August 2022 - Thanks for your feedback!

Recently, we ran a survey to take stock of the ways the CAS Administrative Support Team can better support our administrators ahead of Finance Transformation.

We received terrific response (96% across 30 units!) and valuable suggestions for improving our existing services! Some of the major themes that emerged included:

• Streamlining AST forms
• Updating information and documentation on the AST website
• Creating transparency about AST staff operations and processes
• Improving communication between administrators and AST

In response, we are prioritizing the following:

• Improving our website, including additional documentation for business processes and AST workflows, and updating our intake forms
• Exploring options for hosting office hours and microlearning opportunities
• Publishing regular updates about policy changes and AST processes via newsletter or email (like this one!)

Speaking of updates...

NEW - DOCUSIGN FOR HONORARIA

Processing an honorarium payment, or any Payment to Individual, has one primary pain point for everyone involved: gathering required personal information (such as social security numbers) from payees. Thanks to DocuSign, we now have a solution! Instead of relying on the recipient calling AST with their SSN, we have created a secure DocuSign template to collect this information. We will pilot this form this month and, after tweaking, will formally launch the new process in September. 

The new process will look like this: 

1. Your department submits a ticket requesting payment to individual (no change)
2. AST sends an email introducing AST and outlining next steps in the process, including the URL to the DocuSign template. 
3. The payee completed the form. This is all the information we need to submit the honorarium payments for most recipients. For payees who are also Foreign Nationals, however, we will gather more documentation appropriate to each via, country, and tax treaty.

The form collects the following information:

• Legal name (as shown on SSN card) and social security number
• Alias name used while a guest at UW
• Hosting Department
• Mailing address
• Citizenship status
• If Foreign National, visa and tax treaty details

Please note: No data will be retained within DocuSign. Once we have entered the information into Ariba, the DocuSign form disappears.

As always, please contact any of us or email teamcas@uw.edu with any questions or concerns.

Thank you again for partnering with us in this work!

AST Leadership

Heidi Tilghman
Ivy Mason-Sharrah
Cara Call
Amy Cox