Director of Financial Reporting and Management Services Beth McAndrew discusses her role in Finance.
Q. How many years have you worked at Carolina?
A. December 5, 2017, marked one year.
Q. What is a typical day like in your job?
A. That depends on the time of year. July through November, the Financial Reporting and Management Services (FRMS) team is focused on closing the fiscal year, fulfilling state requirements and submitting reports to the Office of State Controller (OSC). During July and August, we are closing the fiscal year and getting reports pulled together to send to the OSC. Once we have submitted the financials in August, we spend September creating the notes for the financial statements and supplemental statements for OSC. All of the information we compile during July-September goes into the creation of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The Financial Statement audit begins as soon as we submit the initial reports to the state in August and normally concludes in late November. In January, we receive the printed Annual Report, and share it with the Board of Trustees (BOT). January begins our quarterly (financial) activity reporting.
Q. How does your job support Carolina’s mission?
A. We track the finances and analyze financial trends to help our executives make solid decisions.
Q. What’s the main purpose of the unit, where is it located, and how many staff members are in your unit?
A. We report the overall financial position of the University. We have six folks in the FRMS unit, and our offices are in Administrative Office Building. In addition to the activities just mentioned, this unit handles all the unrelated business income tax reporting for the University, which is tax the University pays on income received that is not substantially related to the University’s educational and other exempt purposes. Our department is also responsible to research and implement all new Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) standards.
Q. What are your deliverables or major products?
A. The Annual Report is the single largest product our office creates. Planning and gathering data begins in July. The Annual Report explains all the financial data for the University and its component units, like certain foundations affiliated with the University. The Annual Report is presented to the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees (BOT) in January, and it’s shared with bond rating agencies throughout the year. When people submit requests for grants, they usually need information from the Annual Report, and we direct them to the relevant parts of it.
Some of the information from the Annual Report is used for Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS), which is the federal government’s higher education data collection program; and for the Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity, which is used to study higher education expenditures.
We compile information throughout the year for BOT presentations, and for interim reports that we present to senior leadership and the BOT.
Q. Who are your customers and how many customers do you serve?
A. Our customers include anyone who uses the financial statements of the University. This could be a Board of Trustees member, a rating agency or someone applying for a grant. We are also a resource for campus to help answer accounting-related questions.
Q. What do you like most about your work?
A. I enjoy coming together as a team to discuss and brainstorm how to share financial information in a way that’s easily understandable. I also like helping campus any way that we can.
Q. How did you get interested in accounting?
A. From the first accounting class I took in college, I was hooked. I enjoy analyzing financial data to help our leadership make decisions.
Q. What’s something people don’t know about you or your job?
A. In my spare time, I’m usually doing something with my six kids and their families.