Finance Strategic Transformation & OSP

1. Finance Strategic Transformation & OSP Presented by Urmila bajaj

2. Finance Strategic TransformationOSP’s Perspective • In July, OSP Leadership took a trip to Yale University, who transitioned from Oracle to Workday • Bits of wisdom from our colleagues at Yale: • Forget about what you currently have in Oracle; just design a new system and be very clear about the mapping from Oracle to Workday & get used to WD terms as early as possible. • It’s really important to manage change with effective communication and user training. • Use the time of transformation to think of other changes you should make – this is the time to increase efficiencies across the board, not just replicating the current business processes for the technology transition. • Simpler is better – try to push back on non-standard elements and customizations to Workday as much as you can. You will be glad you did later! • Document business decisions made and why they were made (this keeps you and your team on the right path later in the project, as things get more and more complicated). • Get people exposed to the system as soon as possible, not just close to go-live. Practice vigorous change management – communicate early and often about the changes!

3. Finance Strategic TransformationOSP’s Perspective • Six Pre-Discovery Workshops were held for Grants Management to document current processes and pain points; participants included OSP, Finance and departmental RAs • July 30/August 7: Award Establishment & Management • August 6: Outgoing Subawards • August 13: Award Closeout • August 20: Invoicing and Accounts Receivables • August 27: Reporting • September 10: Special Award Conditions (effort reporting, cost sharing, program income, etc.)

4. Key Pain Points-Pre Discovery Workshops • Excessive amount of data needs to be rekeyed in Oracle and the pre-award system • Departments without research administrators have no access to award document/actions in ResearchUVA; CRCs are not notified when PTAO is set up in Oracle • Sponsors are set up as “Customers” in Oracle, with limited fields available for sponsor classifications required for institutional & federal reporting • Printing sponsor invoices is a manual process; often has to be done outside of business hours for generating sequential sets • Invoices for milestone events require manual tracking & communication between OSP and departments • CRCs and departments send out invoices for invoiceable items to sponsors, which are not recorded as receivables in Oracle • Graduate Research Assistant wages and tuition remission are not associated within the system; tuition is reallocated from suspense account at the end of a semester

5. Key Pain Points-Pre Discovery Workshops • Oracle does not have an efficient way to track carry forwards from one budget year to another, nor track future (anticipated) sponsor funding • There is no workflow for cost transfer approvals by OSP; departments are requested to fill out a justification form if the cost transfers are over 90 days old • Costing exceptions between GA and GL require OSP to change close dates, thus losing visibility of the true date the award was closed • Cost sharing companion accounts require a new award if cost share funding is coming from different sources • OSP does not receive a copy of the PI approved invoice from a sub-award • Institutional record retention policy cannot be followed from Oracle

6. Business Process Discovery Sessions

7. Discovery Sessions - Key Takeaways • Procurement, Accounts Payable and Expenses • Requisitions can be copied over from another one; can be shown as “soft encumbrances” • PO approvals can be routed based on cost centers rather then HR profiles; open commitments can be rolled forward; “Finally closing” of POs will no longer be needed-WD has a mechanism to “mass close” POs • WD can be configured to require additional attachments for certain expenditure types • Subawards could be managed through Supplier Contracts module – will be clarified during the Grants Management BPD

8. Discovery Sessions - Key Takeaways • General Accounting & Financial Reporting • Configurability and workflows are available in WD, with account posting rules (Oracle term=auto accounting rules) • Foundation Data Model (FDM) uses “driver” worktags (company, fund, cost center, grant, gift, etc.) and “accounting” worktags (expense item, purchase item, spend category, revenue category, etc.) for transaction processing and reporting • Transactions post to ledger accounts under “driver” worktags which auto-populate “related” worktags • Ledger accounts for operational transactions (supplier invoice payment, bank transaction, asset transaction, etc.) are not visible to end users, who would select only spend or revenue categories • Ability to drill down on transactions to display posting details and supporting docs (e.g., invoices) • “Book” codes can be used for State and other reporting requirements (possibly SEFA, HERD reports) • Internal Service Provider (ISP) can be pre-defined, upon completion of an ISP’s business process, accounting rules will recognize revenue for ISP cost center and post expenses on the customer’s cost center

9. What’s Next….. • OSP will…… • continue to participate in the Business Process Discovery Sessions & provide feedback from research administration perspective • review sponsored program related policies & procedures • consider conversion strategy, which PTAOs should be transitioned to WD • identify representatives who will be participating in the next phase of FST • continue to communicate changes in research administration resulting from FST • Exciting time for all of us……let’s get this done together!