Interview:

Transcript
Interviewees: Jane Smith-Comptroller
Stacy Edwards-Senior Accountant
Date:
November 3, 2015
Time:
3:45 pm
Ben: Describe the types of writing that typically takes place in your daily activities.
Jane: I live in my emails, emails ranges from very short/ long, formal to informal
communications that circulates throughout the entire campus.
Documents are rarely done by using Microsoft word, using involves short memos.
Fax communication is nonexistent.
Work on a series of audits, email formal responses for audits.
These audits are conducted once a year and the balance sheet is completed on June 30th
and December 30th.
Specific financial reporting that goes to the State and Federal Government.
The department handles sponsored research, grants, different contracts, and restricted
reporting for the Federal Government.
Stacy: The emails convey document deadlines and other formal conversations depending on
different contexts.
Shaneik: When a document needs to be created, do you follow a specific process?
Jane and Stacy: Guidelines exist that each department has to follow for certain financial
documents.
The system office gives them specific guidelines on how to handle certain documents.
There is usually a defined format.
For grant proposals, it depends on the grants themselves and the format specified in the
instructions.
The format of financial statements do not change.
Shaneik: Are the documents produced completed by a team or individuals?
Team: Multiple departments compose different parts of each document.
The System Office sets the deadlines for each part of the document.
Collaborations are done within each department as different individuals take of the task
of collecting and verifying information.
Ben: What projects are currently being undertaken?
Jane and Stacy: Research (survey) projects, which involve on campus participants with
payment incentives.
Her job includes building policies and procedures around each situation.
It require figuring out how to modify policies to fit different situations.
Shaneik: Can you recall a time where you had to collaborate on a specific document? What
types of communication strategies were employed? What type of collaborative methods were
used? Face-to-face, divide and conquer, etc.

Jane: The divide and conquer method is used. Documents are broken down into specific parts
and handled by different departments.
Data is emailed, reviewed, and put into one consolidated system to be sent to the
financial office.
Most interactions are over the phone or through email with the exception to face-to-face
meetings, only when necessary.
Ben: What specific challenges were faced during the collaboration? How were they resolved?
Jane: It is a challenge to trace transactions when they are not recorded when they take place.
Everything is not in the accounting office.
Missed deadlines are an issue. A missed deadline might occur when an individual goes on
vacations before he completes a needed document.
If there is a missed deadline, the individual is notified with a new one. The individual
should then respond if he can adhere to the deadline.
Shaneik: What is your role when a mistake in a document is found?
Jane: We get on the issue right away, and usually send the document via email to the specific
individual or individuals that are responsible with annotations noting the mistake.
If the issue is one that cannot be fixed via the use of technology and requires a face-toface meeting, one will be scheduled. Ms. Smith will likely go to the meeting if it takes
place in the office.
Ms. Smith handles unique situations.
Ben: What specific documents are circulated within the department? Who are the end audiences
of these documents? What are they used for?
Stacy: Journal entries, purchase orders, budget entries.
Jane: There are 85 to 90 thousand account payable transactions.
Cash receipts, accounts payable, disbursement documents.
Reports for internal management.
Capital projects.
Asset management.
Capital incentive documents.
Ms. Smith signs of on time sheets every two weeks.
End users include a variety of departments on campus.
Shaneik: Who do you interact with on a daily basis?
Stacy: The question should be, who doesnt she interact with on a daily basis?
Jane: It depends on the day, I interact most with my direct support staff, which is composed of
70 people.
Colleagues that are in other divisions: research, departmental business, accounting, and
engineering divisions.
Ben: We saw online that you are one of the key players in the Kuali project, can you tell us a bit
more about that?
Jane: Kauli is a community of universities, colleges, and commercial affiliates that have
partnered to build and sustain open-source software for higher education.

The current software did not fit the needs of every university so they decided to build
their own system.
It is an open source software.
It is built for the entire community.
Website is kauli.org.