Beasley finds happy homes for unclaimed payments

Not everyone at UVA knows who Laverne Beasley is, but those who do, know that a call from her could mean good news.

Beasley works in accounts receivable in UVAFinance, handling all of the payments that come into Bank of America for the university: payments to sponsored programs, UVA Press, Student Financial Services, and all of the state to state payments, just to name a few. In the course of a year, she receives and books over $2 billion each year . . . and sometimes, the money comes in with no indication of to whom it belongs, and that’s when Beasley starts researching.

Laverne Beasley of Accounts Receivable

Sometimes the confusion is on the part of the sender of the money. Beasley says wires can get sent to the wrong place, and there can be confusion over all the different UVA accounts. But sometimes, she says, the transfers arrive with no direction on where to apply it. On the day of this interview, Beasley was holding a $20,000 payment in a suspended account as she worked to find its owner.

“You might think people would be looking for their money,” Beasley laughed, “but I do have to call around. Sometimes people in the schools will know the money is coming, but they’re not sure exactly how much it will be. It’s my job to find out where the money belongs.”

Beasley doesn’t mind doing the investigative work it can take to properly allocate payments. Over the course of her 20 year career, she’s enjoyed talking to people all over Grounds and having great conversations.

“When I go to events like UVAForward and introduce myself, people will say, ‘oh, so you’re Laverne Beasley!” she said.

Beasley says the advent of QlikView has made her job easier, and she anticipates it getting even better once accounts receivable is in UBI. She has seen several changes since she came to UVA in 1997, and overall she has enjoyed working with people, especially when she locates a payment that belongs to them.

“It’s funny,” she said. “Now when I call someone on the phone and say ‘this is Laverne,’ the first thing they say is, ‘hi Laverne, do you have money for me?’”