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.

Franky Kong Earns VCA Certification

UVAFinance congratulates financial analyst Franky Kong of Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services for earning the Virginia Institute of Procurement certification as a Virginia Contracting Associate.  The VCA certification is the first step in a career path for public procurement professionals. It involves online course work, a two-day classroom session, and successful completion of an in-depth exam to achieve.

Well done, Franky!

The Finance Solution Center Welcomes Kellyn Bennett Morris

Kellyn, Stephen, Bella & Nova

Kellyn Bennett Morris is well-prepared to deliver great customer service in her new role as a User Success Agent in the Finance Solution Center. Morris’s two previous roles have had an intense focus on building relationships with people, often in times of stress.

Her first job out of high school was at Batesville Market, helping a close friend’s mother start her business during the pandemic. During that critical startup time, and as local folks increasingly leaned on the market for their shopping and meal needs, Morris learned that she loved the customer service experience. Next came a role as a nanny to a toddler, which Morris says taught her patience and dedication.

At press time, she’ll have been a User Success Agent for close to a month, a role which she’s grateful for not only for its focus on customer service but also, she says, for its professional environment. “I like helping people and assisting with solving their problems, and there’s definitely a better work-life balance at UVA than in my previous positions,” she says.

Morris says she knew the job was right for her when she interviewed with the Solution Center team, and she looks forward to getting to know more about UVA and the possibilities to further her career here.

When she’s not working, Morris is an outdoorsy sort, enjoying hiking with her boyfriend Stephen and their two pups Bella and Nova, and working on developing a green thumb in her garden. She loves traveling, and as the youngest of five siblings, she stays busy visiting her loved ones, who are dotted across the country, in Colorado, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.

A Note from your Friendly Neighborhood LSP about ChatGPT

Thank you to UVA IT and the IT Security Community for sharing their experiences and recommendations for this article

ChatGPT (a Generative AI tool) and similar large language models (LLM) applications are transforming the way we work. They have the potential to automate tasks, improve decision-making, and provide valuable insights.

The use of such tools also presents new challenges in terms of information security and data protection. We want to explicitly recommend to employees who choose to use GenAI tools at UVA; to do so in a secure, responsible, and legal manner. In that vein, here are best practices to keep in mind:

• Only use the minimum data needed for the query, and before doing that ask yourself the question "Would I be comfortable sharing this information outside of the university? Would it be okay with this information being on a public site such as a social network or blog?". Plan as if data privacy will be breached or reused by the App for future training and responses. 
• Employees should refrain from uploading or sharing any data within GenAI tools that is confidential, proprietary, or protected by regulation or the UVA Data Policy (e.g. FERPA, HIPAA or information deemed highly sensitive by the University) :
• Don’t copy and paste emails or documents in prompts to ChatGPT and similar AI tools that generate content.
• Examples of highly sensitive data: Personal information such as driver’s license number, SSN, Student ID, Bank Account number, or Passport number.
• Examples of FERPA records: Any ‘Education Record’ or information that is directly related to a student and maintained by UVA.

After the jump, view additional considerations put together by InfoSec and UVA IT Directors. 

Requesting Payroll Accounting Adjustments through Workday

Workday's request business process is now the one-stop-shop method to request Payroll Accounting Adjustments for UPG, the Medical Center, yourself, or an employee who has been terminated or transferred out of your area.  Previously, this would have been done via a variety of methods depending on your need, but now, due to the new Workday functionality, it can be handled one consistent way.  

(Note that Payroll Accounting Adjustment Specialists in schools and units can still process PAAs as usual.)

See this Quick Reference Guide for more information on submitting Payroll Accounting Adjustment Requests.

The Travel & Expense Expo is August 3

It's hard to believe that we're only a month out from the Fourth Annual Travel & Expense Expo.  

If you haven't already, make plans to attend on August 3 at Newcomb Hall.  Vendor exhibits will be available from 10 am - 2 pm, with lots of giveaways and drawings for prizes available.  

We'll also have light refreshments as well as passport services and Real ID applications.  

Watch the blog and other UVAFinance communications for a seminar schedule as the date gets closer!

RSVP to the Travel Expo today!

Meet Your New UVAFinance Staff Senator: Myron Ballard

 

Earlier this month, Myron Ballard was elected by his UVAFinance colleagues to represent them in the UVA Staff Senate. In fact, this is the second time Myron has been elected (once before when he worked with the School of Engineering) and he is excited to continue serving his community. This is no small feat, and starting in August, Ballard will take on an important role in cultivating UVAFinance alongside the greater UVA community.

He reflected that the best thing about the Staff Senate was “working with a diverse group of persons across the university…and getting to know new people and partnering with people that just have this incredible wealth of knowledge.”

The Staff Senate is made up of over 60 senators who represent each department and school within the academic division of UVA. Their mission is to serve all staff through communication, partnerships, and advocacy in order to initiate positive change. These are values that Ballard carries in his every day. His current role as a project associate is very collaborative, meaning he often works with senior leadership. He builds bridges within UVAFinance to solve issues and intends to expand those skills when helping to resolve university-wide dilemmas.

He listens to the voices of the people, not just on his team, but throughout all of UVAFinance. Ballard plans to bring the concerns and opinions of all his colleagues across departments to the table within the Staff Senate. He loves providing excellent service in order to bring about real change and hopes to see people come together while satisfying the needs of stakeholders.

“I really want to get to know the different areas in Finance and bring them together and let them know that I’m here to serve you.” He adds, “I want to get people at Finance to realize that Staff Senate is a resource to help them resolve issues.”

In addition to his impressive roles, his undergrad and professional experience at UVA from the past decade has greatly inspired him in all aspects of his life. In his free time, Ballard is currently working on a science-fiction fantasy novel and a comic. He loves doing both traditional and digital art.

Congratulations again Myron!

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Related Content:   Staff Senate at UVA

Suggestions for a Successful Year End from the Workday Support Team

This time last year we were gearing up for Workday Financials to launch. We’ve learned a lot this first year in Workday Financials and as the first year comes to a close and we complete a full cycle, we’re really grateful for the way our finance community has collaborated with us to continually improve system processes.

As Fiscal Year End draws closer, here are a few suggestions from the Workday Support Team to help make this first Fiscal Year End close go smoothly and get the system back up as quickly as possible at the end of June:

• Review your Workday Inbox: at press time, there were several hundred business processes sitting in people’s inboxes that were over ten days old. Read more about this on the blog. If you find your Workday inbox overfloweth, the team recommends these Workday reports to help you identify what needs action:
• The “My Inbox” Report: this report lists everything in your inbox in columns and tells you what action needs to be taken on it.
• The “Account Certifications Awaiting Me” Report puts all your account certifications in one place and makes it easier to find them.
• Close Open Purchase Orders.
• Most importantly, close open purchase orders related to Grants. We reached out to Grant Managers with open POs with end dates prior to June 1, 2023 last week to alert them about this last week. Unsure if this relates to you? Check out this spreadsheet to see if a grant you manage is on the list, or just contact Ask Finance. We’ll automatically close these POs if we don’t hear from Grant Managers by June 20.
• For all other non-grant POs, we’d appreciate you closing any POs you don’t expect future invoice activity against. We don’t have the ability as we did in Oracle to auto-close these (although we’re working on that for the future). You can request the Clean Up Squad to handle this for you in batches – just contact us at Ask Finance to request this.
• Watch For Match Exceptions: If you have any of these, they need quick attention. They’ll come straight to your email inbox.
• And last but not least, as we get closer to the end of June, watch the Fiscal Year End Close Dates. They’ll be coming more regularly as we approach June 30. Keep track of what’s due!

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Related Content: Closing POs: An Important Fiscal Year-End Task

Closing POs: An Important Fiscal Year End Task

As Fiscal Year End approaches, don't forget to close your POs.  Workday Financials does not have an auto-close feature like Oracle did (we'll be working on that, though, in the future).  

We understand it may not be possible to get everything closed before year-end, so here are some priorities and guidelines: 

• POs associated with grants will be automatically closed unless you tell us to roll them over, so review your open grant-related POs with end dates before June 1, 2023, and let Ask Finance know if you are expecting extensions and if any of them should be rolled over by June 20.  
• Any non-grant POs you don't expect future invoice activity against, please close! See this link for a quick reference guide on how to perform this action.  If you need some assistance closing POs, the Clean Up Squad might be able to help!  Contact the Ask Finance Team to inquire.  
• There's a new report in Workday called "Open Purchase Orders - Fully Invoiced and Paid" that you can use to help identify your Workday POs and see what can be closed. 
• Note that Closing a PO isn't the same as Cancelling a PO.  Closing a PO happens when the entire process of procurement, from request to final delivery, has been completed and no further action is required.  Canceling a purchase order involves the termination of the order before it is completed or fulfilled.  This action is taken when requirements change or there is a decision to discontinue the purchase.  A canceled PO is null and void.  Procurement shoppers can close POs, but PO cancellation requests must be submitted to AskFinance@virginia.edu.  

For more details on closing POs, check out Joel Kreider's slides from our June Fiscal Administrator's meeting on the UVAFinance website.  

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Related content:  Suggestions for a Successful Year End from the Workday Support Team

Continuous Improvement Led by You: Account Certification

Once Workday Financials went live, that wasn't all for collaboration between UVAFinance and our finance partners across Grounds.  We've continued to collaborate in the spirit of continuous improvement to make processes better and share best practices.  Case in point is everyone's favorite, account certification.  

Although Workday Financials is a cloud-based system that we share with lots of other entities (meaning we can't customize it like we were used to doing with Oracle), there are still lots of things we can do to make it work better for us.  This spring, a working group from the School of Medicine partnered with UVAFinance's Workday Support Team and Change Enablement Groups got together and identified several pain points and figured out what pains could be alleviated now and what we could put on track to fix in the near future.  

You can see the full results of the working group's efforts in the Workday Support Team's presentation slides here, as well as in the School of Medicine presentation slides here, but here are the results you can enjoy NOW that are a result of this working group's efforts: 

• A new report, “Account Certifications Awaiting Me – Detailed” has been added to the Account Certification Actions dashboard.  This report has been added to provide greater insight into the Account Certifications awaiting a Preparer or Approver to potentially help prioritize their work and/or provide information not previously available in the original “Account Certifications Awaiting Me” report.
• Select View More at the bottom of the "Account Certifications Awaiting Me – Detailed" report on the Account Certification Actions Dashboard to 
• See full list of Account Certifications (the report on the dashboard shows 100 lines). 
• Make selections to help prioritize the Account Certifications. 
• Selections made on the prompt screen will persist after refreshing your browser.
• The “Details for Account Certification Report” is now sorted by Ledger Account, which matches the Account Certification user interface which lists the balances in order by Ledger Account number.  
• Attachments from various business processes are now surfaced in the Details for Account Certification report, eliminating the need to drill further into the BP details for find/review them. 
• Additional Prompts have been added to the Status of Account Certifications report to improve reporting capabilities.
• Once an Account Certification has been created and assigned to an employee, the only way for another employee to take action on that Account Certification is to request the Account Certification business process be reassigned. To facilitate streamlined requests, a template has been added to the Workday Account Certification UBI QlikSense module.
• A step has been added to the month-end closing process to run MFS a final time.  This will mitigate balances remaining on the Project’s Default Fund (e.g., FD068 Operating Project Default) from any activity posted on the final business day of the month.  The remaining balances caused reconciling differences that Project Budget Specialists/Project Budget Managers had to monitor the next month to ensure they cleared out.

And there's more on the way!  Check out the presentation slides for planned upgrades or just watch the blog to see additional improvements as they roll out. 

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Want to know more about UVAFinance and Continuous Improvement?  Head on over to the UVAFinance CI page.

 

Ask Finance & Ask HR: Working Together on Your Payroll Questions

This July, the Finance Solution Center will take over payroll inquiries from the HR Solution Center.  As you might imagine, payroll falls into a grey area between finance and HR.  

Generally speaking, if it's a money question (things like the numbers on your pay slip, your W2, your W4, etc.), it's a finance question, and if it's a benefits matter (things like insurance and PTO), it's an HR question.  

The good news is, you don't have to worry about going to the right Solution Center.  Ask Finance and Ask HR will work together behind the scenes to get your query to the right person no matter what!

The Great Clean Up: Progress as of June 14

As Fiscal Year-End draws nigh, the Clean-Up Squad is burning through a mountain of transactions to make sure things go as smoothly as possible!  

Note especially the close Purchase Orders -- these are just individually closed POs.  We've mass closed about 75,000.  If you need the Clean-Up Squad's help closing POs ahead of Fiscal Year-End, email us at askfinance@virginia.edu  

Here's what things are looking like as of June 14:

Task Behavior	Count
Adjust Accounting	5,480
Assign Costing Allocation	1,614
Cancel Accounting Adjustment	25
Cancel Change Order	35
Cancel Purchase Order	6
Change Internal Service Delivery	831
Close Purchase Order	1,405
Create Change Order	391
Create Journal	245
Create Payroll Accounting Adjustments	885
Edit Accounting Adjustment	10
Edit Change Order	6
Mass Close Procurement Documents	94
Revise Accounting Adjustment	237
Revise Change Order	42
Revise Costing Allocation Assignment	35
Revise Internal Service Delivery	829
Revise Payroll Accounting Adjustments	168
Total	12,338

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Related content: Closing POs:  An Important Fiscal Year-End Task

Finance Welcomes Dan Hoogenboom back to UVA

The Hoogenbooms

Early this May, Dan Hoogenboom re-joined the University as a project manager in UVAFinance, bringing experience gained from stints in both engineering consulting and community/economic development planning. Sandwiched in between those positions was his previous time at UVA, in the College of Arts and Sciences, where he was a fiscal administrator.

Hoogenboom’s work experience managing projects, people, finances, and above all, the needs of various stakeholder groups, makes him a great fit for his new position within UVAFinance.

“I was drawn to this position because of my previous experience with the University and because I’m committed to continuous improvement,” he says, adding, “it’s exciting to take on projects from start to finish and see how it can positively affect everyone on our team.”

Hoogenboom is a 2013 graduate of Virginia Tech, with a BA in Public and Urban Affairs. After originally pursuing a career in urban design, he found that what he most enjoyed was opportunities to work collaboratively with people from different backgrounds and interests toward a common goal, and a return to higher education was a happy byproduct of this realization.

Hoogenboom and his wife Caroline are expecting baby #2 in July; their two-year-old son Nate is eagerly awaiting becoming a big brother (no word on what the family’s three cats think of another small Hoogenboom). They enjoy traveling both in the States and internationally (they’ve been to Europe and Africa, to name a few places), and spending a lot of time outside. Hoogenboom also enjoys college sports and playing golf.

Year-End Adjustments: What to Expect

After we close the books on this fiscal year, there will be a brief period when adjustments can be made in order to address budget deficits.  Departments can perform these transactions between July 1 and July 14.  

Here are a few guidelines to follow:

• Transfers should be the primary activity being performed.
• Do not change the fund source.
• All transactions will be routed to central finance for approval.
• Accruals should not be initiated within departments.
• Activity during this two-week time frame will not be seen in FY24 balances until August 1

Questions or concerns?  Please contact us at askfinance@virginia.edu. 

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Don't miss any Fiscal Year-End Close Dates - check out the calendar of dates on the UVAFinance website. 

Graduation Celebration with the UVAFinance Team

UVAFinance is celebrating the season of graduation with our team members who have graduated or had close family members graduating this year.  Head over to our Flickr album to see this year's shiny new Class of 2023 photos.  

Congratulations, we're so proud of you!

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Related Content:  Inspiring Positive Change: UVAFinance's Ann Criser-Shedd

Did You See This? Reporting & Analytics Updates

The May 22 Finance Reporting and Analytics Release Notes have been posted to the UVAFinance website.  Check out the full release notes on the website.  

The release notes featured some great new reports, including these new Account Certification Reports: 

• Account Certification Awaiting Me: New Prompts and Data Fields (this one is especially handy for Fiscal Year End)
• Status of Account Certifications: New Prompts and Data Fields
• Details for Account Certifications: Now includes attachments to streamline the review and approval process (just hover your mouse over the attachment, then click the … > Attachment > View)

Since the release notes, the team has also added this new report:   

Open Purchase Orders, Fully Invoiced & Paid:  this report helps you find your own POs created in Workday so you can more easily close out your own POs during the Fiscal Year End.

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Related Content:  Account Certification has received some process improvements thanks to a working group featuring our friends at SOM and some UVAFinance partners.  Read more about it on the blog.  

Celebrating a Shrinking Invoice Backlog

An update from Amanda Lockhart Davis

On April 24, UVAFinance brought invoice processing in-house to deal with the invoice backlog and to better serve you, our internal finance partners, and of course, our vendors.  With the addition of a fantastic team of temps working with our already-wonderful AP team, we've been steadily hacking away at that backlog while also taking care of the new invoices coming in, and today, I'm pleased to share these amazing numbers with you. 

• In Jaggaer, we have only 24 total pending invoices (11 of which are past-due).
• In Workday, there are 466 draft invoices and 396 past-due invoices.
• As for new invoices, we are currently processing invoices that are only 36 hours old.  

On June 14, the team got together to celebrate
their success with sparkling cider and good cheer!
See the rest of the pictures on UVAFinance's Flickr

I'm writing this on Wednesday the 14th, and honestly, by the time you read this, the backlog may be totally gone.  I'm so proud of what this team has done to remove such a large pain point for those we serve.  Moving from nearly 4500 invoices in April to where we are now is a testament to their diligence and focus.  

We will continue to work on other issues we know are on your mind.  We look forward to your continued partnership in the future!

Inspiring Positive Change: UVAFinance's Ann Criser-Shedd

When opportunity knocks, you can count on Ann Criser-Shedd to answer the door.

For three years, beginning in 2009, Criser-Shedd worked at the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, serving as an executive assistant to the President and CEO. One of the first people she met in that role was UVA’s Leonard Sandridge. During one of their frequent conversations, Sandridge shared some encouraging advice with Criser-Shedd: “Get a degree; it will change your life.”

It didn’t take her long to act on that advice, and she hasn’t stopped taking significant steps and seizing opportunities since then.

After getting her bachelor’s degree in 2014 from JMU in Public Relations/HR Management, Criser-Shedd started in Payroll at UVA as a temporary employee. She quickly became a full-time employee, progressing to a payroll specialist and then a senior specialist. During that time, Criser-Shedd saw many changes, including payroll transitioning from human resources to central finance, as well as the transitions to Workday HCM and Workday Financials. She also earned her functional payroll certifications and found time to fundraise for her local YMCA.

And then her alma mater started sending her emails about their MBA program. JMU’s MBA program is a hybrid model (online but in person every third week), allowing students to work and go to school and finish in two years. After gathering her letters of recommendation and finding out her resume and experience meant she wouldn’t need to take the GMAT, Criser-Shedd was well on her way.

During the graduate program, Criser-Shedd took four graduate-level classes every semester and then an international immersion class for ten days during her final spring semester. The international immersion class gave the students global experience via business visits to nonprofits, consulting, and management firms in Argentina and Chile. She stayed with the same cohort the entire time, and that core group of students had a diverse background and an average work experience of 8-10 years.

Since her graduation this May, Criser-Shedd is now a “Double Duke” as well as a member of Omicron Delta Kappa based on her excellent GPA. What’s next for her? Just you wait (something tells us you won’t have to wait long!).

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Related Content:  Celebrating Graduation with the UVAFinance Team 

Petty Cash Replenishment Process

Are you a petty cash custodian?  When submitting petty cash and checking replenishment, receipts should be assigned to the appropriate spend categories as individual lines and not to the petty cash spend category.

 
The petty cash spend category is only used to create and increase petty funds, not for replenishments. We will be correcting replenishments that have been previously submitted to the Petty Cash spend category in error, and then locking the petty cash spend category for Central use only to avoid confusion in the future.

Please see this Quick Reference Guide for more information.

Feel free to reach out to askfinance@virginia.edu if you have questions or concerns.

Wellness Resources: June 2023

Take a free Virginia Recreation class

IM-Rec is now Virginia Recreation! Join a free group fitness class this spring-summer. Classes include Cycling, Yoga, Body Pump and Pilates.

Classes run through July 28, 2023. Click HERE to view the schedule.


Classes

Grow Through Stress: How to See Stressors as an Opportunity
June 8, 3:30 PM  Presented by FEAP

See all of FEAP's past events as well as their virtual library on their website.

Temporary Rollback of Two-Approver Expense Report Change

As you may know, we changed the expense report approval routing on May 22 to require two unique approval steps. This involved adding alternate routing to Cost Center managers, Senior Department Finance Approvers’ supervisors, and others not previously required to approve expense reports.

While we completed significant testing of multiple scenarios before moving forward with these changes, we have received feedback that the Cost Center manager step, specifically, was causing concern as ALL approvers in that role were being required to approve, which created a domino effect and did not allow those same approvers to approve at P2P, Senior Department Finance Approver, or other steps. We are working to redesign this process to better align with UVA policy, but it will take some time.

We have decided to roll back this change entirely for now. Expense reports will route as they did before the May 22 change. After fiscal year-end, we will reevaluate and work on a better business process to meet our internal controls requirement of two unique approval steps and make things as simple for our end users as possible.

We apologize for the confusion this has caused over the past two weeks and hope this reversion to the original business process will help.

A couple of items to note:

• 
  
  Expense reports already in process will follow the business process in place at the time reports were submitted, so you may still see extra approvers until all reports submitted since May 22 work themselves through the system.
• We would still like for you to review your roles to ensure different people are in each role so when a new change is implemented later this summer, there will be two unique approvers without having to route for alternate approval.
  

Please email askfinance@virginia.edu with any questions.