News

  UVAFinance Team Helps New Hoos Get SettledGreat job, all!Members of the UVAFinance Team were happy to pitch in and help UVA first-years move into the dorms as the fall semester began.  Thank you to Ann Paxton, Anthony Pearson, Katie Walker, Lorrie Jean, and Mark Anderson, for sharing your time, enthusiasm, and muscles!  What a great group!Celebrating our Payroll Team During Payroll Week!Happy Payroll Week to our fantastic Payroll Team!  Payroll Week comes every Se

New from Organizational ExcellenceUVA Organizational Excellence will be sponsoring Practical Design Thinking Techniques for Innovation, a presentation lead by Ryan Evans, Principal Service Designer at Tufts University Technology Services, and Colin Gerrity, Design Strategist at Tufts University. This presentation will focus on Design Thinking, a people-centered approach that allows us to collaboratively explore problems, build a shared understanding, ask the right questions, generate innova

We've recently updated the Purchase Justification requirement for Travel & Expense.Purchase Justification UpdatesThe 30-day Purchase Justification requirement has been removed from expense reports for T&E charges. Why?After conducting a survey to a select group of fiscal admins to get their feedback, they concluded explanations in this field did not add value and that the requirement slowed down the creation of expense reportsWhat's Next?The policy still remains to expense all charg

There have been a couple of big security updates within Workday recently that allow users to have a more organized request dashboard. 90-Day Rule for RequestsFirstly, there is now a 90-day rule on requests, meaning that incomplete or unapproved requests that haven't met approvals within 90 days of the request being posted will be canceled. This update will help keep things moving in Workday, so the system doesn't get backed up with unsatisfied requests. This will also help address requests

Solix keeps our data more secureIn partnership with UVAFinance, OSP, and UVAHR, ITS is moving UVA's Oracle historical data over to a new structured data archive called Solix.  Solix is a more secure alternative to Oracle, as the current Oracle environment exposes our historical financial data to risk.  Financial data and HR data in Oracle have not been updated since each area went live with Workday. Going forward, only a small number of central office users will have access to Ora

Shelby and ElizabethElizabeth Vlahos, the new Manager of General Accounting at UVA, is settling into her role with a fresh perspective and an eagerness to dive into the complexities of finance in higher education. Just three weeks into her new position, Vlahos is already embracing the challenge of learning UVA's unique systems and processes, all while unlearning the state lingo she became accustomed to over her 11 years at the Virginia Department of Accounts.“I’m used to acronyms—just different

Victoria Peprah-AsanteVictoria Peprah-Asante, UVAFinance’s new Payroll Accounting Manager, joined the team at the end of July this year. As she settles into her role, Peprah-Asante leads a new team that ensures payroll costing including accounting entries are processed across the Workday platform correctly ensuring that all payroll transactions are posted to the general ledger, making certain everything ends up in the right place within the financial system. Along with payroll costing, her team

Time with a TrainerNeed a little extra help with Workday Financials? Whether you just need a bit of a refresher or specifics on how to do certain tasks in Workday, we've got your back. Our UVAFinance trainers have their availability and specializations posted on the Workday Financials Training page, and are happy to assist you. Just find the right trainer for your task, then sign up for a one-on-one Zoom meeting with an expert!

 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 present readers with a team member or two to get to know. NEW Resource: UVAFinance by Department__________________________________________________________________Sri MurthySri Murthy, Business Analyst with Business Solutions & Data Analytics in PSDSWhat do you do as a Business Analyst?As an Analyst, I perform two types of activities

Embrace wellness this fall Join the 1% Challenge Starting September 9thIn only 14 minutes (just 1% of your day), you can learn skills to build resilience, ease stress, and improve sleep. How? Join the 1% Challenge offered by Hoos Well partner eM Life. You can also earn $50 in awards!Start the challenge anytime between Sept 9 - Oct 11.You must have or create an eM Life account (it's free).Practice (at least) 14 minutes in live or on-demand mindfulness sessions for at least 25 days durin

The Ellis kiddosRyan Ellis recently joined the UVA Finance team as manager of accounts payable, bringing a wealth of experience from the nonprofit sector to his first role in higher education. Ellis's journey into the world of finance and accounting began with a foray into business and marketing at California State University San Marcos.  Although he initially found accounting too dry; he soon discovered he enjoyed accounts payable.“I’ve always been drawn to the checks and balances of accou

It's going to be a busy two months!From now until the end of September will be a crucial time for the Account Certification project. To improve this process, we'll be reaching out to 48 schools and units to learn more about how they handle account certifications. This journey will be exciting and challenging, and we’re eager to start the outreach effort.While we hold these meetings, please continue with your account certifications. Maintaining these controls is essential as we build a better sys

FWS reminders from SFSAt the last Fiscal Administrators' meeting, our colleagues in Student Financial Services (SFS) shared some crucial reminders about hiring federal work-study (FWS) student workers. (Fiscal Administrators' meetings are full of useful information.  See the schedule and past meeting coverage on the UVAFinance website.)Here are the highlights: Resources are available on the SFS FWS Administrators website.  (This includes a video and slides from their recent FWS tr

When Workday roles are empty, business processes stall.  To help avoid this, the Business Intelligence Team has initiated a series of alerts generated on Monday mornings.  The purpose of the alerts is to proactively inform cost center managers and senior finance department approvers where critical roles are unfilled (no need to run reports to discover the gaps).Currently, alerts are sent when the following roles are empty (either unassigned or assigned to an unfilled position):Senior D

 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 present readers with a team member or two to get to know. To understand how these colleagues are situated within the greater UVAFinance structure, check out this resource on the UVAFinance website.NEW Resource: UVAFinance by Department__________________________________________________________________Angela Coleman, Director of Payr

Joey Carls, Angela, and Jack Jensen Angela Knobloch has left UVA after six years; throughout her time here, she was a champion for our partners across Grounds and a constant advocate for people-centered leadership.  As a driving force behind Finance Strategic Transformation and various other projects, guiding us through challenges with unwavering dedication and vision.  We'll miss her leadership, insight, and warmth.  We're sad to see her go, but excited for the next step on

Welcome to 'Exploring Finance at UVA'! This is a recurring blog feature that will highlight finance professionals from across Grounds, beyond UVAFinance. Meet a diverse array of staff members and delve into their roles and insights in the world of finance within the greater UVA framework.If you or someone you know would like to be featured in Exploring Finance at UVA, please email bv8h@virginia.edu__________________________________________________________________Justina Duncan, Business ManagerW

Need some budget help this season? Budget Office Hours:  Biweekly on Wednesdays, beginning August 14, 3-4 pm. (No office hours on September 11 due to Budget Kickoff).FDM Office Hours:  Biweekly on Wednesdays, beginning August 21, 3-4 pm.First Quarter Snapshot in Adaptive: October 1.Check with the dean's office or finance office of your school or unit if you'd like to attend.

Venissa NievesVenissa Nieves recently joined the UVAFinance team as Senior Payroll Specialist. With over 20 years of experience in Payroll and a passion for connecting with the people she collaborates with, Nieves brings extensive experience and dedication to her work that will be a valuable asset to the Payroll team at UVAFinance.Nieves was born and raised in Jamaica and moved to New York when she was 14 years old. She attended Monroe college, where she received both her associate and bachelor

from UVA SustainabilityUVA Sustainability has shared two new sustainability-related opportunities with the UVA community. Community OpportunityFall 2024 Special Collection Days: Ivy Solid Waste & Recycling Center will be hosting special collection days for Albemarle County and Charlottesville residents throughout the fall. Special collection days provide community members opportunities to properly recycle or dispose of e-waste, residential hazardous waste, mattresses, tires, and househo

New for T&E CardsTravel & Expense is introducing a new program called Travel & Expense Card Misuse Monitoring. We hope that this program will allow us to help cardholders better understand card policy and procedures. Our goal is to educate with penalties being a last resort. We have partnered with a third-party audit and review company which gives us better visibility into card misuse. We will review personal transactions (self-reported and potential), split transactions, r

Finance Reporting & Release Notes for August 7 have been posted to the UVAFinance website.   Updates to the Workday Payroll Costing UBI app.Major enhancements include bringing in Payroll Actuals & Obligations data into the app, and a couple new reports/visualizations that will display payroll transaction amounts by pay period for analysis. (This data is available for academic employees only). Another new report – Employees with Uncosted Salaries – will identify salaried employe

 Welcome to 'Exploring Finance at UVA'! This is a new, recurring blog feature that will highlight finance professionals from across Grounds, beyond UVAFinance. Meet a diverse array of staff members and delve into their roles and insights in the world of finance within the greater UVA framework.__________________________________________________________________Joe KuykendallJoe Kuykendall, Assistant Athletics Director of Business OperationsWhat do you do as Assistant Athletics Director for Bu