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Spring 2013 Kuali User Appreciation Contest ♦ May 13 - June 12, 2013 ♦ ENTER TODAY!
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Named for a Malaysian wok, Kuali allows each university partner to "stir together" a unique mix of modules and features. Cooking with Kuali! shares user stories biweekly from USC staff and administrators as well as insights from Kuali team members. To suggest someone to profile, email Susan Lendroth at lendroth@usc.edu with “Cooking with Kuali” in the subject line.
DIRECTORY OF PROFILES
| AQUINALDO-DINO, Maybelyn | ARTERIAN, Corey | BAUTISTA, Tesha |BROOKS, Lila | BURMOOD, Matthew |CAUDLE, Sherry | CIPRIASO, Melinda | CORDOVA, Jerry | CURRAN, Megan | DAVENPORT, Dena | DONOVAN, David | EL-BARDISY, Hadia | ERNST, Virginia | FRANCIS, Mary | HACKENBROCK, Sandra |HOLTSBERG, Pancy | JESTER, Star | LADRIDO, Clemente | LARSON, Karen | LU, Kimmie | MADDAFORD, Cathy | MARTINEZ, Yesenia | MILLARD, Denise | MORENO, Evelyn | PETRALE, Lee | PINTO, Karen | ROSS, Virginia | SAEZ, Raquel | SORDAL, Lisa | UY, Victor | VALLE, Amanda | WALKER, Natasha | WALTER, Judith | WARREN, Sabrina | WEINBERGER, Cheryl | WELSH, Allie | WIESE, Cynthia | WILSON, Mary | YASSA, Louis | ZIVI, John |
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Accounting Technician Jerry Cordova and Data Entry Operator Corey Arterian use Kuali Cashiering to record catering payments for Hospitality. “We’re kind of the go between for operations and accounting,” said Corey.
“We also handle checks taken in by other units besides Catering,” added Corey. “Including Travelers’ Checks – we get maybe four of those a year.”
Before Cashiering was introduced as the first Kuali module at USC, Jerry worked extensively with the old Cashiering system. “I did a lot of G-Receipting,” he said.
“G-Receipts were these really big receipts. They called me the G-Receipt king,” joked Jerry. "I worked in a different department then where we had 80+ cashiers, and each had to have a G-Receipt. I had to create separate Excel spreadsheets to add up all of them.”
“I worked with him as a student one summer,” said Corey. “I remember how convoluted the G-Receipting was. Tedious. Kuali Cashiering is a lot easier.”
“I love it,” Jerry agreed. “If there’s a correction, it’s an instant correction. It’s easy to log in, and the system keeps track of everything for you.”
“It’s all streamlined,” summed up Corey.
It’s so easy, Jerry doesn’t even mind being dethroned as USC's G-Receipt king.
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Corey Arterian, Data Entry Operator, and Jerry Cordova, Accounting Technician, for USC Hospitality.
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Hadia El-Bardisy, Budget/Business Analyst with the Office of the Provost, Undergraduate Programs. |
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As a Budget/Business Analyst with the Office of the Provost, Undergraduate Programs, Hadia El-Bardisy handles P-Card eStatements and Reallocations, JVs, Cashiering, USC eMarket, DVs and DVQEs. She quickly assessed several systems:
"Cashiering: Awesome!
JVs: Awesome!
P-Card Reallocation: Best thing ever.
The P-Card and JV process are a million times easier than in WebBA."
But DVQEs have proven more problematic.
Some of the glitches Hadia encountered were due to her working with faculty and students. For example, "DVQE’s are set up to be automatically routed to a supervisor for approval. However, sometimes there is no approver listed in Kuali for a student, or the one listed is incorrect or outdated. This causes delays in getting people their reimbursement,” said Hadia.
Another issue is making sure that faculty approve DVQEs in a timely manner. "I had to sit with professors to walk them through the process of how to approve DVQEs for undergrads," Hadia explained. "But finally I created an email that says 'This is how you approve: Step 1...' Then in the subject line I write YOUR APPROVAL IS NEEDED. I send out the email right after I do a DVQE."
"Although I miss my one on one interactions with undergraduates to process their reimbursements, Kuali's online process doesn't confine them to office hours," noted Hadia. "They can submit for reimbursements at any time from anywhere."
Summing up, Hadia said, "DV and DVQE have the promise to be something great once people get used to them. Plus going paperless will save like a million trees!"
What helped Hadia most during her initial rough start with DVQEs was the assistance she received from staff members in Disbursement Control and Purchasing. "I want to say a personal heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped me.”
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| "The first time I met Kuali was in August 2009 with Cashiering," reminisced Maybelyn Aguinaldo-Dino, Accounting/Finance Manager with University Advancement.
Her repertoire of new administrative systems has since expanded to include P-Card eStatement and Reallocation, JV, DV, DVQE, eMarket and Cognos ASRs. "Everything but CAMS."
Maybelyn admits that at first she hated doing P-Card eStatements because of all the receipt scanning required. "But then I realized that when we do reconciliations, I can go back into the system if another department didn't give me copies of their receipts," she said. "In the beginning it [Kuali] seemed unfriendly, but the more I used it, the better it got."
"And now with Cognos, the more functions I learn, the more it makes my life easier." Maybelyn laughed, "I should say my JOB — it makes my job easier!"
She shared a tip regarding ASRs:"Work on standardizing the line description and reference number used by your own and other departments."
Currently, Maybelyn is mastering DVQEs. "Sometimes the DVQE system is really fast, but sometimes it's slow." However, Maybelyn remembers when Cashiering debuted and it, too, had a few rough spots. "But now it's really good."
Is there a downside to sending and storing all of this documentation online? "There are times that I miss walking to deliver invoices," confessed Maybelyn. "But it's fine."
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Maybelyn Aguinaldo-Dino, Accounting/Finance Manager at University Advancement.
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From the School of Cinematic Arts: Tesha Bautista, Office Manager for the Dean's Office; Sabrina Warren, Director of Annual Giving; Cheryl Weinberger, Office Manager for Development. |
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It was hard to keep up with the quick-fire dialog of the trio from the School of Cinematic Arts: Tesha Bautista, Office Manager for the Dean's Office; Sabrina Warren, Director of Annual Giving; and Cheryl Weinberger, Office Manager for Development. They had a lot to share about their experiences with DVQEs, USC eMarket, P-Card eStatements and Cognos ASRs.
"Cognos ASRs? THAT I love!" said Cheryl. "The breakdown that it shows and the ease of getting all the information...you can see the information better."
"I'm a Shopper and an Approver for eMarket," Tesha volunteered. "I love eMarket — it's almost like instant ordering."
"You don't have to do DVQEs?" asked Cheryl.
"I just do the P-Card eStatements," answered Tesha. "Filing is so easy with Kuali; you have your records online."
"I did my first DVQE yesterday, and actually it was fine to use," said Cheryl. "But it came back to me, and I don't know why. It's hard when you do training weeks before the system is available."
Because their department does a lot of events, Cheryl has had some issues with POs. "The PO system is the difficult one. You have to submit it on a line item basis and then you have to submit a change order for every item that changes." And at her school, event plans go through a LOT of changes before the final day.
"Aren't POs simply guidelines?" asked Tesha.
"Not anymore," replied Cheryl.
"Kuali in itself is very helpful," Cheryl summed up, "but when so many systems rolled out close together, it was an awful lot to grasp at one time."
Sabrina agreed that it was hard for some in her department, "To try to get a handle on it."
But, on the plus side with Kuali's electronic documentation, "It would be good if we can completely eliminate all the paper," said Tesha wistfully. "But it's like taxes. We're still required to keep our paperwork for the auditors."
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"Kuali P-Card eStatements and Reallocations turned a paper-based process into an electronic workflow," said Mary Wilson, Corporate Card Program Administrator. "Everyone benefits from having the documentation sourced centrally and being able to go in and pull it up at any time."
Rollout for the P-Card module began in 2010. "Our biggest hurdle was that we were one of the first modules to go on line in Kuali so there was a steep learning curve for users."
Mary said that they chose a phased rollout because "…it allowed for cultural and change management opportunities. It also gave us the chance to capture and apply user feedback in our training."
But the benefits of the Kuali system far outweighed the initial difficulties of implementing it. The P-Card module provided:
- consistency in the way the university's 54 business units managed their P-Card statements
- built-in business rules that supported policy compliance
- enhanced reporting
- sustainability
"Everything was such a paper-based process," said Mary. "Paper statements, paper receipts, etc. Now all of that is electronic."
And that's a lot of paper saved when one considers that 3,500 Kuali users fulfill seven different P-Card roles and have generated over 46,000 eStatements in Kuali.
"I'm excited about the implementation of all the other modules that have been rolled out — such as eMarket — and how all of those modules combined have elevated Procurement to a strategic function within USC." Mary added, "Our goal is to make the process as efficient as possible for end users so that they can spend less time on P-Card management and more time on other aspects of their jobs."
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Mary Wilson, Corporate Card Program Administrator. |
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Matthew Burmood, Manager of the Dean’s Office at the Thornton School of Music. |
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Manager of the Dean’s Office at the Thornton School of Music, Matthew Burmood derives an added benefit from the emails automatically generated for P-Card eStatements.
“One thing I’ve found that has helped me,” he explained, “are the action item emails. Otherwise, it [handling the account] could fall through the cracks.”
Matthew primarily works with the P-Card eStatements and USC eMarket. “Kuali is easier than the previous system, which seemed to have a lot of redundancies. The eStatements are pretty seamless and definitely faster.”
“It seems to have cut down on the paper work as well,” he continued. “And storage is a HUGE commodity around here.”
For Matthew, the only down side to the switch to USC eMarket was that, “I lost my wish lists on Office Depot – all the stuff I bought on a regular basis.” But he is rebuilding the lists in the new catalog vendor system.
An eMarket feature he does enjoy is the ability to designate on the order which department it is destined for.
What’s on Matthew’s Kuali horizon? DVQEs. “I haven’t accessed that yet,” he admitted.
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These days, Onsy “Louis” Yassa, Accountant at the Keck School of Medicine Department of Radiology, makes the trek to the basement less often.
Louis is based at USC’s Alhambra facility, a compact campus of trim lawns and brick buildings. His Kuali transactions include P-Card eStatements and Reallocations, and he’s also a Requisitioner for USC eMarket.
Attaching receipts electronically with P-Card eStatements has proven a boon for a department where record checking is frequent. “It’s all there; I can access it whenever I want and not worry about losing or misplacing it,” said Louis.
“My drawers are full,” he continued, “and if you go downstairs, it’s full of boxes. Now I attach it [a receipt] and can view everything on a PDF. It saves time running to the storage room to pull out boxes. And if the box was labeled wrong, it’s a nightmare.”
Louis laughed. “Somehow something always happens between here and the basement when boxes are stored.”
Using Kuali’s P-Card Reallocation feature also saves time. “We used to have to fill out a form and send it to HSC,” Louis explained. “You get nervous whether or not it’s going to be done on time. Now we can make the changes here, and my manager can approve them.”
In fact, Louis wishes it were possible for his department to “change accounts like that on other things” -- in USC eMarket for example. However, when Journal Vouchers are needed, those transactions still need to be routed through the HSC main campus.
All in all, though, Kuali’s electronic tracking means less paperwork for Louis, not to mention fewer trips to the basement.
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Louis Yassa, Accountant at the Keck School of Medicine Department of Radiology. |
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Evelyn Moreno, Project Manager of the Metamorphosis Project and Coordinator of the Laboratory on the Social Frontier at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. |
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If there’s an award for the longest business title, Evelyn Moreno is in the running as Project Manager of the Metamorphosis Project and Coordinator of the Laboratory on the Social Frontier at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Maybe that’s why she likes how Kuali makes processes faster and wait times shorter.
Evelyn works with three different Kuali systems—P-Card eStatements, USC eMarket and DVQE—and anticipates learning to do Disbursement Vouchers this year.
“What I like best about Kuali is that you can track where in the process your document is and who has it,” said Evelyn. She also likes the way the system notifies users of errors.
“[In the past] if I processed something incorrectly with the old system, I had to go through purchasing, and we wasted a whole week for them to tell me that I did it wrong,” she explained. But with Kuali, “I find out fast and can correct it.”
Making electronic copies of her receipts for P-Card eStatements is easy “now that I have my own scanner on the desk. Besides, even with WebBA you still had to make copies of all your receipts so you had to do it anyway.”
Evelyn concluded, “I think it [Kuali] is more efficient. I like that I don’t have to track down people physically to get signatures because I work with doctoral students and professors, and they don’t always work on campus. This system is pretty convenient.”
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Kuali is part of the “daily routine” for Raquel Saez, Coordinator for Continuing Education at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC.
She has seen a lot of changes during her 10 years working at the university. “It [change] is sometimes hard because it’s a totally new set-up,” said Raquel. “But if it is a good change and for the long term, then it will be good for everyone.”
She deems Kuali one of the “good” changes. “DVQE is clear and more descriptive. The P-Card estatement is also an easy one.”
Raquel continued, “USC eMarket is pretty good, but when you’re trying to get approval, there’s sometimes a delay. The great part is that you can see where it’s being held up.” She laughed, “You can’t blame it all on purchasing any more!”
“Maybe eMarket orders need an expiration date, a deadline—something like an email alert sent to remind the approver.”
“Another good part with eMarket,” Raquel added, “is if you submit a requisition and there’s something missing, it’s sent back to you so you know right away.”
All in all she thinks, “It [KFS] is getting more user friendly the more you get into the routine.”
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Raquel Saez, Coordinator for Continuing Education at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC.
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Megan Curran, Student Services Advisor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. |
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Megan Curran is a good fit for her job as Student Services Advisor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. A grad student herself, Megan is pursuing her master’s degree in Post Secondary Administration and Student Affairs at USC Rossier School of Education.
“I have two different accounts and need to make sure everything is up to date with both of them,” said Megan, who uses Kuali P-Card estatements to manage her accounts.
“In my previous job before grad school [not at USC], I had to check accounts in the most archaic way,” she said, “using big manila envelopes full of hand written spread sheets.”
Megan added, “The great thing about the Kuali system is that I still have copies of the receipts and have the online data base to use as a reference.”
She also helps her office supervisor JV items to different accounts. “This is my gear and swag cabinet,” Megan pointed to large locked doors. “We bought 500 messenger bags for orientation and had to JV a lot of them.”
Megan uses her monthly emails from Kuali as a reminder to do all of her account updating on the same day she handles P-Card estatements. “It holds me accountable not only for Kuali but for my own end as well.”
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“1100 for eMarket? No, there's more with the on-line tutorials.” Training Manager John Zivi estimated how many people he and his staff had trained since July 2012. “Plus DV Initiators,” added Lee Petrale, Training Specialist. The final figure? John, Lee and Training Specialist Sandra Hackenbrock have trained approximately 2500 users in USC eMarket, Disbursement Vouchers (DV), Disbursement Voucher Quick Expense (DVQE) and Capital Asset Management System (CAMS).
Training has evolved since their classes for new systems began five months ago. “We’re trying to reach users in new ways through online webinars,” said Lee.
John gave the example of a recent webinar he taught for 13 USC eMarket Requisitioners based at three different locations: UPC, HSC and near LAX. “I was able to reach everyone simultaneously,” said John, “and offer interactive training that achieved the same learning objectives as in the classroom.”
Sandra added, “With the rollout of DV Initiator, holding webinars allows us to accommodate more people in training than we can in classrooms.”
An added benefit for users is that webinars eliminate the need for travel time to and from a classroom location.
But, John said with a smile, those participating in a webinar need to remember two things: “Post a DO NOT DISTURB sign on your cubicle or office and don’t put the phone on hold or everyone on the conference call will hear the background music!”
Many new systems—such as Cognos, TARA and Workday—that are rolling out modules in 2013 will require training, and the training team plans to have several different options available to meet that need.
John concluded, “We want to expand our elearning options so that system users can both refresh their existing knowledge and have new material at their fingertips whenever they need it.”
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Jon Zivi, Training Manager; Sandra Hackenbrock, Training Specialist; and Lee Petrale, Training Specialist of the USC Kuali training team. |
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Amanda Valle, Executive Coordinator, USC Alumni Association. |
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"A one stop shop!" is how Amanda Valle, Executive Coordinator of the USC Alumni Association, describes Kuali P-Card eStatements. "Kuali is so much easier to use than WebBA. It's faster, more efficient."
Amanda learned both Kuali and WebBA simultaneously when she joined the staff of the Alumni Association in December 2011. “When your boss has a travel card and a P-Card, you have to learn how to reconcile both,” she explained.
Comparing the two systems, Amanda wondered, “Why do we even have WebBA?” Some of WebBA’s features felt “archaic” to her compared to Kuali.
With WebBA, “You have to be really on top of it because you can easily forget a receipt.” During Amanda’s first weeks on the job, she had to track down a receipt for an expense incurred before she began working at USC. “I literally went back a year to find the missing item that hadn’t been paid.”
“I’d rather scan my receipts [in Kuali] than rummage through all of them [in WebBA],” added Amanda.
She also finds Kuali faster. "There’s always a lag time with WebBA. Every time you update it, you have to wait a few seconds for it to load. Kuali’s instantaneous.”
Amanda is excited that she will soon be able to handle both the travel card and P-Card expenses in Kuali. “I’m definitely looking forward to everything being in one system that works.”
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Pancy Holtsberg, Budget/Business Analyst, is the office manager for the School of Social Work in USC’s Orange County Academic Center in Irvine. One of four academic units that share the academic center, the School of Social Work’s Orange County facility offers the same classes that are taught on campus at UPC.
Being able to use P-Card eStatements at a distant academic center has streamlined the Procurement Card process for Pancy. “Everything is kept online now; I don’t have to maintain a lot of paperwork.”
Pancy continued, “Before I had to finish statements at least three to four days before they were due to FedEx everything to LA. It was a big, thick file that we had to send. Now I just type in the descriptions, and everything is very clear.”
The downside of working in Orange County is that it’s more difficult for Pancy to attend training courses on campus. She learned how to do P-Card eStatements on her own, studying the online materials.
One thing did puzzle her. “I’m from Singapore and wondered why they would name it [Kuali] after the Malay word for a wok,” Pancy said. But she soon learned that Kuali referred to how the system’s modules can be mixed and matched for each university.
“I love the Kuali system,” said Pancy. “I expect that it will also be easy to use USC eMarket. To see all this progress is amazing.”
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Pancy Holtsberg, Budget/Business Analyst, is the office manager for the School of Social Work in USC’s Orange County Academic Center in Irvine. |
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Virginia Ross, Assistant Dean for Business Affairs at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts. |
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As the Assistant Dean for Business Affairs at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts, Virginia Ross works with P-Card eStatements, Journal Vouchers, Cashiering and Chart of Accounts, and she soon will be adding USC eMarket to the list.
Virginia also looks forward to running reports with Cognos. “It will make our lives easier when we want to pull and manipulate data.”
Cashiering was the first Kuali system Virginia learned. “We talked through the process and created our own manual. That made it easier.”
She and her department are planning a similar strategy for USC eMarket. “We mapped out what we want to do in our unit—who will be the Shoppers, Requisitioners, etc. We thought about how we do business now and what will be different after the transition.”
Although Virginia will be an Approver with USC eMarket, she has already watched the online Shopper training video on the website. “I think a good manager should have an overview of how systems and functions work.”
“One thing I can say about all this learning is that I won’t get Alzheimer’s,” Virginia laughed. “The brain is staying active!”
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“I feel like I’m coming in with a clean slate,” said David Donovan about USC eMarket, “because I’m not just the new guy trying to catch up; I’m learning along with everyone else coming on board.”
David started a new chapter in his two-decade Trojan career when he became the Associate Director of Operations for USC Transportation in April, 2012. He will be a Requisitioner for USC eMarket and will also review P-Card eStatements.
“I would never call myself a 'power user,' but I did some work previously in WebBA. I remember the looooooong paper trail—a lot of things had to touch a lot of people’s hands.” David added, “The opportunity existed for things to get lost, or written down incorrectly. From what I’ve learned of Kuali so far, I don’t see that happening.”
“One of the strengths that I see coming into it,” said David about USC eMarket, “is its intuitiveness. It seems very user friendly. You’re not going to find too many people who aren’t familiar with online shopping, like on Amazon or eBay.”
David continued, “The ease with which the process flows from Shopper to Requisitioner to Approver takes away a lot of the opportunities for mistakes, and as an administrator, I appreciate that.”
Reviewing previous "Cooking with Kuali" profiles, David spotted numerous staff members he already knew. “I’m fortunate to have so many people as additional resources,” he said. “I’ve got a built-in network of Trojans to start ‘cooking’ with!”
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David Donovan, Associate Director of Operations for USC Transportation. |
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Lila Brooks, Senior Business Officer, and Kimmie Lu, Financial Manager, of USC's Institute for Creative Technologies. |
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Senior Business Officer Lila Brooks and Financial Manager Kimmie Lu of the Institute for Creative Technologies have both worked at USC long enough to remember “the green screens!” (chimed in unison) of the pre-WebBA financial system.
“It’s been amazing to see how far it’s come,” said Kimmie about the suite of new administrative systems being implemented at the university.
Between the two of them, Lila and Kimmie are familiar with multiple Kuali applications, such as P-Card Reallocations, JVs, Cashiering, Chart of Accounts and User Access, as well as Cognos and USC eMarket.
“The electronic routing for approvals makes things so much more efficient,” said Lila. “I love that you don’t have to keep paper files anymore.”
Lila and Kimmie feel that Kuali’s built-in internal controls help facilitate business operations. “Kuali JVs and P-card eStatements not only help keep proper documentation on file, but also provide good checks and balances during the life cycle of the eDoc,” said Kimmie.
Another program that ICT has been using is Cognos, Kuali’s business intelligence system. “I’ve been one of the test users,” Lila said. “Challenge #1 has been figuring out how our [current] terminology translates to Kuali terminology to make sure that I am pulling the right data. But once you get the hang of it, it’s really nice.”
Lila continued, “The other nice thing is you can import external data and merge that with current General Ledger data. We’re able to generate a lot of great reports that have never been possible at the university.”
This particular Cognos capability has proven especially useful for generating a large semi-annual report that ICT creates for the army, one of their primary funders.
“We used to have to manually merge the data in Excel,” said Kimmie, “and then there’s a lot more room for error. Using the Cognos data has reduced the amount of time we spend creating this report.”
Lila and Kimmie feel lucky that ICT was one of the initial departments to go live with the USC eMarket program. Although transferring the data into the system for all of their standing purchase orders has been time consuming, they have successfully processed about 50 POs in the first couple of weeks of operation. They have already seen the benefits of how eMarket streamlines the purchasing process.
As the university continues to roll out new systems, the staff at ICT is interested in learning the new programs and how they will all integrate.
“One of the things we’re looking forward to is seeing how it all ties together,” Kimmie added. She smiled. “If you ask us in a year, we’ll probably say…”
“It’s great!” chorused Kimmie and Lila together.
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How many people boast a pool outside the office door?
Allison “Allie” Welsh does. A Procurement Specialist at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Allie works in the historic physical education building next door to the pool where Buster Crabbe of 1930s Flash Gordon and Tarzan fame once swam laps.
Allie handles Kuali P-Card eStatements and Reallocations. She confides, “In the beginning it was a little frustrating to scan every invoice, but once we were used to it, the system was a lot more efficient. Now that we each have a scanner at our desks, that has helped a LOT.”
When I need to search for old invoices, it’s helpful having it all in one place,” continued Allie. “It’s even more helpful for the business officers [to look up transactions] instead of having to come to us.”
Allie is also pleased with recent improvements on P-Card Reallocations and eStatements, such as eliminating the need to constantly scroll down from the top of the page each time a new invoice is added. And PDFs can now be uploaded by dragging them directly from the desktop.
“They’re [the Kuali team] listening to everyone!” she exclaimed.
Allie’s department began using USC eMarket during the pilot phase. Working the bugs out of a new system can be challenging, but she looks forward to how KFS and USC eMarket will be integrated. “No more scanning.” Allie smiled. Well, at least not as much scanning in the future.
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Allie Welsh, Procurement Specialist at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. |
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Melinda Cipriaso, Finance Manager with USC's Capital Construction Development, holds the USC Room Service gift certificate for lunch for 10 people that she won in the Summer 2012 Kuali User Appreciation Contest. |
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“I never win anything!” Melinda Cipriaso exclaimed when told that she had won Contest #1 of the Summer 2012 Kuali User Appreciation Contests.* Her prize: lunch for 10 people, sponsored by USC Room Service.
Melinda is not only a Kuali contest winner but a Kuali system user, of course. As Finance Manager at Capital Construction Development, she works with Kuali JVs and P-Card Reallocations. “I love the JV because if I need to, I can send an ad hoc FYI, and they [the recipients] don’t have to call me. It works the same if another department had to JV me; I don’t have to call and ask them about it,” said Melinda. “I love it! It’s a lot better than the old way.”
“When the year end comes, it’s a lot, a lot [of work],” said Melinda, throwing her hands in the air. “But with the Kuali JV, it gets done right away. And I can check the routing, where it is, what’s the hold up if it’s not done.”
“I’m lucky enough to be in one of the groups sent to Cognos training for reporting,” added Melinda. “I love Cognos and the easy way that you can create your own reports.”
One of her colleagues has scheduled a regular Cognos report on current unrestricted accounts to be sent to Melinda. “I used to have to request the report every time I needed it, but now he can schedule it so that every Monday morning I get it.”
Melinda attends a practice lab on Fridays to learn more about the types of reports that Cognos can provide. The next new system she looks forward to learning is USC eMarket.
*Visit our contest page to see the list of Summer 2012 Contest #2 winners and to learn about entering future Kuali User Appreciation Contests.
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Sherry Caudle, Program Specialist in the Office of Religious Life, is more of a generalist when it comes to the scope of her work. She handles finances, scheduling and advertising; manages the office; and interfaces with new religious directors to help them get settled on campus.
“Kuali’s been an interesting journey for me,” said Sherry, who uses two Kuali applications: P-Card eStatements and, occasionally, Cashiering.
“One of the challenges for me with Kuali is that I don’t use the systems all the time. We’re not an income generating office, so basically I use cashiering two times a year. And just twice a year gives me plenty of time to forget in between!” laughed Sherry. “But I’ve done it enough times that it’s pretty simple now.”
“The Procurement Card eStatements are a lot easier to do than the old way,” said Sherry. Sometimes receipts pile up for scanning, but she has decided that, “I’m going to get a desk top scanner, and that will make all the difference.”
Sherry looks forward to USC eMarket, which her office is scheduled to start using in September. “The whole Kuali system is moving in the right direction—not so much shuffling of papers. It…puts us in the 21st century.”
Note: Sherry was a winner of Summer 2012 Contest #2 in our Kuali User Appreciation Contests.
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Sherry Caudle, Program Specialist at the Office of Religious Life. |
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Star Jester, Supervisor of the USC Bookstore Sales Audit Department. |
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As Supervisor of the USC Bookstore Sales Audit Department, Star Jester processes a large volume of advance deposits and credit card receipts using Kuali Cashiering.
“When I first started handling receipts, we had to use a manual processing system – that’s it, right there,” Star pointed to a bulky machine high on a shelf. “We also had to walk our deposits to the Cashier’s office every day.
“When word came we were switching to Kuali, it was exciting and scary at the same time,” said Star.
“Once we got the hang of Kuali and a Canon image scanner, everything [with advance deposits] was smooth sailing. It allows us to process our own work without the assistance of the Cashier’s office.” Moreover, “…we can catch our mistakes, before submitting documents, which is perfect for our department.”
With credit card receipts, Star continued, “We have the ability to break down each store’s daily credit card transaction activity by the appropriate merchant numbers, which helps with the reconciliation process for us at the bookstore and for our accounting department. We process, hit submit, and that’s it. We don’t have to walk or hand deliver paperwork any more!”
Summing up, Star said, “I think the Kuali system has all of the ‘Kualities’ to make cashiering better. It’s really fast and flexible, and can be done any time throughout the day. I love it.” Speaking for her staff, she added, “Justyn and Grace love it too!”
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Judith Walter, Account Finance Manager at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, works with Kuali P-Card Reallocations and eStatements as well as Journal Vouchers (JVs) in her job as business office reviewer.
“Everything’s right there with the eStatement; it’s nice and clean,” said Judith. “I have access to everyone’s invoices so I can bring up the eDocs in Kuali. It’s not dependent on people being present.”
Judith continued, “I’d have to chase people to get their statements [in the past]. The process was a lot more cumbersome.”
For Reallocations, “If someone emails me with supporting documents and asks me to reallocate an invoice to a different account, it’s easy.” Judith flicked her fingers as if shooing eDocs on their way, “That’s it, it’s gone, done! It’s very simple. SO simple.”
Judith is one of the beta testers for Kuali’s new (pending) iPhone App. “The other day I was at HSC waiting for a doctor’s appointment. I brought up my little Kuali iPhone App, accessed my eStatements, and reviewed them right there.”
She has suggested that the new app also display the names of P-Card holders next to eDoc numbers so a reviewer knows who made purchases without having to open the eDoc.
“It has some limitations,” Judith admitted, “but it’s a great tool to have.”
What’s next? “I’m really excited about going live with USC eMarket and the transition from WEBBA to Kuali and Cognos!” she exclaimed.
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Judith Walter, Account Finance Manager, in a sea of dentist's chairs at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. |
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Natasha Walker, Project Specialist in USC’s Office of Research Advancement in Washington, D.C. |
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Natasha Walker, Project Specialist in USC’s Office of Research Advancement, is Cooking with Kuali in Washington, D.C. She and her colleagues help USC faculty and researchers apply for federal funding by assisting them with all aspects of the grant application process -- from budget to writing to gathering together sub contracts for proposals. They also notify researchers of grant opportunities that may coincide with their work.
Natasha called her office a “Clearing house for everything to do with grant applications.”
The Kuali system she uses most often is Procurement Card eStatements. “Corralling all of those receipts and putting them up on the screen makes the process a whole lot easier,” said Natasha.
When procurement audits occurred in the past, it was time consuming to track down and bundle all of the required receipts. But with P-Card eStatements, “TA-DE-DA! Everything’s already sitting right there!” she exclaimed. “It makes the process faster and saves us on Fed Ex costs as well.”
Natasha also likes the ad hoc feature with Journal Vouchers that allows her SBO to copy her by email whenever a new JV is created.
As for the future, “I really look forward to using Kuali for requisitions, POs, and quick expense reports,” Natasha added.
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John Zivi, Training Manager, and Training Specialist Sandra Hackenbrock are busy preparing to roll out the pilot phase of USC eMarket training.
“What I love about USC eMarket,” said Sandra, “is how similar it is to my online shopping experience. And I love to shop!”
John said, “It’s centralized, trackable, intuitive, and…”
“Easy to use!” interjected Sandra.
“Very user friendly,” agreed John.
“It reduces paperwork and the paper trail,” John continued. “My sense is that whatever your role is [in the purchasing process], it’s going to save time.”
A Shopper elearning video will soon be available on the Training Guidelines page, and eventually a video for Approvers will be added as well.
“I’m creating the elearning video for the Approver role,” shared Sandra, “and it’s very exciting because it’s the first time I’ve had the chance to develop something like this.”
“We look forward to offering a variety of learning opportunities to help users adapt to these new systems,” said John.
Over the next few months, staff members will receive email invitations to begin their USC eMarket training. So if you’re a Shopper, Requisitioner or Approver, expect to hear from John and Sandra in the near future.
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Sandra Hackenbrock, Training Specialist, and John Zivi, Training Manager, for USC eMarket. |
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Denise Millard, Director of Financial Planning and Management, and Lisa Sordal, Financial Services Coordinator, at the Marshall School of Business. |
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“The systems that have been ‘Kualified’ are so much better!” said Denise Millard, Director of Financial Planning and Management at the Marshall School of Business.
“The JV [journal voucher] system is SO much better,” agreed her colleague, Lisa Sordal, Financial Services Coordinator.
Lisa explained that with the old financial system, JVs were put on an Excel spreadsheet and then taken to Central Accounting where the data had to be input again. The Kuali JV process not only saves time by eliminating extra steps, but it also has an added bonus: “We don’t have the extra steps to walk hard copies to University Gardens,” explained Denise.
In addition to JVs, Denise and Lisa use Kuali eStatements, Enterprise Workflow, and Chart of Accounts processing. Both have been trained on the new Business Intelligence tool that uses IBM Cognos and look forward to using it to create both regular and adhoc reports.
One Kuali requirement that was not new to Marshall was scanning in receipts for eStatements. “Even before Kuali, we were encouraging people to scan all their receipts into a shared drive,” mentioned Denise. “That way even if a staff member was on vacation or left, the data is still accessible.”
“Wherever you are, wherever you have a computer, you can access it,” added Lisa, who sometimes needs to work remotely.
Both Denise and Lisa believe that the Kuali changes are definitely “for the better.”
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“With an off-campus department and research center, you get involved with all facets of operations,” said Clemente Ladrido, Director of Finance and Administration at the Annenberg School’s Norman Lear Center. He uses both P-Card Reallocations and Journal Vouchers for his work and believes that, “Kuali gives you a lot more flexibility in assigning expenses. And, more importantly, there is a process of accountability in the system.”
“I also love the fact that you can complete the [P-Card Reallocation] process in one sitting, and it is even faster if documents are already scanned,” said Clemente. He noted that scanning receipts as soon as they are received is “…a good tip for people who do a lot of P-Cards. After one or two sessions, I realized that the key was to have those documents ready.”
As for new Kuali systems on the horizon, “I cannot wait until I get my hands on eMarket!“
Overall, Clemente welcomes the change to Kuali. “There are a few issues, which are part of the transition, but those are being addressed on the back end and through continuous training,” he said. “I think it will be amazing once this really gets going.”
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Clemente Ladrido, Director of Finance and Administration at the Annenberg School’s Norman Lear Center. |
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Karen Larson, Senior Administrative Director of the Andrus Gerontology Center |
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“From the presentations I have attended, and the modules I am currently using, I’m excited about the potential Kuali has. I’m happy to see that there is an emphasis to get feedback from the end users,“ said Karen Larson, Senior Administrative Director of the Andrus Gerontology Center.
After a year and a half working with the Kuali Financial System, Karen considers each new module a potential time saver for her department. “From what I’ve seen in the Cognos Business Intelligence demonstrations, you can manipulate anything in the data,” said Karen. “I think it’s going to help our faculty better realize what they’re spending their money on.”
Moreover, considering the time needed for investigation, creation and analysis when creating reports, Karen believes it will be a big time saver for her personally. “Probably 15% of my time now is spent generating reports.”
Karen also looks forward to the introduction of the USC eMarket, which will provide a one stop online shopping portal for many vendors currently used at USC. Shopping electronically will not only save time, but will also allow faculty to select their own supplies, choosing the right products for their research needs.
“I’m excited for the change because it will make it easier on everyone,” said Karen.
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Overseeing procurement for the USC Libraries is a challenge met by Virginia Ernst, Procurement Specialist; Yesenia Martinez, Budget Business Technician; and Karen Pinto, Budget Business Analyst. Between them they handle Procurement Card Reallocations and eStatements for a staggering 250 employees.
Overall, they are pleased with the Kuali Financial System. “It was easy to navigate once I knew where to look,” said Virginia. “I like how you can scan your back up.”
Karen added, “I think it’s easier for the auditor to know that if you look for it [the backup], it’s there, and you’re not going to be looking for it in file cabinets and maybe not finding it.”
Implementing the new P-Card Reallocation and eStatement throughout several libraries took time. “One of the hurdles was getting people to be more detailed about their business purpose,” said Virginia. “I like the fact that it is more accountable.”
Because they handle 300-400 transactions for books and other research materials each month, Yesenia devised a system to match the credit card billing reference numbers to the library invoice numbers on receipts as soon as they came in, scanning the receipts and storing them online to create a searchable database. That made completing eStatements on time more manageable.
Karen is pleased with Kuali Journal Vouchers (JVs). “It forced me to learn the object codes,” she laughed.
“Kuali makes it easier because you can’t do anything wrong,” chimed in Yesenia. “If you do anything wrong, you can’t submit it!”
Virginia suggested that a mentoring system be implemented with USC’s new eMarket function. Because the libraries will not be part of the first rollout phase, she would like to receive advice from a more experienced end user when their turn comes. “As they roll people into it [eMarket], it would be nice to have a go-to person,” Virginia said. “I hope they will assign a mentor that we can call.”
Whatever new Kuali systems are on the horizon, Virginia, Karen and Yesenia look forward to checking out the possibilities.
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Virginia Ernst, Procurement Specialist; Karen Pinto, Budget Business Analyst; and Yesenia Martinez, Budget Business Technician of USC Libraries staff. |
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Cynthia Wiese, Executive Assistant for the Trojan Marching Band. |
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Cynthia Wiese, Executive Assistant for the Trojan Marching Band, has spent half her life at USC, beginning her Trojan career as a college freshman. “I loved it so much that I never left.”
She has worked for several different departments on both the University Park and Health Science campuses, but has now returned to her roots since she marched with the band during her own student years.
When the Cashiering module was introduced in 2009, Cynthia was one of the first people trained on Kuali – so early that she did not receive her log in access until three months later. She worried that the gap in time might make her forget everything she learned.
However, Cynthia now works regularly with Journal Vouchers and P-Card Reallocations in addition to Cashiering, and says that Kuali saves her both time and paper. “While the amount of paper I process on a daily basis has decreased, I anticipate long term affects will be even more noticeable,” Cynthia said.
One of her favorite Kuali features is the ability to save what she is working on to come back to later. In fact “…if there are other things I could be doing in Kuali, sign me up!”
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“I think Kuali is a great system,” said Cathy Maddaford, Director of Training. “I am not a great paper fan. Ever since I learned to use a computer, I’ve thought they file much better than I do. And no paper cuts!”
As a trainer, Cathy directs new Kuali Financial System (KFS) users in a number of different systems: Chart of Account Changes, Journal Voucher Entry, P-Card Reallocation and P-Card eStatements.
“The reward part of the training is when people come in looking unsure and walk out with a look of understanding,” explained Cathy. “I like to see those faces then.”
Cathy acknowledged that some users have had difficulty transitioning to Kuali use, but said, “As a rule the people who are using it for more than one thing [begin to] see how this screen looks like that screen, and that looks like another screen, and so on. They’re starting to see how things fit together, the consistencies, the benefit. ”
“I enjoy helping people achieve that ‘Ah Ha!’ moment.”
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Cathy Maddaford, Director of Training. |
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Victor Uy, Accountant with the Roski School of Fine Arts. |
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"I'm not afraid of change; it's for the good," said Victor Uy, Accountant with the Roski School of Fine Arts.
That open mind has helped Victor adapt to a number of new Kuali systems, including Cashiering, P-Card Reallocation and Journal Vouchers. While scanning receipts for P-cards takes him a little longer, he feels that he ultimately saves time with Cashiering and JVs. Victor also likes the fact that eDocs save on storage space, which can be in short supply in his office.
Victor, who grew up in the Philippines, was already familiar with the word Kuali. "If you're having a fiesta, you cook the meal in a big kuali. It feeds the whole community," he explained. Like the Kuali Financial System itself, "It's for everyone, for everybody to use."
In addition to saving time, Kuali offers another advantage, according to Victor. "It's also good for the university being green. Less paperwork - what floats around is data. It fits with what President Nikias is promoting."
Victor laughed and swept his hand outward as though savoring the cooking smells of home, "That is the 'aroma' of Kuali!"
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Dena Davenport, Accountant II at the Keck School of Medicine, has adapted easily from WEBBA to Kuali. It has even proven faster for journal entries, “…because I can enter all of the information myself rather than sending it to UPC and then tracking it,” explained Dena. “In that regard I like it [Kuali] better.”
She now helps train others at HSC how to use the Cashiering and Journal Voucher systems.
“Some people get it [right away] and some people don’t, but once I show them how to do it, they usually won’t have the same mistake twice,” said Dena.
Dena is the final approver for Cashiering eDocs from about two dozen staff members. “It’s been quite an event,” said Dena, to transition everyone to Kuali. Although it has not always been easy, Dena smiled, “It’s getting better.”
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Dena Davenport, Accountant II at the Keck School of Medicine. |
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Mary Francis, Budget/Business Analyst at the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering. |
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“I love Kuali P-Card reallocation!” said Mary Francis, Budget/Business Analyst at the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering. “It makes my life so much easier.”
When Mary began work at USC in 2001, computers still featured green print against black screens and her department was just transitioning to WEBBA. Mary worked on that system for ten years before electronic procurement card statements in the Kuali Financial System (KFS) were introduced in February 2011.
Mary loves the ease of reallocating items online to their correct accounts. The statement shows who all charges are to and what each is for.
“I don’t have to fill out paperwork, just put in the account number and Bingo, it’s transferred!”
Even though Mary is an experienced WEBBA user, she said working online in KFS takes less than half the time it took with the old system. Not only does she save time reallocating P-card charges, tracking her reallocations electronically has also reduced the processing time for P-Card paperwork from weeks to days.
“Before I would have to wait and wait and WAIT,” laughed Mary. “But now it’s posted within the system in a couple of days.”
Note: Mary was a winner of Summer 2012 Contest #2 of our Kuali User Appreciation Contests.
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