Month: August 2020

KFS UC Chart Final Close – TONIGHT (From KFS Listserv)

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To All KFS and KFDM Users:

The Final Close for the KFS UC Chart for Fiscal Year 2020 will take place tonight, Wednesday, August 26, 2020.  KFS will be unavailable beginning at 5 pm today.  By Thursday morning, August 27, final balances from 2020 will be carried over into Fiscal Year 2021 as beginning balances. These amounts will no longer be seen as pending entries in Fiscal Year 2021; they will be final and posted amounts.

For contract and grant accounts, ending balances for 2020 will be seen in the “Contracts Grants Beginning Balance Amount” field on the General Ledger Balance Lookup for 2021.

For all other account types, ending balances for 2020 will be seen in the “Beginning Balance Line Amount” field on the General Ledger Balance Lookup for 2021.

The Kuali Financial Data Mart (KFDM) will also be updated to include the beginning balances for Fiscal Year 2021.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Annette Pavone (Annette.pavone@uconn.edu) or Lori-Anne Hansen (lori-anne.hansen@uconn.edu)

 

Annette Pavone, CPA
Accounting Manager, Inventory Control & Capitalization
Accounting Office
University of Connecticut
343 Mansfield Road
Storrs, CT 06269-1074
Phone (860) 486-2934

Scholarship Updates from the Office of Student Financial Aid Services

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Good afternoon,

I hope all is well! I am sending along the following instructions for anyone who processes Scholarship Disbursements. This new process was implemented back in March and I’m not sure if everyone received it or not, so I thought I should share. This new scholarship workflow process is smoother and cleaner, and displays the current status of scholarship disbursements you have processed for tracking purposes (e.g. if they have been awarded or if they are still in route).

You will need to follow the directions below to sign up for the ability to process disbursements going forward.

Please read the email and if you have any questions please feel free to contact Sara.Raffia@uconn.edu or me.

Thank you.

Have a good day,

Kathy

 

“Hello,

I apologize in advance for the lengthy email that follows!

New Scholarship Contact
I am happy to announce that the Office of Student Financial Aid Services has hired our Scholarship Programs Administrator, Sara Raffia! Sara joins our team from Goodwin College where she previously worked in financial aid and their alumni office. Sara will be your scholarship contact moving forward and can be reached at sara.raffia@uconn.edu or 860-486-6254. Because we are telecommuting the next three weeks until April 6, this number will not be available but we can be reached via email or Skype.

COVID-19 and Launch of New Scholarship Disbursement Process
As some of you may know, we have been working on an online scholarship disbursement form option for longer than we would like to admit! We are very excited to announce that we are rolling this out live, today, so that our essential functions can continue during this time. Ideally, we would have announced in the Daily Digest, set up in-person trainings, and notify all impacted parties prior to the rollout, but we do not have that luxury of time. Please find important information below (which will also be on our website before the end of today):

  1. If you typically submit scholarship disbursement forms on behalf of your office/Department, please request access to the online form here
    1. This access request will be sent to your supervisor, as listed in Core-CT. Once your supervisor approves, you should have immediate access to the online form.
  2. Once security is granted, you may access the online form here.
    1. While the form is built very similarly to the paper form, we’ve attached resources that you may find helpful.
    2. The access links and resources will also be available on our website by the end of today: https://financialaid.uconn.edu/faculty-and-staff/.
    3. The online form allows for bulk uploads of recipients by account number using a CSV file upload (sample is attached). Instructions and the template may be found in the Job Aids (attached) and the template may be found on our website.
  3. Workflow
    1. Once you submit your scholarship disbursement form online, it will then be automatically sent for approval to either the Fiscal Officer listed on the KFS account or the Primary AND Secondary Signature Authority listed on the Foundation Account. The form will NOT make its way to financial aid for processing until the person listed as the approver approves the request.
      1. If you are the Fiscal Officer listed on an account AND are typically the one to submit the forms, please notify Sara Raffia and we will update the online system to then ask the Account Supervisor listed in KFS to approve the scholarship.
      2. Friendly reminder for Foundation accounts: if the disbursement or combined disbursement is over $10,000, then the Primary Signature Authority needs to approve the disbursement request.
    2. Because we are rolling this out so quickly, we ask you for your help in notifying those who have to approve the requests that they will start to receive email requests! If they feel they are bombarded with access requests, we suggest they set up a separate email folder and rule that automatically moves these emails into the separate folder.
  4. Issues
    1. While we hope to not run into issues with the workflow, if you are unable to use it for some reason and need to process scholarship forms, please send your forms using the paper form via email to sara.raffia@uconn.edu. If you are unable to have the forms signed, we will accept unsigned forms during this time only due to the unprecedented nature of the situation. Once normal University operations resume, you will need to submit the completed and signed form to our office.

We thank you for your continued patience and flexibility these last few months as we experienced numerous vacancies in our office and now as we rollout a new process, all while telecommuting. Thank you and be safe!

Final Job Aids

csv.import

Carrie Fernandes
Associate Director – Compliance and Quality Assurance
Office of Student Financial Aid Services
233 Glenbrook Road, Unit 4116, Storrs, CT 06269
(P) 860-486-2558, (F) 860-486-6629
https://financialaid.uconn.edu/

KFS Upgrade Test Environment

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For those of you that utilize KFS, I wanted to share with you the link to the KFS Test Environment: https://kualinp.uconn.edu/kfs-uat/webapp/dashboard/home  so that you have an opportunity to see the new look and feel of the system before training occurs.  Additional communication will be provided on Training, Job Aids, and Go Live as we approach September, and will continue to share any information as I receive it.

As mentioned in our last Administrative Meeting a new General Ledger Transfer (GLT) document will be introduced.  Here is the link to the GLT tutorial video: https://kaltura.uconn.edu/media/General+Ledger+Transfer+Demo/1_5xatwev1

 

Thank you,
Alicia

Fall 2020 Student Employment Guidance (From Student Employee Listserv)

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Attachment: Sample Student Offer Letter August 2020

Dear Student Employee Supervisors,

The fall semester will bring a partial opening of the Storrs and regional campuses. As student supervisors we are encouraging you to follow the Human Resource Guidelines as it pertains to telecommuting and reporting to work.

Please note, these guidelines are applicable to Student Labor and Federal Work Study students.

We have compiled a list of FAQs for your reference:

  • Can I hire students for the in-person operations of my department? Am I required to obtain additional approval?  Yes, student employees can be hired for in-person operations, there is no additional approval required.

 

  • I would like to hire a student employee that will be telecommuting, do I need to seek additional approval or notify HR of the remote work environment?  Yes, students can be hired to work remote. There is no notification or approval required by Human Resources or the Student Employment Office.

 

  • Are student employees required to complete the mandatory Environmental Health & Safety Training (EH & S) upon re-entry to in-person employment?  Yes, students should complete the Environmental Health & Safety Training and alert supervisors upon completion.

 

  • What are the testing requirements for off-campus student employees who are online/distance learning only?  Student testing is being facilitated by Student Health and Wellness (SHaW). Please refer to their FAQ as it relates to testing requirements.

 

  • Who/what department will be facilitating/monitoring the testing for off-campus students (who are online/distance learning) but secure on-campus employment?  Testing is required for all students returning to campus for learning and/or employment. Please refer to SHaW for additional information on student testing.

 

  • Can a student employee work in an office without a full-time staff member present?  Student employees who have completed the required EH & S training and who can perform their duties independently, may work on campus without a full-time staff member present.

 

  • Will student employees be paid if they are COVID positive and are required to quarantine?  No, if the duties cannot be performed remotely, students will not be paid. However, if the student employee has earned sick time during their employment, they may use it to compensate their time off. Please refer to the student employment sick time policy for more information regarding accruals.

 

  • I would like to hire an out-of-state student to help with the reopening of campus/my  department. If they produce a negative COVID test result, can they begin work prior to the completion of the mandated, 14-day quarantine?  No, students traveling to CT from states listed on the Connecticut Travel Advisory are required to self-quarantine for 14 days. A negative COVID test result does not expedite this process.

 

  • Can I hire an international student to work remote while they are in their home country?  No, at this time the University cannot hire international students to work remotely.

 

We have attached a sample offer letter, please feel free to use this template and edit to meet the needs of your department

 

Kind regards from,

Student Employment

Minimum Wage Increase – September 1st

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In 2019, The Governor signed legislation that will gradually increase the minimum hourly wage in Connecticut to $15.00 over the next several years. The Student Labor/Work-Study Pay Scales have been adjusted to coincide with that change. The next increase is scheduled for September 1st. The hourly rate for any student whose active payroll authorization is not at the minimum of the new pay class will be systematically increased. We encourage employers to review the hourly rates of those student employees whose rates will not be automatically increased to identify any inequities and manually process increases to their pay rates using the Student Payroll Data/Pay Change template (UC_TBH_DC_STUD_DAT) in CORE-CT.

Kind regards from,

The Office of Student Financial Aid Services – Student Employment

Student Labor Work-Study Pay Scale