May, 2016
From the Editor
I’m sure everyone has noticed that longer days and warmer temperatures have finally arrived. Do you know what that means? Opportunities to participate in whatever outdoor activities you enjoy, whether it’s gardening, hiking, swimming, cycling, or simply relaxing.
Oh, and it also means the end of the Fiscal Year is fast approaching. Financial administrators need to pay extra attention to their budgets, actuals, and commitments. It’s a good thing there is a document available that describes how to use a BW report to find open commitments (budget encumbrances which may not have been closed, regardless of whether or not goods/services have been received and the corresponding invoice was entered into BUworks). Visit the Tips & Tricks section below for more information about how BW can help.
As always, I hope you find this issue of the Newsletter informative. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future BW Newsletters
Bill Stewart
Reporting News
In a collaboration between PAFO and the BW team, we have developed a new video: Grant Management Terminology. This 9-minute video tutorial takes you through BUworks terminology as it relates to Grants Management. This is an essential for new administrators, but even experienced administrators are likely to find the tutorial worth watching.
Training Calendar
May/June Training Opportunities
Upcoming Intermediate-level Workshops
SRM Reports: Introduction to the recently-released reports – available to employees with the shopper or approver role who have previously attended an introductory-level BW training session. Anyone who has not attended an intro session should register for this SRM reporting session.
HCM Employee Model Reporting – available to Payroll Coordinators and Managers, the reports examined in this workshop provide access to vast amounts of master data and enable users to develop answers to their various personnel administration and organizational management questions.
Introductory Workshops offered this month
As always, an assortment of introductory workshops will be offered. These sessions present to new employees – or employees assigned a new business role – the fundamentals of reporting for a particular subject area. The sessions are a great way to review material, too. Even if you previously attended an intro session, you are likely to learn new things about reporting – or to be reminded of concepts that you had forgotten.
Click on any of the following links for a course description and/or to register for an upcoming session:
Supplier Resource Management Reporting
Labor Distribution (Payroll) Reporting
Tips & Tricks
Some of these Tips may be new to you, while others may be familiar. Regardless, we hope you find value in these and future Tips, even if we do no more than remind you of the existence of tools you once knew about but had since forgotten.
Note: all of the Tips posted in BW newsletters are archived on this page.
Finding Open Commitments
The Funds Management Transaction Detail report makes it remarkably easy to view open commitments. This Help guide describes the process recommended to identify all open commitments for a Funds Center, grant or internal order as of a specified date: BW How to – View Open Commitments.
Manager Information
Searching for information about an employee who is a manager in another department? A Business Warehouse report exists that provides information, including name, phone number, and email address, for all managers in any department at the University. The Faculty and Staff Directory report, available to Payroll Coordinators and MSS Managers, is searchable by Master Cost Center or Org Unit and is described in the HCM Employee Model Reporting User’s Guide. Training is available for this and for all reports based on the HCM Employee Model. Register here to attend an upcoming session.
End Notes
Custom Training Sessions
Have you ever thought that it would be really useful if you could get members of your department together with a trainer to focus on BUworks functionality that is specific to the work your department does? I’m happy to work with any department or group that would like to develop and conduct a custom basic- or intermediate-level reporting training session. There are only two requirements for such a session: (1) input from the group is necessary to develop a relevant agenda, and (2) the group should include four or more employees. If you’re interested in discussing the development of a custom session for your department or school/college, contact me via email or give me a call at 617-353-6382.
No Longer Interested in the Newsletter?
You can unsubscribe from the Newsletter email list by visiting this page.