Effort Reporting and Research Accounting Project

Published: March 30th, 2010

Category: Memos

Matthew Fajack, VP and Chief Financial Officer & Winfred M. Phillips, VP for Research

The University is conducting a project to improve the accuracy and efficiency of effort reporting and grant accounting. The scope of the project covers the grant cycle from award notification to closeout. Dr. Win Phillips, Vice President for Research, and I are the executive sponsors for this project, which was chartered by President Machen to develop ideas to enhance service, value and efficiency. The university must provide principal investigators and research administrators the tools to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.

A Steering Committee, consisting of the following members, will help lead this effort:

  • Dr. Tom Walsh, Director of Sponsored Research and Compliance
  • Dr. Marie Zeglen, Assistant Provost and Director of Institutional Planning and Research
  • Mr. Brad Staats, Assistant Vice President for Contracts & Grants
  • Mr. Jim Ferrer, Associate Director, Finance and Planning, Office of the CFO
  • Mr. Lee Catledge, Sponsored Research Business Relationship Mgr, Bridges
  • Dr. Michael Leardi, Strategic Business Alliances
  • Mr. Mike McKee, Assistant VP and University Controller

Other members of the university community will be appointed to the Project Work Group. This group will meet periodically throughout the project to review the current processes and to determine the issues along with the development of potential solutions and recommendations.

  • Members of the Steering Committee
  • Research Administrators
  • Research Faculty Members (nominated by Faculty Senate)
  • Principal Investigators
  • Ms. Jodi Gentry, Director, UF Training and Development
  • Mr. Brian Mikell, Audit & Compliance
  • Ms. Suzanne Sindledecker, Asst. Controller, Cost Analysis
  • Mr. Eddie Roberts, IT Consultant

In addition to the project work group, additional key stakeholders and subject matter experts, including department heads and other departmental administrators, research faculty, and individuals from the Provost’s office, will be asked to attend specific meetings. These individuals will be used to help develop and finalize the plans as well as the vetting of recommendations from the Work Group.

Our goal is to include individuals on campus who have hands-on knowledge of the processes being studied. Initial recommendations will be shared and refined through review with university stakeholders prior to implementation.

This project is the beginning of a continuous improvement cycle. Going forward, the university will consider additional business process improvement projects, as identified through internal needs, benchmarking and comparisons with peer institutions, and reviews of administrative restructuring at other universities. Suggestions of projects from members of the UF community are welcome. Finally, we are planning a quarterly electronic newsletter to keep the campus informed of the progress being made, recommendations and future processes that will be reviewed.

In order to keep the campus informed of the progress on this and future projects, we have established the business process reengineering web portal at http://www.cfo.ufl.edu/bpr which will contain key reports and updates, as well as other resources for the UF community as they become available. In addition, we have created the email address bprhelp@ufl.edu for individuals to provide feedback, information or ask questions regarding this project.

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