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Here we are at the start of January 2012 and we've got several new systems with that all important go-live activity in full swing. The new portal Treehouse had it's soft launch in the summer, and now has had it's first major pieces of interactive functionality turned on. In conjunction with the go-live for Human Resources/Payroll all employees who submit either hourly timesheets or monthly leave reports are accessing them via the new Treehouse portal. All of the approval for timesheets/leave reports are also being processed via Treehouse. In addition to those tools, all employees can now access their benefit information, pay stubs, direct deposit information and leave balances. As we go forward with the Drew 360 project more and more of the self-service functionality available to us will be accessible via https://treehouse.drew.edu.
Treehouse is only one of several systems that are going live this January. The Financial Aid department went live with Banner’s Financial Aid system on January 1, 2012. One of the biggest challenges with the Financial Aid system involves accommodating the changes demanded by state and federal regulations, which change quite often. Russell Sprague, a technology consultant on the Financial Aid implementation team, elaborates: “As someone relatively unfamiliar with the complexities of financial aid before this project, it has been amazing to see how well our staff navigates the governmental procedures. Having a consultant knowledgeable about both the regulations and the technology involved with the implementation has been wonderful.” Regulation changes are reflected in quarterly updates to the Financial Aid system, provided by SunGard. Renee Volak says of the go-live, “Financial Assistance is very excited, if not a little nervous, about bringing up the Banner system this month. The Financial Aid team and our consultant Jill Mackey have really worked hard to get us to this point. We're looking forward to the new functionality, reduction of paperwork and elimination of redundant processes. “
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With the go-live of the HR/Payroll portion of the Drew 360 project there are a lot of exciting opportunities for the HR/Payroll team to gain new functionality and efficiency; however, the major function that end-users will see right away is the new Web Time Entry interface for entering Timesheets and Leave Reports. Timsheets are for the Biweekly paid staff and student employees, while Leave Reports are what the Monthly paid staff are currently used to filling out as Monthly Vacation Days in CampusWeb. Both of these functions are accessible through the new portal Treehouse. While most of the basic functionality is the same between how Timesheets/Leave Reports were filled out in CampusWeb and how they are done in Banner, we felt it was important to highlight some of the changes now that we are live with Banner.
The first major difference between the Timesheets/Leave Reports accessed through Treehouse and the old CampusWeb Timesheets/Leave Reports is that Employees will need to be more proactive in completing these forms in a timely manner. Biweekly and Student staff will have to have the Timesheet submitted and approved by 3:00 p.m. on the due date for the pay period. This is generally the Monday following the last day of the pay period, but can shift due to holidays. Monthly staff have until near the end of the month following their paycheck to submit the Leave Report for a given pay period. Reminder emails will be sent three days before the due date to anyone who has not submitted their Timesheet/Leave Report. Employees who Approve the Timesheest/Leave Reports of others will be notified at noon on the due date of any Timesheet/Leave Reports still needing their approval. Anyone who misses the deadline will have to fill out a paper Timesheet and get their supervisor and the Vice President/Dean of their area to sign it. .
The second difference in Banner from CampusWeb is the types of Earning/Leave that you should be reporting. The Banner system will now allow you to report all of the major types of Earnings/Leaves you can use. These Earnings/Leave types always existed, but now you will be able to submit and track them via the Web Time Entry interface.
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The new version of Banner Finance has had some significant improvements to giving budget managers the ability to view and understand how incomplete documents (documents that haven't been finished or fully approved) are affecting your available balance for you your budget lines. This available balance (sometimes you may hear it referred to as BAVL) is what Banner checks against to see if you have enough funds to fulfill a Requisition or Journal Voucher (the dreaded NSF or Not Sufficient Funds condition). If you start a JV or Requisition and then don't complete it, Banner is still internally setting aside those funds in case you ever do finish it. To help prevent these documents from sitting out there hidden and dragging down your available balance, Sungard has given you the ability to now see incomplete documents in Self-Service Banner (SSB).
When executing a budget query in SSB if there are incomplete or Pending documents, you will now see a button telling you of that fact. By clicking on this button you will be shown a list of all the documents in the Pending status with an explanation of why they are not complete. Each of the Document Code numbers will be a link allowing you to few the information about that document. Any incomplete or error documents that you don't want to complete should be deleted from the system in Internet Native Banner (INB).
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