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3-DAY EVENTJUNE 14-16, 2010

Grant & Contract Accounting:Unbilled LEAN Mapping

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Team Players

Amy Liu—Acting Project Co-LeadMary Jo Hershly—Acting Project Co-LeadKelly SalesLina NguyenNancy LindeGwen DardenKari LeDoug Kramer

Susan Smith & LuAnn Stokke, FacilitatorsMike Martyn, Consultant, Cheerleader and Coach

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“Team Photo, suitable for framing”

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Event Scope

Process Description: GCA is responsible for invoicing sponsors on grant & contract awards. Once award is established, GCA will prepare an automated or manual invoice to meet sponsors’ requirements.

Background: billing backlog is ~$15.8M (Dec. 2009); avg. $12M. Target is $2M and we’re out of compliance

Goals: eliminate the backlog of unbilled invoices to less than $2M.

Vision: review current invoice processing, ID gaps and redundancies, solutions, and develop new process for on-time invoicing.

Sponsor: Sue Camber, AVP for Financial Management

Event Overview

Reviewed Event Scope, AmyTrained in LEAN (Overview), AmyDeveloped Current-state Map, Lina and DougBrainstormed “pain points”, KellyTied pain points to the Map, KellySummarized Opportunities, KariEnvisioned Future State, GwenOutlined Action Plan/Next Steps, Mary JoShared Lessons Learned, Nancy

Mapping the Current State

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Map Close-up

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Summary of the Current State

Summary of current state and stats:

# of Process Steps: Auto invoicing = 10

Manual invoicing < 17

# of Rework loops: up to 4

Process Times PT (process time): 1 to 16 days

WT (wait time): 5 to 139 days

TT (touch time): 3 to 6 hours

“Pain Points”—on the wall and on the map

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Summary of Opportunities10

Reduce Variables in Contracts: 67 days + process time Partner with OSP Sponsor requirements/Exceptions

Lack of Process Controls Extension updates in FIN and JDE: $1.2M Slips through cracks: $20K

Highly Concentrated Unbilled: $5.3M Cost Share, Indirect Cost Adjustments LSDF, USFS, State of WA

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Summary of Opportunities (cont.)11

System Upgrades: reduce 35 hrs PT, 15 days WT

FIN/JDE set up at the same timeAccommodate online/email invoice submissions: 22%

of manualGCA Standards

InconsistenciesData Organization

Process ExpectationsOSP/Campus DepartmentsEscalate communication to get information sooner

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Future State

Reduce # of manual invoices by at

least 22%

Reduce time by 76% for processing

manual invoices

Reduce existing unbilled amount ($)

by 50%, or $6.5M in the short term;

eventual goal is $2M.

Also reduces future uncollected/aged

Next Steps

What next?

• Keep momentum going

• Find a space and make it ours

• Action Plan

• Who? What? When? What do we need?

• How are we doing?

• Check-in (30/60/90-day reviews)

• Never satisfied

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Lessons Learned

“Doug’s participation (as veteran) and Lily’s input was really helpful.

They asked pointed questions.”

“This team gained some enthusiasm that might have been lacking

before—we might have been bogged down.”

‘The best thing about this is it will really grab leaders’ attention; it

will have impact. We have so much support now.”

“I see how integrated our processes are, and how dependent invoices

are on budget set-up. It’s all so connected…almost everything starts

with budget set-up…invoicing…closing…”

“I had an ‘a-ha moment’—there’s the possibility of reducing work;

e.g., PC lists.”

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Lessons Learned (continued)

“I didn’t realize all that money was actually counted as unbilled.”

“We’re not capturing some of the unbilled with the current measures. We

might increase as we uncover it, but that’s okay…”

“We have the opportunity through the map to show Campus and process

partners our process and how we’re all affected.”

“Most of the pain and opportunities are towards the front of the process—if

we address that it may eliminate much of the work toward the back end.”

“There’s more here we can address than we thought.”

“The inconsistencies among the teams can be addressed—we can bring

consistency to the teams.”

“By mapping the invoice process, the possibility of the pain points can be

eliminated.”

…and many more…

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Our “Fuel”

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