January 2018

Oracle Financial Applications Outage due to Cloud Shield Firewall Maintenance

January 11, 2018

There will be an Oracle Financial Applications outage due to Cloud Shield Firewall Maintenance. The outage details include:

Start: 2018-1-13 9:00
End: 2018-1-13 14:00

Affected Components:

Oracle EBS Financial systems that will be offline during this time include:

  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Payable Adjustment Form for Assets
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Bottomline
  • CAPS
  • Cash Management (CMRA)
  • Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA)
  • CoA Validator
  • Collections
  • FedEx
  • General Ledger
  • GL Validator
  • Harvard Oracle Assets
  • HCOM
  • iProcurement
  • iReceivables
  • PCard
  • Vendor Request
  • Web ADI
  • Web Reimbursement.

Maintenance Details:

On Saturday, January 13th HUIT will administer essential software patches to upgrade a core firewall (Cloud Shield). IT Services and applications, such as Oracle Financials, using Cloud Shield VPC may experience intermittent network outages during this window: January 13th 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM. To prevent any disruption of services to Oracle Financials, we have decided to take the system down during this work.

Oracle Financials HCOM Max Total Amount (Price) hold report issue

January 11, 2018

We recently discovered with the implementation of our FINDINI 4.0.12 release that the HCOM Max Total Amount (Price) hold report and notification process is no longer functioning as it once did. The Oracle hold type of Max Total Amount now only applies to invoices using foreign currencies. This was a change within the Oracle product code set released in our FINDINI 4.0.12, and not something HUIT customized or changed. What this means to our end users is that our invoices which are in USD currency will no longer validate against this Max Total Amount hold type, thus this invoice hold type is now nonexistent. The HCOM Max Total Amount (Price) hold report will no longer return valid data.

To combat this issue, we have implemented a new hold type called Max Ship Amount, which will work exactly like the Max Total Amount hold did before our FINDINI, and serve as this Price variance hold. We are currently looking at the HCOM Max Total Amount (Price) hold report and notification process to update this customized report to reflect the Max Ship Amount hold and replace the Max Total Amount hold. The OBI AP Invoice Holds dashboard is unaffected by this issue, and can be leveraged in the interim while we address the Oracle HCOM Max Total Amount (Price) hold report and notification process.

FY19 Capital Budget Submission

January 11, 2018

The FY19 capital budget submissions will be due using CPATH by end of day on Friday, February 16, 2018.  In addition, the automated FCA tool, vfa.facility, should be updated as of this date or completed FCI templates should be emailed to Garry Cuneo (garry_cuneo@harvard.edu) or Missy Reed (missy_reed@harvard.edu ). Also, responses to the Capital Plan Narrative Update questions should be submitted; these have been included with the FY19 Budget Guidelines and Narratives distributed by OFSP.  CAPS will obtain your responses from OFSP when you submit the narrative to them.

... Read more about FY19 Capital Budget Submission

GMAS Updates

January 11, 2018

As we begin a new calendar year, we wanted to highlight some changes that are coming soon.

Effective January 25, 2018, GMAS will no longer support the system-to-system submission of proposals to Grants.gov. For more information about the process involved in determining to retire system-to-system, or to answer additional questions, please visit the November 7, 2017 blog article “System to System (S2S) is Getting Retired – January 2018”.

Our next GMAS release is scheduled for March 2018. This release is focused on the Financial Invoicing and Reporting Strategic Transition (FIRST) project. The purpose of this project is to:

  • Retire the FRAP system which is currently being used by the Office for Sponsored Programs to automate certain financial deliverables.
  • Improve and extend the automation for generating sponsored invoices and financial reports directly from GMAS.
  • Reduce the reliance on paper for the workflow of preparing and approving financial deliverables.
  • Improve visibility for the whole sponsored community and improve post-award communication.

For more information on either of these topics, please reach out to contactgmas@harvard.edu or check out the GMAS website and blog.

DMS Cloud Migration Project

January 11, 2018

As many of you are aware, The Harvard Cloud Program is a critical initiative for HUIT in FY18 and beyond. An important component of this initiative is the DMS Cloud Migration project.  This project is well underway and includes the migration of HUIT DMS applications and platforms such as the Harvard Data Warehouse, and Oracle BI, and Informatica.

It is our hope to maintain, and perhaps in some cases improve, service levels as a part of this migration. In order to achieve this, we will be reaching out to impacted stakeholders throughout Harvard University that leverage these systems to ensure they are aware of the DMS Cloud Migration project, its change impacts, and how they can assist to ensure a successful migration; i.e. testing their connections to our migrated applications. 

Be sure to stay connected to this project and the Harvard Cloud Program initiative by visiting the program and project web page.  If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to one of the key project contacts:

DMS Cloud Migration Contacts

Policy Service Announcement - Business Expense Reimbursement – Foreign Individual (BER Vendor Type)

January 11, 2018

Foreign Individuals who do not have a prior payment relationship with Harvard, and are only being reimbursed for legitimate business expenses (e.g., travel expenses), may be set up in Oracle using vendor type “Business Expense Reimbursement – Foreign Individual (BER)”. Use of this vendor type does not require the individual to complete GLACIER; however, the paying department must instead obtain from the individual required immigration documentation listed in the instructions here. Additionally, B-2 visa holders or individuals on a Visa Waiver for Tourism must also submit a signed certification form. Signed certification forms and required copies of immigration documents listed in the instructions must be submitted with the Nonemployee Reimbursement (NR) payment request. Payments cannot be processed without this information.

As always, prior to any formal agreements being offered, departments must confirm any foreign individual is legally allowed to be paid by Harvard. See Most Commonly Seen Visa Types of Foreign National Guest Speakers for guidance.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) 2017

January 11, 2018

Harvard is now performing its due diligence on the effects of the tax reform bill passed in December 2017. While more information is forthcoming, we wanted to share now the changes highlighted:

  • Effective 1/1/2018, Permanent Relocation Expenses For Employees Are Now Taxable

Effective 1/1/2018, all payments to staff and faculty for permanent relocation (moving) expenses must be treated as taxable income. Earnings code MOV/MVI - Moving Qualified (ee, 3rd party), which uses object code 6220, has been disabled. Reimbursements to new employees (individuals or 3rd parties such as moving companies, etc.) must use earnings code MVN/MV3 – Moving Non-Qualified (ee, 3rd party). Schools and units may gross-up these payments at their discretion.

Responsibilities of Purchasers, Prepares and Approvers (ROPPA) Policy Information Session

January 11, 2018

Do you know that anyone who makes purchases with University funds or who prepares or approves transactions via Concur, PCard or HCOM (or other systems such as Aleph, Presto, etc. which feed into the Oracle e-business suite) must follow certain requirements?

Are you aware that there is required training for anyone receiving a Concur, PCard or HCOM approver role after March 1, 2016? The January Policy Information Session will review the ROPPA Policy and training requirements on Thursday, January 25 from 11:00-12:00 in the Lamont Library Forum Room.

To attend, please send an email to financialpolicy@harvard.edu with the word “registration” in the subject line. The session is open to all; please feel free to forward this invitation to others who may be interested.

Sign up for Electronic W2!

January 11, 2018

Want to get your 2017 W2 sooner? Go Green! To receive an email notification as soon as your W2 is available for viewing, register with ADP following the below instructions: Individuals who have signed up after December 31, 2017 will also receive a paper W2 form for 2017. Your election will remain in effect for future years unless you opt out.

Click on this link and log in with you Harvard Key: Harvard’s ADP Portal

... Read more about Sign up for Electronic W2!

IRB Informational Sessions in January

January 11, 2018

The ESTR* support team and members of the Harvard IRB offices are holding informational sessions in January to share updates on:

For the calendar of sessions and to register, please visit:

*What is ESTR? To learn more about ESTR and to access current training materials and resources, please visit our support site: estrsupport.fss.harvard.edu