Q.  Has there been update on PeopleSoft Class offerings?
Over 140 classes have been scheduled in response to the recent survey of financial system training needs. These new classes will be posted to the FAST training website (http://www.uh.edu/fast/FAST-training.htm) no later than early next week, and announced through the listserve and other channels of communication so registration can begin. I would appreciate a list of those staff from your area who are expected to attend so that we can monitor the need for additional classes, and have attached a spreadsheet that should be used to provide that information. Please complete the spreadsheet with the division or college title, each employee's name, email address and telephone, and indicate which classes they will be attending by putting an X in the appropriate column. Additional rows may be inserted if needed. Space does not need to be reserved in anticipation of new employees, but please note in your return message how many new employees you are expecting. The completed form should be emailed to me at CNess@uh.edu by Wednesday, January 30, 2002. I've also attached a summary of the survey responses for reference to the number of expected registrants per college or division, and would appreciate a note on any significant differences between the survey response and the requests. 1-17-02

Notes on classes:
GL Orientation - combines FAST Start for General Ledger and General Ledger Orientation, prerequisite for all other classes except FAST Start AP. (3 hours)
FAST Start Budget and Accounting - provides hands-on training in basic budget and accounting processes. (3 hours)
General Ledger Reporting Tools - hands-on instruction in using standard queries and generating the basic financial reports through the general ledger; also accessing the reports through Report.Web. (3 hours)
Basic Financial Reports - interpreting standard monthly financial reports. (2 hours)
Basic Query for Finance - exercises in the use of the Query tool and Financial system tables to produce custom queries. (1 day)
FAST Start for Payables - series of hands-on exercises designed to provide the participant with skills necessary to perform department payables processes using PeopleSoft financial applications. (3 hours)
Payables Advanced Vouchers - hands-on class including advanced exercise in managing vouchers, establishing recurring voucher contracts, creating PO vouchers, and correcting Accounts Payable transactions. (3 hours)
Travel Requests and Vouchers - Preparation of travel requests and vouchers using PeopleSoft financial applications.

Q.  When will 13th month balances be converted from FRS?
Conversion is complete and validation is in progress. The beginning balances will be updated beginning with the December month end reports. 1-18-02

Q.  When will Monthly reports for November be available?
November reports (UGL01003, UGL01004, UGL01047) for 00759, 00765, 00784 are available on Report.Web. 12-21-2001

Q.  Will there still be paper print outs of cost centers sent to budget managers?
Replacements for the monthly financial reports have been completed. Instead of physical distribution of printed reports, these will be distributed to directories on the shared drives at each campus where users with appropriate security can access them. In addition, the users will create many reports as they are needed.

Q.  Will supervisors have access to budget information in cost centers for which their staff or faculty are managers?
Yes.  The security for access to cost center information is consistent with the current level of security.

Q.  Will passwords be changed very often? (As they are in FRS, really inconvenient)
PeopleSoft security does not require that the user password be changed.  However, this will change when PeopleSoft 8.x is implemented.  NT security will continue to require periodic password changes.

Q.  Will the machines shut down the PS application every 10-15 minutes if you are not using it?  (as it does in FRS today)
Time-out is another security device.  The time-out period for PeopleSoft Financials is set for 20 minutes.  The timing will be reviewed as UHS experience with PeopleSoft grows.

Q.  Will we receive a chart of accounts with the old FRS account number showing the new PeopleSoft cost centers?
The cross reference between PeopleSoft cost centers and the FRS account numbers is available through PeopleSoft panels and the FAST website.  There are no plans to produce a report at this time.

Q.  How will we be informed of our new cost centers and any changes to them?
Most new cost center will be created in response to a departmental request, and acknowledgement will be returned to the initiating department.  How changes are communicated is dependent on the nature of the change and the effect of the change on department operations.  Budget changes will be communicated through the budget office, departments will work with the budget and accounting offices for organizational changes.

Q.  Will there be hyperlink options on the transactions, while researching data.
There are drilldowns in PeopleSoft Financials but not hyperlinks.  The drilldowns allow the user to go from data that is being presented in summary to the detail behind that data.  This is important as most General Ledger journals that originate in other systems are recorded in summary, and the drilldown to the originating system provides the detail.

Q.  Are reports going to look different?
The PeopleSoft financials reports will look different than FRS reports.  An inventory of the delivered reports to be used by UHS and those developed by the project is available on the Reference and Forms section of the FAST Finance web site http://www.uh.edu/fast/financial/docs/Inventory of GL Reports 070901.pdf.

Q.  How long will we be receiving FRS reports?
FRS reports will be printed for the remaining periods of fiscal year 2001.

Q.  Historically, different agencies of the federal government were given a string of numbers in FRS for easy identification.  Will we be using a predetermined stream of numbers assigned to each agency?
No, the use of intelligence within coding blocks – and chartfields are coding blocks – is not a recommended practice in relational databases.

Q.  Will the forms, (purchasing, HR, AP) change?
The PeopleSoft suite of HR and Financial applications that is being implemented by the University of Houston will require that virtually every administrative and financial form will be modified.  The forms that have been designed for Finance are also available on the Reference and Forms section of the web site http://www.uh.edu/fast/financial/FS-refandforms.htm.

Q.  How will encumbrances be released if a voucher is paid from a different account than the PO was set up on?
Purchase orders are closed in PeopleSoft when the final payment is made.  That process is designed to release outstanding encumbrances as well as making the PO unavailable for additional expense.

Q.  If there is budget in a cost center but not on a specific account will transactions still be processed?
The UHS design for budgets in PeopleSoft keeps the balance at summary accounts, not unlike the budget pools in FRS.  The transaction for a specific operating expense will pass budget check provided there is sufficient budget remaining in the budget summary account.

Q.  Will the project accounts be using the BP0000 budget period?
Yes.  Project cost centers will use BP0000 regardless of the fiscal year, which eliminates the need to roll budget forward for projects. 

Q.  Do we have three signature authorizations as we did in FRS?
No.  The PeopleSoft database records managers for departments and programs.  Authorizations will be required as workflow is introduced into the financial system.

Q.  How do I get an account?
Initially, Operator IDs (OperIDs) are being created for all current users of the financial systems (FINAPS, FINFRS, PURCH), and acknowledgements will be distributed to the employee. OperID setup is scheduled for University of Houston as follows:  current PURCH users -  completion date of July 16 (completed); current FINAPS users - completion date of August 16 (in progress); current FINFRS users - completion date of September 4 (in progress).   Those using more than one system will only have one OperID, which will be available by the earliest completion date, i.e., those using both FINAPS, and FINFRS will receive their OperID by August 16.

Q.  Is the OperID form on the Web?
Acknowledgements will be distributed and returned to the user during the initial setup.  Applications for the OperID, access to PS General Ledger, PS Payables and PS Purchasing will be on the FAST Finance website by month's end for those users who do not have Admin accounts.

Q.  Do I need to already have an admin account before I can get a Peoplesoft   account?
No, an admin account is not necessary, however those without an admin account who wish to access PS Financials will need to apply for an OperID and the appropriate access using the applications.

Q.  Will I automatically get an account when I sign up for class?
After the applications are live, your OperId will be given access to the application (General Ledger, Payables or Purchasing) shortly after you attend the class.  Until they go live your OperID will not be able to access production (FSPRD), however you can access sandbox (FSSBX) using guest OperIDs that will be provided during class.

Q.  Will I receive my account when I attend class?
No.  Your OperID will be provided to you after you attend class.