Monthly Closing Calendars

The September 2020 period in the general ledger has closed. When running your reports, please keep in mind that the reporting environment has a 24-hour delay in displaying data. The current and future month-end processing deadline schedules are located at Monthly Closing Deadlines.

Unrelated Business Income Tax (Form 990-T)

Florida International University is required by Federal law to prepare an income tax return for net income from activities unrelated to the exempt mission of the University. This tax return (Form 990-T) must be filed annually with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The IRS has provided the following criteria to identify activities that are unrelated to the mission of an exempt organization. An activity is an unrelated business (and subject to unrelated business income tax “UBIT”) if it meets three requirements: (1) It is a “trade or business”; (2) It is “regularly carried on”; and (3) It is “not substantially related” to furthering FIU’s exempt purpose. Since these terms are given a specific meaning within the rules set forth by the IRS and several important exceptions exist, guidelines for these criteria are available from the Tax Compliance office for your review.

The Tax Compliance office has begun gathering the data for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020 and cannot identify all activities that are unrelated and subject to Federal income tax from the accounting records alone. Therefore, we are asking that all Departments review their operations for the 2019-2020 fiscal-year and determine what activities, if any, are potentially unrelated business income. Please keep in mind that Florida International University must account for and report all unrelated business income pursuant to the Internal Revenue Code.

If your Department generates Unrelated Business Income (UBI) and has not yet submitted the information, please access the documents on the FIU Controller’s website and submit to FIU Tax Compliance Team as soon as possible. If your Department does not generate UBI and only conducts educational activities, you do not need to return the UBI Questionnaire. If you have questions about unrelated business income or are conducting an activity/collecting revenue and are unsure if reporting is required, please contact FIU Tax Compliance Team or call (305) 348-2655.

Application Support Specialist ITN

FIU executed Master Agreements for the provision of Application Support Specialist Positions as a result of the ITN 2019-00020. Suppliers will be providing functional and technical Application Support Specialist Positions in one or more of the following Specialized Administrative Areas:

• Oracle PeopleSoft Technology
  • Campus Solution
  • Human Capital Management
  • Enterprise Portal/Interaction Hub
  • Financials and Grants
  • PeopleSoft System Administration
• Oracle or SQL Server Database Management
• Oracle Business Intelligence development and administration
• Third party Integration, Web and Application development
• Learning Management System development and administration
• Salesforce development and administration
• Jaggaer integration development
• Hyland/ImageNow development and administration
• Project Management

Executed Master Agreements for Application Support Specialist ITN:

Detailed ordering instructions will be provided when all Master Agreements for ITN 2019-00020 are executed. If you have any questions please contact Jacob Zade or call at 305-348-4320.

Supplier Change Request

Total Contract Manager

TCM has several communication methods that are tailored for specific situations. Contract Managers are encouraged to review and use the various communication methods as they will add value and increase the efficiency of their contracting process. The various step-by-step user guide, as well as the document comparing each method, can be found here under the “Manuals” section. Use this opportunity to review other related TCM guides, which all begin with “TCM”.

GovQuote

GovQuote is mandatory for all purchased between $10,000 and $74,999 that requires two quotes. If you need training on GovQuote please contact Barbara Cotto Jimenez.

GovQuote enables:

• Lower prices from qualified companies.
• More opportunities for local businesses.
• A knowledge platform to train new buyers.
• A centralized repository to keep all Requests together.
• RFQ certifications and complete audit records with timelines.
• And most importantly, a higher quality work product compared to gathering manual quotes, with far less effort.

Avis Budget Group Auto Rental

The State of Florida Department of Management Services has executed a new contract with Avis Budget Group, Inc. for rental vehicles. This contract is effective as of September 30, 2020. FIU will use this contract for all individuals that travel on behalf of the University. The rental class is restricted to a compact (Class B) vehicle unless traveling with multiple FIU travelers. Please review the Florida Department of Management Services Rental Vehicle Pricing.

The FIU Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number for making reservations is B-133407 and the FIU Budget Corporate Discount (BCD) number is T-417600. Please review the User Reference Guide for rental vehicles by Avis Budget Group.

Customers may make reservations and rent vehicles from any location for either brand; use the Avis Website and Budget Website to determine the most convenient location for either brand. Customers are strongly encouraged to only use airport locations for trips involving air travel.

Car Rental Update

Effective October 1, 2020 the state’s rental car services contract is with Avis. As you plan upcoming travel, please be aware of this change and discontinue the use of Enterprise Rental Car.

For any trips taking place after September 30, 2020, please proceed with canceling those reservations with Enterprise Car Rental. For travel requiring a rental car on or after October 1, 2020, you may reserve with Avis, effective immediately.

Rental Vehicles (78111808-20-1) – Contractor information, pricing, and contract documents are located on the contract webpage.

Avis and Budget Brands:

• The contractor offers services under two different brands: Avis and Budget.
• Customers may make reservations and rent vehicles from any location for either brand; use the Avis website and Budget website to determine the most convenient location for either brand.
• Customers are strongly encouraged to only use airport locations for trips involving air travel.

After-the-Fact Travel Authorizations New Requirements

Travel Authorizations are required to be approved prior to incurring expenses on behalf of the University. This approval is granted through the Peoplesoft Financial system process. Failure to follow this requirement results in non-compliance. Effective September 01, 2020, a second level supervisor approval will be required in addition to an explanation of why non-conforming expenses were incurred prior to obtaining an approved TA.

Please note that continued non-compliance may result in suspension to travel for FIU.

Example:

Creating Travel Authorizations

When creating Travel Authorizations in the Financial System, list all anticipated expenses by the expense type. This includes the expenses that are out-of-pocket and paid with the University Credit Card. Do Not list prepaid expenses in the “Benefit to FIU or Project” area of Travel Authorizations or Expense Reports. The funding for prepaid expenses does not encumber.

Note: A Travel Authorization is a traveler’s permission to travel on behalf of Florida International University. Travel Authorizations are not required for online conferences, seminars, webinars, etc. as there is no travel involved. An expense report is not required for online conferences, seminars, webinars, etc. unless the participant paid out of pocket and is seeking reimbursement.

New and Upcoming myFIUmarket Enablement’s

• Medline (New)
• Sigma (Upcoming)
• SHI International (Upcoming)
• BioLegend (Upcoming)

Pick Up Packages

Card Inactivity Reviews

Annually, a Card Inactivity Review is conducted by the Credit Card Solutions Team. Cardholders who have not had card activity during the consecutive three-month period prior to the review will be sent an Inactivity Notification via email.

• We require that a Cardholder reply with a justification as to why the card account must remain open.
• Cardholders may also reply to the notification indicating that the card is no longer needed and request account closure.
• If no response is received within three weeks of the notification, the card account will be automatically cancelled, and the Cardholder will receive notification of closure.

Notifications were sent out September 21, 2020 with a deadline of October 5, 2020. If you have not already sent your response, we kindly ask that you do so now to avoid temporary suspension of card privileges.

Changes to AP Journal Vouchers

The Controller’s Office has been working on making changes to the journal voucher process. The process has been decentralized. Accounts Payable will be processing journal vouchers on behalf of departments in very specific circumstances only.

Financials Systems and Support Services (FSSS) is providing the training. Once you attend the training, FSSS will grant you access.

Please register for a training session by going to: FIU Professional Development Website.

Travel

Let’s expedite approving Travel Authorizations, Cash Advances, and Expense Reports. Documents that have not been completely finalized and are older than 90 days will be cancelled or deleted by the Travel Department. A list of pending documents is located here. Information regarding report status abbreviations and how to close or cancel Travel Authorizations and/or Expense Reports can be found here.

Departmental Card Deadline

As a reminder, departmental card billing transactions regularly load the first business day of the month; program participants will have 10 days to process this activity in its entirety. This month’s billing statement (dated September 30, 2020) loaded into PantherSoft on October 2, 2020 and must be completely processed by the end of the business day on October 16, 2020.

Any charges not processed by the closing deadline will be automatically charged to the cardholder’s default accounting on file and will not be eligible for a transfer. Cardholders with three unjustified non-approvals in the same fiscal year will have their card suspended until they complete a retraining session.

Invoices Pending Receipt

Please review the list of vouchers in PeopleSoft that are pending a receipt in order to facilitate payment. This report is as of October 3, 2020. If the item(s) have been received or the service(s) have been rendered, you will need to create a receipt in the system. Please disregard if a receipt was created on or after October 3, 2020.