Re: [IUG] Fiscal Close and changing fund code sets

["Warren, Bill" <wwarren at middlebury dot edu>]

Esteemed colleagues,

We recently attempted something like this, with partial success.  What follows is a long and rather detailed message, for those who might be interested.  Presumably others will quickly delete and flee.

We heretofore had two large parallel sets of funds, one for discretionary purchases (one-time purchases), and the other for continuing obligations (subscriptions, etc.).  Each of these sets had a separate fund for each subject area.  For example, we had a Biology discretionary fund ("biodi") and a Biology continuing fund ("bioco"), and so on, for each of our subjects.  In all, we had more than 100 separate funds.

We decided to stop allocating funds by subject, and have only a single fund for all discretionary purchases, and a single fund for all continuing obligations (with the exception of a couple of endowed funds, which we wanted to keep separate).  So, we wanted to try to change all our outstanding orders from their original subject fund to the appropriate new fund, which meant changing the orders attached to over 50 old discretionary funds to the single new all-inclusive discretionary fund, and doing the same with all outstanding continuing orders.

It is not possible to globally change the funds in order records except in the course of performing fiscal close using method 2.  We normally use method 1 for fiscal close.  While method 2 is not really designed for the purpose we had in mind, interpretation of descriptions in the manual, accounts in the IUG archives, and especially various pronouncements from the oracular Corey Seeman encouraged us to try to accomplish our ends by means of a method 2 fiscal close, with manual clearing of funds.

Prior to embarking on the fiscal close process, we created two lists: one harvesting all the order records, attached to various funds, that we wanted to funnel into the new discretionary fund, and the other of records we wanted to convert to the new continuing fund.  We also created our two new funds.

When we reached the "change funds in order records" stage in the fiscal close labyrinth, we selected our previously-run list of discretionary orders to be converted to the new single discretionary fund .  We had thought, perhaps naïvely, that the system would convert the funds in all the order records on our list to the new fund in one fell swoop.  We found, however, that we had to go through a tedious process of selecting on a lengthy table each of the more than 50 funds we wished to convert, and entering for each one the fund to which we wanted it to be converted.  We then went through the same process for the list of continuing orders to be converted to the new single continuing fund.    The process worked admirably for the discretionary orders, but to our dismay the funds were not converted for the continuing orders.  We believe the failure resulted from the fact that our continuing orders have a status of "serial no-encumbrance," so there is no money attached to them.  Apparently the system will change the funds of only those order records that have encumbrances; if there is no money attached to an order, the system seems to bypass it.  We have thought of a ruse by which we could have compelled the system to change the funds in our serial no-encumbrance records, had we known in advance, but we have not had an opportunity to test it.  Or possibly the partial failure to convert was due to our own lack of understanding, and could have been avoided.

Naturally,  we wanted the encumbrance figure for our new discretionary fund, after rolling over into the new fiscal year, to be the total of the encumbrances attached to the 50-plus old funds it was replacing.  We had hoped this might occur automatically in the conversion process, but we found that it did not.  Fortunately, we had  the reports we had e-mailed to ourselves at various stages in the fiscal-close process, so we were able to  total up the encumbrance figures for all the superannuated funds, and  supply the encumbrance figure for the new fund.  (If you undertake to try this procedure, it is very important to print or e-mail reports as the system admonishes you to do; otherwise you will lack essential information).  The encumbrances for the endowed funds we retained rolled forward without problems.

So, at the conclusion of the fiscal-close odyssey, we had our two new funds, with their respective allocations, and the manually-added encumbrance figure for the discretionary fund.  Our outstanding discretionary orders were comfortably attached to their new fund.  The wreckage that remained on the field of engagement consisted of 4,000 or so discretionary order records that had not had their funds converted to the new one.  Since global update could not be used, the funds had to be changed manually, one by one.  Fortunately, a group of volunteers came forward, and in a frenzy of creating lists and editing records we converted all the order records to their new fund in a single morning.

So, assuming I understand what you want to accomplish, based on our experience I think you may well be able to do it using method 2.  Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have questions, or would like additional information on our experience.

Best regards,
~Bill Warren
___________________________
William Warren
Acquisitions Department
Middlebury College Library
110 Storrs Avenue
Middlebury, VT 05753 USA

fax:  (802) 443-5698
phone:  (802) 443-5489
e-mail:  wwarren at middlebury dot edu

-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org [mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Wiesinger, Donna S
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 2:32 PM
To: innopac at innopacusers dot org; ilug at utlists dot utexas dot edu
Subject: [IUG] Fiscal Close and changing fund code sets

This message is being cross-posted to both the Innovative User's Group and to the Innovative Law User's Group listservs.

I'm planning to run FY08 fiscal close in Millennium for our law school library's accounting unit.  Our campus is instituting a new purchase order system, and in order to make it easier to reconcile the university's financial reports with those from Millennium, we've decided to alter our fund code sets for the first time in several years.  I've done something similar in a previous position, but some of the variables are different this time, and I need assistance before proceeding.

The fund codes are currently set up as abbreviations for material types (ex:  "elec" for electronic resources; "mono" for books; "ser" for serials; "serup" for serials continuations, "tech" for technology purchases, etc.).  We're changing to 5-character numeric object codes identical to those used in our campus financial reports (ex:  63005 for telecommunications, 63405 for purchase of library books, etc.).  The old alphabetic fund codes will be abandoned and not reused.

Outstanding orders will be cancelled prior to fiscal close, then re-opened after fiscal close has been run.  This will ensure that the outstanding orders will be paid out of FY09 funds rather than FY08 funds.

If possible, we'd like to update all the old fund codes in our system to the new set.  (For instance, all instances of old code "mono" would become object code 63405.)  Can this be done?   There are around 9,000 existing order records in our law school's accounting unit and I'm hoping to avoid manually changing old codes to the new ones!

What fiscal close method should be used - Method 2 or 3?  We've always used Method One in the past, but that may not work for us this year.

Your advice is most appreciated!  Thanks!

Donna



_________________________________
Donna Wiesinger
Head of Technical Services
Barry University
Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law
6441 East Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL  32807
Phone - (321) 206-5704    Fax - (321) 206-5720
E-Mail - dwiesinger at mail dot barry dot edu



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