Finance Users Group Fall 2005 Update

Meeting Recap:

BIG DISCOUNTS ON OFFICE SUPPLIES THROUGH OFFICE DEPOT

Did you know you can buy most things in the Office Depot store or catalog at a tremendous discount if you buy through Rollins' on-line account or if you use your Purchasing card at either of two area stores?  The locations that accept the P-card are:

1.  Winter Park (17-92) K-Mart plaza across from the Winter Park Village

2. Northeast corner of Colonial Drive (Route 50) and Semoran Blvd. (Route 436)

Discounts often run around 50% from normal retail.  Plus, if you buy through the Rollins' on-line account or with your P-card, you avoid paying sales tax on your purchase.
 
Please note - do NOT buy office furniture through Office Depot.  All office furniture requests should be made via a Purchase Order as the Purchasing Department buys higher quality furniture from approved vendors.
 
If you wish to be set up for an Office Depot on-line account or a P-card, please contact Tony Durrum at ext. 2112.

PAYMENTS TO FOREIGN VISITORS REQUIRE ADVANCE PREPARATION AND COORDINATION WITH FINANCE DEPARTMENT

If your department invites visitors from other countries to the College to lecture, speak, consult or provide other services, any payments made in connection with those activities (for example, honorariums, speaking fees, travel reimbursements, etc.) are generally subject to U.S. tax withholding, reporting and other rules.  Please contact Teresa Williams, Tax Accountant, at extension 2611 with details of upcoming visits.  Documentation should be obtained prior to the visitor's arrival so that payments to the visitor can be made promptly.  Note that in some situations the documentation process can take up to three months or longer.  We greatly appreciate your cooperation with this process.

NEW AMERICAN EXPRESS CORPORATE TRAVEL CARD APPLICATION

For employees who travel on College business, an application form is now available for the American Express Corporate Travel Card.  Please see the Rollins American Express Corporate Travel Card Program web site at http://www.rollins.edu/finance/accounting/AECorpCard.html . 

While the Travel Card holder does not incur any charges, the College must pay a small annual fee.  If you decide that you do not need your Travel Card, please return it to the Finance Office and close out your account. 

You can use your Travel Card to pay for your own Rollins related travel and entertainment as well as travel and/or entertainment on behalf of visitors, such as a visiting professor.  If you anticipate reimbursing travel or paying a stipend to a visitor who is not a U.S. resident, please be sure to consult with Teresa Williams at ext. 2611 as early as possible.

REMINDER NOT TO TAKE INSURANCE ON RENTAL VEHICLES

Anyone traveling on College business should visit the Human Resource Department's risk management web site at http://www.rollins.edu/hr/RM/RiskMgmtHome.htm and read the Automobile Policy and Field Trip Guidelines.  Rollins College travel procedures do not allow reimbursement for insurance purchased in conjunction with a rental vehicle.

Additionally, if you wish to rent a car outside of the United States , then you SHOULD take the rental insurance. Be sure to contact Maria Martinez before renting a vehicle outside of the country.

REIMBURSEMENT FOR ENTERTAINING CANDIDATES, RECRUITS, CONTRACTORS, ETC .

If you incur meal expenses while entertaining candidates, recruits, contractors, trustees, board members or others who are not employees of the College, you should request reimbursement using a Travel Expense Report.  Be sure to attach the original detailed meal receipt that shows the place, date and amount.  A credit card receipt is not sufficient.  Expenses for entertainment must include an explanation on the Expense Report of who was entertained and for what business purpose.

Entertainment involving only Rollins employees and/or students, such as birthday parties or staff luncheons, can be reimbursed by direct pay or, if under $200, by petty cash.  Note the purpose of the entertainment and who was entertained.  Explanations may be more general than for entertainment of people external to the College, for example, "Department staff luncheon to celebrate conclusion of XYZ grant project."

STANDARD MILEAGE RATE CHANGE

The College follows the IRS Standard Mileage Rates for reimbursement of miles driven on College business. Beginning January 1, 2006 , the new rate for business trips taken on or after this date is 44.5 cents per mile. The new rate for moving expense purposes is 18.0 cents per mile. Please refer to the Finance web site at http://www.rollins.edu/finance/accounting/travel.html for more information.

If you are a new employee, or if you simply wish to update your knowledge, be sure to sign up for the next Finance class, "Working with Finance and Budget Basics."  The class is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006 , 8:45 am - 12:30 pm in the Olin Library Bib Lab.  Please contact Kathy Nichols at kgnichols@rollins.edu if you would like to attend.

Meeting Recap:

Presentations:

Carol Wilson, Accounting Manager, gave a presentation on ways to make sure all fiscal year 2005 transactions are properly completed and recorded.

Announcements -

The Finance Department is transitioning through numerous staff changes. We are pleased to welcome Donna Klingler to the Accounts Payable Department. Nadine Figaro is now the Sr. Accounting Assistant, taking care of travel and journal entry corrections among other duties. Bill Short has left the Director of Finance position to become Asst. Treasurer for Budgets and Investments. This position was formerly filled by Yvonne Berry, who has left the College. In the Bursar's Office, we bid a fond farewell to Chandra Netram and Steve Kuepfer. We also welcome Sayied Ali as the new Accounts Receivable Supervisor.

As previously announced, the reimbursement rate for automobile mileage has been changed from 29 cents per mile to the Federal Government rate, currently 40 ½ cents per mile, for travel that occurs on or after January 1, 2005 .

Meeting Recap:

Carol Wilson, Accounting Manager (subbing in for Maria Martinez, Asst. Vice President of Human Resources & Risk Management), discussed using rental cars for College travel. Anyone traveling on College business should visit the Human Resource Department's risk management web site at http://www.rollins.edu/hr/RM/RiskMgmtHome.htm and read the Automobile Policy and Field Trip Guidelines. Rollins College travel procedures do not allow reimbursement for insurance purchased in conjunction with a rental vehicle.

Additionally, if you wish to rent a car outside of the United States , then you SHOULD take the rental insurance. Be sure to contact Maria Martinez before renting a vehicle outside of the country.  

Announcements -

Jennifer Cella is leaving Rollins as of Feb. 4. Nadine Figaro is taking over Jennifer's position. Congrats to Nadine and a fond farewell to Jennifer!

You may have noticed that your American Express travel card is expiring soon. You don't need to do anything; your American Express card will be automatically renewed.

As previously announced, the reimbursement rate for automobile mileage has been changed from 29 cents per mile to the Federal Government rate, currently 40 ½ cents per mile, for travel that occurs on or after January 1, 2005 .

Meeting Recap:

Please take a few minutes to review the above referenced PowerPoint presentations. I added a slide with Sara Corbisiero’s comments about turning in cash receipts and petty cash vouchers by the last business day in May. Other documents, including direct pays, travel expense reports and travel clearing that pertain to this fiscal year may be submitted by Friday June 11.

W-9 forms are now required for payments to new vendors so they can be set up properly in the accounts payable system. The form is on the web site under the User Group tab, then General Documentation. Click on Purchasing or simply scroll down to find the Purchasing section. Thanks to Darla Moore for asking about obtaining W-9 information for P-card purchases. Per Bill Short, if a vendor is paid by P-card, Bank of America has already taken care of obtaining W-9 information. The bank sends Rollins a file with the W-9 information that we use to merge with our other records for purposes of generating 1099 forms after year end, as required by Federal law.

To clarify P-card expenses – expenses that show up in EAGLS by the statement cut off date of May 27 will be included in your FY04 expense budget. If you do not reallocate your expenses by May 27, they will default to the fund, org and account set up in EAGLS when the journal entry posts in the following month. Bill Short said his goal is to have the P-card entry in the system by the 15th of the month. You can correct the default posting in the following month by reallocating in EAGLS after the statement cut off date, but then you will see the incorrect posting reverse out and the correct posting go in. To keep your budget clean, please make any necessary reallocations prior to the 27th of the month. Remember some vendors take a while to submit purchases to Bank of America, so your best bet is probably to discontinue using the P-card for current fiscal year purchases after May 20.

Please share your ideas for getting expenses and revenues posted to your budgets correctly the first time! Some of you have great tips and tricks that I’d like to share in upcoming meetings, or valuable insights that may help us do a better job. Please let us know how we can work together to get it right the first time.
For questions or suggestions to help reduce errors, please contact Carol Wilson at cwilson@rollins.edu or ext. 2475.

Next Finance Classes – The Finance Department will offer its half-day workshop “Introduction to Working with Finance and Managing Your Budget” again in the fall semester. Dates to be announced after the start of the fall term.

Meeting Recap:

The Finance Department has negotiated discount rates with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. These rates are available to any College employee for personal or business travel at Enterprise car rental locations in this region only.
Please note that the Finance Department is working on a more detailed memo covering rental car insurance and procedures that we will send out in the near future.

The way cash is handled on campus is being monitored very carefully. Please be aware that departments may receive surprise audits of their cash controls at any time. Do not wait to deposit cash and checks at the Bursar’s office. Under no circumstances should deposits be held for more than a week, and deposits over $200 should be made by the next business day.

The College is progressing toward more systems that make use of current computer technology. Soon you will be able to view your R-card activity and make deposits to your R-card through the Internet. Thanks to our new Business Information Systems Administrator, Dan Ongie, for his quick work on this R-card system enhancement.

Carol Wilson presented an overview of year-end budget management and recent travel changes. Very important – please review the PowerPoint presentation above.

Please take a look at the updated list of contacts (above) for questions concerning different types of charges that may appear in your budget(s).

A planning suggestion for those May charges that always hit your budget in June such as copier and postage – look at how much you spent last year, and use that as an estimate of this year’s expenses. Of course you should always adjust your estimate for known current year activity.

An additional tip provided by Yvonne Berry – review your budgets for purchase orders (encumbrances) that should be closed. Occasionally, even though a vendor has received final payment, an encumbrance remains open and continues to tie up your budget. If you find an encumbrance that needs to be closed, contact Ruth or Fahaz in Purchasing or Kathy in Accounts Payable.

A question was raised about timing of payment on the new American Express travel card. The statement drop date is the 8th of the month. The statement indicates that payment is due in full on the 24th. If you submit your expense report for reimbursement as soon as you make your purchases, this payment due date should not present a problem. Do not wait to receive the credit card statement before turning in your expense report. In fact, Finance does not even need to see your credit card statement, only the original receipt or confirmation from your travel purchases.

And finally, remember our new computer mottos:
When the going gets tough, upgrade.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite error message.
He who laughs last probably made a back up.
AND -- if at first you do not succeed, blame your computer.

Meeting Recap:

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