Multi-Year Reporting, Payroll, and Chartfield Lookup dashboards now available

July 26, 2018
Cal Answers Financials and BAIRS Community,

Congratulations - we're getting there! Together we're making huge strides toward our goal of retiring BAIRS and implementing Cal Answers Financials.

Key Dates: By October 1, Cal Answers will include all the reporting capabilities currently in BAIRS and you will no longer be able to access the dashboards in BAIRS. If you still need to access your saved BAIRS reports after October 1, they will be available in your personal BAIRS folder until December 21. We encourage you to take this opportunity to use Cal Answers for all your reporting activities while BAIRS is still available to ensure you understand how to find the information you need within the new dashboards.

This release includes the much anticipated Multi-Year Reporting and Payroll dashboards. We're also releasing Chartfield Lookup, IST Billing, and IST Phone Usage dashboards.

  • The Multi-Year Reporting dashboard contains data from the campus ledger, Berkeley Financial System (BFS), and allows you to report on selected financial data across multiple fiscal years. This will be especially relevant to financial analysts and research administrators who need to review finances, plan budgets, and track sponsored funds across multiple fiscal years. Read more.
  • The Payroll dashboard displays Payroll Expense Detail and Leave Accrual information from the Payroll and Personnel System (PPS). This dashboard replaces the existing BAIRS payroll reports and enables HR professionals to access information they need to submit a Payroll Expense Transfer, view benefits by employee, and access leave accrual information. This is where you will find payroll expense transfer information, because it pulls data directly from PPS. Read more.
  • The Chartfield Lookup dashboard allows you to look up information about each chartfield and understand how it is grouped. This will be relevant to financial analysts, research administrators, and department managers as they review how accounts, funds, and departments are related, manage chartfields, and track speedtypes and project costing codes. Read more.
  • The IST Billing dashboard provides recharge costs and details for services performed by Information Systems & Technology (IST). Read more.
  • The IST Phone Usage dashboard provides detailed information on campus phone usage but access to it is restricted so that you can only see data for your own organization. Read more.

Access
Visit the Cal Answers Financials webpage to learn more about who already has access to these dashboards. If you need to request access to Finance, including the Multi-Year Reporting, Chartfield Lookup, and IST Billing dashboards, you may request it through Cal Access using the instructions on the Cal Answers website. To request access to the Payroll and IST Phone Usage dashboards, submit a request through the System Access Request Application (SARA) using the instructions on the Cal Answers website.

Training resources
Visit the dashboard pages on the Cal Answers website to find training materials for Multi-Year ReportingPayrollChartfield LookupIST Billing, and IST Phone Usage. We'll be hosting webinars on the Multi-Year Reporting and Chartfield Lookup dashboards in September and we encourage you to sign up for a webinar on the Cal Answers Financials webpage. For those who are new to Cal Answers, review the training materials available on the Cal Answers website and sign up for a basic navigation training class.

As a reminder, don't forget to check the alerts page regularly for timely updates about any known issues. You can find the alerts page by logging in to Cal Answers and clicking on the bright pink box on the right-hand side of the page.
Questions and feedback
Thank you,
Cal Answers Financials Team
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Office of the Vice Chancellor of Finance