Since the University implemented Oracle Financials Cloud (OFC) in 2016, campus’ primary method for tracking project-related expenditures has been the Account Analysis Report (AAR) from the OFC General Ledger (GL). While the AAR has provided the ability to track project expenditures in conjunction with macro-enabled spreadsheets and human intervention, it has numerous limitations as compared to OFC’s “Awards Overview,” and “Project Costs” and “Project Commitments” functionality (sometimes collectively referred to as the OFC Project Portfolio Management (PPM) module). The information below explains why campus should now use PPM for sponsored project financial management activities.
PPM
Reasons to Use PPM
- PPM does not display transactions that do not pass budget, start/end dates or other exceptions (e.g., unallowable costs). These transactions are generally in the process of being corrected in the GL.
- PPM displays Requisitions and Purchase Orders at time of submission. The GL only shows these when (1) they are approved and (2) processed from OFC Procurement.
- PPM includes Salary Ledger detail for paid costs. This information is not accessible in the standard GL view.
- PPM provides Budget v. Actuals; just ensure the “Period Type” shows “Inception-to-Date” in the “Awards Overview” area. Instructions for running the Budget v. Actuals report from the data warehouse are available in the link above. (Note: The old “Grant Account Analysis Pivot Macro” is based on the GL and should not be used because the GL may contain unallowable costs.)
- PPM includes daily F&A totals; these are only sent to the GL at the end of the month.
- PPM receives salary information the same day it’s posted to the GL.
Nuances Between PPM and GL Data
- PPM does not include manual journal entries posted the same day (used rarely now because of the Smartsheet Correcting Entry Request process). Manual journal entries are imported into PPM the following morning.
- PPM shows Procurement and Accounts Payable activity within 10 minutes of it posting to the GL.
- PPM does not include transfers or revenue totals.