Bulletin No. 894
Monday 20th December
- Use of Vulnerable Period - Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd December
- Monthly update - Director of Finance David Hughes
- IMPORTANT: No CUFS access from 12pm on Friday 24th December to 8am on Tuesday 4th January.
- Emergency Procurement Procedures
- Payroll deadlines
- Cognos Grants Reports – Reports for Retirement
- Forthcoming Training courses (via Teams)
- R12.2 Update on issues and procedures
- Reminder: End of Year Payment Runs 2021
Use of Vulnerable Period - Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd December
System maintenance is scheduled for the vulnerable period (VP) of 6am to 9am on Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd December
- Users who are processing in CUFS when the VP starts will lose their work.
- Users who are running requests in CUFS when the VP starts could delay the start of work while those requests complete.
- Users attempting to log onto CUFS while the system is being brought back online can face instability and delay the return of the sys
UFS Communications will be issued when the work is complete and users can access the system.
Issued by Paul Humphreys - Functional Analyst
Monthly update - Director of Finance David Hughes
Every month, Director of Finance David Hughes updates the Finance Division on key business matters. Where relevant, we will also share this news via the CUFS Bulletin to keep our wider Finance community informed.
This month's update can be accessed here
Issued by Nicola Lawrence - Finance Transformation Programme
IMPORTANT: No CUFS access from 12pm on Friday 24th December to 8am on Tuesday 4th 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 12pm on Friday 24th December to 8am on Tuesday 4th 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 using the Emergency Procurement Procedures below.
Thank you for your assistance. If you have any queries please contact FSG System Support
Issued by Michelle Bond - Head of Financial Systems
Emergency Procurement Procedures
A Template Purchase Order is available for departments to use ONLY DURING THE SHUTDOWN PERIOD AND ONLY TO BE USED IN AN EMERGENCY.
Please enter an emergency purchase order number which includes your departmental prefix for the ship-to site normally used, a sequential number and the initials of the preparer.
Ensure that your department details are entered onto the template along with the full details of the items required
It is essential that the purchase order is signed by a CUFS approver with the relevant approval level.
If a medical exemption certificate is required to accompany an order, these can be found here
Once the system is reinstated the use of this emergency purchase order should cease and new orders generated as normal. At this point full details from the Emergency Purchase Order must be entered into iProcurement as a non-catalogue order, cross-referencing the emergency order number and adding the emergency document as an attachment.
Issued by Michelle Bond - Head of Financial Systems
Weekly Christmas Deadlines
For Departments who still submit weekly timesheets for staff, the Christmas 2021 deadline dates have been posted on the Payroll website.
2022 Payroll Deadlines
The Monthly and UPS deadlines for 2022 have now been added to the Payroll website.
Issued by Jenni Jeffrey - Payroll
Cognos Grants Reports – Reports for Retirement
During the first week in January 2022, we will retire the Cognos reports replaced by the amended versions of the Grants: Listing and Budget V Actual Report and the Grants: Expenditure Enquiry report released to users on 15th November 2021. The reports for retirement are as follows:
- Grants by Sponsor Type (Transaction DB)
- GMS: Budget V Actual by Project with Task Number
- Grants summary data by project with Expenditure Category by date range
- GMS Expenditure with GL Codes
The full list of reports that have been retired following release of the 2 new Cognos Grants reports can be found here
Please note: Existing report views set up using any of the above 4 reports for retirement will no longer work after these reports have been retired. Users will need to replace these with new report views using the Grants: Listing and Budget V Actual Report or the Grants: Expenditure Enquiry report as appropriate:
- To access a guide to Creating a Report View click here
We would urge anyone with any feedback regarding the Grants: Listing and Budget V Actual Report or the Grants: Expenditure Enquiry report to contact FSG System Support.
Issued by Leisa Broad - Financial Reporting Developer
Forthcoming Training courses (via Teams)
GL1: Getting Started in General Ledger, Tue 11 & Wed 12 Jan
Learn the basics of how the General Ledger module works. Topics include the University’s chart of accounts and how to run online account enquiries. The optional second session covers how to process journals.
Grants 3: Viewing Grants in CUFS, Thu 13 & Fri 14 Jan
Discover how to view your Grants setup in CUFS – a useful check for new awards. Also used to find the budget and transaction controls when experiencing issues raising POs or paying invoices. We will also run some CUFS Grants reports and the new Cognos Project/Award status report. NB: You need to have completed the Grants 1 (online course, duration about 30 mins) to do this course. In view of the new report, please make sure you also have Cognos access, and Cognos online intro course completed.
Issued by Christine Rogerson - Finance Training
FAQs and known issues
If you are experiencing issues with iProcurement, please check the latest How-to Guidance and FAQs before contacting the Helpdesk Hub.
Many issues can be resolved by Clearing your browser cache.
Please visit the R12.2 Upgrade Page for the latest FAQs and reported issues: https://ufs.admin.cam.ac.uk/r122-upgrade
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support while we resolve the post upgrade issues.
Issued by Paul Humphreys – Functional Analyst
End of Year Payment Runs 2021
Please refer to the table at the link below for the Christmas Payment Run dates for 2021.
If you have any queries please contact the Accounts Payable Helpdesk on 66888 or email UFS_AP@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Monthly Accounting Timetable
To view the status of the monthly process including the month end close dates please use the following link: Accounting Timetable
Bulletins
- Click here for Bulletin archives
- If you would like to receive the bulletin email please send your details to this address