MRP: UBI & QA Data Warehouse

MRP’s Change Management team continues to deliver Intro to UBI training (25 sessions to-date). The training is going very well, with lots of positive comments from users. MRP's Training and Reporting teams also hosted another UBI Workshop, with an exchange of important information and helpful feedback.

In parallel to the UBI rollout, the Data Architecture team started migrating ETL code to the QA Data Warehouse. Soon, UBI will display GA data from the new Data Warehouse (instead of the legacy data store). This switch should be transparent to UBI end users.

Meet The Employee Engagement Committee

The Employee Engagement Committee has three main areas of focus:  Rewards & Recognition, Professional Development, and Social Events/Networking.  As such, we have developed a sub-committee dedicated to each area.

Our first task as a group was to conduct an employee engagement survey.  Thanks to everyone who provided feedback!  This, in addition to what we brought from the Appreciative Inquiry process, has helped to inform the priorities for each of our sub-groups. Our upcoming actions will be to implement programs and events that encourage more interdepartmental mingling, improve the consistency of rewards and recognition across UVAFinance, increase internal professional development opportunities, and advance the learning culture of UVAFinance.

We look forward to seeing the team spirit on Finance Shirt Friday (July 29), and will keep you posted on more to come!  If you have any questions or suggestions about any of our subcommittees, please email finance_engagement@virginia.edu or contact any of our committee members:

Rewards and Recognition
Lorie Strother
Jessie McGann
Caitlin Payne

Networking/Social Events
Josh Breeden
Xavier Wiltbank
Elizabeth Carey

Professional Development 
Patty Marbury
Erika Priddy
Nita Graves
Keith Carter
Alice Reuther

Upcoming FOC Trainings

Descriptions of the classes, as well as links to enroll via Employee Self-Service are available from the Events section on the Finance Outreach and Compliance website at http://foc.virginia.edu/. 

Courses, Workshops, and Labs

Finance Fundamentals
July 12, July 27, August 9, and August 23 from 1:30–4:30
Carruthers Hall, Conference Room E

Mastering Account Reconciliations
July 28, 1:30–4:00
Carruthers Hall, Conference Room E

Wrestling with Expenditure Types
Aug 2, 2:00–4:00
Bavaro Hall, Room 116 (Holloway Hall)

General Ledger Revenue Reconciliations Workshop
Aug 11, 1:30–4:30
Carruthers Hall, Conference Room E    

TravelUVA: Lab
July 19, 9:00–10:30, 2400 Old Ivy Rd., Room 136
Aug 16, 2:00–4:00, Michie North, Room 219


Brown Bag Sessions

Careers in Sponsored Research Administration
July 27, 12:00–2:00
Newcomb Hall, Room 177

Using the Travel and Expense Card
Aug 3, 12:00–2:00
2400 Old Ivy Rd., Room 189

How Do I Get Help? Resources for Users of the Integrated System
Aug 17, 12:00–2:00
Bavaro Hall, Room 116 (Holloway Hall)


Although they are not all available for enrollment at this time, for purposes of fall planning other upcoming Brown Bag sessions are:

• Paperless Procurement – Sept 7
• Expenditure Dashboard – Sept 14
• Using America To Go – Oct 5
• Emergency Preparedness – Oct 19
• Understanding Export Controls – Nov 2
• IT Security – Nov 16
• Recharge Centers – Dec 7


Questions, suggestions, or training needs: finance-outreach@virginia.edu.

Bookmark This: OSP Post-Award Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Do you have questions about grant management at UVA? If so, checkout this helpful page from the Office of Sponsored Programs: https://www.virginia.edu/sponsoredprograms/post-award/faqs.html.

Invoicing, reporting, PTAO setup, and more-- the FAQs have answers to your most pressing questions about grant management. Still can’t find what you’re looking for? No problem. At the bottom of the page, there are instructions for submitting additional questions.

Carruthers Renovation Update

Facilities Management has made great progress working through the demolition portion of the project.  Here are some updates, as of the end of June:

• 95% done with demolition
• Roll-back windows for Access Management and Communication Services removed
• Domestic hot and cold water shut off (6/25-6/26) to rework the plumbing system.  
• Framing began (6/27)

The Core and Advisory Renovation committees took a site tour of the front area on June 21. As you can see, a lot of work has been done and the space looks totally different!

If you have questions, please email Stacey.

Meet the Service Excellence Committee

The work of the Service Excellence Committee centers around delivery of collection the following information:

• What type of services do we provide and who do we provide them to?
• What do particular audiences expect from our service? 

Our first task was to discuss the functions of our various departments, find commonalities and attempt to define our customer base. We agreed on priorities for our work that are based around the mission, vision, goals & objectives of UVA Finance as well the themes identified in the Appreciative Inquiry process. We have gathered various pieces of research about our service performance and conducted interviews with management in our areas. Our next deliverable is to construct a survey based on the data collected from research and interviews for individual areas. This survey will inform our overall project of a needs-analysis.

The members of the committee are:

• Jenn Bari (Student Financial Services)
• Andrew Bedotto (Finance Outreach and Compliance)
• Bush Bell (UVa Medical Center)
• Julie Bird (Office of the VP for Finance)
• Mavis Dickerson (Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services)
• Chris Doran (Student Financial Services)
• Kristin Floyd (Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services)
• Bill Hendricks (Office of Sponsored Programs)
• Rohan Patel (Budget Office)

If you have questions or would like to contribute, you may contact Jenn Bari or Julie Bird.

Hello from the UVA Collaboration Team

The Collaboration Team has had several meetings to discuss each department.  By getting to know each department, we have discovered items to share with other departments since they are innovative and can be considered best practices.  In addition, we have found potential areas of improvement.

At this time, we are trying develop a shared calendar similar to SFS’ calendar for all units – Best Practice.  We are hoping the shared calendar will have two benefits.  1) Make it easy for everyone to view their current departmental events and 2) to develop a master calendar with each Department’s “busy” times.

There are more initiatives that we are looking at to collaborate.  Stay tuned!

Workshop: Leading a Lean Transformation

About 30 individuals from the VPF areas (and beyond) are currently participating in a workshop led by Elliot Weiss (Darden) and Austin English (RCF Associates and former student of Elliot).  This workshop uses business case studies and “learning by doing” to convey the principles of lean.
One technique of lean is learning to identify waste, or non-value added activities.  Once you start looking for it, you can find it anywhere and everywhere!  Here are some examples from both work and home:

• Driving back and forth to school activities or meetings
• Disorganized closets, garages, storage areas
• Holding on to excess inventory
• Distraction of email alerts and phone
• Printing and subsequent filing of electronic documents
• Walking to the printer or copier
• Excessively long lines due to poor store layout

If you’d like to learn more about everyday applications, read The Lean Anthology, A Practical Primer in Continual Improvement, by Rebecca Goldberg & Elliot Weiss.  Or better yet, participate in the workshop!  More sessions to be offered soon.

Welcome, Tonia Cable!

Tonia Cable is a new grants administrator in the Office of Sponsored Programs. Tonia received her undergraduate degree in Health Policy Analysis and Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009, and graduated from University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s  Master of HealthCare Administration program in 2011. Tonia became a Certified Research Administrator (CRA) in 2015. Prior to joining UVA, she worked as a Grants and Contracts Coordinator in the Carolinas HealthCare System for four years.

Outside of work, Tonia enjoys music, reading and cheering on her various sports teams!

From Melody's Desk

Happy last day of the fiscal year!  I just wanted to send a quick mid-summer message to recognize all the work that everyone has been putting into year-end. Our grant and contract numbers are looking good, the auditors are on site, and the budget will load tomorrow. We have had a great week (see the next post) and are really gaining momentum as we are improving how we all do work at UVA. I’m looking forward to a great Fiscal Year 2017!

Our strategic planning committees have been meeting to come up with great ideas to implement as we move towards our vision. One awesome idea from the Employee Engagement Committee is to start a monthly “Finance T-Shirt Friday.” So, if you haven’t yet gotten your Finance T-Shirt, please email Linda Leake and let her know your shirt size.

Best,

PS: It’s mid-year.  Check Lead@ and make sure that you’ve completed your 2016 goals. Interim self-assessments should be completed by July 15th. Here are some hints on Conducting a Self-Evaluation. And check with your manager about having an interim check-in conversation to see how you are making progress on goals.

UVAFinance Vision: the valued and trusted financial partner that the University community turns to first.

Impeccable source of information * Service excellence * Innovative action * Collaborative partner * Valued, high-performing teams

MRP/UBI & ResearchUVA Celebrations

June was very successful across the UVAFinance family, especially the end of the month. Managerial Reporting and the Office of Sponsored Programs released major deliverables for their stakeholders—and both initiatives promise to change how we do work at the University.

In June, University Business Intelligence officially launched, and more than 100 users around Grounds already use the University’s new enterprise reporting environment. Small groups of pilot users and subject matter experts began testing in February with Managerial Reporting. Nearly 150 users have attended the required Intro-to-UBI training, which continues through the summer. Read more about UBI’s early successes.

Around the same time, the Office of Sponsored Programs released the new Proposal Routing Form, a bridge to the future-state proposal development and submission functionality in ResearchUVA. The release of the “PRF” (previously known as the “Goldenrod”) is making an immediate impact, as individuals around Grounds are already using the new fillable PDF form.

The easy-to-use Proposal Routing Form is a platform for more robust and meaningful data on proposal stage activity at UVA—from both a strategic and compliance standpoint. The goal is greater operational efficiency and greater reporting capability in research administration at UVA.

From Melody's Desk

I hope all are well and enjoying summer. Hopefully you all have made plans to spend time away from work, with friends, family, or even by yourself. It is critically important that you find time to rejuvenate and connect with the external world. I have time planned to go to a conference (NACUBO in Montreal, so lovely in July!) and to the beach with my family.

UVA Final Exercises - we all had a hand in making sure that more than 6,600 students earned degrees. Thank you for your role in supporting this core mission of the institution, whether it is helping procure equipment and supplies, support faculty, train staff, award aid, collect tuition, or maintain a financially strong institution.

I wanted to call your attention to the remarks of Paul Mahoney at the Sunday ceremony. I felt that his speech was different from many, in that he provided very tangible advice for the new graduates; advice that is pertinent for everyone of us, even for those who are a bit more seasoned in our careers. 

I encourage you to take a few moments to read his remarks, especially beginning on page 2 when he talks about how important it is for success in life to "take ownership, learn continuously, and think long-term." Often I will hear people wonder what they need to do to be successful, earn a promotion, and develop their careers. It takes more than, as Dean Mahoney says, to just "do what you’re told. Write the memo; create the spreadsheet; attend the meeting."  You have to own your career, your development as a leader, and even your mistakes.

UVAFinance Vision: the valued and trusted financial partner that the University community turns to first.

Impeccable source of information * Service excellence * Innovative action * Collaborative partner * Valued, high-performing teams

UVAFinance Posters

UVAFinance posters are making their way around to the various areas of the UVAFinance family. These posters display the Vision/Mission/Core Values we collectively established in early 2016. Look for them in your area in the coming days!

Posters Around Ground: A Simple Process

Posters around Grounds—A simple process

You’ve seen large-format posters around Grounds (UVA Forward, Carruthers Hall Spring Fling, OE Project Alliance Showcases). These posters are an effective way to increase project visibility, team messaging, or display other important visuals. Jeremy Serkin has produced a few dozen departmental/project posters in the last year or so—with three basic steps: Content, Layout, Print. 

Content (1 or 2 days)
What is your message? Establish any text content you want to use. If you plan to use pictures or graphics, locate high-resolution images (Google Image search allows you to filterbased on image size). The larger, the better.

Layout (1 or 2 days)
Good is in the Details. Experts use the Adobe Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. But Microsoft PowerPoint is an easy and accessible tool for the rest of us Do-It-Yourself graphic designers. Just set the page dimensions to the desired poster height and width before laying out content. There are even self-guided PowerPointposter design tutorials on YouTube.

Print (2 or 3 days)
Finalized your work? Great! Save the file as a PDF, and email uvaprint@virginia.edu. Attach the PDF and provide as much detail as you can (size, mounted/not mounted, date needed, Organization, PTAO, etc). Keith Tyre and the folks at UVA Printing and Copying Services do a nice job—so give them a few days to print, mount, and deliver.

Content. Layout. Print. It really is that simple.

Specifics
Time:                    4-7 days
Cost:                     ~$125 (for 4’x3’ mounted)
Delivery:              Yes

Policy Change: Food and Meals Retail Sales and Use Tax Exemption

State sales tax no longer applies to meals purchased for University purposes under the following conditions: 

• The food, meal, or catered meal furthers a function, mission, service, or purpose.
• The charge is invoiced to and paid for by the University – not reimbursed to an employee.
• The University determines to whom, when, and how the meals or food are served and consumed.

UVA’s catering concierge, America To Go (ATG), will ensure that invoices from their caterers will not include state taxes; however, if you are using non-ATG caterers, you may need to communicate this change to the caterer. For more information, please visit http://www.procurement.virginia.edu/pagerecentpuc#section667.