BUSINESS RESOURCES

Fiscal Year-End Close – as a reminder, please consult the 2023-2024 SIMBA Year-End Closing Schedule for upcoming deadlines. Deadlines for next week include:

• Friday, June 14^th by 5 P.M. - All invoices to be charged to the 2023-2024 fiscal year are due in Central Procurement.


• Sunday, June 16^th by 5 P.M. – All Purchase Order Change Forms for existing orders are due in Central Procurement.

Decommissioned General Ledger Accounts List – Please note that a GL cannot be blocked for use in SIMBA if the GL has open commitments (i.e., PO, GRIR, incomplete Parked Document, or Funds Commitments). When completing transactions, please verify that the GL does not appear on this list. Once all transactions have cleared on a GL, the SIMBA Team blocks the GL from use in the system. The more diligent end-users are with not using the GLs and clearing up open commitments, the faster the GL can be blocked. The following GLs still have open commitment items preventing the block from being applied:

• 52210110 - use 52210100


• 52210111 – use 52210101


• 52213080 - use 52213081


• 52241010 - use 52241011


• 52241020 - use 52241021


• 52241060 - use 52241061


• 52241080 - use 52241081


• 52241100 - use 52241101


• 52241180 - use 52241181


• 52241280 - use 52241281


• 52241320 - use 52241321


• 52241360 - use 52241361


• 52242000 - use 52242001


• 52361600 – use 52361601


• 52361670 - use 52361671


• 52390100 - use 52390101


• 52571030 – use 52571031


• 52601230 – use 52601231


• 52571030 - use 52571031

New GL – GL 52301400 IT Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been added. Use this GL when purchasing integration of AI capabilities or products (for example, natural language processing [NLP], cognitive systems, and analytics), applications, or systems, as well as licenses for AI. All requirements with accompanying contracts must be sent to the Office of Central Procurement for review and signature.

PROCEDURES

Procedure GS2001 Graduate School Application Fee has been updated to reflect current SIMBA business processes.

GURU News Announcement for week ending May 31, 2024

BUSINESS RESOURCES:

Fiscal Year-End Close – as a reminder, please consult the 2023-2024 SIMBA Year-End Closing Schedule for upcoming deadlines.

Decommissioned General Ledger Accounts List – the Decommissioned General Ledger Accounts List has been updated. Please use the identified replacement GL. Please note that a GL cannot be blocked for use in SIMBA if the GL has open commitments (i.e., PO, GRIR, incomplete Parked Document, or Funds Commitments). When completing transactions, please verify that the GL does not appear on this list. Once all transactions have cleared on a GL, the SIMBA Team blocks the GL from use in the system. The more diligent end-users are with not using the GLs and clearing up open commitments, the faster the GL can be blocked. The following GLs still have open commitment items preventing the block from being applied:

• 52210110 - use 52210100 or 52210101


• 52213080 - use 52213081


• 52241010 - use 52241011


• 52241020 - use 52241021


• 52241060 - use 52241061


• 52241080 - use 52241081


• 52241100 - use 52241101


• 52241180 - use 52241181


• 52241280 - use 52241281


• 52241320 - use 52241321


• 52241360 - use 52241361


• 52242000 - use 52242001


• 52361670 - use 52361671


• 52390100 - use 52390101


• 52390140 - use 52390141


• 52571030 - use 52571031

OTHER:

Ask an Expert: Purchase Order Change Form – As the end of the fiscal year approaches, Central Procurement invites shoppers to pop in to Ask an Expert: Purchase Order Change Form.

• Between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. Fri., May 31


• Zoom Link

Connect with a buyer in a breakout room to determine what service to request and how to complete the form fields.

• Decrease/Release Encumbrance: Change one or more lines without canceling the purchase order.


• Modifications to Account Assignments: Cost Center or Intern Order Cost Objects.


• Cancel: All lines and the entire order.

To ensure an efficient and effective submission, shoppers can also connect with the buyer listed on the purchase order to determine the proper form selection before submitting.

GURU News Announcement for week ending May 24, 2024

The following documents have been updated and are available for use:

BUSINESS RESOURCES:

Table of Stipends for Graduate Assistants

The 24/25 Table of Stipends for Graduate Assistants is now available. In accordance with record retention requirements, the 21/22 table has been removed from the site.

Fiscal Year-End Close

As a reminder, please consult the 2023-2024 SIMBA Year-End Closing Schedule for upcoming deadlines.

PROCEDURES:

Procedure GP2009 Education Abroad Programs Fiscal Procedures has been updated to reflect current business processes and replace IBIS information with SIMBA terminology.

The file names have been updated and any “Bookmarks” or “Saved As Favorite” links must be refreshed or updated to access the current version of the documents.

OTHER:

As we enter the Memorial Day weekend, take a moment to pause and remember those who gave their last full measure for this country. “Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each solider who died protecting it.” – Unknown

Effective: May 24, 2024

YEAR-END CLOSING

Purchase Order Option Line Guidance Forms

A reminder that the last day Central Procurement can accept Purchase Order Option Line Guidance Forms for exercising Purchase Order Option lines on existing Purchase Orders that must start in the new fiscal year is Friday, May 31^st by 5 p.m.

Open Encumbrances

Finance offices should review all open Purchase Orders for their business area. Any open purchase orders from previous fiscal years need to be resolved before May 31^st by 5 p.m. See the SIMBA: Shop OnLion Purchase Order Commitment KB article for additional information on displaying open purchase orders.

Goods Confirmations

Goods Confirmations should be completed accurately (i.e., if the goods were received centrally or by shoppers prior to fiscal year-end, the goods receipt/goods confirmation should be on that date). If the goods receipt was not entered in the appropriate fiscal year, the shopper or central office should be completing the goods receipt and notifying the user’s finance office that an accrual should be made for the expense. Users should review “Blocked Invoice No GR Report” to determine outstanding goods confirmations.

Decommissioned GLs

For those business areas having been notified of open encumbrances, goods confirmations, or parked documents on general ledger accounts being decommissioned, these items need to be resolved by the May 31^st deadline (see open encumbrances and goods confirmations above). GLs cannot be blocked for use in SIMBA if the GL has open encumbrances, outstanding goods confirmations, or parked documents. Please refer to the General Ledger Accounts Decommissioned List for the complete list of GLs being decommissioned.

GURU News Announcement for week ending April 19, 2024

The following document has been revised and are available for use:

Procedures:

UL2002 University Press Processing the Canadian Goods and Services Tax - UL2002 last underwent editorial changes in July 1992. Since that time the IBIS financial system was replaced with the SIMBA financial system. This document was completely reviewed to update current business processes.

UL2003  Depositing Library Receipts and Processing Student Charges and Credits - Procedure UL2003 last underwent editorial changes in November 2007.  Since that time the IBIS financial system was replaced with the SIMBA financial system. This document was completely reviewed to update current business processes.

Any "Saved as Favorites" or bookmarks need to be updated to access the newest version of the document.

Effective: April 19, 2024

GURU News Announcement for week ending March 29, 2024

The following documents have been updated and are available for use:

BUSINESS RESOURCES:

YEAR-END CLOSING SCHEDULE - The 23/24 fiscal year Year-End Closing Schedule is available. Please use this document as a checklist to plan what you and your team eed to do to comply with year-end closing activities/tasks.

PROCEDURES:

CR2055 Preacquisition Screening of Federally-Funded Capital Property – editorial changes: Last sentence added to last paragraph in procedure subsection, as approved by Manager of Financial Reporting.

CR2081 Short-Term Student Loans - Editorial changes: Department of Education new federal regulation disallowing transcript financial holds. All references to transcripts removed from the document. Financial holds will continue to impact a student’s ability to enroll/register in a future semester and/or receive a diploma.

FN2005 Depositing Cash Revenues - Editorial Changes: SIMBA KB article Cash Deposit Journal Entry renamed to Creating a Journal Entry for Incoming Funds and all hyperlinks to KB article updated.

FN2015 Labor Distribution (formerly CR2015) - Procedure completely rewritten to update current business process, procedure renumbered and retitled from CR2015 to FN2015, and effort certification business processed moved to Procedure FN2064 Effort Certification (see below).

FN2064 Effort Certification - new procedure

FORMS:

Vehicle Accident Report - updated to reflect current business processes.

MASTER DATA:

The following General Ledger Accounts are no longer available for use for transactions within SIMBA:

• GL 13010310 Travel Advance Return


• GL13010860 Accounts Receivable - Non-Employee PCard

The above General Ledger Accounts have been replaced with with following GLs:

• GL 13010311 Travel Advance Return Open Item Managed (OIM)


• GL 13010861 Accounts Receivable - Non-Employee PCard Open Item Managed (OIM)

The auto-clear functionality has been enabled on these GLs which allows business areas to easily reconcile outstanding advances

Any bookmarks or "Saved as Favorite" links to any of the above documents will need to be refreshed to access the updated documents.

Effective: March 29, 2024

GURU News Changes

The Office of Systems & Procedures has received notification from Central IT that GURU News Announcements would be migrating from Listserv to O365 distribution lists. FIS IT diligently worked on implementing a new process for the publication of GURU News Announcements and the maintenance of the distribution list. In order to maintain the accuracy of the distribution list, it is imperative that end-users subscribe and unsubscribe from the distribution list using the following processes:

Subscribing to GURU News Announcements - This is a self-initiated process:

1. Go to the GURU Website


2. Click the Help tab (located in the blue bar above the word GURU)


3. Click Subscribe to GURU News  button (located above Technical Support wording). User is required to sign in through web access.


4. If subscribing, the Access ID field will be pre-populate - click subscribe button


5. If unsubscribing, the Access ID field will be pre-populated - click "Remove from Mailing List." 

Effective: March 28, 2024

GURU News Announcement for week ending March 15, 2024

GENERAL LEDGER (GL) ACCOUNT 13010311 Travel Advance Return Open Item Managed (OIM):

When an expense report is processed in SAP Concur for a travel advance and funds are due back to the University, the Cash Advance Return is recorded on the SIMBA ZW document as a debit to the Travel Advance Return GL. The existing GL 13010310 has been replaced with GL 13010311 Travel Advance Return OIM to take advantage of the automatic system clearing capabilities. The interface posts the debit to 13010311 using the Business Area listed on the expense report header, Fund 1100000001, and Grant NOTRELEVANT. The PERNR of the advance holder is captured to identify the receivable responsibility. When the Cash Advance Return funds are deposited, the following cash deposit journal entry YC document is recorded:

• Debit




• GL assigned to the bank where the funds were deposited


• Business Area = 4-digit business area # for the area making the deposit


• Fund = 1850000001 (all bank clearing GL accounts must use this fund)


• Grant = NOTRELEVANT


• Assignment = bank location code




• see the SIMBA: Create a Journal Entry for Incoming Funds KB for the bank location codes






• Credit


• GL 13010311 Travel Advance Return OIM


• Business Area = the business area from the expense report header, captured on the ZW document line item for the return


• Fund 1100000001


• Grant = NOTRELEVANT


• Text = TR ADV return [name of advance holder]


• PERNR = PERNR of the advance holder




• Use the Fiori HCM PERNR Details tile in SIMBA to locate PERNR numbers




• Assignment = 8-digit PERNR of the advance holder




• If the PERNR is less than 8 digits, enter leading zeros (i.e., PERNR = 123, Assignment = 00000123)

If the individual is no longer an active employee, the PERNR field is to be left blank, but the Assignment field is still completed as noted. The Assignment field is used during the GL auto-clearing process.

GL ACCOUNT 13010800 Name Change:

The name of GL 13010800 has changed from Petty Cash/FO Op Fund to Long-Term Advance. This change was necessary to align with current business processes.

Effective: March 15, 2024

GURU News Announcement for week ending February 9, 2024

The following documents have been updated and are available for use:

FORMS:

The following form has been updated to document current business processes:

• University Intellectual Property Agreement

The file names have been updated and any “Bookmarks” or “Saved As Favorite” links must be refreshed or updated to access the current version of the documents.

Effective: February 9, 2024

GURU News Announcement for week ending January 19, 2024

The following document has been updated and is available for use:

PROCEDURES:

Procedure FN2002 Processing Returned Checks (formerly CR2002) has been updated to document Central Accounts Receivable business processes.

The file name has been changed from CR2002 to FN2002 and any “Bookmarks” or “Saved As Favorite” links must be refreshed or updated to access the current version of the document.

Effective: January 19, 2024.

GURU News Announcement for Week Ending January 5, 2024

Happy New Year from the Office of Systems & Procedures!

The following documents have been updated and are available for use:

FORMS:

The University Guest Presenter Agreement form now has the electronic signature fields enabled. Both the Guest Presenter and the University official authorized to sign the form will be able to add their digital ID to the form.

To access the version of the form containing the digital ID fields, click the “Form Download” icon on the link above, click the “Download” icon located in the upper right corner of the screen, and save the document in a location of your choosing. Open and complete the PDF version of the form from the saved location. The form instructions linked above provide details on the file naming conventions required.

It is important to note that once a signature has been applied to an Adobe PDF it is considered an approved form and no further revisions to the form are possible. Once the Guest Presenter adds their digital ID, the University official authorized to sign the form (usually the Financial Officer) may add their digital ID; however, they will not be able to add their name and title. It is permissible to leave these fields blank as the digital ID will contain the name.

Any prior “saved as” favorites or bookmarks will need to be refreshed in order to access the new version of the forms. The new version is dated 1/2/2024.

GURU News Announcement for week ending December 8th

Procedures

The following procedure has been reviewed and updated:

Procedure IA2005 Sale of Food and Beverages at Intercollegiate Athletic Facilities Events has been reviewed and updated.

Business Resources

The following business resources have been updated and are available for use:

• Non-U.S. Citizen Payment Guidelines


• SIMBA: Transfer Process

The file names on the above documents have been updated and any “Bookmarks” or “Saved As Favorite” links must be refreshed or updated to access the current version of the documents.

Effective: 12/8/2023

Accessing GURU documents with Google Chrome

It has been brought to the attention of the Office of Systems & Procedures that fill-and-print forms on GURU created with Adobe Acrobat, do not function appropriately when accessed using Firefox and/or Microsoft Edge. After some research, it has been determined that a work-around is not currently available.

In order to access any of the forms on GURU and have the fill-and-print functionality available, the end-user must access the GURU website using Google Chrome.

If, upon opening a PDF in Google Chrome, the "Fill & Sign in Acrobat" bar does not appear in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, it will be necessary to enable Adobe Acrobat extension on that computer.

Please visit the Enable Adobe Acrobat extension for Google Chrome webpage for instructions to enable individual computers.

Please submit a GURU Technical Support Form for additional assistance.

Thank you, in advance, for your understanding and patience.

Effective 4/7/2021

Functionality of forms when using "Print to PDF" option

It has been brought to the attention of the Office of Systems & Procedures that the functionality of the “print to pdf” option (clicking the printer icon and select PDF) when a form contains fill-and-print form fields has changed. When a document is saved using the “print to pdf” option, the “fill-and-print” form fields on the saved version are inactive. If you entered information on the web-version, saved the document, and now need to add or modify the information saved, that functionality is unavailable. Also, if you selected “print to pdf” by clicking the printer icon on the web-document page, before entering any information, the document contains the same issue (i.e., unable to add information).

The good news is that the “download” icon (arrow pointing down) option is working appropriately. To create a version in which entering information is possible, complete the following steps:

1. Open the desired form


2. Click the arrow pointing down (upper right-hand corner) and download the document


3. Open the document that you just downloaded


4. Before entering any information on the form, Click File, “Save As” and rename the downloaded document


5. Open the renamed version of the form


6. Complete all information and click “Save”

If you continue to encounter any issues with saving forms, please submit an AskGURU HelpDesk ticket

Enabling Adobe Acrobat extension for Google Chrome

The Office of Systems & Procedures is in the process of adding signature boxes to forms appearing on the GURU website. It has been brought to our attention that no all computers across the University are configured to allow for applying digital ID's or electronic signatures.

If, upon opening a PDF in Google Chrome, the "Fill & Sign in Acrobat" bar does not appear in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, it will be necessary to enable Adobe Acrobat extension on that computer.

Please visit the Enable Adobe Acrobat extension for Google Chrome webpage for instructions to enable individual computers.

Unsubscribe from GURU ListServ

Follow the steps below to unsubscribe yourself from the GURU Listserv:

You should receive an email confirming your removal from the list.