We hope this change will be helpful for your reconciliation and reporting. Please email financemart@usf.edu if you have any questions or suggestions.

It’s very, very important to clear your cache.  With major upgrades the old cookies and temporary files stored for the old version do not work with the new version. To allow your browser to function properly and prevent any performance issues you must clear your cache.  For Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) users, please be sure to perform the action to deselect ‘Preserve Favorites Website Data’ when clearing your cache or you will continue to experience issues in FAST 9.1.  For instructions on all browsers and to view IE8 video on how to clear your cache and cookies please visit the Browser Cache / Cookies page.

Remember:

• If you haven’t viewed What’s New, What’s Different for FAST 9.1, please visit the FAST 9.1 Upgrade Tutorial.
• All private queries were moved from 8.9 to 9.1 as of 5 AM on Monday, November 28th, thus you will need to reapply any changes made, and recreate any queries created, in the last week.
• All your favorites from 8.9 should now be available in 9.1.
• If you customized your grids in 8.9, you will need to reapply those customizations in 9.1.  Want to know more about customized grids - Let us know!

As always, we are here to assist you – simply send an email to bsr@usf.edu.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we worked toward, and completed, this upgrade.

The upgrade team is continue working on verification and finalization. We will communicate to you again when the system is fully ready for you!

The project is currently on schedule to meet the projected timeline. FAST downtime for this upgrade is set to begin at 5 PM, Thursday, December 1st and to complete by 8 AM, Tuesday, December 6th, 2011.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO ASSIST?

You will need to finish all your processes and activities before 5 PM on December 1st.  You will not have access to FAST during this “Go-Live” period.

WHAT IS BEING DONE TO ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL UPGRADE?

The upgrade team has finished 4 cycles of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) by Thursday, November 10th. The team is working hard and marching towards our common goal to deliver a stable FAST 9.1 production environment on-schedule.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR 9.1 TRAINING NEED?

We have a FAST 9.1 Upgrade Resource page at http://bsr.usf.edu/?page_id=2552, where you could access all the training materials. Since there is no new functionality introduced at this point of time for the new version, the changes are minimum on side.  However if further assistance is needed, please email us at bsr@usf.edu so we could help address your specific needs. Thank you.

PARTNER WITH US FOR A SUCCESSFUL UPGRADE!

We view end users as an essential element to the success of the FAST 9.1 Upgrade. We value your input and feedback. Please feel free to email us at bsr@usf.edu regarding any issues, concerns, suggestions, or comments on how we can help you through this upgrade. As we begin the preparations and countdown to implementation, please continue to frequent BSR’s website at http://bsr.usf.edu/ for breaking news on all FAST 9.1 Upgrade activities.

Thank you in advance for your commitment and dedication to the University of South Florida System and for partnering with us!

WHEN THIS WILL HAPPEN:

The ‘query freeze’ will begin at 5 AM, Monday, November 28th, 2011 and last until Projected FAST 9.1 Go-Live time which is 8 AM, Tuesday, December 6th, 2011.

If your job responsibilities include running queries, rest assured that you will have the access to run queries until FAST 8.9 goes offline at 5 PM, Thursday, December 1st, 2011.

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING:

A ‘query freeze’ is essentially a period of time in which query creation and updates cannot be retained for migration.  The period of time between 5 AM, November 28th, 2011 and 8 AM, December 6th, 2011 is needed to facilitate many facets of upgrading from FAST 8.9 to 9.1 which include moving queries from current environment.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO:

Any query you created or updated during the ‘query freeze’ must be personally tracked so you could recreate or re-apply updates in FAST 9.1.

If you have any queries that are no longer needed in FAST 8.9, you should delete those queries in FAST 8.9 before the ‘query freeze’.

If you have any additional questions or concerns please contact Business Systems Reengineering at BSR@usf.edu. You could continue to frequent BSR’s website at http://bsr.usf.edu/ for breaking news on all FAST 9.1 Upgrade activities.

The project is currently on schedule to meet the projected timeline. FAST downtime for this upgrade is set to begin at 5 PM, Thursday, December 1st and to complete by 8 AM, Tuesday, December 6th, 2011.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO ASSIST?

You will need to finish all your processes and activities before 5 PM on December 1st.  You will not have access to FAST during this “Go-Live” period.

WHAT IS BEING DONE TO ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL UPGRADE?

The upgrade team has finished testing of all critical and regular business processes. Currently the team is at the end of Cycle 3 of User Acceptance Testing (UAT), which includes testing of all integrations and interfaces.  The remaining Cycle is reserved to retest all previously identified issues. Our target date to complete all UAT cycles is Thursday, November 10th. The team is working hard and marching towards our common goal to deliver a stable FAST 9.1 production environment on-schedule.

WILL TRAINING BE PROVIDED?

On-site training is planned.  The objective of this training is to assist end users in adapting to the new environment.  Subject matter experts will be available for Q&A sessions. Training sessions have been scheduled for member institutions, and further details will be communicated to users in Tampa very soon.

PARTNER WITH US FOR A SUCCESSFUL UPGRADE!

We view end users as an essential element to the success of the FAST 9.1 Upgrade. We value your input and feedback. Please feel free to email us at bsr@usf.edu regarding any issues, concerns, suggestions, or comments on how we can help you through this upgrade. As we begin the preparations and countdown to implementation, please continue to frequent BSR’s website at http://bsr.usf.edu/ for breaking news on all FAST 9.1 Upgrade activities.

Thank you in advance for your commitment and dedication to the University of South Florida System and for partnering with us!

­­­­After months of collaboration among University Controller’s Office (UCO), Information Technology (IT), Office of Decision Support (ODS) and Business Systems Reengineering (BSR), we are excited to present the RSA Correction. Our goal is to provide quality reports to assist you in managing financial data more effectively.

Why?

The RSA Correction was a priority request from a group representing College of Arts & Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Marine Science, and College of Behavioral & Community Sciences.   These individuals identified a timing issue which caused RSA to be overstated when a travel encumbrance became an expense, but was not yet posted to the general ledger as an actual.  In addition, there were many other colleges involved in bringing this issue to the attention of UCO, and/or participated in testing the solution.  Many thanks to the entire USF System for your cooperation, collaboration, and assistance with this effort. 

How?

A new column (PENDING ACTUAL) has been added in both the Financial Report Summary and RSA Summary and a change made to the RSA calculation.  The RSA now calculates as follows:
RSA = Budget Amt – Encumbrance Amt – Pending Actual Amt – Actual Amt

What?

Please see the following screen shot for an example of the change in the RSA Summary Report.

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WHO THIS APPLIES TO: All FAST Users

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING: Upgrades are necessary to remain on a supported software version and compliant with Federal requirements.  It is vital to the business of USF System that we complete this upgrade by mid-late November.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: A tight timeline has been established to meet our target go-live date.  Information Technology worked diligently and delivered a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) environment on August 24th.  We are now focused on the 9-week functional testing starting this week. Training will be available to assist you in adapting to this new environment, details will be provided at a later date.

We would like to partner with you to make the FAST 9.1 Upgrade a great success. Please feel free to email us at bsr@usf.edu about any issues, concerns, suggestions, or comments on how we can help you through this upgrade. You may frequent this website or BSR’s Blog at http://bsr.blog.usf.edu/ for more details on the latest breaking news on FAST 9.1 Upgrade activities.

Thank you for your continued commitment and dedication to the University of South Florida System.

1. Logon to GEMS Self-Service.  Need assistance logging on? CLICK HERE
2. From the Main Menu, Click ‘Self Service’.

3. Click ‘Payroll and Compensation’.
4. Click ‘View Paycheck’.

Note: A check mark under the ‘PDF File’ column indicates the paycheck is available in a print friendly ‘PDF File’ format.  Check Dates without a check mark can still be printed, but will print on two pages and may be necessary to configure the printout to fit on one page.  Please see screenshots below.

5. Click on the ‘Check Date’ of the paycheck you would like to view and/or print.  Print friendly paychecks (‘PDF File’ format) will open in a new window.  Need assistance viewing the new window? CLICK HERE

Print Friendly Paycheck

Non Print Friendly Paycheck