FRS Updates Detail - 2008

MAY - JUNE 2008
Accounts Payable
  • VBAR280 (Feed Data Compare to State Vendor On Hold File) - program created to check data from a batch file against the State Vendor on Hold file and produce a report.
CANOPY
  • Transfer Department Property (TDA):
    • A new process is now available for Departments to Transfer Property (Assets) to another Department within the same Agency. In CANOPY, under the FFX tab, you can see three new selections: Transfer Search, Transfer Document and Create Transfer. With proper setup and security, you can create a document that will allow you to input the 'giving' and ‘receiving’ departments. When the document is closed it will route through the existing routing structures for both departments. The document will also pass through a new Property Electronic Processing Office. With final approval, an asset transaction will be posted in FFX recording the transfer.
    • The TDP Process document details the use and setup requirements to begin using the TDP process. To implement this new process, a representative from the Fiscal/Property Office should send a Change/Enhancement to FAMIS as the first step. For further information, please contact FAMISHelp at 979-458-6464.
  • Multiple Favorite Account Lists
    • Add as many account lists as you want
    • Give a new list any name that you want
    • Each account list is still limited to 75-128 accounts
    • Change the Active account list on the My Accounts page
  • FRS Summary
    • Using ‘Arrows’ on left, click to show (show detail) or hide (hide detail) a display of detail transactions
    • When the object code is a POOL - all automatically mapped transactions (through the ABR table) will be shown
  • Default Page
    • Linked display of your recently visited pages has been added
    • Displays an overview of the most recent changes to CANOPY under "What's New"
  • Enhancements to CANOPY:
    • CANOPY now has default menu pages. For example, if you click on the FRS tab, you used to go to Account Search. Now a page is displayed with links to the FRS submenus and FRS pages (all text is linked).
    • Clicking "CANOPY" on the header will return you to the default page.
    • Purchasing documents will now display text codes as well as their full descriptions, on the Purchasing document header page, as well as the Purchasing Document Report.
    • Routed purchase documents show text codes for documents containing codes, and the full descriptions of the text codes can be displayed by clicking on the "More" button.
Department Budget Request (DBR)
  • Added an edit that limits revenue budget transfers to realized revenue only.
Financial Accounting
  • FBAR342 (Open Commitments) - added a parameter to select only given prefixes for the report.
Purchasing
  • New fields and functions were added:
    • TIBH - this field indicates the reason that TIBH was / was not used as a vendor. This is set for a campus as a whole with the campus choosing whether or not to require the field. It is visible on Screens 224, 236 and 241.
    • Commodity Code - A campus can also choose to require the entry of commodity code on Limited Purchases which are entered on Screen 241.

MARCH - APRIL 2008
Accounts Payable
  • VBAR341 (Updated ACH Vendor Information) is a new report to indicate that no records were found.
AFR
  • Added an Entire Connection download to AFR Screen 179 (Line Item Definition Maintenance).
CANOPY
  • Purchasing Document Tracking:
    • Track the routing history of the selected document.
    • Cross-reference a document from its original source document.
  • Enhancements to CANOPY:
    • Standardized the look of employee names throughout CANOPY
    • Purchasing Document Header page updated:
      • PDF report can be printed or saved
      • Notes are now visible on the page
      • Account descriptions are now displayed
      • Line item full descriptions are available. To see more or less of the description text for the Line Items, change the setting on your user profile.
    • Purchasing Notes updated:
      • The Invoice, Purchase and Receiving Notes will now return all notes for a document. Enter zero (0) for the item in the search to view all notes. Singular note items can still be seen by entering the item number in the search.
    • Separate report for Purchasing Documents available. It is similar to the Routing Document report without the routing notes and actions.
    • Department searches (FFX and FRS) now allow all characters for input in the department field.
    • Object code description is now included on the Account Summary panel for Routed Purchase Documents
    • Help has been added for Routing Profiles
  • Bank Information Now Available:
    • Summary information
    • Transactions and transaction details
    • You can search for banks as part of the Account Search. However, they cannot be added to your favorites.
  • Indirect Transaction Search:
    • Transaction search will show a list of all indirect transactions for an account (similar to Screen 18).
      • Details of each indirect transaction is available.
      • Indirects can be selected based on a month range and subcode. TC, Ref2 and Ref4 are not yet implemented.
    • The indirects for each detailed transaction can also be viewed (similar to Screen 23).
  • Customizable User Profile:
    • The Routing Profile and System Profile have been merged into one page (System Profile page). The Routing Profile page no longer exists and any links to it will now take you to the System Profile page.
    • Customize CANOPY by using the System Profile Setting:
      • Change the size (number of items returned) of the search results.
      • Change page size
      • Effect the display of page totals.
      • Effect the display of the pager on small pages
      • Make additional changes to customize settings
  • Payroll Search by UIN (similar to Screen 770):
    • A link is now available between the account and UIN in the details panel of the search results
    • Click the Payroll button payroll to see the Payroll by UIN or Account for the selected person.
  • PDF Version of a Routed Document:
    • A print friendly page in PDF format can now be opened for every Routing Document. Click on the PDF icon PDF next to a document in your Inbox or when you view the Routing Document.
    • The PDF document is generally 1 sheet of paper. Extra long notes, multiple source lines, or complex routing approvals will print on multiple pages.
    • The document history is abbreviated to just approval actions.
    • The PDF print version is independent of your web browser and will always look the same.
Financial Accounting
  • Monthly Employee Payroll Supplement Encumbrance - FAMIS now provides the ability to encumber payroll supplements such as Communication, Uniform or Transportation Allowances. Additional information is available on the FAMIS home page (http://www.tamus.edu/offices/famis/). Fiscal or Payroll Offices that are interested in setting up these encumbrances can contact FAMIS Services at (979) 458-6464.
  • FBAR322 (Expenditures and Unexpected Balances) - added an option for a break and subtotal on Function Code.
Preliminary Fixed Assets
  • A new process is available to enter Non-Purchasing Preliminary Fixed Assets (those that have not come from a Purchasing document in FAMIS). More complete information will be available on the home page of the FAMIS web site by Monday, May 5th.
    • Manual Entry: Screens 360 through 362 have been modified with new fields to accommodate these new assets.
    • Screen 363 (View Non-Purchasing Preliminary Assets) has been created to provide a list of these Non-Purchasing Preliminary Fixed Assets by Department and SubDepartment.
    • The new report, TBAR363 (Incomplete Preliminary Fixed Assets), provides a printed report of the outstanding Non-Purchasing Preliminary Assets (as seen on Screen 363).
    • Batch Feed, TBXR068 (Preliminary Fixed Assets Upload) edits and posts transactions to create Non-Purchasing Preliminary Fixed Asset records.
Purchasing
  • PBAR248 (Good Faith Effort) Report - Added the total for each reason that No GFE was performed to the download.
Routing & Approvals
  • A new version of the Routing & Approvals User's Manual is now available on our web site.
  • Facilitated routing to Executive Level based on both the Dept and SubDept.
JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2008
Accounts Payable
  • VBAR403 (Vendor Freeze) is a new program that has been created to freeze vendors who have had no activity. This may be a certain period of time (number of months) or a given date.
CANOPY
  • Added multi select option to Account Search and My Favorites
    • Checkboxes were added to Account Search so you can select multiple items to add to your list of favorite accounts
    • Checkboxes were added to the My Favorite list, allowing deletion of multiple items at once.
  • Special views available for your Routing Inbox
    • select view icon - A new button was added to allow you to select differing views of your Routing Inbox.
    • This function gives you different columns of data that are unique to the view you have selected and aid you in finding the actions that need to be handled in a higher priority.
      • When the EPA view is selected the Biweekly/Monthly, Iteration Effective Start Date, Document Type, Position Action, and Current Occupant Action columns become available; replacing the Account and Total columns.
      • When the Desk view is selected the Current Unit, Current Office and Current Desk become available
    • Currently this is only implemented in the Routing Inbox.
  • Time toggle available for Inbox
    • clock - A new button was added to allow you to select whether or not times are added to the dates for viewing your Routing Inbox.
  • Favorite Accounts for each Campus Code
    • Now there is a list of favorite accounts for each campus code.
    • As campus codes are changed the list of favorite accounts are changed to reflect the accounts you have chosen for that campus code.
    • This will take effect the first time the favorite accounts list is modified (add or delete). Once the list is changed the entire list will move to the current campus code and this new feature will take effect.
  • Remove ALL Discard items Routing Inbox
    • A quick action "Discard All FYIs" was added to allow you to delete all the Discard items from your Routing Inbox.
    • This function is only allowed when you actually have discard items and you are allowed to discard.
    • Only 250 items are discarded at once.
    • Messages and warnings from the discard are not presented if there are more than 600 items in the Inbox.
  • Email Notification Changes:
    • New functionality has been added to the email notification process. FAMIS users can control the options regarding the frequency and type of email notifications for documents. You can now apply different approval sets for EPA documents from those of other Routing documents. We had added a second set of flags to indicate your preferences for getting email notification.
    • Another new feature is the "Voided Approvals" for both the EPA documents and Others (Purchasing, PIP, DBR documents). By setting this to "Y", you will receive an email notification when someone in the Routing path beyond you has rejected a document. This "Reject" action voids the routing information and sends the reject notice back to the submitter. With this new feature, you can get notification that this action has taken place. You will probably see this document again after corrections have been made and the document is re-submitted for routing and approvals. There are three conditions where you can get these notices: the most common is the action of "Reject" by a person in the routing path. Another is when a document is canceled and the last Is when the submitter recalls the document back for changes.
    • Below is a sample of the CANOPY Routing profile:
      profile settings
Financial Accounting
  • Screen 58 (Support Account Category Maintenance) has been added to allow departmental users to update budget category controls on Support Accounts.
  • FBAR475 (Account Attributes Download for TAMU Cash Receipts for CORE) - added the Bottom Line Budget Control flag.
  • The number of entries on the ABR Rule Table (Screen 804) has been increased to 120.
  • FBAR384 (File Extract for HUB Reporting: State Agencies Excluded from HUB) - added additional report to show state agencies that are excluded as HUB vendors.
Purchasing
  • On the PBAR248 (Good Faith Effort Report), added the total for each reason that No GFE was performed to the download.

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