Spotlight - May 2020

Spotlight

·Volume 8··Issue 4··May 2020·

THE SPOTLIGHT PUBLICATION SERVES TO EDUCATE, TO INFORM, TO PROVIDE RESOURCES, AND EMPOWER INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON EMPLOYEES.

Table of Contents

Print Newsletter

Fiscal Checklist & Deadlines

Human Resources - E-Doc and Payroll Adjustment Voucher Deadlines

View the deadlines here for temporary and staff related eDocs and staff separation paper adjustment vouchers.

Send an email to hredocs@iu.edu if you have any questions.


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Human Resources - Recording Time Off During COVID-19

For key up to date informatin see HR Website.

1. Recording time off during COVID-19
View COVID-19, UA-20 policy
  • Regardless of when scheduled and the reason for usage, vacation and PTO taken the period between March 10 and a date yet to be determined will not count towards the annual usage limit. Use the following codes below to record this time:
    • VNL (vacation no limit) code for support and service staff
    • PNL (PTO no limit) code for professional staff.
    • Employees who have exhausted all accruals (VAC, PTO, SICK, COMP, HOL, etc) would use AWB (absent without pay with time-off accruals.)
  • As of March 23, staff employees will not be required to use any accrued time off such as sick time, vacations, or PTO as a result of any absences for COVID-19 related reasons. COVID-19 related reasons include, but are not limited to:
    • You cannot perform your job duties remotely or on campus.
    • You have tested positive for COVID-19, have not been tested but have been told you have it, or are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.
    • You are providing care for children who are out of school. 
    • You are providing care for another individual.
    • You choose to be away from work to reduce your risk of exposure because you are an older adult or person of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions.
    • See How to Remain in Stay Status.
    • See Related Pay Changes & Absence Related Coding
  • If you have other specific questions, you may contact AskHR (askHR@iu.edu).

2. On-Campus Essential Employees
The university is not closed, but is limited to On-Campus Essential (OCE) services. Employees not designated as OCE are not permitted to travel to campus to complete their work.
3. Working Remotely
  • HR strongly encourages telecommuting from home.
  • Units may use discretion to determine if telecommuting is feasible.
  • Units may temporarily reassign duties, including hourly staff.

4. New Positions

5. Additional Pay

6. Illness
  • If you are feeling ill, stay home. Do not come to work. Call your medical provider if feverish.
  • Anyone testing positive for COVID-19 should communicate this information to the Office of Public Safety (AVPpsia@iu.edu). Also use this email for questions related to COVID-19, or see Coronavirus FAQ
  • Deans, Vice Provosts, and Directors have the ability to send people home if they are showing any symptoms.


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FMS Working Remotely

As you may have already been informed, FMS Payroll has made the decision to work remotely and avoid ‘in person’ contact.

Staff is available via phones and email. Please use email to contact your FMS payclerk if possible.

If you have an emergency, you can submit the FMS Support Form and someone will contact you for assistance. You may also call customer service number as well: 812-855-0375.

The Financial Management Services staff will be working remotely as much as possible. See update on FMS support during COVID-19. This change impacts all areas of FMS. During this time, staff will continue to provide expertise and support in as timely a manner as possible. The majority of FMS teams will be available via email and phone. However, during this time, please use the methods outlined below when contacting these areas.


Check printing on the Bloomington campus will be limited checks will be printed on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only. These changes impact check printing only. ACH payments, also known as direct deposit, will still be processed on a daily basis. Payroll checks for employees without direct deposit setup will be mailed pending address verification.

Please submit any questions using the FMS Support Form.


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FMS Payroll - Work Study Students - End of 2019/2020 Academic Year

Work Study Reminder:

The 2019/2020 academic year work study session for undergraduate students ends on May 9, 2020.
  • Work study students must receive a new award and be appointed each Work Study session (academic year and summer).
  • Please do not let students clock in or record hours on their academic year WS job after May 9, 2020.
  • Due to hiring restrictions resulting from the COVID19 pandemic, you may not hire students into NEW work study jobs for the summer session unless you have been granted an exception.
  • If your student(s) has received a work study award for the summer session, please process a Maintain Job eDoc with the new summer session job class and limit information. They will appear on the WS voucher with the summer work study information listed on the left.
  • If your student(s) did NOT receive summer session awards, timesheets will continue to be generatedand their academic year job information will continue to appear on the WS voucher until you process a termination eDoc.
  • If the work study student will not be returning to work for your department in the fall, please process the Termination eDoc as soon as possible with an effective date of May 10, 2020.
  • RGW (reg hours worked) or CVT (COVID non-working) hours that have not been processed for the academic year must be processed on May 29, off-cycle #23, to be paid as work study.

If you have any questions, please contact your FMS payroll processor or Nikki Pavlopoulos (marsh3@iu.edu; 812-855-8744) for assistance.


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Office of the Bursar - No Late Fees in April and May, Past Due Encumbrance Threshold Raised to $5,000

Due to the COVID-19 disruption, we will not assess late fees in April and May. 

If there are students who need longer exemptions from late fees, departments can email bursar@indiana.edu. We are happy to accommodate.

Effective immediately we are also increasing the past due encumbrance threshold from $200 to $5,000. Students who have accounts in collections or write-off will still be encumbered. If you have students that have account questions or need financial assistance, please direct them to Student Central at scu@indiana.edu. 


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Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) - Important Dates and Deadlines

The last day to enter scholarships/fellowships for Fall 2019/Spring 2020 is May 8, 2020.

Summer 2020 
Summer 2020 Scholarship EntryNow until end of summer term
Summer 2020 Disbursement DateMay 2, 2020
Run Summer 2020 Authorization Failure ReportMay 4, 2020

Item Type Requests
Please submit any new item type requests for 21AY as they can take up to 4 weeks to create. Submit your item type requests on our SharePoint site under Forms.

For IU Foundation accounts (Accounts that start with a 25 or 26), please contact Emilie Trueblood estrue@iu.edu or call 812-855-2940.

Personalized Training
OSFA is happy to offer personalized training based on your department’s needs. Please contact the office at deptsch@indiana.edu if you are interested or with any inquiry.

NOTE: For information on how to pay a student, please check out the Student Payment Guidelines Decision Tree.


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Fee Remission - Summer 2020 (4205) 

This communication is intended to reach any individual who does fee remission (Third Party Contract – TPC) data entry for your department or who has requested to be added to the list serve to receive fee remission information. As you know earlier this spring the Bursar sent an email for Summer 2020 4205 fee remissions (see March 13 email as well as the two attachments: TPC Batch Spreadsheet Template and BL 4205 TPC contained in it).

Campus administration made updates to the summer 2020 rates due to all courses moving to virtual offerings.

The chart below summarizes the changes. Please note that the single per credit hour rate of $370 for residents and $1,165 for nonresidents applies to Undergraduates only (see chart).

This message is intended to make you aware of this information in case you need to make updates to your summer 2020 TPC. Please send an email to blbursar@indiana.edu if you need to make changes.

BloomingtonExample Summer Undergraduate Calculations for Six Hours
ResidentNon Resident
Change For Summer 2020Previous Method On-CampusNew MethodChangePrevious Method On-CampusSummer 2020 MethodChange
Tuition and reduced mandatory fees have been combined to a single per credit hour rate of $370 for residents and $1,165 for nonresidents. The School of Education and the School of Public Health are waiving their school-specific DE fees for students not in fully-online programs.Student Over 12 hours will receive a 10% discount.$2,506.19$2,220.00($286.19)$7,299.83$6,990($310)
Other Summer Changes
For graduate students Technology, Activity, Transportation, and the Student Health fees have been reduced and combined to a rate of $71 per credit hour to a max of $426 for the term. The fee is being charged to all students in programs which would normally receive the fee when courses coded with a location of BL.
An exception to the Distance Education Fee Policy is being made to suspend charging the $30 credit hour DE fee to online courses.
Late Payment Fees will not be assess in April and May.
Late registration, schedule change, and drop/add access fees will not be assessed.


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IU Procurement

Buy.IU System Changes
Several changes were implemented in BUY.IU on May 1st. These changes impact the requisition document and several commodity codes. Read more.

Allowable purchases for employees working remotely
  • Units have discretion to determine allowable purchases for office supplies/equipment at home, but should make an effort to use existing equipment.
  • View the SOP-PURCH-23, Ship to Non-IU addresses in Buy.IU.

Cancellation Fees/Refund of Deposit
  • Contact Purchasing if there are any issues with a supplier trying to charge a cancellation fee or hold deposit for events cancelled or postponed.
  • If credit has been received for an event, but must be used in a short time frame, 6 months or less, ask supplier to extend or get Purchasing’s help.
  • Contact Kathi Sipes aksipes@iu.edu or group e-mail purpro@iu.edu with following information:
    • PO Number
    • Date of Event
    • Supplier
    • Contact information for supplier
    • Description of Event/Services
    • Total Compensation
    • Amount of Refund/Credit/Financial loss

Click here for updates from Buy.IU.


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Travel Management Services

Travel guide related to COVID-19: https://travel.iu.edu/pdf/Travel-Guidance.pdf

Office of Procurement Services SOP reuqesting Reimbursement for Travel Impacted by COVID-19: 
https://purchasing.iu.edu/policies/pdf/SOP-TVL-02.pdf

How should faculty/staff reimburse employee if personal card is used?
Travel is referring the decision to FOs. Traveler must provide adequate documentation for the audit record and provide a statement about using credits if travel costs are reimbursed instead of held in credit voucher. Element of trust & verify needed to mitigate risk of double dipping.

Taxability for reimbursements when personal card is used
  • Documentation should be at least an email between the FO and traveler which asks what the traveler’s intent is to use the credit (personal later or business later, which could not be reimbursed a second time). This would suffice as documentation for whether it should be taxable or not. 
  • Scenarios determining taxability (assume in all cases traveler paid with their own funds, not university funds):
    • Employee receives no credit for cancelled trip + university reimburses = NONTAXABLE
    • Employee receives credit for cancelled trip and will use credit for personal travel later + university reimburses = TAXABLE
    • Employee receives credit for cancelled trip and will use credit for business travel later + university reimburses = NONTAXABLE (this is basically an advance travel reimbursement, and could not be reimbursed a second time when then individual travels again.) 
  • If determined to be taxable, there is a separate button in Chrome River to apply those reimbursements. Patty Cole can provide assistance if needed.

How is this to be monitored?
Chrome River is being adapted for COVID-19 reporting. Egencia tracking for IU paid travel credits (may be gaps in other Designated Agency tracking). Departments will track credits internally. Travelers issued credit for out-of-pocket payments are not  IU’s burden to track since credits belong to traveler and can be used for business or leisure, though effort made in SOP to encourage self-reporting to fiscal staff.


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IU Ending Mobile  Plan and Device Allowances FY21

Like many universities and businesses across the nation, Indiana University has directed that FY21 budgets be reduced in base funding to help address the negative financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis. As such, the university is looking for areas of cost savings across the organization in order to help preserve jobs, services, and activities most directly related to the core mission of education and research.

As part of FY21 budgeting, Indiana University will end all stipends for cell phones or home internet connections on June 30th 2020 (unless required by law, external compliance or contract).

The elimination of these stipends will help save over $2M that are needed to support the core mission of education and research. Additionally, the current IU policy governing these reimbursements was developed in 2005. Since that time, personal cell phone ownership and home internet have become nearly ubiquitous for adults, in percentages similar to those of other basic utilities.

This change in policy recognizes that evolution of technology and personal adoption and aligns IU policy to it for everyone. This change in policy will help the university achieve its essential budget reductions during this difficult time.


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Training

Purchasing - Buy.IU

BUY.IU is IU’s procurement system. The following classes are available to IU faculty and staff. These trainings offer an opportunity to learn core skills related to using BUY.IU appropriately and effectively. We encourage you to attend as many as you like, as many times as you like.
The Buy.IU team has produced several Buy.IU video recordings for your convenience:


Click here for BUY.IU news and notes archive.

Subscribe to the BUY.IU news list.

Questions, please send an email to fmstrain@indiana.edu. 


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KFS Financials

Attendees must have both IUIE and KFS and access to participate in this training. There may be pre-requisites. Questions? Contact FMS Training.
All classes are being offered online due to COVID-19:



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Payroll

FMS provides training related to payroll in HRMS, the Human Resource Management System. Training is required for NEW departmental payroll processors on the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses.
Click here to begin tutorials and access training videos for NEW payroll processors:

Payroll Essentials
HRMS Data Use Tutorial
FERPA Tutorial
Training Videos
System Access


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University Tax Services

University Tax Services offer ongoing training.
Please contact taxpayer@iu.edu with your inquiries about training.


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University Finance Fundamentals (UFF)

University Finance Fundamentals (UFF) is a ten-month a la carte training series designed for all employees with accounting and finance responsibilities – including support staff.
All classes are being offered online due to COVID-19:


Register here.

 
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Office of the Treasurer

All full time employees involved in revenue processing or with access to University banking/payment card systems must attend face-to-face training every two years. See Treasury Operations Training page for other useful information.
Please contact Melissa Hartley for updates on training during COVID-19.

Face to Face Revenue Processing Training

Full time staff that handle, process, reconcile revenue and/or have access to banking systems (or supervise those that do), as well as all fiscal officers that oversee the handling of money, are required to attend Face to Face Revenue Processing training every 2 years. Please refer to policy Processing Revenue, FIN-TRE-120 for details.

Any staff member can attend any training session listed on the training schedule, even if at another campus. For those at the new Fort Wayne campus, please sign up and attend a session at IU Kokomo, IU South Bend or any other campus that works for you.

Full-Time Employees:
Attendance at a face to face training session is mandatory every two years.

Part-Time and Student Hourly Employees:
They are encouraged to attend a Face to Face Revenue Processing training session, but may meet the training requirement by taking and passing the Revenue Processing Tutorial every two years.

To see whether or not you need training, the Revenue Training Log can be accessed here. 


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Travel - Chrome River Basics Webinar

This webinar recording provides an overview of Chrome River, IU's expense management system, Procurement Card, also known as P-Card, reconciliation, and reconciling travel expenses.
  • Click here for webinars and video tutorials

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Fee Remission Third Party Contracts (TPC) in SIS

Third Party Contracts (TPC) allow organizations, agencies and internal IU departments to apply credits to student accounts to pay specific costs for students. TPC training is offered online. Contact SIS for questions.
On the here you will learn how to:
- locate the IU Department TPC Request page
- link a student to a Third Party Contract
- increase or decrease an award
- cancel a student from a Third Party Contract 


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Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

FERPA is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of education records.
Take the Staff and Faculty FERPA tutorial here.

Questions? Contact the Office of the Registrar at registrar@indiana.edu / 812-855-9349.


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IU Foundation Compliance and Disbursement Services eDocs Training 

IUF Compliance and Disbursement Services Edocs Training sessions (includes all IUF edocs)
IUF Compliance and Disbursement Services Edocs Training sessions (includes all IUF edocs) are available via Zoom on the following dates:

  • Monday, June 1, 10 - 11:30am

Please email iufacct@indiana.edu with the date you would like to attend. You can also check ETA Web Notices periodically to see if additional dates are added.


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Bloomington Organizational Development Classes

Training and Organization Development provides consultation and professional coaching to IU campuses across the state. They also provide learning opportunities through seminars and workshops. Contact Wendy Cornwell or call 855-9674.
Current training programs:

HR Training Portal (view, register, or cancel classes)
Legal Compliance Series for Supervisors

And much more.


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Upcoming Spotlight Issue

Our next Spotlight issue is coming next month and will include current sections and much more. 

Would you like to receive this publication?
Please Join our Listserve and spread the word.
This month's contributors:

Dina Adkins
Melissa Hartley
Brittany Hubbard
Jennifer Reeves
Cassandra Rosenburgh
Amanda Srichareon
Editor:
Nancy Y. Vázquez-Soto
Contact Information:
Aimee Heeter
Patti Quimby
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Disclaimer: Please note that any information and commensurate dates that appear in this publication are only current as of the date of publication and may change over time. Hence, please contact the responsible unit or contact person to be informed of the current status for a specific item.