December 5, 2005
October 28, 2005
September 30, 2005
July 15, 2005
May 27, 2005
May 20, 2005
May 6, 2005
April 15, 2005
April 8, 2005
March 18, 2005
March 11, 2005
March 7, 2005
March 4, 2005
February 7, 2005
January 24, 2005
January 13, 2005
January 5, 2005
January 4, 2005
December 30, 2004
December 16, 2004
December 12, 2004
November 16, 2004
October 29, 2004
October 4, 2004
September 17, 2004
September 10, 2004

December 5, 2005
Open Forum Recap.

James Kennedy discussed the new Post production Steering Committee.

Kristi Wold McCormick reviewed the following in records:
Wait List feature
Class Permission
Instructor assigments
Classroom Scheduling

Fall 2006 Registration
Call for classes last week
New format: Supplmental form
Please review on Campus Connection
Do not refer students to fall schedule until notified

Grade Loading
Starts today
Grades due by December 20th
Make sure that Instructor assignments are accurate

Grade Loading Instructions,timelines and helpful hints at www.ndsu.edu/connect

October 28, 2005

Connect ND Open Forum Recap 10/28/05

Finance: Gary Wawers:

Gary handed out a survey to help assess training needs: If you were not at the Open Forum and would like to complete the survey, please email Gary (gary.wawers@ndsu.edu) with your responses to the following three questions:

1. Tell us about your training needs in finance (general ledger, commitment control, purchasing, accounts payable, asset management, vendors or grant management.

2 What problems are you having using the PeopleSoft finance module?

3. Other suggestions/concerns.

You can review Gary's powerpoint presentation at http://www.ndsu.edu/accounting/guidelines/PS.shtm
Scroll down to: NDSU Weekly Information Sessions - Finance Click on: Powerpoint Presentation on Connect ND 10-28-05

Human Resources: Tricia Johnson

Tricia went through critical upcoming dates for payroll. You can review at http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/hr Click on Monthly Payroll Calendar

The Human Resources Office is starting to prepare for 2005 W-2 forms and are reviewing addresses.

Tricia also stated that PeopleSoft HR training will be announced soon.

Records: Kristi Wold McCormick

The spring semester will be the first time that all students will be registering for classes on PeopleSoft.
Departments: Please review the classes offered from your department.
The records staff is preparing a PDF file of the class schedule that will be available on-line soon.
Kristi gave an update on the wait list feature in PeopleSoft.

Please review at http://www.ndsu.edu/connect Section Status Report Spring 2006 Registration Information Quick links (Trial card, Subject Prefix Guide, etc) Campus Connection Help Pages for Faculty/Staff and Students

Training will be coming soon on loading grades into PeopleSoft.
Work is progressing on the room scheduler software (Ad Astra).

Coming soon: Records/departments will need to start preparing for the Summer and Fall 2006 schedule.

Campus Directories will be delivered next week

Grants: Karen Hendrickson

Effort reporting is now done quarterly. If you have retroactive adjustments, please do in a timely manner so the effort reports will show the adjustment.

Karen discussed the PI report

If you receive a refund check that is applied (example--you overpay a vendor and receive a refund check), please note that these will not show up in the budgets. Karen is reviewing.

Karen will be conducting training through the Grants Coordinator Meeting. It is important that if you are working with grants that you attend the meetings. Next Meeting is scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving--more information will be sent soon.

Business Office: Karin Hegstad

Karin reviewed some of the processes/challenges of the business office this fall.

They have placed registration holds on all students who have not paid

They will not post spring charges until after Jan 1 per concerns that it may impact tax reporting.

CICS Imaging: Carol Tschakert

Information from legacy is now being reviewed in Image Now (software that will be used to archive legacy data) PageCenter reports will be available in Image Now by mid-November.
Carol is working on getting the SAS extracts available Carol is also working on PeopleSoft address issues

If you need information from legacy that is not in PeopleSoft. Please contact James Kennedy or Carol Tschakert. More information on this process and upcoming training will be announced soon.

Thanks to everyone for all the hard work and patience.

September 30, 2005

Mainframe-Commissioned:
This is a reminder that the mainframe computer system that has been in use since the North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network (HECN) started in 1973 is being de-commissioned on September 30, 2005. The mainframe has been the centralized system for access by all institutions for their administrative processing .

We have been working with HECN North to get all required information archived. We will be able to access legacy information through software
called Image Now. Please note:

1. All Page Center Reports through August 2005 will be archived.
2. If you are using SAS extracts, these will be still be available.
3. All Transcripts will be archived that are not in Peoplesoft 4. Other required information (Finance , HR, and Student) will be archived.

Please note that this Friday is the last day to use CICS. No will no longer be able to access CICS starting October 1.

I will be sending out more information on how to access information through Image Now software next week.

If you have any questions or concerns, please respond to this email or call

James Kennedy 231-7536
Carol Tschakert 231-7161

July 15, 2005

Upcoming Finance Training:
Finance Reporting Session for New Users
Tuesday, July 19: 9:00 am - 11:00 am (please come at the beginning if you plan on attending) Library 14A

Finance Reporting Review Session
Tuesday, July 19: 1:00 pm - 2:30 (please come at the beginning if you plan on attending) Library 14A

Records Information
Training documents:
Records Navigation in Peoplesoft
Assign Class Permissions
Section Status Report
Security access forms
Unofficial transcript view

Please go to www.ndsu.edu/connect and under Campus Connection Help
pages: Department Help Pages

More records training will be available in August. A posting will be made on the staff list serv with times and locations.

Bison Cards:
The new Bison Cards with the new Peoplesoft ID numbers will be ready for distribution August 1. See the Connect NDSU site http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/staff.shtml
for additional information including times and locations.

Other Student News

Student records have been successfully converted from CICS to Peoplesoft. 1,500 new freshman registered for classes in Peoplesoft during orientation. 1,000 returning students have obtained their new ID and Password through the ITS enroll your.services site. Financial aid has sent out award notices in Peoplesoft. The Business Office is doing tuition calculation this week.

May 27, 2005

Connect ND Open Forum Recap

Upcoming dates:

June 6: Student records goes live on Peoplesoft
June 10/20: Records Training ( see below)
Late July: Student Financials will go live September 30: CICS is retired.

New NDSU training manual for finance:

A new training manual is available at :
http://www.ndsu.edu/accounting/guidelines/FinanceTrainingManual.doc

This manual explains finance inquiries, reports, and queries.

Student user names and passwords:

A self-service site will be available starting June 6th for students to obtain their PeopleSoft user name and password. Please see www.ndsu.edu/connect for additional information.

Important notice from Student Records:

Due to the upcoming conversion of NDSU's academic records, departments are strongly encouraged to submit all outstanding grades and grade changes (including Incompletes) for Spring Semester and prior terms by Wednesday, June 1st. These should be submitted to 110 Ceres on a Grade Reporting form.

Beginning Thursday, June 2nd, 5 p.m., no more data may be entered exclusively into CICS, with the exception of those students enrolled during summer session. This is because summer student records will be converted to PeopleSoft at the close of summer grade loading in August.

Business Office Training:

On Thursday June 9th, training will be provided for sites who create Accounts Receivable charges such as the Library and Soil Science testing. Karin Hegstad, Business Office Manager, will be providing additional information to the departments that may need the training.

Student Portal Demonstration:

Kristi Wold McCormick and James Kennedy did a demonstration on what a student can access on-line through the PeopleSoft Portal. Kristi is getting on-line training documents posted.

Upcoming Records Training

June 10 (Friday) 9:00-11:00/Century Theater June 20 (Monday) 9:00-11:00/Century Theater

More records training will be announced soon.

Upcoming Open Forums

We have not scheduled any additional Open Forums at this time. More Open Forums will be scheduled later this summer or as needed.

May 20, 2005

Connect ND Open Forum Recap

The next Open Forum is Friday, May 27th. Agenda will be sent later this week.

Upcoming dates

June 6th: Student Records conversion to PeopleSoft
July 1: Student Financials go-live September 30: CICS is retired

Student User names and passwords. A self service site will be available for student to obtain this information.
Please refer to www.ndsu/edu/connect for more information. The site will be available starting June 6th.

Student Records

The main focus of the May 20th Open Forum was student records. Kristi Wold McCormick, NDSU registrar, reported the following:

Security forms (access to the records module in Peoplesoft) have been sent out to academic and non-academic departments. These were addressed to the department heads.

Records is finishing the last rounds of testing prior to conversion.

Records training will consist of group sessions (Open Forums) and individual training (Clusters). The training will take place in June (Specific dates are still being set).

Kristi did a Peoplesoft demonstration on the following:

Catalog
Wait lists
Class Rosters
Instructors classes
Service Indicators (FERPA release)
Student Program/Plan/Sub-plan/Degrees
Class Lists

All the above will be covered in the training

The training for faculty (loading grades/viewing records) will take place later this summer.

May 6, 2005

Connect ND User Groups

We discussed how to get an issued resolved. The first step is the contact the NDSU module lead:

Finance: Gary Wawers
Budget: Aubrey Ketterling
Grants: Karen Hendrickson
Human Resources: Brittnee Steckler/Colette Erickson
Ag: (HR and Finance): Jim Swank

The above individuals will review your issue. If it cannot be resolved, they will work with you on how to get a help desk ticket submitted. They will also review to see if the issue should go to the module user group for resolution.

Student User Names/passwords
Bison Cards

Information was sent out last week on how students will obtain new user names and passwords and Bison Card information Please see: www.ndsu.edu/connect

Student Records Update

Kristi Wold McCormick discussed the upcoming records conversion to Peoplesoft (June 6th). She is in the process of defining records roles for faculty and staff. A student records security memo was sent out to non-academic departments requesting information. A memo to academic departments will be sent this week. It is important to complete these forms and return by the listed deadline.

In order to get records access in Peoplesoft, you need to complete on-line FERPA training (5-10 minutes). Instructions for taking this training are included in the student records security memo.

Kristi reported that the project is working on providing an Institutional GPA which is very important to NDSU.

Student records training will start at the end of May and will continue through the summer. A schedule for records training will be sent out soon. We will have more student records demos at the upcoming forums.

Kristi Wold McCormick did a demo of the on-line catalog on the campus portal. You can review the catalog (no password needed) at:
https://studentadmin.connectnd.us:8081/psp/NDPP84/EMPLOYEE/PSFT_PA/h/?tab=PAPP_GUEST

Click on View Schedule of Classes on the left side menu.

We will continue to have weekly forums (Fridays at 9:00 in Century
Theater) throughout May. The focus will be on the student module.

Please see http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/staff.shtml for additional information

April 15, 2005

1. No Open Forum on Friday, April 22.

2. A new report has been added to the HR system (see path below) This will give you the same information that is on the HR Actuals report but will also include adjustments. Hopefully this new report will help solve the issues with balancing between the HR module and budget transaction detail report (finance postings).

Home>Compensate Employees>Administer GL Interface>Report>Gross and
Fringe
Report

3. Gary Wawers gave a finance update: Internal Billings, Procurement Card, and Grants Management: You can see Gary's powerpoint presentation at: http://www.ndsu.edu/accounting/guidelines/PS.shtm
PowerPoint Presentation on ConnectND 04-15--05

4. John Underwood (Help desk) addressed questions on email accounts/current IT procedures for deactivating email accounts. John stressed using the toll free number when reporting issues.

5. Jim Kennedy reported on the campaign to get username and password information to the students before the end of the semester. Jim did a demo on the updated Connect NDSU web page. Please note that you have to click on staff information or student information(tabs on the top) to obtain details.

The next Open Forums will be in May. Schedule will be announced soon.

April 8, 2005

Broc Lietz gave an update on HR:

1. Errors are significantly down
2. Payroll forms need to be on-time to be processed

8000 job band--Graduate students. If a graduate student is not working this summer, you will need to complete a termination form. If the form is not completed, the student will continue to be paid. Work study students will also need to have the form completed.

Broc also discussed that there isn't a short cut to get new employees an Emplid ID (which is needed for email, building access, etc). Broc suggested you have the employee come in prior to his/her start date to completed the required forms. If this is not possible, have the employee come to HR on his/her first day at NDSU.

Kristi Wold McCormick gave an update on student records:

1. Kristi is working with the project on faculty and staff security roles.
2. Records training will start in late May 3. Record Conversions

We will convert records for the past three years. Any student that has been at NDSU the past three years will have his/her entire transcript converted. Students that have not been at NDSU the past three years but return will have their transcript manually converted to Peoplesoft.

All students that left NDSU prior to 2002 will have their transcript processed through the Image Now software after the CICS system is taken off line (September 2005).

4. Kristi is working on a paperless registration schedule for the fall 2005.

The Big Challenge

Kristi Wold McCormick and James Kennedy will be working on student user names/passwords. We will be getting this information out before the end of the semester. The students will be receiving an email with this information. If they forget the password, they will be able to re-set on line. Look for ads in the Spectrum, emails, posters in classrooms, etc to get students aware of the upcoming change to Peoplesoft.

Bison Card

Wendy Clarin gave an update on the Bison Card.

1. August 1: Start card distribution from Union Check cashing desk 2. August 15: Card Production in Union Studio 3. September 9: Proposed cut-off for old ID cards (your old card will work until you get your new card)

Please note that you will need to turn in your old bison card to get your new one at no cost. If you do not have your old bison card, you will be charged $15.

HR Actuals Report

We continue to have problems with the figures on the HR actuals report not matching the figures on the Budget Transaction detail. We are working on a solution to this issue. It appears that the HR actuals report is not picking up any negative adjustments. We will discuss at this Friday's Open Forum

Work Study Issues

If you have any issues with work study, please contact Shelley St.
Albin in Student Financial Services at 231-7535 or Shelly.Staubin@ndsu.edu

Upcoming

Friday, April 15th: Open Forum 9:00 Century Theater HR, Finance, Recruit workforce training: Please see schedule at http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/staff.shtml
Monday, June 6th: Student Records goes live July 2005: Student Financials goes live

March 18, 2005

Open Forum

1. Please note the following on payroll:

If you need to correct payroll that posted to the wrong account, you need to take several steps.

Example: James is being paid $2,000 from an incorrect local fund.
James started at NDSU in January. He has been paid twice. Both paychecks were paid from the wrong fund.

Steps:

1. Complete the Retroactive Distribution form and submit the budget office.
This will transfer the funds to the correct account. You can see the form and instructions at:
http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu. Please note that this does not stop future transactions from being paid from the wrong account. If you fail to complete the Funding Change Form (Step 2), future pay will continue to be paid from the incorrect fund.

You will need to complete a retroactive Distribution Form for each pay period that was incorrect. In the case of James, we will need to complete two forms (one for each incorrect pay period)

2. Complete the Funding form Change. This form is located at http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu. Use this form to change the fund that is being charged (per errors) In the case of James, we will need to complete this form so future payroll checks are charged to the correct fund. Please complete and return to the budget office.

Please note:

If the amount of the paycheck is incorrect--you will need to notify Human Resources If you are changing other variables--the amount of pay, etc, you will
need to use the NDSU Change Form 101. The Funding Form change is only
to change pay that is being charged to an incorrect fund.

Other notes:

1. HR will be hosting Open Clusters in April for time entry and other training. These will be posted shortly.

2. The Budget office has completed over 100 retroactive distribution transactions.

3. Kristi Wold McCormick gave an overview of Peoplesoft Student Records. Upcoming Open Forums will have more information on records and other student modules including student/faculty passwords and training.

4. No Open Forum this Friday (Good Friday). Additional Open Forums will be scheduled for April.

5. Broc reported that the number of payroll errors is way down.

6. The HR has posted a listing of the Peoplesoft earning codes:
http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/hr/index.shtml

March 11, 2005

Open Forum 03/11 review

Gary Wawers presented on reports:

A reference list comparing finance CICS reports and where they are located in Peoplesoft:

Peoplesoft Finance Reference Sheet: Compare CICS to Peoplesoft

http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/index.shtml or http://www.ndsu.edu/accounting/guidelines/PS.shtml
(at the bottom of the page under CICS to Peoplesoft Guide)

Reports Gary Reviewed:

1. Trial Balance (General Ledger>General Reports>Trial Balance *matches up to CICS screen GL70

2. GL Inquiry/On-line inquiry (General Ledger>Review Journal>Ledger
Data> Ledger)
*See today's balances
*Good for reconciling cash

Special Instructions for this report:

If they have never been to this page before, they will have to add an Inquiry name.

Fill in the following information:

Unit: NDSU1
Ledger: Actuals
Year: 2005
From: 1
To Period: (current)
Check: Include Balance Forward & Include Adjustment Period(s) Click Continue.

Only select Account (Blank) and Fund or Project. Enter Fund or Project.

Click on the "Per Balances by Account" link.

3. Budget Overview Report (Commitment Control>Review Budget
Inquiries>Budget Inquiry>Budgets Overview)
*Summary of Budget
*How much is left to spend
*Shows current status of budget
*Shows details of budget

Special Instructions for this report:

Need to put in ledger group (FNDDTL) and department #

4. Budget Transaction Detail (Commitment Control>Review Budget
Activities>Budget Inquiry>Budget Reports>Budget Transaction Detail
*HE Actuals Report (HR report) summary figures should match the figures on this report *Fringe benefits may also show up which is an issue that is being addressed.
*If the figures on the HE Actuals Report do not match the figures on the Budget Transaction Detail? This has been an issue with a few departments--issue has been reported to the project.

5. General Ledger Activity (General Ledger>Ledger Reports>General Ledger Activity) *Shows journal detail

Your best training option may be to contact Kari Webb (at Kari.Webb@ndsu.edu or phone #1-5661) to arrange an individual or small group appointment. Kari is also making group arrangements with some colleges for PeopleSoft Finance training.

Other Issues:

1. If you have vendor payments being sent to the wrong address, Please contact Renee in accounting at 231-7325 or Renee.Kapaun@ndsu.edu

2. New Retroactive Distribution forms are available on the Connect NDSU web site:

http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu

The Budget office is in the process of doing the retroactive process to correct payroll that has posted to an incorrect account. If you have questions on the retroactive process, please contact Aubrey at Aubrey.Ketterling@ndsu.edu

3. Jim Swank presented on how to change the account numbers for work study. If you are entering work study students and want to change the account that the 25% is charged, you cannot just override the fund--You need to add new rows for each week. If you have questions about this issue or other work study concerns, please contact James Kennedy at James.Kennedy@ndsu.edu

4. Next weeks Open Forum will have a presentation on the student system. Kristi Wold McCormick will give an update on records issues.

5. Human Resources will be preparing a reference sheet on earnings codes. They will share at the next Open Forum.

6. Human Resources will be sending out a separate email to the staff listserv on other HR issues.

March 7, 2005

Postage Billings:

BEGINNING MARCH 15 YOU MUST USE THE NEW GREEN MAILER RECORDS WITH YOUR COMPLETE PEOPLESOFT FUNDING OR MAIL WILL BE RETURNED TO YOU.

March 4, 2005

The last two Connect ND Open Forums have focused on HR/Payroll issues.

At today's open forum, the HR staff reviewed three Peoplesoft reports:

Department Leave Accrual Report
Payroll Register Report
Actual Distribution Report

You can view instructions for all three reports at:

http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/hr/hr_reports.shtml or at
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/hr/news.shtml

Some issues to note:

The payroll register report is not available until after pay confirmation (3-5 days prior to payday). One staff member reported that this information is very helpful for monitoring sick and vacation leave.

The actual distribution report shows an earnings code. HR will be posting a list of what these codes are in Peoplesoft.

Retroactive Distribution Process:

Please see instructions at:

http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/index.shtml

This is the process to fix payroll posted to an incorrect account.
Please review the instructions. The budget office is testing this process. Once the testing is complete, they will begin utilizing this process to fix payroll that has posted to an incorrect account. If you have already notified the budget office of an incorrect posting, you do not need to fill out another form.

If you have questions, please contact Aubrey Ketterling at 231-8204 or Aubrey.Ketterling@ndsu.edu

Finance Assistance

Gary Wawers will be sending out the finance training schedule early next week. If you are having finance issues, please contact Kari Webb to sent up a time for her to come to your office:

Kari.Webb@ndsu.edu
231-5661

HR Open Sessions

It was suggested that the HR Office have some additional Open Clusters for specific questions. Broc and his staff will get this scheduled.
If
you have suggestions for what you'd like covered in these sessions, please email the HR Office at ndsu.hr@ndsu.edu

Workstudy Reports

Student Financial Services is notifying departments if students are over/close to their work study allocation for 2004-05. A report is being developed that will list (by department) all students and the cumulative federal work study earning.

Next Open Forum

Friday, March 11
Century Theater
9:00-10:30

February 7, 2005

Upcoming Clusters:

February 8 (Tuesday)
1-5pm Assistance with time entry
Sudro 131

February 9 (Wednesday)
1-5pm Assistance with time entry
Sudro 131

February 10 (Thursday)
1-5pm Assistance with Payroll forms
IACC 150C

February 10 (Thursday)
1-3pm Finance reporting, monitoring budgets, and accounting reports 3-5pm Paying of bills and troubleshooting of bill paying Sudro 131

Human Resource Information:

HR PeopleSoft Navigation Sheet
February Payroll Calendar with deadlines Common HR Reports in PeopleSoft Payroll Tax Information Annual Leave Information Questions regarding W-2 Forms
http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/index.shtml

Human Resource Reports
http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/misc/hr_reports.shtml

Finance Training Documents
http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/financials/finance_reports.shtml

Open Forum
No Open forum this week. The next Open Forum will be Friday, February 18th from 9:00-10:30 in Century Theater.

January 24, 2005

Finance:
Payroll Tax Information

Want to learn how to run finance reports in Peoplesoft? Please come to finance open clusters in Ehly 119 this week from 1-5. Finance staff will be available to show you how to run reports.

New NDSU Paper Forms for Peoplesoft: These forms have been updated (including the travel voucher form) Please see the new forms at: http://www.ndsu.edu/accounting/guidelines/PS.shtm

Common error: Budgets not checked even though you have pushed the button to check (nothing happens). Please make sure that all the required reference numbers are in the system. If you are missing fund numbers, etc, the budget check will not be successful.

Remedy Tickets/Help Desk

Help desk Q & A for remedy tickets.
http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/misc/help_desk.shtml

The Equal Opportunity Office has scheduled hands-on training sessions to assist departments with entering, updating and tracking applications for non-banding positions. These sessions will take place in IACC 150C

Tuesday, January 25, 1-3
Wednesday, January 26, 10-12
Tuesday, February 15, 1-3
Wednesday, February 16, 10-12
Tuesday, March 15, 1-3
Wednesday, March 16, 10-12
Tuesday, April 12, 1-3
Wednesday, April 13, 10-12

Human Resource Reports:
Annual Leave Information

Lyn Pletta demonstrated HR reports at the Open Forum last Friday. The HR department is working on a training document for running reports. More information on this later this week.

Please note that a Connect NDSU Open Forum is scheduled this Friday (January 28th) from 9:00-10:30 in Century Theater. The main focus of these open sessions will be the human resource and finance modules. Please bring your questions.

January 13, 2005

We have been live on Peoplesoft (HR and Finance) for one week!

Payroll

Friday, January 14th is the first payroll in Peoplesoft. This payroll has been successfully processed. Please review your pay stub tomorrow.

If you have feel the amount that was paid is incorrect, Please send an email to: ndsu.hr@ndsu.nodak.edu or call 231-8990.

If you have other questions, please send an email to: ndsu.hr@ndsu.nodak.edu or call 231-9408. We ask that you wait until next week if your call is not urgent.

Important Notice from Payroll

It was announced at today's Open Forum that benefits will now be listed on your pay stubs, one area that we would like to notify employees about is the Health Insurance.

Due to privacy laws (HIPAA) BlueCross Blue Shield and NDPERS could not provide the University System with information on who has elected to participate in the EPO (Exclusive Provider Organization) for Health Insurance. Therefore, everyone converted into the PPO (Preferred Provider Organization).

Your current election into either the EPO or PPO will NOT be affected by what is listed on your pay stub. If you had previously elected to participate in the EPO you are still enrolled in that.

We appreciate your patience as we process the first Peoplesoft payroll.

Upcoming Open Forums/ Training:

January 5-28: Open Clusters for finance: Hands-on training on your actual transactions (1:00-5:00 ) EHLY 119
January 21: Connect NDSU Open Forum (9:00-10:30) Century Theater
January 24: Assistance with time-entry and leave slips (9:00-12:00) EHLY 119
January 25: Assistance with time-entry and leave slips (9:00-12:00) EHLY 119
January 28: Connect NDSU Open Forum (9:00-10:30) Century Theater

Finance

Gary's power point presentation from today's Open Forum:http://www.ndsu.edu/accounting/guidelines/PS.shtm

Please see under NDSU Weekly Information Sessions- Finance

Gary also strongly recommends that finance users come to EHLY 119 for training. This Open cluster is staffed through January 28th from 1:00-5:00.

System Performance

This continues to be a concern and is being addressed by HECN. The Accounting department will be submitting remedy tickets when the system performance is not adequate.

January 5, 2005

As you know, the deadline for December 16-31 payroll forms was Dec 30.

HR/Payroll has until Jan 6 to get those forms entered into PS. The evening of Jan 6 is Paysheet Creation. This process is run to create a paysheet for every active NDSU employee. Forms for Dec 16-31 received late that we haven't had time to enter by the time paysheets are created will not be paid on the Jan 14 payday, they will have to wait until Jan 31.

Beginning Jan 7, depts can go into the Higher Ed Time Entry screen in PeopleSoft and enter time worked and leave taken for employees. A great benefit of PeopleSoft is this screen allows depts to not only enter time worked for student and PT employees, it also allows entry of overtime for benefited employees, saving the need to send those timeslips over to the HR/Payroll office as was done in the past. Ag depts will no longer have to send their OT timeslips to the Ag Budget office and then to HR/Payroll, they can enter them within the dept as well. You will have all day Jan 7, Jan 10 and until 11:00AM Jan 11 to enter time and leave for the Dec 16-31 pay period. At 11:00AM on Jan 11 final pay calculation runs for the Jan 14 payday. Any hours or leave not entered by the time final pay calc runs will not reflect on Jan 14 payday.

The deadline for January 1-15 payroll forms is Jan 14. Monday, Jan 17 is a holiday. HR/Payroll has until Jan 21 to get those payroll forms into PS. The evening of Jan 21 is paysheet creation. Forms for Jan 1-15 received late that we haven't had time to enter by this time will not be paid on Jan 31, they will have to wait until Feb 15.

Beginning Jan 24, depts can go into the Higher Ed Time Entry screen and enter time worked and leave taken for employees. You will have all day Jan 24, Jan 25 and until 11:00AM Jan 26 to enter time and leave for the Jan 1-15 pay period. At 11:00AM on Jan 26 final pay calculation runs for the Jan 31 payday. Any hours or leave not entered by the time final pay calc runs will not be paid Jan 31. The deadline for January 16-31 payroll forms is Jan 31.

I would encourage those of you who will be entering time and leave to view the webex recording and download and print the PDF file related to this subject prior to Jan 7. They are available at:
http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/HR/hr-page.htm

Help will be available to depts for time and leave entry if you are still having questions after viewing the webex recording. Help sessions will be held on Friday, January 7 from noon to 4PM in IACC 114; on Monday, January 10 from 8AM to noon in the Library 14B; and on Tuesday, January 11 from 8AM to noon in the Library 14B/C.

I hope this information is helpful. Please forward this email and the calender on to anyone you feel needs this information. Thank you for your patience and have a great 2005.

January 4, 2005

The go-live date is Wednesday, January 5th for finance and human resources! The finance and human resource staff have been working very hard on converting data into Peoplesoft for go-live.

Passwords

Human Resource user names and passwords were emailed on Monday, January 3rd. The finance user names and passwords will be emailed on Wednesday, January 5th. We will have a Connect ND security officer on site (open clusters) to assist if you are having problems accessing the system.

Open Clusters: Finance

For those needing additional assistance using PeopleSoft's bill paying, Finance screens, or running reports the Controller's Office and Ag Budget Office will be available in Ehly 119 afternoons in January, beginning Wednesday, January 5 (no sessions will be held on January 17 or January 31).

Individuals will have the opportunity to pay bills (bring your bills to the session) using the system, ask questions related to the system, or ask questions about the new accounting forms.

As seating space in Ehly 119 is limited to 18, individuals will be assisted as space allows.

Finance Training Documents

if you missed the December 20/21 Finance training, you can download the training materials from the Connect NDSU Homepage:

http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/misc/training_testing.shtml

The training material is a word document listed right after:
December 20-21: Finance Training (1:00-4:30) Century Theater

Other finance training documents can be accessed from this site.

Human Resource Training/Open Clusters

January 4: Assistance with completion of PeopleSoft payroll forms (10:00/2:00) EHLY 119
January 4: Assistance with Peoplesoft HR navigation (9:00/1:00) EHLY 119
January 4: Recruit Workforce Training (10:00-12:00) Century Theater
January 7: Assistance with time-entry and leave slips (12:00-4:00 ) IACC 114
January 10: Assistance with time-entry and leave slips (8:00-10:00) Library 14B
January 11: Assistance with time-entry and leave slips (8:00-12:00) Library 14B/14C

Human Resource Training:

Web-ex Training

http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/HR/hr-page.htm

For additional information, please refer to the Connect NDSU website at:

http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/index.shtml

December 30, 2004

For those needing additional assistance using PeopleSoft's Human Resource Management System (HRMS) screens, the Human Resource / Payroll department will hold two one-hour informational sessions utilizing PeopleSoft HRMS in Ehly 119 on Tuesday, January 4 at 9am and 1pm.

These sessions are optional and are intended to be an additional review of the information already released by this department.

Beginning at 10am and 2pm that same day, individuals will have the opportunity to ask questions related to the system or completing the new human resource/payroll forms. These sessions are optional and are intended to be an additional review of the information already released by this department. As seating space in Ehly 119 is limited to 18, individuals will be assisted as space allows.

The WebEx training site and related documentation continue to be available at: http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/HR/hr-page.htm

The new human resource forms are available at:
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/hr/forms

Additional training related to time entry and leave slips will be held on Friday, January 7 from noon to 4pm in IACC 114; on Monday, January 10 from 8am to noon in the Library 14B; and on Tuesday, January 11 from 8am to noon in 14B/C.

Additional information will continue to be available at http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/human-resources/news.shtml

December 16, 2004

The Chancellor's cabinet voted on Wednesday to go-live with the Human Resource and Finance Peoplesoft modules as scheduled on January 5th.

December 12, 2004

Open Forums

The Connect NDSU Open Forums include updates from the Finance, Human Resource, and Student Modules. This is an open forum to answer your questions. Please mark your calendars:

Friday, December 10: 9-10:30 Century Theater
Friday, December 17: 9-10:30 Century Theater

Important Notice from Human Resources

Payroll forms must be completed and in to the Human Resources Office by December 16th.

Calendar of upcoming dates

Please review at: http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu

Finance Powerpoint Presentations/Chart of account information:

If you have missed the open Forums, you can review the finance powerpoint presentations at:

http://www.ndsu.edu/accounting/guidelines/PS.shtm

Legacy Freeze:

Please note the following dates that CICS will be unable to process financial transactions per the conversion to Peoplesoft:

12/01/2004: Departments are frozen in legacy and in mapping
12/03/2004: All chartfields and Sponsors are frozen in legacy and mapping (no new Funds/Projects in legacy)
12/03/2004: Last day to add new funds to Legacy (CICS) system
12/17/2004: Deadline for RFPS, IDBs, JEs, to be in Accounting Office
12/20/2004: In Peoplesoft: Load all new Chartfield values
12/20/2004-12/22/2004: JB40 available to redistribute SI & JB transactions
12/21/2004-12/22/2004(noon): Redistribute Procard transactions
12/22/2004: Last day to enter vendor invoices on-line (AP82)
12/23/2004: Payroll transactions are finalized and posted
12/23/2004: Final GL transactions
12/27/2004: Month-end Grant Billing processes run for December
                      Month-end accounting reports run for December
12/28/2004-01/04/2005: Legacy system frozen

Please see additional information on the Connect NDSU we site:
http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/misc/legacy_freeze.shtml

Please contact Gary Wawers if you have questions about the above dates.

Human Resources Contract Information

Who do I call when data changes are needed?
What do I do when I don't have the security access I need?

Please see: http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/hr/index.shtml

Training and Testing

Training and Testing continues this week for the finance and Human Resource modules.

Web-Ex training is available at:
http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain

Training Manuals are available:

Finance: http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/Finance/finance-page.htm

Human Resources: http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/HR/hr-page.htm

Access to Peoplesoft:

Finance: User name/Password will be sent by January 3rd.

HR: User name/Password will be sent by December 13th.

NDSU employees will know their new EMPLID # (old NAID) when they receive paychecks on January 15th.

Connect NDSU web site

Please refer to the Connect NDSU web site for Project information:

http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu/index.shtml

November 16, 2004

Open Forum: Friday 11/19

This Friday's Open Forum (9-10:30 in Century theater) will focus on the Human Resource Module.  Please bring your questions and concerns.

Please note that HR training will take place next week:

Tuesday, November 23 from 2-4pm
Position Data and Position Budgets (approx. 2 to 2:30pm)
Employee Personal Data, Job Data and Review Information (approx. 2:30 to 3:15 pm)
Time-Entry - Enter Hours Worked by Employees & Leave Time (aprox. 3:15 to 3:45pm)

Wednesday, November 24 from 9-11am
Position Data and Position Budgets (approximately 9 to 9:30am)
Employee Personal Data, Job Data and Review Information (approx. 9:30 to 10:15am)
Time-Entry- Enter Hours Worked by Employees & Leave Time (aprox. 10:15 to 10:45am)

Finance Training
Connect ND staff will be conducting training on the finance module the week of November 22 and 29th. Due to limited space, Gary Wawers is coordinating the dates and times.  Finance users will be notified of training times.

Connect NDSU Website
Please review project  information on Connect NDSU website at http://connect.ndsu.nodak.edu . We have added a lot of new information the past week.

*Please note the dates for the CICS (legacy) freeze.

Testing
Human Resource training was completed last week.  Finance/Grants and Contracts testing is this week.

October 29, 2004

The Connect NDSU Open Forums have been well attended.  Some highlights from today's forum:
Access to Peoplesoft

User names/Passwords for the finance module will be sent by January 3rd.  User names/passwords for the human resources module will be sent around December 13th.  These will be sent via email.  Please do not delete the email with this information.

If you have problems with your password, please contact the help desk. If you need additional access or need to set up a new employee, you will contract the NDSU access control officers:
Finance: Gary Wawers/Melanie Correll
HR: Colette Erickson/Britnee Steckler
Student: Neil Sitz/Deb Ott

CICS Unavailable
The CICS (legacy) system will be down from 12/24 (Friday) through 1/4 (Tuesday) to convert data to Peoplesoft.  No financial transactions can be posted to the GL during this time.

Key Cutoff dates:

December 17th: Deadline for RFPS, IDBs, JEs to be in the accounting office
December  23rd:Payroll transactions are finalized and posted (please note that the Office of Human Resources will compute the Dec 31 payroll on Dec. 21st). Final accounts payable and the General is closed.
Please contact Gary Wawers if you have questions or concerns.

Training
The First finance training session will be on November 4th from 1-4 in Century Theater.  We will be viewing Web-ex sessions and addressing questions. A separate email was sent this afternoon with the agenda.

Please note that you can view the web-ex sessions for finance and HR at: http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain
Information on additional training sessions for finance and HR will sent shortly. Training on the student module will take place in the spring.

Testing
Round 2 testing for finance, grants, and human resources has been completed.  Human Resources will start round 3 testing on November 1-10.  Finance and grant testing will resume on November 15th.

Upcoming
There will not be an Open Forum on Friday, November 5th.  The open forums will start again the following week

DEMO on the AP Process
Gary Wawers brought up a Peoplesoft test environment and demonstrated how to enter an invoice into Peoplesoft.  This will be covered in the training.

Finance Powerpoint Presentations from the Open Forums
You can view Gary Wawer's powerpoint presentation from today at:
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/accounting/guidelines/guide.shtml

Admissions Module
Admissions is live on Peoplesoft.  Per Penny Hoesel, NDSU module lead: "basic processes for prospective student and application processing are coming along nicely."

Update From Broc Lietz
Broc explained how important it is to get information to HR by the deadline (payroll information).  Training on the HR module will be done later in November.

October 4, 2004

Student Module:
The undergraduate admissions module is up and running at NDSU. Peoplesoft admission training for Student Health Service Staff (immunizations) was held on September 30th.   The student records staff is reviewing conversion data.  Academic structure issues (Peoplesoft setup) have been resolved.  The financial aid module has been working on queries and reports.

Finance module:
The finance team will be loading and editing budget journals this week.  The first round of testing is complete (please see report below on grants and contracts).  The 2nd round of testing will start on October 18th for GL, KK, AP, PO, and AM.  The next round of grants and contracts testing will be October 25th.

The Accounting Office website has been updated to include the latest information on the new numbering (chart of accounts) system that will be used when NDSU converts to PeopleSoft.    The website information shows the old system numbers alongside the new PeopleSoft system numbers. Fund, Department, TCC (Account), Location information is available in the web site, as well new Account (formerly TCC) definitions.
The Accounting Office home page is at: www.ndsu.edu/accounting/
Mick Pytlik (Finance Lead) reported at the 9/30 IVN session that Effort Reporting (grants and contracts) development would be finished on October 11th. A consultant from Huron would certify that it meets federal requirements.

Human Resources:
NDSU HR staff  will be reviewing converted data on October 6 and 7.  HR testing will resume on October 13th.

Training:
Training for NDSU will begin on November 1 for human resources and finance.  More information will be sent later this month. Many of the training documents are now on-line at http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/ . Additional finance web-ex sessions are being completed and should be posted soon.

NDSU has posted a trainer position to assist with getting our campus ready for go-live. This new position will report to the finance division but will assist with training for all three modules (Finance, Human Resources, and Student).

Bison Card:
Wendy Clarin is working with project staff to get the Bison Card ready for go-live.

Report on Grants and Contracts:
Jean Blonigen (NDSU) and Alice Brekke (UND) will be doing formal reports on the progress of the grants and contracts module.  The most recent update to Chancellor Potts:

Dr. Potts:
The following is a summary of the verbal update that I gave to the Connect ND Executive Steering Committee this morning regarding the status of the grants and contracts modules.

Round 1 testing started well last Monday with very positive comments from participants (system responsive, scripts relevant, good explanations etc.)

Problems were encountered on Tuesday and Wednesday with test scripts that did not match configuration and concerns surfacing about the A/R and billing modules.  Campus staff expressed frustration.

Round 1 testing was completed Wednesday afternoon. The question of whether we have a communication problem or a configuration problem in A/R and billing is being evaluated by the project staff.  They are also focusing on knowledge transfer from consultant to module leads.

I continue to hear informally that we need more people assigned to the project including both consultant (with appropriate expertise) and campus staff.   The project manager has not made an additional staffing request at this point.

Problems were encountered in validating the status of existing development requests affecting grants and contracts (Jean and I were receiving reports that contradicted each other).  All relevant parties will meet together yet this week to resolve.

Schedule information will also be reviewed and sent out again to be sure all campuses have accurate information for the coming weeks.

We are making progress and have identified some "soft" spots that need attention and the corresponding corrective action.  October will be a key month.

Jean Blonigen and I will send our first written status report as part of the campus readiness reporting to the Executive Steering Committee on October 8, 2004 for discussion at the October 12th conference call.

Written status updates are scheduled to be sent on November 5, 2004 and December 3, 2004.  In addition, verbal updates will occur for each Executive Steering Committee conference call (October 12 and 26, November 9 and 23 and December 7, 14 and 28).

September 17, 2004

The Peoplesoft admissions module went live at NDSU on Tuesday, September 14th. Special thanks to Penny Hoesel and the admission staff for all the hard work.

The finance staff has been testing the AP/PO business processes this week.  Next week will be the GL/KK testing. The next rounds of grants and contracts testing will start next week. 11 NDSU staff are participating in the finance/grants and contracts testing.

NDSU Records staff will be reviewing/testing conversion data in Grand Forks next week.
The Connect NDSU Steering Committee is working on getting faculty/staff the required access to Peoplesoft (log-on) prior to go-live.

Finance and Human Resource training at NDSU will start on November 1. More information will be sent later this month. Many of the training documents are now on-line at http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/


September 10, 2004

Finance and Human Resources: January 1, 2005
Admissions: September 2004
Records/Financial Aid: January 2005
Student Financials: July 2005

NDSU Admissions will go live on Peoplesoft September 14th.  Training on the admissions module has been in progress for the past two weeks.

Finance/Grants and Contracts testing will resume during the weeks of September 13th and 20th.

Finance and Human Resource training at NDSU will start on November 1. More information will be sent later this month. Many of the training documents are now on-line at http://www.und.edu/dept/cndtrain/