UVA Finance: 2021

Thursday, December 16, 2021

FST Update December 16, 2021

No time? Check out Five Things to Know about FST, or listen in at WFST Radio!

FDM Mapping

The FDM Mapping Sprint is still racing down the track to get 85% of UVA’s PTAOs mapped to the new Foundation Data Model by January. Mappers are meeting regularly with sprint and workstream leadership and working through questions and concerns. If you want to keep up with the FDM happenings, you can access the FDMResource page on the Community – you might be interested in the FDM Frequently Asked Questions, the archive of weekly FDM bulletins, or some of the demonstration videos we have posted there.

Five Things to Know about FST: December 16, 2021

1. Foundation Data Model: Mapping the PTAO to the FDM continues as the Sprint team works with schools and units to get 85% of mapping done by the beginning of the year. Read more on the blog.

2. Workflow Control & Approvals: Between January and March of 2022, the FST team will work directly with each school and unit to identify how best to translate Oracle roles into Workday Financial roles. Read more and get a link to a video where Augie Maurelli talks us through it.

3. End-to-End Testing: both our tenant of Workday Financials and our instance of the budgeting software Adaptive Planning are getting thorough testing. Read more about Adaptive Testing and Workday Financials Testing on the blog.

4. Decisions, decisions. The team and leadership are working through decisions on GL Balance conversion and intercompany transactions. Click the links to read more!

5. We're inching closer to go-live on July 1, 2022. Another sign of this is the hiring of cutover lead Madhu Iyer. Read more about Iyer on the blog.

New Zoom Backgrounds for UVAFinance and FST

This is NOT an example of the branded backgrounds,
but it's pretty funny.

If you're taking part in larger online meetings where it might be handy to have your organization, name, and title onscreen as a part of your Zoom background, check out the new branded options available in the UVAFinance brand resources.

The files linked below contain several options for backgrounds, from simple to photographic. Please read the Zoom Background Template guidance before choosing and using a template. Remember that UVA's Brand Resources are a great partner to these templates, as you can choose virtually any of their beautiful UVA pictures to pair with our branded elements.

Questions or difficulties with the files? Contact Brandi Van Ormer.

UVAFinance and FST Zoom Background Templates

Zoom Background Template Guidance

Adaptive Planning Entering End-to-End Testing Phase

This January, the Adaptive team begins a six-week testing phase on the Adaptive 3.0 tenant, the version of the budgeting software that will integrate with Workday Financials. A team of folks from UVA schools and units will pitch in to help with the testing.

Thank you to everyone who has committed to helping us with this critical step in the last push to get Adaptive ready for go-live with Workday Financials on July 1, 2022.

Do you have questions about Adaptive, or about budgeting now or in the future? Use our Ask Us Anything form and get some clarity! We'd love to address your concerns, so visit us here: https://uvafinance.virginia.edu/form/adaptive-and-budgeting-ask-us-an

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

CVC Update: Please give by December 20, 2021!

The 2021 Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign is quickly coming to a close. As we approach the end of the campaign, we want to provide you with a few updates to help us collectively finish strong.

General Updates

To date, UVA employees have pledged ~$500k, representing ~50% of total CVC pledges from all state agencies.
Over 70% of UVA funds pledged have been designated to local Charlottesville area organizations
Total participation across the University is about half of where it was during the 2019 campaign, but the number of different schools and units that have participants is wide ranging.

Important Deadlines

Payroll deduction concludes on December 20th.
Credit Card payments can be made through the end of the calendar year.
If anyone plans to give or report direct gifts in January 2022, please contact us at uvacvc@virginia.edu, so we can appropriately report the gift to count as part of the 2021 campaign.

Giving Information Reminders

Anyone who has given directly to a CVC charity should fill out this direct giving report.
For employees who need to give on the public site (those who do not have a UVA employee ID), can do so here and should select 207 – University of Virginia as their Agency.

THANK YOU AGAIN for all your efforts in making this a successful year for the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign. Let’s finish strong!

FST Decision: Intercompany Transactions

In current state, all transactions are run through Oracle whether or not the involved organization or entity is affiliated with the University. Certain issues often come up because of this policy. For example, sometimes one entity (e.g. UVAMC or UPG) doesn't have a transaction recorded on the Academic side. The Financial Reporting team then has to go in and manually reconcile information between that entity and the Academic side. Also, it can be challenging to identify all intercompany transactions in Oracle.

The Finance Strategic Transformation team wanted to see what could be done differently with inter and intracompany transactions in Workday Financials. They worked with a company called General Counsel to review proper handling of transactions with non-Agency entities. General Counsel recommended UVA maintain an "arm's length" relationship with these external entities.

The FST team then divided entities into three categories and determined proper action taken for entities within each category:

University-Affiliated Organizations: UAOs will be set up as companies in Workday for consolidated reporting purposes only. Any operational activity must be handled as an external customer/vendor. No intercompany settlement will be done at month-end.
Agency: Agencies will be set up on the balance sheet only and activity will be recorded to the ledger.
Non-Agency/Non-UAOs using YYs: Today, Oracle uses LO or YY-prefix projects to track balances and activities for entities that are engaged in intercompany activity with the University. In future state, these will be handled as external customers/vendors. No intercompany settlement will be done at month-end.

You can find out more information on this decision here.

FST Decision: GL Balance Conversion Approach

With Workday Financials going live in just a little over six months, people are wondering how different balances will be converted to Workday. The FST Team is completing GL Balance Conversion by following these guiding principles:

Meet External Audit Requirements: The General Ledger is the source of truth--it must balance by Company and Fund.
Timing: We need "correct" balances in FDM for departments and units as early as possible after the start of the fiscal year.
School and MBU Balances: We need to match Settlement amounts provided by FP&A within a reasonable degree of materiality.
Department/Unit Balances: Departments are best positioned to know what balances they are expecting in specific FDM strings.
Gift & Endowment Balances: Balances need to reconcile to ending Oracle balances for individual gifts/endowments.
Fund Balances: Balances need to reconcile in aggregate by Company
Assignee/Program/Activity Balances: Schools/units need the ability to capture balances down to a level lower than MBU or cost center.
Complexity: Minimize rework and effort given the complexity of the task.

With these guiding principles in mind, the FST Team looked at three potential conversion approach options:

The first of these options is to convert Oracle GL Balances to Workday "as is." However, while this option would work for Central Finance, the team determined this was not the best option for schools and units because they would be responsible for any reconciliation of Cash Balances to GL Balances.
The second option, converting UBI Cash Balances to Workday Fund Balances based on the UBI Cash Balance Report, was also rejected because converted Cash Balances do not agree with GL Balances from UVA's financial system of record.
The third option is to convert the GL Balance "as is" at a high level, then realign balances across units' FDM worktags in Workday. This option is what the team has determined as the best option for UVA. With this option, converted GL Balances will be accurate from an external reporting and compliance perspective.

You can read more about this decision here. For the latest information on all decisions, check out the FST Decision Log here.

Getting Under the Hood: New PSDS Business Analyst Enjoys the Nuance

Zachary Jackson has joined UVAFinance’s PSDS as a Supply Chain Business Analyst. He is involved in the synthesis of procurement data to inform strategy development around supplier diversity and sustainability.

Prior to coming to UVA, he worked as an economic development specialist with the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement. Specifically, he worked in a consulting capacity as part of a team that partnered with public and private-sector entities to conduct applied economic research projects.

As a Hokie welcomed to Hoo territory, Jackson is already enjoying the challenge of working in a new multi-faceted environment, “I am relatively new to procurement! My notebook is full of new acronyms and terms. I understand things best in the context of systems. PSDS is a big system to chew on, but I am looking forward to getting under the hood, as it were.”

Jackson says that the open communication in UVAFinance has helped get him up to speed.

“I am very impressed by the culture of learning at UVAFinance. Everyone’s roles are so nuanced and detailed, yet people seem so forthcoming about what they do,” he observes.

“This was something I treasured in my previous role, and I am glad to see it here.”

Jackson received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in urban planning from Virginia Tech. His studies and individual research were focused on what planners call “wicked problems,” or longstanding social and cultural issues that have no clear answer.

“More specifically, my studies were focused on economic and workforce development, particularly in post-industrial/natural resource-based communities,” he shares.

Jackson “grew up on two wheels” and likes to ride bikes (human and dinosaur-powered) in his spare time. He also enjoys spending quality time with his partner, family, and two needy dogs.

You got a problem? The Testing Team will find it!

Got a problem?

Who wants to talk about problems? No one. . .wait, scratch that! The FST testing team reports they are actually looking for problems. Have any you want to send their way? I bet we all do.

But they are looking for specific defects in the Workday Financials system. Nothing is perfect and transferring processes to a new system will produce some hiccups and the goal is to solve those issues now. The testing phase is integral so the team knows exactly what users will encounter in the system.

Now in Cycle 2, testing is pushing real-life user scenarios through multiple processes to capture any issues and then correct them. The process confirms that Workday is functioning for UVA as it was designed to and validate that data was converted correctly. The more we work out now, the smoother it all runs in July.

There are more problems to solve so it is crucial that scenarios continue to be pushed through the system to keep on track with Cycle 2 of testing. The holidays should be a take some time off so the next two weeks are important in meeting goals prior to everyone taking a much-needed break. So, let's get out there and find some problems!

Metrics and updates on the testing cycles can be found here.

Ask Us Anything!

Do you have questions about mapping the PTAO to the Foundation Data Model? How about questions about budgeting, or budgeting in the future state? Maybe something about the University Financial Model?

Both the FDM Mapping Team and the Budget/ Adaptive Insights Team want to hear from you!

Ask Us Anything using these online forms -- we promise to respond quickly!

FDM Ask Us Anything: https://uvafinance.virginia.edu/form/fdm-ask-us-anything

Budgeting/Adaptive Ask Us Anything: https://uvafinance.virginia.edu/form/adaptive-and-budgeting-ask-us-an

Sprint to the finish: FDM Mapping continues

The FDM Mapping Sprint team is still racing down the track to get 85% of UVA’s PTAOs mapped to the new Foundation Data Model by January. Mappers are meeting regularly with sprint and workstream leadership and working through questions and concerns.

If you want to keep up with the FDM happenings, you can access the FDM Resource page on the Community. Things to check out:

FDM Frequently Asked Questions
Archive of weekly FDM bulletins
Demonstration videos (payroll costing, value lookup, pod meetings, and more!)

Don't forget that you can submit your questions to the FDM Mapping team via our Ask Me Anything form online. Any question is a good question, and we promise to answer!

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Reporting & Analytics Update

December is a great time to look at accomplishments made over the past year. Here's a look at what the FST Team's Reporting & Analytics workstream has accomplished this year:

The Reporting & Analytics Team created Workday Reporting user stories to better understand reporting needs of various stakeholders. The team then divided these user stories into three separate categories: P1, P2, and P3. P1 reports are ones that the functional leads needed to do end-to-end testing, P2 reports are needed by go-live, and P3 refers to lower priority reports that can be completed after go-live.

This year, the team developed 144 P1 reports with 116 approved by functional owners, and 49 P2 reports 13 of which were approved by functional owners.

There was also a lot of work done on Adaptive/UFM report development. The current version, Adaptive 2.0, will provide plenty of information on possible improvements for the 3.0 build. The team is currently working on converting data into the 3.0 build, which will enable more report creation.

Additionally, the team has entered all data into the Data Warehouse. Entering data into the Warehouse means it can be accessed in UBI as needed and can feed into other systems used by schools and units. The team has created a first pass at a data model in the QA environment.

Finally, the R&A Focus Group has met every two weeks since the creation of the group in August. The group was formed to provide the stakeholder perspective, and to offer feedback on reports developed and evaluate their usability. According to Mark Anderson, who presented on the R&A Team's accomplishments during December governance meetings, Focus Group members have provided lots of great feedback this year.

However, not having all the information needed to generate reports has proven challenging. For example, if someone wants to see a report from their specific unit, this can't always be done because the team doesn't always have enough data. Fortunately, this issue will resolve as the project continues and more data becomes available.

So, what's next for the R&A Team?

While continuing the previously mentioned work, the team is also looking at post-go-live and what Reporting & Analytics support may be needed then. A small group, known as the Work Team, was created to think about the Reporting & Analytics experience as a whole. In other words, the Work Team must think about stakeholders' cross-functional needs; it's not just Finance that's involved, but also HCM, SIS, and FM. To do this, the Work Team will identify a handful of different personas across the University, what responsibilities these personas have, and how to make those responsibilities as effortless as possible.

Keep an eye on this space for more updates coming in 2022. If you'd like more information on Reporting & Analytics, you can find it here.

Monday, December 13, 2021

Salesforce Jedi Tip Corner: Treasury's Julie Richardson and PSDS's Anders Coe

This month, we bring you the stories of two UVAFinance departments using Salesforce and the benefits they've gained from the tool. Read on, you will.

Jedi #1: Julie Richardson of UVA Treasury.

Now that Treasury has been using Salesforce for several months, Richardson has enough data to start to see consistencies. The dashboard report she receives every Monday gives her a view into the team's service numbers, their service survey results, and the comments stakeholders share. The result of having all this data? Better service! For instance, the data helps her see if what is on Treasury's website is consistent with the advice stakeholders are given when they reach out, and she's able to clarify/add to the web content where necessary. She can also identify outliers in their service scores, and reach out to stakeholders individually to help solve problems, provide extra training, or further assist.

"As we get more data," Richardson says, "I even anticipate that we'll be able to use it to decide which areas of responsibility we may want to adjust on our team based on volume and process changes and the new functionality of Workday."

Richardson has found Salesforce to be a more valuable tool than she anticipated when they adopted the tool months ago: "I didn't initially see all the ways it would be helpful, but it's definitely given us the hard data to help us hone our service."

Jedi #2: Anders Coe of Procurement

Coe's day is an avalanche of stakeholder questions that run the gamut of Procurement's services, from payments and invoices to transitions due to new services like PaymentWorks. He relies on Salesforce to keep inquiries, issues, and tasks organized and in one place. Now in his sixth month with Procurement, Coe appreciates the ease with which he's able to seek out his colleagues' expertise using the tool, while maintaining everyone's visibility into the case details and progress toward resolution.

"With Salesforce," he notes, "emails don't cross one another, people don't drop off the thread, and I can easily get the questions to the proper team member for a correct, timely answer. It's put us in a position to help people better."

Coe's immersion into Salesforce since he began working in UVAFinance means he's also been able to fast track his own learning since the tool gives him easy insight into purchasing, strategic sourcing, and all of the procurement functions that touch UVA customers.

"Things can get a little wild in Procurement because of the volume we handle and all the changes happening right now," he says, adding, "Salesforce keeps us on track and providing good service."

End of 2021 PaymentWorks Update

Now that it's been a few months since PaymentWorks went live with Oracle, let's look at how the implementation of the supplier management software is progressing.

According to the PaymentWorks Team, who gave an update at Governance meetings this month, PaymentWorks' rollout has gone as well as could be expected. A few issues have shown up, but the team feels confident they can deal with those and any other issues that come up in the future.

One issue that users are experiencing is differentiating between individual and supplier invitations. Anyone providing goods or doing any services for UVA is considered a supplier. An individual payee type is used for someone who is being reimbursed but not overtly performing a service for the University. For example, human subjects are considered individual payees.

Another common issue involves making changes to a supplier or individual's profile. In PaymentWorks, suppliers and individuals are responsible for changing their profiles. These changes include adding or modifying addresses, updating payment methods, and other information. The PaymentWorks Team is happy to work through this process with suppliers and departments whose suppliers need assistance.

You can learn more about PaymentWorks by visiting the Resources page of the FST website and scrolling down to the "For Fiscal Administrators" section. If you have further questions regarding PaymentWorks, you can send your questions to vendors@virginia.edu.

WFCA: Defining roles, building opportunities

As we move closer to go-live, the functional team is matching the defined Workday Roles with existing Oracle Roles. Between January and March of 2022, the team will work directly with each unit in an iterative process to identify how to best fill these roles while ensuring separation of duties.

This role-definition process is important because as the FST management team shared when this project began: this is more than a technology transfer, this is about the people and their roles. Each employee plays an important part in not only ensuring that Workday Financials is properly utilized, but that they are taking part in an opportunity to reshape some of their roles and responsibilities. The team is exploring efficiency, work load, risk, customer support, and more. Team members are providing integral feedback in how jobs are done and what growth opportunities also enable a smooth process. This feedback will also help structure future training and instruction on the system.

Recently, FST hosted a lunch-and-learn with Change Leaders on Workflow Controls and Approvals and questions asked during the session help shape next steps. You can access the Zoom recording here. These conversations are crucial as the WFCA roles are further explored and defined.

Ultimately, this cross-Grounds partnership will redesign UVA's internal controls framework and shift from an "after the fact" compensatory control environment to a proactive one, by introducing upfront approvals where it makes sense. This reduces risk and should eliminate a large number of cost transfers. This new work flow will happen not because of a specific technology but because of the people who help determine process and re-create roles to ensure a smooth, manageable process. As such, more information will be shared and more conversations will be had as FST moves into the collaborative WFCA review process in January.

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

FST Update: November 18, 2021

Gobble Gobble: Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Attention multitaskers: you can listen to this update on WFST!

Not much time to read? Try "Five Things to Know about FST"

FDM Sprint

Schools and units have been working toward a December 31 deadline to have 85% of FDM Mapping complete so that we can have a fairly complete chart for testing moving into 2022. Recognizing that we need a little extra help to get there, the team has enlisted a few additional resources to get us over the line. Jacob Mair, Elissa Morton, and Katie Walker will co-lead this sprint in partnership with existing functional leaders. Their tasks include seeking opportunities to create consistency on common, high-priority elements, creating documentation to help units implement the FDM, and optimizing the FDM for the "hard funding" managerial environment. Read more in the blog.

Adaptive Planning

UVAFinance's Financial Planning and Analysis team has partnered with the Adaptive Planning team to offer an“Ask Us Anything” form, in the interest of getting all UVA’s future-state budgeting questions and concerns addressed. Read more in the blog.

Workflow Control and Approvals

The FST team has shared a Workflow Control and Approvals roadmap that our listeners might find interesting. The map shows what has been completed and what’s coming up in the process. From January to March of 2022, the team will work directly with each unit to identify how best to fill Workday roles as compared to existing oracle roles while still ensuring separation of duties. See the roadmap and read more here.

End-to-End Testing

We caught up with Deloitte’s Marnie Fulton, as well as our own Jackie Tucker, to talk about how the end-to-end testing process is going. Both Marnie and Jackie have a wealth of experience with implementations at other higher ed institutions, and they give a good snapshot of where we’re going and how things are going. We’ll move into User Experience Review in mid-February to confirm that what we’ve learned during end to end testing is applicable in real life use of the system. Read the interview here.

System Remediation

The SRN team is holding technical workshops with stakeholders across UVA, including a journal integration workshop conducted at the end of October. Future topics include FDM worktag collection guidance for system owners, resources for FDM conversion, and more. System remediation testing will take place from December of this year through April of next. Read more on the blog.

Community Hub Updates

There is a lot of information about FST and all its various parts out there in the Online Community, and we realize it can be overwhelming. Did you know that you can create your own customized news streams, along with updates to your inbox, based on just the topics you’re interested in? Check it out!

Five Things to Know about FST: November 18, 2021

1. A new FDM Sprint began this week. This sprint, led by Jacob Mair, Elissa Morton, and Katie Walker, will work in conjunction with the FST Functional Team to get us at 85% FDM Mapping completion by December 31, 2021. Read more on the blog.

2. The Adaptive Planning Team and the Office of Financial Planning & Analysis want to hear your questions and concerns about future state budgeting! Read more and access their "Ask Us Anything" site.

3. See the new Workflow Control & Approvals roadmap that highlights what's coming up, including work with each unit on filling Workday roles. See the map and read more on the blog.

4. Cycle 2 of end-to-end testing is moving smoothly. Read a full update on the blog

5. The System Remediation Network has been busy with workshops and is moving from the build phase to the testing phase as we get ready for go-live in July of 2022. Read more about what's next on the blog.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

New FDM Sprint

The December 31 deadline to have 85% of FDM Mapping complete is quickly approaching. Recognizing that if we’re to meet that deadline and have a fairly complete chart for testing, the team is enlisting additional resources to help us meet the goal and also to help optimize the new chart for managerial reporting.

Jacob Mair, Elissa Morton, and Katie Walker will co-lead the effort in partnership with existing functional leaders, expanding the team to staff a sprint.

The sprint team’s tasks include seeking opportunities to create consistency on common, high-priority elements, creating documentation to help units implement the FDM, and optimizing the FDM for the "hard funding" managerial environment.

You'll continue to see updates on this sprint here in the blog. If you have questions or concerns related to FDM Mapping, please email the team at FDMMapping@virginia.edu, or visit our new Ask Us Anything page!

Monday, November 15, 2021

November 2021 RAPID Decision Updates

At this month's Advisory Group, the FST team provided an update on several upcoming decisions. Below, we've provided a short explanation of each decision discussed in this month's governance meetings.

WFCA Workflow Changes: UVA's financial leadership has expressed a desire to shift away from the University's current heavy reliance on detailed post-transaction reconciliation and move towards front-end, real-time transaction approvals. These efforts will reduce time and increase accuracy on the back-end, which may translate to more effort upfront. You can read more about this topic here.
Intercompany Transactions: In the future state, University-affiliated Organizations (UAOs) will be set up as companies in Workday for consolidated reporting purposes only. Any operational activity must be handled as an external customer or vendor. No intercompany settlement will be done at month-end.
GL Balance Conversion Approach: Possible conversion approach options include converting Oracle GL balance to Workday "as is," converting UBI cash balances to Workday fund balances based on UBI Cash Balance Report, or converting GL balances "as is" at a high level and realigning balances across units' FDM worktags in Workday. The recommendation is to go with the third of these three options.

You can read more about these specific upcoming decisions here. For more information on all decisions, check out the FST Decision Log.

Workday Financials: Future Support Model

Click Image for a Larger View

UVAFinance is working with ITS and HR on how we will manage and support Workday Financials after implementation and stabilization. We're developing this structure in real-time, and will keep you updated as we go.

As you see in the graphic above, our approach consists of a cross-functional support team including the Workday Stakeholder Support team reporting to Bill Ashby (AVP for Financial Strategy) and the Workday Systems Support team reporting to Augie Maurelli (AVP for Financial Operations). These two groups will have an integrated working relationship.

There will also be an overarching Workday Coordination Group across Finance, HR, and ITS, providing governance that will coordinate the Workday platform across UVA. As we work to build and staff the two teams, we expect to be recruiting and hiring for a number of critical positions in the Workday Finance Support team as well as in the broader UVAFinance organization.

More details on these positions and the related recruitment process will be shared in the coming weeks. Thank you for your continued support to this project, and please be on the lookout for additional information!

SRN: A Tailored Approach

As the Foundation Data Modelling team provides guidance while also optimizing the new chart for managerial reporting to units, the System Remediation Network team will be providing one-on-one support. Moving from the build phase to the test phase, it is important that units work to test the status of each system.

Scot Thornton, SRN lead, said to achieve this, “change leaders will be provided with the opportunity for personalized support and guidance.” Each unit is unique in some aspects of integration and user acceptance and Scot emphasized in the latest SRN meeting that a tailored approach will be applied. Please reach out to Scot with questions and expect more information to be available.

The following image provides an update on SRN’s status and what to expect next in the process of identifying and implementing changes that are required to successfully integrate systems with Workday Financials.

FST Welcomes New Security Lead, Crystal Tapia

Crystal Tapia

For Crystal Tapia, joining the FST Team meant the opportunity to help implement Workday and to use her skills at a large institution like UVA.

As the UVA FST Security Lead, Crystal will be focusing on Workday security needs. She will primarily be involved in security for Finance but will also help with HCM security as needed. She will be working closely with the UVA Workday Security Team, Kelli O’Dell, and Venkata Nimmalapudi.

Though jumping into a Lead role at this point in the project could prove challenging, Crystal seems more than up to the task. “I’m happy at UVA so far,” Crystal says. “It’s the right amount of challenge and growth I was looking for, and that feels fulfilling.”

She also is thankful to her fellow FST Team members for getting her up to speed. “I appreciate how quickly the FST Team brought me into the fold,” she explains, “and how open people are when I need guidance on how things are done at UVA.”

Outside of work, Crystal enjoys learning new languages, cooking, baking, and singing karaoke. She also loves to travel, which once lead her to work at an event in Japan during cherry blossom season. She even got to wear a traditional Japanese kimono at this event and says that “kimonos are surprisingly complicated to put on.”

Good Things are Worth the Wait: Introducing Brittany Newton from Accounts Payable

Brittany Newton on hiking trip

Brittany Newton joined UVAFinance back in March 2020, the chaotic time when all of us were adjusting to working from home suddenly. Unfortunately, that means we missed introducing her when she first started. However, good things are worth waiting for, and we think the chance to learn about Brittany was definitely worth the wait.

Brittany assists the Accounts Payable department in expense management and payment processing for the University’s vendors.

She was interested in this position because she realized how important it was to have fresh eyes on AP processing. She was also excited about the opportunity to be involved in the implementation of Workday. Starting a new position when the pandemic first began was likely challenging, but Brittany worked through it and has been with UVAFinance for over a year now. And she seems to be liking her role in Accounts Payable.

“I really enjoy working with this team,” Brittany said. “And I am super excited about all the new things coming our way because of Workday implementation.”

When not at work, Brittany is a self-described fitness enthusiast and enjoys trying new fitness-related activities. For example, she is hoping to run a half marathon soon. She has also recently taken up Spenga, which is a spin class combined with HIIT and Yoga.

Brittany is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, and is the only girl out of the six children in her family.

New on Finance Matters: The Benefits of Creative Pursuits

We've got a panel of creative folks from the UVAFinance team in today's episode, talking about the benefits of creative pursuits on them as individuals and also as professionals on the Finance team.

Join Patty and Brandi as they talk with Jay Gallimore (musician), Matt Bonham (photographer, graphic artist), and Mary Wagamon (artist, writer), and get inspired to pursue your own creativity!

Listen Here!

FY2023 Budget Process Continues: Tuition & Fees

FY 2023 budget season continues to move forward, step by step.

The budget team and University leadership have continued to meet with student representatives. In addition to early October and November meetings of the Student Tuition and Fees Committees, representatives from UVAFinance also joined Student Council’s General Body on November 16 to discuss tuition, fees, and the UVA budget.

As of November 9, notices of 2022-2024 tuition and fees has been made public and a public comment session is scheduled for December 2 at 3pm.

More information on the session can be found at the website of UVA’s Board of Visitors at https://bov.virginia.edu/.

The UVA Board of Visitors will consider the tuition and fee proposal for UVA and UVA's College at Wise at meetings of the Finance Committee and Full Board at the BOV meeting on December 10, 2021.

Staying on Course: Workflow Controls & Approvals

This map details two simultaneous processes for accomplishing our goal of developing a collaborative Workflow Controls and Approvals system.

We will continue to share updated versions of the roadmap so you can see what has been completed and what is coming up next in the process. In December, we plan to share a demonstration of the Account Certification Review Process.

Additionally, the functional team will match the defined Workday Roles with existing Oracle Roles and distribute this list as a starting point for collaborative review. From January until March of 2022, we will work directly with each unit in an iterative process to identify how to best fill these roles while ensuring separation of duties.

We will keep you informed as we move through each step and unit feedback will continue to be essential.

Click image to enlarge

End-to-End Testing Update with Marnie Fulton and Jackie Tucker

End-to-end testing officially kicked off on October 4 and the team has moved into Cycle 2 of the process. We talked with Jackie Tucker, Workday Lead in Finance Strategic Transformation, and Marnie Fulton, Senior Manager at Deloitte, working on the FST implementation project. Marnie and Jackie have a wide breadth of experience with implementations at other institutions of higher education and offer good insight on our progress and path forward.

Where are we exactly in the testing process?

We just wrapped up Cycle 1 testing which is essentially the foundation phase. We tested basic user scenarios and captured and repaired defects. This was a four-week process and went well. We are now in Cycle 2 which entails introducing more complexity and testing integrations. This entire process looks at about real-life 5,100 testing scenarios and some of those tests include multiple layers – we want to test each portion to identify any bugs that need to be worked out.

What is most important about testing?

The entire phase is integral to the success of Go Live in July. We want to know exactly what users will encounter in the system and that’s why we’ve leveraged real user stories. We push those stories through multiple scenarios to capture any issues and then correct them. Essentially, we are answering the question: What will our users see? We want to confirm that Workday is functioning for UVA as it was designed to and validate that data was converted correctly. The more we work out now, the smoother it all runs in July.

Does testing inform other parts of implementation?

Absolutely. Testing identifies exactly where we need to make adjustments to help everyone use the system most efficiently. We are finding out exactly how different information looks Workday than it did in Oracle. From there, the training team can integrate that information into their training programs and also develop a clear plan on the timing of training. It also informs the Workflow and Control Approvals area in that, for example, an award approval process may need to route slightly differently. We can see those new processes, identify defects, and correct them, and then work to ensure employees are ready to work with the system. Testing also helps us identify areas where there are change impacts and enables us to provide support to those areas well in advance of Go Live.

How does our testing compare with other universities you have worked with?

We are right on track at UVA with the testing process. As with other universities, UVA is providing enough user experiences to push our testing scenarios along and allow us to test the system as much as we can and correct unexpected or undesired outcomes. So far, we are on pace with validating accounting and addressing any of those issues in time for the next phase.

What's next?

We will continue with the hands-on portion of testing and if we continue to move along smoothly, we’ll move into user experience review in mid-February to confirm that everything we learned in end-to-end testing is applicable in real-life use of the system. This is also a critically important testing phase because it is where we invite a group of actual UVA end-users to test the system for themselves to make sure it is working as designed.

We will also have a test phase next spring that evaluates the impact of the Workday Financials implementation on the existing HCM/Payroll system and test any configuration changes made to HCM to accommodate the “layering on” of Financials. Finally, we will do some performance testing to make sure we will have the system response time that we need and expect.

The community hub is updated each week with the latest testing metrics to keep you all posted on the status of the testing scenarios. Find the Testing Tracker information here: https://communityhub.virginia.edu/docs/DOC-3611

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Update on PaymentWorks

At governance meetings this month, representatives from the PaymentWorks Team provided an update on accomplishments made in the first month since PaymentWorks went live with Oracle.

Here's a look at some of those accomplishments:

2358 invitations sent out.
1068 (45%) suppliers and payees have completed their registration
574 signed up for ACH
Six ACH/Direct Deposit files composed of 188 unique payments were successfully processed with Bank of America
489 active suppliers were invited to register with new payment methods

Meeting attendees also had the opportunity to ask questions. Here are a few of the questions asked, along with answers provided by Korby Griffith, who presented on PaymentWorks at the November Fiscal Administrators Meeting.

1. Is there any easy way to bookmark the PaymentWorks site? Yes. You can bookmark the site using the bookmark manager in your web browser. You just need to use the specific URL: https://paymentworks.com/login/saml/?idp=uva.

2. Is there a way to make it so when a registrant clicks on the invite link, their email address is auto-filled in? No, and this was an intentional decision made by the PaymentWorks Team. Suppliers need the ability to register with the official email of their business and not necessarily the individual contact's email.

3. What is the time period for the payee to get approval after they register? 24-48 hours.

4. Were business suppliers automatically transferred to PaymentWorks? No, they were not automatically transferred to PaymentWorks, but they remain active in the system. We are not requiring them to sign up immediately but are inviting them to update their information and take advantage of the ACH option.

If you have questions not answered above, you can always reach out to the PaymentWorks Team at vendors@virginia.edu. You can also view a recording of the November Fiscal Administrators Meeting here.