Finance Operations Center
The Finance Operations Center (also known as FinOps) was created in 2023 as a result of the PEAK Initiative, and our systemwide support unit began its formal operations in the fall of 2023. The PEAK Initiative is about people, their work, and the support services we collectively provide to the University. The purpose of the PEAK Initiative is to provide improved, consistent, equitable and cost-effective services across the University of Minnesota System to help ensure the success of our teaching, research and, outreach mission. PEAK is not about reducing staff headcounts or immediate cost savings, though some cost savings are expected in the long term. PEAK is an acronym, Positioned for Excellence, Alignment and Knowledge. For more information, visit the PEAK website.
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.
Types of Financial Service Requests (pdf)
To make a service request, visit z.umn.edu/servicerequest
Want to speak with a representative? We have open office hours.
| Finance Area | TDX Form | SLA in business days |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting | ChartField Request | 3 |
| Accounting | Journal Entry | 5 |
| Accounting | Payroll Distribution Entry & Retro Distributions | 3 |
| Accounts Payable | Payment Change | 2 |
| Accounts Payable | Supplier Payment | 3 |
| Accounts Payable | Voucher Change | 3 |
| Accounts Receivable | Request Funds from University of Minnesota Foundation | 3 |
| Accounts Receivable | Request New Bill/Invoice | 3 |
| Accounts Receivable | Request New External Sales Customer | 2 |
| Accounts Receivable | Revise Existing Bill/Invoice | 3 |
| Purchasing | PCard Expense Report Change | 3 |
| Purchasing | PCard Reconciliation | 3 |
| Purchasing | Purchase Order (PO) Change Order | 5 |
| Purchasing | Purchase Request | 5 |
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).
For people who had data entry access in EFS and were switched to view only access, there are materials on the Financial Training website that should be helpful. Look for the job aids that have "viewing" in the title.
Requestor General | Requestor Finance |
|---|---|
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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
Carrie Meyer, [email protected], is the interim director of the Finance Operations Center.
Jenni Larson, [email protected], is the accounting/payroll accounting manager.
Gary Nelson, [email protected], is the accounts receivable manager.
Doug Ahlgren, [email protected], is the purchasing and accounts payable senior manager.
Learn more about the FinOps Center leadership team
Contact
The FinOps Center can be contacted via [email protected].
The Team
The Finance Operations Center (aka FinOps or FinOps Center) is part of University Finance. The director reports to the Associate Vice President for Finance, Mike Volna, with a dotted line to the Controller, 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 the director of FinOps.
In the future, as team sizes grow, supervisors are planned for each area (accounts receivable, accounting, accounts payable, and purchasing).
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.
Metrics
Below are FinOps Center metrics, displayed using Looker Studio. View the charts within Looker Studio itself, if desired.