Summary
This case study highlights the direct TRAC expertise and support Account-Ability has provided to several Finance Directors and TRAC Steering Groups when institutions have lost their in-house TRAC capability.
A number of universities have approached Account-Ability after their TRAC Accountant has left unexpectedly, or when they were required to submit a TRAC Return for the first time. In many cases, the newly appointed staff member taking over responsibility lacked TRAC experience and inherited an out-of-date, difficult-to-understand spreadsheet model.
The immediate priority in these situations is often time-critical: to produce a compliant TRAC Return by the submission deadline, while also ensuring that the Steering Group understands and has confidence in the figures being submitted.
Account-Ability’s role was to implement a modern, sector-standard TRAC solution, train new staff, and provide hands-on support and expert guidance through to submission.
Clients
Account-Ability has supported institutions across TRAC Peer Groups B, C, D, E and F, including universities making their first TRAC submission and those needing urgent expert intervention following staff turnover.
Products & Services Supplied
- Account-Ability Sector Standard TRAC Solution (Cloud SaaS)
- Direct support and knowledge transfer to newly appointed TRAC Accountants
- Expert presentation and guidance to TRAC Steering Groups
- Support to Finance Directors, PVC-Research and Deputy Vice-Chancellors in agreeing TRAC figures
- Annual solution updates for changes in TRAC Guidance
How We Helped
The Challenge
The challenges faced by institutions in these circumstances were often multiple and interconnected, including:
- Sudden loss of internal TRAC expertise
- Legacy TRAC models that were outdated, impenetrable, and based on historic organisational structures
- Missing granularity in drivers, research sponsor categories and student funding classifications
- Lack of compliance with UKRI-required action plans
- TRAC results that were difficult to explain or questionable in credibility
- Severe time pressure to meet submission deadlines
- Poorly structured or insufficiently detailed source data
- A desire to use TRAC more effectively for internal decision-making, without a clear route to achieve this
Project Goals
Across these engagements, the universities’ priorities were to:
- Submit a compliant TRAC Return on time, confidently understood by the Steering Group
- Reduce future reliance on a single individual’s specialist knowledge
- Transfer TRAC expertise to university staff
- Adopt a best-practice, sector-standard TRAC approach
- Progressively spread ownership and use of TRAC data across Executive leadership and Heads of School
- Streamline the TRAC process for future years
Our Approach
These projects often began under extremely tight timelines, frequently starting as late as December or early January for submission at the end of January.
Account-Ability met these deadlines in almost all cases, with delays only occurring where clean source data could not be made available in time.
Our approach typically included:
- Rapid implementation of Account-Ability’s Sector Standard TRAC Solution
- Structuring available data and identifying where additional data was required (commonly space, FTE/pay and workload/TAS inputs)
- Building automated data import routines to improve efficiency now and in future cycles
- Balancing one year, and sometimes two years, of TRAC data
- Investigating anomalies and tracing issues back to underlying data weaknesses or legacy model errors
- Producing multiple versions of TRAC outputs using alternative driver weightings to test robustness
- Preparing clear reports explaining variances between old and new model results, typically driven by non-compliance in legacy spreadsheets
- Presenting findings and recommendations directly to TRAC Steering Groups for submission decisions
- Training the new TRAC Accountant and transferring operational expertise
Account-Ability brings over 26 years of TRAC experience, with more than 50 TRAC implementations across all peer groups, dating back to the original TRAC pilots.
Outcome & Benefits
In all cases, universities were able to successfully submit compliant TRAC Returns, with expert support provided both to Steering Groups and newly appointed TRAC Accountants.
Key benefits included:
- Timely, confident submission of compliant TRAC data
- Streamlined processes through a modern sector-standard solution
- Faster, more resource-efficient TRAC preparation
- Reduced dependence on a single specialist individual
- Future-proof annual updates aligned with evolving TRAC Guidance
- Enhanced internal reporting beyond compliance, enabling Heads of School to take ownership of TRAC information for management and decision-making
Client Testimonial
.png)
