New Episode of The Sprint Podcast

It's been a little while since we've done a Sprint Podcast! Things, as ever, are busy in UVAFinance, but we have been hosting regular Sprint discussions. In this episode, Patty and LaVerne catch you up on our March discussions on Fear. 

 Next time, they'll recap our recent round robins, which have (rather delightfully) been all over the place, covering topics from women's sports to healthcare disparities to artificial intelligence. 

 LISTEN IN

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Contact uvafequityactionteam@virginia.edu with questions, or suggestions, or to be put on our invite list. UVAFinance Sprints are optional and open to all.

Read more about DEI in UVAFinance on the website under Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion here. Also check out blog articles from the UVAFinance blog.

The Great Clean-Up: Progress as of May 24

The Clean-Up Squad has been in UVAFinance for about a month now, and oh, the difference they've made!  Check it out below:

• 464 business management cases to date
• Thousands of POs closed via mass closures (did you know procurement shoppers can close POs?  Check it out!)
• 73 other Salesforce cases handled as part of the process
• 8,397 total Workday Transactions processed (uh, wow!)

Here's how those Workday transactions break down: 

Task Behavior	Count
Adjust Accounting	4,809
Assign Costing Allocation	668
Cancel Accounting Adjustment	15
Cancel Change Order	11
Cancel Purchase Order	2
Change Internal Service Delivery	582
Close Purchase Order	790
Create Change Order	218
Create Journal	120
Create Payroll Accounting Adjustments	387
Edit Accounting Adjustment	10
Edit Change Order	6
Revise Accounting Adjustment	78
Revise Change Order	26
Revise Costing Allocation Assignment	17
Revise Internal Service Delivery	580
Revise Payroll Accounting Adjustments	78
Total	8,397

 Related Content: Meet the Clean Up Team Part One / Meet the Clean Up Team Part Two / Spring Clean Your Workday Inbox

Another Place to Spring Clean: Your Workday Inbox

In UVAFinance, the Clean-Up team has been working on cleaning up financial transactions on our schools' and units' behalves, and we've also shared some best practices on doing cleanup yourself on your own financial transactions.  But in today's blog post, we just wanted to remind you:  don't forget your Workday Inbox.

It's the "under the bed" of financial spring cleaning: something you may not think of immediately, but something that's probably pretty cluttered and that may be affecting other areas.  It's where missing things are located, where you find reminders of things you meant to do, and so much more.

By checking the "to-dos" you find in your inbox, you may resolve where transactions are paused, in a state of limbo, awaiting approval, or some other action before they can move to the next stage.  Give your Workday Inbox a good spring clean and you might be surprised at what you get besides just a tidy inbox - you might have fewer transactions to track down, too! 

Workday Inbox vs. Workday Notifications

Your Workday inbox (inbox icon) includes tasks awaiting your action.  The Notifications (bell icon) are for your information. You will also see notifications for completed tasks. Notifications are alerts from business processes that are configured to provide information. For example, if you have an account certification waiting, or request a report, Workday will send a notification to you when it is ready for your review. These are not inbox tasks even though they do require action on your part.

Note:  If your unit needs help from the Clean-Up Team, send your request to Ask Finance.  You can send your request in parts!

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Related Content: Meet the Clean Up Team Part One / Meet the Clean Up Team Part Two

Meet the Clean-Up Squad, Part Two

UVAFinance is pitching in to help schools and units in the necessary cleanup of financial transactions before the end of the fiscal year by creating the Clean-Up Squad. We've onboarded a talented team of temps who have taken up the task of spring-cleaning thousands of financial transactions for you! You can read more about this effort here.

We thought you’d like to get to know the team who is tidying up your financial transactions. Plus, the Clean-Up Squad members are seeking permanent positions at UVA after the Great Clean-Up project has ended. Today we’re introducing you to five of these fabulous individuals. Meet four previous team members in Part One.

Check out this report on the team’s progress so far (it’s kind of staggering!).

Note:  If your unit needs help from the Clean-Up Team, send your request to Ask Finance.  You can send your request in parts!

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Niranga and family

Niranga Subasinghe

Tell us about your background:

I am a graduate with over twelve years of experience in finance and administrative work. Throughout these years, I have gained diverse experience in financial accounting, financial reporting, cash handling, corporate income tax computing, and administrative work.

What interested you in this position?

I wanted to grow my experience in accounting, build on my financial background more and use my education and previous experience. UVA has afforded me great opportunities to develop professionally and grow my skills.

Niranga and family

What’s been interesting about the work so far?

Doing cleanup of financial transactions may look simple, but you have to learn how the systems work, and I’ve learned the financial transaction reporting system as a part of the job. I’ve enjoyed the wide opportunities to learn the system and put my financial education, and professional experience to use. The team is very helpful, too, and has assisted with identifying issues and quickly resolving transaction issues.

What would you like to do more of in the future?

My personal preference is always in the financial realm, but I do enjoy administrative work as well. I have enjoyed the detailed work involved in arranging meetings, workshops, and managing programs. Taking on responsibility has always felt comfortable for me.

What do you get up to when you’re not working?

I like hiking and exploring the area parks with my husband Indika who’s a Biostatistician in UVA School of Medicine, and my two toddlers Devin, and Shevon. I also enjoy cooking and trying new dishes.

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Hemlata Saha

Tell us about your background:

I graduated with my bachelor's and master's in business administration and then paused to start a family while my husband focused on his Ph.D. and career. Now that my youngest child is in school, it’s time for me to focus on my career. My family has relocated from Bangladesh to the United States, and I’m currently enrolled at Piedmont Virginia Community College in an accounting course. I enjoy anything related to mathematics!

Hemlata and family

What interested you in this position?

Definitely the focus on analytics and mathematics; as I said, from childhood, that has been my interest. The people at UVA are amazing and I feel it’s a great match for me.

What’s been interesting about the work so far?

My boss is amazing, and my coworkers are so helpful; it’s a good environment in which to work. I enjoy the work I’m doing every day and if I have questions I can ask with no worries.

What would you like to do more of in the future?

I am open to possibilities! There are so many options; I am simply interested in any financial work that matches my background.

What do you get up to when you’re not working?

I enjoy spending time with my family, mostly. We enjoy being outside, especially here in Virginia. We have all four seasons. My husband is a senior scientist at UVA in cancer research, and we have two sons, Sagnik and Saptak.

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Nicole Ramirez

Tell us about your background:

I’ve lived in Virginia for 14 years after moving here when my husband Freddie was transferred here. Previously, I had worked for the court systems in Missouri. From my arrival here until just recently, I had worked at the same small company, growing with it from bookkeeper to general manager. I realized I was ready for a change and started looking for something different.

Freddie and Nicole

What interested you in this position?

I went to the Piedmont Virginia Community College job fair and Hollie Lee from UVA’s Pipelines & Pathways program recommended the temp program – I’d never thought of temping as an option! I applied for the position because any job I’ve ever had involved accounting and bookkeeping; even before I started my first “official” job, I helped out in my family’s business, doing payroll and a little bit of everything. I don’t like to change jobs a lot, so the idea that I could use temping to find something that was a good fit for me was really appealing.

What’s been interesting about the work so far?

The amount of stuff I’ve learned in two weeks is amazing! I’m a quick learner, but still, Salesforce and Workday – it’s a lot of interesting information! The volume means we’re always busy and I like that. I really appreciate how much assistance we’ve gotten to help transition us into full-time positions!

What would you like to do more of in the future?

I always thought I would be interested in administrative work, but this job has proven to me that I may prefer the financial side more. I’m starting to consider the financial roles that I hadn’t seriously considered before because of what I’ve learned and enjoyed in this role.

What do you get up to when you’re not working?

My husband works for Southwest Airlines, so he travels frequently, but we do enjoy traveling together. I still love watching Cardinals baseball, and I’m getting into yardwork and gardening. Our daughter Allison is a teacher at Albemarle High School.

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Sean Peavey

Tell us about your background:

You might say I have an odd skillset. I’ve been a Marine, and have worked in cybersecurity, finance, and disaster response. I’ve had different roles in a variety of fields, and though they’re different from one another, they’ve given me skills in leadership and team building, management, decision-making, and learning on the job.

Alex, Amber, and Sean

What interested you in this position?

At first, it was proximity – my fiancé works in emergency management at the UVA Medical Center. I’ve just moved here to be closer to my family after traveling frequently with the disaster response team, and this seemed to be a good way to find out what roles I am a match for and how things are structured before I jump into something that isn’t actually a good fit. I haven’t worked in accounting for a while, and in this job, I get to see the chart of accounts and get to know the systems.

What’s been interesting about the work so far?

In previous roles, I’ve seen people’s responses to system implementations, and it’s always been inflexible – they’d just say, “Well, this is what we have, and we can’t change it.” It’s interesting to me that here, people talk about development and ideas and are open to feedback. That’s cool.

What would you like to do more of in the future?

Because of my varied background, I have a lot of options, and the UVAFinance team has been supportive of exploring those options. I’ve been getting to know people in different departments and seeing if there’s a cultural fit and a team environment that’s a good match for me.

What do you get up to when you’re not working?

My fiancé Amber and I have a son, Alex, who’s in high school. We also have a very active black lab puppy. We’re very into camping and outdoor activities – we have a garage full of camping gear that could outfit a group of 20 or so!

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Chree Suppramaniam

Tell us about your background:

I graduated from UVA in 2005 with a graduate degree in Public Health Services Research, focusing on the quantitative side, data analysis of healthcare analysis.  My undergraduate degree is in Business Management and Accounting from my nativeTiruchirappalli, India. In 2007, I completed intermediate financial accounting and managerial accounting classes once more at Piedmont Virginia Community College.  

What interested you in this position?

I have worked in banking, tax preparation, and retail for the past 10 years.  This position gives me the opportunity to use my education and a further opportunity, 18 years after I graduated from UVA, to work for the University.  

What’s been interesting about the work so far?

This role has allowed me to learn about the systems UVA uses, including Workday Financials and University Business Intelligence.  I'm glad to become proficient in these systems.

What would you like to do more of in the future?

I am happy to be working in UVAFinance in a temporary position. I hope through this experience to find a full-time position at UVA that will allow me to use the skills I am trained on and the education I have gained. 

What do you get up to when you’re not working?

My son, Vishnu, Annamalai Muthiah, is a 2016 graduate of UVA.  In my spare time, I enjoy learning new things; I have been learning Vedic Sanskrit, an ancient and traditional language of India.

AP Tips & Tricks

There's a new crop of tips and tricks from our AP team this week!

• Tips for tax:  An invoice should follow the terms and conditions of PO, whether to include tax or not, assuming that the PO is responsible for the origin of the Invoice.  Remember that UVA is tax-exempt and can supply a tax-exempt certificate at a vendor's request.
• Tip on Invoice processing:  When entering invoices manually, enter the supplier invoice number first to let the system check if the invoice already exists in Workday.
• Tip for Vendors on POs:  Advise vendors to ensure they are adding the correct PO #s to each invoice 
• Tip on Responsiveness:  It is imperative that departments are responding to inquiries from AP quickly, as we are working hard to clear the backlog and a lot of times need information from the departments to complete the processing of an invoice.

Did you miss a past installment of AP Tips & Tricks?  Check them out here: AP Tips & Tricks May 11 / AP Tips & Tricks March 8 / AP Tips & Tricks February 8

UVAFinance (belatedly) Welcomes Stephanie McAteer to Financial Reporting & Accounting

Stephanie, Murphy, and Peter

Stephanie McAteer really likes puzzles, whether they’re the actual, boxed variety with hundreds to thousands of pieces or the financial variety that involves analyzing financial statements and deep dives into numbers. Her love of fashioning a big picture out of a myriad of little pieces serves her well as a Senior Financial Analyst in UVAFinance, a role she’s held for eight months now (we’re a little late in introducing her).

McAteer hails from Williamsburg and has a business administration degree from Christopher Newport University and a Master of Accounting from the College of William and Mary. She and her husband, Peter, got interested in this area when they chose Wintergreen Resort as their wedding venue, and well, as she says, after that, “everything changed at once.”

Stephanie & Peter

McAteer found that UVA had interesting finance positions open, so she made the switch from working for the Williamsburg-James City County Public School System to UVAFinance, and then three weeks later, she got married.

“I love doing financial statements and solving problems and puzzles, and when I saw the role with Jacob’s team, I knew that was a perfect fit,” she says.

Her opinion hasn’t changed. “UVA is the best place I’ve ever worked,” she says, adding that everyone on her team is eager to help her succeed and that she enjoys the hybrid environment.

As the child of a military family, McAteer is quite the traveler. Born in Panama, she has lived in Italy and traveled throughout Europe. She and her husband, who is a golf pro, enjoy golfing together (in fact, their mutual interest in golf is how they met), and hanging out with their adorable golden shepherd mix, Murphy.

UVAFinance In Action

This May, UVAFinance's Mark Cartwright was a featured speaker on a panel at the 13th Annual Virginia Society of Healthcare Engineers.  The topic of the panel was Community Impact:  Envisioning and Achieving Historic SWaM Spend at the UVA Health University Hospital Expansion.  

Cartwright was joined on the panel by John Calvin, a project executive from Skanska, and the CEOs of two minority-owned construction firms that participated in the project, Junior Burr of Canterbury Enterprises, LLC., and Devon Henry of Team Henry Enterprises, LLC.   

The discussion centered around the best practices which led to the project achieving $132 million in spending with small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses. The keys are well-known, but not easily executed. Cartwright pointed out that success starts with support from the highest levels of the project’s owners, in this case, both the medical center and university. Secondly, the group concurred that it takes the buy-in of the awarded construction management firm to mitigate the typical barriers that stymie small business engagement. 

Reporting & Analytics Release Notes May 22

Finance Reporting and Analytics Release Notes for May 22 have been posted to the UVAFinance website.

This update includes significant new reports and modifications that have been released since April 10 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)

Here are some highlights: 

Workday

• Account Certification Reports: (more detailed info on these enhancements is coming soon)
• Account Certification Awaiting Me: New Prompts and Data Fields
• Status of Account Certifications: New Prompts and Data Fields
• Details for Account Certifications: Now includes attachments to streamline the review and approval process(just hover your mouse over the attachment, then click the … > Attachment > View)
• Expendable Fund Balance Summary: Enabled drill-down to the Memo/Comments fields for easier access.
• Updates to the Project User Interface including a Project Actual Spend Report and Project Funding Source Rule  Report

UBI

• Workday Journal Lines- Added an Employee Cost Center filter for easier salary analysis of employees in a cost center. (requested by SOM)
• Workday eVA Fee Chargebacks - New app with summary and detail of eVA fees to be charged out to the Schools and Units for FY23.
• Workday Delegations (Finance) - New app for looking up the status of delegations for Finance BPs in Workday. (requested by SOM)
• Workday Account Cert Dashboard - New sheet for downloading and submitting reassignment requests

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May 22 Release Notes in Full

UVA Launches Punchout with Quartzy

UVA has launched a punchout with Quartzy, a lab inventory management platform and scientific research supply marketplace, in the UVA Marketplace. Quartzy fosters our waste reduction and sustainable procurement initiatives by providing a central lab inventory platform to monitor stock levels and minimize unnecessary ordering.

Benefits of Quartzy Punchout: 

• No copy/pasting fields for the labs when placing orders with Quartzy
• All UVA labs receive a $250 credit as well as a two-year free subscription.
• Exceptionally favorable rates in years 3-5

The punchout will be live in the UVA Marketplace on Tuesday, May 30th. While we are making the implementation, orders with Quartzy will be temporarily unavailable from May 25-29.

Change Routing Rules for Expense Reports

On May 22, an adjustment was made to the approval routing in Workday Expenses to include alternate approvers.  This change means that Workday Expense now has the same sort of internal controls we had in Chrome River, which required two unique approvers for each expense report.  

Now, cost centers with the same person in multiple roles may have more expense reports that route to an alternate approver.  If an approver is the initiator of the expense report, the expense owner, or has previously approved the expense report, then the report will route to the alternate.  This change will affect about 20% of expense reports.

Alternate Approvers are as follows:

• Expense Support Specialist
• Alternate: Cost Center Manager
• P2P Approver and Unit Gift Manager
• Alternate: Senior Department Finance Approver
• Grant Manager
• Alternate: Sponsored Programs Manager
• Project Budget Specialist
• Alternate: Project Budget Manager
• Senior Department Finance Approver
• Alternate: Senior Department Finance Approver’s manager

Here are some examples to illustrate the change in real life:

Example 1: John submits an expense report, and Sarah approves as the Expense Support Specialist for that Cost Center. If Sarah is also the P2P approver and there is no secondary approver in this role, then the expense report will route to the Senior Department Finance Approver for the second approval.

Example 2: Rachel submits an expense report with a grant worktag. If Rachel is also the Expense Support Specialist for the Cost Center, then the expense report will route to Carlos, who is the Cost Center Manager, for the first approval. For the second approval, the report will route to the Grant Manager as usual.

Example 3: William submits an expense report for a first-class airline ticket, which requires additional approval. Kelly approves as the Expense Support Specialist, and Alicia approves as the P2P approver. If Alicia is also the Senior Department Finance Approver and there is no other approver in this role, then the expense report will route to Alicia’s manager for the supplemental approval.

How you can prepare for this change:

• Review approvers in your area to ensure that each role is occupied by a unique individual.
• For example, the Expense Support Specialist should not also be the P2P Approver.
• Roles can be viewed in Workday by running report “View Assignable Roles” or in UBI.
• Roles can also be viewed by searching for your Cost Center and reviewing the Roles tab
• If roles need to be changed, please submit a System Access Request in Workday under the Menu.

Questions or concerns?  Let us know at askfinance@virginia.edu 

 

Save the Date: Annual Day of Caring

This year UVAFinance plans to participate in the annual United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, which will take place on Wednesday, September 20th. 

Please mark your calendars if you are interested in participating. We will share more information and details in the coming months. 

You can read more about the 32nd Annual Day of Caring on the United Way of Greater Charlottesville's website.

 

The User Success Team Welcomes Moserah Nkosi

Moserah Nkosi will graduate with the UVA class of 2023 on May 21, but the foreign affairs major has been a part of the Ask Finance Team since early in the month.

Nkosi as a HS Grad

Nkosi is no stranger to customer service, having worked multiple jobs during school.  Being on the front lines in restaurants and grocery stores has made her at ease in solving problems and given her perspective on stress. In her first days on the job, she says it’s been great having so much help and support, but that it’s been strange going from being able to “do it with your eyes closed” to getting used to having to learn and think and ask.

Bean Nkosi

“I’m enjoying learning and processing a lot of information,” says Nkosi. “And in that way, I’m not necessarily using my degree directly, but I am using things I learned in school --- for instance, how to focus on what I need to know and understanding things that are new and different quickly.”

Nkosi clearly enjoys things that are new and different, having a passion for languages, including Russian and Arabic. Her love of language and grammatical structure led to her studies in international relations and then foreign affairs. When she isn’t studying (she does, after all, still have two papers and a few exams left), Nkosi enjoys spending time with her family and her cat, Bean.

Congratulations, Moserah, and welcome to the team!

Procurement (Belatedly) Welcomes Lee Bobbio

Lee Bobbio joined UVAFinance in November of 2022 as an Accounts Payable Specialist but somehow managed to fly under the UVAFinance Blog’s radar until recently. We’re pleased to officially welcome him to the team!

The Bobbio family

Bobbio has a broad background in finance and banking, as well as a variety of technological pursuits. Of his transition to academia from his most recent role in management at SunTrust bank, Bobbio says he finds different nuances to the traditional corporate environment, but also many similarities.

Besides his career in finance, Bobbio has also carved out a large space in his life for music. From the age of six through high school, he took piano lessons, then taught himself guitar and drums. His musical interests propelled him through school as the accompanist to the jazz band and member of the marching band into his adult life as a hobbyist working with audiovisuals and in recording studios. He’s kept busy assisting with demo albums for recording artists and doing sound design for Ralph Stanley and Livingston Taylor.

Daisy Bobbio

For Bobbio, his interests in music and math go hand in hand: “Musical aptitude and math are linked. Music theory demonstrates fractions and division, keeping time such.” Bobbio and his wife Jennifer have two sons: Jason (9) and Wesley (4). Bobbio and Jason take Karate together (Jason is a blue belt and Bobbio is working on his black belt), and Bobbio and Jennifer coach Wesley’s soccer team. 

A self-described “family of nerds,” Bobbio says his family enjoys celebrating May 4th and Pi Day, computers and books. Looking for a great Sci-Fi read? The Bobbios recommend Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary

AP Tips & Tricks

This week, the AP Team has a few important tips to share.

First, remember that since we've moved invoicing in-house, the address for POs is different.  Just keep this in mind in case your vendors reach out to you concerned about the change and reassure them that all is well!

Second, when you're entering invoices in Workday, be sure you're using the actual invoice date from the invoice itself, not the date you're entering the invoice or the received date.  For our Prompt Pay numbers to be accurate, the date of the invoice and the date in the system must match.  Accurate/actual received dates in the Received Date field are just as important!

In case you missed it:  Invoices are now being processed in-house!  We'll have updates for you soon on the progress of the backlog and more.  

New FAQ: Ordering from America To Go

New resource alert!  

Folks have been asking questions about working with America to Go, so UVAFinance trainer Jack Jensen developed this FAQ Quick Reference Guide to help out.  

It's basic right now but we're happy to add to it, so please share any additional suggestions and questions with askfinance@virginia.edu.

Ordering From America To Go FAQ Quick Reference Guide

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Related Content:  AP Tips & Tricks

UVAFinance Team: Share your 2023 Graduate with us!

May is the season to celebrate academic achievements! If you or someone in your immediate family is graduating this year, your UVAFinance teammates would like to celebrate with you.  It doesn't matter if they graduated pre-K, high school, college, or just became a doctor. 

Please share your news with the blog by emailing us before the close of business on May 22.  

We need to know your name and their name, your relationship, plus where they graduated from. A picture would be wonderful!  Graduates will be shared in the blog on May 25.

Throw those caps in the air!

Share Kudos Within Workday!

Did you know that you can give another employee feedback in Workday? Whether a direct report, manager, or colleague in your department or outside of your department, Workday has a feature that allows you to share feedback with that person. Simply find the person in Workday and click on the Actions button below their name and select Give Feedback.

You can share the feedback with just the person, with the person and their manager, or you can use the feature for documentation purposes and choose not to share the feedback with the person. The recipient of the feedback (and their manager if you select that option) receives an email as well as a notification in Workday.

This is a great way to share feedback that you might otherwise forget when it comes time for a review, and your thoughts are documented in your colleague's file.  It also gives us all a great way to share kudos now that most of us are hybrid and don't have a centralized way to share our thank-you notes.  

For more detailed instructions see the Providing Feedback Quick Reference Guide.

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Thanks to Amanda Lockhart Davis for bringing this feature to our attention!

 

Clean-Up Squad Progress

The Clean-Up Squad has only been on the scene since the end of April and they've already made great progress.  Take a look: 

• Adjust Accounting: 2841 records
• Assign Costing Allocation: 370 records
• Close Purchase Order: 27 records
• Create Change Order: 14 records
• Create Payroll Accounting Adjustments: 173 records
• Revise Internal Service Delivery: 314 records
• Revise Payroll Accounting Adjustments: 66 records

That's a total of 3,805 transactions done in just a couple of weeks' worth for some of our team members and less than one for some of the newer ones.  You know what that means: the best is yet to come!

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Read more about the Great Clean-Up

Meet Four of the Clean-Up Squad Members

Learn Clean-Up best practices for your own Spring Cleaning

Meet the Clean-Up Squad, Part One

UVAFinance is pitching in to help schools and units in the necessary cleanup of financial transactions before the end of the fiscal year by creating the Clean-Up Squad. We've onboarded a talented team of temps who will, for the next months, take up the task of spring-cleaning thousands of financial transactions for you! You can read more about this effort here.

We thought you’d like to get to know the team who is tidying up your financial transactions. Plus, the Clean-Up Squad members are seeking permanent positions at UVA after the Great Clean-Up project has ended. Today we’re introducing you to four of these fabulous individuals; watch for three more in a future blog digest.

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James Stoltz (Jim)

The Stoltz family

Tell us about your background: 

I earned my degree in Secondary Education and Broadfield Social Science but quickly delved into management and finance, at this point, I’ve been in the mortgage banking industry for over 25 years.

What interested you in this position?

The mortgage industry is a roller coaster – very dependent on rates and market fluctuations. I’m interested in a career change that would afford more stability, and of course UVA is a big draw. Some of my neighbors work at UVA and recommended applying to various roles. With my background in finance, this position especially seemed interesting.

What’s been interesting about the work so far?

Working in UVA Finance has been a big change compared to the mortgage industry. The work follows a process to complete a specific task. Everyone has been super helpful and collaborative. Our peers and coworkers have been willing to help educate us on what needs to happen within our specific roles.

What would you like to do more of in the future?

I’ve been in finance for the past 25 years managing, analyzing, recruiting, and completing credit approvals. I would love to be in a role where any combination of these skills is utilized. I like conflict resolution and solving problems and have coached various sports for over 25 years learning to identify and cultivate talent in both the work and athletic environments.

What do you get up to when you’re not working:

It’s a busy time for us as a family, and it’s only going to get busier! My wife Jennifer works for a local media corporation that produces a magazine covering wedding venues and wineries. My daughter Madison is at JMU working on a degree in Communications (she’s also getting married late this summer), and my son Caleb is at UVA studying Computer Science; he’s also on the football team. My youngest son Samuel is still in high school he also competes in football and wrestling. All three of our kids will graduate in 2024.

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Dallas Pitt

Tell us about your background:

I’m a UVA grad; I double-majored in math and history, then went back to school later in life and passed my CPA exams. For over ten years, I’ve been tutoring accounting at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Since 2015, I’ve done project management on and off for iSoftStone and its American subsidiary, AI Data Innovations doing different projects such as data collections for augmented reality and testing naturalness of speech for virtual assistants. Before that, I did a lot of construction contracting jobs specializing in computer network cabling.

Dallas is also an avid kayaker

What interested you in this position?

My work with AI Data Innovations was a detour after I passed my CPA exams; it was interesting and well-paid, but it was contract work and now I find myself wanting a “real job.” I’m looking for full-time accounting or finance positions that make use of my education and background.

What’s been interesting so far?

The work itself is fairly simple, but it’s been interesting learning the systems – Workday and University Business Intelligence and learning more about how things work at UVA.

What would you like to do more of in the future:

I’m planning on looking for something along the lines of accounting, but I can see finance or something like that, too, especially if it’s mathematically complicated. My dad is a professor emeritus of the UVA math department, and I’m a former faculty brat.

What do you get up to when you’re not working:

Poker, board games, kayaking, and projects around the house. I worked as a contractor for decades, so I do my own home repairs. I’m currently working on a shed out back, and doing a path, patio, and some shelves. Carpentry has been the only time I used that trigonometry I learned in high school.

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Nika Vest

Tell us about your background:

I’ve worked in property management and real estate for the past ten years. In my most recent position with the Piedmont Housing Alliance, I started out as a leasing consultant and worked my way up to Operations. Then I started helping the accounting team and found I had a love for numbers. I’ve held an accounting role with the team until about January of this year when I decided I’d like to try a new field. From there I did volunteer work with a sexual assault research agency, helping them with their HR duties, managing their benefits, and seeking grant funding for the organization.

What interested you in this position?

Nika & her fiance 

With property management, there’s not a lot of flexibility to learn within the field of accounting, so I decided to broaden my search. I’d heard great things about UVA, but this position interested me because it was a cleanup position. I started off with that at the Housing Alliance – doing the hard stuff first! I like the result of clean-up work when it’s all done, and things go from completely out of whack to organized and straightforward.

What’s been interesting so far?

I love it. A lot of the work I was doing before was remote, but here, I get to interact a lot more and I like that. The work itself is satisfying; it’s nice to work through the spreadsheet and see our progress.

What would you like to do more of in the future?

This project has shown me more of what central finance does, and how finance operates at UVA. I’ve gotten to see the bigger picture, and it’s been an eye-opener. I’d like to keep learning more about that!

What do you get up to when you’re not working?

I’m engaged to be married, have nephews who are like sons to me, and have a dog and a cat. I’m a big gardener and have grown just about everything you can think of: strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini. This year I’m even trying plum trees!

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Jarod Verkleeren

Tell us about your background:

I got my bachelor’s degree in health care administration and management from Penn State and then came to UVA to get my master’s in educational psychology. I was a student-athlete at both institutions, wrestling competitively for four years. I think the combination of my degrees offers me a few different routes to take professionally; I’ve considered working in the hospital system as a good combination of the two.

What interested you in this position?

This project seemed like a great way to get experience. I specified finance as one of my interests and when this job came up, I was definitely interested. The transition has been smooth, and even though it’s temporary, I’ve been learning a lot and the team has been helping us grow professionally and find permanent jobs, too.

Jarod as a new UVA grad!

What’s been interesting about the work so far? 

You could say this is my first “real job” working in an office. It’s been interesting seeing the other side of UVA, and how many people work behind the scenes to keep things running that students don’t even think about.

What would you like to do more of in the future? 

I’m still flexible with what I want to do, but I’m applying to things that interest me right now. I’ve got a quick learning curve and my options are open.

What do you get up to when you’re not working?

For the first time in a long time, I’m not a student, and it’s nice not having to study. My wife Madeline is considering getting her master's, but she’s still indecisive after seeing me work on papers constantly. We have a French bulldog who’s still mad at me for being at work all day after being used to having access to me during the day. I’m enjoying getting into jujitsu with some friends, and I plan on getting into coaching wrestling in the future.

Clean-Up Best Practices & Resources

The UVAFinance Clean Up Squad continues to make progress keying financial transactions for UVA schools and units ahead of fiscal year-end (read more about this effort here; read more about four of our squad members on the blog here).  

We've noticed as we've been tidying up that some schools and units have been doing their own cleanup (well done!) and we wanted to share a few best practices on correcting transactions.

Let's start with an example:  A supplier invoice hits the wrong fund, and someone goes in to correct it, but they do it via a journal, not via accounting adjustment.  When someone else does it via accounting adjustment, it's then done twice.  That's especially problematic if the transaction is moved to a grant, and then we have double-charged the grant and have a credit sitting on the wrong worktag.

The best practice: If you are pursuing clean-up on your own, make sure you're avoiding the journals except for mass cleanup in the ISDs.

A helpful resource: The accounting and reporting team (thanks Amanda, Sarah, and Jacob!) has prepared a resource that lays out the ideal way to correct transactions.  Access it here.  

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Read more about the Great Clean-Up

Meet Four of the Clean-Up Squad Members