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ConnectCarolina Parking Lot Questions

You may access the Parking Lot questions that have been submitted to the College through our ConnectCarolina training sessions. These questions are below and may be accessed through the table of contents that will take you to that particular section.


How do end dates effect EPARS for grants and suspense dates?
Employees will no longer be able to be paid from a grant beyond the end date of the grant. At the payroll cycle that follows the grant end date, the salary for that grant will be charged to the home departments suspense account (essentially to their F&A account). The suspense account will need to be monitored and fund swaps will need to be processed to move the salary to an ‘active’ chartfield string. Therefore, it will not be possible for an EPAR to show salaries for grants that have ended.

Cost Code prefixes (Scott for prior to 10/1/14)
All cost codes for transactions from July 1 – Sept 30 need to be entered in Infoporte or through journal entries in PeopleSoft (the former is recommended). These cost codes should conform to the new prefix guidelines. However, there is not a system check for this, so this will be monitored centrally in the Dean’s Office and departments will be contacted to make corrections if they do not comply.

Vacancy Report in Infoporte
We believe the vacancy reports that exist centrally today are being developed in Infoporte. New reporting requests can be made after go-live to the Dean’s Office for submission. The project team is working on a mechanism to triage and prioritize all new system and reporting requests.

What is the remedy ticket title for CC?
There will be primary (Finance and HR, presumably) and secondary categories.

Will Apple OS work with ConnectCarolina?
Yes, Mac users need to use the Safari browser.

Will the training environment be available after go live?
Yes, we plan to keep it going. We will need to refresh it (probably early November), and we will reset all student ID passwords. But we will work with you if you choose to keep training with it. We are not going to leave it open to campus as a sandbox—we’ll have data staged in there for training, as will campus trainers.

Will the materials provided during training, including PowerPoints, be made available to us?
Yes! We have posted our training materials online. You may access the materials by clicking this link and choosing the ConnectCarolina tab.

Do we need to use Program Codes on grants?
No. You will select either program or project. Except for cost share on a grant (when a non-C&G fund/source are used), in which case, both would be required.

Are PI information embedded into Project ID?
Yes, PI’s are connected to the project in the grants module. Be sure to attend the large venue demos for research administrators.

Is there a University-wide recruiting program code?
Not at this time. You can set up a cost code for this if you need to track it.

How is Davie integrating into PS for things like Dept. ID?
At go-live, they have a crosswalk from the current FRS GL accounts to the Connect Carolina chart field string. (Designations currently point to an FRS GL account in the report code 1 field). After go-live, they will have a table that links each designation to the Fund-Source-Department string. All gifts will go to one gift object code (rather than multiple based on donor). Department code is also listed in Davie now as report code 2, but is not being used to record the gift at this time. The Davie team is working with the MOU’s to determine a better long term solution following go-live that incorporates the Fund-Source-Department string into the Davie designation form for campus use. Departments will have access to that information through Infoporte and will not need to go to Davie training.

Will (object codes) “accounts” automatically fill in when preparing travel forms (as they do now)?
Yes. See the WebTravel CBT when it is available.

Will there be a cheat sheet which lists what the new terms were in the old system?
We will try to develop this in the future, but are unable to do so now due to the number of hours already dedicated to training.

Will purpose codes be required for gift funds?
Purpose code does not apply to gifts. It will be 00.

How are gift accounts coded in relation to purpose codes?
Expenses on gift accounts should generally follow the same purpose code that is used for state funds for your department. Example: if you are a department or curricula, your purpose code is generally ‘instruction’ (01). Exceptions: Summer school payments = 02; Student Aid = 30; Contracts and Grants: mostly research = 10. Startup funds are always 01.

In the “finding fund using lookup” when we partially type a fund code, what is the “short description” column that appears?
You do not need these. These are codes that were/are used in the central offices for financial statement purposes. They are essentially the GASB code and purpose code that were previously included as attributes on an FRS account.

Do we have to use source 49999 anytime we want to cost share a contract or grant?
No (this is for central reporting only). You will use the non-state chartfield string (as you would for any other transaction) and then you will enter the project ID to indicate that this purchase (non-personnel) or salary is cost share for that project.

Will PS allow a user to save a commonly used chartfield string as a favorite?
Yes, but it only allows you to save one chartfield string which may not be helpful for most users with multiple FRS accounts today.

14101 will not come up as an option in the source field; only options “Description contains F&A was 14100 and 14102.
14101 description is not abbreviated; it is Facilities & Admin. 14100 and 14102 were abbreviated due to character limits in the field, so they could add budget control and payroll suspense to each of those descriptions.

Can cost codes be truncated? Do we have to use all 10 characters?
All 10 characters must be used. You can add zeros to the end of the field to get to 10.

Is there a way to see pending/written vouchers tied to a source of fund, rather than those generated by a particular user, department, etc.?
Eventually (maybe not at go-live), these types of queries should be available through Infoporte.

Can we modify old transactions after 8/1?
All transactions will be imported into Infoporte as journals (not vouchers), so any corrections will need to be done as correcting journals. All transactions for any one FRS 10 digit account/object in each month are being imported as one journal, so you will need to attach to the journal correction form any information about which specific transaction is being corrected.

Will reports in Infoporte be monthly reports (like FBMs) or something else?
There will be information with production data as of the prior night, as well as monthly information. It will not really differ from what is available today in Infoporte. They are developing a report similar to the FBM reports.

Can you manually chose between ACH/check or is it defaulted only?
It will default. If you have a particular need for a check, you will need to indicate this in the comments.

At what point can we not modify a voucher in the workflow/approvals?
Approvers cannot modify a voucher, other than to add attachments. It needs to be sent back if you want to change the basic information on what was purchased or the chartfield string.

Is there a way to access an editable voucher from voucher inquiry?
Yes, you should be able to access any vouchers created.

Can approver budget check a voucher?
The budget check will be done upon submission and not again until final approval.

For reimbursements to individuals: will each receipt need to be itemized for reimbursement or will it be larger amounts by general category?
If different item categories are purchased, you will need to itemize these on the voucher, so the correct category/account code is used.

How will we access eprints or how will we see charges to our accounts?
You will generally view transactions through Infoporte. For feeds from other systems such as FedEx, campus stores, Carolina Inn, you will need to refer back to the campus billing module (outside of Connect Carolina).

Will previous financial data be available for CC reporting after Oct 1 or will it be two reports?
It will be two reports.

Are descriptions required for voucher line items?
No.

Does shipping have to be a separate line on a voucher?
It can be added as a separate line or as other fees.

Chemistry has a web-based system that creates multiple billings in Infoporte and routes for approval (creates a batch). Infoporte generates the invoice. Will the new it mirror the current process they have?
The billing system in Infoporte is being modified to feed the billing journal to ConnectCarolina (as it does today for FRS). Charges on chartfield strings that fail will be placed in the suspense account of the department number used on the chartfield string.

Will there be a dedicated person in disbursements to answer questions about account number changes or correcting voucher JEs?
All requests for assistance should go through the remedy system and they will be triaged and prioritized through that system.

I was told that FY2014 will be loaded and accessibly, but you cannot change anything prior to 7/1/14. Is that correct for JE? OSR accounts?
Corrections can be made (although they should be rare) for FY13/14.

Computer Science – Recharge billings – uploading a batch; are these processed as campus journals?
Yes. However, it is recommended that all recharge billings be set up and handled through Infoporte.

Can department A enter a lump sum on employment from department B?
Yes.

Why are award checks always paper?
Often award checks are presented to the recipient at a ceremony. This allows you to do that.

Page 46 CA slide what happens if there was no budget for a 7/1/13 action because no budget prior to 7/1/14?
The action will actually impact this year’s budget, so budget needs to be available in FY 14/15.

At what point can you enter 2nd, 3rd, 4th salary source changes after entering on same po’s # after posting? Some other approval time.
Since you can do multiple funding swaps on the same form, there should be no need to have more than one route at a time. You would modify the once that is already started. Otherwise, you need to wait for that form to be fully approved before submitting another one.

Can we set-up a default sequence chartfield?
Not in HR; however, it is possible to have one chartfield favorite in Finance.

Can you change sources on a position with no person in it on fund swap or position or both?
You would change the sources on the position.

How do you do a funding swap for a person who is off pay roll?
It will be the same as someone on payroll. It is essentially a retroactive swap to a date when they were on payroll.

How long will EPA web be available for viewing and accessing historical information?
EPA Web actions are being built into Connect Carolina for current employees, so you should be able to view those actions in CC as pdf actions. Only complex HR users will have access to view historical data.

How about lump sums for undergrads? Email said grads. Also awards are okay on students?
Awards are okay on students, although many students are not employees and therefore these are generally processed on check requests. Lump sums for all students will be entered as jobs.

Will we be able to process retro funding swaps prior to 07/01/2014?
At the time of Go Live we will be unable to process retro funding swaps prior to 07/01/2014 The CC team is aware of this issue and working diligently on a solution for retros for FY13/14.

No lump sum payment for grad students will cause source to be changed for GSHIP to research fund of a professor.
That is correct. The salary sources will share the expense of the benefits for grad students. They will allow tuition to be moved to a different (non-state) source through GradStar.

Impossible to figure a salary on secondary appointment for something a professor wants to pay a single amount.
It will need to be estimated based on total salary and total GSHIP expenses.

Will standing purchase/work orders transfer to PeopleSoft or do they need to be re-initiated? (Maintenance orders, unpaid purchase orders, etc?)
Purchase orders will be manually entered into PeopleSoft from a report that will provide Purchasing Services the remaining items on open purchase orders and the generic chartfield string conversion. If an organization significantly changed their departments (one to many) then they have the option of re-entering the requisitions (to correct the chartfield string) referencing the old FRS purchase order number in the quote reference field. Departments desiring that option should contact Bernard Law in Purchasing Services at blaw@email.unc.edu or 919-962-3774.

Will we need to submit to IC Review prior to setting up IC in vendor view?
No. You will make the request for the new vendor/IC through Connect Carolina, attaching all the appropriate documents.

Can you upload current IC checklist and background check (page 4) in IC vendor setup?
Yes.

Is there a mechanism to email the vendor and leave a message in update if order arrived but was damaged in shipment? I know there was an email button initially in the order initiation phase but did not see it in the receipt phase.
If a department receives an order and the goods are damaged, they need to contact the vendor, as they do currently, to make arrangements for a replacement of the damaged goods or a credit. If the goods were ordered on a purchase order, the department should notify the buyer on the PO in case a change order may be required.