Here are just some of the accomplishments achieved by Division of Finance and Administration teams in 2002.
Oracle Guided Learning
Stephanie Zuniga from the Center for Business Services and Solutions, alongside Melissa Tessier and Koffi Apedoh from Financial Systems Support, has made tremendous strides in getting the first round of guides out to testers for the Oracle Guided Learning Project. These guides are related to procurement where we see the greatest need and number of campus users. The goal of Oracle Guided Learning is to improve how training materials are delivered and minimize training for staff new to Oracle. Once implemented end users will receive real-time, step-by-step guidance as they enter data into the system, which will increase productivity and reduce support costs across campus users. The first set of guides related to purchasing will be released at the end of August.
Oracle Data Integrity Project Task Force
In November 2021, material variances in financial data were discovered between the general ledger and the Project Portfolio Management sub-ledger. Due to the massive volume of impacted projects, the Oracle Data Integrity Project task force was pulled together from April to May 2022, leveraging team members from across DFA to reconcile hundreds of projects. It required team members to commit extra hours of work in addition to their day-to-day responsibilities to reconcile the out-of-balance projects.
Thank you to Kelli Maxey, Eli Vargas, Amanda Johnson, Gurp Dhaliwal, Brandi Masasso, Dana Bautista, Eddie Torres, Sean Pamer, Kristi Morales , and Maria Higareda-Marquez.
Auxiliaries
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One of the busiest summer conference seasons to date, with various groups and activities in support of enrollment growth efforts and strengthening campus and community partnerships.
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Gearing up for fall semester with staff and student hires, along with requisite trainings and staff professional development days.
Wildfire Emergency Support
With wildfire season upon us, Hospitality Services, TAPS and Equipment Management teams worked in close coordination with the Emergency Operations Center, Housing, Dining, and numerous campus partners to coordinate temporary housing, parking and storage resources for impacted faculty, staff, and students and their families. Thank you to Debbie Henderson, Karin Groth, Meagan Torres, and Lori Calloway for their efforts in coordinating support for those impacted by the recent fires.
Guide to Paying an Individual
After eight months of research, meetings and creating flowcharts, the How to Pay an Individual interactive chart for campus users was published on the Center for Business Services and Support website. Staff from CBS2, Human Resources, Procurement, Accounts Payable, Graduate Division, Travel & Expense Management, and Tax Services pooled their knowledge to create the chart. Users are linked to resources and webpages that provide clear definitions, workflows and expected processing times to help navigate the various methods of paying individuals that provide goods and services to the university.
Thank you to Christie Harvey, Jennifer Riedeman, Greg Sweet, Meshell Alcantar, Eric Cannon, Tracy England, Jennifer Di Salvo, Jodie Lingenfelter, Meagan Torres, and Todd Knittel.
Financial Planning & Analysis
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First full-cycle budget call process for FY22/23 was successfully completed and integrated with the academic planning process.
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Introduced new process for requests outside of budget call (Budget Augmentation Requests) for increased transparency and process improvements.
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Reviewed and reconciled 567 of 570 total contract and grant projects (99%) in collaboration with research administrators. This effort addressed budget discrepancies through June 30, 2020.
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Effectively worked with partners from Deloitte and the Financial Information Technology team to create multiple input forms in EPBCS to increase processing time efficiency.
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Identified budget data discrepancies in Faculty Portfolio Report driven by system integration issues and worked with various campus partners to resolve the matter.
Student Business Services
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Introduced a new Service Now ticket and related workflow that students use to request a replacement student refund check
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Consolidated 12 campus-based fees into one Banner generic detail code to reduce the number of charges posting to student accounts.
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Three team members participated on the Oracle Data Integrity Project, gaining valuable experience as they assisted their DFA colleagues.
Payroll Services
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Completed initial lift of implementing AB119 requirements for UC Merced.
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On July 24, facilitated the first of many student employee hiring evenings to support resident assistants’ return to campus. Other events were scheduled in August to support the large need for Dining Services student onboarding.
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Annual GROW event where onboarding of approximately 175 graduate students will go through the onboarding process, scheduled for August 15-16.
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Successfully completed multiple payroll cycles, down three full FTE with little impact to the campus population.
Project Portfolio Management
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ServiceNow Ticket Metrics
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Closed 2,035 tickets from July 2021 to June 2022
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Reduced ticket resolution time from an average of 36 days to 15 days.
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Successful training and transition of Sponsored Funds Budgetary Transactions to FP&A
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Successful cross-collaboration and partnership with Financial Planning & Analysis team to mitigate variances between PPM and general ledger
Financial Systems Support
General Accounting
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Hired and onboarded four new accountants
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Developed user-friendly Oracle import templates to automate mirroring entry postings between PPM and GL
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ServiceNow Metrics
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Closed 988 tickets from July 2021 to June 2022
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Reduced ticket resolution time from an average of 22 days to 15 days
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Accounts Payable
Travel & Expense Management
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Created Concur custom reporting
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Launched Travel & Expense Management website
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Implementation of RA workflow in Concur
