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OVERVIEW

The individuals responsible for financial transactions across the university vary in job titles, responsibilities and expertise. A phased-in plan will be developed to bring more oversight and standardization to budget operations across divisions, colleges and departments at all campuses.

Purpose

The project is being undertaken because it is believed that the current decentralized structure allows for inefficiency, inconsistency and vulnerability. In the current state many individuals throughout the university are responsible for various finance duties including budgeting, accounting, financial analysis and reporting. Pooling resources can provide for efficiencies by streamlining processes, encouraging exchange of skill set and knowledge, and simplifying reporting relationships. The current state also allows for inconsistency due to this decentralized nature. As a result, report and financial analysis have their own look and each area can have its own unique processes. In addition, there can be challenges with communication and there is no uniform training. Finally, the decentralization can cause vulnerability. If an individual leaves the university, there can be material knowledge loss that affects processes and timeliness. Creating a pool of cross-trained individuals can reduce this risk.

Objectives

• Identify staffing structures in place for business support, including identifying where departments/divisions are supported by a business manager or by support staff. For each division/college/department, identify the type of support provided to understand the varying degrees to which information is packaged and used in decision making (this will help us understand where needs are met/not met in order to consider a shared services connection)
• Identification of roles and responsibilities of financial representatives across the university - some individuals have the responsibility but don’t have the title or the responsibility is an “add-on” to their regular work (i.e. admin support personnel).
• Design a professional development model to provide a shared campus experience for fiscal/business officers for each unit; this would be standardized training provided by KSU (e.g. Banner, FLASHcart, Financial Reporting, etc.)
• Design a professional development model to enhance staff knowledge and skills, particularly through use of institutional membership in NACUBO.
• Streamline similar workflows into one
• Review of data governance to ensure that the right people have access to the right information.
• Enable ad hoc reporting (and provide any needed training)
• Reduce/eliminate unnecessary policies

Deliverables

• Training for employees in financial positions
• A financial toolset for tracking and reporting

Team

• Leaders: Jeannie Reifsnyder, Finance & Administration
• Allison Bolt, Residence Services
• Christine Hill, Academic Budget, Regional Campuses
• Jennifer Piatt, Academic Budget
• Kevin Savage, University Budget
• Tammy Slusser, Controller
• Julie Volcheck, University Health Services

PRIMARY CONTACT

• Jeannie Reifsnyder, Finance & Administration - lreifsn1@kent.edu