February

Contents

1. VPF Community Forum -- Tuesday, March 17, 2-3:30, Bush Room
2. New withholding tables may reduce tax withheld
3. Procurement can help you minimize expenses
4. Return cylinders and dewars before April inventory count
5. VPF Points of Interest
6. Links and Contact Information: When You Need Help

1. VPF Community Forum -- Tuesday, March 17, 2-3:30, Bush Room

We invite you to join us for the next VPF Community Forum, Tuesday, March 17, 2-3:30, in the Bush Room, Building 10. Please note the earlier start time. The forum will feature presentations on the Institute-wide Planning Task Force, the MIT Idea Bank, and organizational development tools available to DLCs. Speakers include Vice President for Finance Israel Ruiz, Michael Faber, Advisor in the Office of the President, and Margaret Ann Gray, Director of Organization and Employee Development.

The forum will also feature a facilitated dialogue with the attendees aimed at generating ideas for improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The ideas generated from the dialogue will be deposited into the MIT Idea Bank.

We very much hope you will join us, and we look forward to hearing your ideas for innovation.

2. New withholding tables may reduce tax withheld

New withholding tables may reduce the amount of income tax withheld from employee wages. The new tables, prescribed by the Department of the Treasury, reflect the Making Work Pay credit and other changes resulting from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Employees do not have to submit a Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, to get the automatic withholding change. If an employee does not want to have the withholding reduced (because, for example, the employee has more than one job or is married and has a combined income in a higher tax bracket), he/she may want to file a new Form W-4. Employees may claim fewer withholding allowances on line 5 or request additional amounts to be withheld on line 6.

VPF Payroll will post this information at the Payroll counter, NE49-3rd floor. To change a W4 online, employees may go to the SAPweb Employee Self Service page. Once there, they should select the “Money Matters” tab, then “Tax Withholding." An MIT web certificate is required to access this page.

http://web.mit.edu/sapwebss/PS1/money_home.shtml

3. Procurement can help you minimize expenses

As you weigh vendor selections for your projects, make sure to take advantage of the services provided by VPF Procurement. Procurement professionals are available to help with your Requests for Proposals, Requests for Quotations, and Requests for Information.

By planning early and working with a representative from Procurement, you can minimize costs and obtain agreements for goods and services at favorable terms. Procurement especially encourages DLCs to use a competitive procurement process, instead of a sole source process. Sole source procurements invariably cost more and result in contracts that favor vendors.

To obtain the services of a Procurement professional, please contact Procurement at 617-253-7241, procurement@mit.edu.

4. Return cylinders and dewars before April inventory count

Airgas will conduct a campus-wide inventory count of cylinders and dewars in early April. VPF Procurement, MIT Environment, Health, and Safety Office, and Airgas encourage labs to return empty and unused cylinders and dewars before April to facilitate the inventory count.

It is a good practice to return empty and unused cylinders and dewers on a regular basis. Doing so will reduce costs, improve safety, and make MIT labs greener. Procurement estimates that an accurate and efficiently run inventory of cylinders and dewers could save MIT 5-10% a year in rental fees.

Also, the longer unused or empty cylinders and dewers sit in a lab, the greater the risk of damage. Damaged cylinders and dewers cannot be returned to Airgas, and the cost to dispose of just one cylinder is $300 to $3,500 or more. The cost is higher if the cylinder is in unsafe condition for shipping.

To request a pick-up of empty and unused cylinders and dewars, please email John.Jordan@Airgas.com. The schedule for inventory visits will be available later this month on the VPF website.

5. VPF Points of Interest

• VPF Accounting Services has set up a new email list for DLCs to be alerted when it is time to certify salaries. Subscribe to receive such reminders >>

• Status Report: The VPF is spearheading a number of process redesign projects. Here is a quick status report:

  • Late Salary Distribution: The late salary distribution web form is now available to the entire MIT community. Please see >>

    The VPF is offering training sessions for the community on using the new form. The next training session will be held Thursday, March 19, 2:30-4:00 pm, in NE49-3rd Floor, Grand Cayman Conference Room. If you would like more information about the form or would like to attend one of the training sessions, please contact late_change@mit.edu. A quick card reference is also available >>

  • Travel Electronic Expense Reporting and Credit Card: Numerous ideas deposited in the IdeaBank cite the need to modernize and streamline MIT's business travel processes, and a project is already underway to do just that. We are moving forward to provide a credit card for travel for the MIT community in conjunction with the implementation of an electronic expense reporting system. Reimbursements will be handled through direct deposit. Our goal is to launch a pilot phase as early as July 2009, and to complete the MIT-wide implementation by July 1, 2010.

  • Appointment Process Redesign: Begun in the summer of 2008, the Appointment Process Redesign project will save community time and improve accuracy by replacing the manual, paper-based appointment process with an automated process through SAPWeb. Some 10,000 faculty and staff HR/payroll appointment transactions are processed each year. Under the redesigned process, data will be entered through a SAPWeb user interface. The system will be fully integrated with SAP--pre-populating data for ease of completion, verifying data to assure accuracy, electronically routing transactions for approval, and uploading data to SAP payroll to eliminate duplicate data entry.

    The team working on the project includes representatives from Human Resources, Information Services and Technology (IS&T), and the VPF. In order to assure that the needs of the community are met, the team established a 19-member user advisory group representing the five schools, research areas, and key administrative units. The new system is planned for rollout to the full MIT community beginning in the spring of 2010, following a system pilot phase.

  • Request for Payment (RFP) Automation: VPF and IS&T are collaborating to automate the processing of the some 50,000 Requests for Payment (RFP) per year. Used to reimburse individuals for out-of-pocket expenses, RFPs are currently processed through a time-consuming manual, paper-based process. Launched December 2, this project will enable members of the community to input data through SAPWeb, with electronic workflow for approvals and routing to Accounts Payable for processing. Reimbursements will be handled through direct deposit.

    The new process will eliminate the need to hand carry forms and checks, and will expedite processing and the reimbursement of funds. VPF and IS&T have convened a users' group representing the five schools and research areas to advise the project team and assure that community needs are met. The new process is targeted for adoption in the fall of 2009.

  • Vacation Tracker for Sponsored Research Staff: The pilot phase for the new Vacation Tracker for sponsored research staff (SRS) members has been completed, and the system will soon be made available to the broader MIT community. SRS staff members will access Vacation Tracker through SAPWeb Self Service to record vacation time taken. The system directly updates the information in MIT’s payroll and financial systems (SAP), and will facilitate timely and accurate vacation credits to research cost objects. Vacation Tracker also provides tools for DLC vacation administrators to monitor vacation records for SRS staff members in their areas. Rollout will occur over a six-month period, with plans to complete this work by September.

6. Links and Contact Information – When You Need Help

Web Links

Contact Information