Special Holiday Edition--Finance Holiday Party 2014

For photos of you and your colleagues enjoying the afternoon in the Newcomb Game Room on December 18th, click here.

Wishing everyone a happy and restful holiday season!

Organizational Excellence in Sponsored Programs

The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) along with ITS is in the midst of constructing an online portal for actions related to external grants and contracts called "ResearchUVA" that will include a dashboard for faculty and administrators so they can view important information about their proposals and awards quickly and easily. An important part of this effort is a collaboration with the Office of Organizational Excellence (OE) to map out the many research administration processes that occur in OSP and throughout the schools from proposal preparation to closeout to determine if there are ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

For example, a working group is currently looking at the process of setting up a “preliminary/at-risk” account; that is, an account that is setup after a faculty member learns an award will be issued, but prior to the official award being received. “Preliminary/at-risk” accounts are extremely useful because they allow for charges to be placed against accounts from the beginning rather than having to perform time-consuming cost transfers.  OSP needs to create these accounts extremely quickly so faculty can start work immediately and charge accounts, so mapping the process and removing any inefficiencies can help ensure these accounts will be available as soon as possible when requested.

Ideally, OE and OSP will simplify research administration processes and incorporate them into ResearchUVA to make life easier for faculty and administration alike.    

Orange Data and Process Improvement Team Update

Did you know there are exactly 750 expenditure types? One of the Orange Teams is in the process of gaining approval to deactivate 61 of these that have never been used. The Expenditure Team also identified 127 low-volume expenditure types (fewer than 100 total entries over the life of the Integrated System), and is vetting them for their deactivation options.

Additionally, the team is updating a top-100 expenditure type reference list. Fiscal Administrators will find this list valuable for selecting the appropriate expenditure type.

The other Orange Teams are working on the details of the PATEO, installment process, cost transfer activities and cross funding. They are all in the process of developing plans to implement their recommendations in this second phase of the Orange Teams.

Excel Tips & Tricks: Tables

A common use of Excel is managing large datasets, which are then filtered, used in pivot tables or referenced in formulas. There is a little-used, but incredibly useful feature in Excel called “Tables,” which makes the formatting, filtering and general use of these datasets much easier.

Learn how to use Tables for:

• Auto-filtering
• Freezing column headers for scrolling
• Natural language references in formulas
• Auto-filling formulas when new rows are added
• Resizing the data range for pivot tables
• Quick Formatting including alternate row shading
• And more…

November Staff Senate Highlights

• The Staff Senate now has a website. Listed there are profiles of Senators organized by areas they represent, committees, meetings and minutes, bylaws, and a suggestion box. Have a look.
• HR is researching early retirement options. More information should be available in the spring.
• 12/14 is the deadline to use your 2014 educational benefit if you are a bi-weekly employee. 12/21 is the deadline if you are paid monthly.
• W-2s will be available electronically on 1/16/15. Send an email to askhr@virginia.edu (if you have not already) to consent to receive your W-2 electronically. Otherwise it will be mailed around 1/31/15.
• If you do not submit a timecard by the deadline—that is, by 10am the Monday following the end of the pay period—you will not be paid until the next pay period. (If you submit your time card on time, but your supervisor does not approve it timely, your time card will go through anyway and you will be paid.) Make sure to submit your time cards as instructed by the HR person in your area.
• Chris Holstedge, past Faculty Senate Chair, spoke about the organizational structure of the Faculty Senate and its committees.

Excel Tips & Tricks: Format Text and Data for Analysis

As Analysts, we are often faced with large sets of data which may contain text fields. This text is not always in a format or structured in the way we need to use it—especially if we are trying to merge it with other data using VLOOKUP. The attached file contains some examples of formulas that you can use to manipulate the text or data into the format you need to continue with your analysis. &

HPCM and the UFM – a Sneak Peek!

We’re excited to share a sneak peek of an operating statement, produced with the help of Hyperion’s HPCM tool, to visualize the UFM. The sneak peak includes the actual results for Fiscal Year (FY) 14 and for FY15 through October. Within the next several weeks, the summary will also include the FY15 budget using the UFM (a follow-up will be available after the translated FY15 budget is loaded in HPCM).

Click here to read more.

Rosemary Chisholm’s Retirement

“If it wasn’t for the contribution of everyone else, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish so much.”
–Rosemary Chisholm 

Rosemary Chisholm is retiring—and this is a bittersweet moment for all of us. Rose played an important role transforming technology and reporting at UVa. We will all miss her institutional knowledge and her warm, even-keeled presence across so many teams.

Click here to read more.