Two New Team Members Join the Managerial Reporting Project

Johann Reinicke has been a UVA employee for more than 12 years. His career spans various IT support roles in the Health System, SCPS, Student System Project and SFS. He joins the project as the Scrum Master for the Architecture team.

Johann is passionate about improving people’s lives through technology and process improvement. He is excited to join the MRP team because, as he says “the MRP Team is extremely talented, motivated and an experienced group—doing exactly what I’m passionate about.”

Johann is a Batesville native, and is related to all three of the other Reinickes employed at UVA—his wife, mother and brother. He and his wife Carey have three young children.

Laura Nucci is the newest Data Analyst on the Managerial Reporting Project team. She is excited to learn the variety of new applications being utilized by the team.

Laura has been a consultant for nearly 20 years, and has implemented large computer software packages (Baan, SAP & Siebel) and reporting systems, and has worked on continuous process improvement initiatives. In 2008, Laura co-founded a local consulting firm that helps small to medium-size businesses manage their operational and growth challenges by implementing Lean/Agile techniques across their software and business operations departments.  She has worked for a number of start-ups in the Charlottesville area, implementing financial systems, data warehouse reporting systems and business analytics processes.

Laura lives in Earlysville with her husband, three children, three dogs and a cat.  When not at work, Laura is either shuttling kids in the family taxi, exercising at ACAC or reading a book.

Finance Forward 2015

Nearly 150 UVA finance professionals met in June for the annual Finance Forward conference. The event is sponsored by Melody Bianchetto, the Associate Vice President for Finance, and was hosted at the McIntire School of Commerce.

Attendees collaborated, learned and networked with each other at the day-long event—which addressed a full range of professional development topics. Because fiscal administrators and other data management staff play a critical role at the University, the program addressed current and future financial analyst skills, and pathways to develop new skillsets.

Carolyn Saint, the University’s new Internal Audit leader gave the first presentation, followed by Nicole Ferretti from the Budget Office, and Judy DiVita from the Managerial Reporting Project. The conference also offered morning and afternoon breakout sessions, including a full menu of topics led by attendees and area experts. The day concluded with a panel discussion on finance careers at the University. All available presentation materials are online.

The UVA Board of Visitors met the same week, so Finance Forward participants were treated the following day to a discussion with UVA Board Member Victoria Harker. Ms. Harker spoke candidly about the University’s strategic goals and mission of excellence, as well as her experience working with the BOV.

Finance Forward 2015 was a success, and many thanks go out to the entire planning committee. The McIntire School of Commerce was a wonderful host, and special thanks go out to Rob Tharpe for his ongoing support and partnership with McIntire. The conference has evolved to include staff from all schools and major offices of the University, reflecting the mission of collaboration across Grounds. Finance Forward aims to build a more collaborative team of professionals that pursue excellence and continuous professional development.

Finance Forward Quotes and Feedback:

“The conference sessions were rich in valuable information and the networking opportunities throughout the day were plentiful. Time well spent.”

“The variety, and range of topics discussed and experienced were great.”

“I enjoyed the Finance Forward conference. It provides an important opportunity to see colleagues, and make new connections. The topics were very timely and pertinent.”

Excel Help: In-Person and Online

Thank you to the more-than 100 attendees one of the “Advancing your Excel Skills” class this spring. The AVP-Finance area had 65 attendees, 14 from various schools, and the remainder from different Auxiliary and Central Offices. Classes are on hold for the time-being as we regroup and refine the offering. Special thanks to Malika Ouenza, Disha Venkatesan, Greg Ball, Lisa Shuler, Andrew Yeung, and Tom Kim for help with the classes.

Meanwhile, Peggy Reitz from the Center for Leadership Excellence has put together some great resources for us regardless of current skill level. For help with basic Excel skills we have access to Skillsoft Training.  Additionally, the University has access to the http://www.Lynda.com training website which has approximately 100 in-depth Excel videos for review.

Finally, we launched an Excel_help@virginia.edu list, which the Excel training team is monitoring. We happily offer our many years of Excel knowledge as a resource if you need just a quick question answered, or want to schedule some time for more in-depth help with an Excel challenge.

Facilities & Administrative Rate Submission

The University periodically renegotiates the Facilities and Administrative (F&A) rate with the federal government, through the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). This rate is applied to federal grants to offset the ‘overhead’ costs associated with research. Our rate is currently 58%. The rate calculation submitted June 30, 2015 demonstrates that our costs associated with research grants are 67.34%.

Creating the rate proposal requires effort across many parts of the University, coordinated by the Cost Analysis unit in the Comptroller’s Office. Detailed information must be gathered on buildings, personnel, utilities, equipment inventory, and other costs. Dozens of people are either directly or indirectly involved in the data collection before Cost Analysis uses the proprietary software CRIS to calculate the rate and create the hundreds of pages of unique reports required for the submission.

Although it is unlikely we will receive 67%, for every percentage point of change it will be worth approximately $1 million to the University in the first year of implementation (most likely fiscal year 2016). Under UFM, those funds will go directly to the schools doing the associated research. A negotiated rate is agreed to for a term of three to four years when implemented, so that new rate will most likely be in place until 2019.

The Cost Analysis team is Sara Tarkington, Yvonne Metheny, and John Wallace-Smith. For more information on F&A check out their FAQ page: http://www.virginia.edu/finance/finanalysis/FA_FAQ.html.

Fiscal Administrators Meeting and the MRP Team

Members of the Managerial Reporting Project team attended the June Fiscal Administrators meeting, with Mark Anderson leading an hour-long pre-session about reporting requirements. More than 50 Fiscal Administrators attended the engagingsession, which provided a platform for all to discuss broad reporting needs. The project team is thankful for the big turnout of this important constituency, and the team looks forward to future opportunities to work together.

Educational Opportunity for Research Administrators: NCURA

National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) Annual Meeting
August 2-5, Washington DC

The conference, usually attended by over 2,000 people each year, begins with a full day of pre-conference workshops and senior level forums which are a supplemental training program open to all registrants of the annual meeting. This in-depth, targeted training and professional development includes offerings for those new to the profession to our most senior level members.

Then there are two and a half days of presentations, discussions, open forums and networking opportunities spanning all areas of research administration including, but not limited to, Pre-Award, Post-Award, Compliance, Departmental, International, Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions, Clinical Trials/Research, and Career-Skills

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