12/10/98 - Transaction Processing Release 2.4
11/6/98 - Additions to Web Pages (documents)
10/23/98 - Transaction Processing Release 2.3
10/20/98 - Decision Support Release 2.2
8/27/98 - Release 2.2 - System Changes
7/16/98 - Online Reference Manual Returns
6/29/98 - Release 2.1 - System Changes
6/5/98 - In Box Design Change
5/22/98 - New Decision Support Features
5/11/98 - Enrollment System Improved
5/8/98 - Web Site Improved
3/16/98 - Decision Support Upgrade

12/10/98

Below is a list of the changes included in this release:

Document Printing - A print checkbox has been added to the documents listed below, and their expansion screens. This checkbox will only be functional, or even visible, when a document is editable - either by the initiator or account manager/delegate (if the document can be edited in routing).

If the box is checked, the screen will be printed when the user clicks OK. Clicking Quit does not print - even Quit/Save will not cause the document to print. The box cannot be checked if the form is display only. All forms opened through Document Search are display only. For those documents, use the menu option File/Print to print.
NOTE: The Statement of Cash Collections will continue to be printed in the usual way; however, the expansion screens now have the Print checkbox.

PO, DPO, DRO printed documents - Proportional fonts have been utilized for enhanced appearance. The document number, vendor phone and fax numbers have been added to the printed document.

New Documents - Distribution of Exp - Special Routing and Current Budget Adj - Special Routing. These documents bypass all routing except Account Manager. This will allow users to more easily change any, or all, of the following attributes on a transaction:

• Sub-account
• Sub-object
• Project

New Document: The Restricted Account maintenance document bypasses routing so accounting can change account attributes that are only used in, and have an affect on, Accounting & Financial Services. This document is particularly critical to Extramural Accounting.

Reference flag in Project Table - Previously, the Project Lookup selected where the Reference Control flag is set to Yes or No, with No being the default. However, projects entered before Reference Control was implemented have no entry for this flag. Hence they never show up on the Project Lookup. This change will cause the reference flag on the project table to = N if it is currently empty - allowing the affected Projects to be located in the lookup. This will affect 15,685 project codes in Production.

11/6/98

New informational documents have been added to the web site. Among them:

• DaFIS Approvers (Training Document)
• Decision Support 201 (Training Document)
• Decision Support 202 (Training Document)
• Transaction Listing w/Payroll Detail Desk Reference

10/23/98

Below is a list of the changes included in this release:

Performance enhancement
Enhancements have been made to the Find By Org function, in Document Search, that allow results to be returned more quickly.

Base Budget Adjustment
The Fiscal Year indicator has been modified to allow for both Current Fiscal Year (BB and FT Balance Types) and Next Fiscal Year (BI and FI Balance Types) adjustments.

Account (table entry)
The one position sub-fund type field has been expanded to a two position field. Nearly all of the available sub-fund types have been used, prompting this change.

Chart M Addition
New Chart Code "M" (Hospital Plant) has been added to appropriate forms and processes that currently reference Chart "P".

Reports to Account Edits/OSHPD code (Account Doc)
The edits on the "Reports to" account field have been modified so that if an invalid account is entered, the warning is overrideable. This is to allow UCDMC to enter the OSHPD account information in this field for reporting.

Reference Table Logging
Some of the Reference Tables have been modified so that when a user makes a change, the system will automatically log the author, the date and the change made.

Document Restriction Doc (bug fix)
The Sub Fund Type field data was previously being lost on this document during routing. This problem has been resolved in this release.

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10/20/98

With balances now being stored down at the project code level, it became possible for us to write new reports and modify existing reports to include additional flexibility.

New Queries
Transaction Listing w/ Payroll Detail (179)
This report was designed by the Customer Advisory Team, in answer to a recommendation by the DaFIS Assessment Task Force. It was designed for the reporting needs of Principal Investigators. This report outputs transaction information grouped first by sub-account, then by object consolidation. A Summary page, Open-PO Summary, and pending transactions are optional features.

Transaction Listing by Project/Consolidation (187)
This report has been added to support departmental reporting based on the project code. This report works identically to the Transaction Listing by Sub-account/Consolidation. It totals transactions within each object consolidation and then by each project used on the account. For departments who have used project codes on their PAFs, this report should make viewing of payroll information much easier.

Summary of Project Balances by Consolidation (188)
This report is based on the Summary of Consolidation Balances except that it provides object consolidation totals for projects across accounts.

Query Modifications
In addition to the new reports, many existing financial reports have been enhanced. The following modifications were made to the Summary of Account Balances (38); Summary of Sub-account Balances (51); Summary of Consolidation Balances (44) :

• Project has been added as a criteria
• Principal Investigator has been added as a criteria
• Control Account has been added as a criteria
• Account Manager has been added as a criteria
• It is now possible to suppress balance sheet objects (BLSH consolidation), overhead (INDR consolidation), and payroll liens from the report.
• RTF is now available as an output format

• Project has been added as a criteria
• It is now possible to suppress balance sheet objects (BLSH consolidation), overhead (INDR consolidation), and payroll liens from the report.
• Pending ledger entries can be included on the report.
• Accounts with no activity and no balance will now display $0.00 total lines for the account
• The wildcard ability on the PI name field has been removed. To get a PI's name as recorded in DaFIS, please use the picklist. This prevents the report from accidentally returning accounts for more than 1 PI.

The Balance Sheet Reference Ledger (126) has been replaced by the Reference Control Account Ledger (73). This new reference control ledger includes carry-forward project balances. This new version of the report no longer displays encumbrances but can run for any account. (i.e., it is no longer restricted to just BS and RF accounts) If you need encumbrances reported by project, please use the Transaction Listing by Project/Consolidation (187).

The Vendor Directory by Organization (87) and the Agreement Lookup (34) have both been modified to make their results more compatible with Transaction Processing. They will now only show agreements (or vendors for agreements) if the entered organization is specifically listed on the agreement. (Previously these reports returned all vendors/agreements if the entered organization or any parent organization was listed on the agreement.)
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8/27/98

Release 2.2 will go into Production the evening of August 28. This release will include 24 minor bug fixes and performance enhancements. Most of these modifications will not be visible to the users, but should improve aspects of performance. However, the following changes will be noticeable to users:

• Print Suppress function fixed - Previously the Suppress function would only take effect if it was followed by the printing of another PO/DPO/DRO. If the user selected Suppress, and immediately exited the printing screen, then the selected document would not be suppressed. The Suppress option will now be applied as soon as the Suppress button is clicked.
• Routing button on AR documents - The Routing button will now appear on the AR Credit Memo, and AR Payment Adjust/Negative Payment documents.
• Delegate Name now brings back correct information (Account Delegate document) - Previously, double-clicking on the Delegate Name brought back the wrong user information. It will now provide information about the specified Delegate.
• Explanation will now be saved with the document (EEV, TEV) - Previously, if an initiator saved an incomplete EEV or TEV to their Inbox, the explanation would be gone when they re-opened the document.
• System will no longer require a note if changes not made - Previously, the system would require a note if the approver expanded the account description field on an accounting distribution screen (DPO, PR) - even if no changes were made. This fix was released prior to 8/28. In addition, the system requirement of a note on a DC and AV documents will be included on the 2.2 release.
• Insufficient funds checking fixed - Several transactions were reported where the Insufficient Funds message was received in error. The cause of these problems has been identified and fixed. The system now, appropriately, checks the account balance, minus all expenditures and encumbrances that are in the General Ledger.
• Exiting field expansion on an SCC - Previously, a double-click was needed to exit the Description field, in the Accounting Information section. It will now only require a single click, as all other expansion screens.

7/16/98

The DaFIS Online Reference Manual has returned in an abbreviated form. The Online Reference is undergoing a face lift - modules and documents will be released as they become available. Currently, only AP documents are available.

Among the improvements in the Online Reference Manual:

• Color coded screen prints show at a glance what fields are required or optional
• Frame based pages show the field definition without having to leave the screen print
• More detailed description of each field
• Added information, such as: common object codes and procedures for completing the document

6/29/98

The DaFIS 2.1 release contains an upgrade to the foundation of the DaFIS application (Oracle and Uniface). This release also contains enhancements, bug fixes, and some minor differences in the way DaFIS works.

Account Maintenance
Additional screens have been added to the Account Maintenance Document to record attributes associated with an Account. The attributes added are Income Authority, Income Type, Federal Customer and Reference Control indicators, Ratenames, and Assessment Types.

STIP (Short Term Investment Pool) Distribution
The OP Fund Number table has been expanded to facilitate the distribution of interest earned on OP Funds. This information will be updated quarterly. OP Fund Numbers will now have a STIP code attached to each fund and corresponding budget distribution and budget conversion account information. A STIP Distribution reference table has also been added which will show the distribution of the STIP money along with the percentage to each account.

Reference Control Improvements
First, a project balance table was created, which simplifies reporting at the project level. This table removes the need to search through the entire general ledger transaction listing in order to get the transaction totals for a project. In addition this facilitates the carry forward of project balances across fiscal years which is essential for the closing processes.
Second, security is added to financial lookups within the TP system so that “Reference Controlled” account financial data is only available to authorized personnel.

Printing
All DaFIS Documents will now print without an extra blank page.

REC, EC, DI Documents
The edit on the prior doc number and origination code has been changed so that validation is no longer necessary.

DC Documents
Business rules are now table driven.

Blank Initiator ID
A bug allowing a blank initiator ID on a routed document has been fixed.

IB Documents
The tracking number is now saved.

AV, YEAV, JV Documents
Posting Period Year now updates the accounting lines on the document.

BB Documents
Account manager can now modify accounts for which he/she is account manager.

TEV, EEV Documents
Previously, when an EEV or TEV was saved to the initiators inbox the explanation was lost. That explanation is now being retained.

Cursor Position
With the upgrade to Uniface 7.2, the cursor doesn’t always start out in the same field when entering a document. The first time a document is entered, the cursor is in the expected location ready for data entry. However, upon opening the same form thereafter, the cursor will sometimes remain wher it was in the previous entry of the document -- a data field or the QUIT and OK buttons. In these cases, a few tabs or a mouse click will bring the cursor back to the point of data entry.

Change in Message Bar Behavior
Messages on the white bar at the bottom of the screen will still show up but will sometimes immediately scroll, leaving a blank message bar. The messages are still available for viewing by clicking the triangle to the right of the message bar, which will show a history of the recent messages. The standard “BEEP” will continue to alert you to messages in the message bar.

Log-on wait
The waiting period at the “Loading DaFIS prod - please be patient” screen will be increased somewhat. Top

6/5/98

In Box Improvements
Concerns over performance, and ease of use, of the In Box have prompted a new design. The new version of the In Box is schedule for early June implementation. The new design not only improves performance, but adds some additional functionality that account managers and delegates will find particularly useful.

The Original Design
The original design of the In Box included a button titled ‘Alternate.’ This button was used to access the In Boxes of account managers for whom you were a non-primary delegate. You would then select the appropriate account manager, and would see the documents that fit your delegation authority. It was also used by Account Managers to access documents routed to their primary delegates. This functionality was not only confusing to some users, but performance was proving to be a problem - with some experiencing long delays before the Alternate In Box would open.

The New Design
The new design has replaced the Alternate button with a drop-down list of options. These options not only replace the Alternate button, but they add several more levels of functionality.

• Normal - This is the default selection. This will display all documents in your In Box, just as you see them today.

• Alternate: Search as Non-Primary - This selection will provide a list of users for whom you are a non-primary delegate, and a list of documents that you are authorized to approve.
• Alternate: Search as Account Manager - This selection will provide a list of delegates for whom you are the account manager, and a list of documents awaiting approval.

• Account Manager/Primary - This selection will show you only the documents with accounts for which you are account manager, or primary delegate. All other documents will be removed from the In Box display.
• Account Manager Only - This selection will display only documents with accounts for which you are the account manager.
• Primary Delegate - This selection displays only documents containing accounts for which you are the primary delegate.

5/22/98

A new query has been added to the Reference Table query category in DS. The Query List (168) query allows users to run a list of all queries currently active in Decision Support. The user can run the query for a specific category, or for all categories. The results will list reports that meet the specified criteria, and are available to the user (based on their user type).

Among the criteria available to run the Query List are:

• Query Category
• Query Criteria (input fields on query screens)

The query also offers the option of sorting the results by:

• Category
• Query Name
• Query ID number

The query results include a list of all fields available for input on the specified query. Required fields for the query, and fields that allow wildcards, are also indicated.

We've also added a feature to all date criteria fields in Decision Support.

To the right of each date field there is now a button. Clicking this button will display a small calendar. Clicking on any date in the calendar will return that date to the input form.

You will still have the option of manually entering the date in any date field. But this feature will help when you need to remember what the date was three weeks ago Tuesday. Top

5/11/98

As of Monday, May 11, we will roll out a new enrollment system. Following is a list of the improvements found in the new system:

• New Users no longer need to sign up for training access. This part of course signup is handled automatically the first time you log into the enrollment system.
• Courses can now be wait-listed. Users on the waiting list will be automatically enrolled in a course as others de-enroll. An e-mail will also be sent to confirm your enrollment from a waiting list.
• Ability to switch sections without de-enrolling and re-enrolling. This eliminates the possibility of attemping to change sections and losing your seat.
• Information on courses you've taken, enrolled for, or are wait-listed on is easier to find. Color coded lists give you a quick overview.
• Ability to see how may seats are available for an entire class or a section. This makes planning easier when users want to enroll in groups.
• Priority enrollment on the next round of classes for users who fail to get in on the waiting lists. Courses that are identified as impacted will open up for enrollment earlier for those who failed to get in on the previous round.
• Automatic e-mails to the DaFIS listserv when new course sections open for public enrollment.
• Automatic course reminder e-mails 3 days before a class.

5/8/98

As you have by now noticed, our web site has been upgraded and improved to make navigation easier. The site now utilizes frames to make link options available throughout. The buttons on the left of your screen will appear at all times. These buttons lead to further groups of pages, which will have their own unique selections appear at the bottom of the screen. For those who have previously used this site, it may be difficult to figure out where your favorite pages went. Below is a list of each of the buttons, and what is available on those pages.

• Contacts: This page provides contact information for DaFIS Staff, DaFIS Mentors and the CAT. There is also information on the DaFIS Steering Commitee, DaFIS Help Desk and the DaFIS listserve.

• DaFIS CAT: This section, as before, has all of the information on the Customer Advisory Team. You can locate your representative, or read the minutes from their latest meeting.

• Decision Support: Still takes you to the Decision Support system. This button will launch another session of your browser, allowing you to work in DS and still use your browser for other purposes.

• Documents: All of the documentation on DaFIS is available here. Informational documents and training materials are here to help users better understand the DaFIS system. There is also a link to the CAT documents. The Online Reference Manual will be located here, but is currently under renovation.

• Help: This page provides you with all of the Help resources available to DaFIS users. The FAQ page is now located here, along with links to all of the documents and pages aimed at helping users. We have also added a new link - Jason Coffer's web page with all of the DaFIS e-mails and tips.

• System Info: This page provides DaFIS users with information on installing and troubleshooting the DaFIS software.

• System Status: This page, as before, has indicators that provide the current status of the servers and databases.

• Training: Class schedules and enrollment are available on this page. Our course enrollment system has also been updated and improved. One login procedure will provide you with all of your past and current enrollments, as well as allowing you to enroll in new classes. We now have an automatic waiting list system for those hard to get classes.

3/16/98

The newest upgrade to Decision Support was released into production on March 16. Many of the enhancements to the system were the result of the Customer Advisory Team's early efforts. Those changes are outlined below.

With Decision Support release 2.0, the functionality of the Transaction Listing reports (110,26,22,153) has been greatly enhanced. Each style of ledger now has the ability to:

• Return ledgers for all accounts in an entire organizations (20 accounts @ a time)
• Return ledgers for all accounts under an account manager (20 accounts @ a time)
• Return ledgers for all accounts supervised by a given P.I. (20 accounts @ a time)
• Return ledgers for all accounts under a given Control Account (20 accounts @ a time)
• Report on multiple month periods
• Display transactions summarized by document
• Display a total for each account of the total activity during the reporting period
• Return all ledger reports in HTML (Web Browser), Rich Text Format (Word Processor), or Spreadsheet format

The Transaction Listing queries (110,26,22,153) are now capable of returning larger sets of data than before. As such, the timeout value on these queries has been increased to 20 minutes. Even so, please realize that not all possible queries will return within 20 minutes. For example, if you queried all accounts within an organization (returning 20 accounts) for fiscal periods July 1997 through June 1998 on fairly active accounts, the query may not be able to do each account in only a minute.

If you intend to print your ledgers, we highly recommend that you return the report to Rich Text Format. This format is readable by most word processors. With it you will get column headers on each page, document numbers on the report, and page breaks between accounts. The page breaks are designed for 2-sided printing. Accounts will only begin on odd numbered pages so accounts can be easily separated after printing. If more than 20 accounts would match the entered criteria, you will need to run the query once for each set of 20. After the 1st 20, you will need to change the value of the Start Row parameter to 21, then to 41, then to 61, and so on...

In addition, the Transaction Listing by Consolidation (110) and the Transaction Listing by Object (26) now provide a sub-total of the Direct Costs on each account. Indirect costs are displayed after this total and calculated into the final account balance as before.

The Current Encumbrance Balances (46) report now has an additional capability. If you check the Group on Tracking # box, encumbrance balances will be sub-totaled by the tracking number field. This would give you the encumbrance balance on purchase orders across all accounts in your organization.

The Summary of Consolidation Balances (44) now splits out indirect costs from the account totals. A sub-total of direct costs appears above the indirect cost total in an account (if any) and then prints the total for the account including indirect costs. When this report is grouped by consolidation level, the sub-total is displayed after all consolidations except INDR, giving a total of direct costs for all accounts on the report. Then the INDR consolidation is listed and the final total, including indirect costs.

Two new queries have been added to the Reference Table Queries category. They are Account Delegate Lookup (167) and Review Hierarchy Lookup (166). Both of these reports allow you to search on almost any value in the tables. The Account Delegate Lookup (167) lists all accounts within the specified organization. Below each it lists the delegates and information about what they are authorized for. The query can be executed for an organization, account, account manager and/or delegate.

The Review Hierarchy Lookup (166) query lists all review hierarchy entries for an organization, reviewer or workgroup. Results are sorted by organization, document type, and reviewer/workgroup. When a workgroup is listed it appears in italics and all the users in that workgroup are shown. All fields in the review hierarchy table are available as criteria on this query.

The Order Detail (79) report now has an additional drilldown. This drilldown is called Purchasing Order Lien Transactions (165) and can be found independently in the Purchasing Sub-Queries category. It shows all the encumbrance transactions made for a given purchase order. This includes the set-up of the encumbrance by the PO, any changes on CPOs, and VIs that reduce the lien. This report shows the full accounting unit, as well as the document type and number that created the transaction. Clicking on the document number will display the full information for the document that created that encumbrance transation. Encumbrances are sub-totaled at the Object, Sub-Account, and Account levels.

A new report, Commodities by Organization (164), has been added to the Purchasing category. This report will list all commodities used on purchasing orders within the date range and organzation specified. With each commodity code used, the report will display the descriptions used for the commodity code. That is, every customized description used for a commodity in your organization will appear. If you only want the default descriptions from the commodity code table, check the Default Descriptions Only checkbox.

The Open Purchasing Orders (138) query now has 3 additional optional criteria: Last Order Date, Vendor Code, and Document Type. The Last Order Date criteria will allow you to specify that you only want to see orders initiated before a certain date on the report. The Vendor Code and Document Type fields allow you to restict this report to a specific vendor and/or document type (PO/DPO). Also, this query now displays the order date on the report.

The Commodity Lookup (43) report now provides selection by the many flags that were added to the commodity table. And the output was enhanced to display some of these attributes. For example, you can now ask for a listing of all generic commodities or all subscription commodities. Also, this report now supports the Start Row parameter. Result sets on this report are limited to 1000 commodities. However, you can set the Start Row parameter to 1001 and run the query again to get the next 1000 commodities. Using this procedure, you could obtain a list of the entire commodity table.

The Payment Lookup report has been renamed Payment/Credit Lookup (112). It can now return credit memo documents in addition to payment documents. As requested, a total has been added to the bottom of this report. This report now has the option to return it to a spreadsheet. It also has 2 additional criteria: the Document Type field has been changed to a list so multiple document types may be reported at a time; a Sort Order field has been added that allows you to select one of the following to sort by: Doc Type, Vendor Name, Vendor Invoice Date, Purchase Order, Check Number, Scheduled Payment Date, or Document Number. Lastly, the Vendor Code field has been renamed to properly reflect what it was searching. The Vendor Code field searches the Remit-To Vendor on payments and credits.

The Vendor Commodities Information (36) query (available via drilldown from the Vendor Detail (31) query) has been enhanced so that it retrieves commodities that the vendor supplies through agreements. This should make this sub-query actually return some results for a change. The problem was that commodities are not being associated directly with vendors in the system by the Purchasing department. Instead, commodities are being associated with the agreements these vendors have with the University. This query now includes those commodities in its output.

The Payments To Vendor (101) query's Spreadsheet option now functions.

The Asset Lookup (143) query now has two additional criteria: Purchase Order and User Field. The Purchase Order criteria refers to the PO/DPO the equipment was purchased on - Note that this does not have to be a DaFIS PO number. The User Field criteria looks for the data in all 3 user fields attached to the asset. If the string entered is found in any of them, the asset is returned on the report.

Finally, with Release 2.0 we have dropped support for Netscape 2.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0 browsers. These browser's usage on campus has been dropping continuously over the last 8 months in favor of newer browsers. Newer versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer are free for downloading from their respecive web sites. The older browsers do not support some of the features in the newer browsers. These features allow us to enhance the interface and presentation of information. Developing workarounds for older browers is becoming increasingly difficult. We have now reached the point where we can not provide the requested functionality to the earlier browsers.
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