2022 McMaster Financial Forum
Finance: The Future is Flexible

Conference Agenda
Tuesday November 15, 2022

Keynote: Nancy Watt; Flexing the Adaptable Muscle.

As a skill, Adaptability has gone from interesting to important. It is listed in the top three skills demanded by employers in all sectors. As we enter the now-near-permanent hybrid workplace, it is worth understanding and learning to apply this skill. Join Nancy Watt as she explains the evidence-based research into human adaptability and how we can hone our adaptability by harnessing humour. Her ‘pracademic’ workshop elucidates the research in an unconventional and engaging way and we’ll learn together while laughing, setting the tone for an engaging and collaborative conference.

Deidre (Dee) Henne, AVP (Administration) & CFO: Financial Health Report: System Band-aids – Where One Size Does NOT Fit All.

Dee will provide an update on the university sector from an international to national to Ontario view. Dee’s presentation will include federal and provincial action plans aimed at assessing and monitoring university financial viability post-Laurentian insolvency, pandemic enrolment, inflation impacts, and market and energy volatility caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, including its resulting drive of a larger global famine crisis.

The talk will explore McMaster’s financial health amid exogenous matters and how flexible approaches are needed over one -size-fits-all band-aids, which may do little more than add another layer of administrative burden on universities and detract the sector from its strategic priorities and differentiation objectives.

Panel Discussion: Fluctuating on the Fly:

Ancillary operations and procurement were among the hardest hit areas during the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of their regular business gone and the remaining critical functions subject to constantly shifting rules. This panel of leaders will share their experiences on staying flexible to successfully meet the community’s needs, with lessons for how we can manage the continuing changes as the new normal becomes clearer.

Kahoot quiz: Back by popular demand! See how well you stack up against your peers when it comes to various finance-related topics.

Breakout Sessions
Wednesday November 16, 2022
Morning and afternoon breakout sessions include:

Flexible Financial Reporting
Financial Systems Support (FSS) & Institutional Research & Analysis (IRA) will provide an overview of Business Intelligence (BI) and its benefits as one of our reporting tools for financial data (note: FLEXIBILITY is a major benefit!). The session will highlight a few major financial reports (e.g., Statement of Operations and Research Dashboards), new developments/improvements, along with some tips/tricks. Discussion will include the future of financial reports in BI and other tools (e.g. Power BI) and review a new eForm that will be available for making reporting requests.

Fabulous Finance/HR eForms
Financial Systems Support (FSS) & Human Resources (HR) will review the latest Finance Security request by position eForm and how it ties into position management in HR to streamline system security access. Two additional Finance eForms and other HR eForms currently in use will also be reviewed.

Fantastic Finds in AP
Join Accounts Payable (A/P) as they show you how to navigate the “How To’s”, share the top 10 tips for completing Expense Claims, Vouchers (Regular and PO), and PCard reconciliations, including how to complete the header, why it is needed in that format, and the fastest most efficient way to complete the line descriptions.