Like lost souls floating down the river Styx, the email requests and questions for systems access just keep coming. Do the requestors want their staff to be able to update or only inquire? Do they want access for both Exception Time Reporting and Positive Time Reporting? Is there a different New Hire Coordinator? What about the person who just left the department? Have they been removed? Help!

Setting up access for systems can be very scary! While most departments only have one system, in the Payroll Office there are four systems and enough different system actions to make you break into a mad run, screaming wildly. Thankfully, there is an oasis amidst all this terror, a safe house in an uncertain world… there is ASTRA!

ASTRA (Access to Systems, Tools, Resources and Applications) is the authorization system for almost all UW applications and systems. The Payroll Office is now using ASTRA to grant access to all online payroll applications. While the system is very user friendly, the volume of changes for all of campus is very scary at times. To alleviate the fear this generated in Payroll, the Client Services Team in the Payroll Office planned a rollout of ASTRA authorization at the department level. As there is safety in numbers, Payroll teamed up with Heidi Berrysmith from the ASTRA team and Marisa Graudins and Jean Swarm from Human Resources to train on the authorization process for the payroll applications along with the Online Work/Leave System (OWLS).

In the spirit of getting the hardest part of out of the way first, Payroll chose to begin with the medical centers. With their complicated system of centralized and decentralized departments and the workload split between their HR and Payroll Offices, the discussions with these units were quite detailed. When the sessions were successfully completed, the Client Services Team began to relax a bit. The shrouds of darkness were beginning to fade!

With only about 378 more departments to train, the light at the end of the tunnel was drawing nearer. So, on and on they worked. They scheduled two levels of trainings, one for those with ASTRA experience and an extended one with a complete introduction to ASTRA. As departments completed these sessions, the Payroll Office granted them authority to create Users in their departments and slowly, the number of authorizations held by the Client Services Team began to diminish.

It’s now safe to visit the Payroll Office once again. The trainings continue, the departments take ownership of their own authorizations, and Client Services Staff is free from the fear of their emails.

Sometimes it’s good to be a non-conformist. Wearing clothes that are a little different, listening to music that others don’t and thinking outside of the box. All of these are the attributes of a non-conformist. But think about it, would you want your accountant to be a non-conformist? Would you want your financial statements to be free-spirited? Probably not. A key word in accounting is “comparability”, which means that financial statements need to be similar to each other, so that an investor or interested party can see how one company (or university) is doing compared to another. Conformity is a reassuring word in the accounting profession.

For many years, the UW has produced financial statements that are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and the reporting requirements from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Doing this allows UW’s financial statements to be compared to other schools and can provide reliable financial information to granting agencies, legislators, and donors.

For many years, self-supporting entities like the UW Medical Center, Husky Sports, Housing and Food Services, and Transportation Services have been non-conformists. In the case of the Medical Center, this is ok, since the financial statements that they prepare are used for comparison with other academic medical centers. But for the other self-supporting units, this non-conformity was a by-product of covenants made to bond holders to produce audited reports. This variance in the type and amount of reporting that each unit did made it difficult to understand how they were actually doing financially.

This is where the newly created Internal Lending Program comes in (see the New Directions Winter Spring 2008 issue article called “Internal Lending Program Launches” for details on the ILP). Under this program, all borrowers will need to provide the same level of reporting in order to access capital for construction projects. To facilitate this process, the Debt Financing Group in the Treasury Office has been working with borrowing units and their auditors to be sure that beginning in fiscal year 2009 (the period ending June 30th, 2009), all self supporting units will have the same reporting format as the UW as a whole.

Deciding to do this and actually accomplishing it are two different things. There is still much work to be done between now and June of 2009 to assure that a smooth transition is made to the common format. There are system, accounting, and even legal issues to be resolved. In the end, though, the goal will have been achieved when a person who understands the UW’s financial statements can also understand the self supporting unit financial statements. When all of these non-conformists finally conform, the accountant in all of us can sleep a little sounder at night… even though there may be ghouls lurking around outside.

Procurement Services customers long bedeviled by the fiends of confusion, take heart! Your respite from the waking nightmare of indecision is at hand. What could be simpler? At the click of a mouse, order out of chaos! “Too good to be true!” you say? Try it for yourself. We have thrown the switch on the new Procurement Guide to Goods and Services and – it’s alive!! The fetid corpse that was the old purchasing commodity list has arisen from the dead in a glorious new form.

Authored by the forebodingly named Seamless PIT, it began as a mere specter in an isolated booth at Biz-Tech. Customers from across campus caught a fleeting glimpse of what could be. It took the form of a model matrix that simply and succinctly showed them what procurement method was best for different kinds of purchases. And oh! The hue and cry; “Give us more!” the weary and distraught voices wailed. And, taking pity on the wretches, we listened. Then, to work!

With help from across all the units in Procurement Services, Elise Davis, Carla Helm, and Mark Conley performed the operation. Then we called upon Kevin Campbell, techno-wizard, to give it its final form. We infused the spirit of the matrix into the lifeless form of the commodity list and gave it life on the web. No tangled web this, but one of clarity! Now, our customers can easily reference what they need to buy and the Guide tells them what method to use; the Procurement card, eProcurement, PAS, or other purchasing methods. Witchcraft?! Strategic “Sorcery”?! Well, we’re not saying… but we sent out the link to the Guide to over 6000 customers and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and that “spells” success to us.

There’s nothing scarier than a bleak future caused by wasted resources and global warming. A solution is within our reach, and it’s neither frightening nor difficult: following the path of sustainability!

As we all know, the University of Washington is actively involved in creating a sustainable campus. Recently, the UW received an A- grade in College Sustainability Report Card. (http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=43903 ).  Our university is one of only 11 schools across the country to receive these high honors.  Building on the long time tradition of UW innovation, as well as sustainability and environmental awareness, the Environmental Stewards team was created, which encompasses FM, Treasury and OSM (http://www.washington.edu/admin/finmgmt/qi/directions/jul08/innovations.htm ).  This team was highlighted in the national publication “Cross Talk” in the article “Going Green”:
http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0408/news0408-washington.shtml
Using the Environmental Stewards very fine example, Student Fiscal Services (SFS) took the initiative to create their own team – forging a path for other departments to emulate and follow.

The newly created Sustainability Team’s mission is to increase office efficiency by streamlining processes and reducing waste. That’s every office’s dream, isn’t it? Streamlined processes…..minimal waste…….ahhhh, how beautiful that would be. SFS is lucky enough to have management supportive for making that a reality.  When offered the opportunity, five individuals volunteered to be part of this team and lead their office to greatness! The team members are Mark Brady, Shannon Corcoran, Joanna Medina, Susan White (leader) and Ashley Zigler.

The team’s effort has been focused on collecting data about the office’s current situation. It was important to establish a starting point in order to be able to track progress over time. Data was gathered on purchases, expenses, transportation, and printing volume. It turns out that SFS is already very environmentally friendly when it comes to commuting. While no one rides their bike, only three people drive solo to work every day. Almost 60% of the office uses transit (bus/train/ferry) at least some of the time as a means to get to work. Now, if the team could just track down those three solo drivers……. We have also outfitted each desk with both a recycle bin and a confidential shred bin. Soon, UW Recycling will be coming to install recycle bins in our conference rooms and our kitchens.

The immediate goal for the office is to reduce the amount of paper being consumed. There are a lot of interesting facts out there about paper consumption. Here are some interesting facts from the Resource Conservation Alliance: The average office worker generates 27 lbs of paper a year, the U.S. consumes 4 million tons of copy paper annually, more than 40% of logged trees are used for paper, and old growth trees are 9% of that supply. These are some of the reasons that motivated the team to produce printing guidelines for the office. The guidelines include tips such as: use spell/grammar check, utilize print preview, print double sided and black & white, increase margins, decrease font size, email or scan documents when possible, and hold paperless meetings.

 The team is off to a great start with lots of energy and great ideas. Keep an ear open as you are sure to hear great things about this team!