FST RAPID Decision Updates

On a fast-paced project like Finance Transformation, decisions need to be made quickly but must also receive thorough consideration. Here's a look at what's going on with current topics under discussion: 

• Expenditure Credit: UVA will leverage ad hoc bank transactions to record expenditure credit deposits against their original spend categories. This decision is currently awaiting formal sign-off. You can find out more information about this decision here. 
• Salary Certification: UVA will transition from effort reporting to salary certification. The University will adopt and integrate a third-party solution known as Huron Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC) to meet salary certification requirements. You can read more about this decision here. 
• Workflow Controls & Approvals: UVA financial leadership would like to move away from the University's reliance on detailed post-transaction reconciliation and move towards front-end, real-time transaction approvals. The goal of Workflow Controls & Approvals is to enhance internal controls that facilitate "getting it right the first time." The Functional team is working with a third-party organization to provide a risk assessment and suggestions for building an enterprise risk management framework. The Functional team will finalize an approach based on guidance from this third-party organization and will share recommendations with stakeholders. 
• Intercompany Transactions: Many transactions occur among UPG, Medical Center, and the School of Medicine on a routine basis. FST will transform these transactions to align with leading practice and accounting rules. The FST team has collaborated with these groups to identify processes that need to be transformed. They are working to design future-state processes and to socialize those new processes to people impacted by the change. Multiple meetings have taken place to confirm current state activity and outline considerations and issues for future-state. The next step is to present findings to the FST Leadership Council. 
• Improving Fund Ownership Visibility: The project team is considering whether or not UVA should move away from using budgetary spending authority and instead base spending authority at the major business unit level on fund balance. There are many benefits to making this change, including enabling expendable fund balance reporting, clear ownership of funds, eliminating significant amounts of tracking outside of systems records, reducing the risk of errors, and increased staff capacity. You can read more about these benefits here. 

For more information on decisions, check out the FST Decision Log.