state of connecticut core-ct project epm user group meeting january 2004

STATE OF CONNECTICUTCore-CT Project

EPM User Group MeetingEPM User Group MeetingJanuary 2004January 2004

• Introduction Jeanne Skellett• System Issues Mark Malcolm• System Enhancements/Updates Frank Scalia• Agency Report Demonstration Jennifer Traynor• BREAK• EPM Training Steve Perkins• User Comments/Issues/Request Frank Scalia• Next Meeting Jeanne Skellett

Agenda

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Janet Knopf - StateFrank Scalia – StateRoger Sherman – StateMary Yabrosky - StateScott Hagberg – AccenturePatrick Dwyer – AccentureTBD – State Agency

Jeanne Skellett – StateDave LaPierre – State

Mark Malcolm - Accenture

Reporting Team Structure

4

Provide a forum for end users and the EPM team to:

• Review and receive updates on EPM issues• Exchange ideas • Present EPM enhancements• Host Agency to Agency presentations on EPM

uses

EPM User Group Purpose

Agency Concerns

Queries are executed but they take a long time to complete

Performance

Reporting table data refresh has been inconsistent

Data Refresh

Users need help in understanding the information in the reporting tables.

Understanding Information on the Tables

DescriptionConcern

The Top Three User Concerns are:


Agenda

• Security Principles

• Refresh Rate

• EPM Help Process

• Efficient Help Ticket Resolution

• Views versus Tables

EPM Fundamentals

General Security Guidelines

• Your role in the HRMS or Financials system will determine the EPM reporting tables to which you have access

• Your query result sets are restricted either by the departments or business units to which you have access

• In general, if you can see it in the transactional system you should be able to query it in EPM

Security Principles

The refresh goal:• Our batch schedule updates the EPM tables on a nightly basis • Updates made in the transactional system should be available for reporting

the following day.

The refresh realities:• The EPM batch schedule is dependent on HRMS and Financials batch

schedule• Processing errors do occur. Attempts to fix occur during the night.

Refresh exceptions:• CT_DET_PAYROLL – Refreshed after payroll is distributed• CT_LEAVE_PLAN – Refreshed after leave accrual processing

Refresh Rate

Refresh Rate (continued)

Updates appear on CORE-CT homepage when data is not refreshed

Help Desk

WLA

Data Dictionar

y

Job Aids

AgencySuperuse

r

EPM Help Process

Users should follow the following process for obtaining help

Labs

• When contacting the help desk about a reporting problem communicating the type of report you are trying to create will assist the help desk in identifying the best resource for resolving the ticket

For example: Reports generated via EPM Reporting Tools will be resolved more quickly if routed to the EPM team

All other reports should be routed to either the Financials or HRMS teams for timely resolution

Efficient Impact Ticket Resolution

What is a view? Views are subsets of data from one or more tables

What are views used for in EPM?Views are being used to secure sensitive data• Example: Address information for certain employee groups

Views are being used to segment table data to simplify reporting• Example: Specific ledger groups like allotments and appropriations

How does querying from a view differ from a table? To the user there is no difference between query from a view or table

Views versus Tables

Open Issues

Knowing the Data/Using the Tool- Users need help learning the information in the reporting tables and how to use the tool to create a report

• Working on securing additional support resources

• Adding query labs in January

• Meeting with users directly to resolve issues

• Need to create reporting table job aids

Sharing Queries- Users want to share Ad-Hoc queries they have created with others

• Roll-out approach and management plan created

• Plan just submitted for review by directors

Query Size Limits- Users requesting larger data set retrieval capability

• Scheduled queries circumvents the limits placed when displaying results on-line

Issue Efforts / Solutions

Open Issues

Reporting Table Refresh- Intermittent delays in refresh

• Running EPM batch earlier• New logic added to batch schedule to enable dynamic processing

Run Hyperlink on Query Manager- Some users experiencing blank page or error message return

• PeopleTools upgrade expected in the Spring

• Use preview tab in the query

Performance - Navigation from page to page and running of some queries sometimes takes too long

• Tech Team has increased memory & servers

• Indexes begin added to tables• Queries are being evaluated• Schedule Query

Issue Efforts / Solutions


Agenda

• Capability to Schedule Queries

• Chart of Account Trees – Enabling ‘in tree’

• New EPM Reporting Tables/Queries

• Prompt Table Edits

System Enhancements/Updates

Benefits of scheduling queries:• Allows access to full result set• Distribution of report results to any EPM user• Schedule Query to run on a recurring basis• Enhance Performance by running outside the Application

When to schedule a query:• When a query returns the error “Query Result Set too Large.”• When a query is run on a recurring basis.

Scheduled Queries

Benefits of ‘in tree’:• Enable user to report based on a series of Accounts, DeptID’s, Sid’s,

Fund’s, etc.• Enables user to subtotal base upon the respective tree hierarchy

Who will benefit from ‘in tree’ querying?• Primarily financial reporting users • Agencies with a complex hierarchy of accounts, Sid’s, and Fund’s• Agencies with a complex department structure

Chart of Account Trees

New EPM Tables

New Reporting Tables being developed for Financials:

Table Name Description

Budget Transaction Holds all posted and unposted budget journal entries

Receiver Transaction Holds the detail information for all goods received, inspected, returned, and put away

Procurement X-ref Cross references all procurement transactions to each other

Vendor Withholding Transaction Holds the detail information for all withholding transactions for a vendor

Customer Contacts Lists all contact information for accounts receivable customers

New Reporting Tables being developed for HR:

New EPM Tables

Table Name DescriptionBenefits Billing Holds information relating to employees who must

send payments to the State of Connecticut to continue their benefits

Billing Activity Holds the detailed payment information related to Benefits Billing

Pay Check Summary Holds gross pay, total taxes, total deductions and net pay for a given paycheck

Additional Payment Holds information about payments processed through additional pay

Employee Deduction Holds information on all deductions that will be

taken from an employee’s earnings Employee Tax Holds information affecting an employee’s taxes

like marital status, allowances and exemptions

YTD Payroll Holds earnings, deduction, and tax totals by Year, Month and Quarter

Why are prompt table edits important? • They provide users with valid listing of values• They assist users in creating criteria for queries

The following fields now have Prompt Table Edits:– Business Unit– Account– Department– Fund– SID– Program– Project– Chartfield 1– Chartfield 2

Prompt Table Edits Added

Prompt Table Edits Example

Job Aids can be found at the following location:

http://www.core-ct.state.ct.us/epm/

Job Aids Location


Agenda

Situation: Delivered payroll register not sorted or summed in the way DEP needed

Query Name: DEP Paycheck Details Summary

Description: DEP Payroll Register Alpha by employee name.

(Subtotals on each transaction / deduction type).

EPM End User Demonstration

Steps followed to create report: • Identified an existing query that was useful• Modified its Fields• Modified the Criteria and Prompts• Used the Sum function• Using Reorder/Sort

DEP Paycheck Details Summary

End User Demo

Other helpful uses of EPM

• Data clean-up example - • Personnel Director’s Manager Listing


Agenda

What is a Tree? • The graphical hierarchy in PeopleSoft systems that displays the relationship

between items in a group.

• Trees add a convenient graphical layer that displays the relationships between chartfield values.

Benefits in EPM:• Trees allow a user to restrict a query result set to only those rows of data

which have values that exist in a tree node.

In Tree: Constraint Type

What is an Expression?

• Expressions are calculations that PeopleSoft Query performs as part of the query.

• They can be used to compare values.

Uses: • Numerical Manipulation.

• Substring.

• Concatenate.

• Decode (IF)

Expressions


Agenda

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Discussion


Agenda

Thank You for your participation today. We look forward to continuing our work together to improve and make EPM a Success!

• Feed Back Forms

• Look for this presentation and meeting Q & A’son the Core-CT Website (http://www.core-ct.state.ct.us/)

• Next Meeting – March 2004101 E. River Drive, Room 1002 A&B

• AR/GL/Reporting Meeting - January 26, 2004101 E. River Drive, Room 1002 A&B

Closing

state of connecticut core-ct project epm user group meeting january 2004

Documents

epm tables

epm team

epm reporting tables

rate epm help

epm reporting tools

tables epm fundamentals

epm batch schedule

epm user group purpose