Permbudg, Ad Hoc, and new General Ledger reports now available

October 4, 2018
Cal Answers Financials and BAIRS Community,

We're excited to announce that we've reached a major milestone in the retirement of BAIRS and our transition to Cal Answers! Cal Answers now boasts a full suite of functionality to replace BAIRS. We'd like to extend a big thank you to the project teams and everyone who partnered with us and provided feedback. Going forward, your point of contact for questions will be the Help Desk at calanswers-help@berkeley.edu.

Please take this opportunity to use Cal Answers for all your reporting activities while BAIRS is still available to ensure you can find the information you need. We'll leave all the BAIRS dashboards open through December 21. On December 22, 2018 we will close down BAIRS and the system will no longer be accessible.

This release includes the new Permbudg dashboard, two new reports in the General Ledger dashboard; the Prior vs Current report and the Transaction Verification report, access to Ad Hoc Finance, and various enhancements based on user feedback, including new filter options and new options in the includable column list.

Please note that you should clear your browser cache before logging in to Cal Answers to access the enhancements. Because of the new enhancements, you may need to recreate any impacted bookmark links and saved customizations. Visit the Cal Answers training page to learn more about creating bookmark links and saving customizations

Permbudg dashboard, new General Ledger reports, Ad Hoc Finance access
  • Permanent Budget Reporting dashboard tracks how the campus moves funding to cover ladder faculty payroll within the units. Read more.
  • Prior vs Current report allows you to select a range of periods to review balances at the beginning of the range, in-range activity, and balances at the end of the range. It replaces the popular 9 column summary and detail reports that are especially useful for Contracts and Grants. Read more.
  • Transaction Verification report displays transactions initiated outside selected Org Nodes, so you can verify transactions that belong to your unit. Read more.
  • Ad Hoc Finance provides the ability to create custom queries within the Cal Answers Finance - GL Answers subject area. Access has been granted to everyone with Cal Answers Finance access. Read more.
Training resources

New

  • Getting Started with Permbudg job aid: This job aid provides an overview of the new Permanent Budget Reporting dashboard. 
  • General Ledger Reporting job aid: The updated General Ledger Reporting job aid now includes an overview of the two new reports, Prior vs Current and Transaction Verification.
  • Ad Hoc Analysis Resource Guide: This packet contains graphics and step-by-step instructions for creating an Ad Hoc Analysis in Cal Answers.

General Cal Answers

Access
We automatically grant Cal Answers Finance access to current BAIRS users who have access to the Financial Reports module; so if you have access to it in BAIRS you will be able to access it in Cal Answers Finance. Unlike BAIRS, access in Cal Answers Finance is global. Before you request access to Cal Answers Finance, please check to see whether you already have it. You can do this by logging into Cal Answers and looking for Financial Dashboards -> Finance on the Home page. You have access if you can open and run any of these dashboards.

Learn more about Finance access and which dashboards are included by visiting the access page on the Cal Answers website.
 
Questions 
If you have questions about using Cal Answers, please contact the Cal Answers Help Desk at 664-9000 (option 1, then option 2) or email calanswers-help@berkeley.edu.

Thank you,
Cal Answers Financials Team
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Office of the Vice Chancellor of Finance

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