Opus 4.4.0

Deployed on October 29, 2023, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• Endowed Chairs Report

Opus 4.3.0

Deployed on April 30, 2023, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

Opus 3.13

• APO has added WalkMe to Opus! WalkMe allows us to provide on-screen guidance in some applications. You can view all available guidance by clicking on the blue question mark in the bottom right corner of the application. We will continue to add and update tutorials over time based on your feedback. For more information on WalkMe, see ServiceNow.

• If you use the analyst assignment feature in Opus, you can now add the assignment date. Assigned case analysts and dates are viewable in your "Cases at My Office" report. 

Opus 3.12

Deployed on December 18, 2022, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

Multiple Locations

• The School of Medicine can now add multiple affiliate locations to faculty appointments. Location percentages will be editable on any action where the appointment percentage is editable. Non-SOM appointments are auto-populated with the UCLA Campus location and cannot be updated.
• Multiple affiliate locations will now be visible and exportable on all Opus reports (e.g., Appointments, Eligibility, all Case reports, etc.). Locations will also be visible on the Profile and Academic History pages for each appointee.

Administrative Compensation

• The Indexed Compensation Level (ICL) calculation messages will now be hidden for appointees on the HSCP.
• Where Opus displays the Base Salary, it will now show the x+x’ rate from Opus instead of total salary.
• NSTP (Y/N) is now displayed in a column on the Admin. Comp. Proposals report. The value will reflect what administrators have entered - it is not pulling information from UCPath.

Other Enhancements/Updates

• Departments and Dean’s Office staff can now directly enter a Packet ID to link it to an Opus case, if necessary.
• Where an appointment or a case has comments, the comment count is now displayed and highlighted.
• Case and Template Manager roles in Interfolio can now be assigned in Opus.
• Updated Opus Support phone line.

Opus 3.11

Deployed on August 14, 2022, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• The Off-Scale Analysis - Opus currently calculates an off-scale salary percentage to a whole number.  Opus 3.11 will calculate out to two decimal places.  You will no longer need to use Excel to create an Off-Scale Report because Opus will calculate to the hundredths digit.  
• A new UCPath/Opus Comparison Report will call your attention to any data discrepancies between the two systems.
• A new Opus Primary/Additional Comparison Report will call your attention to any data discrepancies between Opus appointments.
• Appointee names - Opus currently formats names to be Title Case. Opus 3.11 will use the capitalization that’s set in UCPath.  For example, a “McDonald” in UCPath will no longer display as “Mcdonald” in Opus but instead match the UCPath formatting.
• The Opus Help Desk will be able to add or remove rows from an appointee’s Eight Year or Excellence Review Clock.
• Dean’s Offices and Institutes will be able to initiate Administrative Compensation proposals for faculty based in other schools.
• The Units tab on the Manage Permissions page has been fixed to display everyone with Opus and Interfolio roles in your unit.

Opus 3.10

Deployed on April 24, 2022, this version includes new features and enhancements as well as a few bug fixes.

Opus 3.9

Deployed on February 13, 2022, this version mainly includes maintenance and infrastructure improvements. 

Opus will also now let you choose a future salary scale effective date when starting/updating a case, as long as the future scale rates exist in UCPath.

Opus 3.8

Deployed on October 31, 2021, this version features some enhancements to make Opus data more useful and easy to navigate. 

Columns added to the Appointments table:

• Appointment Status (Appointed or Prospective)
• Additional Affiliations (to identify your faculty with appointments in other departments)
• Heath Science Compensation Plan (HSCP) or non-HSCP

Changes to the Case tables:

• A filter on the Proposed Effective Date for Active Cases
• A filter on the Approved Effective Date for Completed Cases
• A hyperlink to the Interfolio packet on Cases At My Office

Opus 3.7

Deployed on September 12, 2021, this version of Opus features the following improvements: 

• Ability for APO to enter administrative compensation proposals
• Addition of new/updated academic units

Opus 3.5.1

Deployed on April 8, 2021, this version of Opus features the following improvements: 

• Ability to create bulk cases for “End Appointment” action
• Display of UCPath Position # on Opus appointments
• APO is now able to edit prospective appointments
• Ability to enter an Interfolio Packet ID on cases that cannot be linked
• Bug fixes: Profile comments and Eligibility logic for Eight Year Clock

Opus 3.5

Deployed on February 28, 2021, this version of Opus features the following improvement:

• Ability for APO to view allocations for faculty administrators per unit, per title, per year.

Opus 3.3

Deployed on December 6, 2020, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

Cases

• The Review Process tab of a Case Summary displays whether the candidate has submitted their Annual Certification in UC OATS or not (this only applies to faculty subject to APM-025 or APM-671). 
• Departments and Dean’s Offices can assign a staff analyst to a case on the Case Summary screen. 
• Current Payroll Title, Title Code, and Percent Time fields are available for display on the Case tables. 
• The automatic email that Opus sends staff when a case is completed has the full approval information.

Profile

• An improved Eight Year Clocks table displays the Fourth Year Appraisal and Eight Year Limit dates above the table.
• The Summary tab displays the Employee ID number from UCPath.

Opus 3.2

Deployed on September 26, 2020, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• The Cases screen has a new tab: “Cases at my Office” to track cases by the Interfolio Review Steps within your office.  
• Dashboard can now display messages for system announcements or notices from APO.
• The Eligibility calculation for the Unit 18 Excellence Review will use the Hire Date if the Start Date at Rank is missing.
• An "End Appointment" action is now available for when an appointee leaves an indefinite appointment  or leaves earlier than their approved End Date.

Opus 3.1

Deployed on June 29, 2020, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• Counting 2019-20 as a Year Off the Tenure Clock for Assistants, as explained in this memo from VC Levine;
• Addition of 2020-21 APUs for the School of Medicine;
• Addition of the European Languages and Transcultural Studies department (ELTS) to the Humanities Division.

Opus 3.0

Deployed on May 31, 2020, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:
New Features

• New tabs on the Profile page
  • Inactive Appointments tab displays past appointments
  • Appointment Sets tab displays set information for Joint and Split appointments
• A Permissions page that displays who in your department has Opus and Interfolio access (as administrator or committee member)
• For the School of Medicine, the APU ID is an available field on the Appointments table
• Opus can now associate an appointment with its corresponding Position Number in UC PATH.

A presentation and demonstration videos on the features new to Opus 3.0 are available on our Box folder. 

Opus 2.15

Deployed on March 8, 2020, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

New Features  

• The ability to save your filter, sort, and column selections on a table so that you don’t have to redo them every time you reload a page;
• An Employee Status field on the Appointments table, to identify faculty who are on leave, retired, or on a short work break in UC PATH;
• Academic History page - Administrators will now be able to view their faculty’s academic history record for cases effective 2018 or later.

Opus 2.14

Deployed on November 17, 2019, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

New Features

• The Employee ID number from UC Path ("Empl ID") is now an available field on Opus tables.
• Interfolio Packet ID numbers are available on the Cases tables to clarify any confusion around which Opus case is linked to which Interfolio packet.
• The Opus Help Desk can now correct candidate names that don't come in correctly from Recruit (e.g., their middle name appears as the last name in Opus).

Opus 2.12

Deployed on September 22, 2019, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

New Features

• Offscale Report is now generated for each case ("Salary Report" is a link on the left margin of a Case Summary).
• Manage permissions page (view and edit permissions within Opus and Interfolio's RPT; only visible to APO)
• Vote Board for the Council on Academic Personnel (only visible to APO and CAP admin staff)., 

Enhancements

• Withdrawn cases can now be reopened by those with case completion permissions
• Withdrawn cases can now be deleted
• Clicking "pre-popluate" in the final decision modal of a case will populate the effective date and accelerated/deferred information 
• If you're closing a retroactive case, you can choose the salary scale effective date to ensure the off scale percentage is saved correctly - Update existing article
• The preliminary assessment template will no longer require recusals (only impacts APO)
• APUs for appointees on the Health Sciences Comp Plan have been updated to the academic year (note where salary scale changes take effect on 10/1, the new rate will not be reflected until 10/1).

Fixes

• Affiliation is now separated from category. Category is disabled and can only be edited from the Appt. Set page
• Appointment information is now displayed for archived appointments associated with the case (under view appointment details on the Case Summary
• End dates for assistant professors were persisting after promotion to a tenured title. End dates are now cleared on the effective date.
• Steps have been added for the Lecturer SOE/PSOE titles
• 8 Year Limit eligibility was being calculated incorrectly after July 1.
  
  

Opus 2.11

Deployed on June 9, 2019, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• An enhanced Profile page that pulls in more data from UC PATH, including title code and step; 
• The ability to search for a person by UID when starting a case or looking for their Profile page; 
• Displaying an appointee’s preferred name (as set in UC PATH) rather than their legal name.
• Bug fix: corrected a problem with trying to start an initial appointment from a Recruit JPF number.

Opus 2.10 

Deployed on April 14, 2019, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• Enhanced Profile pages with more UCPath data
• Ability to search for a person by UID when starting a Case or looking for their Profile page
• Display of an appointee's preferred name (as set in UCPath)
• Renaming of the Roster page to "Appointments"

Opus 2.9

Deployed on February 10, 2019, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• A link to Interfolio for faculty on the pre-login Opus home page
• Layout and user-experience enhancements on Profile pages, including displaying appointee email address, improving the appointment(s) layout
• Aggregate 8 Year Clock and Excellence Clock reports
• Case summaries show years on the clock, time off the clock, Recruit tracking numbers, appointment data and appointment set association
• Improved handling for APUs (School of Medicine), including codes from past years

Opus 2.8

Scheduled for deployment on November 25th, 2018, this version of Opus features the following improvements and updates:

• "Go to Interfolio" link now appears in a case's row on the Active Cases page, as well as in its Case Summary.
• The Completed Cases defaults to showing only cases completed during the past month. User can change this setting to: last one year, two years, five years, or all.
• UID and email are now visible in Profile and Start a Case search
• Action status appears as a column in the Completed Cases table (in order to differentiate completed from withdrawn)
• Users can filter cases to show only accelerated or deferred cases, only cases in Interfolio, only retention cases or only retroactive cases
• Users can flag a case as being for retention, retroactive, a chair's merit, a dean's merit
• Opus cases can be “Unlinked” from their Interfolio counterparts
• Users can now specify whether to delete or withdraw a case in Opus
• Users can choose whether withdrawing or deleting an Opus case should delete a linked Interfolio case
• The bulk reappointment feature can be used for appointments ending anytime before 7/1/19
• The bulk reappointment table allows users to filter by school, department, area, location, affiliation, series, rank, or step
• Global Jazz will be available in the dept. dropdown on Profile and Cases
• Outcome types have been updated and more closely match the statuses APO uses in Interfolio (e.g. approved, higher step)
• "Campus" templates no longer appear in the "Go to Interfolio" template dropdown

Opus 2.7

• Payroll integration migrated to UCPath from EDB.

Opus 2.6

• Removing duplicate records for some appointees
• Enabling dean’s office staff to close certain actions in Opus
• Adding missing units for museums (Arts and Architecture) and Undergraduate Education.

Opus 2.5

Starting Cases and Case Summary

Updates for 2.5

• You can now download the Case Summary in Opus as a PDF. This PDF file can then be uploaded to Interfolio in place of the current APO Cover Sheet for actions effective July 1, 2019.
  
  
• Complete multiple reappointment and renewal cases at once.
  
  When you start a case, you will now have an option to choose to “Start Multiple Cases”. For now, the only action types that can be selected are Reappointment and Renewal. Once you have selected the action, you will be able to view all appointees eligible for it this year, selecting as many as you like.
  
  All selected appointees must have the same appointment end date and the same effective date for the action — this feature was developed with annual July 1 - June 30 reappointments in mind.
  
  Once you’ve entered the effective date and appointment end date, Opus will create a reappointment or renewal case for each of the selected appointees. Note: this year Opus will not automatically update an appointee's end date. All reappointments should be processed as described above.
  
  If you have questions, do not hesitate to reach out to opushelp@ucla.edu for clarification prior to June 30th, 2018.
  
  
• New Information added to the Endowed Chair action. When you start an Endowed Chair appointment, you will now be prompted to enter the type of Endowed Chair (Permanent, Term, Administrative, Dean’s). For Term-Appointment chairs, you’ll also be prompted to enter an end date for the chair appointment.
  
  
• There is now more information available under “View Appointment Details”. New information displayed includes Hire Date, Start Date at Series/Rank/Step, Waiver End Date, On-scale rate and Off-scale percentage, and HSCP X and X’ information. When you start a case in Opus, you’ll be able to see this information in the “Select Appointment” modal, and in the “Proposed Status” modal. You’ll also be able to view this information at the top of the Case Summary page and in the “Proposed Status” and “Final Decision” modals.

Cases Page

Active Cases TabThe Active Cases tab on the Cases page displays all cases in progress for all appointees. If this tab displays cases that you believe should be closed, contact opushelp@ucla.edu.

Updates for 2.5

• The date the case was created in Interfolio, and the date the case was created in Opus are now available as columns in the Active Cases table.

Completed Cases Tab

The Completed cases tab on the Cases page displays all cases that have been finalized in Opus (even if they are not yet effective).

Updates for 2.5

• The date the case was created in Interfolio, the date the case was created in Opus, and the date the case was completed are now available as columns on the Completed Cases table.

Roster Page

The Roster table allows you to easily view faculty in your unit by department, series, rank, step, location (DGSOM), etc. You can also filter your Roster to show only Senate faculty, show only Non-Senate faculty, show only Unit 18 faculty, show only Emeriti, show only non-Emeriti, etc.

Updates for 2.5

• Hire Date (from EDB), Start Date at Series, Start Date at Rank, Start Date at Step are now available as columns in the Roster table.

Profile Page

The Profile page displays each faculty member’s current appointments. If your Roster or Eligibility report looks incorrect, this is where you should look to determine what needs to be fixed. If you see any information that is not correct, contact opushelp@ucla.edu.

Updates for 2.5

• Hire Date (from EDB) is now visible on the Profile.
  
  
• Date of Last Advancement Action is now visible on Profile. If merit and promotion actions are missing or have incorrect dates in Eligibility, it is likely because this date is missing or incorrect in Opus. Contact opushelp@ucla.edu to make corrections.
  
  
• Date fields are now grouped together at the bottom of the table.

Opus 2.4

• Salary Report to include faculty on Health Sciences Comp Plan and in Unit 18
• Base salary from EDB visibility in Salary Report and in Profile
• APUs for 2018-19 available in cases
• New visibility for date case initiated and date candidate notified in the Case Summary screen under Case Tracking Dates
• Improved case linkage between Opus and Interfolio

Opus 2.3

• Back-end fixes and improvements.
• Waiver Renewal added to Eligiblity.
• End Appointment action can be used to transition from professorial to emeritus appointment.

Opus 2.2

• Salary data updated to reflect July 1, 2017 range adjustment and discretionary increases.
• Corrected the display of multiple departments on the Eligibility screen.

Opus 2.1

• Initial appointment cases for new hires via online review can be processed in Interfolio.
• Salary fixes (part 1 of 2): Split Appointees will now have one annualized salary rate.

Opus 2.0

• Online Case Review
• Reference existing Opus records when bringing in someone new from Recruit

Opus 1.6

• Export every data table to Excel!
• Merge Opus User IDs when importing a candidate from Recruit
• Rest easy with behind-the-scenes improvements and progress, including: new logic for changes in Academic Series, new bulk reappointment actions, and groundwork for Opus 2.0.

Opus 1.5

• Released in May 2017
• The data cleanup process is now complete!
• View faculty within their unit via the Roster page.
• Access a per-person view of academic appointments via the Profiles page.
• Create and manage cases for appointees with joint and split appointments.
• See updated interface and terminology based on your feedback.

Opus 1.3

Changes to the Academic History Data Page

In Opus release 1.3 the Academic History Data page was modified to no longer include the Actions in Progress subtable. Actions (or Cases) were now started and completed on the Cases pages.

A row in the table on the Academic History Data page.

A suitcase icon (marked as (A) above) indicates an active case (active or completed but not yet effective), or an "action in progress." This has replaced the gray arrow which was used before to open up the Action in Progress table for the row's appointee.

New Feature: Salary Report

The Salary Report is a view-only table of salary information for most academic appointees in the user's department or organization. Users can view current and proposed salaries (including off-scale analyses), and additional information related to a future, or proposed, appointment.

  !  

Note: The Salary Report does not include:

• Above-scale appointees

• Appointees on the Health Sciences Compensation Plan

• Represented appointees such as librarians, and

• Non-senate instructional unit (Unit 18)

As part of the academic history data cleanup effort, department staff are cleaning up the current and proposed appointment data in academic history data screen, which may affect the data within this report.

There are a number of different ways you can view and filter the entries on this report.

Features in the Above Screenshot

(A) Change Columns

This button opens a window with a selection of more columns to add to the table. Certain columns are visible by default but other columns, such as UID, Division, Increase in Salary, etc., can be added with this feature.

(B) Export to Excel

This button downloads an Excel file of table entries. This download is in CSV (comma separate values) format which is easily imported into Excel.

(C) Search

This is a "live" search which means as the user types, the entries or results seen in the Salary Report table change according to the text they've entered.

(D) Sort by Column Title or Arrow

Column titles and adjacent arrows sort the entries on the page by ascending or descending order.

(E) Filter by Column Drop-Down Menu

For columns that have a drop-down menu of options, users can filter entries to a narrowed subset.

(F) Change in off-scale percentage highlighted

A blue highlight on a row indicates a change in the off-scale percentage for that academic appointee.

(G) Table Scroll Bars

Depending on the screen size and the number of visible columns, users may need to scroll either vertically or horizontally within the table. As the table is scrolled, the status line (H) dynamically updates.

(H) Table Status Line

At the bottom of the table, a counter shows the number of entries within the table. This number dynamically resets as the user scrolls through the table, or when they filter and/or narrow down entries via the search or drop-down menu options.

New Dashboard

Along with the introduction of new Cases page and Salary Report, we've updated the dashboard to allow for easy navigation between sections of Opus.

An example of the Dashboard page in Opus version 1.3. Click this image to view a larger version.

The New! Icon

This icon highlights sections of Opus with new improvements:

Opus 1.2

A New Look

With the introduction of new Active Cases page and Salary Report, we've updated the dashboard to allow for easy navigation between sections of Opus.

An example of the Dashboard page in Opus version 1.2. Click this image to view a larger version.

The dashboard provides direct links to each of the features you have access to in Opus, depending on your role (e.g., Department Administrator, School Administrator, APO).

See Also

New in Opus

Upcoming Application Releases