Finance and Administration
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September
30, 2010 |
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In This Issue Announcements by ·
Central Receiving and Supply ·
Property Management and Inventory ·
Special Events, Facilities & Services ·
University Police Department Important Dates ·
Effective Immediately ·
Effective Immediately ·
Effective Immediately ·
Effective Immediately ·
Ongoing ·
September 28, 2011 ·
October 3, 2011 For an Online copy of
this and previous newsletters, visit the Finance and Administration Web site |
Announcements
Shipping Tips The university
received over 9,900 packages last fiscal year with only a third of those
being on a purchase order. When having
items shipped to the university please do the following: 1. Ask the shipper to reference a
department and end user’s full name. 2. When purchasing with a ProCard have them use “procard”
as a reference number so Central Receiving and Purchasing know not to search
for a purchase order. These two steps will
greatly expedite processing and delivering your package. Change of Address Also, our physical
address is 1635 Vanderventer, San Angelo, TX,
76909. Please use this address instead of the 2601 W. Avenue N or any other
address. If you have any questions about Central Receiving & Supply,
please contact us at extension 2358 or visit our website. More? See this department's Web
site. Contract
Administration Office
Automation The Contract
Administration Office is working towards automating the review, routing, and
approval process of contracts along with email notifications on the status of
contracts. Departments that generate contracts will be contacted soon to
discuss possible options for automation. New Requirements for
Consulting Contracts The Board of Regents
is requiring additional information on all consulting contracts. We must
provide a detailed description on the selection process used for awarding
consulting contracts. The form, Notice to the BOR Chairs for
Consulting Contracts
located on RamPort, Administrative Forms, has been
updated to include selection process information. If possible, please submit
consulting contracts 30 days prior to start date to allow adequate time for
review, notification, and approval. For more information
on use of private consultants and other contracting tips, please visit the
website Contract Administration Office. More? See this department's Web
site.
What is a FOAP? The Banner Finance
chart of account structure is based on fund accounting principles. The chart of account elements in Banner
Finance are: fund, organization,
account, and program. The chart of
accounts elements are known as a “FOAP." Where do I find the
chart of accounts? The printed version of
the FY12 Chart of Accounts was distributed the first week of September. Please contact the Controller’s Office if
your department did not receive a printed copy and you would like one. The online version of the Chart of Accounts
is linked to the Controller’s channel of RamPort;
and is a searchable document intended to help departments easily find the
needed FOAP information. This online
version is updated at the first of each month to reflect any changes made to
the chart of accounts. Tuition Payment
Reminder The Student Accounts
Office would like to remind all students paying tuition on the Installment
Plan that the 2nd installment is due by 5:00 p.m., October 3, 2011. The Student Accounts Office may be
contacted at (325) 942-2008 or at billing@angelo.edu.
More? See this department's Web
site.
Hours of Operation Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday – 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Wednesday 7:30 am to
7:00 pm Expanded Merchandise Mail Services has
expanded its merchandise to include a variety of padded mailers, manila and
business envelopes, pre-paid envelopes, boxes and stamps. Customers have the option of purchasing
stamps or having mail processed with a meter imprint, which also gives the
mail piece a more business or professional look. We offer several options for mailing your
packages or letters and we accept credit and debit cards. It is our goal to
meet the mailing needs of our customers and to ensure all mail is handled
promptly and according to university policy and U.S. Postal Regulations. Mail Availability now
Online Do you want to know
when the mail is available for pick-up?
You can receive notification of daily mail posting by simply joining
our group in RamPort: 1. In RamPort,
click Groups on the top-right hand corner. 2. Click on the Groups index 3. Click on Service folder 4. Click on Mail Services under the
groups in Service selections 5. Click on the required information
boxes 6. Click on the Join button. USPS, FedEx, UPS, and Lonestar do not have a scheduled delivery time to
ASU. Mail arrives between 9:30 and
5:00 and is processed immediately upon arrival at ASU Mail Services. We invite you to join our RamPort group for daily mail notification. Want to save money on
departmental mailing? Follow the below
steps: 1. Addresses. Make sure you have the correct
address. Incorrect addresses result in
mail pieces being mailed out and later returned for an incomplete or
nonexistent address and then require new postage and envelopes to
re-mail. On a daily basis, Mail
Services receives several returned mail pieces back due to incorrect
addresses. Please verify addresses
before you mail. 2. Business Reply mail
is costly. The United States Postal Service charges ASU $770.00 per year for
the business reply permit and account maintenance, which is in addition to
the returned per piece amounts that are charged back to the department.
Consider creating and including in your mail-out a unique email address for
your responses rather than using business reply mail. 3. Unwanted mail. Stop
unwanted mail such as catalogs, solicitations, mail addressed to past
employees, etc. Most of these items will have an email address or *800*
number included somewhere in or on the mail piece to notify the company that
your name and/or department should be removed from their mailing list.
Stopping unwanted mail will help to ensure faster processing of deliverable
mail. Please contact us at
extension 2342 to let us know how we can help you with your mailing needs.
Training If your department
needs assistance with understanding the operating policies or processes for
the Offices of Purchasing, Contract Administration, Travel, or Property
Management, please contact Jennifer Lennon at extension 2591 to set-up a
training session. Please give us the opportunity to tailor a training session
to meet your departmental needs. Also, contact jennifer.lennon@angelo.edu if you have any questions regarding
the materials management departments. Jennifer can then post the question and
any answers to the department’s online FAQ page. More? See this
department's Web site.
Electronic
Changes/Automation and Continuous Improvement The Office of Human
Resources and the Payroll Office are still making strides on the Non-Exempt
Employee Web-Time Entry Project. This project will drastically reduce the
reliance on paper forms for timekeeping with our hourly employees. Employees
will be able to enter their time that they worked and their leave via the
work-life tab on RamPort. More information
regarding this transition, including upcoming meetings, time frames and
frequently asked questions can be found at the following web site: http://www.angelo.edu/dept/human_resources/non_exempt_web_time_entry.html
. Over the past month we
have transitioned the Student Hire Form (P-5), or "Blue" form into
an online format via the Electronic Personnel Action Form (ePAF) option through Banner. What once was a paper
process requiring the use of campus mail and had the potential for more
errors and general lag time or loss of the form, is not an easily tracked
online format that includes more quality control for error reduction and a
quicker turnaround time on the completion of the form. The campus has
completed hundreds of these types of ePAFs since we
went live in August. This transition aligns with the way we make personnel
transactions with the staff and faculty employee classes, and now we are able
to use the same types of processes with our student employees. A big
"Thank You" goes out to those of you who have made the transition
with us and have created, submitted, and approved the new student hire and
student re-hire ePAFs. Over the past year,
the Office of Human Resources has set the groundwork and implemented new
processes to transition the personnel files of all of our employees over to
that of an electronic filing system. This transition includes employee files
that date back to the inception of the university. By scanning all of our old
files, current files and future files into an imaging system, our office is
able to provide an additional layer of information security for our
employees, provide a level of business continuity and redundancy in the event
of a physical loss of files, and establish a streamlined system for file
maintenance, storage and retrieval. This is an ongoing project and there are
literally millions of documents yet to scan. Nevertheless, this effort is a
daily success in solidifying our document future as an efficient and secure
function of human resources. More? See this department's Web
site.
One Stop Print Shop Please, let the Print
Shop be your main source for all your printing needs. The Print Shop is
available for all departments, student organizations, and students.
Advantages of using the Print Shop include: 1. We offer the convenience of being on
campus. 2. Many times, we have a faster
turnaround than our off-campus competitors. 3. We offer flexibility – we can
contact your department if something looks incorrect on a first run, and then
make changes, if necessary. 4. We can show you a press run so that
you can be sure your work is being printed as you intended. 5. We offer high-quality, customized
print jobs comparable to our competitors at competitive prices. 6. Your departmental money for printing
projects stays on campus. For samples of our
printing services and other helpful information, please visit our Print Shop
website. Give us a call at extension 2345 to discuss how we can help you with
your printing needs. More? See this department's Web
site. Property
Management and Inventory
Audits Property Management
will continue the following audits: 1. Departments that have five or more iPads and tablet clones. 2. Departments that indicate other
electronic devices are off-campus. 3. Departments with missing inventory. The Property Manager
or other staff in Materials Management will contact departments that meet the
above criteria. Surplus Property: Is any personal
property, such as office furniture, computers or other property no longer of
use for your department but has additional useful life. Please send an
“everyone email” to see if another department wants to claim the surplus
property. If no one claims the surplus property, please complete a Request for Equipment Transfer and Property Management will
pick-up the surplus property. Surplus property must
first be made available to internal departments, eligible entities, such as
other Texas state agencies, political subdivisions, and assistance
organizations before it can be offered to the general public through a public
sale. Does your department
need a desk or filing cabinet? We currently have a surplus of desks and
filing cabinets available. Please contact the Property Manager at extension
2376 to inquire or ask about other property questions. More? See this
department's Web site.
Before purchasing a
good or service, please keep in mind the following steps: 1. University
purchases are required to follow established university policy and applicable
state statutes or federal law.
Policies to review: a. Purchase of Goods and Services – OP
54.04 b. Expenditure Payment Policy – OP
14.05 c. Professional Services – OP 14.11 d. Use of Private Consultants – OP
54.05 e. Historically Underutilized
Businesses – OP 54.02 2. Please refer to the
Accounting
Primer posted on the Purchasing Office website for appropriate use of
funds. 3. It is a state
requirement that funds must be encumbered prior to ordering a good or
service. After the fact orders should
not occur. Purchase Orders must be
approved and issued before the merchandise or service is received. After the fact invoices can create
significant problems for ASU, such as: a. Violation of competitive bidding
requirements as outlined in OP 54.04. b. Subject to open records requests
submitted by competing vendors. c. Higher costs for goods and services
than necessary due to lack of researching and planning purchasing options. d. Unfavorable terms and conditions in
supplier contracts that ASU does not have authority to agree to on behalf of
the state of Texas. e. Purchasing from vendors on hold with
the state of Texas. Vendors on hold at
the state will not receive payment for services until the hold status has
been cleared. f. Possible duplicate vendor payments. g. Place the university at risk
financially. h. Post payment audit citings from the State Comptroller’s Office, which could
impact state appropriations or result in fines. 4. Invoices are not
appropriate documentation to create an online requisition. Please request quotes from vendors prior
to purchasing. 5. Please do not have
invoices mailed to your department. Vendors
must mail an original invoice directly to Accounts Payable, ASU Station
#11034, San Angelo, TX 76909. 6. ProCard purchases
are limited to goods or services where orders do not exceed a specific limit
authorized for each individual cardholder and the purchase meets guidelines
established by ASU policy and as outlined in the ProCard
Program Guide. 7. On the Purchasing
website, FAQS
or Quick Facts
are posted. 8. Contracts for
purchasing goods and services are also subject to OPs. 30.01 - 04. For more information, please refer to the Contract
Administration website or call x2591 or x2748. Policy and procedure
PowerPoint presentations are available for viewing at Compliance
Training. Please keep in mind the power to purchase on behalf of ASU is a
powerful tool! If you have questions
about purchasing policies and procedure, please don’t hesitate to contact the
Purchasing Office at x2012. More? See this department's Web
site. Special
Events, Facilities and Services
Facilities Inventory In preparation for the
annual campus facilities inventory submission to the THECB on November 1,
Special Events staff will be contacting space representatives on record to
confirm/update facilities data for the areas they manage. Space Representative
reports will be delivered by September 21, 2011 and will be due back to
Special Events by September 28, 2011. Should you have any questions or need
additional information regarding the process, please contact Shayna Lopez or
Jessica Manning at 942-2021. Lab Reservations Reservations for Lab
Reserve are now submitted to the Special Events Office. All requests for
space are submitted by completing an online request form at
reservations.angelo.edu by hovering over Reservations and click on the Lab
Reserve form. To submit online, you must have a user account. Please contact
Special Events at (325) 942-2021 for further instruction. More? See this department's Web
site.
Current Projects Several of the current
Special Projects assignments reflect trends that we’re all seeing across the
University, those being to (1) improve operational efficiency at all levels,
(2) focus on collaborative, integrated strategies that support
university-level goals instead of just “local” (divisional or department)
objectives, and (3) make data-driven decisions that are based on a
“Plan-Do-Check-Act” continuous improvement model. Some current projects that
support the above statements include the following: 1. Business Process
Analysis We've met with every
Finance and Administration director to identify key processes within our
division. The next step will be to create or update a Business Process
Analysis (BPA) for each of those processes. During the analysis phase, we’ll
be looking for ways to streamline each process, make them more cost-effective,
and identifying process tasks where technology might be leveraged to make the
process more customer-friendly. 2. SPOL objectives at
the division level The university has
made significant progress over the past several years as relates to integrated
planning and planning-based budgets. To be successful, every operational
level of the university must participate by developing clearly-defined
Planning Unit objectives, assessment measures, and expected outcomes. These
are being defined at the division level for Finance and Administration, and
reflect the division’s strategies to “... be a strategic source of
information and support institutional goals ....” 3. Campus Wellness Master Goal #5, Objective
#4 of ASU’s strategic plan states “The University promotes and supports
wellness initiatives for the entire campus community.” As an institution,
we’ve made tremendous related to those objective in that multiple staff and
academic departments are all individually organizing events, sending out
newsletters, and helping to promote a culture of wellness among students and
employees. The down side is that many of these efforts overlap or duplicate
each other, so we may not be approaching the wellness issue in a structured,
cost-effective manner. Therefore, the Wellness Summit goals will be to (a)
identify campus-wide goals for Fitness and Wellness, (b) identify who is
currently doing what, and (c) formulate a plan for collaboration, targeted
efforts, and cost efficiency as all members of the university community work
to accomplish the objective. 4. Business Resource
Center (BRC) We continue to provide
support for a project involving multiple partners such as ASU’s Small
Business Development Center, the City of San Angelo, the Chamber of Commerce,
and several other economic development entities. The outcome will be a
one-stop Economic development center located in downtown San Angelo. Angelo
State plays an important role in regional economic development and this
project represents one strategy to help “engage” the regional community in
that effort. 5. ASUFit
Activities ASUFit supports the university’s wellness
and retention efforts via activities such as health fairs, fitness events,
and collaborations with community health and fitness organizations. Events on
the current schedule include “Video Brown Bag” presentations, on-campus
fitness events, and collaborative activities that help engage students
related to promoting health and fitness. More? See this department’s Web
site.
2011-2012 Basketball
Season Tickets Sales will start
October 3rd. Order by October 14th to get the same great seats you had last
year! New 2011-2012 Packages
and Pricing ·
Basketball
Season Tickets $50 ·
Family
General Admission Season Pass $125 ·
General
Admission to all regular season ASU home sporting events for a family of 2
adults plus up to 3 children (max) under the age of 18. ·
Individual
General Admission Season Pass $50 ·
Individual
General Admission to all regular season ASU home sporting events. Call or visit our Web
site for more information: (325) 942-BLUE (2583) asutickets.angelo.edu More? See this department's Web site.
Web site Updates
Coming Soon The Travel Office
wants to create a focus group to evaluate policies, procedures, forms, and
website information to discuss possible changes. Frequent travelers will be invited to join
the focus group. The focus group will
be limited to no more than 10 in order to facilitate review, however all
employees can provide suggestions to the focus group once created. Meal & Lodging
Rates for New Fiscal Year 2012 The Comptroller will
no longer establish rates for any locations not listed on the federal General
Service Administration’s (GSA) site. Consequently, state employees will be restricted
to the GSA’s standard meal and lodging in-state and out-of-state rates when
traveling to non-listed locations. ·
This
means that we will no longer go by the $85/$36 rule for in-state cities not
listed on the GSA chart. ·
You
will now use the top line titled “Standard Rate” (currently set at $77/$46
for lodging and meals respectively) for both in-state & out-of-state
travel. NOTE: Hotel Overage memos will need to be created for any rates
beyond what the GSA has set. ·
Please
note that FY12 per diem rates will be updates by the State at the beginning
of October. You can use the current rates for estimation purposes until the
new rates are posted. Please check the drop down menu above the map to make
sure the correct FY is selected. Rental Car Contracts Rental Car Contracts
have been extended with Avis and Enterprise for a three-month term to expire
on Nov. 30, 2011. Terms and conditions remain unchanged for both vendors
while rate increases will apply on the following car types with Enterprise
locations effective Sept. 8, 2011: In addition, Avis
online booking instructions have recently been updated. Please view them at: http://www.window.state.tx.us/procurement/prog/stmp/stmp-rental-car-contract/Avis/. Mileage Currently the mileage
reimbursement rate for ASU is still set at a maximum of $0.50 per mile.
Agencies are allowed to reimburse at lower rates than set forth by the State
of Texas. Any changes in ASU mileage reimbursement rates will be
communicated. Travel Concerns 1. Expense Log
Reminders: When submitting Travel Expense Logs for reimbursement, please be
sure to include the following information. ·
Time
departing from Headquarters and time arriving back to Headquarters (first and
last days of travel). ·
Benefit
Statement explaining how this trip benefits/impacts your job and the
university. ·
Detailed
Daily Account of business conducted (please refer to the “Example Log” and
“Instruction” tabs at the bottom of the Expense Log spreadsheet). Travel
days, business days, and personal days must be itemized and explained in
brief detail. ·
County
(for out-of-state travel) of destination. ·
Any
extenuating or special circumstances should be noted either by memo or where
space permits on log itself. 2. Prospective
Employee Hotel Reservations (NEW Procedure): ASU does not use the BTA credit
card to prepay rooms at Staybridge Suites because
the hotel chain is able to direct bill ASU. When you call Staybridge
to reserve a room for a prospective employee say that you are using direct
bill. Once you get a confirmation number, submit an online requisition in
Banner so that the Purchasing Office can create a Purchase Order. The correct
vendor ID number is 203719527. Local Hotel Rental If you would like to
use Holiday Inn Express or other local hotels, we will still be glad to use
the BTA credit card to help you. Please continue to write the hotel name and
confirmation number on the Prospective Employee Form. Please Remember to
Travel Conservatively For cost-saving tips
please visit the Travel Office Website (http://www.angelo.edu/services/travel_office/cost_cut_tips.html) or contact the Travel Office
directly with any questions. Also, now that the
UBAT has completed its initial task, it is no longer necessary to get vice
president approval on all travel authorization requests. Call the Travel Office
before, during or after your trip for assistance with travel quotes, booking
questions, hotel payment information, receipt requirements, pre &
post-travel paperwork, questions regarding rates and policy, etc. We’re here
to help! More? See this department's Web
site. |
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New Officers Hired The University Police
would like to welcome two new police officers to its ranks. Jerry Rychlik and
Amy Thomas started on August 8th. Their hiring brought the police department
back to full staffing levels. Both officers came from the Tom Green County
Sheriff’s Department. Jerry has 19 years with the sheriff’s department and
has worked a variety of assignments during his tenure there. Amy served as a
mental health deputy. Both are in a 12 week field training program. Dispatch and Records
Management Upgrade The police department
has undergone an upgrade to its dispatch and records management system. The
upgrade provides numerous new features including the ability for officers in
the field to obtain driver’s license and vehicle registration information
from their patrol cars. The system also allows officers to view standard
operating procedures specific to certain types of calls and enables officers
to complete and submit reports electronically from their laptops in the car.
Other features will enhance overall productivity and increase officer safety. More? See this department's Web
site. |