Future State Vision

Definitions

• General Ledger includes financial transaction processing, the creation and maintenance of account numbers, object codes, organizational structure codes, etc.
• Accounts Receivable (AR) includes the creation and maintenance of customer profile data, product and service billing data, and tracking of receivable information from issuing of an invoice through receipt and final payment or resolution.
• Accounts Payable includes purchase order and non-purchase order invoice and check transaction processing.
• Asset Management includes the creation, depreciation and tracking of asset records for capitalized equipment and real property in a single web-enabled system. Units will also have the ability to create and track non-capitalized items.
• Budget includes budget development and maintenance for the general and other funds, including processes for user-defined budgets and reporting periods.
• Pre-award (research administration) includes a web based system to aid in developing, processing, routing, approving, submitting, tracking and archiving of proposals and the related compliance issues/documents.
• Post-award imports data sets from the pre-award module and allows for modification and edits. The web based award system aids in processing, routing, approving, tracking, reporting and archiving of awards, contracts and the related compliance documents, revenue and expenditures in conjunction with the general ledger.
• Purchasing consists of procurement transactions that include the creation, modification and reporting of requisitions, bids, purchase orders, change orders, vendor database and Procurement Cards.
• Stores Inventory includes maintaining an inventory of items at University Stores for the resale to internal and external customers. The functions consist of receiving, restocking, order fulfillment and physical inventory management of the stock.

General Statements

The following describes the overall design goals of the new Financial Information System. These comments consider the user's point of view and can be applied to any of the finance functions noted below. They are divided into four categories:

1. Information Capture
2. Workflow
3. Processing
4. Reporting and Analysis

Information Capture

• Use commonly available web browsers to create and maintain documents.
• Provide additional account and transaction attributes to support departmental accounting.
• Enable document creation to occur at the user (unit) level which will allow relevant information to be captured at the source.
• Permit the capture of unit specific information or annotations in order to support more effective information analysis and reporting when transactions and electronic documents are initiated.
• Give the user the ability to attach files containing support documentation for transactions. The documentation will be stored in a central repository and linked to the electronic document for retrieval.
• Provide interactive links to local, state and federal government regulations, and to University policies and procedures to assist users in the successful initiation of transactions.
• Provide edits and business rules specific to each module to assist users in accurately and fully completing documents and reducing common errors.

Workflow

• Permit financial transactions and documents to be routed for approval and information through a flexible process that reflects university and unit-level signature requirements.
• Provide workflow status of transactions and provide the ability to amend the document at certain stages along the approval chain.

Processing

• Permit automatic calculations to transactions based on predefined parameters such as cost allocations, fringe benefits, sufficient funds, etc.
• Permit encumbrance transactions to post to the general ledger in a more timely manner using an expedited electronic approval capability.
• Allow for expanded integration with other university systems, modules and processes such as General Ledger, Cashiering, Delinquent Receivables, Human Resources, etc.
• Provide system generated transactions based on information from original transaction documents such as offsets to cash, accounts receivable, fringe benefits, indirect cost allocations, etc.
• Provide units with a specific or unique receivables requirement an integration capability to interface a departmental receivable system with the new financial system.

Reporting and Analysis

• Provide an online decision support environment that permits access to information in a timeframe that supports unit and university requirements.
• Permit reports and queries with the capability to provide views from various organizational levels such as university, college, department, project, etc.
• View reports online and extract data electronically. The user will have the ability to drill down from reports to lowest level of detail available.
• Capture department-defined data at a level that will permit units to track data for multiple projects across multiple units as necessary.
• Provide commonly needed system generated reports such as balance sheet, income statement, fund ledger, etc. Permit ad-hoc queries and user-defined reports.

Specific Modular Functionality

The items below are specific to a particular Financial Services Module

Accounts Receivable

• Provide the ability for customer self-service, where customers can view and maintain portions of their own profile information.
• Provide the ability to maintain customer and product /service billing information within the system or access the information from other supporting systems.
• Produce paper or electronic invoices formatted to meet customer needs.

Accounts Payable

• Receive data electronically from the vendor or input by the central or unit representatives for purchase order invoices.
• Enable document creation to occur at the user (unit) level which will allow relevant information to be captured at the source as well as attachments for other documentation for non-purchase orders.
• Provide the ability to access and approve transactions such as invoice data online and then retain a historical record of the transactions.

Asset Management

• Give units the ability to maintain certain data elements such as location, condition codes, person responsible, etc. for capitalized equipment.
• Maintain additional data elements, if desired, such as warranties, maintenance contracts, comments, etc.
• Give units the choice to enter and maintain the data elements for non-capitalized items using the self-service functionality of the module.
• Provide the ability for units to update asset records based on institutionally defined business rules.
• Initiate asset transfers and disposals using an electronic document and workflow.
• Integrate with the Purchasing and Accounts Payable modules to enhance the initial record creation.
• Allow for integration with the General Ledger.
• Generate the journal entries for recording asset transactions such as capitalization, disposal/retirement, depreciation, etc. automatically.

Budget

• Provide the capability to create budgets from an all funds perspective as well as from a single fund.
• Accommodate a variety of reporting options, including formal hierarchical reporting, jointly administered units, virtual units and sub-accounting within a unit.
• Support costing to allow unit management of all categories of budget and expenditures, including fringe benefits, space and utilities.
• Incorporate the basis to forecast and plan as well as conduct current activities.
• Support various types of budget planning and allow the university to operate under a variety of budget scenarios such as revenue centered, zero-based, etc.
• Make available documents providing users with the ability to create budgets and perform automatic calculations based on user-defined parameters.
• Provide more comprehensive monitoring and reporting capabilities, supporting an enhanced business intelligence environment.

Pre and Post Award for Research Administration

• Provide process flows, edits and MSU/Agency rules used to assist the user in completing proposal and compliance forms.
• Provide budget templates that perform automatic calculations on predefined parameters such as salary, fringe benefits, tuition & fees, F&A, subtotals, totals, etc. plus inflationary increases.
• Provide users access to more timely information from integrated systems pertaining to proposal and compliance documents, and approvals.

Stores

• Enable users to browse both internal and external catalogs easily to shop for items.
• Provide alternative means to fill user requests when University Stores does not stock a particular item via a single portal.
• Support University Stores' use of barcode technology in receiving items, order fulfillment and inventory management to input transactions into the system.