The SU is currently transitioning to a new banking system with the needs of student activities as the centre of the launch.  The system that is called SGF or ‘Finance Requests’.  The SU team are working to address all the needs of all the student clubs and societies and are constantly reviewing processes and support materials to help ensure we are addressing the needs of each club and society.  For more general information and the reason for the move, please click here.

We still have many things we are continuing to introduce and improve.  This area of the website provides you with the latest news and updates.

Function	Update
Last membership transfer	February 2025 Please product search for your income since February.  More information in FAQ
Last payment run made	Thursday 13th March 2025
Next payment run deadline	Wednesday 19th March 2025 at 4pm
Next payment run scheduled for	Thursday 20th March 2025
Balances last updated	Thursday 6th March 2025 This was the last date this action was completed, however balances in most cases are still being updated and not completely accurate (including membership transfers).  If you are concerned, please contact activities@abdn.ac.uk.

 

SGF Updates to committees 

 

(Below content was emailed to committees on 27/02/25)

1. TUTORIAL on how to use SGF

Right after the drop-in session on Monday 3rd (3.30pm-4.30pm) we will be looking to get some clubs to volunteer to come at 4.30pm and let us use their SGF for creating a video tutorial on the system which will be used in future training on the system. 

Don't worry if you do not know how to use the system, we will show you (hopefully the tutorial will help with this)

2. Response time for SGF queries.

We recognise that the response time for some of our inboxes especially around responding to SGF queries was far too long. As a result, we have decided a new structure for dealing with these requests. Essentially all SGF questions should come to activities@abdn.ac.uk and depending on the level of the query it will either be responded to by Adam or will be brought up to SU Finance Manager (Michelle). 

We have also got a member of staff who will also now be looking at the ausa-finance@abdn.ac.uk inbox and they will help with directing the incoming queries to Adam.

3. SGF Balances not correct

On the SGF system there are still a number of balances for our clubs and societies which are not entirely accurate, which is something we can apologise for now but some positive news about fixing this issue includes: 

• ALL but 8 activities bank accounts have now been requested to closed entirely - this means that all funds will be pulled from these accounts, closing statements will be saved, and staff time will be saved from having to process the closure of the accounts.

• New spreadsheet - at the start of the week our finance manager shares with us a downloaded spreadsheet of SGF transactions and account balances for all our activities. The values on this spreadsheet are the most accurate balance that the activities team will have on hand to provide you with when requested. They will also be able to filter and provide you with a screenshot showing all transactions for your activity. In most cases this spreadsheet is up to date but again there are a few whose balance on the spreadsheet does not reflect entirely the funds they have available to spend.

• We have a member of staff who is currently going through the spreadsheet and updating the balances shown on SGF system so that they are more accurate. Hopefully when up to date, we will no longer need the middle step of having this spreadsheet. We hope to have this done over the next couple of weeks.

• Longer term we will be looking at ways to try get monthly 'statements' to our clubs and societies.

4. Unable to submit or approve payment/money requests

If you have no option to access the SGF system for your activity at all (head to help to see where to access) in almost every case, you will not have purchased your membership for said activity. Every paid member should be able to create requests - only specific committee members will be able to approve requests.

If you cannot approve requests, you either: are trying to approve a request you created yourself (not possible); you have not been set up with the roles President, Secretary, or Treasurer. For 'Presidents' we can set you up on the site if you contact activities@abdn.ac.uk. All other roles, the president of the club should be able to set you up with the access required by adding you under the role you should have on ausa website (head to admin tools and 'Groups'). Additional roles can be given access but these three should work automatically - in cases where the president is a co-president or called a different name and you access has not been resolved, please reach out to us ASAP.

5. Referred Requests

At the very start there where a number of issues with the website provider for SGF not allowing us to download attachments for specific file formats that were not compatible with the system. These issues have now been resolved for the most part but we do still have some difficulty with opening 'Apple' files so please try to save things as PDFs or other formats for ease of review for requests. 

6. System for payment is too slow/payments have not been made

'Payments not made' - In short, they have. Upon looking at the SGF system on our side, we can see that there no requests which make it through all approval levels which have not paid on the Thursday payment runs. In most cases when people come in to highlight about payments not being made, either the request is still sitting in drafts and has not been submitted OR it has not been approved at level 1 with the committee.

'Payments are too slow' - Really there are two parts to this. Firstly, we want to try encourage our activities to have good organisation and plan for costs ahead of time (where possible) so hopefully the current payment run schedule does not impact an activities ability to go ahead with events. Secondly, we are constantly looking at what changes we can make to make the system more efficient and accessible to our student body and we are aware that additional payment run days is something we have heard a few times. Right now the priority is to get SGF entirely up to date and to get all closing bank statements in/saved. Once these tasks are both complete, there will be time for us to review things such as the payment run timetable.

PAYMENT DEADLINES - Please to ensure that your request is processed, submit and approve before 4pm on Wednesdays. Payment runs are done Thursday mornings and we have been lenient to some who have missed the Wednesday deadline over the past few weeks but we are starting to tighten up on this as most are getting used to the system. Try avoid any late-night Wednesday requests in hope of next day payment as staff are not expected to work and approve these late-night requests. They will be processed the following week for payment instead.

7. Don't know how to use SGF or want to keep in loop with updates?

Head over to SGF page to see some updates on SGF including when the last payments have been completed, when most recent comms for it were shared etc. For FAQs use the help button which will redirect you to some frequently asked questions!

 

SEF and funding updates

 

Tuesday February 25, 2025

All Student Experience Funding (SEF) applications that were submitted for the deadline last Monday have now been reviewed.  Those that have been successful have been approved by both the Student’s Union panel and the Development Trust.  

Some student activities were not successful because their application unfortunately didn’t meet the criteria of this funding oppertunity.  However, there were cases where the panel referred applications back to committees for more information or to correct aspects of the form that were not completed. Please double check your applications and SU email for updates.  For the Student Activities that got back to us by the deadline of 5pm on Friday, their applications were submitted to the Development Trust for approval.  The Student Activities that didn’t meet the deadline for the additional information, but the panel believe meets the criteria, will be submitted at a later date to the Development trust for final approval as long as the requested information is submitted.

The SU and the Development Trust are delighted to report that more then £18,000 has been awarded.  There is still around £17,000 available.  Applications for the remaining funding are expected to reopen at the end of the week. 

The SU is working on an updated guidebook for GAS and specifically the SEF applications.  This will be available on the GAS section of the SU website.

Funding will be visible on ballance sheets in the coming weeks.  We will let you know once the finance system has been updated.  However, please do not wait until your ballance sheet is updated.  If you have had confirmation that your Student Activity has been successful, please feel free to put in requests to start spending your funding from today.

 

 

Read through the above and still not sure what to do?  Please contact us on activities@abdn.ac.uk or stop in during one of our drop-in sessions at the Student Union building.  These take place on Mondays from 330 to 430pm and Thursdays from 11-12pm.