Units

Organization Chart. All staff in any of the departments within the Controller's Office can be reached via the Financial Helpline, 612-624-1617 or [email protected] (opens a service/help request).

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Accounting Services

Accounting Services maintains the General Ledger of the University; develops accounting standards; controls asset, liability and fund balance accounts; and manages all comprehensive audits, financial statements, federal awards, and taxes. Accounting Services coordinates the annual fiscal year end business process. Other major functions Accounting Services oversees: accounts payable, inventory accounting (capital asset accounting), treasury accounting (including endowments), and payroll accounting.

Inventory/Capital Asset Accounting

Accounting Services responsible for establishing and maintaining the equipment property control system for the University of Minnesota. Equipment is defined as tangible, movable, non-expendable items and can be classified as either capital or non-capital equipment assets. The property control system consists of policies and procedures related to the acquisition, identification, management, and disposal of equipment owned by, or controlled by, the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota.

Accounting Services is also responsible for maintaining the University of Minnesota’s official record of capital equipment assets. Capital equipment asset records are maintained in the PeopleSoft Financials Asset Management module. The record of sponsor-owned equipment, which meets the University’s definition of capital equipment assets and is in the possession of the University of Minnesota, is also officially maintained by Inventory Services.

Treasury Accounting

A team within Accounting Services is responsible for accounting functions related to the University's endowment fund and other investments, in addition to the University's long-term debt, which consists mainly of bonds and commercial paper. The Treasury Accounting team is also responsible for the University's overall cash procedures and bank reconciliations.

Leadership

Lori Standafer
Director

Additional contact information

Accounting Services fax: 612-625-5298
Inventory fax: Fax: 612-626-8220
Treasury accounting fax: 612-625-5298

Accounts Receivable Services

Accounts Receivable Services is responsible for establishing institutional billing, receivables, and payment card policies and procedures. We support departments throughout the University in the areas of customer maintenance, non-sponsored billing, accounts receivable, payment processing, sales tax remittance and collections. Our unit provides processes and systems to ensure funds due to the University are billed, collected, and reconciled in a timely manner with appropriate internal controls over cash receipts. This team administers the payment card program which enables departments to accept credit and debit cards for payment of goods and services. Accounts Receivable Services also works with departments to ensure compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and with federal and state laws related to privacy of customer data and identity theft prevention.

Leadership

David Laden
Director

Controller's Office Administration

Controller's Office administration houses the Controller. 

Administrative support (human resources, financial transaction processing) for the Controller's Office is provided by our parent unit, University Finance.

Leadership

Mollie Viola
Controller

Jessica Rivers
Chief Financial Manager

EFS Customer Support / Communications

This team is responsible for systemwide communications about finance-related topics, providing the systemwide finance community with assistance via the University Financial Helpline, workflow administration for EFS and Chrome River, and overseeing the access request process for financial systems. This team supports those who use the enterprise financial systems, financial policies, related procedures, and related forms at the University of Minnesota. The team also assists vendors in identifying payments or finding an appropriate departmental contact for invoicing questions. 

The University Financial Helpline team can help callers with document or transaction problems, wrong vendor payments, overall questions about the system, completing paper documents, getting copies of access contracts or request packets, reading reports, reprinting reports, general questions about how the system works, etc. The help desk team members will refer issues to the appropriate University resource if they cannot be immediately addressed or resolved. The help desk crew can even help you identify local resources for assistance, like your cluster director, RRC contact, or Chief Financial Manager, for example.

Leadership

Carrie Meyer
Director

Helpline Hours

Monday through Friday (we follow the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus calendar for holidays)
8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Central Time

EFS Module Support

EFS Module Support is committed to providing integrity and leadership in the evolution and maintenance of the financial system for the Controller’s Office, and being responsive to the needs of the University community. The team serves the Controller’s Office and business process owners of the enterprise financial system (EFS) through services such as:

  • monitoring system maintenance,
  • performing fiscal year-end system tasks,
  • providing in-depth investigation and analysis,
  • researching problems and providing resolutions and recommendations,
  • creating functional designs for necessary system solutions, updates or enhancements, and
  • working with the Office of Information Technology
    • to implement application development change requests or
    • perform system wide testing of critical patches, bug fixes and upgrades.

The best way to get support from this group is to contact the Financial Helpline and they will ensure your request gets to the appropriate group.

EFS Module Support is comprised of the following teams:

  • AP/PO/EX Team Lead: Lisa Luhman Bass, Procurement: Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Expenses
  • GL/AM/TR Team Lead: Beth Koepke, General Ledger, Asset Management, Treasury, Endowments
  • GPC/AR/BI Team Lead: Matt Kuzma, Grants, Projects, Contracts, Accounts Receivable, Billing
  • HCM_PA/BU/FR Team Lead: Molly Koewler, HCM Integration (HCM is Human Capital Management, the University's HR system), Payroll Accounting, Budgets, Financial Reporting, Analytics, BI Publisher, UM Reports

Leadership
Dan Hemauer
Director

Financial Training

Reliable financial information is essential to effectively manage the business of the University and protect its assets. Courses and materials address the responsibilities everyone has for managing the finances and reputation of the University. Courses currently can be found on the Training Hub. Training materials and job aids can be found on the Controller's Training page.

Leadership

Jessica Rivers
Chief Financial Manager

Internal/External Sales

Internal/External Sales facilitates the review of, and gives approval for, all internal sales to other departments. University departments are encouraged to use the academic expertise and institutional resources of other University departments, especially those that are unique, convenient, or are not readily available from external resources. The team also facilitates the review of, and gives approval for, all external sales related, activity, contracts and documents. University colleges and departments are encouraged to make use of academic expertise and institutional resources to generate additional sources of revenue from external customers in a commercial and competitive manner. You can learn more about the Internal and External Sales on their web page.

Leadership

Mollie Viola
Controller

Purchasing Services

Purchasing Services provides management oversight and facilitation of all University of Minnesota purchasing processes to insure integrity, economy, efficiency, and accountability. We provide sourcing, bidding, and troubleshooting assistance to all University of Minnesota colleges and departments. It is our responsibility to ensure that University of Minnesota stakeholders (general business community, targeted group businesses, citizens of Minnesota, etc.) are considered in all purchasing policies and practices.

Our major responsibilities are:

  • Purchasing of goods and services
  • Bidding
  • Accounts payable
  • Travel
  • Procurement Card (PCard)
  • Co-ownership of the U Market tool for commonly used goods and services

These sites are available for more information:

Leadership

Beth Tapp
Director

Sponsored Financial Reporting (SFR)

Mission

Provide consistent and high-quality financial stewardship of sponsored awards in order to maintain research excellence at the University of Minnesota.

Values

  • Integrity
  • Efficiency
  • Adaptability
  • Teamwork

Focus Areas 

  • Retain and develop staff
  • Provide superior customer service
  • Maintain sound business processes
Leadership

Nicole Pilman
Director

SFR is organized into teams, each team services specific areas.

Org chart for SFR and areas supported is shown, details on Google Sheet at https://z.umn.edu/sfrorg. Sheet has multiple tabs of information, first tab is pictures representing the information, second tab is which college/campus is supported by which team, third tab is individual team members for each area.

Contact Us

Financial Helpline: 612-624-1617
[email protected]

1300 2nd Street S Minneapolis, MN 55454 (WBOB)
Campus Mail Code: 7529

Controller's Office units are housed in the West Bank Office Building (WBOB) and in the McNamara Alumni Center on the Twin Cities campus.