Weekly Bulletin No. 781

Week Commencing Monday 29th July

General Finance - New Departments; Fixed Assets; Cyber Threat; Year-end checklist
Procurement - Panther Taxis; Invoice information
Training - 2019/20 Training Programme; Modern Slavery Act
  

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New Departments in CUFS

The following new departments are being set up in CUFS for use from 1 August 2019 onwards:

Affiliated Libraries departmental changes:

Accompanying the set-up of department VT listed above, the following additional changes take place within the Affiliated Libraries departments with effect from 1st August 2019:

Department VF – Science Libraries

Department VF will be renamed the Medical Library from the 1st August 2019.

The Moore Library’s financial operations will be transferred to departments VS (for Physical Sciences and Mathematics, as well as library operations), VT (for Biological Sciences) and VR (for Technology). Departments needing to invoice the Moore Library should check first with their library contact, to confirm the correct department, AR Customer number and billing address.

Department VS - SPS Affiliated Libraries

New libraries joining: Geography, Betty & Gordon Moore (for Physical Sciences and Mathematics, as well as library operations).

Department VR - SoT Affiliated Libraries – Betty & Gordon Moore’s Technology collection.

(There are no changes to departments VP SHSS Affiliated Libraries, or VQ SAH Affiliated Libraries.)

Any finance questions regarding the new department VT or affiliated libraries reorganisation can be directed to Catherine Bentham (catherine.bentham@admin.cam.ac.uk), NSI Finance Adviser.

Department AM - Pensions & Gratuities

Activities of CUFS department (AM) ‘Pensions & Gratuities’ will be merged into AG ‘Finance Division’ effective from 1 August 2019.  This is to reflect operational arrangements of the Pensions team within the wider Finance Division.  All internal sales invoices for goods and services supplied to the Pensions team should be directed to AG ‘Finance Division’ after 1 August.

Issued by Mike Sinclair - Central and Research Accounting

Fixed Assets - Review and Physical Verification – Reminder

As part of departmental year end procedures, physical verification of assets should take place as at 31 July 2019. Each asset should be located so that its existence within the department can be substantiated.

The Fixed Assets report - which was circulated to departments on the 5 July for pre-year end checking - can be a useful document on which to base the verification exercise.

This review report should be returned to the Fixed Assets team in Finance Division by 9 August and any amendments, including additions or disposals, will be processed to ensure the departmental Fixed Asset Register is accurate as at 31 July.

Please note that assets acquired in July-19 will not appear on this document.

If you have any queries on the above please do not hesitate to contact Fixed Assets on 66780 or email UFS_FA

Issued by David Cook – Central and Research Accounting

Potential Cyber Threat - Bank Details

Departments are reminded to contact suppliers directly if they receive an email informing them of bank detail changes.

The Energy Consortium (TEC) have advised us of the potential cyber threat below:

This involves legitimate looking emails from the correct person or an "accounts" email address where the supplier is informed of a change in banking or remittance details. 

The email itself will be fully branded with the correct individual’s name and colour-scheme and will even reply as the person if queried. It will also show in the Inbox as sent from the correct individual/email address. 

If you do receive a notification for changes to banking or remittance advice to telephone the company/organisation/supplier involved to confirm.

Please be aware that the TEC banking details have not changed and if you receive any notification of changes via email please contact them as soon as possible.

• TEC Enquiries 0121 483 1963

Issued by Lesley Dent - System Administrator

2019 Year-end checklist – Important tasks/deadlines for this week

Per the checklist on page 6 of the Year End procedures manual, departments are reminded of the following:

 Year-end instructions for 2019 are available from the Finance Division website at
https://www.finance.admin.cam.ac.uk/policy-and-procedures/financial-procedures/chapter-11-year-end-instructions

All enquiries should be directed by email to the relevant module Helpdesk.

Issued by Christine Rogerson - Finance Training

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Panther Taxis Ltd

Panther Taxis Ltd have historically acted as agents on behalf of self-employed drivers for all bookings.

With effect from 1st Aug 2019, Panther Taxis Ltd will take on the role of principal for journeys that are paid for through an account. 

For journeys that are paid for by either cash or credit/debit card they continue to act as agents for self-employed taxi drivers.

Services will not be affected by these changes although you will note that on any invoices raised after the 1st August VAT will be applied to the total fares and administration, rather than just to the administration charge.

Issue by Anita Wilson – Category Manager

What information can be added to invoices to help with payment?

As part of the drive to reduce time, admin burden and additional process requests, we thought it might be helpful to circulate what information needs Procurement Services seek when reviewing high value and/or large advance payment related invoices.

These invoices come to us for confirmation that they are in line within the current Financial Regulations – for example what competitively tendered process was the purchase order issued under; what dispensation number relates; or was pre-approval secured for a large advanced payment. When this information is not included on invoices – either by the supplier issuing the invoice or the department receiving it and passing on for payment – we manually search through our University wide records to identify it if possible and then seek confirmation or data from the departmental contact quoted on the invoice, if indeed one exists. All this takes time however, so if we could ask or remind all departments to add this information through the ordering and/or the invoice receipting cycle then we can reduce both the time taken for payment, as well as the admin burden for many.

For clarity, we are looking for:

• 1. A valid University of Cambridge contract number (if one exists – usually in the form of something like UCAM 123/019 – where the first three numbers relate to the contract number and the last three to the year of execution) or;

• 2. A dispensation number – a 5 digit number usually in the form of DISP 12345 and;

• 3. The date pre-approval for any advanced payment above £10,000 was supported, recognising pre-approvals for advanced payment below £10,000 is delegated to Head of Department.

If you have any questions or queries around the above, feel free to contact procurement.services.enquiries@admin.cam.ac.uk or telephone us on (3)32233. Further, if you feel there are other topics like this which may be of use, please let us know.

Issued by Emma Grosvenor Myer - Procurement Services

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Next year’s Training Programme now available

The full 2019/20 timetable is open for bookings and can be viewed here

AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) programme

Further to last week's bulletin, the Level 4 Briefing pack is now also available.  For further information on both Level 3 and 4 programmes, please refer to our AAT webpage.  Please note closing date for both Level 3 and 4 is Friday 16 August.

Issued by Christine Rogerson - Finance Training

Modern Slavery Act online training course now available

The new online course on the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is now available on Moodle at https://www.vle.cam.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=158062. 

The University and all its staff have a responsibility to ensure that their dealings, and the supply chains of those who we trade with, are free from any sort of modern slavery. The course should take around 30 minutes to complete and will guide you through some facts and figures relating to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking and highlights warning signs you need to be aware of.  

Target Audience

Issued by Karen Sheldon - Finance Training

Monthly Accounting Timetable

To view the status of the monthly process including the month end close dates please use the following link: Accounting Timetable

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