Business Office Reset

The auditor relationship is likely the most critical contractor relationship for the Business Office. Jackson Magdy from Forvis Mazars and Scott Spear from CFO Colleague talk about building a great working relationship between client and auditor. From navigating complex transactions to maintaining open lines of communication, Jackson and Scott describe what they've learned working together and ways it can help Business Offices thrive across higher education.

Dave Moja talks us through Form 990 trouble spots, what's going on with the IRS, and the One Big Beautiful Bill: what looks good for higher ed (a little) and what looks hard (a LOT)!

Suahil Housholder of Anderson (IN) talks about life after a missed debt covenant, her research with leadership in distressed institutions, and her team's tradition of "Audit Treats" to get through what could be the toughest time of year with a little fun and whimsy.

Stead Halstead from Bushnell joins Jessica and discusses the successes of his team, freeing them up to better serve customers, and a healthy approach to data.

Great things are happening at Taylor! Stephen Olson, CFO, talks about his experience over a career at the University, what he's noticed about what's going well, his exceptional team, and his tips for other CFOs navigating their own institutional spaces.

Victoria Pierce, Controller at Anderson University (SC) talks about what's going well with her team, her love for Workday, the unexpected blessings of a new, faithful footbal program, and her top tips for other Controllers to thrive.

Happy New Year! We're kicking off 2025 by covering the hottest topics we saw in higher education for 2024. Jessica Ryals covers tips, tricks, and overhauls to cash accounting that can help make bank reconciliation more manageable. Cash is king and the more on top of it we are, the better we're able to support the rest of the institution with their needs throughout the year. Hear her top tips from things you can start today to best practices over time to make your life and job easier!

Stephanie Craig, crisis manager extraordinaire, shares the best kept secret of risk and crisis management: it happens well before the crisis. Join her for insights into the risk landscape of higher education (spoiler alert: it's reputation management!) as well as quick wins your institution can implement right away to have a significant impact.

Aaron Kuecker, President of Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL, talks through the nuances of leading through challenging times, building decisions around the mission, and drawing a community together while making tough calls.

Between Academic and Financial Leadership on campus, there tend to be the most employees, biggest reporting structures, and at times, most contentious relationships. We chat with Amy Kovach and Scott Campbell, serving at Mount Vernon Nazarene University as the VPAA and CFO, about the success they've had in collaboration with one another and tips for other CFOs in those important relationships.

Turn the microphone around to talk with Jessica Ryals about approaching the Chart of Accounts for better campus understanding and financial reporting. She provides tips from a full overhaul to small scale changes you can make today that have an impact.

For this series, we're flipping the mic! Scott Spear interviews Jessica Ryals on what she's seeing in the industry. We kick off with bank reconciliations - what's going wrong? What best practices can we implement? And most importantly, what can we change TODAY to have an impact?

Katie Booth talks through Higher Ed marketing, her higher ed career, what's great about marketing and how business offices can better relate to and interact with their marketing team. She offers great tips for using internal and external marketing resources alike!

Continuing our Tough Times series, Jeff Spear talks through some key metrics and ratios institutions can use to measure health over time, and the ways there is hope for the industry if we work toward these metrics going forward.

New series starting on Tough Times in Higher Ed, and we're kicking off with Gary Stocker. He talks through the industry situation, why he sees closures as inevitable, and the availability of his IPEDS-fueled College Viability App for employees and prospective families alike to get a picture of their institutions.

Gary: www.collegeviability.com

Jessica: jessica@cfocolleague.com

Have you ever wanted to pick Dave Moja's brain on the 990? As we finalize 2023 and look to 2024's filings, Dave takes us through the key areas of the form, what to watch out for, and how to spend your time on the most impactful areas. Don't miss Part 1 or Part 2 of our chat!

Dave can be reached at dave@mojacpa.com.
Jessica can be reached at jessica@cfocolleague.com

Have you ever wanted to pick Dave Moja's brain on the 990? As we finalize 2023 and look to 2024's filings, Dave takes us through the key areas of the form, what to watch out for, and how to spend your time on the most impactful areas. Don't miss Part 1 or Part 2 of our chat!

Dave can be reached at dave@mojacpa.com.
Jessica can be reached at jessica@cfocolleague.com

How do we think about the Academic Programs we offer? What do we do with faculty attrition? How can we set ourselves up to have conversations around programs that don't require radical changes? We chat with Scott Spear about new ways to think about resourcing our academic programs through data generosity and collaborative decision making.

Our friends from Credo are back! Sean and Joretta talk through the importance of our financial clearance process as an institution in the student success space, and spoiler alert, the follow on effects on student retention AND cash flow for the institution. A must-listen for every business officer struggling to gain traction on accounts receivable and shining a light on why our students (as well as our employees) need us to take this seriously.

We chat with Victoria Pierce about the intricacies of endowment accounting, making Workday work for their institution (even without the endowment module) and ways to integrate endowment work throughout the year to make year-end more manageable.

We talk with Leah Miller, Director of HR at Kenyon College, about the shifting landscape of HR in higher education, from hiring to onboarding to retaining employees, and ways to shift our perspective to get and keep the right talent.

As we're rethinking higher ed, Jan Haas talks us through ways we can look at what we have as institutions - buildings, faculty, programs - and use them in new ways to serve our communities and continue our mission.

Jeff Spear talks recruitment, financial aid leveraging, and studying who's successful at our institutions to determine who to go after moving forward. This kicks off our Rethinking series to propose new ways of life in higher ed for the new year.

When looking at budget deficits and shifts, how can we approach expense reduction in a way that has the most impact? Jan Haas talks through steps to reducing expenses that have the biggest budget effect with the least amount of campus disruption.

Jeff Spear talks through running an Enterprise vs. Operational budget, using ratios and benchmarks to build a "new" zero-based budget, and campus mindset shifts that allow us to bring about these changes.

Scott Spear talks us through setting up policies and systems to help the budget process, including timelines, the right voices in the room, and follow up through the year.

Dr. Roger Parrott talks fundraising from the President's role, the importance of having a solid fundraising plan as a President, and presenting prospective donors with the opportunity to give

Campus Pastor at Mount Vernon Nazarene University Stephanie Lobdell talks about making space for ourselves in the midst of our work, recent readings that have influenced her perception of work, and tips for taking care that she's found useful.

We talked with Kara Gilliard about keeping our souls in mind - ours as leaders as well as our teams - when working in a business office and meeting the challenges we face there.

Financial Aid professional Wes Brothers talks us through the process of managing HCM2 at an institution, from tips on how to work more smoothly with an analyst to managing cash flow expectations.

We take a deep dive into the Education Department Financial Responsibility scores and methods for understanding the long-term impact of strategic decisions on the scores. We also discuss creative ways institutions are buying time for longer-term solutions to ratio challenges.

Jessica Ryals talks through tips & tricks for smooth accounting for campus construction, including chart of accounts tweaks and best practices for capitalization.

Kevin and Dawn talk project management for a major campus construction project, including engaging key stakeholders, sticking to the plan, and overall ensuring the smoothest experience possible.

Our partners at Credo Higher Education, Dawn Rolling and Dean Rodeheaver, talk about the importance of planning with margin in mind, bringing the whole campus together, and understanding the "why" behind the project.

Heidi Hansen McCrory of Furman University shares her career journey and how she came to have "the best job in the world," her philosophy of fundraising, and her top tips for successfully fundraising for Major Campus Construction projects.

Continuing last week's conversation, we go in-depth on auxiliaires and dining services, how to tell when you might want to outsource, and always taking perspective from the residential student experience.

Jan Haas talks us through the important things to know about the facilities area and ways to build your knowledge even from the Controller's seat. We also touch on the buzzword topic of alternative revenue and some things to bear in mind.

Scott Stewart talks about best practices with investments and endowment policy, Cornerstone's success with a student investment group, and steps to move forward in this area.

After a career in higher education and the banking industry, Ken Lilly shares the #1 tip for CFO's banking (relationship!) and ways to cultivate that. He also talks about some key trends to keep an eye on to keep bankers happy.

Dan Boone describes leadership qualities that make for great relationships between the CFO and key Senior Leadership team members, including the President and Provost.