University of Wisconsin-Madison

Overview of Business Process Changes for Program Release Implementation

A series of business process changes affecting travel reimbursement, Accounting, and Purchasing take effect on February 8, 2008.  The overall goal of the changes is to eliminate UW-Madison’s legacy Accounting Control system built in the 1970’s and replace it with processes running in the UW System’s Shared Financial System (SFS).

Business Services is responsible for the changes resulting from implementation of the following three projects:

1. Automated Travel System (ATS)
2. Madison Accounts Payable/Purchase Order processes (Madison APPO)
3. Legacy Accounting to Shared Financial System (SFS) Transition (LAST)

Specific information about these changes is covered by choosing from the tabs above. In addition to these three projects, grants and effort reporting collectively make up the five projects known as the Program Release. For an overview of the 2008 Program Release see http://www.vc.wisc.edu/ProgramRelease.

Although the changes will require new processes, there will be more data in SFS and WISDM for analysis and inquiry purposes, and old, outdated computer programs that are becoming expensive to modify and maintain will be eliminated.  These changes help the UW System to move to a more centralized approach for business operations at a system wide level.

How Does this Affect Campus?

The implementation of ATS, APPO, and LAST will result in the following business process changes for campus:

• Travel Reimbursement Changes
  • Automated Travel System (ATS) replaces the Travel Expense Reimbursement (TER) form
• Web-based External Requisition Generator and EPRQ Replacement
  • Replaces My UW Requisition Tool and 3270 Mainframe tools
  • Available through the Requisition and Number Generator Module on the Services tab in My UW February 11, 2008
• SFS coding used for transactions
  • External Requisitions move to SFS coding February 11, 2008
  • Purchasing Cards move to SFS coding
  • New project numbers used
• Continuing Order Requisition (COR) distribution using the Web-based External Requisition Generator
  • FY8 year end COR run
• Managing Encumbrances post Program Release
• Close purchase orders more efficiently in the new environment
• Funding string validation tool available through WISDM
• WISDM enhancements for Program Release 2008 (PDF opens in new window)
  • Reporting changes for sponsored and non-sponsored projects
• Month-end closing
  • Occurs after the last calendar day of each month
• Business Services and campus personnel are currently working on projects to:
  • Handle the year-end closing and rollover process in the new environment