Greetings NACUBO Forum!
After spending time at SACUBO last week, one theme really stuck with me:
Research participant payments are often harder to manage than they need to be.
I had several conversations with higher ed finance and business office leaders where the process either sounded highly complex, with multiple departments, funding sources, approval paths, and reporting needs involved, or it worked because of a practical stop-gap solution that gets payments out the door but leaves gaps around reporting, reconciliation, audit readiness, and financial control.
That's the piece I keep coming back to.
It's not just about getting participants paid. It's about giving institutions a cleaner way to manage the full workflow while maintaining the visibility and oversight finance teams need.
As a NACUBO Business Partner, Virtual Incentives is gathering input from higher education finance, research, and procurement professionals on how research participant payments are being handled today, where the friction points are, and what would make the process easier to manage.
If this is something your institution touches, I'd really value your perspective. The survey will take less than 10 minutes and the data collected will be shared in the form of a report with participants and at the Virtual Incentives Booth at the NACUBO Annual Conference in Anaheim this summer!
Survey link: https://info.virtualincentives.com/higher-ed-survey
For those attending WACUBO this week, wishing you a successful and productive show. I hope the conversations continue around how institutions can modernize payment workflows while staying in control financially.
------------------------------
Zachary Jones
Business Development Manager
Virtual Incentives
------------------------------