1. Using Technology to Drive Change: WVU’s Journey to Transform Expense Management Rachel Hays & Caitlin Mutkus, West Virginia University

2. West Virginia University
Public, land-grant institution
Private, non-profit research corporation
30,000 students
20,000 employees

3. West Virginia University
20,000 employee reimbursements annually
4,000 PCards
One-card program (travel and purchasing)
$25 million travel spend

4. What we were doing before: paper!
Paper forms/receipts & physical signatures
Manual data entry
PCard reconciliation in bank software
Travel booked through any & all methods
No spend visibility

5. Request for Proposals (RFP ) Process
RFP for expense management system and TMC
Participants from central, colleges, athletics, etc.
One expense tool selected
Two travel management companies selected

6. WVU’s fully integrated expense tool, which is used for:
Employee reimbursements
Travel reimbursements to individuals (i.e. candidates)
PCard reconciliation

7. How did we design the system?
Single sign on
Fully integrates with our financial system
Mobile approvals
2 approvers- college and supervisor/grant owner
Serves as document management system

8. How did we design the system?
Workflow designed per report type
Expense types designed for best spend analysis
Policies determine warnings
Favored warnings over hard stops in most cases

9. Targeted communication plan & training
“Open Houses”
In person demos
Online training videos
WVU “E-News”
Updated policies & procedures

10. Roll out phase 1: reimbursements
10 month process
Updated Travel & Expense Manual
Informal pilot group with specific colleges
Designated staff on call for troubleshooting
Stopped accepting paper forms 3 months after go live

11. Phase 2: PCard reconciliation
Updated PCard Manual and Record Retention Policy
Targeted /FAQ’s sent to each cardholder
Hosted another round of trainings
No pilot group: instantly had 4,000 users

12. Phase 2: PCard reconciliation
Require receipt and business purpose for each transaction
Suggested 1 report per week for each cardholder
Clearing account used to pay the bank
Cardholder’s budget charged once report is approved

13. Statistics: 9 months in

15. Then vs Now Then Now Paper paper paper
Time to receive reimbursement- 30 days
No transparency
Full time temp required for data entry
Various internal college processes
All electronic
Time to receive reimbursement- 1 week
Real time visibility
No temp needed
One process; standardized workflow

16. Lessons learned Need buy-in from the top Tailor help based on the user
“Squeaky wheel”
Be proactive with troubleshooting
Be as responsive as possible
Resist customization requests

17. Lessons learned
Understand source data is important (HR, funding, etc.)
Multiple methods to reach user: , phone, in person
Configure system to fit your spend reporting needs
Biggest delay in processing: supervisor’s approval
Biggest challenge: employees don’t know their funding

18. Phase 3: Travel booking Online booking tool: “MyTravel”
Agent for group travel
Separate on-site agent for athletics
Currently “Strongly Encouraged”

19. Plans for future Mandate use of the online travel booking tool
Data analytics to target savings
Decreasing non-travel reimbursements
Travel advances

20. Contact us Rachel Hays Caitlin Mutkus Director of Payment Services
West Virginia University
Travel Analyst
West Virginia University