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Phase III Ideas

We have been collecting ideas and suggestions from stakeholders across the System for the third phase of the project. Good ideas can come from anyone! FAMIS users and the organizations they serve across the Texas A&M System have a wide variety of needs. We need and welcome ideas and feedback from everyone.

Have an idea for Phase III? Let us know!

Suggested Ideas

Here are a few of the top ideas that we’re researching:

  • Add the ability to encumber centralized benefits (benefits that have a charge code of a “2” on the accounting analysis table).
  • Update the Cost Sharing Module.
  • Build a strategic financial forecasting tool.
  • Enhance the AFR reporting tool.
  • Add the ability to post IDTs across System members.
  • Route approvals for items generated through third-party systems that are currently posted automatically in FAMIS.
  • Add the ability to capture FAMIS screens for conversion and storage in Laserfiche.
  • Enhance Canopy’s favorites list.
  • Enhance Canopy to include an auto-refresh feature and expanded capacity for downloads.
  • Add an on-screen filter option for Canopy as well as an option to download as an Excel file.
  • Create a department view of accounts in FAMIS without the need to add to the My Favorites list.
  • Enhance GL balance views to allow an easy view of cash balance.
  • Enhance / simplify carry-forward balance views.
  • Develop more real-time reports for Department Head use.
  • Add the ability for “Responsible Accountants” to log in and view only their accounts, similar to how Maestro allows Principal Investigators (PIs) to view their accounts only.
  • Enhance the current payroll cost transfer (PCT) process to further automate corrections by employee or account instead of individual pay periods.
  • Add functions to help monitor cash flow.
  • Add a tool for departments to run reports for their own accounts by calendar / fiscal / federal fiscal years, especially for beginning / ending balances and total expenses / revenue.
  • Develop a process to reference AggieBuy purchase order numbers in FAMIS without using cross-reference screens and gathering bid data with HUB data identifiers.
  • Add the ability to use a generic ABR rule for all projects and then manipulate the expenditure data to move certain expense codes into another pool for reporting and billing purposes.
  • Add a way to monitor the amount of an original budget, expenditures to date and any subsequent budget revisions made on the account up to a specified amount. Once the specified amount is reached, the account would notify the user that budget revisions have reached or exceeded the amount allowed by the sponsor.
  • Add the ability to see all DBRs per fiscal year across system parts in one location.
  • Add the ability to correct an expense across system parts.
  • Add the ability to do batch updates of inventory locations in one action.
  • On transactions screens, display transaction amounts in a column for encumbrances and one for actuals.
  • Add the ability to sort transaction amount data based on Ref 2, subcode or dollar amount.
  • For SRS flagged accounts, include the corresponding M# (project number) from Maestro.
  • Enhance training:
    • Hands-on / virtual training for experienced users performing unfamiliar tasks
    • Hands-on / virtual training for new users
    • Updated documentation
  • Include a dashboard that allows users to pull up information by FAMIS reference code (i.e., AggieBuy reference codes C and D feed into FAMIS as reference codes 1 and 2, respectively).
  • Utilize commas to prevent certain screens from cutting off numbers when they reach $1B.
  • Increase the efficiency of entering PCTs by offering an option for correcting a full fiscal year versus entering each payroll.
  • Enable a checkbox to approve multiple PCTs.
  • Add the ability to enter departmental correction requests (DCRs) across system parts for expense corrections (similar to PCTs across system parts for payroll corrections).
  • Add the ability to catalog BusinessObjects content to access information contained in the reports easily.
  • Add a way to easily create ad hoc reports and extract data to MS Excel from BusinessObjects.
  • Develop data maps with definitions for BusinessObjects.
  • Have a bank of common and / or “frequently” requested reports that members who are not power users can run.
  • Enhance communication between Workday and BusinessObjects.
  • Provide more detail on the different ways to look up financial functions.
  • Add additional help text within Canopy.
  • Add ability to set check cycles to multiple times a week.
  • Add an option to run multi-month transaction reports instead of single-month reports.
  • Provide multiple chart of accounts (COA) rollover options.
  • Add a FAMIS field for the A&M member pass-through and transfer codes when an entry is posted.
  • Provide ability to mark centers by type: Departmental Recharge, Member-wide Service Centers, Specialized Service Centers and Administrative Service centers per the regulation 21.01.05.
  • Define which centers are requiring rate studies and ones where they are used for federal funding and if they can they include IDC in their rates.
  • Ensure budget pools only record budget entries and actual revenue/expenses are NOT recorded on these codes.
  • Place edits on the GL/SL/SA account setup screens to help ensure reporting is more accurate.
  • Add function to create state to state corrections (expenditure transfer vouchers) in USAS to help reduce the double entry of these corrections.
  • Add the ability to no longer use account controls and object codes, place effective dating on these tables vs. just placing “frozen” on the concepts which are no longer used.
  • Separate GMS voucher feed into separate state USAS batch so prerelease can be completed on those batches.
  • Separate batches for vouchers entered into FAMIS/AggieBuy/Concur into Federal vs State appropriations to allow for prerelease in USAS.
  • Add ability to manually adjust requested payment date.
  • Add ability to remove any potential Comptroller’s office audit findings.
  • Add ability to deactivate function 50 Major Repair and Rehab. This is not longer allowed per NACUBO, but the value can be placed on the account setup screens.
  • Add ability to define the D22 Appropriated Fund on Screen 028 due to the volume of D23 Funds TDEM sets up.
  • Add new field or modify existing field to report D22 Cash in the State Treasury Balance in AFR.
  • Add FAMIS Screen 064 to Canopy, make it the default account summary view, and make the Original column be the Done Budget column so that managers can compare Done Budget vs Current / Revised Budget vs Last Year YTD.
  • Add the ability for FAMIS to encumber the annual budgeted salary of a new, previously nonexistent position so that associated salary dollars for an existing position sits unallocated in the account.
  • Add the ability to define the F&A IDC rates by year based on the latest F&A agreement with HHS to help the grant teams manage their contracts.
  • Add the ability to consolidate the daily error reports into one report or link so that users can prioritize processing errors.
  • Add a support account field to the Acct Low / Acct High field on the Maintain USAS Strategy Table (Screen 840).
  • Add Function Code to the Accounting Analysis Override table to allow users to override the payroll on a range of accounts for a specified account function.
  • Enhance the PCT process to allow payroll to be moved by account or funding source to allow for mass funding changes.
  • Add Bank to the Screen 840 USAS maintenance table so that all strategy codes can be defined by account range, appropriation, and fund to reduce the instances of needing to hardcode the PCA calculation for certain funds in the USAS feed file creation.
  • Add a flag on Screen 028 to indicate whether the Bank field should be incremented in the following fiscal year or not.
  • Add additional fields to help members pay other state agencies when both sides of the transaction are inside the State Treasury.
  • Add the change date to the AA table to enable users to track the affected time period for changes that have been made that will require manual correction in FAMIS.
  • Create time savings in the negative benefits process by programmatically creating the D-doc for the line items that have negative amounts and are not included in the voucher feed to USAS. The D-doc can be ftp’d to USAS similar to how the negative expense transactions for the payroll batches is handled.
  • Add the ability to update the state code to the 803 GL Account Control table for reference purposes in year-end reporting.
  • Add the state code for revenue subcodes on the 806 table.
  • Add the ability to separate the salary (1105) encumbrance between faculty encumbrance and nonfaculty encumbrance based on FAMIS Screen 730 earnings codes from Workday to enable a more accurate forecasting of faculty expenses.
  • Create a process to allow the FTP of files created by users to USAS to allow agencies to import mass funding corrections in USAS instead of requiring data entry.
  • Add the ability to encumber centralized benefits (benefits that have a charge code of a “2” on the accounting analysis table).
  • Add a comma delimiter in number fields to aid in determining the number of digits in various inquiry screens (e.g., 23, 46, 80, etc.).
  • Add the ability to allow a user to go back and update an entry as long as a batch has not been closed. This would improve data entry and help users post accurately the first time an entry is posted.
  • Allow withholding payments to recipients other than the Attorney General to follow the vendor settings (e.g., payments sent ACH if vendor settings are set to ACH payments).
  • Allow the ability to request a daily download of employee name and UIN on the FAMIS 726 Accounting Analysis Override tables for the monthly cycle.