Categories:
Maintained Schools Heads, Business Managers, Administrators

Are you ready for this month’s IBC downtime?

Some behind-the-scenes improvements are being made to the IBC and Employee Self-Service and to make this happen, there will be a period when the systems will be unavailable.

  • Planned downtime begins: 6pm on Wednesday 24 September
  • System access resumes: 8am on Thursday 2 October
  • Contingency window (if needed in the event of a critical issue) until 8am on Monday 6 October

During this time, the following systems will be unavailable:

  • Employee Self Service (ESS)
  • IBC portal

September payroll will be completed before the systems become unavailable. There is no change to the date employees will receive their pay in September or October.

Teachers and support staff pay award will be included in September’s pay. 

Start taking action now 

Remember, some processes require follow on actions.

HR and payroll

To make sure everyone receives their correct pay:

  • eForms must be submitted by 5pm on Sunday 14 September (payroll deadline).
  • Everyone must check their September payslips as soon as possible.

Payslips are expected to be available around 18 September. If any issues are identified these must be raised promptly and well in advance of downtime.

  • It is imperative that any issues with pay are raised very quickly, before the system becomes unavailable.
  • Don’t delay setting up new starters if you haven’t done so already.

Purchasing and payments

  • Plan your purchases for the downtime and make sure you have processed outstanding invoices for payment in good time.
  • The final payment run will be completed at 2pm on 24 September.
  • Clear all workflows in your IBC ‘My Inbox’ ahead of time to prevent delays in purchase orders and/or payments reaching suppliers.
  • Purchasing cards and petty cash can still be used when the IBC is unavailable.

Banking

  • Make sure all petty cash transactions paid from your local expenditure account are reconciled and recorded in the IBC by 17 September.
  • This allows time for them to be approved before the system becomes unavailable.
  • Any income banked up to 23 September should be recorded using ‘Record Local Banking’ in the IBC on the same day it’s banked.
  • You can continue to bank while the system is unavailable, but you must complete the ‘Record Local Banking’ in the IBC when the system becomes available again.

Contacting IBC

Webchat will be available, via the IBC guidance pages. The support staff in Hampshire won’t have access to the system but will be able to provide generic guidance and advice.

What to expect

When the system is available again you’ll still use the same tools — ESS Lite and the IBC portal — and the way you use them won’t change much. But behind the scenes there are improvements being made to allow changes to be made in future.

The way things look in the system is changing slightly and more details are available on the school’s intranet page – link below.

If you have any questions, please check the schools’ intranet IBC information page and if you need to more help you can contact the Schools Improvement team in Oxfordshire: SchoolImprovementTeam@Oxfordshire.gov.uk