Volume 3, Issue 4. April, 2009 SAP SUPPORT UPDATEorchid.hosts.jhmi.edu/hopkinsone/News/issues/april2009.pdf · Temporarily Inactive or LOA w/o Pay, ... This field is derived from

Volume 3, Issue 4. April, 2009

SAP SUPPORT UPDATE A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE IT@JH - ENTERPRISE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS TEAM

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SAP and Telecom Billing: An SAP Success Story

By Julie Baird When I was asked to write an SAP story, I started thinking back to all the ways telecom billing was accomplished prior to SAP. I likened it to . . . well, our department probably won’t let me print how I described it. The truth was, it was fragmented:

• It relied on our vendors to keep track of OUR billing information. • It used pseudo numbers to associate with CUFS budget numbers or GEAC companies other

than the Johns Hopkins Hospital (anyone remember BACs?). • It included the handing off of files from our group to other groups who maintained shadow

systems to complete the billing process each month. • It included handing off of files to other systems such as Focus to complete some of the billing. • It involved distributing reports from Verizon, Focus, Telesoft, and various business offices

throughout Johns Hopkins. Just try to answer customer questions; details were very difficult to piece together. So why was it so complicated? Well, telecommunications operated from 2 main campuses, Homewood and the combined East Baltimore/Bayview group. The Homewood group all resided on the “books” of Johns Hopkins, so charging University departments was not a problem. But we also had Health System groups who resided on the same campus and were using the same phone service. So, we had to issue manual invoices and await payment. I remember someone once said that the greatest number of checks issued each month were to other Johns Hopkins entities. Our department saw our share of those.

East Baltimore was far more complicated. When SAP went live we were in the middle of rolling out a new phone system. I will spare you the details, but our billing was not complete without handing off files to other systems or groups to complete the process. The business offices of the East Baltimore schools, for example, had systems in place to create the billing uploads into CUFS, some of which included custom designed and externally supported shadow systems. East Baltimore telecommunications could not upload into CUFS because of the way that our processes were working before SAP.

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In this issue:

1 / 2 An SAP Success Story

3. Expense Remittance Text Changes

4. Work Authorization Non-US employees

5. A New BW HR Master Data Report

6. SAP Security: JHHS Role Review

7 / 8. Project Systems—BW Reports

9. Meet the User / JHI Directory

10. SAP Support Services / Training

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Having a single system—SAP, for billing (via a GL Interface) brought efficiency and streamlined processes to our department. All Johns Hopkins groups could now be charged directly through SAP. No longer would manual invoices have to be generated, shadow systems have to be utilized, vendors relied on to maintain OUR billing structure, joint agreements developed for telecom expense payments, or checks issued across Hopkins entity lines. We could simply charge the SAP cost center, internal order, or project number to which the phone charges relate and, most importantly, we could provide quality customer service.

Of course all this meant that all customer questions would now come directly to us. But with one integrated system, SAP, and the strides we have made with the Telesoft interface, we can now respond to the increased responsibility with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Here’s what Clifton Williams, the Associate Director, Finance, for the School of Medicine had to say: “SAP and Telesoft afforded the SOM Office of Financial Affairs with the ability to transition the telecommunications expense distribution and reporting processes to the Office of Telecommunications. As a result, this office no longer maintains shadow systems to manage this activity nor are we producing and distributing paper reports to SOM departments. In the past, this office also served as the point of contact for SOM telecommunications related inquiries. This led to delayed responses because, most often, input was required from the Office of Telecommunications to provide appropriate responses. Now, these inquiries are appropriately and expeditiously handled directly by the Office of Telecommunications. The overall impact has been positive for the SOM resulting in

streamlined telecommunications expense reporting and reconciliation processes.”

Is our billing perfect? No. But our ability to bill 50,000 phone extensions each month is now a “well-oiled” process, thanks to the expertise and hard work of our department and the functionality of SAP. If an internal order is due to expire, we are now able to identify that before the expiration date. If questions arise from customers, we can easily find the answers. And, if vendors need payment validation, obtaining copies of the checks and payment details are easily retrieved, thanks to the help of Accounts Payable Shared Services and SAP.

SAP has also improved the vendor payment processing functions of our department. We can reconcile outstanding balances on our accounts and remain “current”. We can utilize Business Warehouse (BW) to audit vendor payments over long periods of time to be sure all accounts are paid monthly, paid accurately, and received and cashed by our vendors. As payment issues arise, we can validate the details in BW immediately and access the scanned invoice copies to resolve issues quickly and electronically—no more searching through paper files! Our department has also experienced growth by becoming increasingly customer focused rather than being tied down in bureaucracy. As we are being called upon to provide more and more analytical reports for our customers, we are able to deliver them quicker, with accuracy, and much more analytical depth.

So, through all of our SAP meetings held after go-live, and with some experience in SAP, I have been the person in the room raising my hand saying, “SAP has helped our department!”

QUICK TIP: For additional information on Telecommunications visit the telecom website at http://www.it.jhu.edu/restricted/telecom.

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Continuing to Meet the Requests from Users: Travel and Business Expense Remittance Advice Text Modification Last year employees submitted almost 80,000 travel and business expense documents through Travel Manager. Johns Hopkins Institutions reimbursed over $33 million in expenses. These reimbursements are paid out in the form of an Accounts Payable check or by direct deposit. The remittance statements are sent directly to the employee’s permanent address as identified in SAP.

SAP users have been suggesting a change to the remittance advice Description text field in order to better identify the purpose of payments created from Travel Manager. The purpose for the expenses are identified in the Reason for Trip field (Fig. 1) in Travel Manager. This information is important for both the traveler and for the office providing the reimbursement. Many frequent travelers submit several requests for reimbursement at the same time. Up to now, it has not been possible for travelers to easily identify, on the remittance statement, the purpose of the expense that has been reimbursed. There has been no identification, other than the trip number and travel dates, for remittance descriptions (Fig. 2). Similarly, due to this lack of detail in the description of payment, departments have not been able to identify for which event(s) a reimbursement has been completed and which remain outstanding as a potential encumbrance on their accounts.

Working together, Accounts Payable Shared Services and EBS have implemented a modification to the Accounts Payable remittance statement that is sent out to the employee. After April 1, the Reason for Trip text, identified in Travel Manager (now up to a maximum of 60 characters—an extension of the original 30 characters), will appear

(Fig. 3) on the remittance statement and will be identified in Business Warehouse reports.

If the Reason for Trip text field is left blank, the system will default to the original generic description (Fig. 2) for each remittance stating the beginning and end dates of travel or the date(s) of the business expense, rather than the actual reason.

DID YOU KNOW: For additional information on Travel Manager or remittance statements, contact Accounts Payable Shared Services at [email protected] or 443-997-6688.

Fig 1. Travel Manager, Reason for Trip field

Fig 3. New Remittance Statement

Fig 2. Current Remittance Statement

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Work Authorization Dates for Non-US Citizens Working in the US.

If your department hires non-US citizens note this important deadline: April 17, 2009 and read the full announcement at: http://www.controller.jhu.edu/pubs/bulletin/2009/09bulmarspecial.html A valid work authorization date is required for all non-US employees or fellowship recipients working in the US unless the person is a Legal Permanent Resident (green card holders). In SAP, all non-US employees or fellowship recipients who are not Legal Permanent Residents (LPR) are classified as “nonresident aliens,” (IRS terminology). Legal Permanent Residents are classified in SAP as “resident aliens.” The work authorization date is required on the New Hire ISR for all non-US persons who are not Legal Permanent Residents. The work authorization date must be updated before it expires in order for the person to continue to work or continue as a fellowship recipient. Each department with non-US employees or fellowship recipients should run the Business Warehouse (BW) report called “Work Authorization/Visa Expiration Dates” monthly. This report is in the “Payroll Admin” report group under Human Resources. There are many individuals in SAP with blank or expired Work Authorization dates. These cases must be resolved by April 17, 2009 or the person may no longer continue as an employee or fellowship recipient. If the person with a blank or expired Work Authorization date has a status of Temporarily Inactive or LOA w/o Pay, the person should be terminated by the April 17th cut-off. The revised I-9 Form is now available to be completed for all newly-hired employees to document their identity and employment authorization and to re-verify an employee because the employment authorization has expired. The revised I-9 Form and instructions are available at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-9_IFR_02-02-09.pdf. In addition, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have provided additional information in their Handbook for Employers and Questions and Answers. For questions about Work Authorization Dates or the Work Authorization / Visa Expiration Dates BW report, contact Payroll Shared Services at [email protected] or 443-997-8146.

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DID YOU KNOW: There has been a change in the Business Area field on the Bonus / Supplemental Pay ISR. You will no longer be required to manually enter the Business Area. This field is derived from the cost object (Cost Center or Internal Order), and will remain grayed out. When you click the enter key the Business Area will fill in automatically. This automation was created to help eliminate discrepancies between cost objects and Business Areas.

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A New BW HR Report: Employee Master Data by Date

By Keith Haggard This new Business Warehouse (BW) report (available since March 10th) displays employee master data, compensation, and time data for any given date. The report contains 68 fields about the Employee, Person, Position, and Job. Users with either the Payroll Admin or the Payroll Comprehensive role will be able to access this report. The report is located in the Human Resources>Personnel Admin>General Employee folder.

“I’ve run the new report and I’m really pleased! It will benefit our department a great deal to have so much information available in one report!” said Linda Evans, HR Generalist in the Dean’s office of the School of Arts and Sciences.

This report contains twelve columns of salary and working hour assignment information. You can turn off any of the columns that you are not interested in. Click the Key Figures filter icon in the navigation block. Uncheck the columns you do not want to see. Transfer your change to create the new report format by clicking the Transfer button. You can then save the revised formatted report as a Favorite for future use.

Did you know there is more information available to you in this BW report by using the Properties of the characteristic? Right click the characteristic, for example Employee, and select Properties from the BW context menu. You will be able to add additional information to your report including Supervisor, User ID, E-Mail Address, Postal Code, and Telephone Number.

NOTE: Using the Properties of characteristics display option is applicable to any BW report.

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SAP Security - Role Review for JHHS By Sherri Flaks

We have now been live with SAP for over two years, and we have learned a lot during that time. To ensure that we all have the appropriate system access to effectively support our duties and responsibilities we are instituting a periodic review of SAP users’ system privileges. This review is also important for internal controls and audit requirements.

The roles assigned to you in the system were originally defined before go-live. We are now much more knowledgeable about what the roles do and which users need which roles. This is a great opportunity to “clean-up,” ensure that everyone has what they need, and standardize what privileges “similar” users have in the system.

We will be sending out spreadsheets to key contacts throughout Johns Hopkins Health System to act as Security Coordinators. These people will be responsible for reviewing and validating the roles that are currently assigned to you and those additional roles that may help you in your work. Depending on the size and centralization, or de-centralization, of each organization, the Security Coordinators may solicit the help of other departmental personnel who have more knowledge of your business need.

The review, update, and return of completed spreadsheets by Security Coordinators will provide authorization to make these changes according to a streamlined process, tailored specifically to this recertification effort—without requiring ISRs.

Our strategy is to address the three business processes with the most widely held roles first (Travel and Business Expense Reimbursement, Shopping Cart and Online Payment Request) and continuing on to other roles. During the process, we will expand the review to privileges beyond roles. For example, we will review workflow routing rules and Business Warehouse Cost Center and Internal Order security.

This process is designed to give you the most effective access to SAP. As an end user during this process, you may experience certain changes to your SAP roles and privileges. If you have any questions or concerns about your individual access, please speak to your manager or supervisor. If you have any questions about this recertification process in general, or to determine the Security Coordinator for your area, please contact [email protected].

JHU Users: Stay tuned, this process is tentatively planned for the University in the Fall.

DID YOU KNOW: When you need to delete an ISR you should contact HR Shared Services at [email protected] or 443-997-5828.

DID YOU KNOW: On March 13, the SAP Help Desk combined with the IT@JH Help Desk. Customers will still call 410-735-4500. The new email address is [email protected]. We are working to change the many references to [email protected], however, that old address will continue to reach the SAP Help Desk.

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Project Systems - BW Reports By Bridget Hutchinson The reporting strategy for Facilities & IT Project Managers is to use Business Warehouse (BW) exclusively. For Project Systems (PS) reports, security is by Business Area. With the appropriate Roles, you can access other BW reports that contain project information.

PS REPORTS ROLE: Project Systems Reports (see Roles table—page 8) All Project Systems (PS) reports are Funds Management (FM) based. By design, summary reports (Fig. 1.) do not contain document numbers—while more granular reports (Fig. 2.) contain more information. Fig. 1. Funded Program Group Summary report.

The PS Actual Line Item report (Fig. 2.) allows document numbers to be added. It is a report designed to meet many requirements and may require manipulation to obtain your desired result. Once you have a format you like, bookmark and save it as a favorite. Fig. 2. PS Actual Line Item report.

FM REPORTS ROLE: Funds Management Reports (see Roles table—page 8) PS project managers can access projects in other FM reports. For example, the FM Non-Sponsored YTD Transactional Detail report (Fig. 3.) provides a slightly different view of the same data presented in the Summary report (Fig. 4.). Fig. 3. FM Non-Sponsored – Financial Detail report.

Fig 4. FM Non-Sponsored – Financial Summary report.

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CO REPORTS ROLE: Controlling Reports (see Roles table below) Controlling (CO) reports and FM reports will not always match. These reports each use a different basis of accounting; CO is GAAP based accounting used by JHHS, while FM is Budgetary Based accounting used by JHU. In a CO report, “depreciation” will appear, while in a FM report, “depreciation” is not recognized as a budget expense. A clear difference you will notice—the project budget is not on the CO reports, it sits in FM. PS project managers may find the CO reports useful as they contain more familiar terminology like “check request” (Document Type & Co Doc Line Item added in as Free Characteristics). If you want data on your entire project, use the wildcard ( * ) at the wbs element number on the variable entry screen. The sample below has these free characteristics and also has PS Settlement filtered out. Fig. 5. CO Line Item Detail report. Understanding the basis of these reports will assist in data interpretation. If you want to see all the Check Requests against your project, and do not need budget information, then a CO Line Item Detail report might be more easily filtered to present only the needed information.

DID YOU KNOW: For additional information on Business Warehouse (BW) Project Systems (PS) reports contact [email protected] or 410-735-7104.

The roles referenced in this article are displayed in the table below (### indicates Business Area). For additional information on these, and other roles, go to SMART Role Look-up at http://webapps.jhu.edu/smart/RoleLookUp.aspx.

Technical Role Names Display Name

ZBFI_PS_R_0PS_### BW-FI Project Systems Reports - BA### ZBFI_FM_R_0PSM_FM_FCFP BW-FI Funds Management Reports – FCFP ZBFI_CO_R_0COOM_CCIO BW-FI Controlling Reports – CCIO

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Meet the User: Annette Y. Wilkerson By Pamela Stehr Annette works for the Neuro Administration Department of Johns Hopkins Hospital as a Finance Assistant. She is a fan of SAP and says that once you learn the system it’s a great tool.

Q: How long have you been working at Johns Hopkins?

“I have been working here for 20 years come September. I‘ve worked in various departments here at Hopkins. I have been a Project Coordinator, Administrative Coordinator, Staff Assistant, etc. I have just been trying to find my niche, which I come to realize is Finance. I’ve worked for Oncology, Anesthesiology, Surgery, the Outpatient Center and Indian Health to name a few.”

Q: What do you use SAP for?

“I use it for Cash Journal, Online Payment, Travel, Check Processing, and Grants Management. I am also starting to learn BW reporting.”

Q: What resources do you use to learn more about the SAP System?

“I contact Anna Scheinberg from Organization Development and Training. Bob Sicoli and that group are a big help. I will also search the web, and ask other people who are using SAP.”

Q: What Advice would you give a coworker just getting started in SAP?

“Learn as much as you can. Be patient and ask questions. Go to training and visit the Controller’s website. Also talk to people that is willing to help you. Be resourceful in and out of your department.”

Q: Have you discovered anything new in SAP that you think would be helpful to others?

“Yes, I discovered the Knowledge Network tab on the SAP Welcome screen. I think it hasn’t been there long, probably for just a month, but that is a very helpful tool. There is information about training and there are tutorials.

Annette Wilkerson

The 2009 Johns Hopkins Institutions Directory The 2009 Johns Hopkins Institutions Directory has been updated with the latest departmental listings for all of the Johns Hopkins Institutions and is now available online. Go to http://web.jhu.edu/announcements/faculty-staff/targetpage.html?baid=26658. The Directory will be updated twice a year. Faculty and Staff can add, edit, or update information for a department by sending an email to [email protected] with complete information. Editing information in the Directory will NOT update other Johns Hopkins systems such as SAP or JHED. Contact your departmental administrator if you need to update information in those systems.

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Resources for SAP.

Fast Facts: http://www.hopkinsfastfacts.org/ SAP Help Desk: [email protected] Shared Services: http://ssc.jhmi.edu/ JHU Controller’s Office: http://www.controller.jhu.edu/index.html SAP Support Update newsletter archive: http://orchid.hosts.jhmi.edu/hopkinsone/News/archive.cfm SAP Mapping Assistance Recommendation Tool (SMART): http://webapps.jhu.edu/smart/default.aspx

For Our Readers.

The SAP Support Update is written

monthly to keep you informed of the

activities within the Enterprise

Business Solutions team, and to

provide tips and tricks that will make

your work with SAP easier.

If you have any questions or

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A Reassignment of SAP Support Services

With our first two years on SAP now well behind us, we are evaluating our support model for the future. The call volume to the SAP Help Desk has decreased considerably and has stabilized at a nearly constant level.

As we move forward, we will continue to emphasize the use of the Shared Service Centers and Controller’s Offices as the primary support resources for end-users and, eventually, move towards decommissioning the SAP Help Desk.

Working closely with the Shared Service Centers, the Controller’s offices, and senior leadership across the Institutions, we are now prepared to retire the role of the Business Solution Manager (BSM). Questions which once would have been directed to the BSMs should now be directed to the respective Shared Service Center or Controller’s Office. Representatives from these offices will be happy to participate in departmental meetings in the same way that the BSMs once did.

NOTE: Information for each of the Shared Service Centers can be found on their website at http://ssc.jhu.edu.

Training Opportunities at Johns Hopkins. Training, including a range of SAP training, is offered to all employees who want to take e-courses or register for traditional classroom training. Employees can access the training centers by visiting their organization’s training site at: • Johns Hopkins University: http://training.jhu.edu • Johns Hopkins Medicine: http://www.hopkinsinteractive.org (clinical training) • Johns Hopkins Health System SAP: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/sap