Financial Reporting for Managers

Getting Started

General overview information on blink.ucsd.edu
Self-paced training on uclearning.ucsd.edu
Report is on the Budget & Finance tab of bah.ucsd.edu > Faculty & Researcher Dashboard (FYI: the link to the report occasionally changes)

What is the Faculty and Researcher Dashboard?

From blink.ucsd.edu: "This dashboard helps answer business questions related to a consumer's portfolio (awards/projects/tasks), money available to spend, money already spent, awards ending soon, payroll spent and projected, and the status of the budget."
As the name of the report suggests, this dashboard was originally created to support faculty and researchers.
Since our department does not work with or manage grant funding (referred to as “Sponsored Projects” or “Awards”), these elements of the report and training are irrelevant to you and may be ignored.

How to Access the Report

Access has been provisioned to all Principal Investigators, Project Managers, and Task Managers, as well as anyone with the Oracle BI Consumer JR role. Staff who do not have access and are not a Project Manager or Task Manager should request the Oracle role. All access requests are approved by Lourdes, so please make sure you give her a heads-up.

Navigate to bah.ucsd.edu.
Select Budget & Finance.
Click the Faculty and Researchers tab.
Click Launch from the Faculty and Researcher Dashboard tile.

When you log in, your name will automatically populate in the “PI/Project Manager/Task Manager” field. If you need to view as someone else, use the dropdown menu, select the name, then click Finish. You can either scroll or search by typing (if the latter, you need to type fairly quickly).

The Sponsored Projects section should always display “No Data Available.” If there’s ever data in this section, let Jeniffer know.
When viewing this report, note that there are two tabs on the bottom:
- Summary: it's what it sounds like – a summary of expenses.
- Payroll or Payroll Projections: this tab will only show summary data unless you have access to DOPE. Access to DOPE is reserved to fiscal staff, so if you need specific information broken down by employee, email recbo@ucsd.edu or submit a ticket.
Clicking on the blue links will open a new tab and “drill-down” (display more detailed information about that thing). Remember to adjust the dates for the period you’re interested in seeing.

General Ledger vs. PPM

IFIS/FinancialLink was a much simpler system because what you saw is what was there. However, in the new system, the ledger has kind of split into two: General Ledger and PPM.

For most units within our department, the only thing you will need to look at is the general ledger. The primary benefit of looking at PPM is that there is more transactional detail, which makes it easier to analyze costs. However, PPM does not show revenue, budget allocations, and a few other types of transactions.
General Ledger (GL) is like a Manager, and PPM is like their direct reports. (Disclaimer: this is an imperfect analogy)
- The purpose of the General Ledger (GL) is to record all financial transactions. → A manager is responsible for making sure that team members are doing their work.
- Most transactions occur in PPM and roll up to GL → Direct reports are responsible for carrying out the majority of work and then reporting those results to their manager.
  - Examples of PPM transactions: payroll, Concur (pcard/travel), POs
- Some transactions only appear in the GL. → Work performed by the manager isn’t communicated back to their direct reports.
  - Examples of things only in GL: resource allocations (budget allocations), revenue, some recharges
- Things that aren’t actual financial transactions aren’t in GL → Direct reports don’t share their day-to-day personal organizational tools with their managers or provide updates when nothing has actually happened.
  - Examples of things NOT in GL: tasks, commitments (liens), budget

Troubleshooting

There are two main reasons for an error message:

Issues with access
Issues with the browser’s cache

If you receive an error message, troubleshoot issue #1 and then troubleshoot issue #2.

Error Message: How to Resolve Access-Related Issues

Project Managers have access to this report. (If you’re receiving this training, you’re assigned as a Project Manager to at least one project.)
If a User does not have access, then there will be an error message saying: “Unable to Load Requested View. Displaying Home View Instead.”
To request access, either email recbo@ucsd.edu or submit a ticket.
Another way to check access is to use the Campus User Roles report.

Error Message: How to Resolve Browser-Related Issues

This issue occurs because the connection to access this report times out every 3 hours. One of the most annoying parts of the new reporting system is that it’s very sensitive to the state of your browser’s cache.
If there is a cache error, then there will be an error message saying “Unable to load requested view.” and you will need to clear your cache.
Instructions: KB0030128: Clear your Web Browser’s Cache and Cookies
Pro Tip: you can update your browser’s settings to automatically clear your cache for specific websites.
- Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data → Always clear cookies when windows are closed → Add → enter “bianalytics.ucsd.edu” and check the “Including third-party cookies on this site” → Add
- Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Manage Exceptions → Enter “https://bianalytics.ucsd.edu” and select “Allow for session” → Save Changes.

Report Contains Wrong Information

See a transaction that you don't recognize?

Step 1 is to check in with your team: did they accidentally use the wrong project? Did they purchase something without approval?
Step 2 is to check in with the fiscal team: either email recbo@ucsd.edu or submit a ticket
- - Unit Name: Recreation Business Office
  - Department Name: VCSA CAMPUS RECREATION
  - I want to... Report an issue
  - How many people are affected? Only Me
  - What's the business impact? Low - Able to be worked around
  - Category for assistance: Fiscal / Travel