Finances

In the area of finance and accounting, the standard SAP solutions for finance (FI), controlling (CO), asset management (AA), and the project system (PS) are used. In addition, UZH has various in-house developments in SAP or special solutions integrated into SAP.

In the form of the Creditor Workflow (KWF), the University of Zurich has an electronic invoice processing system that enables the efficient and high-quality processing of all supplier invoices.

All invoices are scanned centrally in the accounts payable department and, based on the reference data, forwarded electronically for material and formal verification and financial release. Thanks to the clear assignment of responsibilities, the invoices are immediately forwarded electronically to the right person. The respective processors are informed by e-mail about new invoices to be processed and receive the link to the invoice in the UZH web portal Business Applications. In this way, the creditor workflow enables invoices to be processed regardless of location, e.g. from home or on a business trip. After all of the necessary approvals have been issued, payment is automatically triggered.

Since November 1, 2018, UZH suppliers have been successively enabled to transmit structured invoice data electronically, which is known as electronic invoicing.

This will replace the comparatively slow and error-prone processing of paper invoices with an efficient electronic procedure. The lead time of the entire invoice processing procedure can thus be significantly shortened.

MIRA (Management Information, Reporting and Analysis) is a platform available at UZH, offering simplified access to financial, personnel and student figures and the corresponding evaluation options.

The data provided is standardized and comparable, where appropriate. The calculated key figures already take into account specifics from the individual areas and thus simplify their use. Reporting is thus more consistent and transparent. The regular, automated distribution of reports is also possible with MIRA.

The planning process of the financial budget is supported by Allevo at UZH. Allevo is an Excel-based toolset that is fully integrated into SAP as an add-on. It enables decentralized planners to enter their planning figures directly into SAP via the Excel front end. The entire planning process can be tracked and controlled via the status management system integrated in Allevo.

For those individuals with financial responsibilities who do not have direct access to SAP, standardized reports are available through the Business Applications Web Portal to provide them with the information they need.

The following reports are available:

• The budget report allows a plan-actual comparison of the funds allocated for a year.
• The project report can be used to track projects financed primarily by third parties. This report also provides information on the funds still available until the end of the project.
• The overview report allows a comparison of revenues and expenditures for the current year over an entire area of responsibility.
• The position reports allow for a planned/actual comparison (funding area 1000 university funds) of the position budget or an actual report with all funding types.
• Report subscription: With this service, reports can be subscribed to. One subscription per report can be ordered, changed or deactivated.

• EFAK (simple invoicing)
  “EFAK” (simple invoicing) is available for all UZH organizational units that issue a large number of similar invoices. This system uses customers and contact persons created in SAP as well as individual materials with fixed texts and/or prices. The maintenance of customer and material masters is carried out centrally by the Finance Office.
• Faktura light
  “Faktura light” is available for all UZH organizational units that only issue invoices sporadically. It enables the easy creation of invoices in the UZH web portal Business Applications. Faktura light is fully integrated into SAP, i.e. the user guidance ensures that VAT and account assignment are calculated correctly even with Faktura light. It also ensures that the layout of the invoices is uniform and professional, and the incoming payments and dunning process can be handled with system support.
• Payment instructions
  For the uncomplicated and fast processing of payment orders, the IT department provides an online solution in the UZH web portal Business Applications. This solution can be used to record all of the necessary data. Thanks to the electronic formal and financial approval within the creditor workflow, the entire process can be handled electronically, from data entry to payment.

With Yokoy, a modern digital solution for processing credit card and expense settlements is available at UZH. Yokoy enables the digital end-to-end process from the recording of an expense to its approval and booking in SAP. The processing is paperless in a simple and intuitively controlled application.