Financial Insights & Training Solutions

The Business Intelligence and Financial Reporting team is dedicated to providing a window into financial data by providing curated reports that help fiscal staff understand the financial information they are responsible for. We are a group of developers, analysts, and subject matter experts who combine our business intelligence skills and subject matter expertise to generate reporting and business intelligence solutions that provide maximum insight into your business operations.

The Finance Training team is responsible for designing and developing financial training materials that support the campus needs, such as understanding financial concepts and procedures. This team conducts needs assessments to identify training gaps and create customized training programs.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to anticipate the financial knowledge needs of our community, drive efficiency through innovative tools, and provide comprehensive support. We are committed to making finance accessible across all domains by providing dynamic resources, insightful reports, and adaptable training that empower our users to excel in their roles. As a cross-functional team, we continually evolve to meet the diverse needs of the campus to enable informed decision-making and financial success.

Strategic Objectives

• Produce financial reports that are intuitive and help campus departments make sound financial decisions in support of their business.
• Support the various divisions within Business and Financial Services with data analytics to ensure financial and regulatory compliance.
• Support role-based financial systems training initiatives with excellent instruction on how to use reports to answer business questions.
• Maintain the integrity of the Oracle Analytics platform and BI catalog in support of Campus, Foundation, and UCSD Health reporting.
• Produce financial training curriculum to support campus needs based on data-driven decisions.

How to engage with us

• Access our reports from the Budget & Finance section on the Business Analytics Hub.
• Submit an enhancement request to inform future report development.
• Attend Fund Manager Office Hours to see demos of new and existing reports and ask questions about how to use or interpret reports in a collegial community environment.
• Attend a 1:1 zoom session for more focused help with a report or business question.
• Visit the BI & Financial Reporting site on Blink to view upcoming report development efforts and detailed information about how to use the reports on BAH.
• Visit the Budget & Finance Training page to view training progress updates and to view published training courses

Job-focused Financial Reporting

We meet with groups of campus stakeholders in financial roles across campus to understand their business processes and the questions they ask that financial reports can answer. In partnership with those groups, we design new reports or discuss the reorganization of existing reports to better meet business needs.  Roles that we have engaged or will engage include fund managers, fiscal managers, fiscal leaders, and recharge facility managers.

Training and Communications

Reports are a primary way that our clients view financial system data.  As such, it is critical that report users understand how the financial system works and how reports are organized to display that data in a meaningful way. In addition, it’s important for staff to understand how to navigate UC San Diego’s financial landscape. To that end, we will provide multiple learning modalities for report users to learn how to navigate reports and how to use that information productively:

• Live, instructor-led workshops on specific commonly-used reports
• Group report demos and trainings in an office hours context
• Written content on Blink that clearly demonstrates the purpose of a report and how to use it
• Integration with formalized role-based training in UCLC
• Email communication about important new developments in financial reporting
• Clear communication about the report development roadmap, elucidating the timeline for report development and when submitted requests will be completed

Heather Sears

Director

Heather's career has had as many lives as a cat, being serially resurrected as a biology researcher, a certified public accountant, a research administrator, and a report developer and finance trainer.  Heather loves figuring out solutions to hard problems and teaching people better and easier ways to do their jobs.  She couldn't imagine anything more fun that getting to lead the financial reporting team.  She also loves gardening and going for hikes with her family.  Heather is responsible for the creation of the GL-PPM Reconciliation report, the UCPath-Oracle Salary Reconciliation Report, and the Default Project Payroll report.

Eduard Antentas

Project Manager

Eduard joined the team in October 2023, after completing his Masters in Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara. He holds a dual B.Sc in Math and Physics from the University of Barcelona (Spain), so he is interested in project & financial management within research and scientific institutions. In his free time he loves surfing, running, hiking, and exploring nature. He's also an avid reader and enthusiastic traveler.

Eduard is responsible for coordinating and overseeing projects for new reports & enhancements to existing ones, as well as creating and maintaining campus-facing communications for the reports in production.

Rehan Ahmed

Principal Business Intelligence Specialist

Rehan has been at UC San Diego since 2019 and holds a B.A in Accounting and Financial Management from University of Gloucestershire, UK and a MBA from UMass Dartmouth, MA. He is yellow belt lean six sigma certified.  In his free time he loves playing and watching soccer. Rehan is responsible for development of the Expanded Project Summary, Project Management Dashboard, and Faculty and Researcher Dashboard.

Maruthi Alamuri

Business Data & Intelligence Analyst

Maruthi has been with UCSD since 2019 and was part of the Oracle Financial Cloud implementation team. She holds a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi. She started off as a Business Systems Analyst at UCSD, but due to her interest in data and reporting tools she transitioned into report development. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her kids, going out with friends, and reading.

Maruthi is responsible for the development of the Central Office Exceptions Dashboard, the Department Exceptions Panorama, and the ICA Dashboard. 

Gayathri Narayanan

Business Data & Intelligence Analyst

Gayathri came to UCSD in February 2023 from RSI Solutions, where she was a Senior Consultant.  She enjoys learning new tools related to report development and data modelling. Outside of work, she loves cooking and spending time with her kids.

Gayathri is responsible for development of the Fixed Assets Dashboard, and also works on other reports related to gift funds and Procure to Pay.  

Eva Thiveos

Senior Data and Business Officer, Dean of Arts and Humanities
BI & Financial Reporting guest star developer

Eva began her career at UC San Diego as an events assistant and later embarked on a decade-long journey traveling the world and furthering her education. After enough time away from home, she returned to San Diego to lead the School of Arts and Humanities through the great systems change of 2020 where she learned how to develop Oracle reports. Eva enjoys her dual role as both a reports developer and user of our reports. On the weekends, she loves taking her dogs to Fiesta Island and spending time with family. Eva is responsible for the creation of the Transaction Details report, GL Project Balances report, Graduate Student Funding report, and the enduring PBED.

Ashlyn Bernal

Finance Training Manager

Ashlyn began working in client experience at UC San Diego in 2016 as a Cognitive Science student with a specialization in Neuroscience. She developed an interest in adult learning which led her obtain her Master's from USD in Learning Design and Technology. She joined the team to manage the Finance Training program in 2023. Outside of work, she loves to spend time with friends and family, play board games, and walk around San Diego. Ashlyn is responsible for managing and building the Finance Training program.

Katherine Lobovski

Finance Training Analyst

Katherine joined the team as a Financial Training Analyst after completing her B.S in Cognitive Science with a specialization in Design & Human-Computer Interaction at UC San Diego. She is interested in designing and developing comprehensive training curriculums using adult learning principles and other instructional design models. After work she loves to paint, crochet, and be creative. She is responsible for building the financial training program in order to establish foundational knowledge for those with finance-related responsibilities.

Our team answers questions about and solves problems with financial reports.  For problems related to the data exposed in a report or to request changes to data in the source system, contact the relevant BFS team responsible for the data.  Questions and problems we can address include:

• Which report should I use to answer this business question?
• Can you help me interpret the data I see on this report?
• The data presented on this report doesn’t match what I see in the source application.

Contact us through UC San Diego Services & Support and select the corresponding service in the About and Related to fields listed below: