BUSINESS NOTES &
NEWS
APRIL 2008
In This Month's Issue:
Department Who's Who
HUB Vendor of the Month
April Calendar
New Gift Card Request Form
Red Flags of P-Card and Travel Card
Procedure for the Jump Start Endowment
Open Commitment Review
Changes and Additions to Travel Card Guidelines
Changes and Additions to P-Card Guidelines
Online Verification Training
HUB Statistics
PCD Countdown
Essentials of Leadership
Hire Top-Performing Employees
Summer Graduate Student PAR Procedures
9/9 Pre-Collection Pay Cycle
New HR Form
ePAR Project Update
FrontLine
PRINTABLE VERSION
If you have comments or would
like to submit an article for the
Spotlight, contact Sara Carter at
scarter@uh.edu
Contents Edited by the
Administration & Finance Customer
Service Center
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Open Commitment Review
The fiscal year end is just around the
corner. Get a jump start on year-end
activity by reviewing your open commitments.
1. Run the UHS_OPEN_COMMITMENTS_DETAIL query
in the Finance System – Lists PO, contract,
postage, phone, long distance, payroll,
indirect cost, and any other encumbrances on
your cost centers. (The Open Commitment
section of the 1074 report also provides
this information.)
Tip: Run the query for all cost centers in a
Dept ID by putting a wildcard (%) for the
Fund, Program, and Project. Enter the
current Fiscal Year and Accounting Period.
Do not enter a wildcard for Dept ID as well,
because the query will not run successfully.
2. Take the following actions based on the
type of commitment:
• Payroll – No action needed, as long as
employees’ assignments are setup correctly
in the HR System. Payroll encumbrances are
automatically recalculated after each pay
cycle based on employee assignments.
Personnel Action Requests (PARs) are used to
update assignment information.
• Indirect Cost – Verify that the IDC
encumbrance is correct by multiplying other
open commitments that are eligible for IDC
by the IDC rate for that cost center. If an
adjustment is needed, notify Kal Marchi (kkmarchi@central.uh.edu)
in Research Financial Services, who will
make the adjustment.
• Postage, Phone, and Long Distance – Does
the remaining commitment for FY08 appear
reasonable? If so, no action is needed. The
encumbrance is automatically reduced each
month for the same amount as the expense. If
the encumbrance should be adjusted up or
down, you need to do an encumbrance journal.
This is a special, one-sided journal where
you select “Encumbrance” in the “Commitment
Control” link on the Header page of the
journal. Contact Gretta McClain in General
Accounting (x38729 or
grmcclai@central.uh.edu)
if you have questions.
Caution: An encumbrance journal should only
be used for postage (52800), phone (52803),
or long distance (52807) commitments. If
used for other expenses, the encumbrance
will not automatically adjust at the end of
each month.
• Purchase Orders and Contracts – Is the
remaining encumbrance for these PO’s and
contracts correct? If so, no action is
needed. Otherwise, take the appropriate
action.
a. If the PO/contract has been paid at least
once and the remaining encumbrance needs to
be liquidated, follow the “PO Finalize
Instructions” on the
Finance References page
under “Cost Center Verification Toolkit.”
b. If the PO/contract will never be paid,
contact Purchasing for regular PO’s and
contracts and the Office of Contracts and
Grants for research contracts, so they can
cancel the encumbrance.
c. If the PO/contract amount needs to be
increased or a cost center/account needs to
be changed, contact Purchasing or OCG, so
they can modify the PO/contract.
d. If the PO is for a copier lease/rental or
Hi Ed (CourgarByte) purchase, notify Armand
Villacorte (x35660 or
avillaco@central.uh.edu)
in Accounts Payable if a change is needed to
the encumbrance. AP is responsible for
paying these PO’s and liquidating any
unneeded encumbrance.
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