktags will replace any worktag that may have been manually entered or populated from another driver worktag. For an Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB), if a worktag is not specified in the EIB but it is related, it will be added when the EIB is loaded. See the full NewsLink post for more details.
Role Pairing Removal for Cost Center Manager and Fund Transfer Approver
As of Tuesday, August 8, the Cost Center Manager role is no longer paired with the Cost Center Fund Transfer Approver role. The Cost Center Director role will continue to be paired with the Cost Center Fund Transfer Approver role.
Access will not be automatically removed for existing assignments to Cost Center Manager, but no additional pairing assignments for the CCM will occur. Access can still be added for Cost Center Manager using the Workday security request process within Service Now and will need to be approved by the senior fiscal officer.
New Workday Alerts During Period Close for "Created" and "In Progress" Journals/Fund Transfers
Starting in September (during August month-end close), initiators and approvers of journals and fund transfers that are in a "created" or "in progress" status on business day 4 will see new Workday alerts/notifications. It is important to take immediate action on these items prior to 4 p.m. on business day 5 to avoid these entries being canceled or moved to the next period.
Reminder: Internal Order Billing for Internal Service Providers
Beginning with goods and services provided in October, Internal Service Providers (ISPs) should now use the new Internal Order Billing (IOB) process in Workday to invoice other internal departments or units at Ohio State. In addition to being aware of the resources and key dates and described below, review the original NewsLink post for this change.
Internal Service Delivery (ISD) should still be used to bill for goods and services provided in September. The ISD process will be decommissioned on October 31, 2023. All ISDs must be submitted by 5 p.m. on October 31.
Training and helpful resources:
- Internal Suppliers - Looking for a list of internal suppliers?
- Search the list of Internal Suppliers at the Find a Supplier website (login required).
- For Internal Billing Specialists - Virtual training will be posted to the Internal Order Billing Teams Channel the week of October 16.
- Virtual lab sessions are being offered from 2 - 3 p.m. on October 19 and October 26 to answer any questions as ISPs go live. Use the Teams link to join the meeting (Meeting ID: 249 387 856 623 and Passcode: TSW2SB)
- Job aids are available in the Administrative Resource Center (ARC). Answers to frequently asked questions have been added to the job aids.
- Questions? - Submit questions to ctl-fdmrequests@osu.edu. Those with the internal billing specialist security role can also submit questions to the Internal Order Billing Teams channel chat.
Delay in Internal Purchase Order Closures to Support New Internal Billing Training
In order to support training for the new Internal Order Billing process go-live in October, the Controller's Office will be slightly delaying the closure of internal purchase orders during August close and September close. Internal purchase orders for August will be closed on Tuesday, September 5 (as opposed to 8/31), and internal purchase orders for September will be closed on Monday, October 2 (as opposed to 9/29). This will ensure there is adequate test data in the training tenant.
Recent Report Enhancements
See the full NewsLink post to learn more about recent reports that have been enhanced. The updated reports described in the full post include:
- Equity Balances by Balancing/Carry Forward Worktags – Summary
- Sources and Uses by Fund Group
- Find Journal Lines – OSU
- Find Journals – OSU
Reminder: New Unit Monthly Reconciliation Checklist
This is a reminder that the new unit monthly reconciliation checklist is available for download and is intended to be a guide to assist units in the development of the processes necessary to ensure an effective internal control environment. While it is not required to be utilized, if a unit chooses not to implement these procedures, their own procedures need to be identified and implemented to appropriately identify and mitigate financial risk within the college/unit and to be compliant with the Fiscal Stewardship policy.
Please note: The checklist is routinely updated due to changes in business processes and reporting enhancements, so it is important to frequently check the Controller's Office website to ensure you are using the latest version. If you have downloaded previous versions and want to see the new version, you may need to clear your cache first to see the updated version.
New Internal Billing Process Affects Balances on Financial and Grants Reporting
As part of the new internal order billing process which goes live on October 1, 2023, units will see purchase order encumbrance amounts liquidate based on the internally billed/supplier invoice amounts. Therefore, the new process will accurately reflect the balances on financial and grants reporting. Once we are transitioned to the new process, the Controller’s office will no longer do a mass monthly close of internal purchase orders.