Despite some challenges, the benefits of a finance streamlining initiative to consolidate more than 30 Cornell business service centers are starting to come in. They include a sharing of best practices, improved compliance, seamless backup when a team member is on vacation and more consistency in how transactions are processed, said directors of Cornell's financial transaction and business service centers, Nov. 4 at a brown-bag lunch in Weill Hall.

This sixth of seven brown-bag lunches was organized by the Administrative Streamlining Program to update the Cornell community on key cost-cutting initiatives. The finance initiative seeks to consolidate 30 business service centers to seven financial transaction centers, the directors noted. Yet the streamlining initiative has had its share of challenges, including some related to the Kuali Financial System (KFS), they said.

"Right now we feel like we're a little stretched, but we're going to wait for the system to stabilize. I think that's going to have a big impact," said Robin Yager, director of the University Business Service Center (UBSC) and the initiative's program manager. Much of the discussion centered on backlogs at some centers, especially in processing invoices, caused in part by technical difficulties related to KFS.

In response to an audience member who said there aren't enough staff members to deal with the resulting workload, the directors said they are combating backlogs with various strategies. The KFS project will pay for temporary help, said Anne Shapiro, university controller. "We're very aware of that archaeological mound of backlogged work," she said, adding that the accounts payable department in the Division of Financial Affairs hired 18 temporary workers to process backlogged invoices. Directors will shift staffing levels to match their workloads as the centers become more efficient, their clients' needs change, and KFS problems are solved, said Lisa Tvaroha who directs the center serving the College of Engineering and the Faculty of Computing and Information Science.

Not every center has backlogs. There is typically a three-to-four day turnaround for transactions processed at the Small Academic Center, which serves the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, the School of Hotel Administration, the ILR School, the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, the Law School and Cornell University Library, said Director Ken Putnam. "I feel like we're headed in the right direction," he said. While the center serving the Division of Student and Academic Services doesn't have an accumulation of invoices, it has hired temps to assist with the workload and research transactions to correct account coding errors and ensure there were no duplicate payments, said Director Sharon Baum.

Part of the problem stems from vendors who haven't submitted the proper paperwork, which slows processing, said Yager. But the university can't simply pay vendors and get their paperwork later, due to federal regulations, Shapiro said.

A pilot project in which clients scan documentation themselves is in development; if implemented, both the center and the clients will clarify, via a memorandum of understanding, who is responsible for keeping the originals, Shapiro replied to a question on documentation policy.

Another benefit of the initiative will emerge over time, Shapiro said. "I firmly believe that these centers will result in enhanced skills and enhanced career advancement for anyone participating in them," she said.

An informal discussion on the Student and Academic Services streamlining initiative will take place Nov. 16, noon-1 p.m., in Willard Straight Hall's Memorial Room.