Controller's Office

In support of the University's Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Plan, we are committed to providing high quality service as a foundation for UMD's academic and administrative programs. 

Chrome River Refresher

We held a Chrome River refresher session on October 18;  you can watch a recording of the hour and fifteen minutes session.  The intended audience is staff and faculty using Chrome River to create reports. It may also be helpful for staff who need to assist others in preparing their own reports.

This link is restricted to those in the d.umn.edu domain only.  You may be asked to log in with your UMD account to watch.  

Transition to Finance Operations Center

As of December 4, 2023, the Finance Operations Center has taken over most of the transaction processing formerly performed by the UMD Controller's Office. 

Please submit all journal entry requests, invoices, receipts, check request forms and other payment requests, Foundation requests, and accounts receivable requests to the Finance Operations Center through a TDX form. The Ops Center is also handling all payment troubleshooting and questions.  TDX forms are the primary method of contact with the Ops Center, but if you have a question that does not “fit” any form, you may also email [email protected].

Please continue to send pcard and travel card applications to [email protected]. We also retain responsibility for Chrome River travel approvals.

We appreciate your patience and understanding!

Year end 2022 at UMD

The full FYE memo has been published.  The calendar of dates/times starts on page 30.  Remember, the dates listed online are TC dates.  Revisions may be made before the end of the year; they will be clearly marked on the website.

The schedule is similar to last year's schedule.  This email only lists dates for some of the year end processes, so please read through the entire memo.  Your college or unit may set earlier deadlines for transactions that must be approved internally, especially for journal entries.

Two major changes to be aware of: 

  • Retro distributions will not be allowed in period 913.
  • Pre-pandemic year end inventory procedures have been reinstated

1.  All vouchers must be emailed to the UMD Controller's Office at [email protected] by Thursday, June 16. This includes internal sales. This will allow for all transactions to be properly approved and budget checked by June 23.  June 16 is also the last day for foreign wires/drafts to be processed. 

2.  All POs must be fully processed, approved, budget checked, and error free by 2:00 pm on June 23.  This includes UMarket orders which must be sent to PO by this deadline.  I would recommend the last day to enter be June 18, so you can be certain that approvals will occur (including any TC approvals) and the transaction will pass budget checking. Also note that receipts do not roll with the fiscal year end processing.  If they are not matched to a voucher, they must be deleted by your Procurement Specialist.

4.  All pcard activity that has posted to MyWallet should be reconciled and approved by 2:00 PM, June 23.  Anything not reconciled by that date will be reconciled and posted to the GL in FY23.

5.  Accounts receivable billings must be in to [email protected] by June 24, earlier if the customer needs to be established in EFS.

6.  All access for requisitions, voucher entry, and related approvals will be shut off in EFS from June 23 at 2:00 pm through July 1.  This will ensure that there are no late entries into these modules that will interfere with the closing processes. UMarket shopping carts may still be created and saved, just not sent to requisitions in EFS. Pcard purchases may still be made. Access will be restored July 1.

7. Supervisory approvals in Chrome River must be completed by June 16 to give our office time to apply the final financial approvals.  Some units handle final financial approvals internally and may set different deadlines.  Any expense reports not fully approved by the June 23 deadline will remain in Chrome River until the system reopens July 1.  Like UMarket shopping carts, new Chrome River reports can be created and approved during that time, but they will not "flow through" to EFS, which means that payments to employees will not be created and they will not post to the general ledger until July 1.

8.  All department deposits for FY22 must be to the Cashier's Office by 1:30 PM, June 30. 

9.  All period 12 journal entries must be approved and ready for posting by 2:00 PM July 11.  Period 12 closes the morning of July 12.

10.  Period 13 will open July 12 after the close of period 12.  Best practice for departments charging other units via JE is to notify other departments prior to making a period 13 entry and not to post charges during the last three business days of period 13.  Do NOT post charges impacting another unit on the last day of period 13.  Please, don't be That Guy.

11.  All Period 12 Direct Retro Distributions must be approved and ready for posting by 4:30 PM on July 11th.  There will be no Direct Retro Distributions allowed in period 913.

12.  Enterprise Assessment for period 12 will be posted July 12.  All other central entries will be posted by July 14.  This will allow departments to tidy up accounts before the end of period 13.

13.  Period 13 journal entries must be approved and ready for posting by 2:00 PM, July 19.  Period 13 closes July 20.  JE initiators or preparers: if email is not the best way to contact you with last minute questions, please include the phone number you can be reached at in the JE description.  It has been a challenge in past years to reach people to correct last minute errors, and we anticipate it may be even harder this year with everyone working remotely.

The last few years have seen a staggering amount of journal entries in period 13, which has caused a number of issues for systemwide Accounting Services.  If you haven’t already, please begin reconciling your accounts immediately and get correcting journal entries into period 12.

14.  When entering a JE in period 13, you must enter June 30 as the date.  In period 13, you will also need to mark it as an adjusting entry for period 913.

Any central year end reporting forms that you may need to submit (such as inventory) are due July 19.   The year end forms were reviewed and/or revised two years ago,  so please make sure you're using the most recent available version of any form.

Spring 2021 Operations

Welcome to Spring, everyone.  

The Controller's Office in Darland 209 will continue to be staffed Monday through Friday.  With some staff returning to campus, we are asking everyone to continue to route as many documents electronically as possible.

Please use the Foundation check request form to request a transfer of funding from a Foundation fund to an EFS account.
For units who have multiple Foundation requests to enter at one time, please download the UMD_UMF spreadsheet. Save filename as name_XXXXXX_College-Dept (your name, date, college-dept name). Fill out and email spreadsheet to [email protected].

Other invoice request forms and invoices for payment go to [email protected]

A few tips: As before, please send different kinds of documents in separate batches. Please don't combine Foundation requests with invoice or journal entry requests.  You can combine like transactions together on one email. 

Feel free to scan directly from your copier to the above email address if that's more convenient for you.  Just make absolutely sure you've typed the address in correctly, as you may not get an undeliverable notification from the copier if you mistype it. 

Please combine all documents relating to one transaction into one file.  For instance, if you have both a check request form, a related printout of an email with more details than would fit on the form, and a Special Handling form, please combine them into one pdf. 

If you are one of the departments for whom we key in journal entries, please include all supporting documentation when emailing the Journal Entry Request Form. 

The Cashier's Office will be open from 9:00am to 3:00pm daily. 

UMD Controller's Office "Sunrise" Plan

Prepaid Debit Card Program

The re-loadable prepaid debit card offers a faster and safer payment method for all University departments. For many scenarios (for example, paying study participants) PPDC is a preferred alternative to AP checks, gift cards, petty cash and cash advance.

Features

  • An online portal (ClinCard) for convenient administrative actions like loading, tracking, and reporting on study payments.
  • Secure and safe method for compensating participants (visit payments and participant travel reimbursements).
  • Participants receive immediate payment for research study participation.
  • Reduced payment administration.
  • Increased participant retention.
  • The Duluth Controller's Office maintains a supply of blank cards here on campus.

For more information, please see Duluth campus-specific instructions here.

Chrome River Navigator Tips & Tricks

  • Chrome River is accessed through MyU and the link is currently available to all UMD units. 
    Navigate to Key Links - U Travel - Chrome River Login. If you are exploring in Chrome River to get familiar with it, please DO NOT to click the green Submit button on any test reports.
  • The expense owner is the person who traveled or made a purchase.  Expense owners will be processing their own expense reports with very few exceptions.  Navigators are encouraged to sit with expense owners who are doing their first report, or who need help with future reports.
  • If the expense owner is reconciling a charge that was made on a Travel Card, they must start from the Credit Card section in the Add Expenses window.  The charges may take up to a week to appear in Chrome River, depending on when the merchant submits them to their bank. A green dot will appear when credit card charges are in Chrome River.
  • Per diem meals (personal meals while in travel status) can never be purchased on the Travel Card.
  • Remember that hotel charges and supplies purchases must be itemized.  Hotel charges are itemized to make sure that the room charges do not exceed the per diem limit as allowed by University policy. Supplies charges are itemized to make sure they are posted to the correct account code.
  • When the expense owner is adding meals using the per diem wizard, they can click on each day to deduct meals for which they do not want to be reimbursed (for instance, meals provided by a conference to all attendees).
  • Remember, Offline receipts = Out of pocket expenses
  • To launch a walkthrough of creating an expense report or uploading receipts, expense owners log in to Chrome River and click their user name in the upper right hand corner, then click Launch Walkthrough.
  • Every U of M employee will be required to use Chrome River by July 1, 2019. UMD will transition by major unit (colleges, Student Life, etc) with the entire unit moving to Chrome River as a group.
  • UMD Controller’s Office staff is available to attend department or unit meetings to give an hour-long overview of Chrome River and the Travel Card.  
    Please contact Sue Bosell directly to arrange this at [email protected] or 7168.

Helpful resources: