Cassandra Rayne Gross Email & Phone Number

Honolulu, Hi, Us

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

I'm responsible for leading a growing, dynamic private university's business and finance operations with a direct impact on P&L and cash flow. My mission is to support all aspects of the university's success through efficient and effective business, accounting, and related activities.

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Serve as head of the university's bursar functions. Accomplishments I'm proud to have led: - Improved the tuition and fee assessment algorithm: enhanced accuracy, increased consistency, and directed additional automation to reduce time-consuming and error-prone manual corrections. Led the development and roll-out of an accurate tuition audit model. - Pitched, obtained buy‐in, and successfully rolled out moving financial hold placement earlier in the semester, resulting in 26% fewer students experiencing registration holds year-over-year, promoting retention. - Designed and directed the accurate calculation of a new metric to disambiguate student payment activity from financial aid in real-time for agile decision-making. Year over year, improved the ratio of payments received against student balances as of the first week of classes by over 20%.- Reduced the ratio of Bad Debt Expense to Net Tuition by 46% compared to the last pre-COVID year after resuming collections activities paused due to the pandemic. - Developed a deepening understanding and knowledge of student service concerns, financial obstacles and best practices within the bursar's office, ERP and payment system functionality, university accounting structure, and the annual audit and budget cycle.- Overhauled communication with incoming students through various channels from websites to orientation, ensuring materials are relevant, timely, and voiced in a way that is accessible to the new generation of students and families. - Reduced turnover and prioritized retention of talent while emphasizing the importance of evaluating processes and implementing change. Assessed resource allocation and results against peer benchmarks to drive investments and priorities.

Florida, United States

Directed the Cash Management, Banking, and Revenue Accounting section of the Controller’s Office. Responsible for Cash Management and Banking services including oversight of the university’s daily cash position, short-term investments, debt service payments, and maintaining systems to effectively reconcile university bank accounts and revenue accounting services including processing of departmental deposits and auxiliary accounts receivable and billing.

Managed non-student billing and accounts receivable within the Controller's Office. Completed phased implementation of centralized AR/Billing ERP solution to 125+ unique auxiliary departments within the university. Beginning March 2020, oversaw revenue accounting/deposit accounting team responsible for accurately accounting for university deposits.

Accomplished objectives of the university’s newly-created auxiliary (non-student) shared-services accounts receivable and billing department. Established financial and productivity goals for area. Supervised communication with internal and external customers. Implemented improvements in business processes by benchmarking best practices and continuously building technical knowledge of system capabilities. Advised and trained users. Led team growth from one to five full-time positions. Serve as Project Lead for the Auxiliary AR/Billing project, an enterprise-level implementation with university-wide impact. Actively participated in the design of the award-winning solution. Initiate, plan, coordinate, and execute project tasks ranging from requirements gathering and scope confirmation to configuration, modifications, and post-go-live training. Gain and apply in-depth knowledge of ORACLE PeopleSoft modules including Accounts Receivable, Billing, Contracts, Accounts Payable, and Procurement.Perform analysis, reporting, forecasting, and transaction oversight for university business entities.

College Of Fine Arts / University Business Administrators

Prepared reports and remarks to inform Dean’s interactions with university leadership, administration, faculty, staff, students, donors, and members of the public. Conducted financial and administrative research and analysis to support long-range decision making.Analyzed, reported, and forecasted Dean’s budget, including faculty and staff position funding. Monitored departmental budgets and coordinated transfers of funds to departments. Coordinated college leadership and staff to implement Dean’s initiatives, programs, and policies.

Tallahassee, Fl

Managed operations of the Dean’s Office, ensuring goals and directives of the Dean were met.Drafted reports from promotion and tenure letters to budget requests and accreditation updates. Supervised the execution of events. Coordinated key communications and outreach efforts. Participated in interactions with donors.Implemented new college-wide fiscal officers meetings. Developed and co-led new university-wide administrative staff meetings to share information and best practices. Improved and documented business processes in all areas of responsibility.

Tallahassee, Florida Area

Completed fiscal & human resources transactions. Created tailored reports for leadership. Reviewed expenses for compliance.

Mba, Business Administration

Bs, Business & Hospitality

Activities and Societies: Eta Sigma Delta Honor SocietySumma Cum Laude Jane Zucknik Morgan Scholarship Recipient Jay Abraham Scholarship.