About FIS

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The Financial Information System (FIS) went live on July 1, 2020. Visit the current Financial Management information and support page for more.

Developed in the 1990's, UC San Diego's mainframe financial system no longer met the university’s needs. To achieve modern efficiencies, streamline reporting needs and meet regulatory requirements, UC San Diego implemented Oracle ERP Cloud on July 1, 2020.

The new financial system provides a comprehensive, modern solution for the university’s business needs, freeing employees to focus their time and effort on advancing the education, research and public service mission of UC San Diego.

More specifically, the updated system ensures UC San Diego's culture of innovation, ambition and data-driven decisions continue as the university experiences unprecedented growth.

Guiding Principles

The guiding principles are implementation ideals that move us closer to achieving our vision. We looked to employ these principles in every decision, process and task as a means of attaining operational excellence in the new financial system.

Design financial processes and reporting to take maximum advantage of new UC San Diego chart of accounts.
Maximize configuration options, minimize customizations.
Minimize legacy data conversion to new tool.
Full functional partnership with UC San Diego Health and Foundation in a common financial system and linked chart of accounts.
Lead with UC San Diego’s internal resources and external guidance and support from an implementation partner.
Adopt and streamline as much out of the box functionality as possible in new financial system, minimize cloning of current processes.
Adopt full budget system and the benefits that come with corporate financial planning and associated metrics.
Meet user needs in the context of what’s best for the institution as a whole.
Maximize system’s “controls” capabilities.
Leverage system to stress discipline and accountability in sound financial management of UC San Diego resources.
Full and successful integration with defined enterprise systems including student systems (campus and extension) pending future modernization initiatives.
Develop and centralize non-student Accounts Receivable with matching to receipts
Develop/modify/extend local financial policies as required to match new core business processes.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The Financial Information System project launched with the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to support business processes, third-party integrations, and financial reporting deemed necessary for go-live.

Domain	Necessary
Accounts Receivable	Create invoices Receive payments Apply cash Reconcile Collections Aging and write-offs
Budget	Line item budgeting Load target budgets (UC San Diego Health) Will load to GL but is a budget function Reports CFO report suite Core Revenues Plan vs. Actuals Contingency Balances Budget vs. Projected Spend by VC 10 Year Projected Revenues vs. Expenses Budget Plan to Actual Org Levels 1 thru 3
Cash and Banking	Link to bank data Reconcile Link to Accounts Receivable
General Ledger	Create, approve, post journals SLAs (perform subledger accounting) Adjustments Allocations Reconciliation Close Reporting Financial Statements Audit Reappropriate fund balance to financial unit Allocating perm budget (appropriating core funds) COA maintenance 3rd party integrations Inbound Epic/Patient AR Foundation Gifts Outbound COA validations EPSI
Procure to Pay (Accounts Payable and Procurement)	Procurement Purchase Orders Supplier management Supplier set up Invoice matching Accounts Payable and Tax Pay a supplier Payment methods Tax withholding Sales and use tax assessment
Project Portfolio Management	Sponsored Research Meet federal compliance reporting A133 Sponsor reporting Cost-sharing Cost transfers Key personnel reporting Issue invoices Kuali Research integration Letter of credit Capital Management Costs Capitalize expenses Cost to budget CIP Department Level Detail
Travel and Expense	Travel Ability for employees to request travel Ability for department approvers to approve travel requests Ability for system to encumber funds Ability for employees to book travel for themselves or another traveler Ability for employees to submit travel expense (reconciliation) report Ability for employees to add receipts and attachments Ability for system to issue payments for prepayments/advances Ability for employee to request cash advances Ability for department approvers to approve cash advance requests Ability for Central Office to issue cash advances Ability for department approvers and Central Office to view travel reconciliation/expense report details Ability for department approvers and Central Office to approve travel reconciliation/expense report Expenses Non-PO invoices Ability for employees to request reimbursements Ability for employees to request and receive Gift Cards Ability for employees to submit an event request for department approval Ability for employees to request direct payments to vendors for event-related expenses Ability for employees to add receipts and attachments to expense reports Ability for department approvers and Central Office to view details of event, reimbursement, or payment request Ability for department approvers and Central Office to approve reimbursement or payment request Ability for system to issue reimbursement to employee or payment to vendor Card Management Ability for system to assign card transactions to cardholder Ability for employees to submit card expense report or include transactions in other expense report Ability for employees to add receipts and attachments Ability for employees, department, and Central Office to review card transactions/expense report Ability for department approvers and Central Office to approve card transactions/expense report Ability for system to charge department and offset clearing accounts Posting Ability for system to post charges to clearing accounts for centrally-billed expenses (including prepayments/advances) Ability for system to post charges to department Chart of Accounts (“COA”) when expense report is approved after trip or event date Ability for system to offset clearing accounts when department COA is charged for a centrally-billed or prepaid expense
Financial Management Reporting	Deficit reporting Standard P&L Faculty balances

Project Sponsors

Pierre Ouillet Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer	Lori Donaldson Chief Financial Officer, UC San Diego Health

Project Governance

Project Governance provides leadership support to the project team and ensures decisions are made in accordance with Guiding Principles.

Governance members make certain the project is operating within stated constraints (budget, schedule, scope, etc.) and monitors risks and associated mitigation efforts.

Escalation	Role
Cheryl Ross	AVC, Controller
Kevin Chou	Director, Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR)
TBD	Associate CIO, Health IS
Governance Members	Role
Adam DiProfio	Director, Finance/Budget
Reid Hollyfield	Controller, Medical Center
Ted Johnson	Chief Procurement Officer
Sylvia Lepe	AVC, Campus Budget Office
Bill McCarroll	Senior Director, General Accounting
Don Portugal	Director, Business Applications
Arlynn Renslow	Director, Control and Compliance
Marlene Shaver	CFO, Foundation
Pearl Trinidad	Executive Director, BFS
Charles Wei	Accounting Director, VCHS
Irene Xavier	Business Operations Manager, MPL

Project Team

The Financial Information System (FIS) project team delivered an efficient, transparent enterprise-wide accounting and financial management system that supports staff and the business operations of campus and medical centers.

The core project team ensured a successful launch and continuous support.

Meet the FIS team.

Project Phases

The initial timeline for project phases may have been updated throughout the lifecycle of the project.

Project Phase	Description	Anticipated Timing
Initiate	Discuss resourcing needs; Finalize statements of work and discuss prioritization of domain implementation.	October-November 2018
Plan	Project team engages vendor partners in planning, including for design teams. (Design and Technical Lead involvement begins)	October-January 2019
Design	Design Workshops Conducted (SME involvement begins)	February-July 2019
Configuration & Prototype	Developing and configuring the system and processes	July-October 2019
Validate	Iterative system testing cycles; Validating and testing the system and processes	November-April 2020
Transition	Robust end user training	May-June 2020
Go-Live	New system is launched!	July 2020
Realization	Deploying and monitoring the system and processes with vendor support	July-August 2020
Stabilization	After go-live, the stabilization period is typically three-nine months.	Duration through 2020