Finance Operations Center

The Finance Operations Center (also known as FinOps Center) was created in 2023 as a result of the PEAK Initiative. This systemwide support unit began its formal operations in the fall of 2023. 

Improving Finance Operations Systemwide

Finance staff across the University are working to make finance-related services more equitable, compliant, and efficient to better serve our faculty, staff, students, suppliers to the University, and customers of the University.


Services Provided
Service Level Agreements
Finance AreaTDX FormSLA in business days
AccountingChartfield Request

3

AccountingJournal Entry

5

AccountingPayroll Distribution Entry & Retro Distributions

3

Accounts PayablePayment Change

2

Accounts PayableSupplier Payment

3

Accounts PayableVoucher Change

3

Accounts ReceivableRequest Funds from University of Minnesota Foundation

3

Accounts ReceivableRequest New Bill/Invoice

3

Accounts ReceivableRequest New External Sales Customer

2

Accounts ReceivableRevise Existing Bill/Invoice

3

PurchasingPCard Expense Report Change

3

PurchasingPCard Reconciliation

3

PurchasingPurchase Order (PO) Change Order

5

PurchasingPurchase Request

5

Training

Phase 1 Training Materials for TeamDynamix Service Requests

TeamDynamix (TDX) is the service request software that Finance (and Human Resource) Operations Centers will use to manage service requests transitioning during the PEAK Initiative. On-demand job aids and training resources are available for people working in TDX at different responsibility levels.

Requesters are individuals who either have a Finance or HR request (for example, reclassification, purchase), or are responsible for creating a TDX ticket on behalf of the requester (for example, department admin, campus/college/unit HR staff member).

Requestor General

Requestor Finance

Shopping in U Market?

If you have shopped in U Market and have a cart of goods to assign to the FinOps Center, assign the cart to the ID "finopsumarket". This will create a Service Request in TDX for the FinOps purchasing team to grab the cart and complete the processing (just as your local requisition preparer did prior to moving to being supported by FinOps).

About Us

About Us

Rahfat Hussain is the director of the Finance Operations Center. 

Learn more about the FinOps Center leadership team

Contact

The FinOps Center can be contacted via [email protected]

Rahfat Hussain can be contacted via [email protected].

Org Chart

The Finance Operations Center (aka FinOps or FinOps Center) is part of University Finance. Rahfat Hussain, the director, reports to Mike Volna, with a dotted line to Mollie Viola. Gary Nelson (accounts receivable team manager), Doug Ahlgren (senior purchasing manager, overseeing purchasing and accounts payable teams), and Jenni Larson (accounting manager) report to Rahfat. In the future, as team sizes grow, there will be supervisors for each area (accounts receivable, accounting, accounts payable, and purchasing).

Org chart. Description available in slide notes of Google Slide at https://z.umn.edu/finopsorgchart
Operations Messages

FinOps Message Log

The messages below were sent out to finance leaders via email from the Finance Operations Center and are relevant to anyone using our services.

FinOps JE requests, period 6 and beyond: how to alert us the entry is for month end

FinOps Service Requests: Month End JEs

January 2, 2024, sent to Phase 1 Chief Financial Managers

People asked for a way to call out certain JE-related service requests at month end, to ensure the FinOps team can differentiate between routine journal entry requests and those that are time sensitive just before the close of an accounting period.

When submitting a request for a month end transaction, in the Title field for the service request, enter “MONTH END” followed by the title of your request.

Example: MONTH END, fall 2023 tuition distribution

The team that handles journal entries will monitor for these requests and attend to them first as the deadline approaches.

PEAK Phase 1: Requester Information on FinOps Service Requests

December 28, 2023, sent to Phase 1 Chief Financial Managers

Some areas are using a useful process of having people in a support role complete FinOps service requests in TDX on behalf of others. This practice seems to work well but it can mask the true requester.

Having information about both the creator and the requester recorded in the service request, when they are different people, is helpful as people track their own work or requests, and it's useful for FinOps staff who need to communicate when questions arise.

When someone creates a service request on behalf of another person, they can specify the actual requester in the "Requestor" field (it defaults to the person who created the request). TDX captures the creator information in the history of the service request if the Requestor field is updated. The creator can still check on the status of the request, FinOps can still update the creator through TDX, and so forth.

Options to provide the true requester's contact information are: use the Requestor field, type identifying information in the Title field or any available description field, or include the information in an attachment to the request. The preferred method is to update the Requestor field.

Please discuss/share this information with your team members who may create service requests and let us know if you have questions or concerns.

Below is just one example of a service request for illustration, showing the Requestor field in TDX. On this example, the field appears just after the Title field for the request.

Image of Purchase Request service request in TeamDynamix highlighting the Requestor field. On this type of request, the Requestor field appears just after the Title field on the Service Request.

Metrics

Below are FinOps Center metrics, displayed using Looker Studio. View the charts within Looker Studio itself, if desired.