Re: Financial System Update
To: All campus
March 21, 2022

Good morning! Here is an update on the status of UC Merced’s Oracle Financial System and efforts to improve the user experience in the system.

Data Integrity
Team members from the Division of Finance and Administration, along with staff from Deloitte (a professional services company) are working to identify and reconcile various out-of-balance accounts and projects. This work is in addition to the Oracle Data Integrity Project, which continues to address financial data variances on a case-by-case basis while looking for solutions that would lead to long-term system stability and data integrity.

The ODIP team determined missing or incomplete Chart of Accounts (CoA) or POET values accounted for nearly nine out of 10 project imbalances. A project is considered out of balance if the project portfolio management (PPM) sub-ledger doesn't match general ledger expenses for the same project. According to the latest data, 54% of all projects are out of balance.

Staff are measuring the impact of a system upgrade in February that auto-populates some chart string values. There are early signs the upgrade had a positive effect on overall data integrity (see Purchasing Support below) and, based on feedback from across the university, has improved user experience.
ODIP and Deloitte are prioritizing externally funded project accounts (such as contracts and grants) and projects that are at or near the end of their period of performance.

Purchasing Support
The Center of Business Services and Solutions (CBS2) continues to see positive results from their effort and initiatives to support purchasing activities across the university.

CBS2 has assisted more than 100 staff members with localized support with the Faculty Support Center and by embedding CBS2 staff in the university’s three schools.

The percentage of approved requisition lines with missing POET information has declined thanks to feedback received from faculty and staff to the Procurement Task Force. The task force identified two key needs: more targeted training material and additional automation when entering POET information. Both initiatives have contributed to a decrease in the percentage of requisition lines entered with missing POET information:
System Management
This month, the Deloitte team working with DFA staff to analyze the financial system for possible improvements added consultants in the areas of project portfolio management, general ledger, procurement to pay, and fixed assets. A digital snapshot of the system – a “production copy” – was made that will serve as a sandbox for possible solutions.

The initial phase of Deloitte’s work with DFA includes a needs assessment of known issues to ensure the solutions the teams are working on are the best long-term options.

Quick Tips
  • The Oracle Toolkit has quick videos that lay out the basics of CoA and POET, show how to enter chart strings in Oracle, and describe the process of charging a project.
  • Four times a year, the financial system goes offline briefly for the installation of features and upgrades. System maintenance downtimes are set for February, May, August and November, and scheduled for Friday evening to Saturday morning. The last one occurred Feb. 18-19.
  • Need to know the closing date for a sub-ledger? A full list of monthly closing dates (including the general ledger) for the current fiscal year is in the Oracle Toolkit’s Accounting section.

Questions?
Reach out by email (dofa@ucmerced.edu) or post a General Request ticket in the DFA Service Catalog.

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