With the University’s fiscal year-end (June 30, 2020) approaching, below are recommended guidelines for efficient and effective year-end processing of purchases.

In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, Drake is required to report transactions in the proper fiscal period. For that reason, expenses are recorded in the period when goods are received and/or services are rendered. In short, items expensed to a FY20 budget will need to be received before June 30, 2020.  Factors such as budget allocation, invoice receipt, or payment issuance would not have an impact on the application of expenses within a fiscal period.

Exceptions to this general rule apply when a benefit of service or receipt of item extends into multiple fiscal years. In such cases, the following guidelines will be applied.

• Expenses less than $5,000: will be charged against the fiscal year in which the majority of the expense will be incurred. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $3,000 and covers the period of 7/1/19 through 12/31/20, the expense would be charged to FY20)
• Expenses greater than or equal to $5,000: will be split into the fiscal years according to the percentage of benefit received during each fiscal period. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $10,000 that covers a period of 7/1/19 through 6/30/21, $5,000 would be charged to FY20 and $5,000 charged to FY21)

The University’s guidelines for year-end purchases are subject to external audit. As you make purchases during this period leading up to and overlapping our fiscal year end, it is important to note when the goods or services were received so they are expensed according to reporting requirements. If the timing of receipt is not clearly noted on the invoice, it would be beneficial to help call the receipt date to accounting’s attention by clearly marking the appropriate fiscal year for the expense, based on the above guidelines, on the pay request.

Please contact Jeni Baugher at x4509 or Jenifer.Baugher@drake.edu with any questions you might have.

View the year-end timeline

— Heather Travis, Finance and Administration

With the overwhelming popularity of always-listening devices including Amazon Echo, Google Home, and smartphones, you’ve probably heard stories of these devices joining in on conversations without being prompted. It might have even happened to you!

These devices are also not designed or built with security in mind, which often leaves them vulnerable if your home network is not securely configured.  

Here are some tips to protect your private information, and conversations, from these always-listening devices: 

• Review and delete voice recordings. Your device stores your search and activity history to create a customized experience. To protect your privacy you can review and delete these recordings from the device. 

• Mute the microphone. You can mute the microphone to ensure that your device is not listening and recording when you are not using it. It won’t record until you turn the microphone back on.
  
• Don’t link accounts with sensitive information to your device. If you have any accounts containing personal or university information, don’t link those accounts to your device. This will prevent that information from being impacted by any potential breach.
  
• Change the settings to manually manage data stored by the device. Managing what data is connected with your account will give you more control over the information that is being stored and will make it easier for you to delete your history.
  
• Turn off your device when you’re away. If your device doesn’t have a power button, simply unplug it.

By creating habits to better control these always-listening devices, you can protect your personal information and prevent this modern twist on phishing.

ITS will continue to simulate phishing attacks and assign training to those most susceptible. If you believe you’ve been targeted, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to). 

— Peter Lundstedt, ITS 

 

 

 

Over the past several months, ITS has been working on a project requested by the Board of Trustees to improve the overall security of the Drake campus network.

We are implementing a system called network access control (NAC), which will allow us to manage access to Drake services based on a person’s campus role and/or the type of device they are using to connect to the network. This change has already been implemented for students since migrating to the eduroam wireless network this past fall.

Additional roles and access levels for faculty and staff and specific types of devices will be introduced in late July. Watch for more information about these changes in the coming weeks.

— Carla Herling, ITS