The university this month launches the
much-anticipated second generation of Access to Financial
Information, the Web-based reporting system implemented in
early 2002 to provide a user-friendly tool for principal
investigators and account administrators to manage accounts
more effectively.
The expanded version--set to go live on Monday, Aug.
11--will provide current and new users with access to
nonsponsored accounts, historical financial data and custom
date-range reporting, along with other miscellaneous
enhancements.
Stephen Hinnenkamp, director of financial systems in
the Controller's
Office, said that the initial purpose of
the AFI system was to offer researchers a direct and secure
means to peruse daily updated financial summaries of all
their sponsored accounts via the Web, thereby significantly
reducing delays in supplying account information to whoever
needed it.
With the implementation of AFI's second generation,
Hinnenkamp said, others who handle financial matters at
Johns Hopkins can now take advantage of the system's many
capabilities, which have been tweaked and augmented during
the past year.
Currently, AFI provides overview reports for all
accounts belonging to a P.I. or a specific area; master
account overviews summarizing the account and its
allocations; summaries that show budgets, expenditures,
encumbrances and the balance for a specific account; and
online versions of FS910-FS912 financial statements. Each
report can be generated in printable PDF format or
downloaded to Excel for further analysis.
As of Aug. 11, nonsponsored accounts will be added to
the AFI system, and users will be able to access endowment,
general fund and discretionary accounts. A person who
manages a department or office's budget, for example, can
log into AFI (with a JHED ID) and retrieve expenditures and
all relevant account information.
The updated system also will provide historical
financial data back to July 2000, allowing users to
generate financial statements for any period from fiscal
year 2001 through to the present.
Based on customer demand, date-range reporting also
has been added to AFI, allowing users to quickly generate
reports showing revenues/expenditures for a specific time
period. The system provides default selections for common
reporting periods such as the current fiscal or calendar
year. It also allows users to specify start and end dates
for their report, with the ability to report across fiscal
years for sponsored accounts.
"We feel this will be a much-used and well-liked
feature," Hinnenkamp said. "For sponsored accounts, a lot
of times the researcher or administrator needs to know how
much was spent over a given time period."
In addition, the new AFI can give an endowment
overview report that links endowment principal and payout
accounts. Users can view a summary of contributions to
principal accounts during the previous three fiscal years,
or view statements for endowment interest accounts.
Hinnenkamp said that AFI will not necessarily replace
current nonsponsored account management systems, such as
AINQ, but will provide "a Web-based tool designed to
streamline and simplify account management and reporting
tasks."
"The biggest advantage of AFI has been giving our
people the ability to use the Web to quickly generate and
download reports for a P.I., area, master or single
account. Now that we have expanded the system to include
all accounts, and to allow custom date-range reporting, we
hope users find it easier to obtain the financial
information they need to manage their accounts," he
said.
Fred Davidson, a professor of electrical and computer
engineering in the Whiting School, said that he has used
AFI since its inception and has found the system "extremely
useful" as he no longer has to wait five to 10 days, or
more, after the end of a month to be sent a report on his
grant accounts.
"Now, I can look at my accounts in real time, whenever
and wherever I want," he said.
Davidson said that those who manage nonsponsored
accounts should find AFI a welcome addition to their JHU
lives.
"I have general fund accounts, too, and the ability to
pull them up online and look at them will be very nice," he
said. "Presently, I don't get a statement on these accounts
unless I spend money off one of them, so this will
certainly be an enhancement."
AFI, which is linked directly to the university
accounting system, is available in all divisions except
APL, which uses a separate accounting system. It can be
reached through the Controller's Office home page, or by
connecting to
www.jhu.edu/afi.
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