This solution article provides related materials presented at the 2023 SF Financials and SF Procurement Upgrade User Forum held through a Microsoft (MS) Teams Live Event on Thursday, October 26 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
In this article, you'll find:
- Recording of the User Forum Live Event
- User Forum Questions & Answers
- User Forum Slide Deck (attached at the bottom of this solution article).
User Forum Replay
Below is the recording from the October 26, 2023 SF Financials and SF Procurement User Forum. This video is hosted in Microsoft Stream, and you will be required to log into Microsoft O365 if you're not already logged in.
If you're unable to access and view the embedded video, click here to enroll and view the course in SF Learning. You can also search for '2023 PeopleSoft Update' to find the replay in SF Learning. Please see our How to self-enroll into SF Learning courses solution article for step-by-step instructions.
Presentation slides are attached below
Please see the attachment at the bottom of this solution article to view the slide deck we presented at the User Forum.
Questions & Answers
Thank you for all the engaging questions during our User Forum! Please review our answers below and let us know if you have any additional questions we can answer.
SF Financials
When will we start to use Speed Type?
No decisions have been made to date, but the Controller’s Office Accounting Operations & Suppliers Division (AOSD) is reviewing the usage of Speed Types as part of the Chatfield Standardization Project.
Will the update speed up processing time in the background and decrease the time we see the spinning circle?
The upgrade will not address performance specifically. Generally, the more data involved, the longer it takes to process. Please submit an SF Financials Support Request with screenshots and details of the processes that are taking longer than expected so we can investigate.
Do we see API to FSP on the horizon?
Yes, opening up SF Financials and SF Procurement to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is a long-term goal of the Controller’s Office.
Expense Authorizations & Reimbursements
Can you please repeat the expense deadline of next week?
Expense Reports must be fully approved by all approvers by Thursday, November 2 at 5 pm to be paid by Tuesday, November 7. Any expense reports approved after 5 p.m. Thursday, November 2 will simply get paid the following Tuesday, November 14.
To make it easier for people who don't use the SF Employee Portal, can we rename the drop down to something more intuitive related to Union Reimbursement Fund instead of “Tuition Reimbursement?”
The Tuition Reimbursement label was specifically requested by the Department of Human Resources (DHR) to maintain consistency with union MOU language.
Can we upload attachments to paid expense reports?
Yes, you can add attachments to an Expense Report in any status, including approved, staged, or paid.
What is the point of flagging duplicate cost within one expense report if it is different dates?
Please submit an SF Financials Support Request with specific examples so we can investigate.
Can we combine tuition reimbursement and other reimbursement into one expense report when these two are related to the same training?
No, Tuition Reimbursements are only allowed for specific expenses based on your union’s MOU rules and follow specific approval and funding workflows based on those MOU rules. Any other Expense Reimbursements that are not included in your union’s MOU will follow standard workflows for Department approval and reimbursement.
Can we change the account code from an expense report after it has been approved?
No.
General Ledger
Will there be a line limit for the General Ledger (GL) Uploader?
Please do not exceed 5,000 lines.
Will the GL Uploader still be able to update GL JEs that were uploaded through the uploader?
Please submit an SF Financials Support Request with additional information about why you need to update previously uploaded journal entries. In general, you should not submit the same journal entry twice.
Will there ever be a batch submit JE process? A lot of times the system is really slow and takes a very long time in order to submit a GL journal for approval.
Please submit an SF Financials Support Request with additional details and specific examples so we can investigate.
Is there a mass delete function for GL journals or we can only delete one-by-one?
No, departments can only delete journal entries one-by-one.
Cash Balancing
Is there are fix that can be done on the auto cash balancing? The system creates incorrect entries when there are multiple lines with different fund codes.
Please submit an SF Financials Support Request with screenshots and details of any errors so we can investigate.
I have encountered strange bugs with the Auto Cash Balancing lines from time to time with the GL JE entries. Will this be fixed?
Please submit an SF Financials Support Request with screenshots and details of any errors so we can investigate.
Accounts Payable
Can we delete vouchers?
No, departments do not have access to delete voucher. Only the Controller’s Office Accounting Operations & Suppliers Division (AOSD) can delete vouchers. Please reach out to your AOSD Fund Accountant to request a voucher deletion.
Project Costing
Has the project activity bug in which detail nodes that have had transactions charged against it are allowed to be turned into summary nodes (and vice versa) fixed?
Yes, this should no longer be an issue.
Accounts Receivable
Is there a plan for the system to be able to attach documents for AR Direct Journal Deposit?
Departments can currently attach documents on the regular deposit page. Please submit an SF Financials Support Request with screenshots and any specific examples if you are unable to attach documents currently.
SF Procurement
Under Strategic Sourcing, can we work to create static URLs to solicitations instead of dynamic “version-based” URLs that no longer work when we make updates?
We will investigate whether or not this is possible in PeopleSoft. Thank you for the suggestion!
What is Systems doing about the 14B LBE Database Decommissioning?
After the SF Financials & SF Procurement Upgrade, we plan to deploy enhancements to the 14B Local Business Enterprise (LBE) Search Directory. Once we’ve deployed these enhanced search capabilities, we will work with our partners in the Contract Monitoring Division to begin planning the decommissioning of the legacy 14B LBE database. Please refer to the following announcement for additional information:
Coming November 13: Enhanced 14B Local Business Enterprise (LBE) Search Directory (e2ma.net)
Will Suppliers be able to upload all attachments at once when bidding on an event?
The ability for Suppliers to upload multiple attachments at a time is being delivered in Image 48, meaning that the next upgrade we have this functionality will be delivered out of the box.
SF Reports & Analytics
I am a BI author in SF Reports & Analytics. Will this update impact the analysis and reports that I built in SF Reports & Analytics?
There will be no changes in the underlying data in SF Reports & Analytics.
Additional Questions?
Reach out to SF Financials Support or SF Procurement Support if you have questions regarding the information we presented at the 2023 SF Financials and SF Procurement User Forum.