March 2024 Newsletter

February 29, 2024

March 2024 Newsletter

Fiscal Updates:

  • Summer 2024 Faculty Payrolls  
    • The Business Office will be processing summer faculty salary against any grant/contract, start-up, and/or any other salary commitments from the Dean’s Office  
      • This process will begin in early March and continue through April 12th, which is the B.O. Deadline for Summer Payroll with an effective date of 5/22/2024  
    • Departments will continue to be responsible for processing non-grant summer payrolls. 
      • 11-month Faculty 
        • The B.O will work with faculty to process the summer hire  
        • This will include the PageUp Request and the Smart-HR Transaction   
    • Important Reminder:  
      • The updated overload policy allows faculty to be eligible to earn up to an additional 25% over their summer salary (12/12ths) for non-research activity (May and winter intersession, summer teaching, CETL course development, etc.) 
      • The overload must be requested and approved prior to the start of the non-research activity 
      • If you are processing special payroll compensation for your research-active faculty, please contact the B.O. to start the overload request  
  • Summer Pre-encumbrances:  
    • The B.O. will be pre-encumbering salary and fringe for FY24 and FY25 (starting 6/14/24 onwards) for the following payroll types:   
      • Summer Grads, Faculty Summer, and other Special Payroll appointments on grant accounts  
      • The Pre-encumbrance will be reflected in the May 1st reports 
  • KFS Migration Update
    • Beginning at 3pm on Thursday, March 14th to Sunday, March 17th Kuali Financials (KFS) will be locked for the migration.  
    • After March 17th, a new web link will be provided via email and various websites
    • Please plan accordingly for this outage including processing any action list items, executing any necessary transactions or balance inquiries, and running any reports you may need prior to 3/14.
    • HuskyBuy will be available during the migration until 9pm on Friday, March 15th.  Due to the tight integrations with Kuali Financials, any transactions not fully approved or created after 3pm on 3/14 will be held in queue.  They will be sent to KFS once the new environment has been validated and confirmed ready on 3/17.  We strongly encourage entering/approving any orders, invoices, or vendors in the system prior to 3/14

 

    HR (Human Resources) and Payroll Updates:

    • Grad Summer 2024 
      • Important Dates 
        • Summer dates are 5/22/2024-8/22/2024  
        • Due to PageUp: 3/15/2024  
        • Approval in Page Up: 4/10/2024  
        • Smart-HR (Internal BO) Submit by 4/12/2024  
        • Smart-HR (University) Approved by 4/19/2024  
      • Reminders: 
        • Please include a print-out of the Grad calculator in your PageUp requests 
        • Submit a PageUp request for each unique funding period.  In the Smart-HR Special Payroll hire template, the appointment’s start and end dates are sourced directly from the PageUp record and are not editable. This could lead to inaccuracies in encumbrance if adjustments to funding are required 
    • Pre-Employment Background Check Policy
      • Effective February 16, 2024, HR will begin a phased implementation of educational and degree verifications as part of the pre-employment background check process at the university
      • As part of this process, HR will assess which degree needs verification based on the minimum qualifications when approving the hire request. They will begin assessing regular payroll appointments with the anticipation that other relevant payroll titles will also undergo this process later in the year
      • This will not affect workflow for departments. The actual degree verification will be facilitated by HR as part of the existing background check
      • Pre-Employment Background Checks will continue to be centrally administered, now via the Workforce Solutions team at Human Resources. Any questions regarding the new process can be directed to hr-cbc@uconn.edu
          • From the Graduate School:
            • Spring 2024 – Last day of work for GAs holding F-1 and J-1 visas 
              • Graduate students who complete their degree requirements during Spring ‘24 and have their degree conferred in May will no longer be pursuing their degree after May 5, 2024 
              • Time between May 4, 2024 through May 21, 2024 should be treated as time off for any GA who holds an F-1 or J-1 visa and whose degree is conferred on May 5,2024 
              • Refer to attached email for additional information 
            • Fall 2024 Grad 
              • Refer to attached email from the Grad School regarding April 15th resolution 
            • New award letter template for departmental fellowships – see email from 1/14/24 
              • From the Grad School: template includes language for fellowship award letters where the dept. intends for the grad to receive same total stipend as if they were full GA 
            • Graduate School Timely Topics 
                • Thursday, March 7 at 1pm – Embedding Career Readiness in Your Courses
                • Thursday, March 28 at 11am – Doctoral Degrees, Master’s Degrees, and Graduate Certificates: A Comprehensive Overview of Degree Audit Processes
                • Thursday, April 11 at 11am – Best Practices in Onboarding and Graduating International Students
          • PageUp Trainings 
            • Regular Payroll   
              • March 25 from 9:00am to 12:00pm (Register) 
            • Special Payroll   
              • March 25 from 9:00am to 11:00am (Register) 

           

          CAHNR Internal Professional Development Opportunities:

          The CAHNR’s Dean’s Office is committed to providing opportunities for faculty, staff, and graduate students to expand their professional knowledge and skills. Throughout the year, the Dean’s Office will organize workshops and offer training, that will help the CAHNR community grow. Workshops and training will focus on fostering employee understanding and abilities in both hard and soft skills, such as in communication, HR/Payroll competency, and creativity.

          As Professional Development Opportunities are finalized, they will be listed on our website here. Please be sure to check regularly for new learning opportunities and other about upcoming events.

          • Business Office Workshop – We have renamed the B.O. Open Hour to B.O. Workshop. 
                  • Monday, March 18th
                  • Topics: Fall Grad Payroll Processing
                  • If you would like to receive the calendar invitation, please contact CAHNRBO@uconn.edu
            • Please feel free to email us at CAHNRBO@uconn.edu if you have any questions about the upcoming session, or if you have anything you would like to know more about

           

          • CAHNR Staff Advisory Council (SAC)
            • Visit the CAHNR Staff SharePoint Site for opportunities with professional development, networking, and even hobby and wellness events.

            Shout Out:

            • Well wishes
                • Michael Fitzcordoba, Financial Assistant 1, CAHNR Business Office

             

            Fun “Dad” Jokes:

            • What do bees wear in the rain? Their yellow jackets
            • What do you call it when it rains turkeys and chickens? Fowl weather.
            • I worked on unclogging the tub for nearly an hour. Now I feel so drained.
            • Why did the farmer bury all his money? To make his soil rich.