What is a typical day like in your job?
I have two types of typical days. It depends on whether the days fall on month-end or not.
The month-end period is challenging because my team has to close university books within five business days, and I coordinate with other central offices to ensure that more than 100 tasks are completed on time. Usually, I start my day reviewing all month-end reports to identify issues. To resolve these issues, the rest of my day is filled with emails, conference calls and in-person meetings.
After the month-end, I typically connect with my team members, engage with campus departments and collaborate with other central offices. My focuses are in three main areas. First: recruit, motivate, develop and support my team. As a manager, building an effective team has always been my top priority. Second, I work with campus communities and other central offices via training, meeting and exchanging ideas. A growth mindset and updated knowledge of university operations are crucial in our ever-changing university environment. Third, I perform continuous review and analysis of our current business processes to seek potential improvements, as I am a believer of constant pursuit of excellence.
How does your job support Carolina’s mission?
My team supports University financial operations by maintaining accounting structures (chart of accounts) and monitoring the proper recording of all financial transactions. These financial data are the building blocks of University financial reports for internal and external stakeholders.
What do you like most about your work?
People! Our university community is full of intelligent people who care. After eight years working at the University, Accounting Services is like a family to me now. My colleagues have become my friends. I have acquired so much knowledge from them. Not a single day is passed without me learning something new. It is rewarding to spend most of my time in this amazing place.
Is there anything coming up in Accounting Services that would be interesting to know about (or has recently happened)?
The PeopleSoft Finance module has recently been upgraded to the 9.2 version. This is the first major upgrade since we started using PeopleSoft four years ago. It will stabilize our financial system and help us to further streamline our processes.
What other things can you tell us about Accounting Services that most people don’t know?
Our team is called the Financial Unit of Accounting Services. We have five wonderful people and are located on the third floor in the Administrative Office Building.
Our team maintains over 13,400 chart field sources in ConnectCarolina. These sources are used to record transactions funded by University endowment, restricted and unrestricted gifts funds, contracts and grants funds, auxiliary and plant funds.
Our team monitors financial transactions in the general ledger. In a typical month, there are around 9,000 journal entries with over 1.8 million lines, and we review and approve around 2,800 manual journal entries.
Our team also provides accounting guidelines, training and financial reports to campus departments. We collaborate with other central offices on various accounting issues and process improvements.
What is something people probably wouldn’t know about you, or another fun item you’d like to share?
In my spare time, I find it meaningful to volunteer and give back to our local community. It is especially joyful when I volunteer with my son in local charity organizations, such as TABLE and Food Bank. Together we have been volunteering for five years!