Shared Services Specialist

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills, and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

The Shared Services Specialist (NE S SEIU 925 Non Supv) will establish and maintain comprehensive processes and policies as well as help to manage purchasing and payment requests, provide support to faculty, staff, and students and review documents to ensure compliance. They may also maintain and analyze payroll data, ensure the data's alignment between systems for accuracy from forecast development through actuals reconciliation for budgets related to grant, contract, state and program funding of research, teaching, community service, and all other School and Library activities. In addition, this position will be an integral part of the school's business office which is a central shared services group for the School of Law.

The Shared Services Specialist will serve as a subject matter expert on all University travel and purchasing policies and procedures, research rules and regulations as needed, help establish best practices for School of Law and Law Library financial systems, and closely coordinate with team to ensure smooth operations and consistent auditability.

The person in this position must use independent judgement, think critically, and pay very close attention to details. Excellent customer service, problem-solving teamwork, and the ability to quickly learn and continually optimize systems and processes are all critical to success in this position.

This position has a high degree of contact with both people and information. This position reports to the Director of Finance.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Procurement and Payments 60%

Coordinate purchase of goods and service for the department(s) faculty, staff and students using a variety of methods including ProCard and Workday.

Communicate clearly and serve as a liaison between UW Procurement Services, buyers, vendors, and purchasing faculty, staff, or students. Maintain open lines of communication and provide regular updates as needed.

Reconcile purchases and orders in Workday to verify shipments are received correctly and invoices are paid in a timely fashion, assist new suppliers with registration process through completion.

Correspond with suppliers to obtain correct quotes and act as department liaison between vendor and campus buyer, directly enter transactions for order placement.

Act as liaison with UW departments and external suppliers to develop procurement "process partner" relationships.

Reconcile ProCard and CTA accounts. Assign and verify correct worktags for each expenditure while ensuring that internal controls are followed and that there is a comprehensive audit trail.

Serve as subject matter expert for questions related to policies and procedures for procurement, travel, and records maintenance.

Investigate any compliance or other problems and recommend the best course of action for proper budget allocations, categories and worktag coding, reviewing with team leaders as necessary.

Review and reconcile the UW Use Tax Correction report on a monthly basis, generate other ad hoc reports as needed.

Payroll Support 20%

Manage Payroll Cost Allocation; Initiate functions within Workday for the School including updates to payroll information for faculty, staff, students and hourly employees; enter related payments as needed.

Prepare specialized payroll reports and analyze and reconcile discrepancies between systems by worktag, correcting errors and recommending process changes to eliminate sources of error.

Conduct comparisons of planned payroll expenditures against actual expenditures for student workers and hourly employees and identify potential corrective actions.

General Fiscal Management and Process Improvement 20%

Continually review processes to ensure conformance to university and sponsor policies for fiscal compliance and make recommendations for changes, such as new policies, audit requirements, or business practices.

Apply knowledge of accounts, data flow, audit trails, and internal controls to analyze, recommend improvements to, and implement financial processes, policies, and record-keeping systems.

Develop, modify, and maintain fiscal and payroll policies, processes and related forms and reference materials on School Intranet to address School needs and improve efficiency.

Manage and maintain school's annual contract and accounts.

Manage Department key deposit account and prepare and verify cash deposits to revenue accounts.

Act as backup for colleagues as workload demands, including providing salary and benefits estimates for use in grant budgets; re-budgeting Payroll Accounting Adjustments (PAAs); entering PAAs.

Collaborate with peers and supervisor to learn from or suggest better practices to support efficiency gains, quality improvements, employee, and customer satisfaction

Assist in training and directing the work of student helpers.

Other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Bachelor's Degree and two years of work experience in fiscal, accounting, or payroll experience, or equivalent combination of education/experience.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Ability to work with diverse people with tact and diplomacy, applying good judgment, critical thinking, discretion, and sensitivity

Ability to communicate complex issues with a focus on solutions

Skilled in remote collaboration yet able to thrive independently, handling frequent task shifts

Highly motivated to efficiently navigate multiple system interfaces and resolve outstanding issues.

Ability to quickly identify the most efficient solution for individual tasks, or next steps to resolve problems.

Intermediate to advanced experience using the following UW systems/software: MyFinancialDesktop or other budgeting system, Workday, ProCard PaymentNet or other credit card payment administrative interface, UWConnect or other issue-ticketing system for coordinated and efficient response