1 Dvlopmnt of Financial Managmnt Rporting in MPLS 1. Aim Our currnt financial rports ar structurd to dlivr an ovrall financial pictur of th dpartmnt in it s ntirty, and thr is no attmpt to provid ithr on-off or rgular rports on th taching /rsarch/othr activitis that w undrtak within our dpartmnts. Givn that most of our dpartmnts bliv that thr is a substantial loss mad on taching undrgraduat studnts, and a brak-vn to surplus position on rsarch, graduat taching and othr activitis.g. sals and srvics, w bliv that dpartmnts nd to b supportd by rgular monthly accounts that provid an accurat statmnt of thir undrlying financial position. Th aim of this proposal is to dvlop rports from Oracl that will provid rlvant financial information to dpartmnts, allowing thm to rviw incom/costs in mor dtail and to mak dcisions basd upon ral information rathr than instinct. Th rports would also support longtrm financial planning, which would b mor confidntly undrtakn with rliabl supporting information. Finally, th rports would assist xtrnal scrutiny by HEFCE, sponsors and donors. W bliv that futur funding might b jopardisd if w ar unabl to support thir rqusts. Th information would also support ngotiations with collgs, th Cntr and Govrnmnt. 2. Dvlopmnt Oracl will b dvlopd to dlivr financial information on th tru financial position for taching, rsarch and othr activitis. Th dvlopmnt will also nabl us to ascrtain th full cost of our support activitis.g. workshops. This transformation in th valu of Oracl rporting will b dlivrd by two distinct changs in th way that w manag information on Oracl. First, MPLS will nsur that th Oracl coding structur usd to hold financial data matchs th dpartmntal organisational structur, and that th financial data is corrctly rcordd within this nw structur. Th ffct of this first chang will b to rmov th cluttr that currntly xists in accounts and to start producing clarr data about our activitis. Th scond chang (as simplistically dpictd in Appndix A) will b achivd by apportioning th costs of th dpartmnt s support activitis to th incom-arning activitis (taching, rsarch and othr activitis) by an agrd mthod of apportionmnt. It is also intndd that th full costs for sub activitis such as catring or th financ function will b known, and that it will b possibl to dtrmin th contribution of commrcial activitis. 3. Principls This dvlopmnt will oprat within th Oracl nvironmnt and will follow a fw ky principls that will maintain th intgrity and simplicity of th systm: 3.1 Chart of Accounts Dsign incorporating rsrv typ classification th dsign within Oracl will rplicat th actual organisational structur within a dpartmnt.g. a cost cntr for th Financ tam, and will hav a common format that can b implmntd across all MPLS dpartmnts. This is shown in Appndix B and provids a hirarchical structur that groups togthr oprational activity.g. taching. Th structur is sufficintly flxibility to allow dpartmnts to manag at lowr lvls in th futur if dsird.g. rsarch group. At th sam tim, as dscribd in Appndix C, th structur would includ th paralll layrs of rsrv rporting as outlind in th papr on cor and non cor rporting. 3.2 Coding all incom and costs will b codd dirctly to taching / rsarch / othr activitis / support activitis with a holding pot cost cntr at th top of ach group to hold itms that
2 dpartmnts do not wish to dvolv.g. shar of JRAM incom, shar of infrastructur costs, rsarch ovrhads tc. 3.3 Cost Allocation Mthodology this will b a tim-consuming xrcis whn undrtakn for th first tim. Dpartmnts will nd to hav data on various parts of thir organisation,.g. spac, to facilitat an initial cost-allocation xrcis. Onc compltd, th mthodology will b rlativly asy to updat, barring major changs in oprations,.g. nw building. Furthr information is providd in Appndix D. 3.4 Rports nw rports will b dvlopd to show financial rsults by taching, rsarch and othr activitis. Furthr dtail is providd in 4.6. 3.5 Transparncy support activitis ar not r-allocatd within th Oracl systm itslf, but will b allocatd on th Oracl rporting tool. (Support activity costs will not b journalld around Oracl crating confusion but will rmain in thir cost cntrs providing a full and transparnt pictur of support activity costs) 4. Work Plan Division will work with individual dpartmnts to roll out this dvlopmnt with knowldg gaind from on dpartmnt bing usd to spd up th procss in th nxt, particularly in trms of introducing th concpt of posting at sourc. Each dpartmnt will b xpctd to tak 3 to 4 months to complt th ncssary analysis of cor data; othr dpartmnts will gain from this xrcis. 4.1 Rviw organisation structur on Oracl to align and focus financial rporting to th dpartmnts organisational structur basd on a uniform structur as dtaild in Appndix B. 4.2 Rviw and analysis of dpartmnt staff to idntify all staff costs in th accounts and b abl to account for ths in trms of rols and location within th nw structur. This rvisd undrstanding of payroll costs in trms of activity to thn b hard codd into th accounts via th monthly payroll run. 4.3 Allocat RAM/JRAM to nw cost cntr structur to accuratly dvolv funding and infrastructur chargs on th basis of drivrs usd in th PRAS modl. 4.4 Analysis of accounts to transfr itms of incom and cost rlating to incom gnrating activitis hld in dpartmntal ovrhad accounts to thir corrct plac in th nw accounts structur. Rmaining itms in Dpartmntal ovrhad accounts to thn b analysd to inform dsign of allocation mthodology. 4.5 Allocation mthodology - from information gaind in abov stags, an allocation mthodology to b dsignd and prototypd on an Excl spradsht and thn applid via Oracl rporting. Furthr information is providd in Appndix D. 4.6 Dsign of rports nw rports will b dvlopd providing accurat financial information that focuss on dpartmntal activitis. Th intntion is for ths nw rports to run off a front nd GL Enquirr tool that is abl to accss Oracl data and which will provid th additional functionality in Excl format to support ths rports. Th softwar is currntly undr rviw with cntral financ and roll out is likly to b in 2/3 months tim. Cntral financ hav providd assuranc that thy will support th rporting rquirmnts on Excl should th GL Enquirr tool not b availabl. Copis of proposd rports can b obtaind from divisional financ. 4.7 Rviws projct to b rviwd at ach stag by division and dpartmnt. 4.8 Maintnanc support accounts to b rgularly rviwd to nsur adhrnc to post at sourc policy and to nabl rgular rcharging whr ncssary (g photocopy chargs, rnt apportionmnts). This is also good practic to kp on top of costs that may hav bn postd onto dpartmntal accounts in rror.
3 5. Cost/Bnfit Ovrviw This will nabl us to mak informd financial dcisions, and to undrstand whr losss ar bing mad and why. This dvlopmnt is quit simpl, building on and maximising th rsourcs that hav bn and continu to b invstd in Oracl. It rprsnts a profssional approach to financial managmnt but without th costs that hav bn associatd with th introduction of Oracl. Howvr, th proposal dos rquir that thr is a bttr undrstanding of financ in dpartmnts and that procsss and assumptions undrpinning th systm ar rgularly monitord. This additional work is largly good practic but is listd blow in ordr to b clar about th on-going commitmnt of rsourcs: monthly rviw of support srvic costs to mak sur that ths ar in ordr monthly rviw of payroll costs rgular rviws of Oracl coding structur to mak sur it continus to oprat as dsignd rgular distribution of rports on taching, rsarch, othr incom gnrating activitis and support srvic costs annual allocation of JRAM (but this might b bttr don by Division) rgular allocation of rsarch ovrhads. It is likly that in som dpartmnts, part of this work may alrady b rgularly prformd by th Administrator or Financ Officr, and in ths cass, additional workload is likly to b small. In thos instancs whr this is not th cas, up to 0.50 FTE for a larg dpartmnt might b ndd. Thr would b a nd to rviw systm procsss and assumptions in th mdium trm say fiv yars. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 APPENDIX A Simpl rprsntation of cor dpartmntal structur and allocation Support Activitis Taching/Rsarch/Othr Activitis Admin Workshops Building Maint Costs for allocation much rducd as cluttr rmovd from accounts. Effct of this is to mak impact of allocation lss significant. Not that allocations ar not mad on Oracl but on th rporting softwar, thrby maintaining th intgrity of th accounts. T a c h i n g R s a r c h O t h r ALLOCATION via rporting softwar
5 Dtaild dpartmntal structur common to MPLS dpartmnts APPENDIX B A REPORT B Rport Lvl 2 GROUP Support Srvics Oprations Projcts Lvl 3 ACTIVITY Admin Buildings Workshops Othr Taching Othr Rsarch Rsarch Lvl 4 HOLDING POT Not 1 O/hd a/c O/hd a/c O/hd a/c O/hd a/c O/hd a/c O/hd a/c O/hd a/c Lvl 5 INDIVIDUAL (cost cntrs) Financ No 9 Elctronics Rchargs P/G Sals Individual PI a/cs Flxibl, can b addd to as HR No 8 Mchanical Trust Funds U/G Confrncs DTGs ncssary for undrstanding IT Wstlak Taching Courss Rm Hir John Fll businss and costs. Gnral S Parks Catring Individual Grants Not 2 Not 2 Currntly Rsarch in A rport is considrd spratly from rsarch in B rport but givn th scal of rsarch in som MPLS dpartmnts it may now b tim to b abl to considr ths togthr. Intgration of rporting by cor and non-cor activity into Oracl structur APPENDIX C Th Oracl coding structur will also incorporat th paralll lvl of rsrv rporting as outlind in th papr on cor and non-cor rporting. Each cost cntr will b flaggd at th tim of rstructuring as a rsrv typ with a parnt cod st up that rcogniss that rsrv typ as ithr cor or non-cor. This xrcis should b rlativly straightforward but it will rquir som considration as rsrvs hav bn accumulatd for various purposs and this nds to b rcognisd on Oracl. Th us of additional cost cntrs or mor likly additional Sourc of Funds cods will provid th functionality to rcognis th diffrnt typs of rsrv within th Oracl coding structur and catgoris thm by typ and thn at a highr lvl by cor or non-cor. Rporting on cor and non-cor activitis will ithr us xisting Oracl rporting functionality or will us th GL nquirr tool rfrrd to in 4.6 abov.
6 Discussion of allocation mthodology APPENDIX D Th main papr has dlibratly avoidd discussion of allocation mthodology or using workd xampls bcaus th papr is intndd to prsnt th concpt. Howvr, it is clar that th allocation mthodology is likly to b of immdiat intrst and this appndix addrsss som ky aspcts of allocation mthodology as an asid to th main papr. Posting of incom and costs at sourc all incom (g JRAM, Rsarch Ovrhads) and costs (quipmnt, rpairs, I/S chargs, tc) that can b idntifid as blonging to a discrt activity or activity group will b postd dirctly to that activity in th coding plan. This approach will much rduc th lvl of incom and costs hld on support activity cost cntrs making th accounts mor accurat and rsponsiv to changs in oprations. It also provids a trur pictur of support activity costs and rducs th impact of subsqunt allocation of support activity costs. Allocation Mthodology for support activitis costs- th mthodology will b drivd from an analysis of ths accounts to undrstand how costs hav arisn and which part of th dpartmnt uss this rsourc and in what amount. It is likly that ach lin in th accounts will b analysd and a spcific drivr chosn to rflct usag to mak sur that allocation mthodology is accurat and fairly rflcts usag. Pay payroll accounts will b rconcild for prvious yar so thr is a complt and accurat rcord of pay costs and ach lin will thn b allocatd to an activity(is) according to data collatd about that rol. Data is likly to b sourcd from Hads of Dpartmnt, Hads of Groups, Administrators, othr staff, contract documntation, and othr rcords (TRAC nds to b considrd as a simplr altrnativ). Prmis/workshop/quipmnt spnd allocation should follow purpos of th account and this may b rlativly asy to ascrtain and if not thn usag should b calculatd by rfrnc to spac occupid, hadcount, numbr of phons, pay valu. Othr costs ach lin will b analysd and an appropriat drivr chosn. It may b possibl to amalgamat lins which us common drivrs to stramlin th procss. Maintnanc - although considrabl work will hav bn don to us diffrnt drivrs to accuratly allocat srvic costs, it may b worth stramlining th procss by using gnric drivrs, wightd, if ncssary to achiv th sam rsult. Th bnfit of this approach is that it will facilitat any futur updat to th mthodology for incrasd or changd oprations. Howvr, in rality it is unlikly that any updating will b ndd to th mthodology, crtainly in th short trm, bcaus: a) costs on support srvic accounts ar much rducd following adoption of post at sourc policy and thrfor lss matrial spcially whn sprad across a numbr of activitis b) oprational chang is gradual and it will tak a numbr of yars or mor bfor this chang is sufficint to warrant any chang to mthodology. Rsourc th main costs for this systm will b incurrd up front stting up th systm and collating th cor data.