On May 1, 2024, WUSA implemented a new online cheque filing system for all UW clubs which aimed to improve issues experienced with the old system, such as timeliness of reimbursement, workloads for club treasurers and the overall ease of submitting the request. 

The planning and development for this new system began back in fall 2023 and has aimed to completely transform the experience of submitting a cheque request from a time-consuming outdated process to a streamlined, one-stop, online experience. An initial feedback survey was sent out to club executives to find out what their grievances with the old system were. This feedback helped to re-imagine what this new system was going to look like. Arya Razmjoo, the Vice-President (VP) of WUSA, explained how important he knows clubs are to students at UW, and how this was one of the motivating factors behind launching this project.

“We’re investing more in clubs and societies than ever before now. In fact, I firmly believe it needs to be one of our biggest priorities because it’s such a student-facing thing. It’s the clubs for us. So, we’re very much pushing to get those investments in so we can grow that department, run more amazing events for you folks, give more money to clubs, offer more resources to them, and make your lives as easy and as efficient as we possibly can,” Razmjoo said. 

The old system involved a club treasurer or VP of finance handling and submitting all cheque requests that came through the club. A PDF of the cheque request form would have to be manually filled out for each request made in the club and would take five to 10 minutes per request if the claimant in the club had provided all the needed information. After submitting the request, the average time it would take to be reimbursed would be around four to six weeks. The club’s treasurer would be responsible for updating the claimants on the status of their requests.  

The new system has replaced manual, paper submissions with online forms which now allow students to submit these requests on their phones or laptops. The new form includes an auto-filled template to help cut down on the time it takes to complete the request. Additionally, a tracker is available on the WUSA site to ensure students are kept up to date with the progress of their cheque requests. 

While the main motivation behind this complete renovation of the old system is to help clubs and ensure a better experience for students, Razmjoo explained how this change also helps with the administrative, back-end of the process. Digitalizing the process not only cuts down on the time it takes for students but also for the WUSA accountants who have to fulfill the requests. This way, WUSA is now in a position to meet its goal of fulfilling requests in one to two weeks. Due to the hiring freeze currently still in effect at UW, this will help to cut down on the work for WUSA as they cannot rely on hiring new employees at this time. 

The new system was also developed in-house to avoid extra expenses going to a third-party contractor involved in its creation and implementation. The money that was saved is planned to be reinvested into other student-facing initiatives. Creating the website in-house did slow the creation process but Razmjoo hopes that in doing it this way, WUSA will be able to continue to build off of it in the future and better the students’ and clubs’ experience in the coming semesters and years.

Now the new system has been available to clubs for nine months, the general feedback has been mostly positive. On the feedback WUSA has received, they released a statement saying, “Generally, our Clubs Team has heard from students that they prefer the new system, as it is more streamlined, accessible, and easier to use.” 

Enoch Tin, a third-year student and treasurer of the Fashion for Change club, discussed how positive his experience has been with the new system. He explained how his workload has been significantly decreased in this department as the new system is designed so that anyone in the club can submit their own cheque requests. Treasurers would often have to act as the middleman in the old system which Tin described as inefficient and unnecessary. 

Tin explained how the auto-filled template was helpful to the club’s claimants who had less knowledge of the system and what information was needed. 

“It diverts the responsibility of collecting information from the treasurer to the claimant…people can fill it in, they will be clearly instructed what to provide… So, from my perspective, I only have to review them, which most of the time is correct.” 

While much of the feedback has been all positive there have been some criticism of the new system. Tanraj Dulai, a third-year student and president of the UW Model UN club, explained how his experience did not live up to the expectations given by WUSA. His main criticism stemmed from the time it would take for reimbursement. While some clubs seemed to be benefitting from the shorter wait time for the requests to be processed, it seems not every club has found the new system to be any faster than the old.

Dulai said that having to wait up to a month to be reimbursed makes it difficult for clubs to plan events in the future as they are unsure of when they will have the funds to do so. He also discussed how if the wrong information is submitted, or there is a document that is missing, they will not be informed promptly.

“It kind of takes a long time for them to get back to me. Sometimes it takes multiple weeks or a month, and simply the receipts don’t last that long,” Dulai said.

Dulai also mentioned how the new system seems more impersonal than the old one. He explained how going in person to speak with someone at WUSA made his request or issue feel less like a number on a website and more personal. Dulai described how he felt going in person provided a greater sense of urgency for WUSA to attend to the issue than an online request.

Further criticism was brought up during the WUSA election period in Samir Sharma’s campaign for director. He explained that in his own experience being the treasurer of the Computer Science Club, and in talking to other clubs, he has also found that reimbursement can still take as long as four weeks.

Sharma explained how he thinks that there needs to be better communication between WUSA and the clubs in regard to the timeline of being reimbursed and also the process of submitting the cheque requests. 

“They should be communicating more, and maybe they should be sending follow-ups and timelines and estimates… I personally like the idea of emails,” Sharma said. “I feel like we should be getting higher quality service for the fees we pay compared to other Ontario universities.”

He feels WUSA staff may be part of the issue when it comes to the time it takes for clubs to receive reimbursement. 

“The way WUSA is currently operating with clubs, from what I’m aware, they have one full-time and one staff to handle all the clubs, over 100 of them… The amount of time it takes to file stuff with them is enormously long. You can wait weeks if not months to get stuff back to you in public communication,” Sharma explained.

When asked if WUSA had a response to any current criticism of the new system they released a statement saying “We are continuing to refine and improve the cheque request process, which was launched less than a year ago, and has been in place for only two full terms. Our long-term goal is to make cheque reimbursements faster and easier for students. Although the new system may seem impersonal, these steps were necessary to implement to improve efficiency.”