FinMAC / FSUN Event Archive

FinMAC, via its Financial Systems User Network (FSUN), has hosted a variety of events. Some were meetings by invitation-only, others were working sessions for those involved in specific areas when specific needs arose, still others were general sessions of use to anyone working in finance at the University of Minnesota. If you have ideas, please contact [email protected].

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FSUN Brown Bags

Sales Tax Brown Bags

FSUN hosted brown bags both in person and via UM Connect on Sales Tax. Topics covered will include: a review of property and services subject to sales tax; the U's status as a seller versus a buyer; the U's filing structure; exempt customers and necessary documentation; sales tax in other states; and updates on recent legislative changes and proposals.

Payroll Accounting Brown Bag

FSUN hosted a brown bag on Payroll Accounting, presented by Kelly Krattiger. Topics covered included: a review covering retro salary adjustments post-ESUP upgrade, funding at position/pool level, position data, and a brief summary of the portal. It was held on Wednesday July 30, 2014 at 10:30am - 11:30 in the Molecular and Cellular Biology RM 2-122.

April 24, 2018: Spring Membership Meeting

The 2018 Spring Membership Meeting was held on April 24, 2018 at the Great Hall of Coffman Memorial Union.

Student Payments
Fiscal Year-End Procurement Cleanup

Criteria that causes POs to be ineligible to roll at FYE

Current requisition data to help with cleanup

Accounts Receivable Collections
Finance Reporting Strategy
Back to Basics on Department Deposits


Demonstrations of UM Analytics financial reporting tools and topics:

November 21, 2017: Contracts that need special pre-approvals

Mondale Hall, RM 35
November 21, 2017, Noon-1pm

Angela Downin, Assistant General Counsel for the Office of the General Counsel and FSUN are hosting a brown bag on Contracts that need special pre-approvals. This presentation is geared for those situations where the supplier has their own contract or a supplier changes the University standard contract.

Discussion will include the following topics:

September 12, 2017: Fall General Membership Meeting

Financial Systems User Network (FSUN) hosted the 2017 General Membership Meeting
Great Hall, Coffman Memorial Union.

To view the recording of each presentation click the links below.

Agenda

 

May 10, 2017: Fiscal Year End

FSUN hosted a brown bag on the Fiscal Year End process.

Some of the topics include:

  • Overview of Year End close- what it means and why we do it
  • Rules for PO Rollover and Close out ---what's changing this year
  • Purchasing Rules and tips when requisition deadline has passed.
     
  • PowerPoint Slides
  • Watch Recording 

This event will be held on Wednesday May 10, 2017, Noon-1pm at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, RM 25.

Amazon Business Account
FSUN had Tim Bray, Director of Purchasing Services speak about the University's Amazon Business Accont.

October 19, 2016: Fall General Membership Meeting

The 2016 Fall General Membership Meeting was held on October 19, 2016, 1:00pm - 3:00pm in the Mississippi Room, Coffman Memorial Union.

Agenda

Thank you for attending our event! Please take the few minutes to take our online event evaluation.

June 28, 2016: Sales Tax on Catering Purchases

Sales Tax on Catering Purchases

Due to technical difficulties, we were not aware that there were questions from on-line participants during the sales tax training on catering services held on June 28, 2016. Following are the questions that were submitted along with our answers. Please feel free to contact the Tax Management Office or me directly with any follow-up questions. Thanks for participating.

Q: How is tax assessed when you purchase something "on-line" and it is delivered locally?
A: When you order items on-line and they are delivered to the U, the sale occurs at the shipped-to address. If the item is taxable for the U because it is excluded from our exemption - such as for candy - the seller may or may not charge tax on the item (depending on whether the seller has nexus with the State of MN and has a filing requirement in MN.) If the seller does not charge tax, the U buyer needs to self-assess use tax so that the tax due is remitted to MN. The tax rate of the jurisdiction where the sale occurs applies to the sale. There are many on-line sellers that do not collect and remit MN sales tax, so this need to self-assess the use tax can make purchasing from those sellers less appealing.

Q: Are there best practices for retroactively removing sales tax, after perhaps a year or so has passed since the catering service was used?
A: If you find that you have over-paid sales tax, you first should consider whether the dollars involved warrant the time it will take to request a refund from the caterer. You may decide to watch current and future invoices and work with your supplier to get those correct versus asking for refunds of prior tax charged in error. However, if you have significant overpayments and you want to take the maximum action allowed, sales tax laws leave the tax periods open for three and one-half years. Technically, a supplier could file an amended return for periods going back three and one-half years to get back the overpayment from the State of MN. This can involve significant administrative work, so again, consider whether the impact is worth the work.

There were two questions related to gratuities:

Q: What are the gratuity suggestions?
Q: If we have catered services for an event at the U, can we give tips?
A: There are situations where it is appropriate and expected that a gratuity will be given to a caterer or a delivery person for a restaurant delivering prepared food. If the facts support that a tip would be appropriate, the general guideline at the U is a tip not to exceed 20% may be added. If the U adds the tip, the tip is not subject to sales tax. If there is a non-optional tip added by the caterer, that tip is subject to sales tax.

There were also two questions dealing with late submissions for reimbursements of expenses:

Q: Can you elaborate on how a late travel reimbursement MAY be deemed taxable income? This is noted in the travel policy.
A: When a request for reimbursement of travel expenses is made after the allowed 60 day period and there are no approved extenuating circumstances, the reimbursement may still be made to the traveler, but it will be made on a taxable basis. If the traveler's college/unit/department decides to make this type of taxable reimbursement, they must inform Payroll so the amount is added to the taxable income of the traveler. The Traveling on University Business Administrative Policy has been written to ensure that when reimbursements are made through the University's accountable plan, those reimbursements are excludable from income for the traveler pursuant to the Internal Revenue Code. When a reimbursement claim is not made timely, the IRC exclusion from income does not apply. Consequently, any reimbursement made after the 60 day period without approved extenuating circumstances is treated as additional wages and subject to income tax.

Q: When a non-employee travel reimbursement comes in after the 60 days, do we treat that as taxable income as we do with employee travel reimbursements that come in after 60 days?
A: Yes, generally reimbursements should follow the 60 day time frame ( unless the request is for miscellaneous out of pocket, non-travel status expenses which may be requested on an infrequent basis.) Non-employees working under a Contract for Professional Services are subject to a provision in that contract stating that travel expenses must be consistent with the U's travel policy. That contract also states that the U will generate a Form 1099-MISC for fees and reimbursed expenses to individuals, sole proprietors, partnerships and LLCs, and will report such amounts to the IRS. So, they should be making requests within the 60 day period, but the amounts are going to be reported as income on the 1099 whether or not the reimbursement claim is timely made.

Presented by Heather Broneak, Assistant Tax Director, University Tax Office

Learn how to ensure that the University is paying the correct sales tax when purchasing catering services. Topics include:

  • Taxable versus exempt catering purchases
  • Applicable tax rate - where does the sale occur?
  • Gratuities - optional versus required
  • Special local taxes
  • Alcohol
  • Self-assessing use tax

You're welcome to bring your questions on other sales tax issues to be answered or discussed as time allows.

June 22, 2016: Records Retention

Records Retention

University Records Retention presented by Susan McKinney, Director Records and Information Management

With year end coming up, do you wonder what documentation you need to keep and for how long? With system upgrades and more documentation becoming automated do you wonder if policy has changed on retention of records? Join us on June 22 when we will delve into the University record retention policy--in time to clean up our offices.

May 11 & 18, 2016: Payroll Accounting

Presented by Sherrie Kutzler – Director, Accounting Services Both sessions contain great information for both Finance & HR staff; please share this information with your colleagues!

Payroll Accounting – Session I

Session to provide information on the link between HR and Finance, Additional Pay, Retro Distributions, and Graduate Assistant payroll.

Payroll Accounting – Session II

Continuation of Session I, will include Payroll Encumbrances and Reporting.

April 22, 2016: Hospitality and Special Expenses

Friday - April 22, 2016, noon - 1:00 pm, 50B HHH Center

A review of the University's Hospitality and Special Expense policy and opportunity to ask questions. Presented by Mike Volna, Associated VP & Controller and Beth Tapp, Travel/PCard Manager, Purchasing Services.

April 18, 2016: The University - Coca Cola contract

Questions about the Coke contract can be directed to Missy Ek in UDS Contract Admin and Vending at 612-624-9048

Did you ever wonder why the University only uses Coke products? Or what benefits to the University the Coke contract provides? Leslie Bowman, Executive Director-Contract Administration and Jerry Taintor, Category Manager, Purchasing Services will conduct an informational session on the University's contract. We plan to offer online viewing as an option and plan to record this session.

February 3, 2016: Accounting Services

Have you ever wondered what happens after you enter an invoice to be paid? Or, the best way to find a Supplier? LaCretia Bell, Director Disbursement Services, hosted a brown bag session to review those topics and more, like: What are the various ways a supplier is paid; Why do some payment route to Accounting Services & Payroll?

January 27, 2016: Things NOT to do when creating Requisitions

Kristen Berning from Purchasing Services presented a session to review the most important things that you should NOT do when creating the five types of requisitions: U Market, CPS, blanket order, standard purchase, and VCPS. In addition, she review the "don'ts" of entering comments, justifications, and uploading attachments (these are also common culprits behind EFS requisition errors). There was discussion on the most common requisition errors we've seen with this version of PeopleSoft Financials (errors since April 2015). Many of these errors cause re-work between preparers and approvers, or confuse suppliers. Some errors can even cause the system processes for procurement in all of EFS to fail!

Handouts:

August 13, 2015: Receiving Purchases

Kristen Berning hosted a Brown Bag session about Receiving Purchases. It was held August 13, 2015 11:30am - 12:30pm Nicholson Hall, RM 35.

Did you know that almost 1,000 purchase orders had to be force closed during the fiscal year end 2015 cleanup process due to receiving-related errors? FSUN and Kristen Berning from Purchasing Services will host a brown bag session on receiving. We will give a quick refresher on receiving basics, discuss the the most common errors, and provide best practice tips on how you and your cluster can be more proactive in resolving discrepancies between the PO, receipt, and voucher processes.

Kristen also handed out several job aids:

July 23, 2015: My Wallet & Expense Report

Beth Tapp hosted a Brown Bag session about My Wallet and Expense Report process. It was held on Thursday, July 23rd, noon-1:00pm, 315 Peik Hall.

April 14, 2015: Accounts Receivable

David Laden, Director of Non sponsored Accounts Receivable, spoke from 1:30-2:30pm on 4/14/15 about Accounts Receivable. It was held at Molecular and Cellular Biology RM 2-122. Some topics to be discussed include:

  • Accounts Receivable tips and reminders
  • Best practices
  • Accounts Receivable monitoring
  • Collection process
  • How up-front EFS entries affect the entire Accounts Receivable process.
  • Upgrade changes
     
  • Handout
  • PowerPoint