What’s New in GMS – May 13, 2019

Posted in News Story

Please be aware of the following recent updates to GMS processes, job aids or reports as of May 13, 2019.  

HCM Update

HCM190513.01 – Employee Hours Report For Unions

Impacted Roles: HR Executive

New report GU Employee Hours For Union allows for tracking submitted hours for different union employees. Report requires users to select the Union (LEOSU-DC, SEIU-1199) to run for along with payroll periods to report on.


HCM190513.02 – Updated Job Posting Template

Impacted Roles: Manager, Primary Recruiter, Candidate as Self

The Job Posting Template for positions on the Staff/AAP, Qatar, and Faculty career sites now have a section stating the benefits that are available at Georgetown. This text will only display for new postings or currently postings that are unposted and reposted.

Financials Update

FIN190513.01 – Non-IT punchout approval threshold reduction to $100

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Financial Reviewer, GU-Requisitioner, GU-Senior Business Manager

Non-IT punchout suppliers approval threshold reduced from $500 to $100. This change is happening because in the past 12 months, 35% of non-IT punchout purchasing dollars went unapproved under the current approval threshold of $500, roughly $1.5 million in purchasing across the University. Based on historical analysis, the University’s financial leadership found a more appropriate approval threshold would be $100 to balance financial control while still enabling ease of use for small purchases.

This change is being implemented to provide greater transparency into the punchout process for departmental approvers, while also minimizing waste and mitigating potential fraud and abuse. This is not expected to significantly increase the overall approval workload, but approvers should anticipate an increase in purchasing approval volume.


FIN190513.02 – New punchout suppliers – Grainger and Fisher Scientific

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Financial Reviewer, GU-Requisitioner, GU-Senior Business Manager

Two additional punchout suppliers have been added to GMS: Grainger and Fisher Scientific. In the past 12 months, there were 5,000 ProCard purchases with Grainger and Fisher Scientific, so their addition to GMS will greatly improve access to lab and industrial supplies. The punchout reference guide can be found on p.11 of the “End to End Procurement Guide.”


FIN190513.03 – Self service punchout pilot

Impacted Roles: Cost Center Manager, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Financial Reviewer, GU-Requisitioner, GU-Senior Business Manager

A pilot for self-service non-IT GMS punchout purchasing has launched to analyze the impact of direct accessibility to non-IT punchouts for employee. The pilot will enable employees to access the following punchouts without the Requisitioner (or any) role required:

  • Amazon
  • Grainger
  • Fisher Scientific
  • Staples
  • VWR

Please note: access to IT punchouts (i.e. Apple, Dell, etc) will still require the Requisitioner role during this pilot.

Pilot participants will access the punchout supplier links and all purchasing history from the “purchases” worklet on the GMS homepage. It will be extremely important for employees and approvers participating in this pilot to ensure the correct worktags are used during purchasing. Please refer to the punchout reference guide (p.11) in the “End to End Procurement Guide.”

We are making this change because the Requisitioner role is currently required to access any GMS punchouts, which makes purchasing catalog items difficult for most employees. As a result, departments have created their own processes to facilitate purchasing resulting in varying processes across the University, which cannot be supported centrally and increases the support workload for departments.


FIN190513.04- Updates to GU Find Requisitions

Impacted Roles: Accounts Payable Settlement Specialist, Controller, Cost Center Manager, GU-Campus Financial Reporter, GU-Central Buyer, GU-Co-Principal Investigator, GU-Cost Center Buyer, GU-Finance CFO, GU-Finance Institutional Reporting, GU-Financial Reporter, GU-Financial Reviewer, GU-Grant Financial Analyst, GU-Grant Manager, GU-Lead Principal Investigator, GU-Principal Investigator, GU-Requisitioner, GU-Senior Business Manager, Supplier Contract Specialist

GU Find Requisitions report now contains a flag to show whether the Requisition Submitter has a Requisitioner role or not


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