Finance and Administration News

Distributed Journal Entry


As discussed in the July BU$INE$$ MATTER$, Distributed Journal Entry, is a process that allows campus users to prepare and upload journal entries to Oracle Ebiz.  The process uses an Excel-based journal entry template that is populated, by the user, with the lines of a journal entry.  The Excel template is available to campus from the Finance Forms webpage.

Credit Card Processing and PCI Compliance


Data breaches are scary. They can happen at any time, to any business you trust. While we cannot foresee an attack on Ohio University, we are obligated to take steps to protect our customers.

The major credit card issuers (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB) created PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance standards to protect personal information and ensure security when transactions are processed using a payment card. PCI compliance is mandatory for every merchant (i.e. department/location) that accepts credit or debit card payments. Departments may think of PCI compliance as an Information Technology or Treasury issue, when in reality it is the responsibility of every department that accepts credit cards.

New Purchasing Policy


Policy 55.030, “Purchasing” has been approved by the Executive Staff Policy Committee and is posted to the Policy Manual. The policy number is new and consolidates the following policies:

  • Policy 55.003, "Purchasing Authority: Vendor Selection, Personal Purchases, Land and Building Acquisition, Conflict-of-Interest"
  • Policy 55.012, "Purchasing - Direct Payment"
  • Policy 55.031, "Purchasing - Radioactive Materials, Narcotics, Hazardous Materials, Animals, and Tax-Free Alcohol"
  • Policy 55.040, "Purchasing - Receipt of Items: Notifications, Damages, Shortages, Returns"
  • Policy 55.060, "Purchasing - Blanket Purchase Orders”

Drug Free Workplace Reminder 2019


In compliance with the US Department of Education Drug Free Schools and Communities Act, the university must notify faculty and staff annually of its drug and alcohol policies.

New Distributed Journal Entries and Updated Search Committee Courses Available


Distributed Journal Entries II: Processors course is now available and the Search Committee Training: Preparing for the Search course has been updated.

University's recycling efforts show dedication to a sustainable present and future


Over the years, Ohio University has placed an increasing importance on sustainability. This year is no different.

HR Operations Certificate Available


This Human Resources Operations certificate program is designed to improve knowledge and skills associated with employee-related processes, transactions, and services.

OBI Dashboard Updates


OBI Dashboard changes were deployed on the evening of September 17.  These changes deliver some new functionality that further enhance our existing dashboards and include drilldowns to supporting detail in other modules. 

Concur Default Cost Centers


On September 18th, a new OBI dashboard was deployed to provide planning units with access to the Concur default cost center information that they’ve established for their employees.  Concur is a third party software product, and every night we feed HR updates from eBiz to Concur via an integration.  If there is an error in the employee’s data being transmitted, Concur will not update anything about the employee.

One-click software installs and worry-free security updates coming soon to university Macs


Software and security updates are about to get a whole lot easier for many university-owned Mac computers. Over the next few months, OIT will roll out a new Mac Management application called Self Service to all university departments. Self-Service offers one-click installers for university-licensed software packages and automatically takes care of required security updates.