We Are CUFO

Department: Finance | Time at CUFO: 11 months
Job Function: Supporting the back-end financial management that allows Columbia Residential to bring in new tenants, renew continuing student leases, or manage vacancies in students housing.
Tim on working at CUFO: “I really appreciate the opportunity to learn as much as possible. At this role within CUFO, they're always offering you opportunities to just be better.” 

How long have you worked at Columbia, and what is your role within Facilities and Operations? 

Tim Cheng: I have been working here for around 11 months, so it has been a little bit under a year. I work in the Residential Finance department as their Finance Coordinator and feel lucky to have found this role.

 What does your day to day typically look like? 

Tim: I'm still learning certain responsibilities, but I would break up our work into two classifications. Some of our work are our cyclical processes, and the rest consists of ad hoc projects that we undertake as necessary. A big focus recently is report creation and perfecting our PNL (Profits and Loss statement). 

On the day-to-day, we do a lot of the back-end financial management that allows Columbia Residential to process leases for new tenants, renewals for continuing students, and manage vacancies in students housing. We also do a considerable amount invoice approvals. These invoices range from operational expenses like repairs and maintenance, IT subscriptions, consultants, and contractual obligations. We check each of these invoices for discrepancies before we approve. 

Every month, quarter, and year end we do journal uploads to allocate or accrue certain expenses that come in. This is for recording purposes to ensure accuracy in our books and to allow us to make better analysis of trends and our current spending habits.

What's your favorite part about your job and why? 

Tim: I really appreciate the opportunity to learn as much as possible. At this role within CUFO, I realized that communication and relationships are a big part of the job. I quickly found that they're always offering you opportunities to just be better. Coming into this role, especially as my first job post-grad, I was scared that I would struggle finding mentorship. When I got here and I started talking to people, it is clear that our colleagues are always offering to help out. Or, if you need something, they won't bat an eye.

What has been your biggest accomplishment while working here?

Tim: I would describe it as a group accomplishment because I feel like together my team has overcome a lot of adversity, specifically because two of us are new entirely to Columbia and one just switched over to our department. 

At the point that we are in right now, as a team, we've learned a lot and we understand what we could do better and the steps that we need to take in order to get there. 

I also like looking at the small accomplishments. Each project or new report that I'm able to get out helps me to have a better understanding of our processes and hopefully allows our colleagues to make informed decisions and make their job just a tad easier.

What does Belonging and Engagement mean to you?

Tim: Having a form of community and having each other's backs, being friendly. It's been something that's always been important to me when I was deciding where to work. I had always hoped that I would have people that I could rely on and hang out with. I wanted a place where I could talk with and have people around me that weren’t just coworkers. The better we are or the closer we are together not only makes the job easier but also adds to the feeling of pride and fulfillment in a job well done.