ETHIS News

24.04.2024 - Spring cleaning at ETHIS design

From May 6, 2024, the ETHIS portal will welcome you in a modern and brighter color design. The familiar but somewhat old-fashioned light blue will be replaced predominantly by white and grey, the variety of colors will be reduced overall and the layout will be slightly cleaned up. As a result, ETHIS will appear brighter and clearer. From a functional point of view, nothing will change for you: user guidance, processes, input fields, selection options, texts and evaluations will remain unchanged.

This is the first step towards modernizing the ETHIS website. The navigation update will follow in 2025. Users will then navigate in a modern tile design and benefit from new search functions and more personalization options. ETHIS will also be more flexible for display on mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones thanks to responsive web design. However, the handling of processes and evaluations will remain unchanged.

22.03.2024 - New Supplier Catalogs Available on the ETHIS Procurement Platform

We are pleased to announce that the ETHIS procurement platform continues to expand and improve, aiming to provide you with the best service possible. Following the successful launch of the RS Components catalog at the end of 2023, which facilitated the procurement of electronic components and measuring devices for all employees, we have more exciting news to share.

Starting from March 22, 2024, the suppliers Elektro-Material AG, Hasler & Co and Linde Schweiz AG (formerly Pangas AG) will also be accessible on our platform. With these new partnerships, we are broadening our range to include another tool supplier, a supplier of electrical components and equipment and a dependable gas supplier.
These new partnerships grant you access to a wider array of high-quality products and services, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of your work processes. We are confident that this expansion will assist you in successfully realizing your projects and achieving your goals.
We invite you to explore the new supplier catalogs available on the ETHIS procurement platform and take advantage of the diverse range of offerings. 

15.03.2024 – Guest management optimizations

Since the new guest regulations came into force in July 2023, several optimizations have already been implemented and further input from operations has been collected, of which the following are included in the release:

General
The adjustments simplify the process for many of the departments involved.
Various textual adjustments and additions provide greater clarity for guests, requesters, export control and HR operations.
Web registration by the guest
The web forms to be completed by guests on entry have been optimized for each guest category. For example, the private e-mail and the name of the institution are recorded so that guests can be contacted even after they have left.
Maintenance of private e-mail
In the web application Addresses and personal data (www.adressen.ethz.ch) it is now possible to maintain the private e-mail. In order to be able to contact guests during their stay and after they have left, it is mandatory for guests to enter their private e-mail address. The guest's private e-mail address is initially recorded and validated during the entry workflow.
ETHIS-Reports
The ETHIS personnel reports have been revised so that guests are no longer listed together with employees.
 

15.03.2024 - New mandatory field "Reason for flight" in supplier invoices and business expenses

As part of the ETH Air Travel Project, a new mandatory field "Reason for flight" was introduced in ETHIS as a drop-down menu with 6 options, in which travelers must provide information on the purpose of their flight when entering their air travel expenses. The field appears when clicking on "Flight details for CO2 calculation" together with the existing fields Flight number, Flight date, Flight class, Number of passengers and Passenger function. A blue button provides further information on the individual categories of the drop-down menu.

The reason for introducing an additional field on the subject of travel purposes is to enable a systematic and meaningful evaluation of the various reasons for air travel at ETH Zurich as part of the ETH Air Travel Project.

New VAT rates as of January 1, 2024

For invoices to third parties, the following increase in VAT rates will come into effect as of January 1, 2024:

Basic information according to the Federal Tax Administration
Relevant for the applicable tax rate is the time or period in which the service is provided. Services provided up to 31 December 2023 are subject to the previous tax rates, services provided from 1 January 2024 are subject to the new tax rates. If services that are subject to both the previous and new tax rates (due to the period in which they were rendered) are listed on the same invoice, the date or period in which the service was rendered and the respective amount due must be shown separately.

Please ensure that all services provided through the end of 2023 are invoiced in this year. Customer invoices recorded in ETHIS will be reviewed by the Accounting Department for VAT compliance.

You find information on the flat tax rates applicable as of January 1, 2024 in the VAT Guide 2024 (German only) here.

The purchase tax on services purchased from abroad will also be settled by the Accounting department according to the time or period of service provision.

Procurements
If, in the case of a goods/services purchase order, the goods will be delivered/the service will be provided in part or in full after 31.12.2023, the corresponding new VAT rate (standard rate 8.1%, reduced rate 2.6%, special rate for accommodation 3.8%) must be selected when entering the ETHIS procurement request so that a request amount that is too low ("total offer incl. VAT in CHF") is not approved.
Ex. 1: An offer from a supplier abroad for the delivery of laboratory equipment has been received. Delivery date: 15.05.2024. Procedure: Select the new VAT rate 8.1% in the ETHIS procurement request, since the delivery will take place in 2024.
Ex. 2: An offer from a supplier in Switzerland for a 3-year service (beginning of July 2023 to end of June 2026) has been received. VAT rate on the offer: 7.7%. Procedure: Request an offer from the supplier that includes one item with the services to be provided until the end of 2023 (VAT rate 7.7%) and one item with the services to be provided from 2024 (VAT rate 8.1%). Then create the ETHIS procurement request with the VAT rate 8.1%.
If the quotation contains items with current and new VAT rates, these will also be shown in the purchase order and the obligation from purchase order (to be found in the line item report,
“Obligo” tab) will correspond to the expected total invoice amount (exception: purchase orders abroad, where import taxes and customs clearance fees are additionally invoiced by third parties).

Receivables Management
Please ensure that services provided in 2023 and services provided in 2024 are invoiced separately.

Example: A service is provided from November 2023 to February 2024. Please divide it into two installments, one from November 2023 to December 2023 (VAT 7.7%) and one from January 2024 to February 2024 (VAT 8.1%).

If the entire service is invoiced in one invoice, then the entire service is subject to the new tax rate of 8.1%.

Third-party budget
Please note that the budget for PSP-elements financed by third-party funds, which are subject to VAT, has been calculated taking into account the VAT rate applicable at the time of opening. Accordingly, there is a deviation between income and budget due to the adjusted VAT rate. Should you wish to adjust and recalculate the budget, please contact your client advisor. When closing, the calculation of the effective income minus the accrued costs ensures that the new VAT rate is taken into account.
 

17.03.2023 - Optimisations / adjustments in the area of procurement

• The G/L accounts in the purchase orders from supplier stores can now be adjusted. For detailed instructions and more information on the ordering process, please visit ETHIS Help.

• ICT goods procurements from CHF 10,000; inventory number required when entering the request
  In the case of ICT goods procurement requiring an inventory, the inventory number is now already required when the procurement request is entered (analogous to the procurement type "other goods"). This means that the inventory of ICT goods from CHF 10,000 (incl. VAT) is no longer carried out after receipt of the invoice, but before the request is entered. Exception: Software license procurements below CHF 100,000 (incl. VAT) are not subject to inventory. I.e. for such ICT goods requests, the checkmark in the inventory obligation checkbox must be removed manually.
• Checking the export control relevance
  An export control relevance check is now carried out when entering procurement requests. On the one hand, this is intended to identify procurements with export control relevance at an early stage so that further clarifications can be carried out (by the ETH Export Control Office) and, on the other hand, to generally increase awareness of export control issues in goods procurements. The processing of the procurement request or the creation of the purchase order and its dispatch to the supplier is not affected by this check. This means that the purchase order will be placed regardless of whether the export control relevance checkbox has been ticked or not.
   

04.01.2023 - New inbox: "Overdue receivables"

As of 04.01.2023, a new inbox will be available in ETHIS. You will see overdue customer invoices that you have entered with a dunning block and customer invoices that are still open despite three reminders by the accounting department.

Invoices with dunning block
For invoices that you have entered with a dunning block, you can choose from the following actions:

• Mahnen: The invoice will be reminded by the accounting department at the next dunning run (on the 10th calendar day of the month).
• Verlängern: The entry disappears from your inbox for 30 days so that you have time to contact your customer yourself. After these 30 days, the entry will reappear in your inbox, provided that the claim is still outstanding.
• Ausbuchen: If this claim does no longer exist for a plausible reason, the order for writing-off can be placed here. This must be sufficiently justified.
  

Invoices with the highest dunning level (after three reminders)
For invoices that have not been paid even after three reminders, you can choose from the following actions:

• Inkasso: The accounting department will take legal action to claim the debt or the claim is handed over to a collection agency for further management.
• Verlängern: The entry disappears from your inbox for 30 days so that you have time to contact your customer yourself. After these 30 days, the entry will reappear in your inbox, provided that the claim is still outstanding.
• Ausbuchen: If this claim does no longer exist for a plausible reason, the order for writing-off can be placed here. This must be sufficiently justified.

*For the moment, this inbox is available in German only. We are working on making this available to you in English as soon as possible.

23.12.2022 - Field "Order reference" from procurement process can be evaluated in line item report

The "Order reference" field available in the procurement process can now also be evaluated in the line item report. The column can be displayed via the column set with "Add".

07.12.2022 - Information year-end closing

The supplier shops will be closed over Christmas. To avoid delivery problems due to closed logistics and closed ETH buildings, no orders will be possible in the supplier stores from 17.12.2022 - 02.01.2023. The stores will be available again from 03.01.2023.

The deadline for procurement requests is 15.12.2022 . A procurement request must be fully approved by this date to ensure that the order is placed with the supplier before the end of the year.

02.12.2022 - Activation of the Becton, Dickinson an Company (BD) supplier shop 

13.11.2022 - Go-live of the new ETHIS procurement platform

As of today, the new ETHIS procurement platform is available to all ETH Zurich employees. With the new 31 external supplier shops you can directly access an extensive range of products. In addition, the ETH Webshop has been streamlined and made clearer. You can access the new ETHIS procurement platform in ETHIS via the tab Beschaffungen > Einkauf > ETHIS Procurement Platform.