Weekly Bulletin No. 799
Week Commencing Monday 2nd December
- IMPORTANT: No CUFS access from 5pm on Monday 23rd December to 9am on Thursday 2nd January.
- System Availability - Tuesday 3rd December
- Marketplace Availability - Thursday 5th December pm
- Key Contacts - Audit Reminder
- Raising High Value Purchase Orders
- Accounts Payable - End of Year Payment Runs 2019
- Payroll Deadline Dates
- Training
- Webinar
IMPORTANT: No CUFS access from 5pm on Monday 23rd December to 9am on Thursday 2nd January.
As you will be aware there is a heightened risk of cyber security activity such as phishing attacks over holiday periods.
Having assessed previous data volumes it is evident that usage of CUFS during the Christmas and New Year period is very limited. Therefore, as part of improvements made to existing CUFS data integrity and cyber security protocols, access to CUFS will be removed during the period from 5pm on Monday 23rd December to 9am on Thursday 2nd January. This will provide added protection from cyber security incidents.
This action will not impact on making payments to suppliers as a revised schedule of payment runs will be implemented for the Christmas period and communicated in the CUFS Bulletin as usual.
Cognos will be available to run reports during this time.
In the unlikely event that there is a need to raise urgent purchase orders during this period you will be able to do so. Guidance for this will be issued nearer the time.
Thank you for your assistance. It is hoped by giving advanced notice that this change in approach will have limited impact. If you have any queries about this please contact FSG System Support
Issued by Jo Hall - Head of Financial Systems
System Availability - Tuesday 3rd December
The CUFS system will be unavailable during the vulnerable period of 6am to 9am on Tuesday 3rd December.
This time will be used for system maintenance.
Issued by Michelle Bond - Lead Functional Analyst
Marketplace Availability - Thursday 5th December pm
Please be advised of an upcoming period of maintenance scheduled to take place on the Marketplace on Thursday 5th December 2019 from 18:30 to 20:30
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Issued by Heather Twinn - eProcurement Administrator
Key Contacts Audit Reminder
UFS Audit reports were emailed to all department Key Contacts on Monday 25th November.
To help administration, please reply to the audit using the original email and send to ufsaudit@admin.cam.ac.uk by Friday 6th December (14 working days after reciept), coping in any additnal Key Contacts.
If a reply is not received responsibilities within the department may be disabled.
To see an example of the report click here
A large thank you to those departments who have already confirmed the audit your help is very much appreciated.
Issued by Lesley Dent - System Administrator
Accounts Payable - End of Year Payment Runs 2019
Please refer to the table at the link below for the Christmas Payment Run dates for 2019.
If you have any queries please contact the Accounts Payable Helpdesk on 66888 or email UFS_AP@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Issued by Andrew Weatherley – Manager Accounts Payable, Receivable and Cash Management.
Payroll Deadline Dates
The deadline dates for 2020 have been added to the Payroll Website. UPS has also been updated.
The Christmas cut-off dates for the weekly payrolls are now available.
Issued by Alexsis Dicken – Payroll
Raising High Value Purchase Orders
In response to specific feedback received from the recent strategic procurement review, we are circulating a number of bulletins to assist as refreshers and guidance notes around key processes.
Here we’d like to share the Finance Division process for the approval of purchase orders over £1million and necessary as CUFS was configured to require manual intervention where a PO in excess of £1m is to be raised.
The steps necessary to move through this manual process are:
- Department raises and approves the requisition, the order is created but not approved
- Department need to ensure there are sufficient funds available. If the order is charged to a Research Grant, Department will need to contact ROO to arrange for budgetary controls to be checked or lifted before approval can take place. Controls are reinstated after transaction
- Department obtains approval from Head of Group Procurement (HoGP) who will require contract reference detail and/or approved dispensation number
- Department contacts the CUFS Helpdesk, who can be contacted by phone on 65101 or email UFS_PO@admin.cam.ac.uk with:
-
PO details
-
approval from HOGP
-
details of the person within the department assigned ‘buyer no limits’
-
availability of the departmental assigned ‘buyer no limits’ - this is crucial as the Finance Systems Group (FSG) will need to manually lift the system limits to allow the transaction
- The ‘buyer no limits’ will be contacted directly by FSG
- The ‘buyer no limits’ undertakes the approval in real time with FSG
- Once approved, the system is returned to standard provision.
Your departmental key contact will be able to identify who, within in your area is assigned ‘buyer no limits’, your departmental key contact should be listed here .
Key contacts can request a user and responsibilities report here.
In addition to the CUFS bulletin, we will circulate this notice to all departmental administrators.
Issued by Helen Wain - Head Group Procurement
Training Courses
These upcoming courses have places available:
Cognos Refresher Training, Wed 4 Dec, 14h30 – 16h00
Medically Exempt Tax Briefing Session, Thu 5 Dec, 14h15 – 15h00
How to Excel P1, Wed 11 Dec, 09h30 – 12h30
For details of other training courses available please see here.
Issued by Christine Rogerson - Finance Training
Webinar
Reminder that the Welcome to Key Travel webinar is running on Wednesday 11 December.
This one hour webinar aims to assist anyone involved in University travel bookings.
Issued by Christine Rogerson - 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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