Last Updated 12th December 2023
Emma Acton - Project Leader, FinPOST
Tell me about yourself?
My name is Emma Acton, I have worked in UCD for 21 years. I started in accounts payable, from there I worked in Finance Systems, and then went on to develop and manage the Central Purchasing Unit, responsible for 40% of the University's purchasing needs. I have always worked in a busy financial operational environment within UCD.
What programme are you working on? Tell us a little bit about it?
I am really excited to be working on the FINPOST programme. Our objective is to Transform Finance in UCD with the implementation of a new financial system, Workday. Having worked myself within the confines of our existing financial system for so long it’s great to be part of transforming this experience for everyone.
What is your role on the programme? What is the workstream you are working on?
I am the Project Lead on the Purchase to Pay Workstream. This includes everything from identifying purchasing needs, ensuring compliant purchasing, PO issue and receipting, to invoice processing and payment, it also includes staff expenses management. This workstream has hugely benefited from the input of the UCD community during a number of information gathering workshops. These sessions have been invaluable in helping us design our requirements within the new system, and will continue to take place over the next year.
What do you enjoy most about working on this programme?
I am really loving working with the mix of existing UCD staff and with the new programme members. We are all learning so much from each other, they have brought a wealth of knowledge on digital transformations from private industry to us, while we are bringing the hugely unique UCD experience to them. As a team we are all very conscious of delivering back to our UCD colleagues so there is a real sense of responsibility from everyone to deliver a first class financial system for the UCD community.