My story of critical thinking and problem solving took place this summer during my internship with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. A new Chief Operations Officer had been appointed to the hospital division that I was working for, and he scheduled a meeting with me asking for a request.
He informed me that he was given a biweekly report filled with data comparing revenues to the budgeted numbers for the month. The report was satisfactory, but the COO wanted to more actively address variances that he was finding in the data, so he asked me if it was possible to create an automated report that would update itself daily and get sent to his e-mail in a more concise and readable format. I told him that it could be done but realized that I was going to have to use a lot of critical thinking skills and problem solving with various different software programs in order to create an automated report that could be delivered to the COO's inbox on a daily basis.
I first began by sorting through the old report and tailoring it to the COO's needs; this meant eliminating a lot of the data in the old report that was not needed. Next I needed to create a new format for that report that someone without a finance background could easily read and understand what the data was conveying. This required a lot of manipulation and restructuring of the old report.
Once I completed this portion of the assignment, I was tasked with populating the report's template I had made with the proper information. This required me pulling data from a database called Cognos and creating a report within Cognos (that had to be approved by Cognos Tech Support) that would automatically pull actual revenue data for the day by department and send it to my report. Once I pulled this data, I had to pull budgeted data from an excel spreadsheet that I created from scratch by spreading the monthly budget by day and populating my report with a V-lookup. This required a lot of critical thinking, as I had to come up with this solution and not simply follow instructions that were provided to produce a report. It was very rewarding because I knew that I was creating this report on my own and it was happening because of my problem solving skills.
The final product was a successful Outpatient Daily Revenue Report that enabled the COO to review critical data about the actual versus budgeted revenue figures each day by department for the hospital. He was very pleased with this report, and my colleagues continue to use it today.
By creating this report, I learned the importance of consolidating copious amounts of information down to the relevant pieces of data, and how to manipulate the data in such a format that any user can understand what the data is trying to communicate (a.k.a. why the data is relevant). I think that this would be very important for future employers to know in the Accounting profession, because it shows a great deal of initiative and the ability to deliver a useful product with limited knowledge prior to the project.
Going forward, I look forward to taking on projects and assignments at my internship and using my critical thinking and problem solving skills to achieve and overcome any challenges or hardships directed my way. In the future, however, I would like to work on this area by asking effective and efficient questions that enable me to complete my work, understand its relevance, and not rely on others in excess.
He informed me that he was given a biweekly report filled with data comparing revenues to the budgeted numbers for the month. The report was satisfactory, but the COO wanted to more actively address variances that he was finding in the data, so he asked me if it was possible to create an automated report that would update itself daily and get sent to his e-mail in a more concise and readable format. I told him that it could be done but realized that I was going to have to use a lot of critical thinking skills and problem solving with various different software programs in order to create an automated report that could be delivered to the COO's inbox on a daily basis.
I first began by sorting through the old report and tailoring it to the COO's needs; this meant eliminating a lot of the data in the old report that was not needed. Next I needed to create a new format for that report that someone without a finance background could easily read and understand what the data was conveying. This required a lot of manipulation and restructuring of the old report.
Once I completed this portion of the assignment, I was tasked with populating the report's template I had made with the proper information. This required me pulling data from a database called Cognos and creating a report within Cognos (that had to be approved by Cognos Tech Support) that would automatically pull actual revenue data for the day by department and send it to my report. Once I pulled this data, I had to pull budgeted data from an excel spreadsheet that I created from scratch by spreading the monthly budget by day and populating my report with a V-lookup. This required a lot of critical thinking, as I had to come up with this solution and not simply follow instructions that were provided to produce a report. It was very rewarding because I knew that I was creating this report on my own and it was happening because of my problem solving skills.
The final product was a successful Outpatient Daily Revenue Report that enabled the COO to review critical data about the actual versus budgeted revenue figures each day by department for the hospital. He was very pleased with this report, and my colleagues continue to use it today.
By creating this report, I learned the importance of consolidating copious amounts of information down to the relevant pieces of data, and how to manipulate the data in such a format that any user can understand what the data is trying to communicate (a.k.a. why the data is relevant). I think that this would be very important for future employers to know in the Accounting profession, because it shows a great deal of initiative and the ability to deliver a useful product with limited knowledge prior to the project.
Going forward, I look forward to taking on projects and assignments at my internship and using my critical thinking and problem solving skills to achieve and overcome any challenges or hardships directed my way. In the future, however, I would like to work on this area by asking effective and efficient questions that enable me to complete my work, understand its relevance, and not rely on others in excess.
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