Aurora Finance News for Researchers Topics
Current Issue - #4
Fiscal Year End
The University’s fiscal year end is fast approaching. March 31st, 2009 is year end and is the cut-off date for recording expenses and revenue in the fiscal year they relate to. It is important that everyone work to record expenses in the year they were incurred in order to ensure expenses will be considered eligible by the granting agencies and to ensure the University’s annual financial statements are accurate.
To obtain the University's fiscal year end guidelines, visit the Financial Services website at http://umanitoba.ca/admin/financial_services/.
FAST Reporting Upgrade
On December 1st, 2008 our FAST Reporting system was upgraded. We needed to upgrade in order to ensure continuous support from our supplier Millennium Computer Systems, to address fixes needed in the previous version and to apply some changes requested by our users. The upgrade maintained functionality while improving reporting options.
There are some slight changes and numerous enhancements that users will find helpful in the FAST Reporting upgrade. The userid of the person who has processed a document such as an invoice, purchase order or journal entry can now be seen. This allows you to track down the person responsible if you have any questions or concerns regarding a transaction. The entire payment history for a purchase order (PO) is also now available when looking at PO detail. The most significant change is the switch in the term “Budget Available” to “Budget Variance.” This field in FAST Reporting refers to the same thing – how much is remaining to spend on your grant.
If you have any questions or concerns with regards to FAST Reporting,or if you wish to have access, please contact our Help Line at 480-1001.
Research Administration Process Reviews
The University of Manitoba, along with all other Canadian universities, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Tricouncil Granting Agencies. The MOU details the roles and responsibilities of the Tricouncil, the University and researchers. Based on the MOU and Tricouncil site visit feedback we received, Research and Special Fund Accounting has taken a more proactive approach to monitoring research administration.
This more proactive approach has included revising the University’s financial policy on the administration and control of research and special funds as well as reviewing our internal processes. Currently the grant accountants are involved in process review visits to the units to observe their practices as they pertain to the administration of research funds. The review consists of an examination of files maintained by Financial Services, inquiries into the general procedures of the units and examination of the files maintained by the units.
The end goal of this review process is to improve processes and share best practices with the units and researchers.
New Help Line
As of September 2008, all Aurora Finance users can contact 480-1001 for any Aurora Finance or Financial Services related questions. This number replaces the previous 272-1555 Help Desk number. Our new Customer Services line will provide you with the assistance you need, whether it’s dealing with technical problems, trying to figure out how to change your password or answering your accounting questions without transferring you from person to person. So, give us a call at 480-1001 and let us help you!
Do I Have Access to Aurora Finance?
Do you want to get into the system but not certain of where to start? Are you even sure if you have access to Aurora Finance? If you’re not, the answer is probably no. However, the steps required to access the system are few and require little of your time.
First thing you need to do is to download the Researcher Access Request Form at http://www.umanitoba.ca/computing/renewal/aurora/aurora_finance_access.html. It will take less than five minutes to download, complete and fax the form to our Financial Systems Office. The only thing that may take some time to figure out is your Aurora Organization code. If you’re not certain what that is, contact your faculty/unit administrator for the information or call our Aurora Finance Customer Service line at 480-1001.
After receiving the form, our Financial Systems office will set-up your ID with access to all the research grants for which you are listed as the principle investigator. The office will contact you once your ID has been set-up and walk you through the process of first accessing the system.
We highly recommend training in the system as you get started. We have an Aurora Finance for Researchers course put on by Learning and Development Services. This session is only 2 hours and designed specifically with you in mind – to give you only what you need to know and nothing more. If a session is not possible at this time but you still want training, please contact our Aurora Finance Customer Service line at 480-1001.
New Petty Cash Policy
Financial Services has recently made changes to all of its policies. One of the most recently approved policies that will affect you as a researcher is the revised Petty Cash Policy.
As per the new policy and procedure, if you are seeking reimbursement of personal expenses you are to use the Travel and Business Expense Claim form only. In the past, minor individual transactions up to $100.00 were allowable for reimbursement from the Cashier’s Office on the Petty Cash Reimbursement form. Now, only petty cash fund custodians are to seek reimbursement from the Cashier’s Office. So if you pay for something using personal funds and your department doesn’t have a petty cash fund, please send in a Travel and Business Expense claim form to Travel Services along with your original receipts.
Issue # 2
Revised Travel & Business Expense Claim Form
In order to ensure your Travel Claim is not being delayed due to insufficient funds in the FOPs, we have modified our Travel and Business Expense Claim form to include 2 new fields:
- Budget Available as of Claim Date: This field should have a dollar amount of the funds available in the FOP as of the date of the claim. If there are not sufficient funds available, the claim should be made against a different FOP. If you require help in finding the balance, access the Aurora Finance Online Help
http://umanitoba.ca/computing/renewal/aurora/finance/ohelp/check_budget.html - Checked By Initials: This field should have the initials of the person who checked the FOP to determine the funds available, i.e. the claimant or one-over-one authority.
This change was made in order to avoid delays that occur in personal reimbursements as a result of insufficient funds. If you have any questions about this or any other travel related issue, please contact Travel Services.
How Much Is Left On My Grant?
If you need to find out how much money you have left on your grant, the best report to use in Aurora Finance is the Grant Expenditures Report. Follow these easy steps to obtain:
1. Login to Aurora FAST Reporting
2. Enter you grant fund number in the “Fund” field
3. From the Desired Report: field select “Grant Expenditures Report.”
4. Select Enter.
The $ Budget Available column will display the amount of money you have left on your grant, taking into consideration actuals, commitments and carryforward from the previous fiscal year. Removing PO Commitments
FAST Reporting takes into account YTD Actuals and all Commitments when calculating a FOP’s budget available. Most expenditure account (7XXXXX) commitments are generated from Purchase Orders. At times you may have a commitment from an open PO that you believe should be closed, i.e. all goods received and invoices have been paid. If you think a PO should be closed, you can:
- Fax the PO copy you received back to Purchasing Services with a request to remove the remaining commitment or
- Email the Purchasing Consultant who generated the PO with your request.
There may be reasons for why the commitment will not be removed, but your Purchasing Consultant will provide an explanation. To avoid this situation from occurring often, please ensure you promptly return to Purchasing Services your Receipt Notification copy of the PO whenever goods or services are received in full in order to remove your commitment and have the supplier paid without delay. If you have any questions on this matter, please contact Purchasing Services at 474-8348.
Issue # 1
What's In Your FOP?
Your FOP contains a myriad of details that are pertinent to your budgeting decisions: salaries; commitments; fund transfers; baseline vs. fiscal budget. However, there are certain essentials Financial Services often asks Units to address when reviewing their FOP or FOAP. This newsletter addresses these 4 essentials:
- The use of proper program codes for your revenue and expenses
- Salaries are correct as listed in the “Current Year - Budget by Position” report
- Expense verification
- Over-expenditures
- POs and invoices not being processed as they do not have budget assigned to them
- Budget available being overstated against your grant, resulting in a tendency towards over-expenditures.
- Incorrect reporting to Granting Agencies.
There currently exists a misconception that the program code changes depending on your type of revenue or expense. This is not true. Your program code is designed to classify revenue or expense as defined by the purpose of your Grant.
For a grant, the program will be 0000 when coding revenue or it’s default program when coding expenses. The default expense program will be one of the following depending on your type of grant:
2000 – Sponsored Research
2015 – CFI / IOF Research
6015 – Capital CFI
Common Error Example:
You are using your NSERC grant to buy a fax machine. You think because it’s for administrative purposes you should use program 1300 Administrative Expenses. This is incorrect as you should use your default program of 2000 Sponsored Research because no matter what your expense, you need the program to define the purpose of your Grant.
To confirm that salaries correspond with your records, use the “Current Year - Budget by Position Report” available from FAST Reporting. Follow these steps to review:(1) In the FAST Main Menu, enter your grant Fund.
(2) Select the “Current Year - Budget by Position” Report.
(3) Select the Enter button.
(4) Verify that all Employee Names, Actuals and Outstanding Encumbrance amounts correspond to your records.
Expense Verification
Use the “Grant Expenditures Report” via FAST Reporting to verify all expenses listed belong to your grant. Follow these steps to verify:
(1) In the FAST main menu, enter your FOP.
(2) Select the “Grant Expenditures Report”.
(3) Select the Enter button.
(4) Drill down twice on the left (first the Fund and then the Organization code) until you see the listing of accounts.
(5) Select the “Current Month” and/or “YTD Actual” column amounts for each account to view all transactions listed for your grant. Verify they belong to you.
Checking For Over-ExpendituresAlthough budget checking is performed at the FOP level, you should be ensuring sufficient budget exists to cover salaries and benefits, as well as non-salary expenditures. To check your budget, follow steps 1 to 4 above and review the “$ Budget Available” column for the “Total Wages and Benefits” and “Total Non-Salary Expenditures” lines. This will provide you with the budget you have available for these areas.
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