Volume 6 Issue 8 - July 2023

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New Leave Report in USPS

For those of you who used Classic's CHKLEV report, USPS now has a new Leave Report allowing you to review leave usage and balances either before or after a payroll is posted. 

Once initialization of a payroll is complete, a Leave Report button will be displayed at the far right.  

Once generated, the report will list the Sick/Vacation/Personal Leave usage and balance for the employees included in this payroll. 

If the deferred absence posting is activated on the configuration, only absences that have not already been applied to the balance and have an activity date that falls on or before the payroll stop date, will be included in the usage. 

If that isn't convenient enough, you also have the option of generating the Leave Report after the payroll is posted.  

Again, the report includes the Sick/Vacation/Personal Leave usage and balances for the employees included in this payroll. The leave usage and balances on the Leave Report should match what is reported on the employee's direct deposit or check. 

For more information on the USPS Leave Report, please click here.


Making the Activity Ledger Query grid your own!

Own it!  Customize the Activity Ledger Query to what works best for you! For those Classic users, it's your replacement for OINQ. Whether you were an avid OINQ user or not, the Activity Ledger Query is your go to when you want to easily query transactions in USAS!  The customization is impressive, the sorting superb, and the filtering?  A++  

Customizing

You can customize your grid based on the kind of processing you perform in USAS.  For example, if most of your processing involves purchase orders, invoices and disbursements, by adding and/or removing columns involved in the encumbrance/expenditure process to your grid, you can easily search for transactions by date, PO, vendor, account code and so much more!  On my custom grid below, I entered a specific PO# and because of the customization I created, I can easily see what action has taken place against this purchase order.

Sorting

Enhance your query by sorting one or more columns.  In order to view the PO by expenditure processing steps, I can sort by 'type' and within type by 'PO item #" to see what action has been taken against each item on this PO.  On the grid below, I can easily see this PO has two items.  Item #1 has been partially filled and paid for $50 and Item #2 has been fully filled and paid for $25, both under the same invoice and disbursement.  Item #1 has a remaining encumbrance of $200 which qualifies it as still invoiceable.  And the disbursement is still showing as outstanding which means it has not been reconciled yet.  So much information at your fingertips!!

 

Filtering Tips

Filtering your activity ledger grid is really the key component to producing GREAT results! If you need to query transactions by a specific dimension of the account code, add the 'full account code' column to your grid and use wildcards (%) to narrow down your search. For example, if you want to find disbursements for a specific date range that were paid against the 001 fund and any 500 object code, the grid below displays how you can achieve that.  The most common filtering shortcuts are listed here.

For a demonstration on different ways to customize, sort and filter your Activity Ledger Query grid, check out our video spotlight this month.  Also included in the video is the use of the Advanced Query and how to create a custom report based off of your query results.


FY24 Proposed Amounts are now Initial Amounts

Just a reminder for those who applied FY24 proposed amounts prior to closing FY23, once you made July current, those amounts are now reflected in the initial budget/initial revenues field on the expenditure and revenue accounts.

If you aren't sure which option you selected ('temporary' or 'permanent') when you applied your proposed amounts, the USAS Public Shared Reports Library contains a report definition that can identify which option you chose.  The 'Budget Transactions Initial Estimate.rpd-json' report definition was created in order to see when initial estimates (albeit temporary or permanent) were applied and if those initial estimates were changed or updated.  (Adjustment type transactions are not included on this report). 

Displayed below is an example of an account that was applied with the temporary (full year) option (GAAP amounts updated) and how it's reflected on the report.  The 'Full Year' on the report indicates whether or not full year was checked when selecting the Temporary transaction type


The image below is another example of an account that was applied with the permanent transaction type.  'Full year' and GAAP amounts are checkmarked automatically. You do not have the option to uncheck these boxes.  NOTE: Any accounts where 'Replaced' is checkmarked indicates the existing temporary amounts were replaced with permanent amounts. 

Useful links:



Are you unsure of how to customize, sort and filter your Activity Ledger Query grid?  Make it your own.. you'll be glad you did!  Click here for a video demonstration on how to get the most out of this grid!




Did You Know?

(tick) Closing Inventory/FYE Report Bundle Tips

  • When closing a posting period in Inventory, a FYE Report bundle may be emailed to you if it is set up in advance. Please click here for configuration set up prior to closing the period.
  • Closing the year will update the life-to-date depreciation amounts for the current fiscal year being closed and also updates the fiscal year closed field in Core>Configuration.  If GAAP is enabled, the application will also update the beginning balances for the new fiscal year.
  • If you do not close the current period and open the next period, please keep in mind the beginning balance and LTD depreciation figures in the new period will not be accurate until the prior period is closed.  Also, any reports generated in the new period containing LTD depreciation or beginning balance figures will not be accurate until the prior period is closed.

On The Horizon

Once the Document Management and Archival system is released and it is implemented in Inventory, the Inventory report bundle will no longer be emailed.  Instead, when the period closes, the bundle will be sent to the Document Storage automatically and the reports from the bundle will be accessible in a new File Archive option in the Inventory application.



FYE FAQ

Q: In USAS, can a district have July open and current in order to process invoices/disbursements for FY24 without having to close June?

A: Yes, you may proceed with processing in FY24 while June is still open.  Please keep in mind that any transactions dated in June will still be able to change those totals while June is still open. If you are wanting to balance June, many reports can be run using the "as of period" parameter set to June or start/stop dates for that FY while July is still current. If there are totals on accounts you want to see for June, you may need to switch June back to current when balancing.

NOTE: If you do have custom bundles that run on the month end, please make sure to have June set back to current at the specific time when you actually close that period.



Did You Know?

Recent USPS Report Updates

  • Leave Activity Report: New tooltips were added to the 'show applied balance starting' and 'show applied balance ending' dates  (please click on image below for enhanced view)

  • As of the 6.94.0 release (June 12th), CSV files for Wage Obligation and Benefit Obligation are now included as part of the USPS FYE Report Bundle.