Financial report help to support your research endeavours
VIU has released a "Simplified research report" to better assist you with managing your research funding. This short video explains how to run the report and what you can expect.
Please note that any capital purchases of equipment (over $5,000) are done using capital Work Orders and these Work Orders and data will not appear in the simplified report. Contact the finance office for information regarding those purchases.
Simplified researcher report overview - video
Researcher simplified report overview - video transcript.txt
Please reach out to Admin or Finance Assistants in your area for support or contact the SRCA office for assistance.
How to use the "Simplified researcher report"
The most current version will always be here:
The Financial reports training page has a thorough explanation including a video training session for how to use the Analyze tool. You can also read their more involved version of the Analyze cheat sheet since their reports are more complex.
For details on how to manipulate the simplified report as it first presents to you (before you click the Analyze button) see the Financial reports training page under How to use reports: overview for details on how to move or rename columns, how to sort rows and other tips.
This video shows how to export GL as well as other reports so it can support you with this one.
Export GL (and other) reports - video transcript.txt
How to export a report.
After your report is generated on screen, you can rearrange columns, group and sort based on different needs, or remove columns you don't need. Once you are satisfied that the report has what you need, you can Export it.
Not all customization configurations will transfer to the exported data. Renaming of columns or customizations like bolding will not be in the Exported file. If you reduce the visible data by only showing certain rows, the full data set will still be exported so you will have to remove it yourself in the Excel file.
Click Export at the bottom of the screen to open the "Report engine" window. Users can export the data directly into Excel or as a PDF. PDF is not advised as it may not provide you with a clean, easy to use presentation of your data. The PDF export is only suitable for results with a small number of columns and rows. If you really need a PDF, export it as an Excel spreadsheet and convert it to PDF outside of FIS.
Option 1 is the formatted version of the data in Excel showing the groupings and sub-totals as you have set them up.
Option 2 provides a pivot table which is an advanced Excel format. Search online for information on how to use this Excel tool.
Option 3 provides the data in a plain Excel format without the groupings or sub-categories so you can filter and format as you like in Excel.
Option 4 is the PDF version which only works well with a small data set.
You will only see data if your research Work Orders have been entered into a Work Order mapping form in the Employee Portal by General Accounting. This direction is determined by what is filled out in the new Work Order Request form to account for all employees who should have access to view your research Work Order data in the My Simplified Researcher Report by Fiscal Year.
If your report isn't running, please see Troubleshooting: Why is my report not running?
If you don't see all of your research Work Orders:
- Verify that SRCA or your area support person has submitted the Work Order request to General Accounting.
- Wait for a week or so to allow time for the information to be uploaded into the system.
- If updates or changes need to be made regarding who should see the report, please submit a Work Order change form to General Accounting for processing and allow at least 7 days for changes to take effect.
- You can see who has access to view data for your Work Order in the My Simplified Researcher Report by Fiscal Year by opening the report (TBA).
The determination for who sees the data in your Work Orders is based on the information given to General Accounting when the Work Order Request is first submitted to them to create the Work Order in the FIS. On this form it will indicate:
- Your name as principle lead
- Any co-principles on the grant
- Any research assistant(s)
- Finance or Admin Assistant for your area
A report is being created so you can see who has access to view your simplified report (TBA)
There are others at VIU who have financial authority to view research Work Order data. They are:
- SRCA office
- Finance office
- Employees authorized to view all Work Orders to perform their job duties such as certain Finance Assistants, President's office, etc.
Accounting and system terms explained
The Activity code in FIS is a new tracking opportunity associated with a Work Order covering items such as Administration, Advising, Committee Release, Contract Activity, etc.
New Activity/Intake code
New Activity/intake code - video transcript.txt
The Activity codes and the (previously called) object codes are not the same! It is just a coincidence that they are both three digit numbers.
In the Employee Portal, Work Orders have been set up to track activity in the same way that FRS cost centres capture financial information. Work Orders have been assigned a default Activity Code and this new element is intended to reflect the purpose of the Work Order (previously called cost centre) itself.
Examples include:
- Administration
- Instruction
- Student support
- Contract activity
- Research
- Retail operations, and so on
The new VIU budget structure was implemented with the new Finance module to support reporting at the different levels. It should not be confused with the HR organizational structure that will eventually support position-to-position oversight responsibilities (time sheet approvals, absence management, requisition approvals, etc.)
Budget overview - video transcript.txt
This Budget Structure Cheat Sheet may assist as you follow along with the video.
President = Institution oversight
Executive = 3 Senior Budget Holders areas of budget oversight
Branch = AVP level of budget oversight
Division = Budget Division Areas of Responsibility as identified in the Consolidated Resource Plan (see page 17)
Subdivision = portion of Division to reflect different budget oversight requirements, i.e. directors or managers within the Division.
Cost centre = areas of business within the Subdivision, i.e. Accounts Payable Department, which is within the Accounting Services Subdivision, which is within the Financial Services Division
Project = Different projects within a Cost Centre, i.e. Culinary Arts – Nanaimo or Culinary Arts –Cowichan are both unique projects in the Culinary Arts Cost Centre
(NOTE: can have 99 projects per Cost Centre, per fund)
Work Order = similar to FRS Cost Centre, Work Orders allow for tracking of individual activity within projects, i.e. Culinary Arts – Instruction and Culinary Arts Field Trips and competitions are both unique work orders in the Culinary Arts - Nanaimo Project.
(NOTE: can have 999 Work Orders for each Project)
Please note that any capital purchases of equipment (over $5,000) are done using capital Work Orders and these types of Work Orders (typically start with a 5) and data will not appear in the simplified report. Contact the finance office for information regarding those purchases.
- grants and contracts and
- trade products.
If a Sales Order with trade products is posted, the revenue goes directly to the Work Order identified by the area.
If a Sales Order with grants and contracts products is posted, this revenue briefly goes to the Work Order identified by the area and then a trigger automatically pushes it out to another account called Deferred revenue/contribution. So the money goes in and then right out of the Work Order.
Old way
This is different from the old system (FRS). In FRS, revenues went directly to the Work Order (cost centre) and then at year-end, Finance reviewed all cost centres (now Work Orders) and moved amounts (as appropriate) to another account so they were ready to then be added to your starting balance for the next year.
New way
With the FIS this process is modified to better align with accounting principles: all grant and contract revenue will initially be moved to the outside account called Deferred revenue and after Finance reviews everything they will then push the revenue amounts out into each Work Order as appropriate.
Ideally, this is done monthly so you see the portion of the grant 'earned' monthly. This is modified according to workload.
So for example, if you have a 12 month grant for 12,000 you will see a monthly portion (perhaps 1,000) of Revenue from your grant posted to the report each month, depending on what you spend, not the full 12,000 at the start of the year. By the end of the contract you'll see the full 12,00 recognized as Revenue posted to this Work Order.
There is no connection between when the cash is received and when the revenue is posted to the Work Order.
This researcher simplified report shows you the amount that is in your Revenue account (any account starting with a 4 - we call them the 4000 series of accounts) plus the amount still to be 'earned' (Deferred revenue) and that amount is in an account starting with a 2 (the 2000 series of accounts). The timing and specifics of how VIU reports revenues from grants and contracts throughout the year is explained further in the document Grants and Contract Funding - Deferred Revenue and Revenue Recognition prepared by the Finance office. Bulletin explaining new grant and contract revenue recoding by finance office
This is the VIU name for the Finance module that became part of the cloud-based software that VIU chose as a result of Project AURORA (A Unified Renewal of Related Applications) to provide an enterprise-wide change to our core support systems and business processes.
The product that was originally called UBW when it was launched in Jan 2020 and rebranded by the vendor (Unit4) in August 2020 to ERP. This houses these modules. The current main module is known internally at VIU as HRIS and the new Finance module added into the Employee Portal in July 2021 is known internally at VIU as FIS.
The logo in the top corner of the product says Unit4 ERP as of August 2020.
The previous reporting system used by VIU for maintaining Financial records. This was mainly a system to output premade generic reports.
In the previous Financial Record System (FRS), the three digit code identified a type of transaction (e.g. Travel). In the new FIS this number is known as the Account code and the main number is four digits.
Object to account code mapping
Prepaid expenses
A product code is a unique seven digit identifier assigned to a supply-type or service-type product for purchase. Operational product codes start with “A” and a select amount for Blanket Purchase Orders with “B," and capital product codes start with “C.”
You can see a list of all current Purchase Product codes by navigating to the home screen in the Employee Portal and:
- Look for the Purchase Product Listing report located under the Accounting menu item under Reports -> Across companies -> Shared -> Area Special Purpose Finance Reports; or
- Open Requisitions - Standard under the Procurement menu item and activate a product line under Requisition details and click the dropdown menu arrow beside the product field. Choose Value lookup to open a Value lookup enquiry window that includes a list of all purchase products.
A product code for sales is a unique alphanumeric identifier assigned to products or services for sale. The number part of a sales product code indicates what type of product or service is being invoiced (for example, Provincial grants and contracts start with "40xx-x"). The text part of a sales product code indicates what tax is applicable to the product or service in question (for example, 4250-1 is for Grants and Contracts - Corporations (No Tax) and 4250G-1 is for Grants and Contracts - Corporations (GST)).
For the creation of sales orders enter in a product code first. However, if you enter a Grants and Contracts product code, you also need to enter in a "Grant-award" code. If you also want to define this: The "Grant-award" code is a unique 4-digit identifier that is only relevant for when Grants and Contracts are being invoiced. This code groups the customer organization for deferred revenue reporting purposes.
You can see a list of all current Sales Product codes by navigating to the home screen in the Employee Portal and:
- Look for the Sales Product Listing report located under the Accounting menu item under Reports -> Across companies -> Shared -> Area Special Purpose Finance Reports; or
- Open Sales orders under the Customer and sales menu item and activate a product line under the "Order lines" section and click the three dots beside the product field. This opens a Value lookup enquiry window that includes a list of all sales products.
This is your former Employee ID. The first number has been changed from a "0" to a "3." New employees will have their numbers always start with a "3."
This video explains the change.
You can click on the Transaction number hyperlink to find more details for certain types of entries.
Transaction number hyperlink for details - video transcript.txt
This is the original name (when we went live in January 2020) of the cloud-based software that VIU chose as a result of Project AURORA (A Unified Renewal of Related Applications) to provide an enterprise-wide change to our core support systems and business processes.
The product was rebranded by the vendor (Unit4) in August 2020 to ERP.
VIU now calls this system the Employee Portal and it is comprised of the main HRIS and FIS modules. The logo in the top corner of the product says Unit4 ERP as of August 2020.
The Employee Portal (both FIS and HRIS) inherently requires the term "Work Order" be used for the tracking of financial details. The VIU Facilities Services department used to also use the term "work order" though have now converted their systems and use the term "Service Request" instead.
For those who used to use the Financial Records System (FRS) you may want some clarity regarding the institutional transition from FRS Cost Centres and FRS Object Codes to Work Orders, Account Numbers and Activity Codes used by HRIS and for FIS. Here is a basic explanation.
Simple version:
The FRS Cost Centre is mapped to the FIS (formerly UBW) Work Order.
The FRS Object Code is mapped to the FIS (formerly UBW) Account number.
For example:
- Existing FRS Cost Centre 2030 English is identical to Work Order 12225-1-1 (for English in FIS)
- Existing FRS Object Code 215 for CUPE Complement is identical to Account 5200 in FIS
Work Order string explained
In the Employee Portal this refers to a process that happens in the background of the system (fully controlled by VIU) that forwards information automatically to users to review, action and/or approve it.
An example is when appointment data gets entered into the system via a form. Once saved it automatically goes to HR personnel to verify and enter the data and set up the record. Once approved the form goes automatically to Payroll to set up their portion of the record and this is then passed along to another Payroll clerk to check and approve. All of this is tracked and recorded in the system to ensure integrity and for tracking purposes.