Introducing UVAFinance: Randy Sule and Christine Kennedy-Tyburski


 

 
A lot has changed in UVAFinance in the past few years (understatement!). There are many new faces, changes to the organizational structure, and lots of differences in the way we do our jobs. When remote and hybrid work is added into the mix, it's easy to become unsure about which department does what and who works where.
 

Introducing UVAFinance is a recurring blog feature created to introduce our team to our team, a couple of members at a time. Every other week, we'll present readers with two team members to get to know. To understand how these colleagues are situated within the greater UVAFinance structure, check out this new resource on the UVAFinance website. (Keep in mind that it's not an org chart, but rather a map of what functions of central finance exist in which general areas.)

Let's go!

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Christine Kennedy-Tyburski, Senior Financial Controls Coordinator

 

 
What do you do as a Senior Financial Controls Coordinator?
 
I'm the coordination point for a lot of different tasks, processes, and requests related to internal controls.  Internal controls include policies and procedures that ensure our reporting is reliable, that our operations are efficient, and that we are compliant with laws and regulations.  
 
Who do you work with on a regular basis? 
 
I work mainly with any of our functional or operational owners in UVAFinance and UVA-Wise.  I also work with Internal Audit and operational areas on various requests, and our audit coordination work with the APA.  As a part of the APA audit, I assist in coordinating the documentation requests with the functional owners and am an extra set of eyes for documentation before the information officially goes to the APA.  If there are findings from the audit, I organize the responses from our functional areas. Related to our audit work, I coordinate the management responses and any corrective action plans, into quarterly reports to the Virginia Department of Accounts (DOA). 
 
I also work very closely with the UVA Policy office, and I'm the representative for UVAFinance on the policy review committee (PRC).  I review the policies and also work with the functional areas within finance to get their feedback, questions, and concerns.  It's cool that I get to work with our subject matter experts to share helpful information regarding policies. 
 
What seasons are busiest, or what rhythms exist in your job?
 
Summer is busy due to the APA audit (that's when begin their test work and review the completed fiscal year).  It's especially interesting this year because this is our first APA audit after the implementation of Workday Finance, and it's the first time they've audited us in the Workday environment for our financial activity (aside from Payroll/HR).  That means there are lots of requests to deal with!  Fall remains busy because of those outstanding requests and the completion of the test work, and soon we'll start having check-ins with the auditor team to go through the findings and management responses.  There's really never a time when nothing is going on.
 
What might surprise people about the work you do?
 
Just how interconnected all the work is to all the different functions.  That means there's a lot of incredibly detailed work and a lot of feedback and expertise to synthesize.  Also, it takes a lot of effort to make sure our policies are current because when we update them, references to that updated item have to be reflected across the entire enterprise.  When you update one, there's a whole web of others that will need review!
 
 
What do you like best about working in UVAFinance?
 
In my job, I get to learn a lot about the enterprise overall and see the connection points and places where we can keep our teams connected to one another.  I enjoy analytical work, assessing large amounts of data.  The writing aspect of my job is also great because I like communicating with audiences and considering the overall context and how I can convey things in a way that helps them.  The bigger context makes our work more human; data can tell you a lot of stuff, but it can't necessarily tell the entire story.
 
How do you connect your work with the UVAFinance values?

 
The number one thing I want to do is be collaborative with the policy owners in our functional areas and work with them on things they're experts at.  They teach me what they do and I can help them from there; in that way, I lean on their impeccable source of information to be accurate in my own work.  I am all about the details!  
 
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Randy Sule, Financial Data & Technical Analyst

 

 

What do you do as a Financial Data and Technical Analyst? 
 
My work focuses on the creation of financial report solutions management for the University by engaging with all UVA staff stakeholders by collecting, helping define requirements, and developing reports on the Workday platform. The reporting we develop using Workday allows for better management of UVA's finances. We listen to our users, gather the requirements and needs, and then advise them on what reporting is available to achieve that, and also what is available that we could build.  We work with them to understand their business needs and then design reports that will fulfill them. 
 

 


 


 

Who do you work with on a regular basis?  


 

Every UVA staff member is my user because we do the reports for everyone at the University!  Our department, which I call the few, the proud, the BI team, works with any area that has a financial reporting need.  

 

What seasons are busiest, or what rhythms exist in your job? 

 

The end of the fiscal year is the busiest for me because we want to make sure all of the reporting for the state is correct, and that the year-end numbers are good.  Other busy times are unpredictable:  sometimes departments will come to us with urgent needs, so we just adjust our timelines to help meet their deadlines. 
 

 

What might surprise people about the work you do? 

 

Not many people understand what's behind their reports in Workday and what it takes to build them.  Even when we all agree that a report is necessary and begin building it, things come up that we don't anticipate.  Something that might have been expected to take a couple of days can sometimes take double that due to the research and troubleshooting we have to do on the flip side.  It can take a lot of work for us to get the report where our departments need it to be!

 

What do you like best about working in UVAFinance? 

 

UVA takes its employees very seriously.  Team members are willing to collaborate, and my boss has an open-door policy which you do not find in most companies.  It is great to have a good relationship with my team members so that we get the job done and make our users happy.  That makes me glad to stick with my department.

 

How do you connect your work with the UVAFinance Values?


Our work makes reporting accurate, consistent, and reliable and helps UVA further its goals.  We reduce the administrative burden our departments feel by providing excellent service and support to them.  


 

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UVAFinance Mission & Values / UVAFinance Organizational Structure / Past Introductions can be found on our site under "Resource Shelf"

Would you like to be featured in Introducing UVAFinance? Want to suggest a colleague to be featured? Email bv8h@virginia.edu