ABS Training and Education Offerings

The following alphabetical list provides an overview of ABS training and education opportunities. Register by sending an email to ABSTraining@colorado.edu.

There are also many Step-by-Step Guides available from several university offices as well as online Blackboard training courses.

How to check what formal trainings you have taken: There are two ways to check. #1– In HR Production or Reporting navigate to: Reports and Reviews > Training > Student Training History. #2– Log on to the myCU portal and select the MY.TRAININGS tab.

Training List

• Accounting 101

• Departmental Financial Management

• Departmental Financial Management Guide  (The Guide)

• ePERS

• Finance System (PeopleSoft) including Procurement

• Financial Statement Reading

• Fiscal Code of Ethics Training

• Fiscal Responsibility for All

• Gift Fund Management Training

• How to Inventory Equipment

• OCG Trainings

• Payroll Expense Transfers (PET)

• Property Acquisition

• PS Lite

• Sponsored Projects Accounting

• Statement Reading

• Step-by-Step Guides

• Welcome to CU

Training Locations and Parking Information

• Marine Street Science Center (RL6) and UIS (formerly UMS)

• Administrative and Research Center (ARC)

Trainings listed in alphabetical order:

Accounting 101—Classroom Training

Previous Accounting 101 course flyer

Course Overview

For the inexperienced administrative staff with little accounting knowledge.

Plan on attending all four days. Instructor: Laura Ragin.

Dates, Location and Registration: Not currently scheduled. To be placed on a notification list when a new class is offered, send an email to ABSTraining@colorado.edu.

• To register: send an email to ABSTraining@colorado.edu.

Departmental Financial Management—Individual & Departmental Training

Accounting & Business Support staff are available to assist you with a wide variety of topics on departmental financial management. These include:

• Sound business procedures and internal controls.

• The operational basics of the Finance System, such as getting access to the Finance System, setting up or changing the security access of a position within the Finance System, signing on to and navigating in the Finance System.

• The the Finance System General Ledger processes such as understanding the the Finance System General Ledger Chart of Accounts Structure and Maintenance Procedures, accessing the Finance System forms, using the Journal Entry panels to correct errors, transfer cash, and make accrual entries, using the Standard Budget panels to budget for your department's financial plans, using the Payroll Expense Transfer panels to correct payroll errors.

• Financial Reports such as reading the the Finance System basic, monthly financial statements, doing monthly statement reconciliation, using the monthly statements to monitor the financial health of the department, running your own financial statements and other reports on-line.

• Internal Service Center accounting requirements.

• Managing Accounts Receivable according to state rules.

• Understanding the unique requirements of managing sponsored projects.

• Knowing "where to go" for information and assistance.

Please contact your area accountant to schedule an appointment for individual assistance. For sponsored projects, please contact your grant accountant.

Departmental Financial Management Guide (The Guide)—Classroom Training

This course is taught by ABS and Boulder campus staff and is designed to cover key chapters of The Guide manual. It's a great way to get grounded in the essentials of higher education fund accounting as it applies to the University of Colorado. Designed for new employees as well as a refresher for veteran employees.

Where: Classes are held in room 248 of the Administration and Research Center (ARC), 3100 Marine Street on East campus. Room change is pending.

When: 9:00–12:00 Thursdays on the dates listed below.

To Register: Registration is required. Send an email to ABSTraining@colorado.edu to sign up.

Videos:  Videos of an old Guide presentation are also available. Contact Isabel.Dunn@colorado.edu.

ePERS—In-Person Training

If you would like to schedule ePERS (electronic Personnel Effort Reporting System) training for your department, staff, faculty, researchers, or project team, contact Pat Dodson: 492-2620, Patricia.Dodson@colorado.edu. For more ePER instructional material, see ePER Topics in our A-Z Index.

Finance System including Procurement—Online and Classroom Training

ABS, in cooperation with the Procurement Service Center, offers both classroom and online training designed to provide basic information for accessing and using the Finance System. The classroom training runs for two days and allows time for both hands-on application and individual assistance. The online training is a self-paced series of courses whose topics include Finance System navigation, ChartFields, reporting, actual journal entries, vendor information, department purchase orders, PO requisitions, and SPO requisitions, purchasing, and contract management.

If you are a new user of the Finance System, please refer to the Training and Access Requirements webpage to determine what training is required for your level of access. All users must pass the Fiscal Code of Ethics training before applying to take this Finance System training. Current Finance System user who would like a refresher course on the above-mentioned topics are always welcome and encouraged to attend. Please register in advance, for either the classroom or the online training, by sending an email to ABSTraining@colorado.edu.

The classroom training is an instructor-led and runs for two days and allows ample time for hands-on application and individual assistance. The first day addresses the finance basics of the general ledger, followed by a second day covering the procurement functions of purchasing and accounts payable. Training on the general ledger and procurement processes is required to secure authorized access to these Finance System production systems. The general ledger training is a pre-requisite for the purchasing and accounts payable training.

Course syllabus:

Day 1:     Morning:  The Finance System and the university's Chart of Accounts structure.

8:30-4:30    Log onto the Finance System; Navigate through the Finance System pages; Do actual
               journal entries on-line in the Finance System.
               Afternoon:  Run the five basic financial reports (Revenue/Expense Detail & Summary,
               Balance Sheet Detail and Summary, Outstanding Encumbrances) on-line in the
               Reporting System. Look at sponsored projects accounting. Overview of budgeting
               including the functions found within the budget cycle, examining budget practices by
               funds, and preparing an online budget journal entry in the Finance System.

Day 2:     Purchasing and Accounts Payable. Taught by the Procurement Service Center (PSC).
8:30-4:30

2008 Dates for the Financial and Procurement training

*The second date of each month is the procurement portion of the course.

Read and comply with the Finance System Training and Access instructions prior to class. Both new users of the Finance System, as well as current users who want to take the training as a refresher, must register in advance for the classroom training by email to ABSTraining@colorado.edu.

Additional Training and Access Information

• Campus Security Coordinators for Finance System training questions. For the Boulder campus this is: David Sayers, 303-492-2396, finance.access@colorado.edu.

• Training and Access Requirements Webpage

• New User Training and Access Guide

• Classroom Training

• Online Training

Fiscal Code of Ethics Training—Online Training

In order to help fulfill the intent of the Fiscal Code of Ethics Administrative Policy Statement, this online Blackboard training was developed. You must complete the training if:

• You have access to the Finance System, HRMS, or GL/HR tables in the CIW

• You are an ACARD holder, approver, or reallocator

Also, you must complete this course prior to submitting your request for Finance System Including Procurement training. The course is self-paced and offers important information that you can use to help ensure the proper stewardship of university resources. Use these instructions to access this course. If you have any problems accessing the online course, if you can't sign on, or if you are a brand new employee and don't have an account yet, or the course is not listed on the Blackboard website, call the Blackboard Helpline at 303-556-6505. Have your employee ID number when you call.

Fiscal Responsibility for All—Online Training

This training was originally developed for fiscal managers who are required to complete the Fiscal Certification process. But because the training is of value to many other university employees who possess a variety of fiscal roles, it was made available on a voluntary basis on the OUC website.

Gift Fund Management Training—Online Training

Training via the Web for new university employees to understand gift fund management processes and their related individual fiscal roles and responsibilities to ensure that expenditures are consistent with donor wishes. All individuals assigned a fiscal role on gift FOPPS are required to take the training. This includes Fiscal Principals, Fiscal Managers, and Fiscal Staff.

Online training is available through the Office of University Controller (OUC) website https://www.cusys.edu/controller/ouc_training_courses.html. Click on "Gift Fund Management." The last slide in the presentation offers an "Assessment and Acknowledgment" link in order to complete the training certification process.

How to Inventory Equipment—Individual Training

Individual instruction on this aspect of the Property Accounting System (PAS) is offered by appointment. Call Jeanne Connely at x22424 to arrange a time. Specific topics covered during the training may include any or all of the following:

• Procedures for the biennial inventor

• Responsibilities of property managers

• Browsing the PAS on line

• Entering data on the PAS

• Handling additions and deletions of property

• Changing costs or locations of property

• Selling, transferring, donating and disposing of property

• Accounting for off-campus equipment

• Learning special instructions for rental property and federal equipment.

New Property Acquisition—Individual Training

Individual instruction on this aspect of the Property Accounting system (PAS) is offered by appointment. Call Susan Wyn at x28030 to arrange a time.

Specific topics may include any or all of the following:

• How equipment gets on inventory: over $5000 and under $5000

• Capital equipment threshold and using accounts by type and dollar value

• Recording cost adjustments by adding to or removing components from equipment

• Fabrication of equipment

• Browsing the PAS on-line

OCG Trainings

The Office of Contracts and Grants offers trainings, presentations, and brown-bag lunches on topics of interest to researchers, faculty, and departmental administrators who possess project management responsibilities. For a schedule, contact Chandra.Tjandrasa@colorado.edu, 492-6224. OCG also has several PowerPoint presentations used in trainings available on their website plus one on Compliance Issues.

Payroll Expense Transfers (PET)—Step-by-step Training

There are currently no classroom or online trainings available for Payroll Expense Transfers. However, Payroll and Benefit Services has produced several Step by Step guides on PET, PETC, & PETR.

PS Lite—Group, Classroom Training

PSLite course flyer

Training is held at University Information Systems (UIS) training room, 4780 Pearl East Circle. Registration is required. Send an email to ABSTraining@colorado.edu.

Download PSLite from the ABS homepage and follow the instructions on the left under Reports. Some systems may block the downloaded file. Simply right-click on the PSLite icon on your desktop (or the file in your Windows Explorer), go to Properties, and check the "UNBLOCK" box at the bottom of the page. Or you can add http://abs.colorado.edu to your list of trusted sites in Internet Explorer and it won't bother you again. In your IE menu, go to Tools, Internet Options, Security, Trusted sites and add the URL. Questions about PSLite? Contact, Diane.Przygocki@colorado.edu, 303-492-7213.

You need CIW access to use PSLite — To get access to the CIW, please complete the Central Information Warehouse Access Request Form on the UIS web. If you already have CIW access but forgot your password, call 303-492-9457 and select option 1 to get your password reset or if you have questions about your CIW account.

For additional PSLite help consult PSLite Tips, Tricks, & Troubleshooting.

Reading and Understanding Monthly Financial Statements—Group, Classroom Training

Do you have questions about your monthly statements?

• How do I access and run these reports?

• How the heck do I read these things?

• What are they supposed to tell me?

• What is the most important information to pay attention to?

• How do I find out how this transaction got on my statement?

• How do I correct an error? 

• What's up with normalized accounting? 

• How do I use these statements to advise my unit head?

Help is at hand. Accounting & Business Support has set up a workshop to review the Financial Reporting System statements that are delivered to the portal each month:

• Revenue and Expense Detail

• Revenue and Expense Summary

• Balance Sheet Detail

• Balance Sheet Summary

• Outstanding Encumbrances

• ePERS reports also receive some coverage

We will review how to access the portal and the Reporting System, how to read the statements and what information to pay the most attention to. Each class is tailored to match the skills and needs of the participants, so it may review a few basics that you already know. There will be plenty of time for questions and answers on specific problems you have. Feel free to bring your statements, and we will do our best to answer your questions. Here is a very general schedule that you can use as a guide:

• 9:00–10:00    How to access & run reports

• 10:00–11:00  How to read & interpret reports

• 11:00–12:00  Q&A

You do not need an IdentiKey for these classes. Please pre-register to ABSTraining@colorado.edu.

Statement Reading 2008 Class Schedule:

Sponsored Projects Accounting—Individual Training

Individual instruction on Sponsored Projects Accounting is offered by appointment by contacting James Lei at 5-6435. This assistance can answer your questions on a variety of topics associated with post award administration such as:

• Federal rules and regulations applicable to sponsored projects

• Cost sharing - Personnel Effort Reporting and matching requirement

• What is F&A - definitions of direct vs. indirect costs and "unallowable" costs

• Special requirements on travel, equipment purchases/disposals, etc.

• Reading and understanding the monthly financial statements

• Using the statements to manage the finances of the project

• The roles and responsibilities of the Department, Office of Contracts and Grants, and SPA in managing a sponsored project.

Step-by-Step Guides—Online

Step-by-step guides available from several sources, including:

• ePERS

• Expenditure Control

• Finance System (PeopleSoft)

• Fiscal Certification

• How to Buy Specific Commodities

• Human Resource Management System (HRMS)

• Procurement in the Finance System

• Procurement Card (ACARD)

• Reporting System (Cognos)

• SPINS

Welcome to CU—Online Tutorial

New employee two-page overview of the university financial environment. An online tutorial is available for new employees but is useful for all. Covers essentials of the university financial environment that every employee should know. Go there.

Register now (test)

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