GCA Quality Improvements

by GCA Staff

For years there has been a reverberating echo in Grant and Contract Accounting (GCA) indicating the need for a new Accounts Receivable system. The system was written in RBASE for DOS and can no longer handle the volume and complexity of GCA receivables. Proposals have been floating around for the past decade, but funding was scarce. However, recent data collection and positive discussions with the Budget Office led to $1.2M in initial funding and $240K in annual operating funds for a new receivables system. The funding was awarded based on projections of timely invoices bringing in faster payment to the University and therefore generating interest savings. The annual savings are projected to be in excess of $500K annually, growing as grant volumes increase.

Working with an external vendor, Computing and Communications and a team of GCA staff, our team leader, Denise Lim, will guide the planning, development and implementation of the new system. The project is expected to take twelve to eighteen months, with a start date of September 2002.

Some of the expected benefits of an integrated system will be:

• Automated invoicing and reporting using many unique and complex formats
• More frequent billing
• Better monitoring of aged receivables
• More efficient cash application

We expect that our "post" process improvement measures will reflect a significant improvement in timeliness of invoicing and related interest savings, a savings that will only increase in subsequent years with grant volumes.

We have already dived into the planning stage of this process and look forward to the rigorous but exciting time ahead!

Another process improvement that Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA) and Grant and Contract Accounting (GCA) have focused on is the cost share process. Our Strategic Plan identified cost sharing as a top priority, and an action plan was developed. Subsequently, a dashboard measure was set. And in the fall of 2001, a team was formed to address our concerns.

We realized that this process touched not only our two offices but Grant and Contract Services (GCS), Computing and Communications (C&C), and most campus departments. We knew that we had a lot of work ahead of us. A number of ongoing efforts have gone into this process improvement and we have more to go.

We have developed reports to track outstanding cost share. In addition, we have revised the GC-1, allowing for comprehensive cost share information which will aid GCA in recording the information in the Budget Driver. GIM 21 has likewise been revised to give up-to-date guidance to departments. Furthermore, MAA has developed a Faculty Effort Certification (FEC) web page. Lastly, cost share letters were created and are being sent to the Principal Investigator when the budget is established.

Some of the ongoing activities include MAA working with C&C to resolve system errors in the Budget Driver, GCA working on web page for non-FEC cost share, and the writing of policy and procedures. Finally, a team consisting of representatives from GCA, GCS, MAA, Internal Audit and a campus department is in the process of conducting training for campus departments.

In conclusion, these numbers speak to all of our efforts. In the fall of 2001, the unmet cost share was 47.9%. As of May 2002, the unmet cost share has decreased to 28.7%.