Reminder about Invoices from Accounts Payable

We want to pay your supplier’s invoices in a timely fashion, and we know you want that too! Please encourage your suppliers to submit invoices that include the following basic information:

• Vendor name
• Vendor invoice number
• Amount due
• Invoice date
• Description of services or products provided

The document also needs to be clearly marked as an invoice (see the sample provided below).

Click the image for a larger view

If your suppliers submit invoices without this information, please ask them to correct their submission. Without the proper information, we cannot pay them! We are happy to remind them, but a word from you could help as well. Thanks for your support!

OSP & Finance Partner to Create New Fund Hierarchies

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Finance have partnered to create new fund hierarchies, which are the high-level of funding sources associated with non-sponsored driver worktags (DN, GF, and PJ). The fund hierarchy, FDH087-Allowed for Cost Share, will be entered as an Allowable worktag on cost-sharing grants and sponsored grants that are subject to a salary cap. 

In the current state, OSP Pre-award requires the department to provide their non-sponsored worktags for cost-sharing & over the cap salaries. Under the new process, a cost-share grant will be set up with fund hierarchy FDH087, allowing the departments to select the non-sponsored driver worktags directly on transactions, provided the driver worktags used roll up under FDH087 (Allowed for Cost Share).

New cost-share grants will have FDH087 as an Allowed worktag and DN000001-FD005 (or as specified by dept.) Default worktags. Grants with salary caps (DHHS agencies, including NIH, HRSA, etc.) will have sponsored fund FD021 and FDH087 fund hierarchy as Allowed worktags and FD021 as Default worktag.

Existing cost-share grants and grants subject to salary cap will be updated with FDH087 as an Allowed worktag. Default worktags will remain the same.

With these fund hierarchies in place, there will be efficiencies in reporting, system configurations, and turnaround time for award creation by OSP.

Reviewing PO Balances and Obligations: Helpful Reports

When you need to look at open obligations on purchase orders, there's a new Workday Report available to help you investigate.

Open Obligations on Purchase Orders  - This new report can be run on a cost center, designated, gift, or grant.  You can look up a purchase order or a specific supplier.  By default, it will include canceled and closed POs and will exclude POs with no obligation remaining.  See the sample report image below for an idea of the fields available to view in the report.  The report can also be modified to show POs with zero obligations remaining that are not closed or canceled (these are good candidates for closing!).

Click the image for a larger view

This new report is in addition to the previously available Open Purchase Order Report.

Travel & Expense Expo: Winners, Pictures, and more seminar opportunities!

Over 300 UVA travelers and travel planners attended the Fourth Annual Travel & Expense Expo on August 3. After a four-year COVID-induced hiatus, it was great to see everyone in person at Newcomb Hall. Over 35 travel-related vendors provided exhibits and giveaways for attendees, and Passport Services and the DMV were also on hand.

Thank you to everyone who attended and those who volunteered!

For those who didn't get to attend the seminars offered at the Expo, mark your calendars for the following dates in September when we'll make them available again via Zoom:

• September 12: TravelUVA
• September 14: Workday Expense Q&A

We'll share more details on the blog and in the Travel & Expense Newsletter as the dates approach.

Click here to see the raffle winners!  All attendees were entered in the raffle (double entries for those who RSVPd and checked in at the event).

See all the Travel & Expense Expo event photos on UVAFinance's Flickr page.

UBI User Hub Becomes UBI Portal

The UBI User Hub is now the UBI Portal, featuring upgrades to both usability and functionality.

This new name reflects the module's purpose, an entry to UBI Reporting and Analytics, and reduces confusion with UBI Analytics Qlik Sense Hub.

In this new UBI Portal, you'll be able to do many of the same things as before, including:

• Explore and access UBI apps and modules
• Find which fields are present in what UBI modules
• View the access roles required for each app
• See the latest reload timestamp for any app and see important alerts for the UBI reload process in general.

In the new UBI Portal, you’ll also be able to:

• View approved data definitions from the Data Catalog, which replaced Data Cookbook
• See if UBI fields have an associated data definition
• View your current UBI access roles

We look forward to sharing this revamped UBI portal with you. You can access it here.

Need help?

We’ve developed a quick reference guide for the UBI Portal and posted it on the Data and Analytics Community Teams site. If you’re already a member you can access the guide directly via this link or in the resources channel under the files tab.

If you’re not yet a member of the Data and Analytics Teams, you can join by:

• Open Microsoft Teams.
• Click the Teams icon on the left-hand side of the window.
• Click Join or Create a team (at the very bottom of the screen).
• In the Join a team with a code box, enter this code: 7g617dn

If you are a Heath Center or UPG employee, the code will not work. You’ll need to email the UBI Team to request access to the Team. Once you’ve been granted access, be sure to use your @virginia.edu account to log on to the Team.

 

Fund Validations Added for Function Worktag

As of August 4th, validations have been added to the use of the function worktag in Workday Financials.  

Here are some basic points to know about the function validations: 

• Validations ensure the usage of Scholarships and Fellowships functions (FNH100) only with SC0153-155 and all SCs included in SC hierarchy Scholarships & Fellowships
• Functions in the hierarchy FNH098 Institutional Support (FN029 - FN034) can only be used by certain Cost Center Hierarchies (configured on Function worktag). 
• Function FN062 Hospital can only be used by Cost Centers in the UPG and Medical Center CC hierarchies (configured on Function worktag).
•  Allowed Funds on Designateds will be set equal to the default fund outside of a few exceptions. 

These validations will keep errors from occurring, which is a good thing, but users should be on the lookout for transactions that don't go through.  As long as users aren't changing the fund when they enter a designated value and leave the default, there should be few issues.   If you have problems with transactions due to function errors, please contact Ask Finance. 

Continuous Improvement Corner: High Impact Purchase Order Distribution Method Clean Up

The Issue:  Issued Purchase orders were not delivered to the suppliers because there was an outdated distribution method on file. This caused department users and Central Buyers confusion, delayed delivery of items, and unproductive administrative time to track down Purchase Orders.

Actions Taken: A group of Procurement team members collaborated to find non-catalog suppliers with no distribution method. They filtered to suppliers who were active in the past FY and used the Pareto rule to identify the ones with high impact. Then, they collaborated with the Supplier Management team to send new Paymentworks invitations and clean up supplier profiles in Workday and Marketplace. ​

Findings:​ In the last FY, UVA did business with 710 suppliers that had a bad distribution method. That's 4824 Purchase Orders worth $41.6 million,  and 238 high-volume suppliers with 3697 Purchase Orders worth $36.5 million.​

Impact on UVA Users:  Created efficiency in the sourcing process for department users and Central buyers and helped the disbursement team by reducing the time to manually adjust supplier profiles. This means schools and units can have increased confidence that when their PO is approved, it is being distributed to the accurate address at the supplier.  The team continues improvement activities in terms of purchase orders in order to achieve as high a degree of accuracy as possible!

Results:  As of 8/2/2023, we have fully registered and approved 64 suppliers​ and processed 1115 Purchase Orders,  $13.9 million worth of business

Major Contributors in this project:​  Andrew Clark, Franky Kong, Susanna Huang, Sri Ranjani Murthy

Keeping the Goods & Services Guide Up to Date

As reported in July, the Goods & Services Guide has been overhauled after an intensive cross-functional project spearheaded by several teams in Procurement.  The Guide, located on the UVAFinance website, has several new and useful features (see all the changes in this July blog post).

The Goods & Services as it exists online is the most current version.  The Procurement team will continually monitor and update it, so downloading the document is discouraged.  The Guide is a 'living document' governed by a cross-functional team.

That team asks for your help in keeping the Guide as up-to-date as possible.  If you know of changes that should be made, please propose them by emailing them to AskFinance@virginia.edu; we'll be happy to investigate and review any discrepancies, gaps, or inaccuracies, and address them.  

Josh Breeden Leaving UVAFinance

Josh Breeden, formerly a Senior Workday Finance Architect, has his last day on Friday, August 11th. He is moving on to be a Workday Senior Associate, working in post-production support with Huron.

Although it is sad to see him go, Breeden is looking forward to broadening his Workday knowledge. At Huron, he will have the opportunity to partner with other customers using Workday Financials and see how they leverage the technology to its maximum potential. He is excited to work with and learn from people that have used Workday for a lot longer than he has.

Despite that, Breeden is very grateful for all that he learned from his eight years at UVAFinance. He remarks, “I have had the chance to delve into cross-functional challenges to develop my operational knowledge, and then most recently build up my Workday knowledge base as a part of FST and the Workday Support Team.” His experience at UVAFinance will stick with him as he moves on to Huron.

He reflects that he will genuinely miss working with the various stakeholders across UVA: “I am thankful for the trust they put in me and for their partnership in challenging the status quo.”

Breeden will go on to do great things at Huron. Best wishes Josh!

(You can keep in touch with Josh via his LinkedIn.)

Heads Up on Aging Transactions

The Travel & Expense team is working to clean up a number of aging transactions over 90 days old.

If you receive an email regarding aging transactions for you or one of your direct reports, please expense these as soon as possible. 

The new My Card Transactions report is an easy way to see if you have any outstanding transactions. Often items are ‘hidden’ in draft expense reports. 

Thank you for your help!

Update on Two-Approver Process for Expense Reports

The Expense team is working on a better way to achieve a two-approver process for expense reports that will work for both compliance purposes and for our schools and units.  

They've just finished internal testing on a process that is a significant improvement over the initial course of action we tried out (and pulled back) in May.  This process will be tested with a spend focus group; once more feedback has been gathered, we'll share the results at the September 6 Fiscal Administrators' Group. 

Want to be added to the Fiscal Administrators email invite list?  Email Stacey Rittenhouse.

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Related information:  You can find the 2023 Fiscal Administrators' Meeting Schedule, along with Agendas and Meeting Recordings, on the UVAFinance website here (click Fiscal Administrators): https://uvafinance.virginia.edu/finance-community-engagement/meetings-and-resources 

Wellness Resources: August 2023

Upcoming Wellness Webinars

• Grow Fulfillment & Well-Being through Career Development

Tune in on August 9 at 3:30 pm. Click HERE to register.

• Fine-Tuning Your Retirement Strategy

Tune in on August 24 at 12:00 pm or 3:00 pm. Click HERE to register..

Create a Hoos Well Portal Account

Create a Hoos Well Portal Account and earn up to $500 in awards while enhancing your well-being! Thousands of your colleagues are already reaping the benefits of the Portal and its offerings. Watch the recorded demo to learn how to get the most from the Portal.

Seeking Hoos Well Stories

Do you have a Hoos Well success story that you'd like to share? The Hoos Well team is looking for testimonials and quotes that they can use for Hoos Well resources. Click HERE to learn more and complete the survey. Also feel free to attach a picture to the survey if you'd like!

 

Derrick Carter: Business Analyst Extraordinaire

If Derrick Carter could describe his role as a Business Analyst, he would say that he’s like a “Swiss army knife.” He does a variety of things, for a variety of people, and for a variety of reasons.

Carter was originally brought on for the FST Workday project, but now he’s continuing his role as a Business Analyst in a slightly new position with the Change Enablement and Continuous Improvement (CE/CI) team.

Mainly, he looks at processes. Between the start and end, Carter highlights the potential deficiencies. He analyzes this data and works with people to determine what training or systematical change is needed to make things better. After he finds problems, he helps teams fix them.

One of Carter’s favorite parts about his role is the variety of it all: “I like being able to jump and move to different things and see things from a different perspective, inside and outside of finance.” Previously, he worked a lot with the School of Medicine and Facilities Management, but for now, his focus is going to be on our UVAFinance teams and processes.

Within the CE/CI team, Carter collaborates with the training and development team to get data and point out specific points of need. He is also involved in several other projects to help the UVAFinance as a whole, including work on documenting workflow and approvals for various business processes and working with teams to develop standard operating procedures.

He reflects that he has, “the mindset to take on different challenges,” which contributed to this particular role. Overall, we’re excited he’s moving forward as a Business Analyst in UVAFinance! Best wishes as you continue your work, Derrick!

UVAFinance Welcomes Justin Green

The Green Family

This July, UVAFinance’s Financial Accounting Department welcomed Justin Green as its newest member. Green takes on the role of Director of Financial Reporting, a position for which he’s well prepared, given a 20+ year career that includes a plethora of experience with corporate accounting, international accounting, auditing, financial projects, and much more.

Green comes to UVA most recently from FedEx, where he moved up the ranks steadily over the years from 2005 until he recently decided to make the change from Memphis, Tennessee, to Virginia. Why the change from the big city and corporate accounting to a smaller city and academia? The answer lies with his family.

Green and his wife Sara, a pediatrician, decided they wanted a less urban environment in which to raise their two children (Abigail, 7, and Andrew, 5). While they enjoyed hiking and riding bikes in Memphis, they were attracted by the possibilities afforded by a slower pace of life, and since they had family who lived in the Crozet area, they thought Virginia would be a good fit.

When you add UVA’s reputation to the mix, says Green, his choice of employment was an easy one. “Once I started to investigate the opportunities at UVA, I could see that there was a good culture, and opportunities for advancement within the organization,” says Green.

The Greens will be transitioning from their home in Memphis to a recently purchased 28-acre farm in Virginia. While they do some renovations on the farmhouse (complete with a cottage from Green’s mother), they’ll rent a home (and, says Green, maybe contemplate some cows or sheep to graze his acreage instead of mowing it). When they’re not out exploring the outdoors, the Greens enjoy traveling and have recently visited France and the United Kingdom.

We wish them well during their big move – welcome to UVA, Justin!

New Endowment Resources

UVA's endowment is an essential source of permanent support.  For the last 15 fiscal years, spending from the endowment has increased, providing a reliable income stream that we can count on to support excellence and affordability.

If you've ever wondered why UVA can't use its endowment to fill budget gaps or had someone ask you why we have to raise tuition when we have such a healthy endowment,  you're not alone.  

We've produced two new resources to help internal and external audiences alike understand better how our endowment works.  You'll find these resources on the UVAFinance website: 

How Does the Endowment Work? (video resource)

How Does the Endowment Work? (print resource)

New Spend Category Allows UVA to Better Support Faculty Publishing

A new spend category in Workday Finance will allow UVA to collect high-quality data on publishing charges, which are expected to increase due to a 2022 federal ruling requiring the open flow of federally-funded scientific information.

The government mandate will require agencies using federal research dollars to make any research findings available to the public in a free and open format by the end of 2025.  For UVA faculty and researchers, this could mean significant increases in "article processing charges" or APCs, from many publishers.

Donna Tolson, Associate Dean for Administration at the University of Virginia Library, championed the creation of the new spend category, in order to track the new fees.  After consulting with budget's Katie Walker and a group of associate deans for administration, Tolson submitted her request to Ask Finance and worked with Jacob Mair's group to set up the new spend category.

"Being able to track processing charges will show us which publishers we're paying, whether APCs are increasing, and where the money is coming from, whether it's grants, start-ups, or operations.  That will put us in a stronger position to support faculty and to negotiate with publishers if APC rates increase as a result of this new ruling," says Tolson.

The new spend category has been set up as Services Article Processing Charges (SC0792).   

UVAFinance in Action

Ryan Balber,  the Director of the Virginia Higher Education Procurement Consortium, recently had an article published in University Business.  Check out his piece, 3 ways cooperative purchasing agreements support student success, on the UB site.

James Gorman, joined by retired VP for Finance Melody Bianchetto and Deloitte representatives, was a presenter at the NACUBO 2023 Annual Meeting on July 17.  The subject of the session was "Transforming Finance and strengthening partnerships at the University of Virginia."

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Related Content:  Walker Receives NACUBO's 2023 Rising Star Award

Common Reasons Requisitions Don't Convert to a PO

Ever find yourself with a stubborn requisition that won't convert to a purchase order? 

There are a number of common reasons why a Workday requisition (RQ) does not convert to a purchase order (PO).  When you contact Ask Finance with this problem these are the top five issues they'll look at first.  While you're always welcome to contact the Solution Center team, we share these common reasons with you in the hope they'll alleviate some frustration:

• One or more lines have a $0.00 line item
• Solution: The line should be corrected. If you're claiming free products or samples, you should edit the requisition to note the free item(s) in the "memo to supplier" field. (See this post about Requisitions with Zero Dollar Lines)
• Solution #2: If the supplier requires the $0.00 line item on the PO, send this to the Ask Finance team with a request that it be escalated to the Sourcing team for action (include the requisition number!). The team will manually grab the requisition to convert it to a PO.
• One or more lines have a negative line item (credit amount)
• Solution: Send this to the Ask Finance team with a request that it be escalated to the Sourcing team for support. Requisitions and purchase orders cannot include a negative value line.
• The requisitioner does not have the appropriate security role (Workday Procurement Shopper)
• Solution: Look at the business process to be sure that you don't have a cart assigned to a PO shopper with a business process awaiting action. Ensure that you have requested the appropriate security role for your position.
• No cost center P2P approver 
• Solution: Search the cost center in Workday. Select "roles" and see if the P2P Approver role is missing. If so, email AskFinance noting that the BP is hung up due to an unassigned approver and that a P2P approver needs to be identified for the cost center.
• Wrong cost center in the Worktag string
• Solution: Verify the worktag entered into the requisition.  Do you have the right security role to work with that cost center?

Again, we don't share these common issues to dissuade you from seeking Solution Center help, because we're definitely happy to assist.  We do know, however, that taking time out to stop what you're doing and involve someone else can be a bit trying, so we hope these tips help!  

Did You See This? Reporting & Analytics Updates

A new set of Finance Reporting & Analytics Release notes were posted on July 13. 

Did you miss them? You can see the whole release online here.

Here are just a few noteworthy highlights:

• Activity Stream has been added to the Details for Account Certifications report to streamline the review of account certifications – see Activity Stream | UVA Finance (virginia.edu) for more information about this new feature.
• New Open Purchase Orders – Fully Invoice and Fully Paid report to quickly identify candidates for closing out open purchase orders which are complete.
• New & Improved Track Purchase Order with Line Splits report which provides greater detail and improved usability over the existing Track Purchase Order report (includes line splits). Various
• Grant/Award Budget vs Actuals reports have been updated so that Transfers and Interest Income transactions are included
• Reminder: The Budget & Fund Balance reports in Workday generally default to the current fiscal period/year so be sure to update the prompts if you need to look backward.

See the full Release Notes on the UVAFinance website.

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Related Content: Workday's Activity Stream: A new functionality to move things along

2024 Payroll Calendars are Posted

Every new year comes with fresh new calendars, and fiscal new years are no different.  

Payroll calendars for FY2024 are posted on the UVAFinance website for the Academic Division, Med Center, and Physicians Group.

Access the calendars here.  (Click on Academic Division, Med Center, or UPG; Payroll Calendars are at the top of the list on each area's page)

Workday's Activity Stream: A new functionality to move things along

The Workday Support Team has made a new functionality available in Workday Financials.  Activity Stream might be just the thing for some users out there who have wished for an in-system way to nudge processes along among colleagues.

Using the "@" symbol, you can tag one or more people in a comment on objects such as purchase orders, requisitions, and supplier invoices, and those tagged individuals will receive a notification.  The stream is the same on all tabs/sub-tabs within the same object (see the resource linked below for a comprehensive listing of objects on which activity stream may be used).

In what kind of instances would an activity stream comment be helpful?

• If you want to call a colleague's attention to a PO number about which you've been discussing.  The activity stream notification will contain a link right to the PO.
• When you create a requisition and it's sitting in approval for a little too long, you can tag the approver and remind them to approve it.
• When you're not sure what worktags to use on a requisition you're creating,  you can save the requisition for later and tag a colleague to ask them to advise you on the worktags.
• You can use the activity stream field to make notes to yourself on supplier invoices so that you can work ahead on account certification.
• The activity stream field is a great option to add clarifying information later on if you forgot to put it in the memo field.

See this handy resource for a quick rundown of the activity stream feature.  Note especially that activity stream is not available on all objects, and that it should not be used in the place of an AskFinance ticket or in the place of a step in the approval process.

Walker Receives NACUBO's 2023 Rising Star Award

Walker receives her honor at NACUBO on July 17.
We always knew she was a star.

UVAFinance's Executive Director for Financial Planning and Analysis Katie Walker is the 2023 winner of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Rising Star Award.  

The Rising Star Award recognizes an emerging leader in higher education finance and business whose record reflects ongoing and exceptional growth in contribution to the professional increased levels of leadership, responsibility, and sphere of impact.  Awardees are nominated by their peers, must have reference letters, and are judged against strict criteria by a selection committee.

Walker was among seven awardees honored for their outstanding contributions to higher education at NACUBO's 2023 Annual Meeting in Orlando.  

Congratulations, Katie!

Analyzing Success: Ben Tolson’s New Business Analyst Role

Previously a User Success Agent with Tier 1, Tolson is moving on to be a Business Systems Analyst. He started in his new role on Monday, July 17th. Tolson expressed that he is very excited about this new position.

As his career has progressed, Tolson reflected, “I’ve found myself being drawn to process improvement.” In his new role, he will get to focus on that more. He’s looking forward to working on projects and continuing to improve processes that benefit both UVAFinance and the greater UVA community.

Looking back, he appreciated his year in Tier 1 because it has allowed him to learn a lot about UVAFinance through stakeholders and internal interconnected departments. However, this knowledge will not go to waste. Tolson is enthusiastic: “I will be able to leverage [that] in my new role.”

Overall, Tolson will go on to do great things in his new role. Congratulations again Ben!

Onward and Upward: UVA Temps Moving On To New Full-Time Positions

 

From left to right, top to bottom: Jim Stoltz and family, Nika Vest and her fiancé,
 Jarod Verkleeren, and Niranga Subasinghe and family.

The Clean-Up Squad, a talented team of temps, has been an enormous help in closing out the fiscal year. They ensured that thousands of financial transactions were fixed and finalized to guarantee a smooth close to the first fiscal year with Workday.

We are proud to announce that four of the temps--Jim Stoltz, Niranga Subasinghe, Jarod Verkleeren, and Nika Vest--on the Clean-Up Squad will be moving on to full-time positions throughout UVA! All of them expressed their gratitude toward Katie Walker and Myron Ballard for their help and support through the process of moving from temp to full-time.

Nika Vest:

Vest has moved on to be a Grants and Contracts Specialist at the Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics Department at the School of Medicine (SOM). She started in her new role on July 10th. Although she was excited, it wasn’t an easy path to get there. During the job search process, Vest had a hard time dealing with her fiancé’s worsening epilepsy. Adding a job search on top of this made it so much harder. Still, Vest persevered along with the support from Katie Walker and Myron Ballard. She reflects, “I found that the right support group accompanied by people who are determined to guide you in the job search makes it so much easier and bearable.” She thanks Walker and Ballard for their understanding and encouragement. Vest will go on to do great things at the SOM. Best wishes Nika!

Niranga Subasinghe:

Niranga will move on to be an Intermediate Administrative Coordinator for the School of Nursing. She will start in her new role on July 17th. She is excited to have the opportunity to grow her career with the School of Nursing. She’s accumulated great accounting experience at UVAFinance. She’s incredibly thankful for Katie Walker, and the team members of the Clean-Up Squad for their training, preparation, and support which led her to this new opportunity. Niranga is also grateful to the team at the School of Nursing for being “very helpful throughout the interview process and for their warm welcome.” She will go on to do great things in her new position, along with the support from her husband Indika (who also works at UVA as a Biostatistician in the SOM), and her two toddlers Devin and Shevon. Best wishes Niranga!

Jarod Verkleeren:

Verkleeren will move on to be a Finance Generalist for the School of Architecture. He will start in his new role on July 31st. He reflected that his current temp role has been amazing, allowing him to learn a lot in such a short amount of time. He anticipates that the skills he’s gained from UVAFinance will make the transition a lot less stressful. Verkleeren appreciates all the people who have helped him thus far: “I’m grateful I had people around me helping me know the ins and outs of the university and help me think deeper on what position would be best for my skills and my goals, which is something I don’t take for granted.” He says that Walker and Ballard have been great mentors and made the transition easy. Verkleeren recommends the UVA temp experience to anyone looking for a job or trying to figure out their path because it’s a great opportunity to get your foot in the door. Best wishes Jarod!

Jim Stoltz:

Stoltz will move on to be a Finance Generalist for Facilities Management. He will start in his new role on August 28th. He has had to push back the starting date due to his daughter’s wedding on the 19th (congratulations!). Overall, he reflects that moving from temp to full-time was a bit daunting. Changing careers after 20+ years ended up being more difficult than he expected, but it allowed him to change his approach. In the end, he expressed that it was, “good for me.” He also wants to thank Walker, Ballard, and the rest of the Clean-Up Squad for their help, shared knowledge, friendship, and tolerance of his “really bad” jokes. Stoltz will go on to do great things at Facilities Management. Best wishes Jim!

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Related Content:  Check out the Clean Up Squad's Achievements Prior to Year-End Close / Meet the Clean Up Squad Part One / Meet the Clean Up Squad Part Two

Wampler Presents at NAEP

Procurement's Shannon Wampler represented UVA as a featured presenter this spring at the annual meeting of the National Association of Educational Procurement in Orlando, Florida.  

Wampler shared how UVA planned and launched its local procurement initiative and how we leveraged Supplier GATEWAY to empower decentralized buyers across grounds.  Wampler especially focused on how smaller schools could get such initiatives off the ground, even if they didn't have data skills or dedicated personnel.  

While at the meeting, Wampler also led a Supplier Perspectives Panel featuring a variety of supplier representatives engaging the audience with authentic discussion about their side of the purchasing transaction. 

Way to go, Shannon!

Finance Reporting and Analytics Release Notes for July 13th

Finance Reporting & Analytics Release notes for July 13 have been posted to the UVAFinance website.

This update includes significant new reports and modifications that have been released between May 22nd and June 30th as well as known issues that we are investigating or working on currently.

Thank you all for your patience as we worked through a few unexpected glitches as we rolled over fiscal years for the first time in Workday and the data warehouse. The data warehouse team, UBI team, and the Finance BI team reacted quickly to resolve the data load errors that occurred during the first couple of days of the new year. We will apply the lessons learned to strengthen the processes for next year.

For those interested, our Journal Lines table in the warehouse currently has 64,000,000 rows of data. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be evaluating the UBI applications to optimize performance where necessary which may require some changes to manage the data volumes. We will keep everyone posted as we make those decisions.

For those who use Budget or Fund Balance reports in Workday, please make note of the Period, Time Period, Plan Structure, Plan Name, and Budget Date prompts you are using based on your need to either look back at FY23 or forward to FY24. Most reports are set to prepopulate those prompts for the current period/fiscal year.

FY24 Working and Original Budgets are now available in both Workday and UBI Budget vs Actuals.

A friendly reminder that you always find this information and more reporting resources at:
Business Intelligence & Analytics | UVA Finance (virginia.edu)

Here are just a few noteworthy highlights: 

• Activity Stream has been added to the Details for Account Certifications report to streamline the review of account certifications – see Activity Stream | UVA Finance (virginia.edu) for more information about this new feature.
• New Open Purchase Orders – Fully Invoice and Fully Paid report to quickly identify candidates for closing out open purchase orders which are complete.
• New & Improved Track Purchase Order with Line Splits report which provides greater detail and improved usability over the existing Track Purchase Order report (includes line splits). Various
• Grant/Award Budget vs Actuals reports have been updated so that Transfers and Interest Income transactions are included
• Reminder: The Budget & Fund Balance reports in Workday generally default to the current fiscal period/year so be sure to update the prompts if you need to look backward.

See the full Release Notes on the UVAFinance website.

Kevin Crabtree Celebrates New Role

We are excited to announce that Kevin Crabtree has moved on to be a Strategic Sourcing Director in Procurement. Previously, Crabtree was the Category Manager for Services and Athletics.

He started in his new role on ­­July 10. He says he's most excited about stabilizing and improving the purchasing experience for departments by listening to University-wide feedback on what's working and what's not working.

"Procurement is here to help departments buy the goods and services they need in order for those departments to be successful in supporting larger University goals," says Crabtree.

Crabtree will do great things in this new position.

Best wishes, Kevin!

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Related Content:  Procurement has overhauled the Goods & Services Guide!

This Just In: Goods and Services Guide Overhaul

Buying at UVA just became a little easier due to the overhaul of the Goods & Services Guide, which finished just this week after four months of intensive collaborative work by Procurement, as well as the Business Systems Team.

What Changed?

• Updated goods/services descriptions with clearer language
• One preferred method of payment (two at the most)
• Ability to search on title with auto-population
• Updates to sync with Workday Financials terminology and fields

The overhaul process began in March, with the Sourcing, Disbursement, Travel, and Business Solutions Teams meeting weekly and doing the necessary research to update the content relative to the commodities for which they were responsible. The teams truly thought through their policies and procedures with the aim to ensure that the descriptions were concise, accurate, and informative to users, and then worked with the Business Systems Team to upload 111 rows of data in a way that was easy to view and sort.

The team is pleased to deliver this final product to everyone, hoping that it minimizes confusion and helps to get work done with more ease. Please let us know via askfinance@virginia.edu if you have questions or concerns.

Check out the brand new Goods & Services Guide on the UVAFinance webpage!

Wellness Resources: July 2023

 Upcoming Wellness Webinars

• Beyond Speaking and Listening: Transforming our Habits of Communication by Deepening Self-Understanding and Connection. 

Tune in on July 26 at 12:00 pm. Click HERE to register.

• Turn Your Savings Into Retirement Income.

Tune in on July 12 at 2:00 pm or 8:00 pm. Click HERE to register.

• Invest For Success: Five Principles You Need To Know.

Tune in on July 19 at 10:00 am or 12:00 pm. Click HERE to register.

Don't Forget: Free Virginia Recreation Classes 

Join Virginia Recreation (formerly IM-Rec) Hoos Well fitness class this summer. Classes include Cycling, Yoga, Body Bump, and Pilates. All classes are free to UVA employees and spouses.

Classes run through July 28. Click HERE to view the schedule.

Celebrate the Summer with New Healthy Recipes

Although the Fourth of July has already passed, there are tons of ways to celebrate the summer with food. Whether you're having people over or just staying in, these recipes are for you. The Forks Over Knives website includes a variety of delicious recipes to share with family and friends that are both satisfying and nutritious. Check it out!

Best Practices in Payroll Costing: Worker Position & Worker Position Earning

The payroll costing allocation categories "Worker Position" and "Worker Position Earning" are very different and not interchangeable.  In general, "Worker Position" is the category most of us will use most often.  "Worker Position" represents the standard pay, benefits, etc. that are applied to most regular positions.

Assigning a "Worker Position Earning" costing allocation should only be done for pay categories that will be accounted for on a different worktag string than their "Worker Position" costing allocation (such as Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, Retention Bonuses, etc.). If the accounting falls on the same worktag string as was set up on the "Worker Position" costing allocation, there is no need to add it into a "Working Position Earning" costing allocation.

See this Quick Reference Guide for more details

Questions?  Please let the Payroll Team know via askfinance@virginia.edu

Settlement Run Schedule Change

Starting this week, Accounts Payable has changed the settlement run from daily back to its pre-Workday-go-live schedule of three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us via askfinance@virginia.edu.

Don't Wait: RSVP for the Fourth Annual Travel & Expense Expo

We are about three weeks out from the Fourth Annual Travel & Expense Expo, and we can't wait to see you there! If you haven't already, please RSVP as soon as possible at this link.

The Expo will be held August 3, from 10 am to 2 pm at Newcomb Hall. We'll have over 35 travel-related vendor exhibits, Passport Services, Real ID processing, great seminars, plus lots of giveaways and raffles! Prizes you can enter to win this year include free airline tickets, hotel stays, and a wine tour.

Check out all the details on the Travel & Expense Expo flyer we've linked on the UVAFinance website, and while you're there, please send the flyer to anyone in your area who travels, books travel for others, or works with Workday Expense. Spread the word!

See you in August!

Product Recall Alerts in Marketplace

Click image for a larger view

Last week, PSDS was alerted by Sedgwick regarding a product correction for Cholostech LDX Cassettes.  You can see this notice here (behind NetBadge).

Know that in the future, product recalls and other similar notices are shared as a banner announcement in the UVAMarketplace.  (See an example of the UVAMarketplace announcements, visible upon logging into the system, to the left.)

Year-End Close Reminders

We're on the very edge of our first fiscal year-end close in Workday Financials.  Thank you to everyone for your hard work and collaboration during this first critical year.  

Here are the final deadlines to keep in mind: 

• While certain activity has an earlier cut-off, all remaining activity groups and transaction types will be closed on June 29th at 4pm. Please refer to the Year End Closing Calendar for details regarding earlier cut-offs for specific activities. All transactions must be approved by this time to be posted to June 2023. Certain transactions can still be entered and approved after the cut-off but will post to July 2023 when the period becomes available.
• All Accounting Journals must be approved by June 29th at 4pm, otherwise, they will be canceled by Central Accounting as they will prevent the period from being closed.
• All Accounting Adjustments should be approved by June 29th at 4pm, otherwise, they will post to the next accounting period, when approved. With this year-end, UVA Finance will cancel any unapproved Accounting Adjustments initiated before June 1st, 2023 by June 29th.
• All Payroll Accounting Adjustments should be approved by June 28th at 4pm, otherwise, they will post to the next accounting period, when approved. With this year-end, UVA Finance will cancel any unapproved Payroll Accounting Adjustments initiated before June 1st, 2023 by June 29th.
• Workday will be down for year-end processing on June 30th, 2023. Central departments to perform year-end activities such as Procurement Roll Forward, Year End Balance Roll Forward, etc.
• The Year-end Adjustments Book Code will become available from July 1st at 7:00am to July 14th at 5pm. This book code can be used to make certain adjusting entries that will post to June 2023. Note that only accounting journals can be performed. Also, note that only certain adjustments can be accommodated. All accounting journals posted to the Year-end Adjustments Book Code must be approved centrally by the Accounting Manager. Refer to the UVAFinance blog post about Year-end Adjustments for more guidelines.
• The July 2023 period will be available on July 1st at 7:00am. Users can continue to process Accounting Journals, Accounting Adjustments, as well as all other transactions at this time to be posted to the new fiscal year.

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Related Content: Year-End Adjustments:  What to Expect

Shannon Wampler Returns to Supplier Diversity

After an extended stint on the Business Intelligence team, where she assisted with the optimization of procurement data during the transition from Oracle to Workday Financials, Shannon Wampler has returned full-time to Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services in the role of Supply Chain Business Analyst.

Wampler’s long history with Supplier Diversity and her perennial dedication to assisting the local business community makes her a perfect fit for this position, as does her skill with data analysis. She took the role this past spring and has since enjoyed working closely with area small, woman-owned, and minority-owned businesses, helping them find their niche with the University and how to navigate the sometimes complicated process of doing business with UVA.

Wampler says she is happy to be back in Supplier Diversity, helping area entrepreneurs with details so they can focus on growing their businesses. “We always say, ‘You can’t work on your business when you’re working in your business,’ and that’s where UVA Supplier Diversity can help,” she says.

Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services also recently hired a Community Engagement Coordinator, Ajoni Wynn-Floyd (read more about her on the blog here). Sharing data, making connections, and increasing visibility within the SWaM business community is part of UVA’s overall strategy to boost opportunities for local and minority-owned businesses.

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Related Content: Supplier Diversity Welcomes Ajoni Wynn-Floyd / Join us for SWaM Fest 2023 

Save the Date: SWaMFest 2023 is November 1 & 2 in Richmond!

SWaMFest is the premier networking, educational, and professional development event for small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses, and it’s happening on Wednesday, November 1st, and Thursday, November 2nd, in Richmond . . . and you’re invited!

Come and network with colleagues in VASCUPP, visit with our vendors, get some time out of the office, and get more than a little team building in, too. UVA had over 25 attendees onsite last year, and we’d love to see you this fall.

Why attend SWaMfest?

• Networking opportunities for SWaM businesses and representatives from VASCUPP institutions, prime contractors, and corporations.

• Engaging in workshops to enhance your professional development
• Opportunities to reassess how your organization operates and how to embrace the untapped potential in SWaM business relationships.

Why not register now?

General admission tickets are available now at an early-bird discounted rate. To purchase tickets, visit the SWaMFest site!

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Related Content:  Supplier Diversity Welcomes Ajoni Wynn-Floyd / Shannon Wampler Returns to Supplier Diversity

Supplier Diversity Welcomes Ajoni Wynn-Floyd

Ajoni Wynn-Floyd’s passion is connection. Whether it’s helping small business owners find resources, locating grant information for someone who needs it, or finding an answer for a frustrated customer, she enjoys making connections and delivering good news for those who need it.

Her drive to help people has led her to pursue a career helping small and diverse businesses, and this spring, she brought her talent and experience to a new role in Supplier Diversity Services at UVA as Community Engagement Coordinator. Wynn-Floyd comes to UVA directly from the City of Charlottesville Office of Economic Development, where she had served as the Minority Business Development Coordinator.

In that role, Wynn-Floyd swiftly got to know the business scene in Charlottesville and, by building a strong network, was able to help all businesses, especially small, woman-owned, and minority-owned businesses, get in touch with others who could help them flourish.

“When you’re a business owner,” she says, “you don’t necessarily have time to learn all about networking and the things that go along with that. You’re running a business! That’s where I want to help.”

In her new role, Wynn-Floyd sees an expanded opportunity to do what she loves doing. “I want people to know what a phenomenal resource UVAFinance is,” she says. Wynn-Floyd says she looks forward to sharing those resources and making it clear to community business leaders that we want them to succeed at all levels.

When she isn’t working on behalf of local businesses, Wynn-Floyd enjoys taste-testing local businesses by trying out new restaurants in the area (she recommends trying Pearl Island if you haven’t already). She also loves watching Master Chef and trying different cooking techniques.

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Related Content:  Join us for SWaMFest 2023!

Issue Regarding Change Orders on POs During Year End Close

As we prepare for the FY23 year-end close, the Workday Support Team uncovered two possible issues regarding change orders requested on rolled-forward purchase orders (POs) during testing.

Issue One: Standard POs

If a change order is processed on a rolled-forward PO that is partially billed, the change order will increase the obligation to the total amount of the PO. This will happen regardless of the amount rolled forward.

To avoid this, departments should not apply change orders on lines that are rolled forward, but instead, should add new lines to the PO. Similarly, if a PO that was not rolled forward needs to be opened in the new fiscal year, it should be reopened and then a nominal change order should be done for at least $1 to apply the commitments and obligations to the current fiscal year. The departments must notify suppliers of PO changes if the products/services have not been invoiced.

Issue Two: Grant-related POs

If grant-related POs are reopened in the new fiscal year, the grants will likely be outside the period or performance, whether or not the PO was rolled forward.

To avoid this, grant-related POs should not be reopened if they were not rolled forward or are outside of the 90-day extension window.

Help is Available

This Quick Reference Guide aids with initiating change orders on a multi-year PO that has been rolled forward. Should you need guidance on determining which action noted above to take, please submit an AskFinance ticket with the subject line “Rolled Forward POs” and your case will be escalated to the Strategic Sourcing team for further assistance.

We truly appreciate your patience and collaboration with us as we work through the first fiscal year-end close in Workday Financials. We will review the PO maintenance plan as we move forward to gain efficiency in the process for the upcoming fiscal year, and we look forward to sharing the improvements with you.