Senior Financial Analyst - Vancouver, Canada - The University of British Columbia

Description

Job Summary

The Senior Financial Analyst manages the specialized and complex financial activities of the Student Financial Management unit which is responsible for the administration of a number of central University functions, such as tuition and fees assessment and collection, production and distribution of tax slips for students, tuition waivers, and U-Pass. These are university-wide functions for both Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, with annual tuition and fee assessments amounting to over $900 million.

Main duties include management of all student tuition and fee assessments in Workday Student for both campuses, as well as management over the Tuition Allocation Model (TAM) which allocates tuition revenue across faculties and central units on the Vancouver campus. The Senior Financial Analyst is strategically involved in the new, development, and monitoring of financial and student systems, processes and procedures to improve tuition fee and allocation administration.

The Senior Financial Analyst is also strategically involved in financial planning, monitoring financial activities and effectively administering financial policies for Enrolment Services (ES). The Senior Financial Analyst manages several staff members in the daily financial operations of ES, including ensuring the integrity of financial transactions, providing ongoing maintenance of the position management and salary tracking system, and overseeing the payroll process for staff & students. The team managed by the Senior Financial Analyst also provides accounting, payroll, and administrative support to the Go Global administrative unit. Employee groups include BCGEU Okanagan, CUPE 2950, Management and Professional, and Executive Administrative personnel.

Organizational Status

The Senior Financial Analyst reports to the Associate Director, Student Financial Management and takes direction on Human Resources (HR) matters from the HR Business Partner. The incumbent works independently in collaboration with the Director, Associate Director, ES Associate Registrars, and other ES Associate Directors in both UBC Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, Director of Go Global, and other managers. The Senior Financial Analyst liaises with the Provost Office, Human Resources, Financial Operations, Information Technology Services, Faculties (providing expert support on tuition assessments and Tuition Allocation Model), Financial Planning & Analysis, and other central University agencies concerned with financial matters and interacts with external contacts such as Canada Revenue Agency, external auditors, government agencies, and other organizations.

Work Performed

A. Tuition and Student Fees

1. Responsible for the development, design, testing, implementation, and evaluation of all system changes that affect tuition and fee assessments. This includes but is not limited to assessing system impact, liaising with business analysts and developers, approving changes to be moved into the production environment, informing and training end users who are impacted by changes and providing ongoing support.

2. Implements new program and tuition fees approved by the Board of Governors and new student levy fees approved by the respective governing bodies in Workday Student. This includes coordinating with Hypercare to make appropriate rule changes, developing test scripts and performing extensive system testing to confirm tuition and fee assessments are accurately done.

3. Assesses existing fee assessment rules, structure, and system capabilities in Workday Student and recommend changes to increase efficiency and timeliness while maintaining accuracy.

4. Creates and maps student financial data to the Workday financial management system to ensure accurate tuition revenues and related student accounts are appropriately recognized in the University s financial statements.

5. Provides expert advice and guidance to faculties, departments, and student societies on tuition fee impact of registration changes, such as changes in student classification, transfer to a new graduate degree program, and others. Responsible for determining and implementing complex tuition fee adjustments.

6. Conducts broad and complex financial analyses on tuition revenue projections and tuition allocation on the Vancouver campus.

7. Conducts broad and complex financial analyses on student account balances, including tuition fee assessments and payments, in support of campus-wide student financial processes.

8. Prepares tuition consultation materials, preparing annual board dockets for the approval of tuition fees and non-instructional fees, updating the Academic Calendar for new fees, updating the cost calculator, allocating application fees between Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, and other tuition and fee-related matters.

9. Responsible for accuracy of tuition tax credit eligible amounts on T2202 and T4A for students taking credit courses. This involves an in-depth understanding of implications of student related transactions and income tax policies set by the Canada Revenue Agency.

10. Prepares complex U-Pass reporting and remittance requirements in coordination with Trek Office, TransLink, Ministry of Transportation, and affiliated colleges (Regent, St. Mark's and Vancouver School of Theology). This includes extensive knowledge of U-Pass administration and complex U-Pass financial accounting processes.

11. Prepares complex reconciliation of student accounts used in the assessment and collection of tuition and fees in Workday Student vis-a-vis student accounts receivable in the Financial Management System (Workday general ledger). This involves an in-depth systems knowledge of student financial accounts and full comprehension of complex student financial accounting practices.

12. Strategically involved in business process reviews to streamline projects and performs specialized analytical and ad hoc projects to increase efficiency and effectiveness of processes as required and in response to regulatory changes or University agreements.

13. Participates as a team lead and/or team member on various service improvements, training and other strategic projects within the unit.

B. Tuition Allocation Model

1. Serves as a primary point of contact with Faculty Business Officers in the navigation, use, and expert support of the Tuition Allocation Model (TAM) within Tableau.

2. Provides expert advice and guidance to faculties and departments on TAM impact of budget driver changes, such as allocation basis, home and teaching faculty, etc.

3. Works closely with the Integrated Reporting team in the strategic design, development, enhancements, testing and implementation of new dashboards for TAM and student revenue analytics used by all Faculty Business Officers. The dashboards enable Faculty Business Officers to quickly assess their tuition allocation and facilitate decision-making on program prospects.

4. Reviews tuition allocation and other tuition and student fees related reporting dashboards with Faculty Business Officers to establish consistent reporting practices to the distributed community.

C. Financial Planning & Budgeting

1. Develops short and long-range strategic financial plans and annual budget plan for ES.
2. Assesses existing financial systems and recommends changes to ensure expenses are accurately reflected in the general ledger, including monthly reconciliation of statements of salary and wages and general ledger; projects future salary and benefit expenses for forecasting and budgeting.
3. Responsible for executing funding transfers, ensuring units have the appropriate funding allocations, and updating forecasts and planned unit budgets in Adaptive.
4. Responsible for the regular review and maintenance of job requisition data and reconciles this with budgeted salaries in Adaptive on a monthly basis.
5. Monitors overall financial effectiveness and efficiency of all units within ES, develops systems and processes to resolve problems, and works closely with managers to improve control and the management of financial resources and reduce costs at all levels of the operation.
6. Develops and prepares customized financial analysis reports, balance sheets, income statements in Workday for review by the Director, Associate Director, and Unit Directors.

D. Policy and Internal Control

1. Strategically involved in the development and implementation of unit level policy, standards and procedures with respect to operational financial and accounting issues.
2. Strategically involved in the development and implementation of new financial processes and internal controls to improve the efficiencies of the financial information workflow within the organization and the integration of student assessments and payments with the University's financial system. Ensures internal policies and processes are developed and implemented in accordance with UBC-wide financial procedures and policies.
3. Maintains a current knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, University policies and procedures, external agency policies, relevant federal and provincial legislation and regulations relating to taxation to ensure adherence within the organization. Provides interpretation, authoritative advice and guidance to ES and Go Global staff members.
4. Designs, develops and conducts staff training to facilitate understanding of existing financial and accounting procedures, policies, and systems.
5. Designs, develops and implements audit policies, programs, and procedures to ensure the integrity of financial information. This includes monitoring the appropriateness and effectiveness of internal controls and determining improvements to be instituted.

E. General Accounting

1. Designs, develops, controls, manages, and directs accounting activities for ES to ensure timely and accurate processing of financial information. This includes the control and management of staff in day-to-day accounting transactions and data entry of financial documents (i.e. cash sale transactions, accounting journals, expense reports, purchase requisitions, and supplier invoices). Ensures proper separation of duties, verification of account coding and signing authorities, appropriateness of expenditures and adherence to University policies.
2. Directs clerical staff in processing of business processes affecting payroll in Workday (i.e. job requisitions, hires, compensation adjustments). Designs and monitors tracking system for staff re-appointments, leaves, and term end-dates.
3. Manages the organization s purchasing practices including UBC VISA and on-line purchase requisitions. Provides direction to UBC VISA cardholders as required on proper verification and account allocation of expenditures as well as proper record keeping for audit purposes.
4. Interprets and consistently applies the CUPE 2950 and BCGEU collective agreements and the Conditions and Terms of Employment for AAPS employees. Provides guidance to directors, managers and employees on a variety of human resources and payroll issues.
5. Reviews department s month and year-end account reconciliations, salaries and non-salaries expenses, for numerous general-purpose operating accounts.
6. Provides guidance to directors, managers and employees in ES and Go Global on a variety of accounting, procurement, and payroll processing issues.
7. Reviews reconciliation of all ES-managed University accounts, such as student loans, US loans, sponsorship billing, T4A student tax accounts, deferred revenue and credit card clearing accounts in relation to virtual terminal and front counter student fee payments.
8. Responsible for management and preparation of accruals and fiscal year-end adjustments.
9. Ensures the maintenance of all required financial records, programs, and reports in ES. Administers signing authority to programs and online access to Workday.
10. Ensures Enrolment Services follows Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards with the use of electronic pin pads for accepting debit and credit cards. Acts as PCI coordinator for the unit.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Attention to detail and thorough knowledge of UBC policies and procedures, as well as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is critical. This position is responsible for ensuring that processes related to tuition fee assessments and allocation are performed correctly and in a timely manner on Workday. Student revenue reporting errors could cause serious inaccuracies in the University's records perhaps resulting in errors in the financial statements and errors in funding allocations to faculties. Errors in budgeting, forecasting, reconciliations and other analysis could cause financial hardship or missed opportunities for effective delivery of services to students, faculty and staff and could severely compromise ES' and the University's ability to achieve their goals. Errors in tax reporting could result in financial penalties to the University.

The incumbent must respond knowledgeably and authoritatively to diverse questions concerning University and department policies and procedures on tuition and fee assessments, and students, faculties, departments, and ES Advisors will contact the incumbent because they are experiencing difficulty in some way with fee assessments.

The incumbent manages financial matters in student financial management areas and exercise of good judgment is critical, whether it is affecting students, guarantors, parents, other departments or government agencies.

Inappropriate prioritizing can result in reduced service to the public and wasted staff resources. All information must be accurate and provided in a respectful, timely and supportive manner. Failure to provide service that meets these standards affects public perception of Enrolment Services and the University.

This position also ensures the financial management system in place provides meaningful and relevant information for use in the management decision-making processes in ES. The incumbent exercises considerable judgement in advising management on a variety of financial matters and the interpretation of financial implications of operations. Actions and decisions are critical in ensuring the financial health of ES units, programs and initiatives.

The many diverse functions in ES units with campus-wide impact increase the complexity of this role.

Supervision Received

Reports to the Associate Director, Student Financial Management. Works independently with considerable latitude within established policies, procedures and accepted practices under the general direction of the Associate Director. The individual is responsible for the smooth operation of the Student Financial Management processing area as well as the smooth operation of tuition and fees assessments and payments applied to student accounts, processed in Workday. The incumbent would only refer to the Associate Director on those issues that require a change in overall policy. Work is reviewed in terms of achievement of specific goals.

Supervision Given

Manages and directs the work of several staff members and is responsible for the accuracy, production, and control of their work. Provides input into staff selection and performance evaluation of employees. Trains junior accounting and clerical personnel employees at lower classifications. Supervision includes monitoring quality and quantity of work, prioritizing, scheduling additional projects, training, approving vacation and handling performance and personnel issues. This involves assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of existing procedures and working with staff to develop new policies and procedures where required.

Minimum Qualifications

Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Completion of the CPA accounting program (CA, CGA or CMA). Minimum of five years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one's own

Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one's own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

A minimum of five 5 years of progressive financial and management experience in a medium to large multi-functional, complex unionized organization. Demonstrated experience with reconciliations and analysis and interpretation of financial data. Previous experience in the supervision of day to day accounting operations. Experience with financial planning, budgeting and controls. Proficiency in computer and financial management systems, including a working knowledge of integrated student financial and human resource application software packages Adaptive and Workday preferred, and reporting tools Tableau and PowerPivot. Extensive knowledge of spreadsheet Excel applications. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to exercise sound judgement and demonstrated supervisory skills. Works with a high level of accuracy and is detail-oriented and organized. Ability to adapt to changing priorities, set work priorities, and work under pressure to meet tight multiple deadlines. Ability to demonstrate strong initiative, work ethic, integrity, and to lead others. Excellent oral and written communication, presentation and interpersonal skills. Ability to work effectively both independently and within a team environment.