The University of New South Wales - Finance

Dear Colleagues,
 
Further to our Chief Financial Officer's message dated 12 June 2007 on the NS Expenses (NSE) Implementation project, we wish to provide you with a status update.
 
A User Focus Group workshop was held on 13 June 2007 to discuss the changes in the business processes.  We briefed the team that the introduction of the new system and the revised policies will result in the following changes:
 
1.        The Procurement Card name will change to TCard (Travel Card) to reflect the change in the use of the card.  The UNSW Westpac Visa Card will be used primarily for Travel and Entertainment and low value/one-offs purchases where vendors are not on NS Financials.
2.        Online Pre-approval  - All non-travel TCard purchases greater than $1,000 will require pre-approval on NSE before the purchase is made.
3.        Staff expense reimbursement - There will be a new reimbursement process with all staff reimbursements processed via NSE to NS Financials for automatic payment. The expense claims will be entered and approved through NSE. The current AP01 process will be replaced by NSE.
4.        Online approvals - All approvals in NSE will be performed online in NSE by line managers.
5.        The details of staff-manager relationship will be maintained by schools or equivalent administrative units in the HR system.  The business process to support the maintenance of the staff-manager relationship will be discussed with the Focus Group at their next meeting.
6.        Managers or supervisors must sign the Monthly TCard Account Statement to verify that expenditure is in accordance with UNSW  Policy and that all documentation are coded and attached.
7.        Storage of documents - All tax invoices, receipts and statements for staff expense reimbursements and credit card transactions will need to be filed and stored in a central location.  Documents will need to be kept for a minimum of 7 years
8.        Petty cash - The maximum limit for Petty Cash claims will be reduced from $100 to $50.
9.        Budget checking - Budget checking will not be done in NSE but will occur overnight in NS Financials.  Users should ensure that adequate funds are available to allow NSE transactions to be processed successfully in NS Financials.  An expense reimbursement that has failed budget checking will not be paid until the budget checking error is corrected.
 
The Workshop participants' feedback has been captured in the enclosed document. 
 
Further Focus Group workshops for NSE demonstration and training strategy discussion have been scheduled in early July 2007.
 
The staff expense reimbursement functionality will initially be rolled-out to a Pilot Group of 50 to 100 users. We are seeking volunteers to take part in this roll-out.  This would suit a small school or divisional unit. We ask that you consider volunteering to take part in this exercise by responding to Cecilia Yuen at c.yuen@unsw.edu.au.
 
We appreciate your support as we develop and employ the new system.
 
Regards

King Chen
Deputy Chief Financial Officer,
Director, Financial Control
The University of New South Wales
Chancellery Building, Rm 223F
Kensington,
Sydney NSW 2025
Ph: 02 9385 2896
Email: king.chen@unsw.edu.au