BruinBuy Plus
Service Desk Contact Information and Best Practices
The BruinBuy Plus hub continues to be updated with new resources. In the event the BruinBuy Plus hub is not able to answer your questions, the Service Desk is ready to assist.
You can contact the Service Desk using one of following methods: Email: help@it.ucla.edu , Phone: 310-267-HELP (4357), ServiceNow Portal.
Please note:
- The Service Desk is receiving a high volume of tickets through help@it.ucla.edu and other Business Finance Solutions (BFS) inboxes, such as Accounts Payable and Vendor Management. Please only direct your inquiries to one inbox to prevent duplicate tickets being produced.
- To ensure that we can address your questions in a timely manner, we recommend following our best practices guide. Provide as much detail as possible in your ticket so that we can assist to the best of our ability.
- If you are following up on a ticket beginning with “SRXXXXXXX”, please reply to the most recent email with the ticket number in the subject line.
- Please do not email ucla@service-now.com for BruinBuy Plus support. BruinBuy Plus tickets are not created nor managed from that email address.
PaymentWorks: Short Registration form for Non-Procurement Transactions
To conduct business with UCLA, all BruinBuy Plus payees must be onboarded with PaymentWorks. For non-procurement transactions that do not require a purchase order, the following payee types are onboarded using the BruinBuy Plus Direct Pay Form:
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Once the Direct Pay Form is submitted, PaymentWorks will send the payee a shortened registration form, which takes less time to complete than its procurement transaction counterpart. For questions regarding the short form, contact vendors@finance.ucla.edu.
NOTE: This list captures the transactions that go through a Direct Pay Form. For a complete list of non-procurement transactions and where they live, review our December 18, 2023, communication and the Non-Procurement Transactions training guide. Transactions processed outside of BruinBuy Plus (e.g., Concur) do not require PaymentWorks registration.
Bruin Finance
System Integration Testing (SIT) is one of the testing phases that Bruin Finance will undergo to ensure it works correctly when it launches in January 2025. This phase of testing will take place from March to August 2024. SIT will primary be conducted by members of the Ascend 2.0 Program team, however, a broader audience of campus users will be engaged in later phases of testing. Participants will test business scenarios that future users will perform in the new system.
Testing Process
SIT is conducted using test scripts. Test scripts are used to test each business requirement, or “user story,” to ensure they can be successfully completed without running into defects:
- If the tester can complete the actions in the test script without any issues, it is marked as passed.
- If an issue is found, the tester will log a defect and the test script is marked as failed. The program team will work to update the system to resolve the defect so that the script can be retested.
This process is followed until all test scripts are tested and defects are resolved. After SIT, Bruin Finance will undergo another phase of testing called User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
Research
As the University prepares for the launch of Bruin Finance next year, the program team is excited to share upcoming changes that will impact UCLA’s research community. In last month’s newsletter, we shared more about how Funds will be managed as Awards within Bruin Finance. This month, we are previewing changes to the budgeting process.
Key Changes
The process by which central offices and departments allocate or re-budget will change with the transition of Bruin Finance. A new budget tool will be implemented to enable this process.
Current State (UCLA Financial System)
- At the inception of the Award, the central office will allocate the budget at the direct cost and indirect cost level
- Departments re-allocate the direct cost budget based on category
Future Sate (Bruin Finance PPM Subledger)
- At the inception of the Award, the central office will allocate the budget by category, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the award
- Departments can then reallocate the Awarded budget only when the sponsor restricts re-budgeting
- Re-budget requests require approval
- A new budget tool will be introduced to enable this new process
Benefits to UCLA
We understand that this will be a big change for the research community. However, we expect that this change to the budgeting process will bring many benefits UCLA’s research community:
- Greater transparency: Allows central offices and departments to see when variances between the awarded budget and actual expenses require a re-budgeted request to the sponsor
- Alignment with sponsor: Improves compliance to obtain sponsor’s prior approval
- Elimination of non-required transactions: Eliminates re-budgeting activity unless required
- Efficient Invoicing: Improves efficiency in invoicing and financial reporting process