Financial Outlook Reporting Tool

Background:

In Summer 2016, the Office of Finance Systems and Data Analytics (OFSDA) was engaged by the RAS leadership, the RAS unit Chief Business Officers, the RAS Task Force (representing the University Faculty Council (UFC)) and the School of Medicine Business & Finance leadership to consider ways to address inefficiencies in data access, reporting and projections.

As a result of the feedback obtained from working sessions with RAS Task Force representatives and other faculty, OFSDA agreed to focus on three areas: 

  1. the development of a consolidated financial view for faculty with minimal clicks and a focus on what faculty need to know
  2. reduction of manually intensive tasks on RAS staff to allow them additional capacity to support faculty and
  3. improved metrics to track accountability in meeting agreed-upon services for faculty.

Download and configuration instructions

FORT Reports

View UPDATED Sponsored FORT Template (v1.2) 

updated 6/19/2018

View UPDATED Sponsored FORT Job Aid & FAQs

Enhancements incorporated into version 1.2:

  • v1.2 Added the Engagement Tracker
    • See the job aid for details on this enhancement
  • v1.2 Enhanced the cost base assignment function
    • Users no longer have to choose which cost base is appropriate for each project.  FinPro now pulls that information directly from Compass and applies it to the project automatically.

Enhancements & fixes incorporated into version 1.1.3:

  • v1.1.3 Added links to the Project Summary page to the following:
    • FORT Website
    • Sponsored FORT Job Aid
    • Earnings Distribution and Projections Dashboard in EBI
    • Earnings Distribution and Projections Job Aid
  • v1.1.3 Aesthetic improvements to the Project Summary page, including renaming the 'hyperlink' column 'Project_Activity' and removing the duplicate column of the same name and hiding the 'Review Status' column.

Enhancements & fixes incorporated into previous versions:

  • v1.1.2 Issue with spending prior to the system start date not appearing in the project worksheet or calculating on balances has been resolved.
  • v1.1.2 Issue where the project template periods were out of alignment due to the first period of the award being greater than or less than 12 months long is resolved.
  • v1.1 Project activity has been incorporated. Each project/activity combo is a new projection worksheet.
  • v1.1 In order to increase loading speed, When you type in a PI ID, only the project summary and notes pages are populated.  Then, when the project_activity hyperlink is clicked the project data is automatically loaded, so there is no need to click 'update report' link when initially pulling up a project worksheet.
  • v1.1 Fringe is now automatically calculated on projections.
  • v1.1 Users can now manually adjust & upload fringe rates by employee. The federal or non-federal rate is populated by default based on project type.
  • v1.1 Annual total column was added for each 12-month period of the project/activity.
  • v1.1 Direct cost budget/expenses/remaining balance columns were added to the project summary.  Total cost columns are still available but hidden by default.
  • v1.1 F&A on projections is now automatically calculated based on the cost base chosen in cell L28 on the project worksheets.  MTDC (1) is chosen by default.  The analyst should choose the appropriate cost base (if not MTDC) which will automatically update the F&A calculations for the project/activity projections. Click "Upload Data" to save your cost base selection so that it doesn't have to be applied each time.
  • v1.0.5 Added account codes to the non-personnel expense line
  • v1.0.5 Added additional 'projected hire' rows with the ability to enter and upload a name or short description in the yellow cells in column M
  • v1.0.5 Hyperlink to project worksheet on project summary tab is now the project number
  • v1.0.5 Drill to encumbrance detail from project summary tab (LTD encumbrance detail) or project worksheets (MTD encumbrance detail)
  • v1.0.5 Labor security has been updated so a project can be viewed without employee names on salary lines
  • v1.0.5 Fixed formula error on 'Direct Expenditures to Date' and 'Expenditures to Date' rows
  • v1.0.5 Fixed an issue where suspense correction journals were not pulling into template and were causing total expenditures to be too low on some projects
  • v1.0.5 Shaded 'Projected Expenses' and 'Projected Surplus/Deficit' columns on project summary page to differentiate them from actuals
  • v1.0.5 Implemented various column label changes for clarity, for example "% earnings" was renamed "% Current HR Earnings Distribution" on project worksheets

Links to Job Aids and Resources

View the Non-Sponsored FORT Template (v2.0.1)

Updated 8/22/17

View the Non-Sponsored FORT Job Aid & FAQs

Links to Resources

View the Integrated Summary FORT Template (v3.0.3)

Updated 10/12/17

View the Integrated Summary FORT Job Aid & FAQs

Enhancements & fixes

  • v3.0.3 Fixed an issue where due to a Microsoft Office update that was recently pushed out, some older versions of excel are hiding rows 3032 to 5033 in the Sponsored Projects section of the summary page.
  • v3.0.2 Fixed an issue where only the first year of any project would appear on the project worksheets.
  • v3.0.1 Issue with spending prior to the system start date not appearing in the sponsored project worksheet or calculating on balances has been resolved.
  • v3.0.1 Issue where the sponsored project template periods were out of alignment due to the first period of the award being greater than or less than 12 months long is resolved.

Links to Resources

How to report an issue or get assistance with FORT

Additional Tools in EBI:

How to report an issue or get assistance with FORT:

Analytics and Reporting Quick Links

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