Works Electronic Reporting Solution for KSU Purchasing Cards

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1st Quarter 2007 January/February/March
In This Issue
Works Electronic Reporting Solution for Kent
State Purchasing Cards
Works Electronic Reporting Solution for KSU
Purchasing Cards Page 1 Kent State to Implement
SciQuest eProcurement Software Page 1 KSU Travel
Provides Report of Airfare Expenditures Page
2 U.S. Postal Service Announces Changes in
Billing Structure Page 2 Banner Chart of
Account Information on BAS Web Site Page 3
Banner Finance Access Page 3 Procedure for
Reporting Gifts In Kind Page 3 Using Dates in
Excel Page 4

• The Kent State University Purchasing card
  provider MBNA merged with Bank of America in
  2006. All cardholders and card reconcilers
  should be aware of the following important
  information relating to this change

• The issuing bank for Kent State Purchasing Cards
  has been changed from MBNA America to FIA Card
  Services. All cardholders will be sent new cards
  with new expiration dates in the next few months,
  but the card numbers will not change.
• The CFO (Card Financials Online) electronic
  reporting solution has been replaced by a
  different online tool called Works as of March 5,
  2007. Works is a robust, web-based solution
  which offers many of the same features as CFO, in
  addition to several new features.
• Training sessions on the Works tool were
  provided on Wednesday March 7, 2007 and Thursday
  March 8, 2007. Any Kent State purchasing card
  holders and card reconcilers who missed these
  important sessions should contact Rosa York on
  extension 2-8650 to get information and training
  materials about using Works.

Kent State To Implement SciQuest eProcurement
Software
Kent State University has engaged the services of
SciQuest, a leading supplier of eProcurement
software, to transform the current paper-based
procurement system into an automated online
environment. The eProcurement software will be
implemented alongside the Banner Finance module
and the system, named FlashCart, readily
integrates and is compatible with the Banner
system. Through FlashCart, purchasing
requisitioners will be able to order from online
vendor catalogs as well as electronically
requisition goods and services not available from
an online catalog. The requisition approval
process will be managed as an electronic
workflow, eliminating the need for approvers to
sign and mail paper requisitions. In addition to
providing a user-friendly interface that is easy
to navigate, the implementation of eProcurement
will provide the university with the opportunity
to save money in virtually every area of
university purchasing. FlashCart delivers the
financial controls to meet universitywide and
department-specific requirements The Banner
Finance project team is currently preparing a
final version of the project plan and
implementation schedule. End-user training on
FlashCart will begin in May. More information
about the training will be provided as it becomes
available.
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Page 2 Business Administrator Quarterly
KSU Travel Provides Report of Airfare
Expenditures

• In order to facilitate travel arrangements, a
  ghost card has been implemented for airfare
  expenses booked through Traveline Travel
  Service.  Under this arrangement, one university
  Purchasing Card, referred to as the ghost card,
  will be used to pay for all university business
  airfare transactions booked through Traveline. 
  Key features of this process are summarized
  below.
• The Procurement Department will allocate the
  expenditures on the ghost card to the FRS account
  
• supplied by the traveler when the travel
  arrangements were made. 
• The ghost card expenses will be included on the
  departments FRS report of transactions with the
• description cc travel pymts. 
•  An email will be sent to the designated account
  owner on the 15th of each month that contains a
• link to the departments ghost card activity
  for the previous month. These monthly reports
  detailing
• airfare ghost card transactions will serve as
  supporting documentation for the  cc travel
  pymts
• expense appearing on the departments
  month-end financial statement. The e-mail will
  identify the
• sender as iBank reports from Traveline. 
• All reports of ghost card activity are in PDF
  format and Adobe Reader is needed to open
• them.  Adobe Reader can be downloaded free
  from the following URL www.adobe.com.  
• All reports remain on the server for 30 days
  after they are run.  Users must open and save
  these
• reports on their network drive or print them
  out before the 30 days are over.  
• If airfare is booked on the last two days of a
  month, the report will be sent including the
  activity
• on these days. The transactions, however,
  may not be allocated to the departments FRS
  account
• until the following month.
•  

United States Postal Service Announces Changes
The United States Postal Service has announced a
rate increase to take affect May 14, 2007. The
new rate structure includes weight and
shape-based pricing with separate rates for
letters, flats, and parcels. This structure is
expected to drive changes in the way mail is
designed and processed. The increase in rates
for flats and parcels is larger than the increase
in rates for letters because these shapes are
more costly to process. The new rate structure
encourages mailers to make adjustments so that
their mail can be processed more efficiently.
For example, if the contents of a flat are folded
and placed into a lettersize envelope, the
mailer can save as much as 20 cents per envelope.
Likewise, if a parcels contents can be
reconfigured as a machinable flat, the mailer can
save up to 38 cents per item. Anna Pascarella,
Manager of Mail Services, explained that the U.S.
Postal Service has announced plans to provide
training to acceptance units in early April and
to offer training sessions to the public in late
April. The Akron/Canton Postal Customer Council
is planning to hold a seminar on the changes in
late May or early June. More information about
these educational sessions will be communicated
as the details become available. Questions
about the rate changes can directed to Anna
Pascarella, Manager of Mail Services on extension
2-2164 or by sending an email to
apascare_at_kent.edu .
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Page 3 Business Administrator Quarterly
Banner Chart of Account Information on BAS Web
Site
The Business and Finance Guidelines, Policies and
Procedures section of the BAS Web site contains
electronic links to documents frequently needed
by business professionals and support staff at
Kent State, including the following Banner chart
of account information The link titled Banner -
Crosswalk - FRS Subcodes to Banner Accounts -
Excel Listing provides an Excel file that
contains the complete list of FRS subcodes and
corresponding Banner Accounts. The link titled
Banner - FRS to Banner Crosswalk Tool connects
the user to a web tool that provides a
crosswalk from FRS information to Banner
information. Specifically, the tool will convert
a 6 digit FRS department number to the
corresponding Banner Fund, Organization and
Program, and a 4 digit FRS subcode to the
corresponding Banner Account. Users are
encouraged to visit the BAS website
(www.kent.edu/bas) and utilize the links
described above when Banner chart of account
information is needed.
Banner Finance Access
The Finance Module of the Banner ERP system will
go live on July 1st, 2007. The Project K.E.Y.S.
Finance team will establish access to Banner
Finance for Kent State faculty and staff
belonging to one or more of the following
groups FRS Users BAS Forum members
Creators of Lotus Notes IDCs during the last 12
months Accounting Department personnel Kent
State faculty and staff who do not belong to one
of the groups above and who will need access to
Banner Finance should request it by sending an
email to erp_at_kent.edu.
Procedures for Reporting Gifts In Kind

• Departments at Kent State may receive a gift in
  kind from a donor for their department use. A
  gift in kind is a non-cash, non-real estate gift,
  such as instruments donated for use by the School
  of Music and Theatre. Departments must take the
  following steps to ensure gifts in kind are
  properly recorded
• Before any gifts in kind are accepted, the
  proposed gift must be reviewed and approved by
  the department management. This step is critical
  to ensure that accepted gifts in kind will not
  require additional expenditures for which there
  is no established funding source or substantially
  increase the liability or risk to the university.
• The department should collect information about
  the gift including a description of the item(s),
  the name of the donor, when it was received, and
  the estimated value of the item(s). This
  information should then be documented on the Kent
  State University Foundation Gift in Kind
  Submission form, which is found online at the
  following URL http//www.kent.edu/development/KSU
  Foundation/upload/Gift20In20Kind20Form.doc.
• In the event the donor does not supply a value,
  an estimated value should be obtained from
  someone in the receiving department who has
  knowledge of the general type of item. All
  estimated values should be supported by a
  documented external source, such as a catalog or
  a website. If a valuation of the items received
  is not readily available, the department may want
  to consider obtaining a professional estimate. If
  a value is not placed on a gift in kind through
  one of these methods, the value on the donor's
  record will be 1.
• If the estimated value of the item(s) is 2,500
  or greater, the department should contact Pat
  Goodhart in the Comptrollers office on extension
  2-8628 to report the gift. Pat will ensure that
  the assets involved are recorded and tracked in
  the universitys fixed asset system.
• The University's Development Office has the
  responsibility of recording all gifts to the
  university. Notification of the gift should be
  made to the Foundation by the university/departmen
  t in receipt of the donation on a completed gift
  form.
• Gifts are generally tax deductible and donors
  will be sent a gift receipt from the Foundation,
  along with a thank you letter. It is important
  to note that the Foundation values gifts for
  donor recognition purposes, but does not value
  gifts for donor tax purposes. The tax value of a
  gift in kind is determined by the donors tax
  advisors.

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Page 4 Business Administrator Quarterly
Using Dates in Excel

• There are many functions in Excel which allow a
  user to record dates and perform calculations on
  them. Below are a
• few that are particularly useful.
• To insert the current date in a spreadsheet so
  the date WILL NOT UPDATE when the spreadsheet is
  opened again Select an empty cell, press the
  CTRL and the semicolon () keys together and then
  press ENTER.
• To insert a date that WILL UPDATE to display the
  current date each time you reopen a worksheet or
  recalculate a formula In an empty cell, type
  TODAY() and press ENTER.
• To calculate the number of days between two
  dates, where the start
  and end dates are
  entered in cells D5 and D6 respectively, enter a
  
  formula to calculate the
  difference between the two dates. In an empty
  
  cell that is formatted to display numbers
  (not dates), type D6-D5, and
  then press
  ENTER to display the result.
• To determine the day of the week of a given date
  entered in cell A2,
• use the WEEKDAY function. In an empty cell, type
  WEEKDAY(A2,1).
• The WEEKDAY function will return a number to
  represent the day of
• the week. The day is given as an integer,
  ranging from
• 1 (Sunday) to 7 (Saturday), by default.

All previously published newsletters can be
viewed on-line at http//www.kent.edu/bas/Newslett
er/index.cfm. Please let us know if you would
like us to cover a specific topic regarding
business operations or fiscal management in a
future issue. Contact Maureen Kennedy at
extension 2-8615, Vicki Ladd at extension 2-1956,
or send an email to bas_at_kent.edu.