March 26, 2020: Changes to fiscal and transactional processes

Update (April 2, 2o20): New information regarding electronic routing of payments is available.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there are many UW Madison transactional processes that have changed due to the work at home order and a drastic reduction in inter-departmental mail coming to the Health Sciences Learning Center. SMPH Fiscal Affairs will be telecommuting and only in the office on an ad hoc basis for essential services. Please reach out to us by email for the fastest responses. Here is a summary of the recent changes and links to additional campus information:

UW Madison Revenue and Refund of Receipts

• • Campus is continuing to deposit revenue and refunds twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Effective immediately and through the required COVID-19 telecommuting period, please send all your checks for UW Madison deposit and supporting paperwork to Cash Management at 21 N Park St, Suite 5301 for processing via first class mail as inter-departmental mail has not been consistently delivered. You can contact Cash Management with questions or concerns or to arrange a time to drop off cash at acctg@bussvc.wisc.edu.
  • Refund of Receipt paperwork can be emailed directly to Carla Fischer for review and approval and she will send the paperwork to Cash Management.
  • Direct Deposits and Wire Transfers are still being processed daily Monday-Friday.
  • As of March 20, the Department of Administration has not indicated any flexibility in the state statute requiring all checks to be deposited at least once per week. As we expect the volume of this to decrease do the best you can, while having safety and wellness of employees as the priority.
  • Ensure effective internal control practice are in place
    • checks and cash receipts are stored safely and deposited in a timely manner
    • stamp or write on back of checks to be deposited at UW Madison “for UW Madison deposit only”

Payments

• • Updated on April 2, 2020:
    Electronic routing of direct payments (DPs), payments to individual reports (PIRs), purchase orders (POs) and Custodian Forms are required to be submitted electronically as PDF attachments from your department-authorized signer. Please attach one single PDF file for each complete payment request that includes the supporting documentation to our general inbox smphfiscal@med.wisc.edu with DP, PIR, PO or Req and the req number, or Cust in the subject line.

    Effective 3/31/2020 payment requests that do not have a W9 on file in WISDM will now require the tax document to be attached in your email submission. These emails that include confidential information (W9, W8Ben, Non Resident Alien documents, wire and HIPAA Protected Health Information) will need to be encrypted and require you to submit using your wisc.edu email from Outlook (do not use a web browser to access your Office365 account; doing so  causes errors to the encryption preventing us from forwarding to campus). Please follow these instructions to create an encrypted and confidential email in Outlook: Options>Set permission on this item>UW-Madison – Confidential
    

  • Please do not send paper submissions to the Fiscal office.
  • Check payments are still being processed with checks being printed on Tuesdays and Fridays.
  • Purchasing Card
    • If cardholders need to ship merchandise to a non-campus location, please ensure an adequate justification is included as part of the supporting documentation (e.g. Shipped to staff member’s home for use while working remotely due to COVID-19 pandemic).
    • It is allowable to retain purchasing card records electronically. While staff is working remotely, consider using scanners and cameras to capture supporting documentation. Please be sure all images are clear and legible before discarding originals/hard copies. As a reminder, all pcard documents must be retained as the official record of the University for seven years.
    • It is understood cardholders and site managers may not be able to sign purchasing card statements within the timeframe typically required by policy. Whenever possible, document approvals via email and sign the statements when staff returns to campus. A justification for the delayed signature should be included as part of the supporting documentation.
    • We are working with the Business Services Training Coordinator to implement an online training option for new card applicants. We are hoping to have this available in the next few days and will contact those registered for upcoming in-person sessions that may have to be cancelled.

Travel

• • All travel reservations through May 15 must be cancelled at this time and no future travel plans should be made until further notice unless an exemption form is submitted for essential travel to Ken Mount and approved by campus.
  • Currently, per UW travel guidelines, as long as the circumstances were outside of the traveler’s control, fees for changing/cancelling flights are payable/reimbursable by the University (e.g. meeting dates changed).

Custodian temporary account closure with repayment of unused funds due

• • Custodian completes Custodian Fund Accounting Form and supporting documents then prints to pdf. These together would be the “Closing Documents”.
  • Custodian emails Closing Documents to the Department for approval.
  • The Department would review the Closing Documents then forward them over to the Dean’s Office stating in the email that the Closing Documents have been reviewed and are approved.
  • Dean’s Office would review the Closing Documents. Once approved, the Dean’s Office would send an email to the Custodian saying the Closing Documents have been reviewed and approved.
  • The Custodian then would write a check for the unused funds and send it to 21 N Park St.
  • The Custodian can include the Closing Documents and the approvals if they have the ability to print them out
  • If the Custodian cannot include the closing documents, they can send the check for the unused funds to 21 N Park St. Cash Management will just need to be notified about this closed out Temporary Fund so that we can match up to it when the check comes through in our daily check deposit.
    • It would be helpful if the Custodian put the NR number on the check so that it is easier to track.
    • For SMPH: Cash Management will email check number and amount to Faye once received and closed out.

For additional COVID-19 guidance related to campus operations you can go to the following websites:
• SMPH
• Campus
• Business services
• RSP

Other helpful guidance:
• How to add a signature to a pdf instructions are on the fiscal affairs website

Let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Darlene Wood, Associate Director for Finance
Carla Fischer, Accountant
Faye Wright, Accountant