sdsm&t accounting - work flow and efficiency

SDSM&T

IENG 311 Final Report

SDSM&T Accounting –Work Flow and Efficiency

Brianna DodgeBenjamin Johnson

Tyler KrejchiKristy Rennick

12/7/2012

Executive Summary

The goal of this project was to identify and make recommendations for improving

inefficiencies within the accounting department at the South Dakota School of Mines and

Technology. Various tools were used to collect adequate data, such as interviewing, random

work sampling, and an operation process chart. Using the information collected, it became

possible to analyze the current situation and to begin to design recommendations for possible

future solutions that could be implemented to save time and perform tasks more efficiently.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology accounting department takes care of

all the school’s finical responsibilities. The department has six employees and is separated into

four different sub-sections: Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Travel Vouchers, and

Perkins Loans. The department is currently looking for ways to improve their efficiency.

The objective of this project is to examine the work that takes place in the South Dakota

School of Mines and Technology accounting department and make recommendations to the

department on what they can do to make their facility more efficient as they move towards the

future. The techniques used in this experiment include work sampling, Standard Operating

Procedures, and an operation process chart.

A work sample is a technique used to discover the proportions of total time spent on

predetermined activities (Freivalds). From conducting a work sample utilization and limit of

error can be found. Utilization is the proportion of available time (usually expressed as a

percentage) that an operator is operating (Freivalds). Limit of error is defined as the interval

within which we have a confidence that the estimates of the utilization and idle time are correct,

and confidence means that the estimated probability lies somewhere in between the set accuracy

range (Freivalds).

A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is a document with specific, detailed, step-by-

step instructions on how to perform a task or set of tasks (Freivalds). An SOP can help

employees learn a task faster and also help them with performing the task correctly. In addition,

a poka-yoke can also help an employee perform a task. A poka-yoke is any mechanism in a lean

manufacturing process that helps an operator avoid mistakes (Freivalds). The accounting office,

upon initiated of experiment, demonstrated that its primary function was receiving and

distributing return documentation. With operations of this nature, it is paramount to see where

the documents flow to and from. An operation process chart can be developed to accomplish this

task. This chart depicts the chronologic sequence of all activities in a process (Freivalds).

Through techniques such as these, work can be both observed and measured, allowing the project

team to evaluate the current state of the accounting office and determine what can be done to

improve efficiency and make the employees’ lives more efficient.

2.0 METHODS

In order to properly identify issues in the accounting department and make

recommendations, the project team made use of several resource tools. Some tools were created

and others were simply referenced. This section will cover the processes used and also describe

the tools utilized.

The first step was to comprehend the processes in each section of accounting. To do this,

the team developed a seven question template, as shown in appendix A. Each member of the

group then established a time with one or two of the employees to interview them about the tasks

they perform on a daily basis. Other information that was gained from the interviews included

what the employees believed works well in their job and what could be improved.

To see where most of the time is spent at each workstation in this department, the project

team performed a work sampling study. Using a random number generator, 30 slots were

generated between 8am and 4pm (Haahr). This was done over a three day period with 10 sample

times per day. These slots were in 10 minute intervals so they would not cause any major

inconveniences for the department but would also record a random assortment of times. An

example work sampling form can be seen in appendix C. Each of the employees were asked to

participate in the sampling during the same period of during a work week and all employees

agreed to participate. The employees were given one week to pick any three days they wished to

complete the work sampling forms. At the end of the week, the forms were picked up and the

team evaluated the data by making pie charts for each section of accounting, as well as

estimating the limit of error.

After the interviews and work sampling were conducted, the team created an operation

process chart for the flow of documents in the accounting department. This chart demonstrates

how the documents come from other departments into accounting. Once documents arrive at the

accounting department, the chart displays where the documents travel within the department

itself. With all of the data collected and reference tools used, the project team was then able to

analyze the current situation and make recommendations for improvements.

3.0 RESULTS

Figure 1, see below (and continued on next page), depicts an interview form which the

project team used to understand the work processes in the office. Each of the five members of the

accounting office were interviewed, and the remaining interviews are presented in Appendix A

of this report.

Interview Questions

1. Walk me through an average day.

At the computer most of the day emailing and writing checks for reimbursements.

Occasionally makes copies of documents.

2. Explain the flow of documents within the office (Note: Make them be specific).

Faculty comes in to fill out form for reimbursement beforehand. Faculty turn in receipts

along with form afterwards. He then writes check to faculty for reimbursement.

3. What element of your job requires the most amount of time?

Emailing faculty to get missing/incorrect spots fill in on forms.

4. Do you feel it is easier to deal with documents digitally or hard copy?

Most everything has to be hard copy when dealing with receipts.

5. Which processes work really well within your job?

Scanner/Copier is really close to his desk.

6. Which processes limit the productivity within your job?

Mainly just response time on emails is generally slow from faculty.

7. What can be changed about your job to make you more successful?

Can’t think of any, has only been there about 2 months

Figure 1: Travel Voucher Personnel’s Interview Form

The experimenters analyzed the data recorded in the interviews and organized it to create

an operation process chart. This diagram, displayed on the next page in Figure 2, details all of the

activities in the accounting office. It begins with the entrance of tasks from outside sources and

chronologically follows the sequences through each process.

Figure 2: Operation process chart

Two SOPs were created, for an example to the accounting staff, from the information

provided in the interviews and additional meetings. Figure 3, see subsequent page, explains the

steps involved in approving direct invoices. Another SOP explaining the accounts receivable

procedure is displayed in Appendix B. The accounting office did not previously have any SOPs,

so these are both the first and only version for each process.

Figure 3: SOP – Direct Invoices

Random work sampling data was collected for each employee over a three day period.

Figure 4, see next page, shows the random times and accompanying work for an employee on the

first day of the study. Appendix C shows the remaining work sampling forms for the entire

accounting office, and Appendix E displays a poka-yoke based on the analysis of this

information.

Figure 4: Accounts Payable Personnel (Day 1) – Work Sampling Form

The project team organized the work sampling data into separate spreadsheets to create

utilization estimates. Table 1 and Figure 5, both shown below, display the results of a single

employee’s study in tabular and pictorial form.

Table 1: Accounts Receivable Personnel – Sample Data

Figure 5: Account Receivable’s Utilization Estimates

Accounts Receiv-able 47%

Meetings10%

Research Data30%

Journal Entries

7%

Idle7%

Accounts Re-ceivable MeetingsResearch DataJournal EntriesIdle

Accounts Receivable 14Meetings 3Research Data 9Journal Entries 2Idle 2

Total 30

The utilization limit of error was also calculated for each employee. The equation for this

value is evaluated through the following equation: l=√z2 pq /n , where p is the percent working,

q is the percent idle, n is the number of samples, and z is the value associated with a particular

confidence interval (Freivalds). The project team used a 95% confidence interval for the limit of

error, resulting in a z-value of 1.96 for each employee’s utilization estimates. The limit of error

for the utilization estimates on the previous page is displayed in Table 2 below, and the

remaining estimates (and their associated limit of error) are found in Appendix D.

Table 2: Emily’s Utilization Limit of Error

l = 0.074917±7.49%

4.0 DISCUSSION

From the results of the experiment, the project team identified numerous inefficiencies

within the SDSM&T Accounting office. Interviews conveyed the majority of the efficiency

concerns that each employee has within the office. During the interview processes, each sub-

department had unique issues that highlighted the inefficiencies that each personnel in the

accounting office often must overcome often. The senior accountant’s main concerns were the

overly managerial position her position has transformed into which equates to lacking technical

available time is causing higher strain to accomplish all necessary accounting tasks assigned to

the senior accountant. The senior accountant is often “inundated” with training questions from

other faculty, internal and external to the accounting office, that limit the work that can

accomplished.

4.1 Senior Accountant

According to the work sampling collected, the senior accountant spent only 33% of her

time actually working on the technical side of her job, meaning that for the other 67% of the time

she is answering questions, in meetings, on the phone, writing correspondence emails, or misc.

tasks. Of that remaining time, 27% is spent answering internal training questions while 17% of

her time is spent answering external questions for paperwork to be submitted into the accounting

office. The work sampling limit of error was about 9%.

Remedies to the senior accountant’s inefficiencies include the following: Standard

Operating Procedures for all internal tasks, Standard Operating Procedures for all departments

who submit paper to the accounting office, and possibly creating an additional part time position

to work on some of the technical work that the senior accountant does, or shift some technical

work internally within the accounting department to allow the senior accountant time more

managerial time.

The senior accountant’s interview also highlighted that accounts receivable work that was

very recently assigned to the senior accountant was shifted to a new personnel whose primary

focus would be in accounts receivable. Although the work does not entirely belong to either

party, both are responsible for the data inputted into. During the interview stage, procedures were

already in place to update the accounts receivable system. Current accounts receivable had

several paper redundancies that allowed for a multitude of error in procedure, as well as previous

records missing through poor data processing in previous excel worksheets. It became apparent

that a new, more modern system should be put into place. When the new hire was being trained

into the position, the team immediately began shifting from the paper processing system into the

more efficient Quickbooks system.

4.2 Accounts Receivable Personnel

The accounts receivable staff interview also revealed synonymous inefficiencies. The

work that took the majority of her time was finding and interpreting poorly inputted data from

past records and making accurate Quickbooks journal entries. The aspect of the job that was

deemed to limit her productivity was the entire process of transferring old data into Quickbooks.

Both the new personnel and the senior accountant highlighted that both of their jobs would be far

more successful the sooner this project was completed. According to the work sampling data,

30% of the time the new personal spent researching data to input into the Quickbooks journal

entries. Typical procedures for future use would ideally limit the need for research time, and

more time could be spent working the accounts receivable data. Elsewise, 46% of the user’s time

was spent on Accounts Receivable and the entire work sampling had an error of 7.5%.

The remedy to this situation would be to eliminate erroneous data quickly from the

Quickbooks transfer as well as hire temporary staff to begin journal entries into Quickbooks. The

temporary staff would alleviate the previous workload and allow the staff to regain efficiency on

the paperwork that needs more immediate attention, as opposed to working with older data.

4.3 Travel Voucher Personnel

The interview with the staff who primarily deals with Travel Vouchers highlighted a

different set of inefficiencies, primarily with external training and communication. The travel

voucher staff indicated that the majority of time is spent attempting to communicate with faculty

members about their travel vouchers. Travel vouchers are often sent to the accounting office

incomplete, either forms filled out incorrectly, data and receipts missing, or the claimed item on

the travel voucher is not approved through school policy. To communicate with the faculty,

emails and phone calls must be placed to attempt to gain the missing information, which can take

an extensive time to hear a return reply from the faculty and staff. This generates numerous open

projects for the travel voucher processing personnel. The accounting staff believes this problem

to occur most often because upper level faculty members lack the care or know how to complete

the vouchers and tell the departmental secretaries to process it regardless of missing or improper

data.

The Travel Voucher personnel work sampling indicated that 23% of their time was in

data entry while 17% was spent in meetings. There was also 14% idle time and 20% spent on

document review and researching information with another 10% on supervisor consultation.

Overall, the limit of error was 10.2%. This information indicates that this staff is limited by

training given by the supervisor, data that must be sought externally and idle time due to lunch or

waiting on faculty to return communications.

The remedy to the listed inefficiencies is two-fold. Firstly, external training is highly

recommended. Various ideas have been formulated to include SOPs that are physically and

digitally available for all staff and personnel who will be submitting travel vouchers to the

accounting staff. The SOPs listed in this report are meant to be templates that identify the

functions and usefulness of actual documents. By creating a standard operating procedure for

submitting travel vouchers, as well as for every other task in the accounting department, new

employees can quickly understand the purpose of the job, what it covers, and how to perform it.

SOPs also highlight any potential changes that have been made to a job, indicated by the version

number and/or date in the corner of the page.

A more strenuous suggestion would be to create annual computer based training program

for all staff to complete, in conjunction with a digital testing system. Ideally, the test would be 10

questions, multiple choice, from a test bank of 50 questions. By performing a test in this fashion,

it should discourage higher level faculty from persuading lower faculty to complete the work and

test for them, as is often how the errors are passed onto the accounting office in the first place.

Lack of passing the test could be noted on performance evaluations to be used a performance

metric.

Secondly, a recommendation for improving the travel voucher personnel’s efficiency is to

make communication more expeditious from faculty to the accounting office. A computer

program, similar to an instant messaging system, could generate a pop-up message to alert the

staff of internal SDSM&T messages that need immediate addressing. In other words, if the

faculty uses the SDSM&T computer, they will have to acknowledge that they have received the

urgent message, as opposed to missing it in the numerous voicemails and emails that are received

daily.

4.4 Accounts Payable Personnel

The staff in charge of Account Payable sub-department highlighted several other

efficiency concerns that the accounting staff must deal with. The Accounts Payable staff is a

new-hire, and very well demonstrates what is taking an extended period of time in dealing with

tasks assigned. For example, the task that is often most time consuming is coding the numerous

journal entries that are processed. There is currently an excel document that has summarized the

majority of the codes used for primary vendors, but it is not exclusive to all vendors that are to be

dealt with. As well, when documentation must be returned to faculty members, often the return

communication is very lengthy or does not happen at all. Also, sometimes, it was noted, that if

requests for purchase are denied, the faculty members can take the rejection personally, and can

generate hostility.

The accounts payable staff spent the majority of the time with data entry, 30%, and

another 17% each for email and coding. The overall limit of error was 5.4%. This indicates that

this personnel member spends the majority of the time with data entry, coding, and

communication with external sources.

The accounts payable position could be more effectively utilized in several ways.

Utilizing a poka-yoke for all coding systems would alleviate the time constraints it takes to find

the correct code in over 2000 account funds. The current coding list is broken into 3 main

categories: Funds, Expenses, and Grants. The accounting office does not currently have an active

list of which department should have access to which codes. In the poka-yoke, the first step

would be to sort the current coding system by department, facilities, groups, etc., with the end

goal being able to distribute the personalized list to each secretary who handles the accounting

within each SDSM&T department. It should be noted that each SDSM&T departments

essentially is considered its own business unit with its own accounting functions. Data is then

processed into the main accounting office. When the poka-yoke is finalized with sorting and

renaming the fund descriptions in a clear and straight forward fashion so that no confusion can

be encountered which determines which account code to use in the voucher entries, the coding

system should be distributed to individual departments with SOP instructions. An example

poka-yoke can be seen in Appendix E.

The operation process chart in the Results section of this report, Figure 2, highlights the

material flow into and out of the accounting office. There are numerous areas in the material

flow that generate the potential for error and rework. Initializing the poka-yoke and SOPs for

internal and external processing should limit the rejection and rework process within the

accounting office.

To further remedy the account payable’s position, the personnel in question should use

the same computer messaging system that was designed for the travel voucher personnel. This

would allow for immediate acknowledgement of the intended end user; this would also ensure

that information is being received immediately, and not postponed for long periods of time.

4.5 Perkin’s Loans Personnel

The staff personnel that administer the Perkin’s loans also administer bank wire transfers,

special money transfers from the state as well as journal voucher entries. This staff member

emphasizes that there are a vast number of journal entries that must be processed continuously,

and with the numerous coding disturbances, this is the most inefficient function of her job. This

staff member’s work sampling data demonstrated that one third of the time usage was produced

in bank reconciliations and just under one third of the time used was for processing data, like

travel vouchers. This staff member spent 30% of her time with bank reconciliations, 37% of

time with processing data/ data entry, and 17% of time in meeting. The limit of error was 5.4%.

One issue highlighted by the work sampling study is excessive time spent on journal

voucher entries by the employees. The project team recommends that an additional staff member

be hired part time to complete the journal entries for all personnel. Hiring such a staff member

would specialize this task, and work could potentially be performed much quicker. Additionally,

this staff member could also utilize the poka-yoke for this task, improving work efficiency

further.

5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

The project team succeeded in its objective to determine numerous inefficiencies within

the accounting department that have plausible solutions. Firstly, updating all accounts receivable

systems into Quickbooks for the last fiscal year would make work easier and quicker to perform

with less redundancy and chances to increase error to work. By writing SOPs for all of the

internal and external sources that relate to the accounting office, new employees could more

easily understand their job and learn what functions it involves while limiting the questioning to

the accounting office.

Creating and maintaining a poka-yoke for the 2000 lines of accounting code would

expedite data entry processing and create a more error-proof system. An internal SDSM&T

messaging system that alerted faculty employees on SDSM&T computers would notify them of

paperwork processing, such as travel vouchers and billing requests that needed immediate

attention. Lastly, the team recommends that the external users be made to initiate data entry for

digitally processing and submit hardcopy paperwork for verification purposes only; such systems

exist through eProcurement style computer programing. If these steps were implemented into the

SDSM&T, the efficiency of the accounting office would increase in multiple areas, and it would

drastically make the employees’ tasks easier, more enjoyable, and more efficient with their time.

References

Andris Freivalds (2009). Niebel's Methods, Standards, and Work Design. 12th ed. New York,

NY: McGraw-Hill.

Mads Haahr (1998). Clock Time Generator. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.random.org/clock-times/. [Last Accessed 3 November 2012 ].

APPENDIX A – Interview Forms

Interview Questions – Accounts Payable8. Walk me through an average day.

Accounts payable involves reimbursements, lab costs, and other types of invoices. Each invoice goes through a coding process before being scanned into the system.

9. Explain the flow of documents within the office (Note: Make them be specific).The supervisor assigns invoices and later reviews them in the database. Invoices are then signed off as being either approved or rejected.

10. What element of your job requires the most amount of time?Coding takes the most amount of time. However, emailing back and forth with professors about reviewable purchases is also a tedious element that takes a great deal of time.

11. Do you feel it is easier to deal with documents digitally or hard copy?Invoices are coded by hand, but then they are scanned into the system.

12. Which processes work really well within your job?An excel cheat sheet for popular vendor codes helps in reviewing invoices.

13. Which processes limit the productivity within your job?Emailing professors takes too much time than necessary. They can be slow to respond, and when a purchase is rejected they can sometimes take it personally.

14. What can be changed about your job to make you more successful?Being a new employee, continued training is the biggest need in the accounts payable section of the office.


Interview Questions – Senior Accountant - Page 11. Walk me through an average day.

a. Never an average day; Day consists of:i. Lots of training with ACCT Staff

ii. Email, phone callsiii. POC for all ACCT questions for entire campusiv. Receives a digital “stack” of approvals from previous day; looking for

errors in coding, compliance, fraud, right people signing for approval1. Travel vouchers2. Accts payable

v. Account setup in general ledger—i.e. take companies information and dat entry it onto Banner software

vi. Security clearance paperwork for professors, secretary (sometimes this task is shared with Debra Radomski)

vii. Temporarily doing Accounts Receivableviii. Sale Tax paperwork, once a month

ix. Accounts reconcilliations, look at individual accounts to verify everything in the ledger matches what the balance statement says.

x. Student trip insurance – David will start to doxi. Equipment Approval, Journal vouchers, reclassify coding

xii. Financial Statementxiii. Equipment Use Dataxiv. Voided Checks, Stop Payments – currently, but Cindy will do shortlyxv. Non Cash Journal Ledgers between SD Univerisities—Dawn does Debit,

Emily does Credit, or vice versa. (Shared responsibility right now, eventually to Emily)

xvi. SOAP Funds – Student Org Account Balances, etc.xvii. Misc. Project for Deb Rowse

xviii. Very rare meetings as time constraint big issueMisc: Data CollectionThere is no notification system that paperwork is past due for processing, I.E. Bank and Account Reconciliations. Should be done monthly, is getting done every 3 months.2. Explain the flow of documents within the office (Note: Make them be specific).

a. Purchasing Order from SDSMT Staff Purchasing Office Barb reviews orders over $1k, looking for compliance in policy, pre-approvals, etc. Acct Office receives, Sometimes Dawn or other Separated into Travel or Accounts Payable Processed at station Scanned Batch to Dawn Dawn Approves Paper goes into file system for 1 year and automatically checks are cut from Brooking and Emails are sent if ACH transaction

3. What element of your job requires the most amount of time?a. Questions from all people; Training with 3 new staff is consuming a lot of time.

Once that passes, the next main issue is fixing other depts.. problemsMisc. Data Collect: Each dept is essentially its own “business” unit. They are all given an account and can spend as necessary. They are responsible for paying their own bills, I.E.


Interview Questions – Senior Accountant - Page 2

Phone, food, etc… Dawn is implying that a lot of the issue she has is that departments are not taking ownership of their accounting responsibility that is bestowed upon them. There is also no good training system in place to teach non Acct people how to handle their paperwork, bills, travel vouchers, etc. Dawn also mentioned that if someone quits, it can take up to a month or two to fill that position with a new employee, so there’s a lot of time wasted in between these steps. She would like to see a quicker hiring process for all employees. 4. Do you feel it is easier to deal with documents digitally or hard copy?

a. Digital 5. Which processes work really well within your job?

a. The approval process is the smoothest operation for Dawn. Everything is scanned in, she can see if something is missing, make a note on it, return it to sender, or finalize. Everything can also be done remotely.

6. Which processes limit the productivity within your job?a. The process that limits productivity is all the questioning from everyone.

Continuous issue of not having enough alone time to complete the work mentioned above

7. What can be changed about your job to make you more successful?Going from Excel into quickbooks would alleviate much of the headache with Accounts Receivable. Excel AR involves attempting to locate the correct file for the overall AR for the account in question, which much data is missing and was never saved, printing bill twice, one copy to cashier, one to binder. Then once bill is returned,have to try to find the paperwork in the binder and staple it to it. Bills are also emailed or snail mailed out, depending on customer. Some bills your just “supposed toknow when to bill them” lots of sxtra steps. Sometimes the companies bill the dept, and the dept bills acct, which is an unnecessary step.


Interview Questions –Accounts Receivable1. Walk me through an average day.

a. Emily does not have an average day yet. She’s only been there for 4 months. However, when she started her day, she checks her email for new stuff to process.

b. Journal entries go into a ledgerc. Random projectsd. A couple a meetings a month, black board, monthly finance meetings.e. Inputs receipts and bills customers

2. Explain the flow of documents within the office (Note: Make them be specific).a. Receives receipts from Cashiers – all external customers to SDSMT, (bills them)

i. These can come from Deb Rowse in the form of Journal Entries from other schools or printed, and handed to Emily

ii. Bills are sent and received sometimes by email and sometimes by mail3. What element of your job requires the most amount of time?

a. Currently transferring all the data from older excel accoutns receivable and putting into quickbooks. Dawn mentioned at most, they will go back to July, the beginning of their fiscal year.

4. Do you feel it is easier to deal with documents digitally or hard copy? a. Digital is good, but hardcopies can be nicer to deal with sometimes. Everything is

scanned, filed for a year, gets audited, then paperwork is shredded. Digital will remain for several years.

5. Which processes work really well within your job?a. Journal Entries are very easy, with very little hiccups

6. Which processes limit the productivity within your job?Getting everything into quickbooks

7. What can be changed about your job to make you more successful?Getting everything into quickbooks


Interview Questions – Perkin’s Loans Admin1. Walk me through an average day.

Checks bank accounts and make wire transfers to the cashier’s office. Makes spreadsheet transfers for SDSMT state’s funds. Works with students on perkins loans via mail and online system. Uses lots of excel and snag it (for journal vouchers).

2. Explain the flow of documents within the office (Note: Make them be specific).Documents leave an email trail as there is personal interaction between the entire staff in the accounting office. The supervisor comments on documents using banner within the system itself. Deb gets the paperwork and scans it online. Tasks are assigned via emails and weekly meetings.

3. What element of your job requires the most amount of time?Perkins loans, journal vouchers and special projects take up the majority of time.

4. Do you feel it is easier to deal with documents digitally or hard copy?Journal vouchers are done by hand and scanned into system, but lots of excel is used.

5. Which processes work really well within your job?Excel functions make calculating data easy. Reporting features are also downloaded here.

6. Which processes limit the productivity within your job?Journal vouchers are too numerous and limit the time spent on more important things. Corrections also continually break up other work, slowing down these processes.

7. What can be changed about your job to make you more successful?Moving all of the journal vouchers to the accounting assistant would limit the corrections and journal vouchers, increasing productive time spent on more noteworthy business.

APPENDIX B - SOP

Facility Name: SDSM&T Department: Accounting Office

Version: 11/26/201

Standard Operating Procedure

Accounts Receivable

Objective: The purpose of the Accounts Receivable Procedure is to properly send out bills to on campus and off campus locations when a service is provided or a product is sold by SDSM&T.

Scope: The Accounts Receivable Procedure applies to all situations where a service is provided or a product is sold by SDSM&T. The procedure follows the steps of a bill being sent to an off campus location and to an on campus location.

Procedure: The employees in the Accounts Receivable division will be responsible for defining the billing information and to send bills where they need to go. Steps include:

1) Billing information is defined by the departments and then sent to accounts receivable. The bill is reviewed by the Accounts Receivable department and where to send the bill is verified.

2) If it is an on campus bill, process the journal voucher between the departments or the accounts.

3) If it is an off campus bill, prepare an invoice and then log into the Accounts Receivable Aging worksheet.

4) File one invoice copy5) Send one copy to Cashiers6) Mail one copy to the Customer7) Track Payment

APPENDIX C – Work Sampling FormsAccounts Payable Personnel (cont. from Results section) -

APPENDIX C – Work Sampling Forms - Travel Voucher Personnel

APPENDIX C – Work Sampling Forms Senior Accountant

APPENDIX C – Work SamplingAccounts Receivable Personnel –

Day 108:00 – Accounts Receivable - Billing08:20 - Accounts Receivable - Billing08:50 – Finance Team Meeting09:30 - Finance Team Meeting09:40 - Finance Team Meeting09:50 – Accounts Receivable - Billing10:40 - Accounts Receivable - Billing11:00 - Accounts Receivable - Billing12:00 – Lunch 3:00 – Journal EntriesDay 208:30 – Accounts Receivable – Catching up on billing Foundation for fleet vehicles (this is a monthly billing that hasn’t been done since May, as we’ve been short staffed)08:40 - same08:50 - same09:30 - same09:40 - same09:50 - same10:20 - same11:50 - same12:10 – Lunch 12:50 - sameDay 308:10 – Research for journal entries (e-mails, coding, getting all the right documentation, etc.)08:20 - same08:40 - same09:00 - same09:50 - same10:20 - same11:10 - same12:40 – same 1:50 –same 2:30 – Making journal entries

APPENDIX C – Work Sampling

Perkin’s Loan PersonnelDay 1 11/9/1208:00 – complete Loan Verification Certificate for Perkins loan08:20 – update cash balances from on-line banking08:50 – work on bank reconciliations09:30 - work on bank reconciliations09:40 - work on bank reconciliations09:50 - work on bank reconciliations10:40 –review Petty Cash check request from Cashier’s office in order to prepare JV11:00 – process Petty Cash fupload JV12:00 – work on bank reconciliations3:00 – process JV’s from Office of Sponsored ProgramsDay 2 11/13/1208:30 – Finance Team Meeting08:40 – Finance Team Meeting08:50 – Finance Team Meeting09:30 – Finance Team Meeting09:40 – Finance Team Meeting09:50 – process stale-dated check JV10:20 – meet with Deb Rowse11:50 – process JV for Perkins loans collections12:10 – review Perkins small balances for October 201212:50 - lunchDay 3 11/14/1208:10 – update cash balances from on-line banking08:20 – process noncash document for Payroll adjustments08:40 – process Perkins loan payment from Receipt copy from Cashier’s office09:00 – prepare check request to Direct Loans for Perkins loans overpayments09:50 – send emails to 2 students who haven’t signed their 12-13 Perkins loans yet10:20 – work on bank reconciliations11:10 – update daily cash reports12:40 – work on bank reconciliations1:50 – work on bank reconciliations2:30 – work on bank reconciliations

APPENDIX D - Utilization

Travel Voucher Personnel–

l = 0.1020941

±10.21%

Accounts Payable Personnel

l = 0.053912±5.39%

Meetings 5Scan/Copy 3Document Review 3Email 1Check Writing 1Data Entry 7Consult w/ Supervisor

3

Research Information

3

Idle 4

Total 30

Sorting 10%

Coding17%

Email17%

Consult w/ Supervisor

3%

Data Entry30%

Scan/Copy10%

Meet -ings10%

Idle3%


Sorting CodingEmailConsult w/ SupervisorData EntryScan/CopyMeetingsIdle

Sorting 3Coding 5Email 5Consult w/ Supervisor

1

Data Entry 9Scan/Copy 3Meetings 3Idle 1

Total 30

Aprrovals33%

Meetings13%

Answer Q's27%

On Phone10%

Emailing7% Idle

10%

Senior Accountant

AprrovalsMeetingsAnswer Q'sOn PhoneEmailingIdle

APPENDIX D - Utilization

Senior Accountant

l = 0.0901±9.01%

Perkin’s Loan Personnel

l = 0.053912±5.39%

Aprrovals33%

Meetings13%

Answer Q's27%

On Phone10%

Emailing7% Idle

10%

Senior Accountant

AprrovalsMeetingsAnswer Q'sOn PhoneEmailingIdle

Approvals 10Meetings 4Answer Q's

8

On Phone 3Emailing 2Idle 3

Total 30

Meetings 5Process Data 8Bank Reconciliations 9Email 1Review Documents 2Update Documents 3Supervisor Questions

1

Idle 1

Total 30

Sorting 10%

Coding17%

Email17%

Consult w/ Su-pervisor

3%

Data Entry30%

Scan/Copy10%

Meetings10%

Idle3%


Sorting CodingEmailConsult w/ SupervisorData EntryScan/CopyMeetingsIdle

APPENDIX E – Poka-yoke Example

Current Coding System Proposed Poka-yoke Over 2000 different accounting

codes Not sorted in logical order Brief, ambiguous description

Sort by Dept, Facility, or Type on a master excel sheet

Print and distribute to secretaries only coding that is applicable to their dept

Use “Filter” feature on excel to increase sort-ability

Poka-yoke: The Coding System The current set up for the coding system is that each department is autonomously supposed to keep track of the funding codes that are relevant for them. It does not appear that there is a master excel that actively demonstrates which department is intended for which funding code. The first step would be to identify with the departments all codes that are being used, reduce the codes that have no monetary value to them, and simplify the list for each department. The description need to be more clear as well as better sorted for all areas to begin the poka-yoke process. Once this system is simplified and sorted, each department receives a print out of only the codes that pertain to them and the accounting office is the master code keepers. No new codes will be added except through their approval. This system must be maintained to keep accurate, but by doing so, it will reduce rework time for departments and the accounting office.