The Monthly Ledger
A publication by the USM Foundation's Business Office
Contact Us!
 
usmfreports@usmd.edu: Request a special report or a report off-cycle
 
For general questions, informations, suggestions, or comments
 
To request a wire or ACH transfer or inform USMF of incoming funds
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Looking Ahead

 

During the first quarter of 2012, the Foundation plans to schedule educational training sessions for account administrators. If you have a specific need or topic you want addressed, please send us an e-mail. We want these sessions to be informative and to meet your needs.

Help Us Help You! 

1. Please tape receipts and other documentation flat to a sheet of paper. All DRFs and supporting documentation are now being scanned directly in Financial Edge for future use. No staples, please!

 

2. Sales tax: the USM Foundation is exempt from MD sales tax. You can find our Tax Exempt Status letter on the web. When making purchases in the State of Maryland, please present this letter.

 

3. AP Check reissue: Checks will not be reissued until 30 days after its original issue date. For example: a check issued on February 6, 2012 cannot be reissued until after March 6, 2012.

 

4. Distribution of AP checks-please ensure your payee's address is correct. If the check comes back to the University, please include an envelope with your address.

Who We Are

 

Director of Business Operations
301-445-1922

______________________________ 

 

Accounting Associate -
 Accounts Payable
301-445-2727

______________________________ 

 

Bernadette Mannone

Accounting Associate - 

Gift Processing

301-445-2704 ______________________________ 

 

Dawn James

Administrative Assistant to the Vice President for Finance and CFO

301-445-2713 ______________________________ 

 

John Simcox

Staff Accountant and 

Payroll Administrator

301-445-2734 ______________________________ 

 

Kate Koyfman

Investments Staff Accountant

301-445-2706 ______________________________

 

  Linda Ringer

Client Relations Specialist

301-445-2717 ______________________________

 

Randy Possehl

Grants Coordinator and Staff Accountant Contracts

301-445-2710 ______________________________ 

 

Roy Hossler

Senior Executive Accountant

301-445-1949 ______________________________

 

Virginia (Ginger) Whelley

Assistant Comptroller

301-445-2726 ______________________________

 

Pam Purcell

Vice President of Finance and CFO, General Counsel 

301-445-2720
February 16, 2012
Important Dates

 

3/15: FY2012 Spending Numbers will be distributed.

  Calendar

3/19-3/20: Spring Break! The cut-off for DRFs will remain Thursday, March 15th at 1:30. Checks will be issued on Wednesday, March 21st. The courier will checks to UMBC on Friday, March 23rd.

 

3/19: Office open from 8am-4:30pm. Bill Wojcik, Kate Koyfman, Bernadette Mannone, and Anna Smith in office.

 

3/20: Office open from 8am-4:30pm. Bill Wojcik, Kate Koyfman, Bernadette Mannone, John Simcox, and Anna Smith in office.

What's New!

 

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

 

Everyone is familiar with this famous movie line. One of our goals is to show you the money. We want to make sure that the right people have the right information to see what is available in their USMF accounts. We hope that the detailed activity reports that are sent monthly to the administrators are helpful in this regard. However, even with these reports being distributed, we are still seeing a lot of available dollars not being spent. In order to get the data of what is available to be spent and what has been spent from the endowments to a bigger audience of decision makers and reviewers we will be setting up and distributing a new set of reports this month.

 

These new reports will be a quarterly spending summary of the endowment accounts. We will create a report for each college and department, and distribute these reports to the appropriate department budget officers, department heads, and deans. Copies will also be sent to the Advancement Officers of each campus. Linda has been working with each campus to identify who should be receiving these reports.

 

We strongly encourage the administrators to work with these other decision makers to use up these available dollars. This new set of quarterly reports is the first step in a bigger initiative of the USMF Business Services office to be more proactive in assisting the campuses in spending from their endowments. Going forward, we will conduct annual surveys of unspent funds to try to quantify the reasons behind non-spending. We hope that this analysis will help us identify programs that would assist you in turning these non-spent dollars into spent dollars.

 

As always we are open to any ideas you may have regarding this initiative.

Have You Ever Wondered...
 

What happens to your DRF once it has been received at the Foundation office? Here's a firsthand account....

 

It's Thursday and I arrived at the Foundation just before the 1:30pm cutoff. Whew, what a trip! I'm here now. So what happens next? Well the first stop is at Dawn's desk. She clocks in my arrival and will check to see that my project number and name match and that the project is active. Dawn also checks that my approvers are correct and my account codes look good. Passed. Whew again. If I hadn't passed, I'd be headed back to campus for more info from my requestor. So now it's on to Anna....

 

Oh, no! A little detour first. I'm being disbursed from a grant so it's on to Randy for grant review. Randy will make sure my payment complies with the grant parameters and is part of the grant budget. He'll also make sure there are enough funds left in the grant to cover me. Maybe I should have gotten here earlier. Good thing I'm not a DRF for a Non-Resident Alien (NRA) - that would be another review. If I were being paid to an NRA, Roy would make sure I had a copy of my VISA and paperwork per the web policy attached, and clarity of business benefits to the university provided. Not an NRA DRF this time, so all done here. Onto Anna's desk!

 

Let's see - Anna checks to see if I'm a request for a new vendor. I am - but my requestor was wise and included my W-9, so no delay there. If I weren't a new vendor, Anna would compare my address to the Financial Edge (FE) address and correct it if necessary. Anna says my docs and account codes all look good. She enters all of my vital information into the computer. My requestor was helpful and taped all my receipts smooth, so Anna can scan everything into FE. A permanent picture of me in the computer - cool!

My total is over $5,000, so I'm on to be reviewed by Bill. Bill will review and release me for payment. If I were under $5,000, Roy would review me. And if I'm over $100,000, all kinds of important people want to look at me.

 

Wow, there sure is a lot of review going on here. Who would have thought a DRF could be so popular? Passed every step so far, my requestor is truly wise.

Had a nice relaxing weekend on John's desk but it's Monday morning now and time to get moving again - you know how that feels. John is getting ready to prepare the checks. Before John cuts the checks, he verifies all projects have funds to support the check issuance. I made the cut - yeah! I have funds available.

 

Finally, checks are cut and we're getting near the end of my trail. I have a check to send to my payee and that check should be distributed by this afternoon. And I know the check will get sent to the right place because I had a properly addressed envelope attached to me. I just hope my payee takes note that my check is void after 90 days from issue date.... Guess that's a worry for another day. My job is complete and I can now retire to the filing cabinet - not quite the retirement paradise I dreamt of but it will have to do.....maybe I'll get some visitors - I hear the auditors like to stop by every once in a while!