Bringing Invoice Processing In House

 

An update from Amanda Lockhart Davis

As I mentioned in my recent update to you, our stakeholders, our team has been organizing and prioritizing our workload, pinpointing the issues causing the most pain and getting solutions in place as quickly as possible. I'm pleased to let you know today that we've put one of those solutions in place.  Because of the difficulties with our optical character recognition (OCR) provider, we're bringing invoice processing back in-house.  This requires us to staff up and train that staff so that your vendors' invoices will be processed correctly and quickly.

We'll continue to consider long-term solutions for invoice processing at UVA, but this step should have positive implications for our vendors.  We're working closely with AskFinance to make sure they can answer vendor questions that may arise, so feel free to send your vendors directly to them.  

There has been no change to the email vendors use for invoice submission, and we have adjusted the physical address on POs.

Know that while this affects many UVA vendors, some areas in UVAWise, OPS, Facilities Management, the Library, Law Library, the Bookstore, and Cavalier Computers, have special arrangements outside of normal operations that will continue to function as normal.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at askfinance@virginia.edu.

I look forward to updating you further both on this issue as it evolves and on other solutions we're working on, with your continued partnership at the top of our minds!

How to Work With the Workday Support Team

 In the last blog digest, we introduced you to the Workday Support Team.  This team works behind the scenes to work out issues with Workday Finance, implement new functionality, review and adjust current configuration and business processes, and partner with stakeholders to assist in process simplification.

So how do you work with the Workday Support Team if you need their assistance?

The team uses Salesforce to identify issues and requests that need to be addressed, you can send your requests to askfinance@virginia.edu, and those will make their way to the Workday Support Team, but know that this may take some time.  To speed up the process, you can create a case directly in Salesforce and assign it to the FI-Workday Support Queue, so the issue will go directly into the Workday Finance Support Team's queue.

The Workday Support Team will track issues and requests using Workday Adoption Planning.  They'll  work with stakeholders to prioritize requests, and larger projects may require prioritization by the Cross Platform Support Governance Committee.

Reporting & Analytics Release Notes March 9

Finance Reporting and Analytics Release Notes for March 9th have been posted to the UVAFinance website. 

 This update includes significant new reports and modifications that have been released since February 9th as well as known issues that we are investigating or working on currently.

A friendly reminder that you can always find this information and more reporting resources at Business Intelligence & Analytics | UVA Finance (virginia.edu)

Quick Tip of the Month:  Saved Filters (Workday) and Bookmarks (UBI) – remember that if you regularly the same report with the same filter(s) for CC, Grants, or other worktags, you can save your filters using the Saved Filters option in Workday or using Bookmarks in UBI. Bookmarks in UBI can be shared, and Saved Filters in Workday cannot. As a best practice, you should leave the Period prompt empty when you save since you will likely need to update that from month to month anyway. Directions on how to use Saved Filters and Bookmarks can be found in the Reporting Training Resources.

Head on over to the site to see what finance reports people use the most!

Working with AskFinance

Joey Carls, User Success Manager of the Ask Finance Team, shares updated guidance on how our AskFinance team works with you, our finance partners.

What happens after I send a case to AskFinance?

Following the submission of a case to askfinance@virginia.edu, you will be sent an automated message with your case number. You may respond to this email to provide additional details on your case so we encourage you to hold it until your case is resolved. The user success team will work with you to gather additional details and/or resolve your question or issue. Complex cases beyond their scope of knowledge will be escalated and you will be notified at that time. UVAFinance functional teams will see your case to resolution at which time your case will be closed generating a satisfaction survey.

How do I flag my issue for a specific person in UVAFinance?

If you have already contacted someone in UVAFinance about an issue you are experiencing and wish for your case to be directed to them, please note that in the body of your initial email to AskFinance. Feel free to forward pertinent email chains and attachments as part of the initial email as well. It is important not to add individuals to the CC or BCC lines of your email, as this creates case messy duplication and ultimately slows our response times.

When can I expect a response from UVAFinance?

The user success team strives for a same-day response to inquiries received before 4pm, Monday-Friday, and aims to resolve or referred cases within two business days. Case volume and complexity may create some variation in response times, particularly after a case is referred. If you desire a status update, please call the Solution Center at 434-924-3400 and have your case number ready.

How can I get my issue resolved or referred more efficiently?

Part of the user success agent’s role is information collection and troubleshooting which at times may delay an expedient resolution. Providing as much detail as possible about the specific issue(s) you are experiencing, including the worktags you are using and any resources you have already referenced to aid you in the transaction, and attaching images or other pertinent documents will allow us to serve you more efficiently. Resources/details that are useful include PO numbers, screen captures of error messages, email conversations, associated documents, etc. Any and all documentation is great! More detail means the user success agent’s first follow-up question to you is less likely to be a request for further information.

My case was closed by UVAFinance but I did not receive a response or the response I needed. How should I proceed?

If your case is closed unexpectedly or you received a solution that did not fully resolve your issue, please do not respond to the survey email. Rather, find the original autoreply for your case or the last related email you received and send a reply noting your concern with the case closure. Your case will reopen with the professional who closed the case.

How can I provide feedback on my experience?

Once your case is resolved, you will receive an email that includes a brief survey about your experience with the solution center. We strongly encourage you to complete this survey and urge you to share written comments regarding your experience. We welcome your acknowledgment of individuals just as much as we welcome your constructive criticism. You may also provide feedback by emailing Joey Carls, our User Success Manager at jcarls@virginia.edu.

AP Tips & Tricks Part II

Director of Disbursements Amanda Lockhart Davis asked her team to share some of their top suggestions for smoother sailing when working with AP transactions.  

See their first crop of tips and tricks on the blog here.  

Invoice/Payment Research:

You can see when/how a payment was made on an invoice by clicking the “activity” tab.

Invoice Payment Status Lookup:  https://invoices.uvafinance.virginia.edu/

Suppliers:

• When to use which registration form in Payment Works:

    -         A supplier registration form is used when a person is doing business as themselves or a                             company is providing goods or services to the University

    -         An individual payee is a person receiving payment for:

•  being a research participant
•  reimbursement
•  a monetary gift from the University
•  a royalty payment 
•  an honorarium from the University
•  a stipend as a Pre / Post Doc Fellow or Grad Student

• The first thing anyone should do is look in Payment Works to see if a company or person is registered before placing any orders and invite them to register if they are not registered already.

T&E Card: 

• If a cardholder says that they have “received a reimbursement by mistake”, these are keywords to identify that they may have incorrectly submitted their T&E Card transactions in Workday causing an accidental reimbursement to be sent to themselves. If a cardholder submits a receipt on an expense report without selecting a T&E card transaction, they will reimburse themselves instead of correctly expensing the card transactions. The following link provides instructions to correct it: https://uvafinance.virginia.edu/resources/how-do-i-correct-accidental-reimbursement

• Cardholders have access to view their T&E Card account in Bank of America Works. We have updated the following instructions that will cardholders with viewing their T&E Card transactions, billing information (phone number and address), card limits, and identifying why their card has been declined: https://uvafinance.virginia.edu/resources/bank-america-resources

Expense:

Remember to Delegate Approvals When on Vacation/ Leave: Approvers must delegate their approval responsibilities when on vacation or leave. We've had numerous reports get "stuck" waiting for an approver who is away. This can cause cards to be suspended and delayed reimbursements. 

To delegate an approval, search My Delegations>> choose Manage Delegations>> Do Inbox Tasks on My Behalf >> For Business Process>> select Expense Report Event>> keep Retain Access box checked. This will have to route for approval, so we recommend approvers complete this process at least two business days ahead of planned leave.

Meet Todd Hite, UVA Claims Adjuster

The Hite Family

As the claims adjuster for the University of Virginia, Todd Hite handles claims for everything except matters involving medical center patients.  As he explains it, this means claims adjusting for anything involving anything UVA owns, including property, cars, buildings, and more, from UVA-Wise all the way to a research station in Alaska.  

Hite has been with the University in the Office of Property & Liability Risk Management for almost six months and has a 20-year career in the insurance industry.  He comes to us most recently from the Virginia Farm Bureau, where he had worked since 2012.  Hite was interested in the move to academia because of the focus on risk management instead of decisions about liability/fault.  He says, "My focus at UVA is taking care of our stakeholders, and I've enjoyed that change."

He acknowledges that acclimating to UVA has been a substantial learning curve since the University is like a big city.  Yet that scope is also fundamental to his enjoyment of his work.   "There are many entities under each of the many different departments, and I get to work with all the different departments.  I've enjoyed building those relationships with the people we cover," Hite says. 

In addition to getting to know his colleagues in the broad range of departments and units with whom he works, Hite says the claims themselves have been interesting to work with, as they've run the gamut from proper coverage for significant events to dealing with vandalism on a research facility in a remote area. 

Hite and his wife of 22 years Heather have a son, Vaiden (16), and a daughter, Logan (11).  A sports enthusiast, Hite enjoys attending his son's baseball, basketball, and track events, as well as supporting his daughter in her volleyball and artistic pursuits.  As a Waynesboro native, he recommends trying out the River Burger Bar or Greenleaf Grill if you find yourself in town.

New Payment Services Vendor

UVAFinance is now using a third-party service to provide payment card administrative services to UVA schools and units that take electronic payments. 

Due to the growing technical complexity required for the position as well as the increased complication of payment platforms and processors, UVAFinance made the decision to secure the services of Arrow Payments, a company that currently provides administration services to a number of major universities including Cornell, Northeastern, Purdue, the University of Maryland, and many others. 

Not much should change for our users across Grounds.  Arrow will be working behind the scenes to resolve issues on our behalf.  Please continue to send your merchant-related questions and requests as normal.  Responses will be monitored both by Arrow and the UVAFinance team.

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Learn more about the switch to Arrow Payments by viewing Bill Define and Logan Hobbs' presentation to Fiscal Administrators from March 1 at the 1 hr 39 min mark, available on the UVAFinance website under "Fiscal Administrators."

New Expendable Fund Balance Resources

Need some help navigating the resources available to find your expendable fund balances?  

There are new resources available on the UVAFinance website to help with this:

Expendable Fund Balance Quick Reference Guide:  Includes three different ways to pull expendable fund balance data (via Workday or UBI).  Direct Link to the QRG.

Expendable Fund Balance One-Pager: Explains the terminology, accounting, and report parameters at work with expendable fund balance. Direct Link to the one-pager.

Did You See This? The Research Admin Dashboard is Back!

Research Administrators and Principal Investigators love the Research Administrative Dashboard; so much so, in fact, that it was a top priority after the go-live of Workday Financials to rebuild the dashboard with Workday data.  

RAD 2.0 was released as soon as possible in autumn 2022, and RAD 3.0 was released in February, with more improvements still to come.  Want to see what's available in the third iteration of RAD?  Read last week's blog post, and/or check out this quick video tour with primary developer Bradley Kurtz.

Fiscal Year 2024 Budget and Multi-Year Financial Plan: What's Next

Great job, everyone, on submitting your FY24 Budget and MYFP!  

At this point in the process, the budget team will be conducting quality checks, taking the FY24 original snapshot, and preparing for budget meetings, which begin on March 14. 

What's next?  We'll prepare for budget approval at the June Board of Visitors meeting, and make preliminary decisions on funding requests.  Those decisions are pending full budget approval by the BOV and will not be communicated until after the BOV meeting.

Remember, even though Adaptive Planning is currently in read-only status, you can still log in, run reports, and view your data.

UVAFinance: Join us for March Sprint Discussions

It’s March, so no matter what that groundhog said, spring is approaching, and so is our next series of Sprint Discussions. Building on our Allyship discussions from February, we’ll be moving on to the topic of fear in March.

What kind of fear are we talking about? So many different kinds: 

• Social fear that moderates societal behavior
• Fear in black employees
• Fear of black men
• Fear of interacting with other races
• Fear for our children
• Fear of moving beyond our comfort zones
• Fear of demographic change

Don’t be afraid to join us on March 9 and 23 from 4-5 pm (ah see what we did there? PUNS!) for two great sprint discussions with your colleagues and friends. 

 If you missed the Allyship discussions and want to get up to speed, you can always check out The Sprint podcast for February 2023, in which LaVerne and Patty will get you on track in about 8 minutes.

UVA's Annual Financial Report Available

It's not light reading, but it's definitely interesting and has lots of great reference material.  

View UVA's 2021-22 Financial Report on the Financial Reporting & Accounting portion of the UVAFinance website.  

Here's a direct link for your convenience.

Kristin Dinwiddie Award for Commitment to Youth Safety

Kristin Dinwiddie, UVAFinance Senior Manager of Risk Control, received the 2022 UVA Youth Protection Champion of the Year award!

This is a new award from the Department of Safety & Security, created in recognition of a partner or stakeholder at the University who has consistently championed youth protection efforts across Grounds.

Dinwiddie played an instrumental role in connecting many programs and events with the Office of Youth Protection and supported the Office's goal of delivering safe and fun programming to youth through collegial collaboration.

We are so proud to have Kristin on our team!

Sharing the Vision: Accounts Payable

 Contributed by Amanda Lockhart Davis

I've had the pleasure of being here at UVA since early December, digging into the nuts and bolts of my job as Director of Accounts Payable, getting to know my team, and learning about the needs of our customers.  

I joined the procurement team knowing we'd be working through the continuous improvements that come after a large system implementation and the associated business process changes. 

After these first few months of getting settled and identifying priorities, I wanted to share with you my vision for accounts payable moving forward: 

1. Organize  - Prioritize - Solution:  This is step one, and it's ongoing and overarching.  Our work has many interdependencies, and we're still sorting through many challenges post-go-live of Workday Financials.  With your input and the partnership of our internal teams, our team is prioritizing the issues that are causing the most pain to you and our vendors and getting solutions in place as quickly as possible.

2. Obtain the necessary education and training for myself and my team: For us to serve our partners across Grounds and our vendors in the community, we need to bring our best selves to our jobs.  To do that, we need to have all the skills and tools required to best do our jobs.  I've been focused on getting our team up to speed on the tools UVAFinance uses to manage customer issues and the systems we need access to in order to troubleshoot those issues.

3. Partner with our stakeholders and stay regularly engaged:  Who are our stakeholders?  If you're reading this, you are a stakeholder!  You're a finance partner at UVA!  We also serve our internal team in UVAFinance and vendors in the community.  Our team's priority is to provide excellent service to all, and that means we must listen to you continually and understand your needs.  This means you'll see us listening in at meetings and you'll be hearing from us in communication channels.  We're carefully monitoring the cases in AskFinance and working not only to solve individual cases but also to improve our processes based on the trends we see.

4.  Prepare my team for a successful year: I knew coming into this role that the team I was joining was amazing, and I've not been disappointed.  As this wonderful group's leader, I have the task of keeping their morale up and keeping their best interests at heart, and that's a goal I take seriously.  

I look forward to getting to know many more of you in the schools and units this spring.  Look for more from me in upcoming meetings and here in the UVAFinance blog!  As always, if you have questions or concerns about accounts payable, please reach out to us at askfinance@virginia.edu.

 

UVA Appoints Augie Maurelli as Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer

The University of Virginia announced on February 21 that Augie Maurelli has been appointed vice president for finance and chief financial officer.

Maurelli is an experienced financial leader in higher education and has served as associate vice president for financial operations at the University since December 2019. He previously served as associate vice president for strategy and operations in University Finance at the University of Delaware and held leadership roles in athletics both there and at Georgetown University.

As the leader of the UVAFinance organization and the University’s CFO, Maurelli reports to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jennifer (J.J.) Wagner Davis. He will work closely with each member of the University’s executive leadership team and partners across Grounds.

Maurelli is responsible for overseeing the University’s consolidated financial statements, along with developing financial strategy and plans for the effective allocation of resources to support UVA’s key strategic initiatives and priorities. He will provide strategic financial oversight of the Academic Division’s operating budget and collaborate with UVA Health finance leaders who oversee its operating budget, each over $2 billion annually. In addition, he will steward the University’s assets, and provide financial counsel to help UVA reach its ambitious goals.

“Augie joined our team during a multi-year strategic transformation of our finance operations. He dove right into learning about UVA and quickly began to collaborate with partners across Grounds,” Davis said. “When we all needed to begin working remotely at the onset of the pandemic, Augie continued to work closely with colleagues throughout the University. He spearheaded a governance committee that oversaw the creation of a new chart of accounts and managed multiple workstreams associated with the transformation. He earned a reputation as a leader who spent time working through the details with partners.”

UVA President Jim Ryan endorsed the selection. “Augie brings years of experience and strategic thinking to this role, and his collaborative leadership style will be an asset to the University,” he said. “I’m grateful to those who participated in the search process, and I’m excited to continue to work with Augie in the years ahead.”