What’s New in GMS – April 13, 2020

Please be aware of the following recent updates to GMS processes, job aids or reports as of April 13, 2020.

Financial Updates

FIN200413.01 – Additional Justification and Approval for Spending >$2,500

Impacted Roles: All Employees

All procurement and expense report transactions initiated in GMS for over $2,500 will require the initiator to explain why the spending is essential to the operations of the University during the instructional continuity period, why it cannot be delayed, and impacts if spending were delayed.

For procurement, the Spend Justification questionnaire will appear in your GMS Inbox immediately after initiation. The business process will not move forward for approval until the justification is submitted in GMS. For expense reports, you will need to provide this justification in the Header Memo field.

In addition, all non-capital transactions over $2,500 will route to your Senior Business Manager and Campus CFO for approval. Capital tranactions will route to the OCFO Capital Approver for review.

FIN200413.02 – Fund Hierarchy Changes

A new fund hierarchy called Funds – Planning is available in GMS.

FIN200413.03 – Simplified Grant ICA Routing

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Senior Business Manager, GU-Supplier Contract Initiator, GU-Supplier Contract Manager

A new modified workflow for grant-related ICA requests is now available. The goal is to create a fast-tracked review path to mitigate delays in grant-related ICAs. These requests, once reviewed and approved by Tax, will bypass the contract manager (CM) / senior contract manager (SCM) reviews and route directly to Adam Donaldson to review. From there it is approved in GMS, or it can be sent back or routed to Risk Management where applicable.

Please note the following:

The effectiveness of this workflow will depend on request submissions that are complete and include all components required for IC types.
Cost Center Buyers will need to ensure that they are selecting the appropriate contract type(Grant-related ICA types)

Refer to the linked document (new window) for more details.

FIN200413.04 – New Purchase Order Compliance Validation

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Senior Business Manager, GU-Supplier Contract Manager

Effective April 13, 2020, the GMS process for Purchase Order (PO) compliance events will be modified to institute a system-driven hard-stop validation at the issuance of a PO. This will prevent issuing POs that exceed the total contract amount. Cost Center Buyers (CCBs) will receive the following message in GMS with direction to amend the supplier contract:

The total amount on this Purchase Order will exceed the total Supplier Contract amount. This validation considers all POs linked to this Supplier Contract regardless of the PO status, excluding those that are closed. Review all POs and take the necessary actions. Closing the PO linked to the Supplier Contract will increase “PO Balance Remaining” on the Supplier Contract. If you intend to proceed with this PO, amend the Supplier Contract to account for the increase in the Purchase Order amount.

Once the contract is amended to increase the value, then the PO can be sourced. There is no need to cancel the PO; the error will go away once the contract is updated. It is also worth noting that POs auto-sourced from requisitions will remain in Draft mode and cannot be issued until the contract is amended. The CCB will receive an email alert reminding them to resolve this error before the PO can be issued. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Melany Barrett and/or contracts@georgetown.edu (new window).

FIN200413.05 – Supplier Contract Type Updates

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Senior Business Manager, GU-Supplier Contract Manager

Supplier contract types have been renamed in GMS, in addition to five new contract types. The linked document (new window) provides more details about the changes. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Melany Barrett and/or contracts@georgetown.edu (new window).

FIN200413.06 – New Supplier Contract Initiator Role

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Supplier Contract Initiator, GU-Supplier Contract Manager

A new role called GU-Supplier Contract Initiator has been made available for assignment. The role gives access to create supplier contracts/amendments, and also gives view access to suppliers, supplier contracts, and balances (only to cost centers where the role is assigned). Any contract created by someone with this role will first route to the GU-Cost Center Buyer for that cost center.

FIN200413.07 – Bug Fix for Duplicate Change Order Steps

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Senior Business Manager, GU-Supplier Contract Manager

A bug has been fixed where the same step would route multiple times as part of a Change Order approval workflow (i.e. wire questionnaire).

FIN200413.08 – Header Memo Now A Required Field for Expense Reports

Impacted Roles: Employee As Self, Contingent Worker As Self, Delegate, GU Expense Preparer

Memo is now a required field on the Expense Report Header.

FIN200413.09 – Supplier Contract Alert Updates (Added Supplier)

Impacted Roles: GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Supplier Contract Observer

The last updated note and expiring supplier contract email alerts that run daily have been updated to include the Supplier for the supplier contract.

FIN200413.10 – Spend Justification Added to Applicable Reports

The responses to the newly implemented spend justification questionnaire have been added to the following reports:

GU Find Requisitions
GU Find Purchase Orders
GU Find Supplier Invoice Requests
GU Find Supplier Invoice Requests For Organization
GU Find Supplier Contracts
GU Find Supplier Contracts and Lines For Organization

FIN200413.11 – Supplier ID Added to Reports

Supplier ID has been added as a field output to the following reports:

GU Find Supplier Contracts
GU Find Supplier Contracts and Lines For Organization

If you have questions regarding these changes or any other GMS support questions please contact help@georgetown.edu.