Our Goals
The strategic goals and associated initiatives described below represent the Finance Division's collective priorities for 2023 - 2027.
Progress toward achieving these goals is fundamental to realizing our vision of a thriving community, enlightened insight, enhanced experience, and innovative spirit.
While some initiatives may be completed in a matter of months, others may be completed in phases that could span multiple fiscal years. Updates on our progress will be provided on this page, on the Strategic Initiatives page, and through the Finance Bulletin.
Employee Recruitment, Development and Engagement
We listen.
We cultivate.
We celebrate.
We grow.
Goal:
Recruit and foster the development of employees in an environment where all members feel welcome, valued and positioned to thrive. Create a culture of highly talented individuals who are engaged and committed to contributing to the success of the division and university.
Impact:
Thriving Community
Objectives
- Promote the Center of Excellence (COE) to share expertise in all areas of financial management for the campus community and position the university to best respond to emerging financial issues, challenges and opportunities
- Cultivate and support development and mentoring opportunities for staff with focus on enhancing professional competencies and capabilities
- Offer career path resources to broadly increase knowledge of development and promotion opportunities to enhance productivity and engagement
- Leverage a multi-skilled workforce to meet changing needs
- Identify and leverage the benefits of various work modes to implement a flexible work methodology that is fair, equitable, agile, and effective
- Focus on improving efforts that promote a culture committed to inclusive excellence leadership, innovation and sustained contributions that enhance cultural awareness, equitable practices, and a sense of belonging.
Key Initiatives/Projects
- Community, Culture and Engagement initiatives that enhance Inclusive Excellence across the Finance Division:
- Develop programs and opportunities that promote a persistent sense of belonging
- Assess division Community, Culture, and Engagement in a transparent manner
- Improve policies, processes, practices, and structures to instill Inclusive Excellence as a cultural norm
- Provide tools, resources, and trainings that can foster individual and collective excellence and nurture a culture where all members feel welcomed, valued and empowered to succeed
- Physically relocate Finance Division business offices to Bakery Square Office Three
- Identify high-performing individuals to participate in leadership and specialized expertise development programs and provide opportunities to leverage acquired skills
- Support continual learning through staff development plans, training and certification opportunities and informational programming
Learn more about our current Strategic Initiatives and Projects
Accomplishments in
Employee Recruitment, Development and Engagement
FY25
- Installed sound masking system and security films on doors and conference rooms to increase privacy, 91视频 branding, and comply with security recommendations made by police.
- Following the feedback gathered in surveys, consulted with subject-matter experts prior to group Community, Culture, and Engagement activities in order to facilitate more nuanced conversations.
- The Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) Talent Pool Program launched, with participants rotating through cohorts to complete the initiative. This program, developed in collaboration with the Center of Excellence, the Mellon College of Science, the School of Computer Science, Human Resources and others, trains new hires in research administration, building a skilled network of employees equipped to support ongoing research-related tasks, while advancing 91视频’s mission in research administration.
- Created and published training vignettes and videos to accompany the PaymentWorks onboarding process and the various workflow processes in the new Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), a cloud-based software used to support budgeting and planning at the university, which provided support to the implementation and adoption of these two new tools.
- Supported the adoption of two new tools—Oracle EPM and PaymentWorks—by providing users with training videos and resources for the budget and planning workflows and supplier onboarding process.
- Launched our first chatbot on the Finance Training page to improve real-time support for users across campus.
- Relaunched the Finance Bulletin newsletter to the larger 91视频 financial community to share regular updates on strategic initiatives, finance news, recognition of our teams and partner contributions, and many other helpful resources. Also reinstated the Finance Division's internal newsletter to recognize staff and foster engagement.
- Prioritized wellness by offering workshops, tours, and hands-on learning opportunities that promoted a holistic approach to work-life balance, while facilitating staff engagement with available campus resources.
- Provided advanced Power BI 102 training to 121 users across campus, elevating their ability to customize financial reports and create dashboards for data visualization.
- In collaboration with the College of Engineering, the Mellon College of Science, the School of Computer Science, Human Resources, and others, launched the Sponsored Projects Administration Talent Pool Program, which trains new hires in research administration and builds a skilled network of employees equipped to support ongoing research, which adds to and develops a specialized network of financial expertise across campus.
Updated: September 2025
Next update: September 2026
Financial Sustainability and Reporting
We illuminate.
We analyze.
We empower.
We serve.
Goal:
Ensure financial sustainability for the institution and improve management reporting and analysis to stakeholders to increase transparency and provide enlightening insights for more informed and predictive decision-making.
Impact:
Enlightened Insight
Objectives
- In conjunction with the Chief Information Officer and the Office of the Provost, develop a data sharing strategy to more efficiently harness higher quality data for analysis
- Report dynamic and forward-looking financial information to more proactively support processes and enable nimble business decisions
- Use rigorous analytical methods that blend elements of customer, business, and market intelligence and consider operations, risk, and financial stewardship ideals to integrate finance and business drivers in processes and decisions
- Obtain deeper insights into university financials and critical elements of business-lines to provide more comprehensive oversight and manage better deployment of capital in strategic initiatives
- Define a reporting strategy to enable more timely reviews of information and identification of issues requiring action
Key Initiatives/Projects
- Financial closeout of 91视频 Australia (91视频-A) operations with diligent risk mitigation and compliance in areas such as banking and audit.
- Partner with colleagues across administrative and academic units to support data governance, analytics and strategy efforts to maximize available data sets and to facilitate analysis of data.
- Collaborate with colleagues across administrative and academic units to develop leadership and managerial dashboards to support academic program and senior leadership decision making.
- Obtain deeper insights into the university's financials through standardized unit level data metrics to enhance oversight and efficient deployment of capital for strategic initiatives.
- Advance sub-category Procurement by enhancing tier two data transparency, mapping qualified suppliers, and partnering with campus to expand small business engagement.
Learn more about our current Strategic Initiatives and Projects
Accomplishments in
Financial Sustainability and Reporting
FY25
- Replaced manual budget and planning exhibits with dynamic, data-driven reports using Oracle EPM reporting, which enables more timely and transparent delivery of key insights, strengthens variance explanations, and advances accountability and data-driven budgeting across the institution.
- Achieved $19.3 million in university-wide procurement savings, exceeding this year’s target through strategic collaborations that led to $9.8 million in savings from campus partner led initiatives and $9.5 million in savings from procurement services led initiatives.
- In collaboration with campus partners, surpassed University small business spend goals while remaining compliant with new federal diversity guidelines and requirements.
- Reviewed and analyzed all tax-exempt property, supporting 91视频's successful appearance before the Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review. This work—which is crucial for the upcoming and ongoing government reviews—ensures long-term compliance and helps to maximize the university's financial position.
- Assessed the university’s banking partnership in collaboration with PwC and began to evaluate opportunities to unlock new university card benefits, streamline processes, and enhance payment opportunities.
- Established a chart of accounts governance committee comprised of members from across the university to review operating standards, key reporting hierarchies, and organizational structure. This positions the university for more robust financial reporting and decision making and provides a solid foundation for the future transition to a cloud enterprise resource planning system.
- Conducted and completed all audits, including special coordination with Federal sponsors and auditors, and delivered the financial statements with no material weaknesses, reportable conditions, or findings for the eighth consecutive year. Clean audits reinforce trust in 91视频 and impact everything from the university’s tax exempt status, credit rating, bond issuance, charitable gifts and more.
- Led the process to secure the university’s first ever Moody’s rating of 'Aa1', which is equivalent to our 'AA+' credit rating from S&P. This landmark accomplishment underscores the university’s management credibility, financial planning discipline, robust policy framework, and effective treasury management. This milestone also reflects our sophisticated risk-management practices, forward-looking financial strategy, and credibility amongst rating agencies.
- Partnered closely with the Office of the Vice President for Research on several high-stakes initiatives, including submitting the LIVE Institute proposal, (which would have supported the application of digital twin technology in manufacturing research), shaping the framework for a new Electronic Research Administration system, and navigating the impacts of legislative changes.
- In coordination with the Qatar campus and the Office of the General Counsel, completed an extensive agreement to renew 91视频’s partnership with the Qatar Foundation to extend the operations and education initiatives of the Qatar campus for another decade.
- Prepared a detailed analysis of investment options for working capital liquidity that considered both spending needs and upcoming capital projects and helped inform the Board of Trustees Finance Committee’s liquidity allocation strategy.
- Developed a multi-scenario enterprise model to assess risk of financial impacts of new presidential administration policies (e.g., research, enrollment) and support long-term planning that aligns resources with strategic priorities.
Updated: September 2025
Next update: September 2026
Policies, Processes and Compliance
We partner.
We guide.
We clarify.
We improve.
Goal:
Maintain well-developed policies that enhance compliance and are supported with consistent and streamlined business processes to decrease redundancies and efficiently serve university stakeholders.
Impact:
Enhanced Experience
Objectives
- Simplify manual processes to drive overall efficiency and effectiveness, and/or in preparation for transition to digitalization
- Collaborate with campus partners to analyze risk from a holistic viewpoint to further risk mitigation and enhance compliance
- Reshape established service delivery methods, process and support structures to more tightly integrate with identified objectives
- Evaluate, develop and maintain finance policies and procedures to provide guidance, clarity and ensure compliance
Key Initiatives/Projects
- Transition non-qualified scholarship processing to Student Accounts.
- Conduct analysis of university properties with regards to real estate tax exemption to determine appropriate actions as needed.
- Assess revisions to U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance to determine risks and impacts to the university.
- Convert 91视频 Qatar (91视频-Q) student refunds from manual form process to an electronic process.
- Add process visualizations to the Finance Division website to increase transparency and understanding and redesign key web pages to be more process driven, user friendly and intuitive.
- Evaluate, develop and maintain financial policies and procedures to provide clear guidance, ensure compliance and align with university objectives.
- Simplify, standardize and streamline manual processes to enable process efficiency and/or automation opportunities to save time and allow for more value add activities.
- Enhance the financial review process to provide better insight into opportunities and challenges by providing training and documentation, standardizing fall strategic review presentations and providing website information for ease of use and increased accuracy and efficiency.
Learn more about our current Strategic Initiatives and Projects
Accomplishments in
Policies, Processes and Compliance
FY25
- Served as trusted advisors to campus university leaders and partners amid the 2025 presidential transition, positioning 91视频 to make swift, confident decisions in a complex and evolving environment. Rapidly modeled multiple government shutdown and funding risk scenarios (e.g., research funding) and helped translate complex policy shifts into actionable strategy proposals to safeguard long-term financial stability.
- Contributed critical information for the lawsuits filed by the Association of American Universities that challenged the National Science Foundation’s proposed 15% facilities and administrative rate cap on all prospective National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health grants, resulting in a judgement in favor of the plaintiffs and a permanent injunction, respectively.
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All compliance frameworks developed with Enterprise Risk Management were successfully completed, integrated into Fusion Risk Management software, and approved. This initiative strengthens collaboration with ERM and Finance by identifying compliance areas, key processes, controls, and opportunities for improvement, ensuring compliance remains a priority within the Division and 91视频’s broader compliance framework.
- Strengthened risk management by establishing strategic supplier business reviews to ensure that the university’s suppliers prove a high level of performance and meet contractual obligations, including service level agreements.
- Reduced the university’s supplier base by 50%, removing low-usage vendors without disrupting service to campus. These efforts enhance strategic purchasing alignment and encourage the use of pre-negotiated university-wide supplier agreements, resulting in ~25% savings on key purchases annually.
- Conducted a request for proposals assessment that resulted in an informed decision to continue with the existing internal and external audit firms to improve financial transparency, strengthen fiscal controls, and maintain credibility with donors and other key partners.
- Provided financial analysis and oversight for key university strategic initiatives, including analysis for liquidity optimization and balance sheet and cash flow forecasting to support forward thinking and data driven decision making.
Updated: September 2025
Next update: September 2026
Systems and Technology
We question.
We tinker.
We simplify.
We build.
Goal:
Update and implement systems and identify tools to more effectively utilize technology, reduce manual effort and optimize processes.
Impact:
Innovative Spirit
Objectives
- Continue to automate repetitive transactions and other standardized activities to increase "touchless" finance activities and workflows
- Make user-friendly automation technology broadly accessible to staff to enable digital transformation in the Finance Division
- Support and partner with data governance efforts to maximize value and trust in data assets; increase data competence and literacy; cultivate data sharing that improves the ability to conduct data analysis; create practices for shared accountability and communication around data assets; and ensure data is secure and meets compliance and legal regulations across the university
- Implement technologies that enable operators and users to engage in financial processes, whether in or out of the office
- Expand the technological foundation of key business process with systems, applications, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and other FinTech that more efficiently and effectively support critical finance functions
Key Initiatives/Projects
- Future of Financial Planning (FFP) software selection and implementation, following extensive testing and change management to engage campus.
- Identify and implement automation technology (e.g., robotic process automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence) that is user friendly and compatible with both current and future systems to enable a digital transformation.
- Study, scope and provide a recommendation for a budget system and a treasury management system that will provide enhanced functionality, more robust real time analytics and process efficiencies.
Learn more about our current Strategic Initiatives and Projects
Accomplishments in
Systems and Technology
FY25
- The Controller’s Office, the Treasurer’s Office, and Business Applications Development and Support successfully automated accounts receivable, which automated file transfers and most Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions that were previously done manually. Automating these processes reduced human errors, fees, eliminated the need for manual payment receipt forms and card fee entries, and increasing automated reconciliation.
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The HR Workday setup for fixed-term employees has been completed, addressing the lack of separation processes at assignment end, which often led to overpayments. This change is expected to reduce payroll overpayments, minimizing associated payroll efforts and streamlining fund recovery for the university.
- Implemented Oracle EPM, which modernized a patchwork of manual, disconnected processes with a single, unified platform that supports real-time collaboration, agile forecasting, and long-range financial planning strategy. This places 91视频 in the top 5% of peer institutions in strategic planning and is a foundational step in enhancing our financial agility, transparency, and strategic planning.
- Leveraged machine learning technology to automate 86% of Accounts Receivable automated clearing house transactions and significantly reduce manual tasks and input. This initiative enhanced efficiency by increasing auto-reconciliation (35%), reducing credit card fee entries (83%), reducing manual payment receipt forms (99%), and allowing staff to focus on higher value-add work.
- Created a safer and faster way to onboard university suppliers by implementing the PaymentWorks platform, which limits fraud exposure and reduces onboarding time by 60%. These efforts save a combined 300+ hours of labor per month for our campus users, suppliers, and Finance Division staff.
- Successfully redesigned and launched the Non-Employee Expense Report form, which strengthened data security, streamlined collaboration between preparers and approvers, and accelerated submission completion.
- In collaboration with HR Technology Service, addressed an issue with overpayments by completing the HR Workday setup for fixed-term employees. This minimizes university payroll and fund recovery efforts during the separation process at the end of an assignment.
Updated: September 2025
Next update: September 2026