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Financials Update – September 16, 2014

Dear Colleagues,

I want to share with you information we have gained about Georgetown’s use of our new financial system now that we have been operational for 10 weeks. We have made a preliminary assessment in order to prioritize our on-going work to assist users in making effective use of the new system.

At go-live on June 30th, we added an additional 1,174 financial system users to GMS, which had been operational for HR, Benefits and Payroll since January 2012. Since June 30th we have processed over 15,000 transactions, including expense reports, requisitions, purchase orders and supplier invoices.

Overall from a system perspective the financial system is working as planned. Any downtime has been minimal and the system is quite responsive, despite the volume of activity. However, we are aware of some issues that have come up primarily in three areas. I want to share with you our understanding of the issues and the steps we are taking to remediate them.

Delay in Invoice Processing

Accounts Payable has processed 6,570 invoices since go-live (5,234 have been paid and the remainder are in various stages of the approval process). While this is a large number, our accounts payable unit has experienced a learning curve in making use of the new system so a backlog has developed. In order to increase the number of invoices processed we have re-deployed staff to this function and are focusing on the most urgent payments first.

If you are receiving inquiries from suppliers regarding payments please refer these suppliers directly to Curt Topper (cmt106@georgetown.edu), AVP, Purchasing, Contracts & Accounts Payable, or Michael Robinson (mr1230@georgetown.edu), Director, Accounts Payable. If you are concerned about the status of certain payments please let Curt or Michael know. We are grateful for your continued patience.

We apologize for the limited and inconsistent feedback and communications that many of you have received from the AP team about pending transactions as they develop greater expertise in using the system. We are working to improve our performance on this front as well. As we proceed however, please do not re-submit payment requests or invoices unless you are asked to do so. Re-submission will increase the likelihood of errors and duplicate payments.

Grants Functionality-Change in Award Budgets Data Conversion

At go-live, the authorized amount and anticipated amount for future fiscal years were converted as one lump sum amount. This has caused difficulties in reporting. To remediate this problem we reconverted the data so that the authorized amount and anticipated amount are now split out into separate balances for future fiscal years. This re-conversion is now complete and in production.

Difficulty in viewing research / start-up funds or beginning balances

Research / Start-up Funds
Research / Start-up funds are assigned to a worktag labeled “Assignee” within a cost center. In the past, with our previous PeopleSoft financial system, these funds were often held in a unique cost center and reporting or view capability for that cost center could be assigned to that individual. In GMS, cost centers have a different meaning and often represent whole departments. Currently, in GMS there is no ability to restrict reporting or view capability at such a granular level. This is an issue that we are reviewing, but pending a resolution the Cost Center Manager or Financial Reporter for your cost center should be able to run a report and obtain the information for you. Cost Center Managers and Financial Reporters have roles in the system which allow them to run reports for all the activities in a department. If you do not know your Cost Center Manager or Financial Reporter please contact your Campus Representative:

Main Campus: Heather Malneritch (Heather.Malneritch@georgetown.edu)/ Patrick Gordon (Patrick.Gordon@georgetown.edu)

Medical Center: Muftiat Fahm (Muftiat.Fahm@georgetown.edu) / Venishea Butler (butlerv@georgetown.edu)

Law Center: Caroline Kariemu (cwk5@georgetown.edu)/Tom Clark (tgc25@law.georgetown.edu)

University Services: Abi Cruce (amc3@georgetown.edu)/ Shamika Da Silva (Shamika.DeSilva@georgetown.edu).

Beginning Balances
As we are still in the audit period for Fiscal Year 2014, closing June Balances have not yet been finalized in PeopleSoft. Once final, expected with the conclusion of the annual audit in October, we will load the June balances in GMS.

We appreciate your patience as we continue working through these issues. Remember, if you are experiencing difficulty you can call the Help Desk at (202) 687- 4949. Having a ticket open in the system helps us manage the resolution of the issue.

Sincerely,

David Rubenstein

Vice President of Finance and University Treasurer

Financials is Live!

Dear Colleagues

We are pleased to announce that we have successfully migrated from PeopleSoft Financials to Workday Financials. The Georgetown Management System (GMS) is now open for financial transactions along with your Human Resources, Payroll and Benefit transactions. With the migration to GMS, Georgetown University has a modern suite of enterprise systems that can evolve as the University evolves, is adaptable to mobile technologies and provides electronic workflow–moving us away from paper-based transaction processing.

To assist you in your work we are continuing to offer Training Sessions and you can register for these at the University Training and Development website.

We have also established labs at each campus where specialists can assist you with your transactions. The times and places for these labs can be found here.

We also have online training and documentation which can be found at the training section of the GMS website.

Please note for Grants, the following have not yet been converted into GMS: salary/fringe and telecommunications lines on Award Budgets, Proposal Budgets and Program-Project Hierarchies. We expect these to be available no later than July 11, 2014. Also note the balances in the system are only current through May 31, 2014. Final FY14 June balances will be available when the FY14 Financial Audit is complete in approximately late September to early October, 2014.

Converting financial systems for an organization like Georgetown is a complex undertaking and even with extensive training and testing it is possible that we will discover issues with some features and transactions as they are rolled out to the wider community. Please assist us in our work to stabilize the usage of GMS financials by contacting the Service Center, emailing help@georgetown.edu or calling (202) 687-4949 so we may log in any issues you discover. This will allow us to prioritize issues for resolution.

This conversion of financial systems has been a major undertaking, involving the work of hundreds of Georgetown employees to date in designing, testing and training to use the new system. Thank you all for your hard work.

Sincerely,

Lisa Davis
Vice President and Chief Information Officer

David Rubenstein
Vice President for Finance and University Treasurer

Town Hall Meeting Update – June 5, 2014

Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation from the Town Hall meeting.

Current News and the Week Ahead – Monday, June 2nd, 2014

Next Campus Town Hall – This Week!

When: Thursday, June 5th, 9:30 to 11:30
Where: Lohrfink Auditorium

User Acceptance Testing concluded this week and very few errors were found. Of the errors identified, to include incorrect routing and some other minor issues, they have all been corrected or an acceptable workaround identified with the exception of one bug that is preventing the creation of Grant Award budgets. Workday delivered a fix on Friday night (May 30th) and the Core Team is testing now.
Concurrent Report testing has been conducted in parallel. There were 45 critical reports identified but 79 are available for testing. Minor issues have been identified and the Core Team is modifying and testing now.
The Financials Steering Committee met this week to review the test results, status of the Project and to make the Go/No-Go Decision. Based upon progress to date the Steering Committee unanimously recommended a Go pending two things:
- Successful testing of the bug-fix to resolve the issue that is preventing the creation of Grant Award budgets.
- Successful end-to-end integration testing for the five critical integrations:
  - PNC Banking
  - JP Morgan Chase Procard
  - Banner
  - Gambit
  - Destiny
All of these integrations have passed initial tests and results have been successfully posted. Over the weekend the Core Team will do final end to end testing to include scheduling extracts from systems to automatically feed into GMS. From June 3-5 each of the business owners will review final results

We are confident all issues will be resolved and we will be ready to go live on June 30 as planned.

Testing, Training, Training and more Training!

The final round of testing, User Acceptance Testing, completed last week. Overall, the results of the testing were successful. The Core Team has a few loose ends to tie up, which are expected to be completed this week. The final decision to proceed with Financials deployment based on the results of the testing and specific criteria is this week! So far, there is no show-stopper. Stay tuned!
Approver and Requisitioner Training has begun and will continue for the next several weeks. If you have not yet attended, please register now here.
Principal Investigator (PI) Training-
- There will be two live classes in July and another two in September to be held in the Rafik B. Hariri Building and at the New Research Building. There will also be PI training videos accessible via the web.
Open Labs – please take advantage of the following labs that will be staffed by members of the GMS Financial Implementation Team:
- Main Campus, Conference Room, Suite 202, 3307 M Street, from 10:00AM to 2:00PM
  - Monday, June 30th
  - Tuesday, July 1st
  - Wednesday, July 2nd
  - Monday, July 7th
  - Friday, July 11th
  - Friday, July 18th
  - Friday, July 25th
  - Friday, August 1st
  - Friday, August, 8th
  - Friday, August 15th
  - Friday, August 22nd
- Law Center, McDonough Hall, Room 587, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  - Tuesday, July 1st
  - Wednesday, July 2nd\
- Medical Center – Building D, Room 301, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
  - Monday, 6/30
  - Tuesday, 7/1
  - Wednesday, 7/2 (10 to 4)
  - Thursday, 7/3
  - Friday, 7/4 (10 to 12)
  - Tuesday, 7/8 (11 to 4)
  - Thursday, 7/10
  - Tuesday, 7/15
  - Friday, 7/18 (10 to 12)
  - Friday, 7/25
  - Friday, 8/1
  - Wednesday, 8/6 (10 to 12)
  - Wednesday, 8/13
  - Friday, 8/22 (10 to 12)
  - Thursday, 8/28

Reminder!

Effective July 1, 2014 existing PeopleSoft cost centers will not be a valid form of payment for on-campus food and service-type establishments (e.g., Faculty Club, Follett book store, UPS store). However there are several other alternative forms of acceptable payment. For detailed information click here.

Current News and the Week Ended – Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Testing, Training, Training and more Training!

The final round of testing, User Acceptance Testing, completed last week. Overall, the results of the testing were successful. The Core Team has a few loose ends to tie up, which are expected to be completed this week. The final decision to proceed with Financials deployment based on the results of the testing and specific criteria is this week! So far, there is no show-stopper. Stay tuned!
Approver and Requisitioner Training has begun and will continue for the next several weeks. If you have not yet attended, please register now here.
Principal Investigator (PI) Training-
- There will be two live classes in July and another two in September to be held in the Rafik B. Hariri Building and at the New Research Building. There will also be PI training videos accessible via the web.
Open Labs – please take advantage of the following labs that will be staffed by members of the GMS Financial Implementation Team:
- Main Campus, Conference Room, Suite 202, 3307 M Street, from 10:00AM to 2:00PM
  - Monday, June 30th
  - Tuesday, July 1st
  - Wednesday, July 2nd
  - Monday, July 7th
  - Friday, July 11th
  - Friday, July 18th
  - Friday, July 25th
  - Friday, August 1st
  - Friday, August, 8th
  - Friday, August 15th
  - Friday, August 22nd
- Law Center, McDonough Hall, Room 587, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  - Tuesday, July 1st
  - Wednesday, July 2nd\
- Medical Center – Building D, Room 301, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
  - Monday, 6/30
  - Tuesday, 7/1
  - Wednesday, 7/2 (10 to 4)
  - Thursday, 7/3
  - Friday, 7/4 (10 to 12)
  - Tuesday, 7/8 (11 to 4)
  - Thursday, 7/10
  - Tuesday, 7/15
  - Friday, 7/18 (10 to 12)
  - Friday, 7/25
  - Friday, 8/1
  - Wednesday, 8/6 (10 to 12)
  - Wednesday, 8/13
  - Friday, 8/22 (10 to 12)
  - Thursday, 8/28

Mark Your Calendars for the Next Campus Town Hall

When: Thursday, June 5th, 9:30 to 11:30
Where: Lohrfink Auditorium

Key Upcoming Deadlines and Dates

Go/No-Go Decision: May 28, 2014
Financial Access + Vendor Portal Shut Down: June 13th
FY14 Financial Deadlines:
- Chart of Account Changes: June 6th
- New Grant Proposals and Awards in Peoplesoft: June 13th
- New Projects in Peoplesoft: June 13th
- New Pro Card Applications: June 13th
- New Purchase Orders/Requisitions in Peoplesoft: June 16th
- FY14 Foreign Wire and Foreign Draft Requests: June 16th
- Web EVs: June 25th
- Payroll and Non-Payroll Cost Transfer JVs for RX Cost Centers (Except GU-Q) to SAO: July 16th
- First Close: July 11th
- Second Close (Departments): July 23th
- Final Second Close (Campus CFO/CBO): July 28th
FY14 HCM Deadlines:
- Changing/Creating Direct Deposit Changes in GMS: June 13th
- Approvals for:
  - New Hires (to include Contingents): June 18th
  - Leave Requests: June 18th
  - Time Entry: June 18th
  - Compensation Changes: June 18th
  - Terminations: June 18th
  - Job Changes: June 18th
- GPFs to Payroll: June 17th
New Vendor Portal: Open June 30th
New TAP Website: Open June 30th

Reminder!

Current News and The Week Ahead – Monday, May 12th, 2014

Vendor Registration Update– thanks for getting the word out. We have over 3,100 vendors to-date who will be in GMS when we go live on July 1. Please continue to let your vendors know they need to re-register if they have not already done so. For more information click here.
University-wide Town Hall Meeting Scheduled
- When: Thursday, June 5th, 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
- Where: Lohrfink Auditorium
- Topics to include:
  - Key dates leading up to June 30th
  - Purchasing changes effective June 30th
  - Training schedule through conversion
  - General preparedness questions
Deadlines for PeopleSoft Cost Centers
- Requests for non-RX PeopleSoft cost centers must be received in Financial Affairs by Friday, June 6th.
- The last day for pre-award offices to submit SPAN’s for RX centers is Friday, June 13th.

Dated Transactions
- In preparation for the deployment of the Financials system, any transaction in GMS that has not been approved that is over 365 days old will be cancelled on May 30, 2014. The Core Team will work with your campus experts to review all transactions that have been open less than 364 days to see which ones require action and which may be cancelled. If you have an open transaction that requires approval or attention, please contact your HR representative.
Training/Testing:
- System User Acceptance Testing commences May 12 to include Users from our Qatar Campus.
  - As part of this testing 81 out of 140 reports identified for development have been prototyped and will be available for Users to test starting Monday. Approximately 50% of these have been prototyped ahead of schedule and will be available at go-live rather than August 1.
  - The VWR and Office Max punchouts are ready to be tested
  - All integrations (31) identified for go-live will be tested end-to-end during User Acceptance Testing
  - All of this will be used to support a Go/No-Go decision on May 28.
- Requisitioner and Approver training will begin the week of May 19th. If you have not registered yet you may do so by clicking here.

Current News and The Week Ahead – Friday, May 2nd, 2014

Vendor Registration Update– thanks for getting the word out. We have over 2,300 vendors to-date who will be in GMS when we go live on July 1. Please continue to let your vendors know they need to re-register if they have not already done so. For more information click here.

Breaking News!

This past week the GMS Financials Steering Committee made the following decisions regarding our current consolidated billing vendors.
- The following vendors will remain in consolidated billing:
  - Xerox
  - AT&T
  - Verizon
  - Fisher Scientific
  - FedEx
- Orders from following vendors will require a requisition within GMS:
  - Nixon Uniform Service
  - Roberts Oxygen
  - Airgas USA, LLC
  - Airgas Carbonic
  - Taconic Farms
  - Invitrogen Corporation
  - Computerware
  - Maryland Delivery
  - Fedex Kinko’s
  - All Catering Vendors
  - All Facilities Vendors
  - All Furniture Vendors
  - All Coffee/Water Vendors
  - All Flower Vendors
  - All leasing Vendors
- Orders from the following vendors will be done directly in GMS via an online shopping site through designated Requisitioners
  - Office Max
  - VWR
  - CDWG – purchasing process unchanged, charges processed via invoices rather than journals.
  - Kroll Associates will be handled centrally by University HR

Breaking News (Part II)!

Effective July 1, 2014 existing cost centers will not be a valid form of payment for on-campus food and service-type establishments (e.g., Faculty Club, Follett book store, UPS store). However there are several other alternative form of acceptable payment. For detailed information click here.

Training:

This was the final week of Chart of Accounts training. Over 500 attendees have participated so far and the feedback on this training has been largely positive.
We will begin scheduling system training soon and publishing videos that you can view on how to use the system. Please keep an eye on our website for updates!

Current News and The Week Ahead – Monday, April 21st, 2014

Vendor Registration Update- thanks for getting the word out. We have had over 1,230 vendors to date re-register. Please continue to let your vendors know they need to re-register if they have not already done so. For more information click here.
The Wave of Colleges and Universities moving to Workday continues:
- Schools that have just signed up with Workday:
  – University of Washington
  – University of Texas at Austin
- Schools implementing Workday HCM:
  – Carnegie Mellon University
  – Syracuse University
  – University of Miami
  – Madison College
  – Yale University
  – Tallahassee Community College
- Schools live on Workday HCM:
  – NYU
  – Cornell University
  – University of Southern California
  – Broward College
  – Brown University
  – Georgetown University
- Schools implementing Workday Financials:
  – University of Rochester
  – Georgetown University
  – Schools live on Workday Financials:
  – Brown University
Testing and Training: 1. Chart of Accounts Training is mandatory for anyone who will have a role in the new financial system which goes live on June 30. We still have a few registrations dates left, so if you haven’t registered for training please do so now at: http://www12.georgetown.edu/hr/training_development/calendar.cfm and look for “GMS Chart of Accounts Training.” In the meantime, system training will begin in May, be on the lookout for notifications about registration. 2. Meanwhile, back at the Harris Building, another 50-60 Campus representatives and representatives from Financial Affairs have been completing System Test Cycle 2. We looked at journals, settlement, creating invoices and supplier contracts and the initial prototypes for the 45 critical reports identified for Go-Live. We will begin testing these reports for user acceptance in parallel with our Prototype 3 build scheduled to begin April 28. This final build will incorporate all fixes and adjustments identified as a result of the system testing. 3. User Acceptance Testing is schedule for May 12-23. We are working with the Campus leadership to identify cost centers for final User Acceptance Testing. Following this testing, each Campus and Division in Financial Affairs will be asked to sign off on their recommendation for Go-Live.

Current News and The Week Ended – Friday, April 11th, 2014

Vendor Registration Update- thanks for getting the word out. We have had over 800 vendors to date re-register. Please continue to let your vendors know they need to re-register if they have not already done so. For more information click here.
We started Chart of Accounts training on Monday, April 7th. To date 131 folks have attended training out of 457 who have signed up. There are still 500 who have been identified by their campus leadership that have not signed up yet. This training is MANDATORY. So if you haven’t registered for training please do so now at: http://www12.georgetown.edu/hr/training_development/calendar.cfm and look for “GMS Chart of Accounts Training.”

Pictured: GMS Chart of Accounts Training with Bryan Malatesta

Meanwhile, back at the Harris Building, another 50-60 Campus representatives have been engaged in System Test Cycle 2 where they are busy testing the configuration with Workday 22, which is the version on which we will go live. They tested Mobile expenses, travel advances, creating invoices, purchase orders and journals. As they become more familiar with the functionality, folks are feeling good about all the new system has to offer.
Workday 22 delivered some new reporting capability to include “Manager filters” on the reporting data sources which will allow us to secure data and share reports across all the Financial User Community. Workday 22 also delivered the ability to “burst” reports which will allow us to run specified reports to user groups, by individual, on a regular schedule. The Core Team is still testing this functionality. We have prototyped about 60% of the reports required for go-live and will begin setting up Campus focus groups to test and provide feedback.

Current News and the Week Ahead – Monday, March 31, 2014

We had a very successful and well-attended Financial Users GMS Town Hall on Monday, March 24th, hosted by David Rubenstein. You may obtain a copy of the materials presented by clicking here.

Supplier (formerly “Vendor”) Set Up
Due to a change in IRS reporting requirements, the University is asking that all current vendors re-register. This is critical as vendors who do not re-register will not transfer into the new GMS financial system and will not be able to have payments issued to them.

How can I tell if my Vendor has re-registered?

You can check here – https://ia.georgetown.edu/finaff/restricted/tvendor.cfm . After entering the vendor name or vendor ID, check to see if your vendor has a “W-9 Received Date” after February 20, 2014. If it does then your vendor has successfully re-registered. (Note: re-registering will not generate a new vendor ID.)

How does my Vendor re-register?

If your vendor has not re-registered they may do so by following this link (https://ia.georgetown.edu/finaff/register/w9_form.cfm). You may also forward them the following letter that was sent out to many our existing vendors that explains the re-registration process in detail (click here).

Will GMS be able to handle multiple “remit to” addresses?

Yes! Provided the Vendor has re-registered. However, when the vendor re-registers the default will be one remit to address. If the vendor requires multiple “remit to” addresses we ask that Department send the current vendor ID and any additional “remit to” addresses to taxdepartment@georgetown.edu (subject line – Additional Vendor Remit to Addresses).

Do you have questions about the Vendor Re-Registration process?

Please contact Laura Benner (ldb42@georgetown.edu) or at (202) 687-1158

Testing and Training:

We started testing the new functionality in WD22 this week.
We will be system testing with the users for the next 3 weeks.
We have a new Workday Engagement Manager named Mark Wangeman.
We completed town-hall meetings at the Main Campus, Medical Center and Law Center this past week.
We will start Chart of Accounts training on April 7th – mandatory attendance.

Current News and the Week Ahead – Monday, March 24, 2014

The University Treasurer is hosting a Town Hall meeting on Monday, March 24th from 10:00AM to 12:00 noon in the Lohrfink Auditorium for Financial Users to provide an update and announce some upcoming procurement policy changes in preparation for GMS Go-Live. Please click here for a copy of the PowerPoint Presentation.
We previewed some report prototypes with the Reporting Working Group and Campus Subject Matter Experts this week. Included were the new CSR report and budget to actuals report that was revised based upon feedbackfrom System Testing two weeks ago.
- We will test more operational reports as prototypes become available.
We are ramping up for System Test Cycle 2. Invitations have gone out to participants. We will be testing using 5-6 cost centers per campus and will include mobile expenses and travel advance functionality.
Our training team has developed materials for Chart of Accounts training to begin April 7. Keep an eye out of registration information
We will receive a preview of Workday 22 on Monday and will test endowments upgrades and the beginning of retro-cost allocation capability

Current News and the Week Ahead – Monday, March 17, 2014

Following a week of successful testing, the team has been working on updates, developing training and working on documenting and updating “outside system processes”
In developing the Deployment Plan the team has identified some early dates that will impact the HR Community. We will be contacting them directly and posting messages on the GMS website but everyone needs to start planning for the following deadlines

Role Change Approvals Due to Data Stewards for Approval June 9th New Hires/Change Jobs (Monthly and Biweekly) Due to CFO for Approval June 10th Compensation Changes Due to CFOs for Final Approval June 10th Time Sheets Due to Managers June 10th Last Day for Approved Roles Changes (HCM and Finance) June 13th Org Assignment/Cost Allocation Changes on Employees June 18th Deadline for Final Approval of New Hires/Change Jobs (Monthly and Biweekly) June 18th Deadline for Approving Leave requests June 18th Deadline for Final Approval of Compensation Changes June 18th Deadline for Time Tracking Approval June 18th Biweekly Payroll Inputs Due to Payroll June 18th Monthly Payroll Inputs Due to Payroll June 18th Qatar Biweekly Inputs Due to Payroll June 18th Future Dated Transactions Can Be Keyed Up To the Dates Listed Below

Bi-Weekly: June 22nd

Bi-Weekly Qatar: June 21st

Monthly: June 30th

Any HCM, Payroll or Benefits transaction with an effective date AFTER those dates should NOT be entered into GMS and will be deleted during the Financials conversion.

Testing and Training:

Planning is underway for System Test Cycle 2, scheduled for March 29-April 18. Following this testing, the Core Team and Workday Consultants will begin building Prototype 3 for final integrations, data conversion and configuration testing. User Acceptance Testing is scheduled for May 12-23.
A draft Training Plan has been developed and is being reviewed by Campus Representatives (led by Heather Malneritch, Muftiat Fahm, Jessie Mandel, Abi Cruce) now.
Chart of Accounts training will begin in early April. The class materials are being developed and will be reviewed by the Campus representatives
We are requiring everyone with a transactional initiator or approver role in GMS (Financials or HCM) to attend this lecture-based training.
We encourage anyone to attend or view materials on the GMS Website.
The team has completed prototypes for 21 of the 45 operational reports identified as required on Day 1 of Go-Live
We will begin previewing and testing these reports with the Reporting Working Group and Campus experts starting March 20.

Under Development:

The remaining 24 operational reports are currently under development.
There are another 59 operational reports that are required by August 2014 which are also under development.

System Testing Update – March 10, 2014

From February 24-March 7 almost 100 End-User representatives from across the four campuses and Financial Affairs participated in “Day-in-the-Life” System Testing and validation of the design to date. Although the Core Team has been performing regression testing on the system since January, the end-users were able to test at volume and point out some challenges and bugs that are difficult to spot when testing single transactions.

Through system testing, end-users were given an early opportunity to provide feedback on the design, help us identify issues and things that need to be fixed, and to provide insights that are valuable for designing training materials.

Here is some of the feedback we received:

“The system seems robust and friendly. It is also strong enough that we can implement GU rules that were bypassed in the past. This reduces the stress level as the system can monitor the following of rules instead of an AA or administrator having to confront a staff/ faculty member.”
“This provided good information about what was to come and allowed feedback I hope will be considered as implementation begins.”
“My take away of the positive aspect of the session were discussions surrounding the actual processes and how they will impact the workflow for the University when the system goes live. I personally think that the approach to have end users in the room early will have a very positive impact when we go live.”
“I thought it was helpful to have the broad exchange of ideas across campus. It allowed those that would mostly use the system to have a say in the process and give feedback. It also brings different scenarios that may not have been previously thought about when the system was being designed.”

There were many great suggestions for improvement and some concerns. Many of the concerns were about changes in policy and communications regarding these changes. Several policies will change due to process changes, e.g. procurement, business assets, CSR review and reconciliation, wire transfers, etc. We are working through these policies as the processes, in and out of GMS system, are being finalized. Communication will be made as soon as the policies and processes are completed. Most will probably be by the time training starts in May/June although some may be communicated earlier.

This was a valuable learning experience and we have plenty of recommendations for improvement. In the next few weeks, we will be making fixes and redesigning parts of the system to be ready for System Test Cycle 2 which is scheduled from March 31-April 18. Thank you to all of our participants and to their managers for allowing them to join us in this critical system testing.

GMS Financials Latest News – February 24, 2014

From February 24-March 7, we will be conducting Round 1 of “day in the life” end to end system testing for GMS financial system. Selected users from both Financial Affairs and the Campus’ Business Offices will be validating the current design, testing the functionality, and providing feedback for the next prototype as well as training. Testing will be conducting using both pre-determined and ad hoc test scripts in the GU test environment as time allows.

Days 1-2 will test set up for grants, endowments/gifts, projects, suppliers and supplier contracts. These are functions performed by OSR/OSP and Financial Affairs.

Days 3-4 will test campus transactions focused on purchasing and expense reporting. We will be testing using 3-4 GMS Cost Centers and one person, who will actually be performing the role at go-live, in each role from each identified Cost Center.

Days 5-6 will focus on Financial Affairs’ activities: central contracting, ad hoc payments, asset registration, project manager approvals, settlement, etc.

Day 7 will focus on budget amendments, journals and CSR reporting.

Day 8 will test the following core Financial Affairs’ activities: settlement, period close, asset depreciation, project close, etc.

This Round 1 testing is a critical activity to ensure that current designs of various business processes and roles will meet the needs of our users. A second round of testing, using different GMS Cost Centers, will be conducted from March 31-April 18. In the second round we hope to include additional reports and “outside system” forms. We appreciate the flexibility of the managers and supervisors for allowing their employees to participate in these highly important sessions.

GMS Financials Training Update – February 19, 2014

Training Assessment. Throughout the month of January, we engaged a consultant from CedarCrestone, Bonnie Correll, to review the test plan and roles within GMS as well as conduct interviews with representatives from the campuses and Financial Affairs. Based upon that feedback and an understanding of the functions that each role will play in the system, Bonnie developed an initial assessment of key training themes and modules which will be used by the Georgetown training team to develop a top level training plan.

Personnel. Ms. Christina Bautista has accepted an offer to fill the position of a full-time permanent GMS Financials Trainer. Christina will be starting on March 3, 2014. She will be reporting to Heather Lunders.

Christina will be working with our Cedar Crestone consultant, Bryan Malatesta who has just started working with the Core Team. Bryan’s recent engagement was the trainer at USC for their HCM implementation. He is a certified Workday Financials consultant. Bryan is currently working on the detailed training plan, which will be available for review soon.

Both Bryan and Christina will be developing training materials and delivering training in coordination with Heather Lunders and Shelton Bellamy. By working together as one team, we can ensure that training standards are maintained and schedule conflicts with HCM training can be resolved in a timely manner.

Bryan will be available through the deployment and will ensure knowledge transfer to Christina on the system, processes and roles.

Training Plan Overview
The below overview is based on our training needs assessment as of February 18th. As we progress to the testing phase we may find we need to adjust the training plan to address any system or procedure modifications. Please remember this is a dynamic and evolving process; we will keep you apprised of changes as they occur.

Audiences. There are four target audiences for training on the new GMS Financials System:

Campus business offices which include individuals in the departments who are responsible for purchasing, creating receipts, preparing expense reports, processing journal vouchers, reconciling financial activities, including those in Financial Affairs who have those same responsibilities;
Financial Affairs division which include individuals who are responsible for ensuring payments, preparing financial statements and reporting, audit, banking transactions, capital project management, business asset accounting, vendor maintenance, tax filing, etc.;
Grants Pre- and Post-award offices; and,
GU-Q, which has some unique requirements to include foreign currency and has responsibility for both business office and central finance functions (e.g., banking and payment).

A fifth key group will not receive formal training, but are included in this plan from the standpoint of requirements for communication. This group includes University employees and stakeholders who do not have roles in the system. These individuals range from senior officials of the University who have management responsibilities, to students and employees who are affected by all financial transactions at the University.

Training. Training will be in various formats including hands-on, lecture or webinar, video tutorials, and on-line documentation. An individual’s curriculum will depend upon that person’s role in the system.

The following topics will be mandatory for everyone with a role in the system:

Chart of Accounts—how to understand the new Worktag model, what the worktags mean and how to determine what worktags to use. We encourage you to include others who might not have a role in the system, but who need training on the new Chart of Accounts, for example, Advancement staff who need to process new gifts in Gambit.
System Navigation – an overview of functionality, how to manage your workfeed/inbox, and what is different from today’s HCM environment
For Campus Business Offices, there will be four primary tracks for the following roles (budget process, TBD). These tracks will cover both system functionality and any changes in policies and procedures.
Initiator (purchasing and receipts, expense reports, journal vouchers)
Financial Reviewer
Approver
Financial Reporter

For the central Financial Affairs roles, the Core Team and Workday consultants will provide one-on-one system training prior to, and immediately following Go-Live. This training will cover the following system functions:

Financial Accounting
Endowment and gift accounting/management
Period Close
Procurement (requisitions, receipts, sourcing, invoicing and contracting)
Contracts and Leases
Supplier Invoice (Accounts Payable)
Expense and A/P Settlement
Banking
Supplier Maintenance
Ad Hoc Payments
Reporting
Business Asset Recording and Depreciation
Capital Project management
Budget approvals

For Grants Management, the Core Team will conduct the initial training on setting up proposals, awards and management subcontracts, billing, accounting and reporting.

Because GU-Q conducts their own banking, settlement, supplier maintenance and has unique Qatar Foundation requirements, a special training curriculum is being developed. Both the Training and Core teams will be responsible for training GU-Q employees on the new system.

Communications

John Kotwicki will be assisting with the GMS Financials communication efforts. This includes communications with the Georgetown Community as well as outside audiences to include suppliers. We will use the GMS Financials Web page, briefings, the GMS newsletter and various working groups and forums to ensure broad communication across the University.

Although we will make every effort to keep the stakeholders across the University informed of the project, we are relying on you to ensure that your stakeholders are kept apprised of important information and issues.

Key Project Dates:

February 28: COA changes are due — we are discussing this week with each Campus and can discuss next week.
Feb 18-Mar 7: Cycle 1 System Testing.
March 24: Cost Center and Balance Clean up Due
March 31-April 18: Cycle 2 System Testing.
May 12-May 23: User Acceptance Testing
May 28: Go/No Go Decision

Tentatively, hands-on training will occur mid-May thru end of July. We are still working on detailed planning and will keep you apprised.

We are working on cut-off dates for transactions in HR, benefits, payroll and finance and will communicate these as soon as possible.

The Financial System Project officially kicked off in May 2013 with the implementation of the new chart of accounts in the Human Capital Management (HCM) system. Since July 2013, the team has focused on creating functional designs for various business processes and developing a prototype for campus subject matter experts (SME’s) to validate those business processes in GMS. Below are some of the new, improved, and exciting features of this new system:

Audit trail of all transactions and approvals
Ability to track where a transaction is in the business process
Ability to use punchouts to order supplies – much like online shopping!
Ability to upload receipts for expense reporting using a mobile phone
Moving toward best practice of requisition –> purchase order –> receipt of goods/services –> invoice payment. By minimizing the use of direct invoice purchasing, the University can maximize volume discount and improve accounting for encumbrances and commitments
And many, many more!

Representatives from across the University and Financial Affairs had the opportunity to get an early look at the first prototype and experience it hands-on in order to provide feedback on the design, security, roles, and reports. Based on that input, the Core team is now putting finishing touches on the design and beginning to develop our second prototype.

This second prototype will take the business processes that Campus and Financial Affairs representatives helped us design, and test the new Financial Data Model. We will test transactions and begin posting credits and debits to the new ledger. Additionally, this prototype will help us design training for our financial users.

The Core team is also busy testing the changes introduced in Workday 21 which was released in November. Theses changes include the first phase of the Grants Pre-Award functionality, specifically the ability to enter approved proposals in GMS, as well as Budget to Actuals reporting.

Things are moving quite rapidly and will continue through June 30, 2014, which is our go-live date. We will keep you posted of all the activities as appropriate. Stay tuned!!