The document discusses implementing an electronic Personnel Action Request (ePAR) system to streamline hiring, termination, and employee change processes across UNT System institutions by replacing outdated paper forms with a single electronic form consisting of four sections to process all transactions more efficiently with electronic signatures and workflow approvals. The goals are to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and enhance services provided to customers through the new ePAR system.

1. HSC Partner
Meeting
October 10, 2012

2. Kudos from BSC to Team Partners

3. electronic Personnel Action Request
(ePAR)
Donna Asher,
Associate Vice Chancellor for Business Services
10/29/2012 3

4. Current HRM Forms Used
Form Purpose Institution(s)
HRM 4 Position Updates UNT/UNTD/UNTS
HRM 5 Posting Vacancies UNT
HRM 6 Payroll authorization for regular employees & UNT/UNTD/UNTS /UNTHSC
all employees at UNTHSC
HRM 7 Payroll authorization for part-time faculty and UNT/UNTD
graduate students
HRM 8 Payroll authorization for Hourly employees UNT/UNTD/UNTS
HRM 9 Payroll authorization for leave payouts UNT/UNTD/UNTS
(vacation/comp time/death sick leave)
HRM 11 Payroll authorization for Task Payments UNT/UNTD/UNTS
HRM 12 Payroll authorization Summer appointments UNT/UNTD
10/29/2012 4

5. Authorizers/Approvers Depending on
Request
• Department Head
• Deptid/Projid Holder
• AVC/AVP/Dean
• Vice Chancellor/Vice President
• Chancellor/President
• Budget Office
• Research/Grants Office
• UNT Health (HSC)
• Equal Opportunity Office (UNTD)
• Financial Aid
• Campus HR
• Provost Office (UNT)
• Career Center (UNT)
• Business Service Center

6. Ultimate Goal
10/29/2012 6

7. ePAR Benefits
• significant reduction in paper costs;
• electronic signatures to replace manual collection of
signatures ;
• elimination of manual paper transfer from one office to
another;
• use of workflow to streamline processes with the
ability to track workflow status at all times;
• enhanced efficiencies related to staff time and
workload;
• reduction in data entry errors; and
• enhancement of BSC services provided to our
customers.
10/29/2012 7

8. One form with four sections to do all transactions
Job Data (appointment information)
Department Budget Table (funding information)
Additional Pay (non-base rate salary information)
Position Data (position information)
10/29/2012 8

9. Transaction Types
1. Hiring/Terminating
• Hire – all appointments types and circumstances
• Terminate – all appointment types and circumstances
2. Employee Changes (monetary and non-monetary impact)
• Promotion/demotion
• FTE change
• Base rate adjustments [merit, market, equity, etc.]
• Non-base rate adjustments [augmentations, allowances, etc.]
• Leave with/without pay
• Return form leave with/without pay
• Funding source changes
• Department change (Transfers)
3. Position Changes & Requests to Post– (used for vacant positions only)
• Add/delete position
• Funding change
• FTE change
• Department change
• Reclassification
• Post a vacancy

10. ePAR Users
• Requesters—these individuals have been given the
authorization to initiate a new ePAR on behalf of a department.
• Approvers—these individuals have been identified as a
deptid/projid holder, department head, and/or administrator
who have the authority to approve or acknowledge ePARs. Can
be ad hoc or proxy approvers.
• Reviewers – these individuals have been identified as having a
need to be aware of ePARs. No action is required on his/her
part in order for the ePAR to be processed and approved.
10/29/2012 10

11. Notifications / Worklists
• Approvers/Reviewers are notified via email of
pending ePAR to approve or review
• Approvers/Reviews can access ePAR via
worklist (similar to ePro)
• Accessible from anywhere the web can be
accessed
10/29/2012 11

12. Current Status
• Pilot started September 7, 2012 (after budget rollover)
for FY13 transactions (9/1/12 and later)
• 22 departments (across the UNT System campuses and
System Administration) participating in pilot program
– UNTHSC: Pharmacology, Cell Biology, UNT Health, Facilities
Management, President’s Office
• Phased-in pilot program by personnel transaction type
• After comprehensive processing with pilot group,
rollout will begin to all departments on all campuses
during FY13

13. HUB Updates
Eddie Reyes

14. Payments Update

15. University of North Texas System
New Travel Management Program

16. What you can look forward to with CTP
• One stop Shopping - Online services are available for airfare, lodging and rental
cars. Using CTP online services can be compared to the ease of online companies such
as Orbitz and Travelocity. The full-service option will provide one-stop shopping as
well with a travel agent via email or phone.
• Discount programs – CTP ranks as a leading buyer with numerous industry
suppliers worldwide. They have preferred vendor agreements with airline companies
and participate in lodging programs such as the Premier Global Hotel Program. CTP
will also populate our site with any discount programs that are currently available to
UNT System.
• State contracted rates – In addition to CTP’s preferred suppliers, they will also
populate the State of Texas contracted rates for airfare and rental cars.
• Fees for services – The transaction fee for using the online booking service is $7.50
for airfare only; car rental and lodging reservations only are $5.00 each; Any
combination of airfare, lodging, and car rental is $7.50. If using the full-service option,
the fees are $20 for airfare only; car rental and lodging reservations only are $10.00
each; Any combination of airfare, lodging, and car rental is $20.00.
16

17. What you can look forward to with CTP
• Payment for Services– The BSC will provide CTP with a ‘ghost card’ to pay for
airfare reservations and upfront lodging expenses.
• 24x7 After-Hours Support – Travelers will enjoy peace of mind with the
knowledge that help is always just a phone call away and they will never be stranded
in a travel emergency
• Travel Rewards Programs – With CTP, each traveler’s reward program numbers
will be added to their profiles and applied to each air, car, or hotel reservation
ensuring continued point accumulation
• Mobile Technology – The business travel experience is streamlined with a mobile
app that allows the traveler to manage itineraries, check flight status and easily book
hotels, cars and taxi services from the convenience of their smartphone.
• Training – CTP provides 3 types of training; face to face, Webx and via online
tutorials on your own. These training opportunities will be provided during the
implementation as well as being available beyond the implementation as needed.
17

18. Concur Online Booking Tool
Concur simplifies corporate travel booking while automatically enforcing travel policies
and providing visibility through detailed report analysis. Employees are free to make
preferential choices while organizations stay in complete control.
Book what you need:
• Search and book relevant in-policy
travel
• Save with direct connects,
corporate discounts and Internet-
only fares
Quickly and Easily:
• Book everything from one easy-to-
use tool
• Forgot to book a hotel, rental car or
train? Add it from a smartphone
• Dive into spending with detailed Integrated corporate, published and Internet air and
reporting hotel fares in a single screen
18

19. Concur Online Booking Tool
Mobile Travel Management
Concur’s mobile app streamlines the
business travel experience and gives
travelers the flexibility to manage their
itineraries with ease.
Travel information is conveniently
accessible and reservations are easy to
make on the fly:
• View travel itineraries and directions
• Easily book hotels, cars, trains or
taxis
• Check flight status and airport gate
information
19

20. Concur Online Booking Tool
Travel Request
Condense Spending and Reduce Costs
Travel Request is designed to help businesses manage travel more effectively. Once an
employee starts to plan a trip, managers and approvers can approve, reject and request
modifications during the process. Gain visibility into flights, car rentals, hotel rooms, rail and
other expenses. This gives you greater insight into pre-planned and actual expenses, allowing
for more accurate forecasts of travel costs.
Optimize Booking Integration
When integrated with Concur's Travel solution, employee-entered travel requests are sent for
approvals. Employees can use Concur's travel booking solutions to automatically create a travel
request. Meanwhile, agencies can book travel for employees based on notification after
approvals.
Improve Control and Efficiency
Thanks to a greater level of pre-trip control and approval, unnecessary and wasteful travel is
eliminated. You'll also be able to ensure more reliable travel policy compliance. Altogether,
Travel Request helps keep your management process efficient and organized. Talk about
serenity.

20

21. Revised Travel Guidelines

22. Submitting Invoices for Processing
• Invoices@untsystem.edu
• Subject line should include Vendor Name,
PO number, Invoice number
• Additional instructions for processing
should be included in the body of the
email.

23. Payroll Update

24. • ELIMINATING HOURLY
SUPPLEMENTAL PAYROLLS AND
EXTENDING DEADLINES

25. More Processing Time
Effective January 2013
Additional 5 business days added to
deadline for processing time for hourly paid
employees.
No more hourly supplemental pay, hourly
employees will be paid on regular payroll.
Supplemental payroll will be moved to the
3rd business day following the regular pay
date – will allow direct deposit of pay.

26. Why make these changes?
• Increased efficiency and cost savings across the
System
• Departmental timekeepers will have more time to
process timesheets.
• Departments will have a limited number of paper
checks to distribute on supplemental pay dates.
• Most employees will be paid on regular pay
dates.
• In most cases, hourly paid employees will receive
payment on one check for time worked for a
given period.

27. Purchasing Update

28. AFTER THE FACT PURCHASES

29. ATF or Confirming Orders
• Confirming PO’s, also known as after the fact (ATF) purchases, are
defined as situations where vendors provided the goods or services
based on advisement from a department or UNT faculty or staff
member prior to PO dispatch by an authorized BSC buyer.
• The University is obligated to make payment for goods and services only
when the BSC Purchasing Department, by issuing a purchase order,
obligates the funds.
• Any other commitments are considered as unauthorized purchases and
the individual may encounter a personal obligation to the vendor.
• Confirming orders are tracked by BSC and reported on a regular basis to
the applicable Vice-President for each university unit.

30. Q&A

31. • Question: Who has signature authority for the department in ePAR?
• Answer: It can be delegated on the department head’s behalf and we have the ability to now do ad
hoc approvals.
• Question: What do we need to do to study up and prepare for the new travel changes?
• Answer: We have done that for you; keep doing as you are doing and we will communicate
with you when the changes come out and provide training.
• Question: What will be different with the travel guide? Any dramatic changes?
• Answer: We won’t require that you attach mileage maps is an example of one change.
• Question: Will we be able to scan and upload receipts into the system?
• Answer: That is something that we will be able to do down the road but right now the voucher
system won’t change dramatically.
• Donna Asher commented that the Corporate Travel Planners will be a booking tool/one-stop shop for you and will
have the capability to upload etickets to the system.
• Question: I’m planning someone’s trip for January – do I do something different now or wait?
• Answer: You can go ahead and proceed as you normally would; this will not be a “mandatory”
service but is there to make your job easier and make our travel bookings more efficient
• Question: If we use the service, will we still need to do a RAT?
• Answer: There will be an approval process but it is still in the development stage.
• Email Celia.Whisenhunt@untsystem.edu if you have questions about the upcoming changes and the new travel
planner.

32. • Reminder: When submitting invoices, subject line should include Vendor Name, PO number, Invoice number
and have additional instructions in the body of the email – send to Invoices@untsystem.edu if you get an invoice
directly instead of the vendor sending it to the BSC directly.
• Question: What is going on with the Payroll calendar?
• Answer: Some issues with loading the calendar to Outlook, but the October deadlines are now out there.
Due to the changes being implemented, calendars are being posted monthly.
• Question: For purchasing, do we still have to have a justification in the PO for the After The Facts (ATFs)?
• Answer: Yes
• Question: We do a lot of socials for the colleges and it’s hard to avoid an ATF when we don’t know
until the last minute or someone has made a purchase without telling us.
• Answer: We see a lot of purchases of goods and then reimbursement being sought; this is not
acceptable. Hopefully the ATF process covers you because if you are providing a clear
justification of what happens there is a record and there can be a discussion with the
person who did that.
• Question: Surgical assists can’t really be planned for…
• Answer: There are some unavoidable ATF’s. BSC Purchasing is developing a list of exceptions. Remember
to use your justification to make a case for why this was unavoidable.
• Question: What about registrations paid by employees – is that on travel?
• Answer: Yes, it’s acceptable if they pay registration whil e in travel to put it on the voucher.
• Question: What about dues?
• Answer: Memberships are different – follow purchasing guidelines for those.
•

33. • Question: What if they renew their membership online at home and bring in a receipt?
• Answer: That is an ATF. Tell them next time to ask you to take care of it for them so that
guidelines can be followed.
• Question: What about reimbursement for goods? Prohibited?
• Answer: It’s an ATF that will be reported. You should explain why the purchase happened.
• A suggestion was made that this be communicated clearly since not all departments could attend
the Partners meeting. BSC Purchasing will be sending an update to everyone.
• There were concerns expressed about repercussions when it was not their fault. You are the
messenger. Make sure your REQ tells your side of the story by using your justification field.
• Question: Is there value in taking this to our Executive team and informing them?
• Answer: Your executives are on the BSC Operating Committee that made this decision and
were part of this process and approved it.
• Question: Will the Partners Powerpoint be on the BSC website?
• Answer: Yes, the presentations are always made available on the BSC site.
• Question: We are having a retreat that includes about 35 faculty. What is the most effective
way to handle mileage reimbursements?
• Answer: Complete a travel voucher for each faculty.