The Transformative Power of Automation
Take a look at your workforce. Do you see tasks that take countless hours as employees manually collect and enter information? In many cases, automation – using technology to perform repetitive tasks – can improve efficiency and reduce errors in the work they perform.
Automation can transform a process from a labor-intensive juggernaut of time to an efficient, seamless operation. Check out what we did to shorten and streamline a crucial reporting process for one university.
Challenge
Every year, colleges and universities who participate in a Title IV federal student financial assistance program must complete their Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) report. In addition, all members of the NCAA must also prepare and submit a financial report which includes much of the same data. At one particular Division II school, a single person handled the preparation of these reports.
The process of creating the school’s EADA and NCAA reports took several weeks, thanks to all the information that had to be gathered, collected, prepared and entered into their system. To make matters worse, the person doing this work was getting ready to retire — taking her 25-plus years of knowledge about how everything works with her.
The university knew they needed a solution quickly, as the staff member’s retirement date was approaching, and the annual reports were once again coming due. So they reached out to James Moore Data Analytics for help.
Solutions
We reviewed their existing processes, inputs, and outputs. After scrutinizing their data processes further, we saw that hundreds of hours per year were being spent on tasks that could easily be automated. The employee had been manually aggregating and reviewing transaction-level details between the reports.
So we coordinated with the university’s IT department to extract data from their Banner financial system. Through interviews and review of their prior workpapers, we could create logic that captured 98% of the work that was being done manually. We then developed process automation in Alteryx (including logic to appropriately classify transactions en masse) and provided users the ability to manually adjust transactions on an as-needed basis. We also developed a series of control and validation reports and fully documented the process so anyone could come in and follow it.
Results
The process of reviewing over 50,000 transactions – one that once took over 100 hours of manual work and had an error rate of plus/minus 5% – was reduced to just a few days and became less prone to error thanks to automation logic. It’s also more transparent, making it both easier for others to perform and more auditable.
Thanks to this increased ease and reduced time, the university can now perform the data collection process monthly or even weekly if they prefer. This allows them to better track key performance indicators and make adjustments to correct small issues before they become bigger problems.
“The process couldn’t have gone more smoothly,” said Chauncey Winbush, the school’s vice president for athletics. “Moving forward, this will be beneficial for Shepherd Athletics.
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Marie Monet, CPA, CITP, CGMA
President, Data Analytics
Marie helps our clients leverage their data in a way that allows them to generate meaningful insights and strategies to strengthen and maintain the health of their business. She has nearly 20 years of experience in accounting, data analytics and related areas of work.
Marie is highly recognized by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. In addition to holding the AICPA’s Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) certification, she is a member of the CITP Credential Committee that develops, promotes and maintains the CITP credentialing process. She was also recognized by the AICPA’s Standing Ovation program in 2016 for her contributions to the areas of information management and technology assurance.
Before coming to James Moore, Marie spent over a decade working for large organizations and consulting firms that have a deep breadth of technical expertise and resources at their fingertips. She leverages the expertise gleaned from this work to give our clients a unique competitive edge in the market. Outside of work, Marie is an active volunteer and mentor with SCORE Volusia and sits on the Disruptive Leadership Board of Stetson University.
