RIAS Phase II. Training. Check Your Journals. In This Issue

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1 RIAS Phase II August Issue Volume 1, Number 9 In This Issue Training Check Your Journals - Delete a Journal Easy Way to Create a Journal New Desktop Configuration Monthly Closing Schedule - Change a Period Reports - New Categories - New Terms Training Additional training classes for Journal Creation in the new General Ledger and the RIAS Gateway/ Financial Reports have been added on the UHR Enrollment Management system. If you have not yet attended a class, please visit the UHR site at, After you login, select the RIAS Phase II category and then select enroll next to the class you wish to attend. There is also online training for these classes available on the RIAS website. To view online training, go to the RIAS website, Check Your Journals There are many journals listed in the General Ledger that have not been sent to an Approver for approval or were sent to an Approver but have not yet been approved. When you create a journal directly in the application, please check to make sure that you have submitted your journal for approval. If a journal is not needed, please go into the General Ledger and delete it. To delete a journal: Locate the journal to be deleted in the General Ledger. Select the Unreserve Funds button either on the Journal or the Batch screen. The journal can now be deleted using the delete icon on the toolbar. A decision box will appear asking you if you want to delete the journal. Select Yes. Some ways you can check that your journal has been submitted: Review your notifications in your worklist. You receive a notification every time: o you submit a journal for approval o when no action has been taken by an Approver in 3 days o when a journal has been approved or rejected RIAS Phase II Newsletter August

2 If you have access to the financial data warehouse, you can check the Daily Activity Report. The journal will appear on this report after it has been approved and posted to the General Ledger. You can review the RU Journal Approval History to see the status of a journal. Do you have questions about RIAS Phase II? Any of the following resources can assist you in getting your questions answered: Go to the RIAS website Contact your Business Manager Contact the Help Desk: rias2gl@rci.rutgers.edu or call What s The Easiest Way to Create a Journal? The easiest way to create a journal in the General Ledger is to use the Web ADI Excel templates. Depending on the type of journal you are creating, there are several different templates you can download from the RIAS forms repository at The most commonly used template is the RU Actuals Journal which can also be found as a link on the RIAS Gateway. Why use Web ADI? Until you upload the journal to the General Ledger, the templates are just Excel spreadsheets and the information on the journal can be easily populated using Excel The Web ADI Excel templates can be saved on your desktop The Web ADI Excel templates can be used over again You have an electronic copy on your desktop for your files The Web ADI Excel templates can be ed to others Additional lines can easily be added to a journal RIAS Phase II Newsletter August

3 The description of the journal automatically populates to the bottom of the Excel template for printing and display purposes Catcher s Mitt When an Approver is at the top of their hierarchy and needs a journal approved, they must select an Alternate Approver. If an Alternate Approver is not selected, the journal will be sent to the Catcher s Mitt. The journal will be rejected and sent back to you to select an Alternate Approver. A system generated notification will be sent from Creighton Pfieffer, who is actually at the top of the requisition hierarchy. However, for journals, any questions should be directed to the RIAS Phase II Help Desk. Once a Web ADI Template is uploaded, it is automatically sent to an Approver for approval. You do not need to select the Reserve Funds and Approve buttons. MAC users can use the RU MAC Budget Permanent Adj and RU MAC Temporary Adj Excel templates to create non salary budget adjustment journals. (MAC users need to create Actuals and Encumbrance journals directly in the RIAS application) Don t forget to configure your desktop in order for the Web ADI Excel templates to work properly. Complete instructions on these configurations can be found in the Desktop Configuration Guide on the RIAS website, New Desktop Configuration for Web ADI If you do not save the Web ADI Excel Template to your desktop and would like to use the template directly from either the RIAS forms repository or the link on the RIAS Gateway, the following setup is needed (This setup is not needed for Excel 2007): 1. Click on My Computer on your desktop. RIAS Phase II Newsletter August

4 2. From the toolbar, select Tools and Folder Options. 3. Select File Types. In the drop down box, scroll down until the XLS file type appears. Click on XLS and select Advanced. 4. Remove the check mark in front of the option Browse in the same window and select OK. 5. Then select Close. RIAS Phase II Newsletter August

5 Monthly Closing Schedule After the first business day in a new month, the prior fiscal period will be closed. When an Approver is reviewing a journal, check to make sure the journal has the correct open fiscal period. A journal can not post to a closed fiscal period. It is recommended that as month end approaches, Approvers review pending journals to take action in the appropriate month, otherwise journals created in one month, but not approved will need to be adjusted by changing the period. The Approver has two options, either change the period to the current open fiscal period and submit the journal to their Approver or reject the journal and have the Preparer change the fiscal period when the reject notification appears in their FYI notifications. To change a fiscal period: 1. Select Unreserve Funds from either the Journals screen or the Batch screen. 2. A note screen appears advising you that your transaction(s) passed unreservation. Select OK. 3. Select Change Period from either the Journals screen or the Batch screen. 4. Enter in the new current fiscal period. The new period selected will appear in the period field on the journal. Resubmit your journal for approval. RIAS Phase II Newsletter August

6 Signs (+) (< >) on Reports How Fund Source Balances are displayed in reports Oracle displays the Fund Source balances in the following manner: Debits (i.e. Expense), are shown as positives (+). Credits (i.e. Revenue) are shown as negatives (< >). Net Debit balances will show as positive balances (+). Net Credit balances will show as negative balances (< >). A Fund Source balance that appears as a negative number indicates there is money to spend. Budget Amounts Depending on the report, Budget amounts are displayed differently. In the All Funds Budget report and Departmental Fund Sources report the Budget amounts and Fund Source Balances will display as negative amounts (<>) indicating there is money to spend. This was done on these reports because some Fund Sources show Budget and some Fund Sources show Beginning Balances in the first column. This way the first column adds down correctly. In all other reports, Budget amounts: FDW_ DISCO_USER is the list created for Discoverer users. As a member of this list, you will receive s alerting you to important information related to Discoverer. a. will appear as positive number (+) indicating there is money to spend Categories Reference codes that are currently used in the mainframe FAS and OFIS system as well as the current financial data warehouse will change to something called categories in Oracle. These categories will appear on the reports. The chart below shows some translations. Current Reference Code Abbreviations VN Oracle Category Purchase Invoice Definition Voucher Number JE PR RU Actuals Journal RU Legacy Payroll Journal Entry Charges Payment of Salaries and Wages (Payroll) RIAS Phase II Newsletter August

7 Current Reference Code Abbreviations BA AD Oracle Category RU Budget Original RU Budget Temporary Adj Definition Original budget load An increase or decrease to a budget amount which remains in effect only for the current fiscal year PA BF RU Budget Permanent Adj RU Bal Fwd- System An increase or decrease to a budget amount which remains in effect permanently Balance forward transactions from the prior year to the new year Cash Receipts C% (wildcard) RU Cash Receipts SR RU SAR Student Account Receivables TE RU Telephone Telephone charges Charges TI RU Travel ITT ITT Travel TW RU Travel Worldtek travel Worldtek For the most up to date information on RIAS Phase II visit the RIAS website, V, W and X RU FAMS Financial Aid WP RU WOLP Web Online Payments RU FACO Facilities and Administrative Costs (Indirect Cost) New Terms Here are some Reporting terms used in the standard reports. Term Oracle Definition Abbreviations Period to Date PTD Cumulative amount of period (monthly), activity only. For example amounts posted from March 1 st to March 10 th. Period to Date does not include the beginning balance for the period. RIAS Phase II Newsletter August

8 Term Quarter to Date Oracle Abbreviations QTD Definition Amount from the start of the quarter to date. Year to Date YTD Amount from the start of the fiscal year to date. Project to Date Beginning Balance Descriptive Flexfield PJTD Beg Bal DFF Amount from the start of the project to date. The amount from the beginning of the fiscal year to the beginning of the current period (month). An alternate flexible field that allows additional information to be put on a transaction. RIAS Phase II Newsletter August