Award - Finance API Feature

Kuali provides functionality that allows the Kuali Research system to interface with your institution’s financial system. The feature is facilitated through an Application Program Interface (API), one of many that Kuali offers to allow its products to interface with other systems. 

Overview

• The Finance API is an optional feature. It can be turned on or off via a series of settings, called Parameters. Kuali can help you adjust these settings appropriately during your implementation.
• When the functionality is enabled, it allows a series of user-driven actions to queue up data for retrieval by an institution’s financial system.
• Users must have the necessary permissions to use this functionality.
• Retrieval of this data by your local financial system will require development work on the part of your local IT staff. Kuali is available to advise and consult on this development as needed. Detailed technical documentation for this functionality is also available.
• This functionality is separate from the native Kuali Research/Kuali Financial System integration, and is intended for schools who are not using the Kuali Financial System.
• If you have any questions or need any assistance with setup please don't hesitate to reach out to Kuali support for assistance.

Award/Account Creation

• After a user creates and finalizes an award document, the user can navigate to the Create Account panel on the Award Actions tab.

• After award data is entered and the award document is finalized, the user can enter the appropriate Account ID and click the “Create Account” button.
• Clicking this button queues up data from the Award document so that it’s available when your institution’s financial system is ready to retrieve it. This could happen nightly, hourly -- whenever it makes the most sense for your institution.

Award/Account Modification - Award and Time & Money documents

• After initial account creation, subsequent modifications to award data, as well as any Time & Money data are handled using the Post button. This button will display for users with the appropriate permissions. The button displays at the bottom of the Award Actions tab within the award document, and at the bottom of the Time & Money document.

 

• Clicking this button queues up data from the Award and Time and Money documents so that it’s available for retrieval by your institution’s financial system.

Award and Time & Money Post History

• Users can see the status of posted Award and Time & Money information using the Award and Time & Money Post History panels. Both panels display on the Award Actions tab, below the Create Account panel.

• The panel indicates whether or not the data has been retrieved by your institution’s financial system via a true/false indicator. It also displays when the information was posted, the user who posted, and provides a link to the specific Award or Time & Money document that was posted.

Posting Award Budget Data

• Detailed Award Budget data can also be made available for retrieval by an institution’s financial system. After a user finalizes an award budget version and any approvals have been obtained via workflow, the award budget status will display as To Be Posted.
• When an award budget is in this state, a Post button will display at the bottom of the Budget Actions tab. A user with the appropriate permission can click this button to queue up data from the Award Budget document so that it’s available for retrieval by your institution’s financial system.
• Once the Post button has been clicked, the status of the Award budget changes to Queued.

• After the information has been retrieved, the status of the Award budget changes to Posted*. 

*The status of this indicator is driven by information your institution’s financial system sends back to Kuali.

Displaying Account Balances from your Financial System within the Kuali Award Module

• Additional information about each account can also be displayed within the Award document. Whether or not this information displays is also governed by a Parameter.

Available Data Elements

• Almost all transactional data elements in the Award, Time & Money, and Award Budget are available for retrieval, including custom data elements configured by your institution. 

Related User Permissions

The following user permissions are related to this functionality:

• Create Award Account (Granted to KC-ADM OSP Administrator role)
• Post Award (Granted to KC-ADM OSP Administrator role)
• Post Post Time and Money (Granted to KC-ADM OSP Administrator role)
• Post AwardBudget (Granted to KC-AB Award Budget Administrator role)

Related Parameters

The following parameters enable part or all of this functionality:

• AWARD_POST_ENABLED:  when set to Y this enables the display of the Account Creation panel and enables the Post button and the Award Post History panel within the Award document.
• DISPLAY_ACCOUNT_BALANCES:  when set to Y this enables the display of the fields intended for information coming back into Kuali from an institution’s financial system: budgeted, pending, income, expense, available.
• TM_POST_ENABLED:  when set to Y this enables the Post button on the Time & Money document and the Time & Money Post History panel within the Award document.
• AWARD_BUDGET_POST_ENABLED:  when set to Y this enables the Post button on the Award Budget document.
• awardBudgetStatusPosted:  this maps the award budget status of “queued” (see the Award Budget Status maintenance document for the appropriate code) to be triggered when the Post button is clicked.

Related Auto-Post Functionality

See also the article on the Award Auto-Post Functionality which allows you to make the post acton for Award or T&M documents automated via parameter configuration.

Additional Real Time Financial Integration Options

Account create, award post, award budget post, and T&M post functionality is able to perform real-time, integrated account create/update with Financials. It uses the existing AwardPost/Account create functionality explained above to connect with a financial system and push information both ways.  Below outlines the parameter configuration required as well as the backend configuration needed for this functionality.  This functionality would require work by local IT staff to configure in conjunction with Kuali - please submit a support ticket if there are any questions.

Posting the Award

Account create and award post functionality is now able to perform real-time, integrated account create/update with Financials. It uses the existing AwardPost/Account create functionality. Account create/update results are shown in the AwardPostHistory panel under Award Actions tab. Allows for repost/retry if account create/update fails.

Parameter configuration:

• AWARD_POST_ENABLED: true
• AWARD_AUTO_POST_ENABLED: true or false (when set to true, if the account is specified in the award, RES will attempt to create the account in FIN, results shown in )
• AWD_POST_ACCT_FIN_REST_INT_ENABLE: true, this parameter turns on the integration and is specific to this functionality

Config values:

• award.account.create.url: the url for the transform service endpoint (provided by kuali) that will forward account create POST request to FIN. Required for integration.
• award.account.update.url: the url for the transform service endpoint (provided by kuali) that will forward account update PUT request to FIN, (typically the same as award.account.create.url). Required for integration.
• award.account.auth.token: for development and testing only, the API token to be used for a remote system.
• award.fin.integration.origin.url: for development and testing only, specifies the remote system where test API token resides.

Posting the T&M - Create and update Award Time Money

Account update functionality from Award Time and Money can be used in realtime integration from existing Time and Money post functionality (in non-hierarchy awards), or via the Award Post History repost (in award hierarchies). For posting account updates directly from the TM document, simply route the TM to final and select post from actions tab. For Award Hierarchies, after finalizing TM doc, one needs to open each affect award, go to the Award Post History and repost (or create account if not created). Update status will appear in the Time and Money Post History panel in Award Actions tab. Allows for repost/retry.

Parameter configuration:

• TM_POST_ENABLED: true
• TM_AUTO_POST_ENABLED: true or false (works only in non-hierarchy awards)
• T_M_POST_FIN_REST_INT_ENABLE: true, this parameter turns on the integration and is specific to this functionality

Config values:

• award.tam.post.create.url:  not used
• award.tam.post.update.url: the url for the transform service endpoint (provided by kuali) that will forward account update PUT request to FIN. Required for integration. (this is currently the same as the award.account.update.url)
• award.tam.auth.token: for development and testing only, the API token to be used for a remote system.
• award.fin.integration.origin.url: for development and testing only, specifies the remote system where test API token resides.

Posting the Award Budget - Create and update Award Budget

Award/account budget adjustments/updates can be performed real-time with the FIN system. This leverages existing Award Budget post functionality, and requires some additional parameter and configuration. The results of budget update/post will display in the Award Budget Versions panel as “Post Status” and “Post Details”. A repost action will display if the Award Budget post to the FIN system was unsuccessful.

Parameter configuration:

• AWARD_BUDGET_POST_ENABLED: true
• AWD_BUD_POST_FIN_REST_INT_ENABLE: true, this parameter turns on the integration and is specific to this functionality

Config values:

• award.budget.update.url: the url for the transform service endpoint (provided by kuali) that will forward budget updates for the account/award combination PUT request to FIN. Required for integration.