How to access FAST Finance Reporting How to sign in and ... · he enter box if you do not fill in a...
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How to access FAST Finance Reporting How to sign in and review Funds How to navigate the system How to print reports How to access from off campus Answers to common questions
Transcript of How to access FAST Finance Reporting How to sign in and ... · he enter box if you do not fill in a...
How to access FAST Finance Reporting
How to sign in and review Funds
How to navigate the system
How to print reports
How to access from off campus
Answers to common questions
To access the FAST Portal:
https://www.carleton.ca/fast/FAST Financial Reporting
http://www2.carleton.ca/ccs/services/network-services/vpn/
VPN Software
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By accessing the first link indicated, this will bring you to the FAST logon main page. It would be very useful to bookmark the link & add this to your desktop. The link is available on Carleton’s Finance web site under BANNER Finance – documentation or by simply adding FAST to the end of the Carleton homepage. The second link is to access FAST from off campus, by downloading the VPN software available on Computing & Communications web site. You must have a network account already in order to download the software. A network account is set up for you when you are documented with HR for a permanent administrative or faculty position. If you do not have an account, you must request one through HR. The VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows for a secure link to Carleton’s network. Once the VPN is downloaded to your laptop or personal computer at home and you have run the set-up, you will need to activate the the connection in order to launch the FAST Portal from home, or via a laptop. If you have any questions or problems running the software, contact CCS and they can provide you with assistance.
FAST sign in
Password default
Who to contact to
reset it if expired
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To log in to FAST, you must also have a Banner Logon (separate from your network account). The same logon is used for Banner and FAST. If you do not have a user account, contact Research Accounting or [email protected]. Once you have been established in the data base as a FAST user, you will be given the default password (U_PICK_IT) from CCS. When you access FAST to logon, enter your full name without any spaces. CCS will provide your user ID, which is normally your full name. It maybe abbreviated if your combined first and last name is too long. Once you have entered your user ID & password, click enter to access the main menu. If you forget your password, or it has expired because you have not used FAST for several months, you will need to have CCS reset it back to the default, U_PICK_IT once again. You will be prompted to change your password every three months.
FAST portal
Access to Finance Reporting
Access to Research
Administration
Change password
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Now select Finance Reporting in order to access and view Fund information. You can also access the Research Administration tool from the FAST Portal to review departmental Research Funds, run reports, and download the reports to Excel. It is important for security reasons that once you have gained access to Finance Reporting using the default password, that you change it to something you will be able to remember easily, but that others will not know. As the instruction notes, this will also change your Banner password too. You can change your password at any time from the FAST Portal main page. Follow the instructions for required numeric & alpha characters.
Access funds from
main menu
Review individual or
multiple funds
View ResearchAccounting admin
name
View Account codes
On-line
documentation
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At the main menu, you can access Funds that you have been assigned query and or signing authority on. You can select to review an individual Fund by entering the number in the “Fund” field. You can select just the Org number your department is associated with to review all funds you have authority to access by entering the number in the “Org” field. Next to the Fund field, you can click on the down arrow to see who the fund administrator in Accounting is and a list of all Funds you have access to. This is helpful when you have questions and don’t know who to contact. If you click on the arrow down beside “Acct” for account, you will see a list of account codes. Salary codes begin with 6 and miscellaneous costs start with a 7. You will notice only 3 account codes are indicated beside the title or description. When you note a title that corresponds with an expense you are trying to find the account code for, left mouse click on the drop down arrow associated with the 3 digit account code. Now 4 account codes will be displayed. If you left click again on the down arrow for the applicable title until 6 account codes appear, you will see a detailed list of account codes. Choose the most appropriate account code to match the nature of the transaction. The period will always default to the current month and year when you are accessing Finance Reporting. It will also default to the “Operating Statement” for the “Desired Option”. This is the preferred format in which to review research Funds. Note below the enter box – if you do not fill in a Fund or Org number in the applicable field and just click enter, Finance Reporting will bring you to all Funds under your authority that have activity in the current fiscal year. There is also a help tutorial that can assist you in navigating Finance Reporting. This may be helpful if you are viewing a screen and do not understand what a statement refers to or what the value is represented. Once you have selected the Fund or Org you would like to review, click enter. This will take you to a details page for the Fund or Org.
Drop-down menu button beside Fund
field
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In order to view all Funds under your authority, the subject title, and the Research Accounting contact who administers the Fund, select the drop down arrow next to the Fund field. You can select a Fund to view by clicking on it, then clicking enter once the fund appears in the main menu.
Drop-down menu button
beside ACCT field
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Please be sure to use the most appropriate account code to match the nature of the transaction when you are preparing payroll profiles, travel expense reports, cheque requisitions purchase orders, and ICB’s. Many externally reported research Funds have specific budgets and eligible expenses. If account codes do not represent the supply, or equipment purchased or if the salary for an Grad student is indicated as an Undergraduate, this could cause issues when financial reports are provided to funding agencies. If you are not certain of an account code for an item being expensed, review the “Acct” drop down button from the main menu, or go to the Research Accounting dictionary on our website to access a detailed list of Account numbers: http://www2.carleton.ca/finance/research-accounting/dictionary-for-research-accounting/
Access to specific Fund information
How to review
details and Fund
balance
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Here is where you will start to see specific Fund information. This first page is a fiscal year summary for current transactions only. To see further detail, including opening and closing balances, you have to left mouse click on the blue highlighted Fund number. This will bring you to the Org number associated with the Fund. Note: The available balance in this view is not necessarily the overall balance. The available balance at this level is the current year budget, less current year expenses and does not include the opening /closing balances. Each Fund is linked to ONLY one Org. If payable documents such as payroll profiles, travel reports, cheque requisitions and Procurement Card transactions are posted to the wrong Org, the correct Org and the erroneous one will show up in Finance Reporting until the next fiscal year. So it is important to make sure the correct Org is indicated on any payable documents, or notify your administrator to correct any value associated with an incorrect Org.
Org Level
Abbreviated Fund
owner, supporting agency, project title
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You will now see the associated Org highlighted in blue. Left mouse click on the Org, in order to view the Fund details. Across the top of the Fund page the abbreviated Fund owner (individual or centre), is displayed along with the abbreviated funding agency or internal type of research fund. A brief description of the project title is also provided.
Current year
Period
Date Range
Monthly Actuals
FOAPAL
Opening & Closing
Balances
Budgets
YTD Actual
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Now you can view the details of the Fund. If you want to select a “Date Range” to view, you must select date range under the “Current Year” drop down arrow. The “Period” field will then display Mar/03 to current month & year. You can then review an individual month or a range of months you would like to view. You can also select a month under the “Period” field to review without using the “Date Range”. The level of detail you will see will only go back to May 1 of the year that you have selected. This is due to the University year end being Apr 30. So, if you select the month of April for the “Period”, you will see all activity dating back to May 1 of the previous year. If you select the drop down menu for “Current Year”, select “Date Range” in order to view activity over just one month individually, two or more months at a time, or over several years at a time. Keep in mind that once you view activity that overlaps more than one fiscal year, you may not be able to drill down on specific expenses under the account codes. The “Month Actual” column allows you to view details for just the month that you are viewing under the “Period” field. Now that we can see the full level of detail in this fund, lets review what a FOAPAL is. This refers to: F – Fund (This indicates the source of revenue) O – Org (Indicates the department or CURC) A – Account (The nature of expense or revenue) P – Program (Describes functional use of funds) A – Activity (For user defined report & can be set-up by Accounting in order to track specific revenue and expenses within a fund if required) L – Location (Identifies physical location) You can see who the individual is viewing the Fund in Finance Reporting. The Fund number is indicated, along with the abbreviated researchers name. For externally supported Funds, you will also see the agency name, or type of funding contributing the revenue. Some internal University Funds might indicate Dir, Chair, or Dean, others may indicate a research unit or the type of Fund being displayed, such as GEN for general research, or SYMP for a symposium Fund. Next to this, you will note some detail on the subject title. We only have 30 characters in which to input the name, agency and details of the title, so we usually have to choose the specific details of the title to use. Next to the title you will see the Org number that the Fund defaults to, and the department that the Org is associated with. The particular date you have accessed Finance Reporting is also noted here. This is helpful when you want to generate a report in order to have transactions to a specific date. Under the column entitled Code, you will see Account numbers. The Account numbers will vary depending on the type of transactions that have been processed. The “Opening Fund Balance” indicates the balance brought forward from May 1 of the fiscal year you are reviewing. The “Closing Funds Available” indicates the present day balance of the Fund. The salary Account numbers are always represented in the top half of the detail displayed. These numbers always start with 6XXXXX. The Account numbers for supplies, travel, equipment, etc… begin with 7XXXXX. Each field is separated by a sub-total line. With an external research Fund like this one, you will see the “Budget” transactions. Revenue is not allocated. A budget adjustment is completed to provide funding. This is done when a research agreement provides funding for a project & a new budget is added, or a new fiscal year of funding is updated. So, for multi-year projects, the full agreement value may not be displayed when you are reviewing details. For internal University Funds, contributions or support of a conference is provided, start-up funding for a new researcher, overhead distributions , consolidation of older Funds, etc…. Budget details are not entered. There are revenue credits when payments are received & internal transfer credits when funding is provided from another department or faculty on campus. Under the column YTD Actuals – blue highlighted tab, amounts are indicated based on the Account numbers that apply to the type of transaction recorded. The total value indicated under each Account code represent all activity under that Account code dating back to May 1 of that current year. If a transaction has brackets around the amount listed in the Month or YTD Actual column, that indicates there has been a credit to the Fund under that Account number. But, if an opening or closing balance has brackets around the amount, this represents a deficit balance. Using your mouse to select the amount under any Actual expense, left click on your mouse to see each transaction back to May 1. When you review Payroll expenses, you have to drill down on an individual document to see the name of the individual associated with the salary and benefits paid. You can click on the blue highlighted HR PAYROLL under description, in order to view details of payroll for the period going back t
Monthly Trend
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By viewing the “Monthly Trend” in the drop down arrow under current year, in the upper left side of the screen, you can view the monthly transaction details for the current year to date that you are viewing under the “Period” drop down arrow.
Quarterly Trend
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You can also view a “Quarterly Trend” for transaction details for the fiscal year you are viewing under the “Period” drop down arrow.
Annual Trend
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By selecting the “Annual Trend” under the “Current Year” drop down arrow, you can view the last 5 years of transaction details that have occurred in the Fund. Each of the monthly, quarterly & yearly trends will assist you in maintaining your budgets based on how you prefer to view and chart them.
Account detail level
Document reference
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Once you have drilled down on a specific expenditure within an Account number under the “Actual” column, you will see the level of detail recorded. Here we see the Fund-Org-Account-Prog. The date the transaction was processed, the electronic document number assigned, who the payment was issued to, the amount, the GST rebate that has been applied and the total amount that has been expensed to the Fund. The reference number here indicates that it was a CQRQ, because of the CR before the number under the “Invoice/Ref #” column. If the payable document was a travel report, it would show TX and then the number. If an expense is processed internally within the University by an ICB, it would have CB before the reference number. Or, if an expense or contribution is moved, it would be by a journal and have J before the number under the “Document” column. If a payment is in relation to an invoice the internal document number maybe replaced by the invoice number of the vendor under the “Invoice/Ref #” column. The last entry on the payable transaction is the cheque number. This is the number stamped on the cheque payable from Carleton. The one thing about a document number is that the electronic number assigned, is not the same as the manual number printed on the travel report, cheque requisition, or ICB. In the next slide we will view the level of detail that is displayed when you click on a document number.
Drill down on document number
Full details for
Fund(s), Accounts & total amount
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When you left mouse click on a “Document” number, all related Funds, Account numbers, and the total value related to the document will be displayed.
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Document Type Query: Under Type: Select either Actuals or Budget. Source: This should say income statement Document Type: You can select Journal Voucher, Cheque, Invoice, PO’s, Requisition or All items. Date Fields: Select the fiscal year and Period (remember period 1 is May; Period 12 is April, while Period 14 refers to the April yearend accrual period. Select Period 14 to capture all items for the fiscal year) The following fields (Fund, Org, Acct, Prog, Actv) are optional filters for the query. If you do not input anything, the query will search through all Funds and Orgs you have access to. Once done, click Submit. The report defaults to displaying ten items per page but you can view the report in its entirety by clicking “Show All Records”. If you prefer to work in Excel, click on “Download to Excel”
Document lookup
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By selecting the “Document Lookup” tab from the drop down under “Desired Option”, you can reference transactions that have been entered into Banner & posted to Finance Reporting.
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If you enter the printed “Document” number for an internal chargeback….the details of the transaction will be displayed. When the transaction took place, the Fund/Org credited & debited, Account expensed, and the total amount expensed/credited. You must enter CB before the number to retrieve the data, CR for cheque requisition, TX for travel expense, and TAR for travel advance.
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Invoice Query: Complete as much information as you have to find the item. You can just query all items paid to a specific vendor or you can narrow it down based on amount or period. When you want to know if a payment has been processed, you can just enter the name in the “Vendor Name” field and all payments to that person or agency will be displayed in Funds under your authority. All Funds, Account codes, and total amounts paid will be displayed. When you reference a document number, such as a travel expenses report (TX), a travel advance report (TAR), a cheque requisition (CR), or an ICB (CB), you enter the letters followed by the associated document number with no space in between in the “Vendor Invoice” field. In order to reference a document number like I001234567, You enter the code in the “Invoice Number” field. For payables from a specific Fund, enter the document in the “Invoice Number” field & the Fund number in the “Fund” field.
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If you access a Fund in early May or June of any year and see this message, it most likely means that there has been no activity to the Fund in the new University fiscal year. At this point, you need to select the “Period” drop down in the upper left hand of the screen and change it to April of the previous year you want to review. If no activity has occurred on the Fund for several years, you need to roll back the period to April of when the last transaction took place. Once a new transaction has posted to the Fund in Finance Reporting, the records will update, the transaction will be posted, and the new available balance will be indicated. This message may also appear if you have not been provided with Fund authority on the research Fund that you are trying to access. **Balance Sheet for internal funds** if you would just like to see the available balance. This is available at the main menu when you are entering the Fund number that you would like to view, under the drop down arrow in the Desired Option field.
Display for cents,
dollars, thousand
Commitments for
Payroll, P.O.’s,
P-Cards, Travel
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From the drop down button where the word “Display” is located in the upper right corner of the screen, you can change the amounts indicated from a round dollar, to indicate the cents for exact amounts, or select K if you would like to see the transactions in the thousands of dollars only. The “Commitments” column is when payroll, equipment, supplies, or travel advances have been committed but not yet expensed to the Fund, but the value of funding has been set aside. This may be when an individual is being paid over a length of time, or when equipment is set-up on a procurement card or purchase order, or when someone is issued a travel advance. These amounts then draw down the available balance in the Fund, as they represent anticipated future expenses. As the salary is paid out, supply and equipment purchase orders are paid, or travel advances are cleared, the commitment is removed and the expense is entered.
Date range
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From the “Date Range” in the top left of the screen, all transactions are displayed that have taken place in the Fund from May/08 to Apr/09. You can download the condensed or total transactions into an Excel spreadsheet. You may not need a detailed list of each transaction. If you click on a specific Account under “Period Actuals”, you can download just transactions for that Account. If you click on the term “Period Actuals”, all transactions for the period you are querying will be downloaded.
Return to menu
Download to Excel
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If you click on the “Return to Menu” in the bottom left corner of the screen, Finance Reporting will bring you back to the main menu screen. If you choose instead the to select “Download to Excel”, Finance Reporting will convert the data into an Excel spreadsheet.
YTD actual
Monthly actual
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When you click on the “YTD Actual” column, navigate to the bottom of the screen, then click “Show All Records”. This could provide you with five or five hundred records, depending on the transactions that have taken place in the Fund during the time “Period” selected. You may also select the month actual to view either by the individual account code by clicking on the corresponding item in the column, or by clicking on the month/yr displayed above the “Month Actual”. This will provide details of all transactions to date for the month you have selected.
Show all records
Download to Excel
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By clicking “Show all Records”, all the transactions for the “Period” you are viewing will be displayed in this format. Once you have the desired set of records that you want to see, you can now download them into an Excel format.
Details displayed
Sort data to your
requirement
Electronic document number
Detailed payroll info
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Once you have downloaded the transactions into an Excel format from Finance Reporting, this is what the details will look like. The Fund number, Org number, and Date Range are displayed at the top of the screen. In the spreadsheet below the following columns and related information will be displayed: the Fund, Org, Account, Program, Date the transactions posted, Document type, Description of the transaction, Requisition or Purchase Order, Invoice/Ref #, and Amount. An electronic Document number is assigned once a transaction is processed. The corresponding amounts paid out under the salary codes (61xxxx) for each pay period will be displayed for the period selected. Here we will see all payroll Accounts relating to the salary. There maybe upwards of ten Account numbers associated with an individuals payroll if benefits are also being expensed to the Fund, which will generate a great deal of data when downloaded into Excel.
Current year actuals by position
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“Current Year Actuals by Position” will provide all payroll transactions for each individual paid from the Fund selected over the fiscal year that the “Period” is selected for.
Current year actuals by position
Details displayed
Total salary paid per month–total for year
Separate Account
codes for benefits
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The “Current Year Actuals by Position” screen displays the Fund the salaries were expensed to, the Org, Account code, employee number, employee name, and the salary payments for the current fiscal 12 month period. The total payments to the individual for the fiscal year are also displayed. The type of salary and the benefit costs, if any, are also displayed below the payees name. The benefit costs for each payee will be displayed starting below the last entry for related salary costs.
Position subledger
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The “Position Subledger” displays the salaries paid to all employees from the Fund selected over the current fiscal year you are viewing, but also provides committed salary amounts.
Position subledger
Total salaries and
benefits paid
Committed salaries to be paid
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The “Position Subledger” shows the total payments to date for the fiscal year being viewed, but also displays the committed salaries that have not yet been expensed.
My outstanding purchase orders,
travel advances,
and procurement card purchases
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By selecting “My Outstanding Purchase Orders & Requisitions”, Finance Reporting will list all purchase orders or requisitions that have not been paid at all, or not paid in full on all Funds under your authority. Finance Reporting will display what amount is outstanding if some of the total value has been paid to date. You can enter an individual Fund number in the applicable field if you just want to see outstanding purchase orders, travel advances, or procurement card transactions that are committed to that Fund. Or you can leave the Fund field blank & select “My outstanding purchase orders and requisitions, and Finance Reporting will display all committed purchase orders, travel advances, and procurement card transactions for all Funds under your authority.
Details for all operating expense
commitments
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Once the committed purchase orders, travel advances, or procurement card purchases are displayed, you can click on the blue highlighted document information to see a higher level of detail related to the committed amounts. The Fund, Org, Account will be displayed. The vendor and amount paid for procurement cards, the vendor amount paid, and items ordered for purchase orders, the person provided with an advance and the amount by account code for travel advances. These advances are cleared & the expense created when: Procurement cards are reconciled at the end of each month, (Usually the 25th). Purchase orders are paid when the vendor invoices the University Travel advances are cleared when the traveller returns from their destination and a travel expense report is submitted.
Questions ??
Visit our website at:https://www2.carleton.ca/finance/research-accounting/
Contact Research Accounting at:
613-520-3631
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