Inside this issue:

Payroll Updates 2

On-Line Travel System 3 Tax ID & Sales Tax # 4 Forms on the Web! 4

Florida State University Office of the Assistant Vice President of Finance and Controller

FUNDAMENTAL$ September, 2001

Volume 6, Issue 1

Changes In The Assistant Vice President/Controller’s Office

Several major changes took place in the Office of the Assistant Vice President and Controller’s staff in late Spring and during the Summer of 2001. If you thought you had seen or heard about new ti-tles for existing employees, or former employees in new places, you may have been correct! Please take a moment to congratulate or welcome these employees to their new positions.

♦ Lyn Cooley, former Director of Operations Analysis in the Inspector General’s office now serves in the position of Director of Financial and Auxiliary Services at the FSU Ringling Center for the Cultural Arts facility in Sarasota. Lyn and her son Jason moved in July and are settling in to new surroundings and getting acquainted with new friends. Lyn says she is working fast and furious in her new position, but she very much enjoys the challenge and opportunity.

♦ Deborah Coury, former Director of the Academic Business Administration Program

(ABA) now serves in the position of Chief Financial Officer for the College of Medicine Fiscal Office. The challenges of setting up financial budgets for the new college are great, but Deborah has assumed them with her usual zest and determination. Her new office is located in Room 104, Duxbury Hall.

♦ Perry Crowell, former Director of Student Financial Services now serves in the position

of Executive Director of University Financial Services. Perry’s new responsibilities, un-der the direction of Larry Reese, include supervision of Student Financial Services, Academic Business Administration Program, Ringling Finance and Auxiliary Services, College of Medicine Accounting Services and Operations Analysis. Perry is covering lots of area these days and has spent a good portion of the summer assisting as In-terim Director of Foundation Accounting Services. His new office is located in UCA2200, room A2209.

(Continued on page 3)

Page 2 FUNDAMENTAL$

Payroll Updates

Paying University Employees From The Foundation It is important to enter employees, particularly salaried employees, on the payroll system as soon as possible to prevent loss of benefits and reduce interest penalties on late retirement contribu-tions. Pay advances have been requested recently from Foundation accounts for employees who were not placed on payroll in a timely manner. Payment of employees is not an authorized func-tion of most Foundation accounts. If you are having problems entering employees on the payroll system or if an employee needs to be paid, please contact Payroll Services first, not the Founda-tion. If Payroll cannot resolve the problem, they will work with the Foundation to make a payment to the employee. Contact Rick Beyer, 644-3815, if you have questions. Payment Of Non-resident Aliens Remember, payments to non-resident aliens must go through Payroll Services. Please contact Rick Beyer or Linda Slater, 644-3813, if you have questions. Working Actives And Certifications Course Proposed Payroll and Personnel have been discussing development of a course to assist department per-sonnel on proper use of the online active and certifications reports. We are looking for department input on whether or not you feel there is a need for this type of class. Let Linda Slater or Rick Beyer know your thoughts on this undertaking, 644-3813. Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) EFT conversion for Florida State University employees will occur in September. Employees who are not in compliance will receive a letter of notification this month. Penalties for not complying with EFT requirements will be published as soon as information is provided by the State Comptrol-ler's Office. Taxation Of Fringe Benefits Employees who have club memberships, courtesy cars, or receive free season tickets to athletic events will soon see the dollar amount of the benefit added into their gross salary and therefore be- come taxable income. Employees with club memberships are reminded to submit club usage logs to Payroll Services by November 12, 2001. The form is available at (http://www.vpfa.fsu.edu/policies/controller/exhibits/appq.pdf). The usage log should define both business and personal use. Based on a percentage calculation, only the personal usage will be taxable, but failure to sub-mit the report will cause taxation on the full membership amount. Courtesy vehicle usage reports are due in Payroll Services by November 9, 2001. Like club logs, failure to submit vehicle usage reports will cause full taxation of the annual rental value of the courtesy vehicle. Questions should be addressed to Rick Beyer, 644-3813.

Page 3 Volume 6, Issue 1

FSU’s electronic travel system (ET) is up and running! The Presi-dent’s Office, Finance and Administration administrative offices, Office of Technology Integration, and the College of Human Sci-ences were selected as pilot areas to test the system before it’s rolled out to campus. The system greatly simplifies the travel au-thorization and approval process. See inset for comments from Jeannine Meis and Genevieve Scott in the President’s Office de-scribing the travel system. With ET you can prepare, review and approve travel from any-where with a web connection. Some of the many user-friendly features include on-line helps, edits to reduce errors, drop-down tables of travel purposes and benefits to reduce typing, and best of all, the ability to follow the status of the TAR and RV as the in-formation is reviewed and approved by supervisors, the Travel Of-fice and other areas. No more “lost” paperwork!! Departments can also scan their traveler’s receipts, and send them as attach-ments via e-mail to Travel, where they’ll be permanently ‘imaged’ and linked to the related TAR’s and RV’s. Authorized users can view the receipts on the web. As with any new implementation, we may encounter a few bugs, but we fully expect them to be more than outweighed by the long-term benefits. For additional information, contact Bill Agner at 644-9785 (e-mail bag-ner@admin.fsu.edu) or Jennifer Pittman at 644-9410 (e-mail jpitt-man@admin.fsu.edu)

FSU’s New On-Line Travel System Is Up and Away!!!

(Continued from page 1) ♦ Angela Gaskins, former Director of Parking Services at FSU now serves in the posi-

tion of Director of the Academic Business Administration Program. Angela is well known around campus for her excellent assistance in Parking Services and she has vigorously taken on the new challenges of the ABA program by getting acquainted with her new staff and meeting with the deans and department heads at sites the ABA program serves. Her new office is located in C4100.

♦ Tom Hawkins, most recently from Iowa State, but formerly from the University of Flor-

ida and FSU will be assuming the position of Director of Accounting Services of the Foundation. Mr. Hawkins will be relocating to Florida and begins his duties October 8. Tom has over 20 years of university foundation experience. His office will be located at C4100.

♦ Marcia Murphy, former Assistant Controller assumed the position of Director of Stu-

dent Financial Services in March. Although Marcia has been part of SFS for five years, she is excited to learn about the new challenges and responsibilities of the po-sition. Marcia’s office will continue to be located in A1500.

“The new electronic travel system renders the older paper method com-pletely obso l e t e. 'User friendly' is almost too mild a term to describe the ease of the program, and keeping track of T A R s and r e i mbursements is simple. W i t h o u t pa-per, we get faster results, more room and a lot less s t r e s s. W e highly recommend electronic travel!"

Jeannine Meis Genevieve Scott

Office of the

President

A2200 University Center ATTN: Pat Hunt Phone: 644-5140

Florida State University Office of the Assistant Vice President of Finance and Controller

We’re on the Web at http://www.vpfa.fsu.

edu/control/

Tax Identification and Sales Tax ID Numbers Departments occasionally receive inquiries from vendors concerning the University’s tax identifi-cation and sales tax exemption numbers. For future reference, you may want to make note that the University tax identification number is 59-1961248; the University sales tax exemption num-ber is 47-04-025950-57C. The Department of Revenue restricts the use of our sales tax exemption to purchases from Flor-ida businesses, paid for directly by the University. The University must pay sales tax on out-of-state purchases. Written requests regarding our tax identification and sales tax exemption numbers should be di-rected to Patsy Rogers in the Controller’s Office, Mail Code 2390. Questions may be directed to her at 644-5482.

Controller’s Office Forms On The Web! Just a reminder about the great number of forms available on the Controller’s Office website that make our lives easier and jobs more efficient!

http://www.vpfa.fsu.edu/control/forms.html If you use forms regularly that are not currently accessible via the web, please let us know.

Hallmarks Each one of us will one day be judged by our standard of life, not by our standard of living; by our measure of giving, not by our measure of wealth; by our simple goodness, not by our seeming greatness. William Arthur Ward