An annual budget (for a calendar year) must be prepared by the University for approval by the Council in accordance with Section 8 of the Federation University Act 2010. This section of the Act outlines the University’s requirements in respect of the University budget. The University’s annual budget is to be prepared and presented to Council for approval.

Each budget unit (Portfolio or Institute also referred to as a department or project) for both operating and research activities (where applicable) must prepare an annual budget in line with University’s Strategic Planning framework guidelines.

Unless specific approval has been granted to overspend in a given year, areas are not allowed to spend more than their agreed budget.

Each cost-centre manager is wholly responsible and accountable for the proper administration of their cost-centre’s annual budget.

Under no circumstances is expenditure to exceed the annual budget allocated to a cost-centre without the express authority of the Vice-Chancellor or Chief Financial Officer obtained in writing in advance.

At the commencement of the new financial year, balances from all funds that have received approval will be brought forward. Expenditure budgets should be developed in accordance with the University’s budget timetable which directly relate to the carry forwards to ensure that expenditure and income is matched in line with accounting standard/contractual requirements.

Forecasts are prepared both at a consolidated University level and cost centre level. A forecast should be based on all available information at the time of preparation, including historical data, commitments and expected income and expenditure. At the consolidated University level, the Financial Planning and Analytics team is required to prepare reports and produce a forecast which aims to monitor the University’s performance against the approved budget (top-down process). This is reported on a regular basis to Council (and it's relevant committees).

Are available on demand on relevant discussion with Finance Business Partners and also aimed to be circulated to budget units at frequent intervals in line with reporting timeline set by Council (and its relevant Committee). All budget units are required to analyse their most recent year end forecast reports. It is the responsibility of budget managers to conduct variance analysis with Finance Business Partners and provide comments highlighting any major change to the forecast from the budget. However, more importantly it is necessary to develop any cost mitigating plans should any budget overspends be expected.

The following principles underpin the development of the budget:

Each Portfolio or School, (also referred to as a cost centre) for both operating and research activities (where applicable) must prepare an annual budget in line with the guidelines set by the Finance Directorate.

Budget units will be required to control spending within the limits of the approved budget. Commercial areas are required to operate to achieve an agreed contribution margin. Corporate and central areas, research areas and regional campuses are required to operate within their expenditure targets. Unless specific approval has been granted to overspend in a given year, all areas are not allowed to spend more than their agreed budget. Expenditure from carried forward balances is to be identified within the budget submission so that appropriate approval for such expenditure may be sought.

The operating budget consists of the following main funding streams:

The research budget includes grants and contracts for special research projects, generally external agreements with the University. The annual budget also includes University-wide activities such as any University initiatives, investment income, operating capital expenditure and scholarships.

A significant grant received by the University is the CGS. The authority for the provision of the CGS is covered under sections 30-25 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 Act. Section 30-28 of the Act requires that a copy of each funding agreement is published on the Departmental website. The CGS provides funding to eligible Higher Education providers for students enrolling in bachelor's degrees and other Higher Education courses of study ‘designated’ by the Minister for Tertiary Education.

Public universities determine the number of students they enrol in Commonwealth courses and receive funding for these places up to University’s maximum grant allocations.

The University prepares its Annual Financial Statements and management reports on a full accrual accounting basis and in accordance with the Financial Management Act 1994, the Higher Education Support Act 2003, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012, and relevant Australian and International Accounting Standards.

Accrual accounting recognises events on a basis other than the timing of receipts and payments. It is designed to record the full cost of providing services e.g., Cost of utilising assets depreciation and staff resources (provision for Long Service Leave etc.) at the time of employment of those resources, not when cash transactions such as payment of Long Service Leave occur.

All budget units, in addition to budgeting for income and expenditure by the organisational unit are also required to budget by activity department codes (5 characters) for operating and activity project codes (6 characters) for research and other contractual activities.

The categories for operating and research activities are:

The main high-level categories of income and expenses within the chart of accounts are as follows:

The Planning and Budgeting Cycle is deemed to be a continual cycle. Budgeting and forecasting exercises are highly integrated. The budgeting process begins mid-year and finalised by the last quarter of the financial year. The cycle will ensure that during the course of the year, current year forecasting is reviewed. This will provide an indication on whether the existing budgets are providing satisfactory performance.

Budgets will invariably start to be developed early on in the cycle, however there are a certain number of unknown variables once the firm student numbers are known budget is then approved.

Regular updates in respect of student load plans are constantly reviewed throughout the budgetary and forecasting process and as a result of this budgets may need to be adjusted. When Census dates are finalised, the overall University Budget is reviewed to reflect whether there are any adjustments needed.

External research income is determined by analysis the pipeline of existing funding agreements and supplementing this amount with an estimate of research contracts and funding derived from historical application and success rate patterns. Estimation of the Research Block Grant is based on the research performance metrics of research income and mainly has two components – Research Support Program (RSP) and Research Training Program (RTP). Research activity is reflected in annual plans to ensure that the expense is factored into any budgetary plans. However, the income in respect of these projects may have been received in prior years, so it is necessary as part of the year end to ensure that appropriate carry forward requests are made. Approval from funding body is required if contract end dates are to be extended.

Salaries are built based on the resourced based allocation to support the agreed revenue and organisational work force planning activity. Due diligence is given to expected future vacancy management requirements, contract end dates, and in light of the strategic direction, constraints and demands. Budget is also prepared for casual and sessional employees on an activity level, and this is estimated based on the workload planner and the activities required to support university objectives.

When establishing non-salary expenditure budgets, appropriate regard will need to be made for non-salary related expenditure. Particular focus is given on known contracts, price/contract changes, activity level changes, CPI uplifts and savings opportunities.

There are a number of corporate items which will need to be budgeted at a corporate level. These items are those that cannot be attributed to a particular responsible budget officer and hence is considered to be better managed at the corporate level.

A corporate allowance is made each year in respect of Capital Items. Within this allocation is predominantly planned maintenance of works; however, there is a balance of monies available each year for capital investment.  For strategic investment funding, an appropriate investment concept brief and business case needs to be developed in line with the University’s Strategic Plan. All strategic investments are to be submitted to the Financial Planning and Analytics team as part of the budget cycle for reviewing the University’s strategic capital planning and funding requirements and prioritising investments in accordance with the needs and priorities of the University.

The Budget Timetable will be released annually, outlining appropriate budget targets.

Financial forecasts are reviewed on a monthly basis and at key reporting dates at the consolidated University level. All budget units are expected to provide information on all areas in respect of activity across all areas including Commercial areas, Corporate and Central areas, Research and Regional campuses.

A financial forecast should be based on all available information at the time of preparation, including historical data, commitments and expected income and expenditure.

Financial Planning and Analytics team together with budget units are required to prepare forecasts and monitor the University’s performance against the approved budget.

Management reports are sent out prior to meetings by Finance Business Partners. The reports provide a useful point of discussion, highlighting significant variances and form the basis of any corrective action steps required in order for the financial position to be improved. These are then reviewed with the budget managers and the forecasts amended as necessary. Explanations for major changes to the forecast should be provided. All of the key agreed KPI’s in the budget are monitored as well to make sure that the targets are on track and off-track items are reviewed for further corrective action plan.

Reporting and forecasting on the University’s operating position is undertaken on a monthly basis and reported to Senior Management with the latest available reports submitted to each Resources Committee meeting. It is essential that we receive information from business units in order to feed these forecasts to ensure that we are reflecting activity. The move towards a greater demand driven environment means that it is essential that regular forecasting and tracking is done to ensure that the organisation's financial position is not detrimented.

Budget variations should be minimal, and any significant variations will be reported through Senior Management to Resources Committee

The Finance Office is the primary cash handling area and also the liaison for identifying and working with all revenue collection points.

Deposits that are not directly taken to the bank or collected via armoured vehicle must be delivered to the relevant Finance Office at your Campus. The Finance Office will issue a receipt for the deposits received and revenue will be forwarded either directly to the bank or be collected via armoured vehicle on the arranged pick up days.

Where available and appropriate it is recommended that Closed Circuit Television cameras be installed to monitor cash counting operations.

Staff counting cash should ensure that:

The Finance Office is responsible for establishing the processes and each collection point Manager is responsible for the implementation of those processes. They are to ensure that no single individual is responsible for collection, handling, depositing and accounting (e.g.: General Ledger, Billing, AR) for cash received by that unit. At least two qualified individuals must be assigned to carry out key duties of the revenue handling process.

Revenue, cash and cash equivalent activity should be reconciled to the bank statements monthly by a nominated Finance officer. The reconciliation should be reviewed by someone independent of revenue and cash handling or recording functions.

The following responsibilities should be distributed among personnel so one person is not responsible for all aspects:

Where practicable, all inward mail, whether received by post or hand-delivered, will be opened in the presence of two staff members assigned for the purpose (one not responsible for any duty relating to the receipting of monies), preferably in a secure location.

If only one staff member is present, that person shall not be responsible for any duty relating to the receipting of monies.

Collection points are responsible for complying with the policies outlined. Each Point is responsible for developing processes for revenue, cash and cash equivalent collection under that revenue collection point control that identify:

Each individual who receives or has custody of university revenue, cash and cash equivalents must be held responsible for revenue cash and cash equivalents under his or her control.

The Finance Office is available for consultation and review of processes.

All forms of revenue, cash and cash equivalent should be physically protected through the use of safes, locked cash drawers, cash registers, etc.

It is the responsibility for each Revenue Collection Point Director, Manager or Supervisor to establish provisions and processes that ensure at all times:

Transfer of accountability must be recorded (name, date, time and amount) if the deposit is not being transported by the person preparing the deposit. Transport logs should be maintained for all units. All documents should be maintained in such a manner as to provide suitable audit trail for all transactions.

Advice is available from the Finance Section if required.

The primary duty of Authorised Collectors is to accept cash and other money on behalf of the University and to immediately acknowledge the amount by issuing an Official University Receipt.

Monies are only to be acknowledged on Official University Receipt and not on plain paper, paper bearing the University letterhead or blank receipt books such as those obtained from stationers.

Manual receipts issued must be retained by the Cashier in a manner similar to cash until they are returned to the Primary Revenue Collection Point.

A separate cash float must be established for each Revenue Collection Point, that have a cash requirement due to the nature of them being both a revenue collection area and student training facility All other revenue collection points run as cashless facilities.

An Authorised Collector must verify the cash float at the beginning of each business day, and at close of business each evening.

Multiple Collectors may, at the discretion of the Revenue Collection Point Supervisor, share one cash float as a group.

It is the joint responsibility of the group and individual Collectors within that group, to ensure these Processes and any other related processes are complied with.

In order for an individual to be able to collect cash they must have been approved using the Approved Collector of Revenue Nomination/Authorisation form

The University may perform police checks prior to employing cashiers or assigning regular cash handling and receipting responsibilities to an individual/s involved in other critical cash handling positions.

The University must seek an explanation for any reported felonies, misdemeanours, or judgements that were due to fraud related to cash, stocks, bonds or any other financial transactions before hiring or upon learning such information. Any individual with revenue collection responsibilities must continuously maintain a clear status. If an employee with revenue collection responsibilities is convicted of a crime, that conviction must be reported to the Human Resources area. If a revenue collection employee, loses this status his or her cash handling responsibilities must be terminated.

Each Dean, Director or Manager is responsible for establishing processes to safeguard campus cash handling activities, in accordance with the policies established. The Dean, Director or Manager may delegate responsibility for oversight of all revenue collection operations on the campus to a designated Revenue Collection Coordinator.

The Chief Financial Officer is responsible for implementing local processes to comply with the Academic Governance Policy and for establishing criteria for granting all variances from to these processes when verifiable mitigating controls exist.

Are responsible for:

Before undertaking any new cash and cash equivalent handling operation or activity, approval for the activity must be received from the Financial Controller.

Once the requirements have been established, the Finance Directorate will communicate to the new operation how this activity will be accounted for, and the process for controls to be developed.

All revenue collection points are unique and have different resources available to them. It is a requirement along with the guidance of the Finance Office to develop processes, takings summary forms and reconciliation forms etc that are relevant to their area.

To minimise customer inconvenience, providing alternative means of collecting money such as direct credit, EFTPOS, credit card, B-Pay, and the use of the services of Australia Post must be considered.

A complete list of alternative payment methods is maintained by Finance Section together with application details.

Each Revenue Collection Point must ensure that the total of cash held in the register at any one-time during business hours should not exceed $1,000.

To ensure this limit is not exceeded, Authorised Collectors and the Revenue Collection Point Managers/ Supervisors must monitor total cash holdings throughout each business day. Possible excess amounts should be identified as early as possible so that correct safe keeping arrangements can be implemented.

The Chief Financial Officer on the advice of Associate Director, Financial Operations may approve banking on a basis less frequent than daily, only under circumstances where daily banking is not practicable and adequate security of funds exists. Provided that monies shall not remain unbanked for a period exceeding five working days or that the banking of collections does not involve an interruption or a temporary suspension of service to customers.

Authorised Collectors must advise the Revenue Collection Point Manager/Supervisor immediately they become aware of a surplus or deficiency in their cash balance.

The initial investigation of cash discrepancies should be performed by the Authorised Collector under the direction of the Revenue Collection Point Manager/Supervisor.

All cash discrepancies must be documented by the appropriate area on a daily basis and documented with that day's activity.

Any discrepancies relating to Armaguard and greater than $20 or any breach of process leading to a discrepancy greater than $20 must be reported to the Associate Director, Financial Operations.

Unresolved discrepancies must be referred to the Associate Director, Financial Operations.

In all instances the Revenue Collection Reconciliation Discrepancy Report must be completed before the start of business on the business day immediately following the day the discrepancy was identified.

Cash held must be reconciled by the respective Authorised Collector at the close of each business day. Printouts from point-of-sale terminals must be used for this reconciliation.

Daily reconciliations may be delayed until the next business day but must be completed before the start of business on that subsequent day.

All discrepancies in the reconciliation must be reported to the Revenue Collection Point Manager/Supervisor immediately.

Daily reconciliations must be retained by the Revenue Collection Point Manager/Supervisor for verification by the University auditor or the Finance Section.

Daily reconciliations must be retained by the Revenue Collection Point Manager/Supervisor or the Finance Section for 7 years.

Daily reconciliations cannot be destroyed without the prior approval of the Chief Financial Officer.

The cash held by Authorised Collectors is subject to random verification at least once a week by the Revenue Collection Point Manager/Supervisor and to surprise audits by Finance Section and the University auditors.

The Revenue Collection Point Manager/Supervisor must countersign the reconciliation completed by the Authorised Collector after verification.

The total of all transactions passing through the Revenue Collection Point must be reconciled as at the close of each business day. If a point-of-sale terminal issues such printouts these may be used for this reconciliation.

Under no circumstances are Authorised Collectors to:

make payments or transfers on behalf of the University or to subsequently record the transactions in the University's books of account except through Campus Solutions, myFinance or other software approved by the Chief Financial Officer for use by Revenue Collection Points; and Prepare bank deposit slips or to carry out banking duties.

The use of EFTPOS as a means of accepting payment of debts due to the University has been approved by

Council (09.08.96), including payment of student fees, student loans and student residential rent (23.06.99).

EFTPOS terminals are to be operated only at official Revenue Collection points of the University.

Official revenue collection points will be determined by the Chief Financial Officer, Associate Director, Financial Operations or their nominated delegate.

Cash out facilities are restricted to a maximum amount of $50.00 in association with a minimum purchase/payment of $5.00.

Individual collection points with EFTPOS facilities may elect not to make cash out facilities available.

Election of a non-cash out facility must be reported to Associate Director, Financial Operations or their nominated delegate.

The maximum single transaction value available via EFTPOS facilities is $9,999.00.

The following facts must be considered when deliberating whether to approve a request for designation as a new campus Merchant:

Does the Unit have access to:

The University is authorised to accept payments via EFTPOS terminals utilising Bankcard, Visa Card, Master Card, American Express (AMEX) at Mt Helen Campus only and Debit Cards issued on all Australian registered banks, Credit Unions, Credit Co-operatives.

Payments via EFTPOS can be made for all debt types due to the University, including, but not limited to, student fees, student loans (HE & TAFE), student residential rental and debtors invoices.

Revenue collection points with EFTPOS facilities which have Campus Solutions (CS) receipting capability, must reconcile takings (cash, cheque and EFTPOS) to department receipting batch(s) on a daily basis and transfer to a Primary Revenue Collection point or bank cash and cheques on a daily basis.

Revenue collection points with CS receipting must provide reconciliations of cash collected, including EFTPOS activity, on a daily basis to Finance Office – Mt Helen.

The reporting must be in the form of a CS Department Receipt Transaction Summary Report.

This report must be transmitted by facsimile or mailed for each ordinary trading day and transmitted by facsimile for the last trading day of the month.

Collections points with EFTPOS facilities which do not have CS Department receipt capabilities must deliver EFTPOS trading details on a daily basis to their Campus primary revenue collection point.

The reporting must be in the form of an official Financial Operations Revenue Collection reconciliation form relating to the collection point. (See your Finance campus contact for these.)

The report must be provided on a daily basis along with any cash and cheques to be banked in relation to the same trading period the EFTPOS covers and include a reconciliation of all receipts taken for the period.

To be compliant with the Payment Credit Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) Procedures the University has identified and specified a requirement to disallow students to create a payment profile and store credit card details in PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. The removal of payment profiles does not distract from the students ability to make credit card payment in PeopleSoft Campus Solutions.

Student credit card details will not be stored in PeopleSoft Campus Solutions.

The ANZ eGate Merchant Hosted Gateway allows the student to enter their credit card details and payment amount into PeopleSoft Self Service Electronic Payments. These details are transmitted to an ANZ eGate Payment Server in the background. ANZ eGate connects with the Merchant, i.e., AMEX, VISA or Mastercard and processes the student request for payment successfully or declines the payment and transmits the results back to ANZ eGate.

The ANZ eGate Payment Server transmits the response back to the University server which then displays the result to the student in PeopleSoft Self Service Electronic Payments page. The response tells the student if the credit card payment is successful or declined by the Merchant. The student records the payment details and has the option to make another payment, select another self-service link or close the webpage.

The transaction Payment Reference Number is the references number of the credit card transaction processed by ANZ eGate and transmitted back to PeopleSoft Campus Solutions payment result. The credit card transaction number is used as a reference by the student or administrative staff.

As the payment profiles functionality has been removed this disallows a student to save credit card details on their profile, so they will be required to enter their credit card details each time.

Manual credit/debit card information must be completed on a credit card authorisation form. These can be received via email or fax. Once a manually completed credit card authorisation transaction has been processed and receipted:

Over the Phone Credit/Debit Card Data must be completed on a credit/debit card telephone authorisation form.  This form of payment may only be collected by an Approved Collector of revenue with prior authorisation from the Associate Director, Financial Operations.

The credit/debit card authority is processed at the time of the call. Card number, amount, expiry date and CVV number are manually entered into EFTPOS terminal. The transaction is either approved or declined.

Approved transaction receipts are then receipted into the CS receipting function and copies forwarded to the client; no recording of credit/debit card details are kept. Once completed the authorisation is destroyed immediately by being placed into a locked secure confidential destruction bin.

Declined transactions are referred to the client and further action is required as per the common errors and actions for merchants listing. If the transaction continues to decline and the transaction cannot be completed the authorisation is destroyed immediately by being placed into a locked secure confidential destruction bin.

Primary and secondary revenue collection points must not receipt through the finance system foreign currency in the form of notes and coins, cheques or drafts at time of receiving. The reason for this is a university receipt must be raised in Australian Dollars (AUD) and at the point of collection this is unknown.

Proceeds of foreign currency will be receipted into the myFinance system from the bank statements once the conversion to AUD has occurred. This process will be performed by the Primary revenue collection point at Mt Helen Finance office.

Processing Notes Receipting & Depositing Foreign currency work instruction.

As a Public Sector Agency, the University must have as few banking institutions and bank accounts as practicable. The number of bank accounts and institutions used for banking should be reviewed at least annually by the Chief Financial Officer.

The rationale for the number of bank accounts should be reviewed on the basis of: Efficiency, cost and risk.

Audit bank confirmation requests will be undertaken on a timely basis for all bank accounts as directed by the University's external auditors.

Bank accounts shall only be opened with express written authorisation in accordance with the Delegations - Contract, Financial, Staffing and Tender Procedure and must be reported to Finance Committee.

The Financial Controller can sign all official bank forms (including Master Authority), on behalf of the University, to affect Finance Committee approved additions and modifications to university bank accounts.

The University holds a number of bank accounts that are automatically swept into the University’s operating account daily, whilst these accounts are not formally reconciled the underlying transactions are reconciled as part of the reconciliation process undertaken on the accounts where the funds are ultimately deposited. The University’s Operating account is reconciled on a monthly basis.

There shall be at least two signatories to every bank account. All account withdrawals and transfers require the authorisation of at least two signatories with delegation in accordance with the Delegations - Contract, Financial, Staffing and Tender Procedure.

Deposits should be recorded online using Campus Solutions Department Receipts, Campus Solutions Student Payment Receipts and myFinance Express Deposits and Cash Drawer Functions.

The manual receipt book function is to be used in emergency situations or for forwarding information to the main cashiering office.

Money should be deposited promptly and Intact to the primary revenue collection point. Cashing cheques from university deposits, borrowing cash for personal use, lapping receipts to cover shortages in cash receipts, withholding cheques for deposit in order to float cheques, the pooling of personal and University funds, and modification of cash records are all serious offences and may result in immediate dismissal from employment and/or prosecution.

Files are extracted by a nominated Finance Officer they are then processed via the Express Deposit function in myFinance. Each file is created with a unique deposit id generated by the system.

The ANZ Bank will provide a Credit Card Payment Report that will be downloaded by a nominated Student Finance Administrator each day from the ANZ Bank site.

The reports details will be delivered by the ANZ Bank and reconciled against the University bank account.

Funds receipted into the Debtors Clearing account are swept night by the bank into the Disbursements bank account. A nominated Finance Officer then processes via the Express Deposit function in myFinance. Each deposit is created with a unique deposit id made up of alpha and numeric code e.g.: Mt Helen Debtors clearing (MDC) and then the date: dd/mm/yy.

Funds receipted directly into the Disbursements bank account. A nominated Finance Officer then processes via the Express Deposit Function in myFinance. Each deposit is created with a system generated receipts batch name/ identifier to be overridden with an alpha-numeric batch name, the batch name should be a copy or abbreviation of the bank statement reference.

Funds receipted to Disbursements bank account. A nominated Finance Officer then processes via the Express Deposit function in myFinance. Each deposit is created with a unique receipts batch name/identifier with an alphanumeric batch name = 10005_ddmmyy

Note: It is very important for the underscore character_ to be used in this referencing as it makes the reference an alpha-numeric reference rather than a numeric reference. If the reference is made to be a numeric reference, then myFinance uses the reference as the starting point to auto generate sequential batch references.

Letters of dishonoured payments are received from the bank to the Finance Office. A nominated Finance Officer investigates as to who and where the original payment was processed. The officer will process a reversing journal to where the original payment went too. They will then forward a copy of the dishonour notice to the Portfolio/ School for follow up so funds can be re received.

Letters of rejected EFT payments are received from the bank to the Finance Office. A nominated Finance Officer investigates as to who and where the original payment was processed. The officer will process a credit journal to the AP suspense account (7005). They will then forward a copy of the rejection notice to the Portfolio/School for follow up e.g.: Payroll to HR, Schools Experience to Finance etc. The Portfolio/School will contact the client and confirm their correct bank details by email, letter etc and raise a new EFT requisition for with the correct details for Finance to process.

University staff must ensure that the supply of goods and services achieves the best economic outcome for the University and is aligned to University strategies.

Other factors to also consider:

Ensure that proper accounts and records are maintained for each debtor of the University Promptly bring all debtors to account in the accounting records of the University; and instigate debt recovery processes if the debt is not paid within the University’s normal terms of trade.

Credit risk arises when a service/good is provided before payment is received. Credit risk must be managed for all transactions.

The University must have the capacity to meet its commitments. The risk of non-completion must be understood, reduced and managed appropriately.

Non-compliance may result in unnecessary loss, and/or failure to comply with financial management processes and external legislation.

All University invoicing must be completed accurately and on a timely basis and within the University’s receipting and accounting systems to avoid delays and losses in income for services and goods provided.

All income credited to the University are University funds. Funds are to be used for University business purposes only.

The Chief Financial Officer, Financial Controller or nominated person is responsible for managing all relationships with organisations that provide banking services to the University. Opening and closing accounts when requested by authorised campus employees and maintaining an inventory of authorised University bank accounts.

Provides relevant and appropriate information to insurance carriers concerning University cashiering practices and processes.

Responsible for:

As the Document Owner is responsible for maintaining the content of this manual as delegated by the Chief Financial Officer.