The Oracle Data Integrity Project continues to make progress on reconciling payroll accounts associated with the remaining inconsistencies between the project sub-ledger and the general ledger. The fifth batch of system corrections are undergoing validation tests before they are returned to the system. This batch will clear most of the remaining POET-related inconsistencies entered into the system. As mentioned in prior updates, the budget alignment effort is almost entirely complete (98%) and has been validated with RAs.
Division of Finance and Administration staff also have initiated accounting practices to review accounts more routinely, allowing staff to identify inconsistencies more quickly and respond to them in a timely manner. This is part of a DFA restructuring effort launched July 1 -- the start of FY23 -- to better support the use of the Oracle system. Although this will help DFA staff identify inconsistencies, PIs and RAs still will need to monitor spending on their contracts and grants, identify inconsistencies and notify DFA immediately so staff can investigate further.
For those who use gifts to support research, External Relations is working on the reconciliation process and reviewing discrepancies that DFA will need to correct in the Oracle system. Interim CFO Kurt Schnier expressed DFA's appreciation of External Relations' partnership and emphasized ER Our is working hard to ensure gift alignment plans will support research.
DFA team members who are part of the Oracle Data Integrity Project are exceptionally busy with fiscal close. It is the team's busiest time of the year, and the remaining reconciliation efforts are being added to fiscal close. Schnier emphasized that these team members have worked extraordinarily hard over the past couple of years to support the launch of Oracle, the redesign of Oracle, the reconciliation process, the training of campus users, and using the Oracle system themselves to support UC Merced.
"I greatly appreciate all of the hard work that they have put into this effort, and I would encourage you to thank them for all they have done the next time you interact with them. Thank you!" Schnier said.
Purchasing
The ticket volume in CBS2 is within the targeted range and below 800 tickets. The largest portion of the queue is in the travel area, which accounts for 34% of ticket requests. Nearly all of the purchasing conducted in the self-service portal of Oracle is being submitted with the required POET information for processing. Currently, a small number of submissions were submitted without POET and, therefore, are subject to the auto-reject process. CBS2 staff is tracking these submissions and working directly with those individuals who are submitting requests without POET to ensur the information is provided.
Although DFA staff are seeing a few older purchase orders that are missing POET information, for the most part CBS2 isn't seeing the POET inconsistencies present a year ago. Furthermore, the new accounting reconciliation processes will allow earlier detection of inconsistencies, significantly improving the Oracle user experience. This is a remarkable improvement over a year ago and will help ensure that moving forward, the system is better able to support the research community. Thank you for your partnership in making this transition and for helping to ensure that the Oracle system supports your work.
The Oracle Data Integrity Project continues to make progress on reconciling payroll accounts that are associated with the remaining inconsistencies between the project subledger and the general ledger. Currently, our fifth batch of system corrections is being tested in our development instance of Oracle and, once validated, will be transferred over to our live system. This latter batch will clear out most of the remaining POET-related inconsistencies that were entered into the system. As mentioned in our prior updates, the budget alignment effort is almost entirely complete (98%), and they have been validated with your RA.
Our team has also initiated new accounting practices to review accounts on a more routine basis that will allow us to identify inconsistencies more quickly and respond to them in a timely manner. This is part of our restructuring effort in DFA to better support the campus’ use of the Oracle system and was launched at the beginning of FY23 -- July 1, 2022. Although this will help DFA identify inconsistencies, the PIs and RAs will still need to monitor the spending on their contracts and grants and identify any inconsistencies that they observe, and notify us immediately so we can investigate further.
For those of you that utilize gifts to support your research, the External Relations team is working on the reconciliation process and reviewing discrepancies that our team will need to correct within the Oracle system. Our accounting team greatly appreciates External Relations partnership in this effort, and they are working exceptionally hard to ensure that the gift alignment plans will support your research.
Currently, all of the team members that have been working on the Oracle Data Integrity Project are exceptionally busy with our campus’ fiscal close. This is by far the busiest time of year for our team, and the remaining reconciliation efforts are being lumped into our fiscal close. These team members have been working extraordinarily hard over the past couple of years to support the launch of Oracle, the redesign of Oracle, the reconciliation process, the training of campus users, and using the Oracle system themselves to support our campus. I greatly appreciate all of the hard work that they have put into this effort, and I would encourage you to thank them for all they have done the next time you interact with them. Thank you!
Purchasing
The ticket volume in CBS2 is within our targeted range and below 800 tickets. The largest portion of our queue is within our travel area, which consists of approximately 34% of our ticket requests. Nearly all of the purchasing conducted within the self-service portal of Oracle is being submitted with the required POET information for processing. Currently, only a small number of submissions were submitted without POET and, therefore, are subject to the auto-reject process within Oracle. Our team has been tracking these submissions and working directly with those individuals who are submitting requests without POET to ensure that the information is provided.
Although, we are still seeing a few older purchase orders that contain missing POET information, for the most part, we are not seeing the POET inconsistencies that were present a year ago. Furthermore, our new accounting reconciliation processes will allow us to catch these inconsistencies and address them far earlier than before, which will significantly increase the user experience in Oracle. This is a remarkable improvement over what we experienced a year ago and will help ensure that moving forward, the system is better able to support the research community. Thank you for your partnership in making this transition and for helping to ensure that the Oracle system supports your work.
