FAST Finance Reporting – User Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
To access FAST: ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Main Menu.................................................................................................................................................... 4
Displaying Financial Information in FAST .................................................................................................. 5
Desired Options ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Query by Account Type or Fund Type........................................................................................................... 8
Query based on Financial Manager of a Fund or Organization: ................................................................. 10
Query Using the Operating Statement: ...................................................................................................... 12
Query Salary and Benefit Information from the Operating Statement ...................................................... 16
Query Using the Balance Sheet: ................................................................................................................. 17
Download FAST Information to Excel: ........................................................................................................ 17
Print Financial Statements from FAST ........................................................................................................ 18
Financial Service Division (FSD)
Last Updated: September 2013
Section 7
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FAST- Finance Reporting
Introduction
FAST is a tool that allows financial information to be presented in an easy to read and easy to
understand format. It grants users the ability for secure, dynamic reporting in a user-friendly
web-based environment.
On a nightly basis, FAST extracts data from UniFi for inquiry through FAST. Thus the data
displayed is always current to the end of the preceding business day.
In addition to this training guide, online help and tutorials are available on the main menu page
of FAST.
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To access FAST:
1. Login to PAWS using your NSID and your regular password
2. Click on the “Admin Services” heading
3. Under “UniFi Self Service”, click on “FAST Finance Reporting”
You will now see the FAST Home screen. Click ‘Finance Reporting’ under Applications on the
right side of the screen to the FAST Main Menu or select ‘Finance Reporting’ from the
Applications menu at the top left side of the screen.
The FAST Main Menu appears.
Continue to Next page
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Main Menu
The Main Menu is where detailed fund information can be entered and financial information
can be searched for. Once a particular CFOAPAL element is chosen, the user can query
information by typing in the CFOAPAL segment number in the text box beside the appropriate
element title.
For a list of Funds and Organizations that are accessible to the user, the black drop down arrow
beside any field can be used to present a window with the information requested. For example:
by clicking the down arrow beside the Fund field, a list of all Funds that the user has access to
will be presented in a new window.
Main Menu:
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Displaying Financial Information in FAST
Once all of the CFOAPAL information required is entered for a query, the user must then choose
the Period or date of the information that they would like to display along with the Desired
Option which will indicate which financial information will be displayed.
From the Main Menu, the desired period can be selected. Clicking on the Period drop down
box will display both the closed and open periods in UniFi with the Year End period appearing in
red.
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Desired Options
From the Main Menu, the Desired Option is also chosen. To view a list of Desired Options, click
the down arrow beside the Desired Option field:
Operating Statement
Choose the Operating Statement to see a summary of current
month as well as year to date (YTD) activity.
Revenues Only Statement
Displays only Revenues for any chosen set of CFOAPAL
parameters.
Expenditures Only Statement
Displays only Expenditures for any chosen set of CFOAPAL
parameters.
Non Salary Expenditures Only
Statement
Displays only Non Salary Expenses for any chosen set of
CFOAPAL parameters.
Salary Expenditures Only
Statement
Displays only Salary Expenses for any chosen set of CFOAPAL
parameters
APEF Statement
Displays all activity across all orgs in an APEF Fund since the
fund’s inception.
Research Statement
Display all activity in a Research (type 40) Fund since the fund’s
inception (dependent on Org security). This option will default
to fund type 40 if a specific fund is not entered, but any fund
type can be entered in the CFOAPAL area to generate a
Research Statement.
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Project Statement
Display all activity in a Capital (type 96) Fund since the fund’s
inception (dependent on Org security). This option will default
to fund type 96 if a specific fund is not entered, but any fund
type can be entered in the CFOAPAL area to generate a Project
Statement.
Balance Sheet
Displays current Fund balance including all Organization codes.
Balance Sheet – 5 Year Trend
Displays columns of data for the current period and the same
period for the previous 4 fiscal years. This option generates a
high level view; the user has the option to enter CFOAPAL
elements on the main menu to display a detailed view.
Trial Balance
Displays all financial activity for a given CFOAPAL combination.
Document Lookup
Using a document number from UniFi, a specific document can
be queried.
Document Type Query
A query can be performed based on the type of document that
the user requires. Options include Invoices, Cheques, Journal
Vouchers and Purchase Requisitions.
Invoice Query
This query allows a search for a specific invoice from a vendor
or all invoices issued by a particular vendor.
Transaction Details
Display transactions for a fund and choose the fiscal period for
which they will be displayed.
Unposted Journal Entries
This option will provide a list of un-posted Journal Vouchers
based on a user’s NSID. The user will only see JVs that they
have created.
Outstanding POs and Reqs
This option will provide a list of outstanding Purchase Orders
and Requisitions based on a user’s Fund/Org security.
Fund Orgn Security
This option allows the user to view their Fund/Org security in
UniFi. A dropdown list allows the user to view all funds or all
orgs they have access to. The UserID dropdown gives the
ability to view another user’s fund and organization security. .
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Query by Account Type or Fund Type
To search by Fund Type or Account Type, simply press the down arrow beside the field to bring
up a list of either Fund or Account Types available. The following displays the box that opens
when a user chooses the down arrow beside Fund Type:
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By choosing Fund Type 40, FAST will display all Research Funds that a user has access to.
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Query based on Financial Manager of a Fund or Organization:
Click on the down arrow beside the Fund Financial Manager field or Organization Financial
Manager field, this will bring back a list of Financial Managers in alphabetical order. Click on
the blue number (which is the vendor number) beside the Financial Manager and it will insert it
into the field. Choose the Period and Desired Option. Press “Enter”.
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This will bring back a list of Funds that belong to the chosen Financial Manager, along with a
summary of the Financial Information for each individual Fund.
To return to the Main Menu to perform a new query, click the return to menu button located beside the
Excel and PDF export buttons.
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Query Using the Operating Statement:
Once all pertinent information is entered in the Main Menu, click on the Enter button. In the
following example, the Operating Statement was chosen from the Desired Options Menu:
Operating Statements display detailed information about the Funds in your system. You can
display an overview or select accounting codes to summarize the Operating Statement. You
also have the option to drill down and view Operating Statement details and transaction
summaries. Anything that is seen in blue can be drilled into for further detail. The query will
always display at a very high level of detail with the option to drill into the information for more
specific transaction details.
Continued on Next Page
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The display default for all numbers has been set to display dollars and cents. The view can be
changed so that it does not show decimal places by selecting the desired view from the Display
drop down menu.
The drop down menu under Current Year shows a variety of options for viewing information
such as Comparative, Date Range, Monthly Trend, and User Defined.
For a detailed list of transaction information, click on any blue number that currently holds a
balance:
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Below is the Transaction level view. All transactions can be viewed, assuming that the user has
access to the Fund and Organization of those transactions.
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While viewing the details of a Fund and Organization, the column heading “Month Actual”, and
“YTD Actual” will turn blue. Clicking on either of these headings will give a full Transaction
Listing. This listing will include all transactions for the fund and organization for the current
month, or for the year-to-date.
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Query Salary and Benefit Information from the Operating Statement
While drilling down from a salary or benefit account code in the Operating Statment, there is
the ability to drill into the salary and benefits detail. The Document Number, e.g. the journal
voucher, is highlighted in blue, so it can be clicked on to view all the salary and benefits for the
fund and organization in that document number, assuming the user has access to the CFOAPAL
coding of those transactions.
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Query Using the Balance Sheet:
The Balance Sheet provides a summary of Assets, Liabilities and Control Accounts (current Fiscal
year activity). The current year column provides the most accurate and up to date balance in a
fund, including all Organization activity.
Download FAST Information to Excel:
FAST Finance Reporting is very flexible and provides many of the data views required to retrieve
financial information; however, there are times when downloading data to a spreadsheet is
required. Using a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel provides added functionality that allows
the user to manipulate data in countless ways. To download a particular view to Excel simply
click on the “Download to Excel” icon located at the bottom of the query screen. This will allow
you to open Excel and download your financial information.
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Print Financial Statements from FAST
To print any information from FAST, you may export the data to Microsoft Excel or PDF formats
by clicking the export icons at the bottom of the Financial Statement. This will download and
import the file directly to Excel, or open the file in PDF format.
Feedback / Support / Contact Information
Please contact UniFi User Support @ 966-8783 or email unifisupport@usask.ca if you have any
suggestions, feedback or questions. User training schedules are available directly from the
“Training” link within the Financial Services Channel in PAWS.
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