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!

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.  

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!  

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!

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.

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.)

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!

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.

AP Tips & Tricks

There's a new crop of tips and tricks from our AP team this week!

• Tips for tax:  An invoice should follow the terms and conditions of PO, whether to include tax or not, assuming that the PO is responsible for the origin of the Invoice.  Remember that UVA is tax-exempt and can supply a tax-exempt certificate at a vendor's request.
• Tip on Invoice processing:  When entering invoices manually, enter the supplier invoice number first to let the system check if the invoice already exists in Workday.
• Tip for Vendors on POs:  Advise vendors to ensure they are adding the correct PO #s to each invoice 
• Tip on Responsiveness:  It is imperative that departments are responding to inquiries from AP quickly, as we are working hard to clear the backlog and a lot of times need information from the departments to complete the processing of an invoice.

Did you miss a past installment of AP Tips & Tricks?  Check them out here: AP Tips & Tricks May 11 / AP Tips & Tricks March 8 / AP Tips & Tricks February 8

UVA Launches Punchout with Quartzy

UVA has launched a punchout with Quartzy, a lab inventory management platform and scientific research supply marketplace, in the UVA Marketplace. Quartzy fosters our waste reduction and sustainable procurement initiatives by providing a central lab inventory platform to monitor stock levels and minimize unnecessary ordering.

Benefits of Quartzy Punchout: 

• No copy/pasting fields for the labs when placing orders with Quartzy
• All UVA labs receive a $250 credit as well as a two-year free subscription.
• Exceptionally favorable rates in years 3-5

The punchout will be live in the UVA Marketplace on Tuesday, May 30th. While we are making the implementation, orders with Quartzy will be temporarily unavailable from May 25-29.

Procurement (Belatedly) Welcomes Lee Bobbio

Lee Bobbio joined UVAFinance in November of 2022 as an Accounts Payable Specialist but somehow managed to fly under the UVAFinance Blog’s radar until recently. We’re pleased to officially welcome him to the team!

The Bobbio family

Bobbio has a broad background in finance and banking, as well as a variety of technological pursuits. Of his transition to academia from his most recent role in management at SunTrust bank, Bobbio says he finds different nuances to the traditional corporate environment, but also many similarities.

Besides his career in finance, Bobbio has also carved out a large space in his life for music. From the age of six through high school, he took piano lessons, then taught himself guitar and drums. His musical interests propelled him through school as the accompanist to the jazz band and member of the marching band into his adult life as a hobbyist working with audiovisuals and in recording studios. He’s kept busy assisting with demo albums for recording artists and doing sound design for Ralph Stanley and Livingston Taylor.

 

Daisy Bobbio

For Bobbio, his interests in music and math go hand in hand: “Musical aptitude and math are linked. Music theory demonstrates fractions and division, keeping time such.” Bobbio and his wife Jennifer have two sons: Jason (9) and Wesley (4). Bobbio and Jason take Karate together (Jason is a blue belt and Bobbio is working on his black belt), and Bobbio and Jennifer coach Wesley’s soccer team. 

A self-described “family of nerds,” Bobbio says his family enjoys celebrating May 4th and Pi Day, computers and books. Looking for a great Sci-Fi read? The Bobbios recommend Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary

AP Tips & Tricks

This week, the AP Team has a few important tips to share.

First, remember that since we've moved invoicing in-house, the address for POs is different.  Just keep this in mind in case your vendors reach out to you concerned about the change and reassure them that all is well!

Second, when you're entering invoices in Workday, be sure you're using the actual invoice date from the invoice itself, not the date you're entering the invoice or the received date.  For our Prompt Pay numbers to be accurate, the date of the invoice and the date in the system must match.  Accurate/actual received dates in the Received Date field are just as important!

In case you missed it:  Invoices are now being processed in-house!  We'll have updates for you soon on the progress of the backlog and more.  

New FAQ: Ordering from America To Go

New resource alert!  

Folks have been asking questions about working with America to Go, so UVAFinance trainer Jack Jensen developed this FAQ Quick Reference Guide to help out.  

It's basic right now but we're happy to add to it, so please share any additional suggestions and questions with askfinance@virginia.edu.

Ordering From America To Go FAQ Quick Reference Guide

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Related Content:  AP Tips & Tricks

Sustainable Purchasing Updates

The Office for Sustainability joined the May Fiscal Administrator's meeting and provided updates on the current status of UVA's single-use plastics reduction efforts and shared that UVA has joined the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC). 

Single-Use Plastic Requirements:  To align with the  University's Sustainability goals, UVA will continue its commitment to reducing single-use plastics and will not purchase, distribute, or sell single-use plastics with UVA funds.   These requirements apply to purchases made with UVA funds, all units, foundations, and/or affiliates operating or providing a service on grounds or in UVA-owned buildings, and all events and projects taking place on UVA grounds.   Take the Plastic-Free Pledge!

The Supply Room Sustainable Products:  Located in the Marketplace, this curated collection gives you convenient access to compostable wares, aluminum water bottles, sustainable office and break room supplies, and more.  Look for this on the favorites tab or click the sustainable products logo you see here in the blog article. 

Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council:  UVA has joined the SPLC, which gives everyone on Grounds access to great resources.  Learn more and get the link to create your own account.

Anyone with questions or feedback can connect with the Sustainability team by emailing sustainability@virginina.edu.

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Links to Resources: 

• UVA's Single-Use Plastics Reduction Strategy https://sustainability.virginia.edu/single-use-plastics
• Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC)  https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org
• Where Does UVA's Waste Go? https://sustainability.virginia.edu/sites/g/files/jsddwu1096/files/2023-03/where%20does%20waste%20go%20infographic.pdf

Are you a Procurement Shopper? You can now Close your Own POs!

Exciting news for the purchasing community across UVA!  As of May 8, everyone with the Procurement Shopper role in Workday Finance can close POs in Workday.  This decision returns some functionality users experienced in Oracle.  

Here's what the new permissions allow you to do:

• Close POs
• Close PO lines
• Reopen POs
• Reopen PO lines

What you cannot do: 

• Cancel POs
• Close or reopen Requisitions

We have Quick Reference Guides for Closing Purchas Orders available online.  

Important Note:  Please close all POs that won't have any additional activity, or that you don't want to have reflected in next year's budget obligations.  Unlike Oracle, Workday doesn't auto-roll over any closed POs.  Any POs that remain open on June 30th will be rolled forward as obligations against your FY2024 budget. 

This change is a result of UVAFinance working with finance users across Grounds and listening to their feedback.  Thanks to everyone who shares their thoughts with us so we can do our best to make things easier over time!

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Related Content:  AP Tips & Tricks

Invoice Processing has Officially Moved In-House!

Contributed by Amanda Lockhart Davis

L to R: Rebecca Clore (temp), DeAnna Snead (temp), Jack Jensen (trainer),
Leslie Williams (AP), Brittany Ripple (temp), and Sarah Outten (temp)

How excited are we to report that invoice processing has moved in-house?  SO EXCITED!  And we know you're excited, too!

All invoices are being processed in-house, on-Grounds, and within UVAFinance, by warm bodies with thoughtful brains.

This Monday, April 24, a group of sharp-as-a-tack temps arrived to train with AP's Leslie Williams and UVAFinance trainer Jack Jensen.  While our AP team works through the more complicated invoices in our backlog, the temps will tackle new invoices that come into the system.  

You may have to reassure your vendors that the change in the address they may notice on their invoices is on the up and up.  And of course, as May progresses, you should start to see a real difference in the backlog.

We're so happy to deliver on a promised improvement and we look forward to keeping you up to date as the initiative progresses.   

Click the image to read her cheeky sign ;)

Important Note about Requisitions with Zero Dollar Lines

Sometimes, requisitions you submit to Procurement will have a line with $0 (zero dollars).  Usually, this is a free sample or to document the transaction liability reasons, etc.  In any case, zero-dollar requisitions occur every once in a while.  

Here's the important part:  until we implement a system fix that's in the works, please let us know via Ask Finance if you submit a requisition including a zero-dollar line.  All we need is the requisition number!  

Why?  Because currently, a system constraint in Workday sends requisitions with a zero-dollar line into a sort of "requisition purgatory" from which it's very difficult to filter for them without identifying data.  

We should have a permanent solution for this very soon, but until then, if you provide us with information upfront, we'll be able to rescue your requisition and get it on its merry way quickly.

Note:  If your entire requisition has a zero-dollar amount, a Contract Request should be submitted instead.  A Contract Request is used when you need a contract reviewed and signed by PSDS and you do not need a PO issued to a supplier.  See this Quick Reference Guide for more info. 

Announcing the New Senior Director for Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services

After completion of a thorough and robust national search, UVAFinance has chosen Mark Cartwright as the new Senior Director of Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services, effective April 24. Cartwright served in this role on an interim basis for three months, providing excellent leadership, and prior to that,  led Supplier Diversity for over a year.

Cartwright has a long and varied background in leading procurement teams, including those at Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has devoted his career to fostering business growth opportunities in academic and business settings. His energy, ingenuity, and desire to partner with our stakeholders across Grounds and in the greater Charlottesville Community make him an ideal leader for UVA's procurement efforts.

UVAFinance welcomes Carwright's stellar expertise and experience in this position and we're very excited to partner with him on all things Procurement and Supplier Diversity.  

How to Work with PaymentWorks: More Helpful Resources

At the April Fiscal Administrators meeting, the group had some great questions about Payment Works that we thought would be helpful to share with the larger finance community (those Fiscal Admins are on it -- if you aren't already coming to FA meetings, you don't know what you're missing).  

Check out past meeting recordings and materials on the UVAFinance website under "Fiscal Administrators," and if you're not on the mailing list, contact AskFinance and ask to be added.

• How do I find if a company or person is registered in PaymentWorks?
• How do I tell which registration form to use in PaymentWorks (individual or supplier)?
• Had any trouble bookmarking PaymentWorks?  Do it from this screen. 
• Resources for Suppliers working in PaymentWorks

If you'd like to see more of the discussion about PaymentWorks from the April FA meeting, it's available for viewing on the Fiscal Administrators' page on the web (the PaymentWorks portion begins at the 1 hr 15-minute mark).

UVA Joins the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council

Contributed by Mark Cartwright

The University of Virginia has joined the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, a who’s who of private sector, higher ed, government, and non-profit advocates. Higher Ed members include Yale, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, NYU, Stanford, Emory, and Georgia Tech.

The SPLC connects members to best-in-class sustainable procurement expertise including one-on-one training, a network of engaged peers, and practical guidance that includes case studies, webinars, contract language, tools, and category-specific resources. Within Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services, Song Song and John Gerding have taken the lead in sustainability efforts, partnering with the Office of Sustainability at UVA. 

Any UVA employee can sign up for free online access to the SPLC and enjoy their network and resources by visiting https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/create-account.