Good news from the FMS front

General Article
August 7, 2003

One month in, new Financial Management System working well; more functions to be added

By MATT BRIGGS

One month after the transition to PeopleSoft and the Crystal Enterprise reporting portal, the Financial Management System (FMS) Support Center reports that calls typically begin with, "How do I?" rather than, "This doesn't work."

With more than 1,100 PeopleSoft requisitions processed by the Purchasing Department and more than 6,000 reports run through the Crystal Enterprise reporting portal, that's good news for the FMS project team.

As expected by the team, users of the new systems experienced some challenges. Work that was second nature using the old systems-AP/PO, SPOT, and BudgeTrak-took longer as users learned new procedures. Still, by the third week of July, the number of problems processed by the support center fell to half the number of the first day.

Although no serious issues have cropped up and few problems remain open, the team has much work to do before the FMS implementation is complete. The team will test the accuracy of the new system at every financial event during the fiscal year. The first of such challenges-last month's check run to pay center vendors-came off without a hitch.

The team also plans to begin adding new features and functions, including:

• A grant-review process that will electronically track grant applications through the Grants and Contracts Administration Department.
• Broadening the ability of Crystal Enterprise, the reporting tool, to analyze program financial data.

In August, the project summary statement of operations, funds available for nonsponsored projects, nonsponsored obligations report and the labor cost distribution reports will be available. Later, the support of operations trend analysis and life-to-date statement of operations for discretionary programs report will be available.

The FMS Web site houses information on accessing PeopleSoft and Crystal Enterprise as well as course schedules, instruction for running reports and instruction for placing requisitions. A "Helpful Hints" section, containing suggestions to improve the use of the new system, has been added.

For more information visit the FMS Web site at FMS_Support@fhcrc.org or call 206-667-5700, option 9.

[Matt Briggs is a technical account coordinator in Information Technology.]

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