Modernization of Financial Reporting (MFR) Project Update

June 16, 2016

Year-End Processes and OBI

As many of you focus on year-end activities, you should be aware that the OBI dashboards can make the job a lot easier. Here are a few reminders about specific dashboards and how they may be useful in year-end processes. 

  • Unclaimed Wires – available to all OBI users in the Cash Management Folder allows you to review all wires that are currently unclaimed. There are millions of dollars looking for the right 33-digit home
  • AP Invoice Holds – lists all invoices On Hold based on the chart segments selected. This is an excellent tool to review invoices needing attention so charges are recorded in the correct fiscal year and applied to your FY16 budget if appropriate
  • Committed Funds – lists all Open Purchase Orders with remaining balances. This can be useful to identify missing invoices that require vendor follow-up

The BI Report Catalogs by Subject Area is a great crosswalk indicating which OBI dashboards replace your CREW reports.

Change Management Forum
Nearly 100 individuals attended the MFR Change Management Forum and Social held on June 1st.  Representatives from across the University assembled to celebrate the accomplishments that have been achieved and to discuss the importance of continued support and involvement from key stakeholder groups.

Tom Hollister, VP of Finance and CFO kicked off the event and provided the University’s perspective about the value of this project as part of improvement initiatives within IT. Demonstrations were provided on the Phase I dashboards which are already accessible to nearly 1000 users. Attendees were also given a preview of Phase II dashboards which are currently being designed and built.  Forum attendees and presenters participated in an active dialogue about how to approach Change Management efforts and jointly commit to achieve project objectives and timelines for Phase II. 

Another forum is planned for later this year to continue to focus on Change Management topics. You can review the presentation from the Change Management Forum here.

Grants Management Dashboards
All OBI Grants Management dashboards, including the Grants Financial dashboards (CREW PER replacement), are now available to those with access to the Grants Management folder. Here are a few highlights:

Dashboard

What it is

How to use it

Grants Financial (Current and Historical)

Provides all transactions posted to the General Ledger for a fund-activity-subactivity combination summed by object code.  Shows expenses, income, and GL budget per subactivity.  This dashboard allows for subtotals for easy review.

Enables monitoring financial information on sponsored projects in order to prepare monthly reconciliations, financial reports and invoices.  (A printable version will be coming later this summer.)

Current Grants Financial allows a user to run the dashboard for a period within the last 6 months.

Historical Grants Financial allows a user to run the dashboard for any period back to July 1999.

Invalid Code Combinations

Documents all transactions with fund-activity-subactivity combinations that do not match the account strings set up in GMAS (Grants Management Application Suite). 

Identifying and correcting these transactions will help with account close-out

Sponsored Accounts

Lists award, expense, income, and balance information for projects at the 33-digit account string, as well as identifies overspent and unreconciled accounts. 

Perform a health check and conduct monthly reconciliations

Subagreements

Provides all subagreements issued for a given project.  This dashboard includes drill-through capability to the Vendor Invoice Detail, Committed Funds, and AP Invoices on Hold dashboards.

Enables better identification when a subagreement was last paid and what payments are outstanding

Training is coming!! Train the Trainer sessions for the OBI Grants Management dashboards will begin this month, as nearly twenty individuals will prepare to take on the trainer role for Grants Management dashboards. Sessions for end user training are scheduled to begin in July and continue through October. The training calendar is available here.

Later this month, each of the school-based Engagement Councils will distribute information about local roll-out and enrollment for training sessions.  Information will also be posted on the Office for Sponsored Projects website.

REMINDER: The CREW Grants Management reports are expected to be decommissioned on November 1st.  At that time, FSS Client Services and the Harvard Data Warehouse (HDW) will disable the CREW Reports and OBI will be the sole source for this information.  During the transition period through the end of October, the Grants Management reports will be available in both CREW and OBI. 

If you have any questions about the Modernization of Financial Reporting project and roll-out timeline at your school, please contact your local implementation manager.