FEEDBACK – REPORTING TOOL DEMONSTRATION – COMPILATION

5 1 3

1.After this demo, do you understand the purpose of the portal? yesnosort of

UCB48 respondents4.29 average score

UCCS314.42

UCDHSC684.62

2.In general, do you understandhow the portal works?yesnosort of

UCB47 respondents3.64 average score

UCCS344.41

UCDHSC684.35

3.Specifically, do you understand the function of?

  • The portal’s first (or top) channel?yesnosort of

UCB43 respondents3.23 average score

UCCS313.65

UCDHSC653.89

  • The portal’s second (or middle) channel?yesnosort of

UCB43 respondents3.14 average score

UCCS323.69

UCDHSC653.83

  • The portal’s third (or bottom) channelyesnosort of

UCB45 respondents3.09 average score

UCCS313.65

UCDHSC633.86

4.Does navigating around the portal seem user-friendly?yesnosort of

UCB45 respondents3.58 average score

UCCS344.35

UCDHSC644.28

5.What do you think about the “bursting” concept, where reports are pushed out to each person’s portal based
upon her or his fiscal role?

Overall

UCB46 respondents3.04 average score

UCCS343.80

UCDHSC653.49

Love it

UCB 5 respondents

UCCS 7

UCDHSC14

Good idea, because

UCB12 respondents

UCCS22

UCDHSC22

Nice idea, but

UCB17 respondents

UCCS 2

UCDHSC19

Dislike it

UCB 4 respondents

UCCS 0

UCDHSC 2

Don’t know

UCB 8 respondents

UCCS 4

UCDHSC 8

Comments

Like

  • Less waste of time and resources
  • Faster and paperless

Dislike

  • Printing reports for many programs is a lot of work
  • Too many clicks and too many portals
  • Converting every report to PDF is a waste of time

Needs

  • Must be by project for Fund 30
  • People actually doing the research need to get the reports. They shouldn’t have to run them for themselves
  • Need to be able to print multiple reports in one run.

Concerns

  • How do we make sure that those to whom reports are bursted are those that actually need to see them
  • Our fiscal roles are incorrect, and we don’t know how to fix them
  • Not everyone has the same fiscal role burst on position number
  • I need to get all reports because I reconcile all FOPPS for my department
  • Things will slip through the cracks, and I may never see what’s sent to the chair or PIs
  • Dean won’t have much time to review and understand the reports burst to him/her
  • Many people need to look beyond their fiscal role, so they will have to run the reports anyway

Suggestions

  • Check out other large research universities that use this tool and see how it is working for them
  • Org Principals and Org Managers should get same reports as officers (at the Org Node instead of at Program and SpeedType level)

6.Do you like the design of the reports shown today?

Revenue and Expense Statement:

  • For Org Node by Orgyesnosort of

UCB37 respondents3.11 average score

UCCS314.55

UCDHSC544.30

  • For Org by SpeedTypeyesnosort of

UCB34 respondents3.35 average score

UCCS314.74

UCDHSC554.53

  • By SpeedTypeyesnosort of

UCB38 respondents3.58 average score

UCCS324.81

UCDHSC554.60

Balance Sheet by SpeedTypeyesnosort of

UCB37 respondents3.22 average score

UCCS324.69

UCDHSC564.57

Outstanding Encumbrancesyesnosort of

UCB36 respondents3.44 average score

UCCS294.72

UCDHSC554.60

Journal Entryyesnosort of

UCB38 respondents3.26 average score

UCCS304.73

UCDHSC564.61

Simple SpeedType Queryyesnosort of

UCB37 respondents3.43 average score

UCCS294.79

UCDHSC534.51

Provide any comments:

Like

  • Ability to do a quick daily check of balance available to spend
  • Simple SpeedType query as a daily/weekly overview of what’s available
  • Much better than Citrix reports
  • Seems user-friendly
  • The way the reports look
  • Different colored columns/headers – make sure they are a color that will fax well
  • PDF and landscape option
  • Email feature
  • Column headers that show calculations

Dislike

  • Print is too small
  • Not being able to save reports outside of the system.

Needs

  • Need to show pre-encumbrances by month on the Outstanding Encumbrance report
  • Direct drill down of increasing detail within same report
  • Info from UPI

Concerns

  • Normalized vs true accounting reports
  • Org node reports may be confusing for officers and principals because some of the accounts have no budgets, but they do have actual revenues/expenses
  • Not user friendly for sponsored projects

Suggestions

  • When drilling down to the JE, it would be valuable to link to the actual completed JE
  • Org node by Org should total by Org Node
  • Add a report that reports account codes across multiple SpeedTypes and FOPPS
  • Let the end user select the report that s/he wants to see when they sign on to the portal
  • Would like to see budget period and project period on grants
  • Put transfers in in the revenue column, and transfers out in the expense column
  • Have encumbrances watch for sponsored project end dates
  • Eliminate pre-encumbrance – they are confusing

7.Does navigating around through the reporting system’s run pages (pages to input parameters) seem user-friendly? yes no sort of

UCB39 respondents3.41 average score

UCCS324.44

UCDHSC303.87

8.What do you like the most about the new reporting tool?

  • Easy to access, user-friendly
  • Portal one-stop-shopping for reports plus, don’t have to have one more password
  • Folder concept
  • Bursting concept including email reminder that the reports are there
  • Ability to run multiple reports without having to go back and forth in the system
  • Being able to save reports and email them
  • Flexible: roll up data and drill-down functions both
  • No refresh
  • Being able to run same report for multiple SpeedTypes at once
  • Having history (prior-year data) of revenue, expenses, encumbrances
  • The fact that they open in new windows
  • Format particularly color-coded columns
  • No paper
  • Having one standard tool
  • Not having to learn Access and CIW
  • Interface with Excel

9.What is the biggest challenge you see in working with the new reporting tool?

  • Culture change: educating the faculty, making more demands on time that we don’t have, going from paper to online reports how the portal works
  • Learning the navigation
  • Setting up bursting contacts correctly
  • Making sure people who get reports bursted to them actually open them and review them
  • No paper
  • I work with funds in more than one org, but don’t have a fiscal role in every org. I’m afraid I’ll have difficulty accessing all my orgs
  • Normalized reports and accounting reports
  • Conveying what is expected of certain fiscal roles – and why
  • Finding time to run the various reports myself
  • Identifying current query tools and replacing reports that are generated using them – losing PSLite
  • System performance
  • Getting help with questions
  • Getting it to work on a Mac, and getting Mac documentation

10.Tell us about any thing presented during today’s demo that you found confusing.

  • Seems like a lot of navigation and jumping around
  • Not sure what stays the same and what changes
  • Picking the right report
  • Whether or not the parameters of the on-demand reports can be saved
  • Not being able to access reports prior to July 2006?
  • The concept of Period 0
  • Concept of fiscal roles

11.I sure hope you fix/change/add (pick your verb…)______before this goes live in August.

make sure the system remembers previous reports and keeps an inventory of reports used

  • test everything thoroughly before we start to make sure it works the way it’s supposed to
  • test this on a Mac
  • have drill down functions working
  • have UPI collaboration for expense drill down
  • have the subclass function so departments can track revenues/expenses across SpeedType and funding source
  • have hot key capability so I don’t always have to use the mouse
  • cut down on the number of clicks required to run and print reports
  • get a grip on the normalized vs. debit-credit issue
  • help us with fixing our fiscal roles
  • add a way to collect all reports for a PI in one place
  • run reports by Award #
  • figure out a way to present data that has different meaning for different fund groups
  • make the formatting fields be the same for each subsystem
  • that the auditors get involved with developing this so that our format is compliant. I want to make sure that reports I submit to sponsors are reliable and consistent with accounting standards

12.What is the biggest hurdle you see in rolling out the new reporting tool?

  • All of the competing projects – TIME
  • Activating the portal at DDC
  • Effective communication about changes
  • Training – especially for Chairs, Directors, PIs
  • Re-training for everyone else
  • Transition period and learning curve - Getting help when you need it
  • Major/multiple Changes after rollout
  • System performance with so many users on the system

13.What should the OUC do to facilitate a smooth transition to the new reporting tool?

  • Lots of communication to the campuses with status updates, suggestions for getting ready, etc.
  • Listen to campus feedback and incorporate it
  • Do another check of “who is going to get what report”
  • Provide extensive training, including lots of hands on
  • Design training by employee type – officer, vs. dean, vs. faculty, vs. departmental administrator
  • Present refresher training in August
  • Develop a cheat-sheet, quick-tip documents
  • Develop job aids
  • Have step-by-step guides
  • Fix glitches before implementing
  • Have a heavily staffed and robust help desk that can see what we are doing
  • Slow down and make sure the product works before rolling it out

14.What can your campus do to facilitate a smooth transition to the new reporting tool?

UCB

  • Make sure correct info is received from departments and set up in the reporting tool
  • Offer training on how to use our portal
  • Make our portal sign in the same as FIN and HRMS
  • Provide extra training on our sponsored projects and the new tool
  • Communicate OUC decisions and progress to us and communicate our concerns to the OUC
  • Make sure we know who to contact in ABS with our questions and concerns

UCCS

  • Offer hands-on, detailed training and instruction manuals
  • Have a test group try it out and provide feedback
  • Change log on for portal to be the same as personal computer logon
  • Provide periodic updates specific to how the new tool will impact UCCS

UCDHSC

  • Training
  • Determine how to get the right people trained, and provide multiple training for all people to whom reports will be burst
  • Have a campus help desk with experienced people staffing it
  • Designate campus people as resources for answering questions
  • Make OUC aware that fiscal manager may not be the contact person on the grant routing form
  • Keep us informed
  • Have training sessions at HSC and not Fitz

15.What is the best way to get the word out about the latest developments with the reporting tool?

  • Emails (from OUC and/or campus controllers)
  • Weekly email updates with a web link for more information
  • Directed email to PIs
  • Paper mail – emails are getting overwhelming
  • Announcements at meetings on campus
  • Use communications matrix being developed by system trainers
  • Newsletters (ones already in place on campuses, from PSC, PBS, etc.)
  • Dedicated web site
  • Ad in Silver and Gold
  • More demos with more time to ask and answer questions – don’t dismiss questions with one or two word answers, even though the recent demo sessions were packed with information

16.Anything else we should know?

  • There is still a need for printed reports: make notes on them, refer back to them, etc.
  • Continuing and temporary budget – as well as total budget - should be on the summary statement
  • It would be great to click on an Empl ID and get more info about the employee
  • Use two columns on the journal entry - one for debits and one for credits
  • I’m glad this is starting after FY close
  • We’re worried about what will happen to the tools we use today like CIW and PS Lite
  • Open labs for practice will be good
  • Don’t sneer at non-accountants. Teach them and appreciate them.
  • Your efforts are appreciated
  • Let us know you are listening to our feedback and incorporating it into the reporting tool

April 2006 1