As I explained in earlier posts, global e-docs are among the most helpful features in the Kuali Financial System. Another time-saving feature of the system is mass import of accounting lines and other data. This feature is especially helpful when users have multiple lines of accounting data to enter and do not want to enter each line separately. Using this feature, they can quickly enter data into an import template and then upload it into the appropriate electronic document.

Publication of Anna-Louise Jackson's insightful article, "Going for the Bold" (Business Officer Magazine, February 2010), confirms what the Kuali Community has long contended—that collaboratively developed administrative software provides enormous benefit to higher education institutions of all types and sizes.

Here's some more info on one of my favorite features in the Kuali Financial System—global e-docs. I told you about the Account Global document last time I posted. This time I'll introduce Account Delegate Global.

Account delegates are KFS users that are authorized under certain circumstances to take workflow actions on a document in the place of an account's fiscal officer. The Account Delegate Global document allows users to create delegates for multiple document types on one or more accounts on a single document. Like other global documents, it's quite a time saver.

Before being introduced to the Kuali Financial System, I'd never worked on a financial application that provided a global change feature. When I saw global e-docs in KFS for the first time and realized what a time saver they are, I felt like saying, "Where have you been all my life?" This functionality remains one of the things I like best about the KFS, so if you're unfamiliar with global e-docs, I'm happy to have this chance to introduce you.

One of the batch jobs that was used often during development was the ClearCacheJob. However, just prior to 3.0 release it was removed from the default list of jobs. For some schools, it's still a nice job to have around.

Please note that this batch job is not perfect. Even though it would seem from the name that it should clear all the caches, in reality it does not and what it does clear out is sometimes inconsistent. So use it carefully and if all else fails, restart the application server.

To turn the ClearCacheJob back on, in your spring-sys.xml file make the following changes (either add the values to the lists, or even better, add this code directly to your own version of spring-sys.xml so you don't change any core code):

Each year at Kuali Days, a pre-conference session introduces newcomers to the Kuali Financial System. Having videotaped this session at Kuali Days VIII in November 2009, we've now posted part of it on YouTube in a series of videos. While the camera work is hardly professional, anyone who is new to the Kuali Financial System will find these videos very valuable.

The session consists of several different segments, each of which introduces a key aspect of the system and is presented by one or more Kuali Financial System experts.

(Note: Due to size restrictions on YouTube, each segment is made up of two or more video clips.The links below take you to the playlist for each segment.)

If you'd like more details about Colorado State University's experience in going live with the Kuali Financial System, you'll want to watch four videos we've just posted on YouTube. Recorded at Kuali Days 2009, the videos feature Patrick Burns, CSU's Chief Information Officer, and John Hunter, CSU's Accounting Manager Financial Systems Services. Here are the appropriate links:

Part 1 and part 2 (Patrick Burns)

Part 3 and part 4 (John Hunter)

While attending Kuali Days 2009 last month, I borrowed a co-worker's video camera and taped a few key presentations. Now, during the holiday lull, I'm posting some of them on YouTube. One of the pre-conference sessions, "Kuali Financial System Basics," includes an excellent introduction to the system by David Lyons, NACUBO Liaison to the Kuali Foundation. To view Dave's presentation, click the following links:

Sharon Antonucci (a project manager here at rSmart) and I had a conversation not long ago about how the Kuali Financial System (KFS) can be configured to meet the special reporting needs of community colleges. We were discussing one of our clients in particular—San Joaquin Delta College. Like many other community colleges, Delta has special reporting needs that relate to items on the state budget. Briefly, they are required to track the source of all funds and display the information in a check register report that is sent to the county.

As a Kuali Days VIII attendee, I just received the following info from Scott Shepherd by way of followup. If you're interested in the Kuali Student System, you may want to know about the links Scott mentions. He says:

Kuali Student conference session materials are already available at http://kuali.org/files/schedule/schedule.xml. Additional materials, including the demo video and audio, will be made available in coming weeks. Please follow the Kuali Student Reporter (http://blog.student.kuali.net/) for updates on these materials and other news related to Kuali Student.

Jonny Brown
Sr. Information Architect
rSmart