nvision manual

Introduction to nVision Reporting

of 18 University of New Orleans Revised April 2004

INTRODUCTION TO NVISION REPORTING PS/nVision enables you to retrieve information from your PeopleSoft database into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet—not merely as “raw” data, but as information in a form that helps you see the big picture, explore the details and make decisions. Also, you can use familiar Excel commands to format and analyze the data. We recommend that the departmental expenditure transactions on the nVision report(s) be reviewed monthly to help assure the validity of financial transactions by comparing original documents to the transactions listed on the report(s). ACCESSING PEOPLESOFT FINANCIALS You must have a PeopleSoft (PS) Financials account to access nVision. In order to obtain a PS Financials account, you must request one by completing a PeopleSoft Account Request Form, which can be accessed via the internet at http://www.uno.edu/~ucc.

Double-click the Citrix Program Neighborhood icon on your desktop. (If Citrix is not on your computer, please contact the UCC Help Desk).

A dialog box will appear. Double-click the PSFT-HE icon.

The box below may appear. Click OK.


University of New Orleans Revised April 2004

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A dialog box will appear requesting that you log into the uno-domain network. Enter your LAN user name and password in the appropriate boxes.

Wait several seconds for the PeopleSoft Signon box to appear.

In the Application Server Name box, click the dropdown arrow and choose the appropriate database.

Enter your LAN username

Enter your LAN password

Your LAN username and password are the ID and password used when you first logon to your computer.

Click on the down arrow and select FPRD_APP.

If domain is not entered, it should always be uno-domain

Database Descriptions: FPRD_APP: Financials production database; all financial data is entered in this database HPRD_APP: Human Resource database; all HR data is entered in this database.



Enter your PeopleSoft username and password for the Financials database. Click OK.

Enter your PeopleSoft Financials ID

Enter your PeopleSoft Financials Password

Click on the OK button after entering the information above

Read the “How To” Box below on how to change your password

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD At this point, before clicking O.K., you may change your password. In order to change your password:

1. After you have entered your username and password, click the Set Password button.

2. PeopleSoft will start to load, and then the following screen will appear:

3. Enter your New Password in both of these fields. Then, click the OK button or press Enter. Passwords can be 8 characters or numbers.

4. PeopleSoft will now load as normal.



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The following panel will appear:

YOU ARE NOW IN PEOPLESOFT FINANCIALS!! ☺



INTRODUCTION TO NVISION REPORTING

ACCESSING nVISION Go PeopleTools nVision

The PeopleSoft screen will minimize and Microsoft Excel will appear. Click on Enable Macros (both times).

The following window will appear:

YOU ARE NOW IN NVISION!! ☺ Please note the additional menu items of nVision and Drill.



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ACCESSING nVISION REPORTS Access to the budget reports in nVision is given by the Office of Financial Services. Your request for access to your nVision reports can be made by completing the nVision Request for Folder/File Access form, which can be accessed via the following: http://www.uno.edu/%7Efinserv/peoplesoft/nvision_form.html. Choosing a Report There are separate folders for each fiscal year since PeopleSoft Financials was implemented at the University of New Orleans. Data for years prior to this implementation are still in the legacy system. Click View. The folders can be opened by either double-clicking the folder, or clicking the folder once and then clicking Open. Open the Fy2002 folder.

Upon clicking on one of the fiscal year folders, there are separate folders for each college and major support unit. At this point, you will know which fiscal year folder you are in by the “Look in:” box in the window.



Open the college of business folder. If you receive the message below, this indicates that you do not have access to the folder in which you are attempting to open.

Click OK. Open the folder for the financial services.

Open the folder for purchasing.



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This folder contains the file names of the nVision reports maintained in the folder Fy2002/financial services/purchasing. These are the elements (chartfield combination) for identifying and choosing the desired report: The Department ID – this appears as “Dept” followed by the department ID The Fund – this appears as “FD” followed by the fund code for this report The Program – this appears as “PM” followed by the program code for this report.

Chartfield Name Definition Department Tracks information according to the divisional

breakdown of the University. Fund The primary structural units of Education and

Government accounting Program Established by the National Association of College

and University Business Officers; Classification of the types of support given to the University.

Highlight the desired report [Dept(8400400000)-FD101XX-PM50000.xls] and click Open. This is the format for the nVision reports for FY2001 and FY2002. The format was changed in FY2003.



Now, open the same file in fiscal year 2003. Please note that the current spreadsheet must be closed because two files with the same file name cannot be open at the same time. Click View. Open the following file: Fy2003\financial services\purchasing\Dept(8400400000)-FD101XX-PM50000.xls.

Differences/Changes in format between fiscal years: Old Format New Format

1. Order of Account Categories: 1. Fund Balance 1. Expenditures & Transfers 2. Revenue 2. Revenues 3. Expenditure 3. Fund Balance

2. Transfers No Yes 3. Debit/Credit Indication No Yes 4. Remaining/Overdrawn Indication No Yes 5. Calculation of Fund Balance To Date No Yes



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READING THE NVISION REPORT The report format is an Excel spreadsheet

Report ID Information – the upper left corner has the identifying information: Fund, Department, Program, and Project (if it applies to the report).

Report Date Information – the upper right corner has the date information: Report Date, Fiscal Year, Run Date. The Run Date informs the user of the last date in which this report was updated. nVision is updated nightly.

Report Groupings – by Account (classifies the nature of the transaction) EXPENDITURES & TRANSFERS section

Personnel Services – all the expense accounts for salaries and wages Employee Benefits

Non-Payroll Expenses – are grouped by the “pooled budget” accounts, each with its own subtotal. These “pooled budget” groups are:

Travel Capital Outlay Operating Services Major Repairs Supplies Debt Service Professional Services Indirect Cost Recovery Other Charges Transfers

Expenditure accounts begin with a “6”. Transfer accounts begin with an “8”.



REVENUE section - revenue accounts begin with a “4” OPENING FUND BALANCE section – carry forward balance from previous fiscal year; begins with a “3”

CALCULATION OF FUND BALANCE TO DATE section =Opening Fund Balance + Revenue – Expenditures

Report Totals – at the end of the report are expenditure and transfer totals by:

Payroll & Benefits Total Operating & Other Total Total of All Expenditures & Transfers

Report Columns – (DR – Debit; CR – Credit) Preliminary Budget – this is the budget amount for each “pooled budget” account as of the date of the report; therefore, it is the initial budget plus/minus any budget adjustments EXPENDITURES section of nVision REVENUE section of nVision

DR - negative budget (should inquire) DR – positive budget CR - positive budget CR – negative budget (should inquire) Pre-Encumbrance – initially this column will not have entries; when online requisitions are offered, the amount associated with the requisitions will be here; the pre-encumbered amount is the total of requisitions not yet processed into purchase orders

EXPENDITURES only section of nVision DR – positive encumbrance

CR – negative encumbrance (should inquire)

Encumbrance – this is the value of all outstanding purchase orders EXPENDITURES only section of nVision DR – positive encumbrance

CR – negative encumbrance (should inquire)



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Fund Balance, Revenue, Expenditure – this column includes revenue, expenditure, and fund balance amounts:

• REVENUE section of nVision o DR – Debit – negative revenue (should inquire) o CR – Credit – positive/realized revenue

• EXPENDITURES section of nVision - the total of all expenses actually paid or recorded as a payable; this will also include any transfers or reclassifications of expenses (i.e., interdepartmental transfers)

o DR – Debit – positive/actual expenditures o CR – Credit – negative expenditures (should inquire)

• The total of the carryforward fund balance o DR – Debit – negative fund balance (should inquire) o CR – Credit – positive fund balance

Budget Balance/Budget Deficit – this column is calculated; it adds the columns across for the captioned revenue, expense, total, or subtotal.

The last column in the spreadsheet does not have a column heading; it indicates whether there is a remaining balance or overdrawn balance (deficit) by subtotal.




GETTING TO THE DETAILS (Drill Down) Drill Down Function The initial nVision report provides year to date information by chartfield combination. In order to retrieve the details behind the amounts, there is a feature called Drill. This feature reads the detail transaction information directly from the database. This feature works from any field in the report that is not an Excel formula. Below are the drill options currently available in nVision:

The Drill options used most often are: Budget Encumbrances Expenditure/Revenue Expenditure Detail Payroll Detail To use drilldowns, please follow the steps below:

1. Place the cursor in the cell of the nVision report in which analysis or details are required. Drilldowns work when a number is shown in the cell. They do not work when there is a formula in the cell, i.e., E11-C19.

2. From the Microsoft Excel menu, choose Drill. 3. Choose a drill down option from the drop down list. Be sure to choose an option consistent with

the type of the amount you have chosen. In the example below, the user is looking for the details on an amount in the “Preliminary Budget” column; therefore, the user will choose Budget.

Drill Budget



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Drill results are brought to the screen on a separate spreadsheet.

In order to view the columns with data all at once, change the zoom. See the results below:

The first column (column A) of the spreadsheet results of the drill is the Journal (also known as the Journal ID), which is a type of identifier of the transaction. Column C is the Jrnl Date, which is the effective date of the transaction. Column D is the Line Descr, which is a short description of the transaction. Column E is the Amount of the transaction. Columns G thru K include the chartfield combination for this transaction.

At this point, you can do one of the following:

1. Return to the report by using the Window menu item at the top of the screen.

2. Return to the initial View screen by clicking the icon to the right of the spreadsheet. 3. Save the spreadsheet (see save instructions below), OR 4. Close the spreadsheet.

Multiple drill results windows can be open at the same time. Return to the report using the Window menu item at the top of the screen. Now, we will choose the Expenditure/Revenue drill option. Follow the numbered hands below. Drill Expenditure/Revenue



Drill results are brought to the screen in a separate spreadsheet.

When drilling on expenditures in the Personnel Services grouping, the Journal ID will, most often, be composed of an “HRPR” followed by a series of number (for example, HRPR000079) When drilling on all other expenditure groupings, when the Journal ID: Begins with “AP”, it is, more than likely, an Accounts Payable journal Begins with “LEG”, it is a transaction transferred from the legacy system Begins with “PO”, it is an encumbrance Begins with “DEPT”, it is a departmental deposit transaction done through Student Financials

Begins with “SF”, it is a Student Financials journal entry Is a series of numbers, it is an online journal entry, such as an interdepartmental

Scroll to the bottom using the scroll bar to the right of the spreadsheet. Notice those transactions whose Journal ID begins with “AP” also have a Ref/Voucher ID. These transactions indicate that a vendor has been paid OR that a payable was setup and a vendor will be paid in the future.

In order to view more detail on these types of transactions (only), you can drill on Expenditure Detail. Return to the report by using the Window menu. The cursor should still be on the amount in the cell on which details are required.



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Drill Expenditure Detail

The results of the Expenditure Detail drill includes the Voucher, Invoice #, and Vendor Name of the transactions in the Expenditure/Revenue drill in which the Journal begins with an “AP”.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EXPENDITURE DETAIL DRILL OPTION DOES NOT INCLUDE ALL TRANSACTIONS. Only the Expenditure/Revenue drill option includes all transactions. Generally, all information necessary to reconcile accounts or research errors is available through the various drill down features. In the Personnel Services category, the drill has an option to view the name of each employee and their salary expended from this account per pay period. To retrieve this type of detail, place the cursor in the cell of the salary amount you wish to analyze. Now, let’s choose the Payroll Detail drill option. Follow the numbered hands below.



Drill Payroll Detail

Drill results are brought to the screen on a separate spreadsheet.

Column B of the spreadsheet results of the Payroll Detail drill is the Journal Column C - Journal Date Column D - Name of the Employee Column E - Line Description Columns F-K – chartfield combination in which the transaction was charged in Financials Column L – Amount Columns M-T – chartfield combination in which the transaction was charged in Human Resources/Payroll



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SAVING REPORTS The reports are delivered in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, allowing the user to save all or selected reports to their own computer’s hard drive. To do this:

1. From the menu at the top of the screen click File and then Save As 2. In the “Save in” box choose a location on your PC 3. You may keep the same file name or change it at your discretion 4. Click Save

Each drill down screen is a separate spreadsheet and can be saved by using the above instructions. If you save a file on your local drive/PC and want to return to nVision, use the navigation below after clicking File, Open in order to return to nVision:

nvision manual

Documents

peoplesoft database

new password

financials database

peoplesoft username

lan password

nvision reporting page

peoplesoft financials

peoplesoft screen