ctcLink: The Clark Experience

1. ctcLink: The Clark Experience BAC Meeting▪ June 3, 2019 Sabra Sand, Director of Business Services, Clark College

2. What I am going to talk about: • BPFG: Business Process Fit Gap • Configuration • Validating Configuration • Conversion Cycles • Data Validation • UAT: User Acceptance Testing • Upcoming • Working Go Live Plan • Recommendations • Questions

3. BPFG: Business Process Fit Gap • For Clark, about 8 weeks straight • Summer 2018 • Homework and decisions as part of BPFG • Run through each business process • Basic system functionality • Does not address how accounting changes • First step in training – initial introduction • Not end to end training • Purpose: to identify gaps in processes • Difficult to identify without configuration • Difficult to identify because it is all new • No hands on

4. Configuration • So many pieces of configuration…here are the big ones • Finance • Department chart field – replaces Organization numbers (working document) • Department chart field crosswalk – crosswalks legacy ‘Org’ to Peoplesoft ‘Dept’ (working document) • Asset Locations – maintain consistency across pillars for location IDs • Purchasing workflowand buyers • Commitment Control (budget) definitions • Small and attractive definitions

5. Configuration • Student Finance • Item Types – Charges reflect: receivable/revenue upon posting • Tuition • Mandatory Fees • Course and class fees • Optional fees • Term Fees • Dictates the amount charged per credit for tuition • Dictates the amount charged per credit or class for other mandatory fees

6. Configuration • Student Finance • Item Types – Payments • Student Payments (credit card, cash, check) • Payments typically reflect: cash/receivable when paid • Third Party Payments • Step 1: the student account is relieved: cash/receivable • Step 2: the third party account is charged: receivable/cash • Make sure cash zeroes out • Payments made by the third party then reflect: cash/receivable

7. Configuration • Student Finance • Item Types – Payments • Financial Aid • Need two journal sets to complete the transaction • Step 1: the student account is relieved: cash/liability (utilizing a control dept) • Step 2: happens in finance, reflects the expense to the aid account: expense/cash • Make sure cash zeroes out • Waivers – flow through a control account: contra-revenue/receivable (clears charge GL’s)

8. Configuration • Each configuration assignment builds on past ones: • Some examples… • Department chart fields needs to be designed before item types can be completed • Asset homework needs department chart field to be defined • Asset homework needs asset location chart field to be defined • Recommend having one person oversee all of the finance related items including SF, Finance and Payroll to ensure configuration is aligned

9. Validate Configuration • This is your data…own it! • After your homework has been submitted and entered into Peoplesoft, create a feedback loop to ensure data quality (because we are all human): • Finance Department query • Student Finance Item Type query for 1st journal set • Student Finance Item Type query for 2nd journal set • Student Finance Waiver queries • What waiver’s are setup to pay • How waiver is setup to work • Student Group • Equation variable • Manual post • Student Finance Term fee query: to ensure correct amounts per credit

10. Conversion Cycles • 5 Conversion Cycles before the final go live • SBCTC runs conversions • Occasionally ‘B’ cycles • Update the crosswalks for fallout/new values • Item Types • Financial Aid • Charge Item Types • Sponsored Programs • Departments • New orgs • New grants • Timing of the conversion

11. Conversion Cycles For Clark - on the finance, student finance and payroll side: • Cycle 1: Bio-Demo data only • Cycle 2: Finance data, payroll data and a sample of assets • Cycle 3: Finance data, payroll data and a larger sample of assets • Cycle 3b: Student finance data • Cycle 4: Finance data, Student finance data, payroll data, all assets • Cycle 4b: Student finance data, finance accounts receivable data • Cycle 5: Everything • Cycle 6: Go live conversion

12. Data Validation • Super Important! This is your opportunity to make sure your data is getting converted the way you expect it. • Cycle 2/3/4 Finance: validated all GL data for all accounts using queries and v-lookup to convert data • Compared against GA1331, GA1332, GA1335 • Identified errors in the conversion process • Cycle 4 was clean for GL • Goal is to have no errors in Cycle 5 • Keeps copies/proof of each validation effort for auditors

13. UAT: User Acceptance Testing • 6 “Sprints” of 2-3 weeks each • Training in the morning • Expectation for testing in the afternoon • End to end testing • Each day builds upon prior days • Difficult to keep up if something isn’t working correctly • Not enough information provided on the front end of what would be needed • Not enough lead time as to days/times of UAT • Time conflicts between Student Finance, Payroll and Finance • Time conflicts between UAT and Common Process Workshops

14. UAT: User Acceptance Testing • Recommendations for UAT • Create a college level plan and a structure prior to the start of UAT • Document all of the scenarios (including account specific data) you may want to create, ahead of time • For Finance – work backwards to develop the plan • Need Assets to load from Accounts Payable • Accounts Payable needs a PO to be paid for asset type items • Purchasing needs to create a requisition for the assets to go to PO • A budget needs to be established to create a requisition • Identify the entire chart field string that a budget needs to be created in, share the info with Purchasing

15. UAT: User Acceptance Testing • Recommendations for UAT • For Student Financials • To calculate tuition, students need to be registered in classes • Classes need to be setup to register students • Student groups need to be defined to attached students to them • Clear understanding for how waivers are setup in order to actually test

16. UAT: User Acceptance Testing • Recommendations for UAT • Test as much as you can • Involve as many staff as you can • There is a ton of testing, spread among staff • Make sure they understand the expected output • Opportunity to test Configuration • Identify configuration errors • Identify areas where things are not working as expected • Request changes to configuration, then retest

17. Upcoming… • Parallel Testing • Payroll • Financial Aid • Student Financials • Cycle 4b • Student Finance • Finance Accounts Receivable • Continued UAT

18. Upcoming… • Cycle 5 • Test go live • Final chance for review • Training – August through October • Develop and present college-wide training (Purchasing, Accounting, Payroll) - August • Cycle 6 • Go Live • Late October

19. Working Go Live Plan Go live tentative date: October 28, 2019 Legacy tentative takedown: October 23, 2019, end of day Control as many variables as you can • Clark Plan – work in progress • October 17, 2019 - Last day for all enrollment, financial aid and student finance transactions • October 18, 2019 • Ensure all student refunds are processed • Close out all tuition payment plans, post outstanding amount • Run invoicing for all third party sponsorships • October 21, 2019 – Process all pending payments, changing future payment date to current • Take down Web Transaction Server October 18, 12am

20. Working Go Live Plan • Clark Plan – work in progress • October 21, 2019 – 10A payroll runs • October 22, 2019 – post payroll and force pay vendor payments • October 23, 2019 • Run tuition distribution • Run VPA report • Run all reports • General Ledger (GA1331) • Fund Ledger (GA1332) • Program/Organization Trial Balance (GA1335) • Accounts Receivable Sub-ledger (BM1781) • Balance payroll liability accounts (fund 790) – know who we still owe • Run datax or SQL report of all outstanding open tuition items in cashiering • Clear all suspense accounts

21. Recommendations Consistency • Certain values really should be global – consistency among colleges • Tuition chart fields, for the most part • Waivers • Entire GL chart string • How they are applied • Financial Aid • Why? • Simplify configuration • Ongoing training • College’s ask for help • FAM Manual

22. Recommendations • Strong collaboration between Finance, Financial Aid and Enrollment • Own your data • Validate as much as you can • Understand item type setup • Confirm all values are setup correctly • Understand your processes • Keep a log of areas of concern • Follow up on all concerns • Advocate for your college – don’t be afraid to push back/ask more questions if something doesn’t seem correct • Be involved in every step of the process • If you don’t understand something, ask, and keep asking until it is clear

23. Recommendations • Need training on how the accounting is different, both during configuration and after • Transaction codes will be a thing of the past • Understanding the required debits and credits for each transaction • Sometimes debits/credits will need to be split so they can be loaded into AFRS successfully • Understanding the changes in pooled cash • Understanding the changes in VPA • Item types • Financial Aid • Waivers • Payments • Charges

24. Final Thoughts • Your staff will be overwhelmed • They likely will feel the weight of your institution on their shoulders to ensure the data is correct and the system is working the way they expect • The work they are doing may be invisible to you • Be mindful they really are doing a ton of work • Make sure they take vacations • Don’t forget to thank them

25. Questions?