The Process and Systems Optimization Workgroup
Introducing Process and Systems Optimization
Financial Systems Optimization focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of UC San Diego’s financial systems and related business processes.
This work is led by the Process and Systems Optimization workgroup, which brings together process analysis, system capabilities, and feedback from the campus financial community to identify issues, reduce inefficiencies, and implement targeted improvements.
If your work involves financial systems or processes, your input helps shape priorities and solutions. Use this page to learn how to engage, submit enhancement requests, and stay informed on ongoing initiatives and known issues.
Why Engage
The goal is to help departments identify opportunities for improvement, reduce bottlenecks, and support more efficient financial operations. Collaboration and feedback from the campus financial community help shape priorities and contribute to solutions that improve both local processes and broader institutional outcomes.
How You Can Participate
Input from campus users helps guide operational priorities and decision-making.
Submit a Budget & Finance Enhancement Request to the Systems Optimization workgroup through UC San Diego Services & Support to suggest new, modified, or improved financial system business processes.
Approach to Financial Systems Optimization
Financial system improvements follow a structured approach that incorporates process analysis, stakeholder feedback, and operational data. Regular progress reviews, customer input, and support trends help identify improvement opportunities and guide system enhancements.
Key Inputs to the Optimization Strategy
- Business Process Enhancement Requests: Requests submitted through Services & Support for new, modified, or improved financial system business processes.
- Input from ITS and central office subject matter experts: Feedback from customers, reconciliation findings, support trends, and Oracle product updates.
- Value Realization Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measures used to establish baselines, assess progress, and identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.
- Bi-Annual Voice of the Customer outreach: A proactive outreach effort to gather end-user feedback, strengthen collaboration, and support continuous improvement across Vice Chancellor areas.
Guiding Principles
- Utilize custom applications only when Oracle functionality entails more effort or time to process transactions and viable workarounds remain inefficient. Base decisions on Return on Investment (ROI) analysis.
- Maximize configuration options, minimize customizations. Adopt and streamline as much out of the box functionality as possible. Eliminate unnecessary steps and complexities to enhance efficiency and clarity.
- Meet user needs in the context of what’s best for the institution as a whole - “process change vs system change”. For example, there may be times that a change is prioritized that appears to only meet the needs of a few but will bring exponential return for that group and the university as a whole.
- Build in system controls to reduce discrepancies.
- Assess current processes rather than prolonged cleanup efforts.
Ongoing Initiatives and Updates
This section highlights active and recent efforts to improve financial systems and business processes. Initiatives are informed by enhancement requests, user feedback, and operational data.
Use this information to stay informed on current priorities, understand what is being addressed, and track progress across Vice Chancellor areas.
Status definitions: Open (identified), Planned (approved and queued), In Progress (actively being worked), Completed (finished), Archived (no longer moving forward).
| Name / Title | Input Area | Related System | Status | Problem / Issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FER Submission Routing | Enhancement Request | Oracle, SPARCM | Planned | FER submission routing requires process improvements to better support review workflows, approval visibility, and routing consistency across departments. |
| Centralized Approval Dashboard | Enhancement Request | Multiple Systems | Planned | Managers currently navigate multiple systems to approve requests. This initiative consolidates approvals into one dashboard, improving efficiency and reducing administrative burden. |
| Improving Cost Transfers | Enhancement Request | Oracle | Planned | Cost transfer processes are inefficient for large volumes and purchase order-based transfers. Enhancements aim to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and support bulk processing. |
| Recharges: Evaluating Process Efficiency and Outside Tools | Voice of Customer, Enhancement Request | Oracle, R+ | Open | Improves the recharge process by addressing lack of timely notifications and missing supporting documentation. These gaps make reconciliation difficult and limit visibility into financial activity. |
| Oracle Funding Allocation Review | Enhancement Request | Oracle | Open | Departments need improved methods to support split funding allocations and automate funding distribution processes. This effort evaluates Oracle functionality that may reduce manual tracking and processing. |
| Faculty and Researcher Dashboard Enhancements | Enhancement Request | Oracle, Reporting | Open | Research administrators currently have limited visibility into committed effort and funding obligations. Enhancements would improve monitoring and workforce planning for faculty and research teams. PIPER is being evaluated as a potential solution. |
| Research Funding Monitoring Tool | Voice of Customer, Enhancement Request | Oracle, Reporting | Open | Research administrators lack a centralized way to monitor funding changes across personnel and lab groups. This effort explores interactive tools to improve visibility into funding support changes and staffing impacts. PIPER is being evaluated as a potential solution. |
| Invoice Routing Flexibility | Enhancement Request | Oracle | Open | Invoice routing does not always align with departmental operational needs for lower-dollar transactions. Enhancements would improve flexibility by allowing routing to requisition creators or designated representatives. |
| Remittance and Receipt Matching Improvements | Process Improvement | Oracle AR | Open | Delays in attaching remittances to receipts create reconciliation challenges and reduce visibility into payment activity. Improvements aim to streamline matching and reduce manual follow-up. |
| Approval Role Modernization | Process Improvement | Oracle | Open | Current approval structures rely heavily on FinU and group-based routing, creating administrative complexity and maintenance challenges. This effort evaluates leveraging project roles to improve scalability and routing accuracy. |
| ILTF Form Improvement | Voice of Customer | Oracle | Completed | The ILTF form process is complex and error-prone due to multiple spreadsheets and crosswalks. Improvements reduce submission errors and delays in funding. |
| CoA String Validation (Journals) | Enhancement Request | Oracle | Archived | Users can submit incorrect chart string segments in journals due to limited validation. This effort focused on reducing errors through improved controls. |
Known Issues
This section highlights known system issues that may impact financial processes. These items are actively tracked and reviewed to support resolution, escalation, or monitoring.
If you encounter an issue listed below, a new ticket may not be required unless your situation differs or additional support is needed. Use this information to stay informed on current system behavior and known limitations.
| Name / Title | Issue Type | Related Module | Status | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assign Effort Reports to Project/Task Manager PI instead of Award PI | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Cancelled due to Payroll Certification Hub launch in 2027 | Effort reports do not automatically appear for investigators managing project-task budgets, requiring manual tracking. |
| Rounding for Splits | Bug | Oracle - PPM - Costs | Monitoring | Split costs where quantity does not equal currency can cause rounding differences. The BFS POFS team creates manual costs to balance totals. |
| Cost Transfers stuck pending approval | Bug | Oracle - PPM - Costs | Monitoring | N/A |
| Query by Transaction number broken (post 24C) | Known Issue | Oracle - PPM - Costs | Monitoring | N/A |
| UCPath not validating the fund in Funding Entry for salary cap restrictions | Known Issue | UCPath | Monitoring | I370 only checks if the PTFundingSource exist - Users must ensure that they enter the correct UCPath fund to ensure accurate validations. |
| Payroll posting to the Default project when an award ends mid month | Known Issue | UCPath | Pending Resolution | N/A |
| Commitments for Concur invoices not dropping timely | Known Issue | Oracle - PPM - Costs | Resolved | N/A |
| Multi Line cost transfer workflow not routing | Known Issue | Oracle - PPM - Costs | Resolved | N/A |
| Cost Adjustments misprocessed to wrong project | Known Issue | Oracle - PPM - Costs | Resolved | N/A |
| Cost Adjustments double posted | Known Issue | Oracle - PPM - Costs | Resolved | N/A |
| Submitted invoices reverting to Draft | Known Issue | Oracle - PPM - Billing | Resolved | N/A |
| Invoice Cancellations creating duplicate costs | Known Issue | Oracle - AP | Resolved | N/A |
| Invoices stuck in transfer rejected | Known Issue | Oracle - AR | Resolved | N/A |
| Enhance Visibility for Multi Certifications and Retain Certified Lines after SCTs | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | Salary cost transfers unmark certified lines and limit visibility across investigators. |
| Update Fund Manager EID to Full Name | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | N/A |
| Display Project Title and Nickname | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | Users spend additional time identifying projects due to limited display information. |
| Assign the Correct PI for F32 Fellowships | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | N/A |
| Update Certification Status for Non Federal Projects | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | Non federal projects are incorrectly flagged as requiring certification. |
| Extend ECERT System Timeout Duration | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | Short timeout periods interrupt workflow. |
| Remove or Update PI Indicator | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | PI indicator is often inaccurate, causing confusion. |
| Add Project Information for Non Sponsored Projects | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | Missing project details increase time spent identifying activity. |
| Update FAU to COA and Align Chart String Format | Known Issue | ECERT / ERS | Resolved | FAU terminology is unclear. Updating to COA improves clarity and alignment with UCSD standards. |
Issue Types and Definitions
As tickets are submitted, they are reviewed and categorized. These categorizations help inform the teams and priorities that will further evaluate.
Use the definitions below to understand how issues are categorized and prioritized.
| Issue Type | Definition | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| UCSD Enhancement Requests | Enhancement requests initiated by or for UCSD where UCSD retains primary responsibility for managing, implementing, or owning the changes or improvements. These requests generally affect UCSD systems, processes, or infrastructure and are within its control to address or prioritize. |
PADUA CIPERB Bursting Reports |
| Vendor Enhancement Request | Enhancement requests directed at third party vendors such as Oracle or UCPath where the vendor holds primary responsibility for managing, implementing, or owning the request. These requests typically pertain to external systems or services and limit UCSD’s ability to directly influence the outcome. |
Ability to multi select costs for Cost transfer with checkbox; Ability to cost transfer an entire Purchase Order at one time. |
| Bug / Known Issue | A system or application issue that results in unexpected behavior, errors, or processing problems. Some issues may require formal ticket submission and tracking depending on impact, complexity, or whether additional investigation is needed. |
Cost Transfer splits where quantity does not equal currency and may not equal zero. Application error occurred. |