Raising the BAR to Enhance Transparency, Customer Satisfaction, and Efficiency
Michael Moss, Director of the UIC Budget Operations and Financial Analysis Office, and his staff responded to Mike Bass's Transactional Transparency challenge by improving how customer Budget Adjustment Request (BAR) transactions are processed. The improved process includes increased communication with customers related to the status of their request, and implementing a database to quantitatively measure transactional performance
What is a BAR?
The BAR is a form departments complete and submit to the Budget Office in order to request a transfer of resources (primarily state and institutional) between C-FOPs. The Budget Office then reviews and validates the transfer request, and then enters the budget transfer into Banner (or follows up with the department for clarification/correction as needed).
Transactional Goal
The UIC Budget Office strives to complete BAR transactions within four business days. The newly implemented database shows that the office completes BAR transactions within 1.8 days on average. The office reviews statistics from its database on a monthly basis to ensure customers consistently receive high quality service.
Customer Impact
Promptly posting budgets helps ensure that Banner reflects the most current budget status for departmental funds, and also ensure that EDDIE and other monthly, quarterly and annual reports are accurate. In order to facilitate follow-up, customers also receive a "who to contact" email each time they submit a budget transfer request that includes names, phone numbers, and email addresses for the Budget Office staff.
Customer Feedback
When the office conducted a campus survey to solicit customer feedback on which transactions should be focused on, it also offered the option to type in general feedback. The feedback received was universally positive, following the themes "you're already doing a great job!" and "you already get things done right away!"
For more information on how to use the BAR, please visit budget adjustment requests or contact Michael Moss at 312-996-0306 or by email at mmoss2@uillinois.edu.
