Spring Break
New software to make it easier for clubs to request SAF funds
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 5/20/08
Posted online at 6:48 AM EST on 5/20/08
New software is currently being developed by Village Software to manage the Student Activities Fee funding and greatly improve club transactions by eliminating the need for much manual data entry and re-entry, immediate past Student Union Treasurer Choon Woo Ha '08 said.
Ha explained how club funding currently requires the use of many different online and manual processes, as clubs are able to request money through my.brandeis.edu and by coming before the Finance Board. Once clubs have been allocated money, he continued, club officers need to fill out appropriate paperwork for the Office of the Union Treasury, which uses a software called Quickbooks to process allocations. The budget office in the Office of Students and Enrollment, the Accounts Payable Office and the Payroll Office use different software systems, such as Peoplesoft, to account for transactions transmitted from the Treasury Office, he continued.
Village Software will create a single Web interface for all of those functions, Ha said, establishing a quicker and more accurate system.
Ha stressed that accuracy will improve. "There is a chance if you're using five different systems, we're going to have five different results for data," Ha said. "Now we'll have only one data that's going to be used by everybody."
Ha emphasized that the system would greatly speed up financial transactions. "The time that [club leaders] take to fill out the forms and drop it off and then we do the double-checking, [this] is going to expedite it so much more," Ha said.
While students will still have to print and submit hard copies of some forms, such as Proof of Payment, to the Office of the Treasurer, filling them out online will be easier, Ha said.
The system will also provide more information to students, Ha said. "Each club will be able to know 24/7 how much money they spent," he said.
Frank Urso, assistant vice president for students and enrollment and budget director recommended the program, Ha said. In an e-mail to the Justice, Urso wrote he worked with Village Software on the creation of a similar system in his previous position at the Harvard Business School.
Ha explained how club funding currently requires the use of many different online and manual processes, as clubs are able to request money through my.brandeis.edu and by coming before the Finance Board. Once clubs have been allocated money, he continued, club officers need to fill out appropriate paperwork for the Office of the Union Treasury, which uses a software called Quickbooks to process allocations. The budget office in the Office of Students and Enrollment, the Accounts Payable Office and the Payroll Office use different software systems, such as Peoplesoft, to account for transactions transmitted from the Treasury Office, he continued.
Village Software will create a single Web interface for all of those functions, Ha said, establishing a quicker and more accurate system.
Ha stressed that accuracy will improve. "There is a chance if you're using five different systems, we're going to have five different results for data," Ha said. "Now we'll have only one data that's going to be used by everybody."
Ha emphasized that the system would greatly speed up financial transactions. "The time that [club leaders] take to fill out the forms and drop it off and then we do the double-checking, [this] is going to expedite it so much more," Ha said.
While students will still have to print and submit hard copies of some forms, such as Proof of Payment, to the Office of the Treasurer, filling them out online will be easier, Ha said.
The system will also provide more information to students, Ha said. "Each club will be able to know 24/7 how much money they spent," he said.
Frank Urso, assistant vice president for students and enrollment and budget director recommended the program, Ha said. In an e-mail to the Justice, Urso wrote he worked with Village Software on the creation of a similar system in his previous position at the Harvard Business School.
Be the first to comment on this story