Getting to Know VPF

Who we are

The Office of the Vice President for Finance (VPF) works to advance MIT’s mission by supporting thoughtful stewardship and effective deployment of the Institute’s financial resources. VPF oversees the operations needed to pay MIT's employees and enables them to purchase goods and services for MIT business. VPF also coordinates the Institute’s annual budget process and helps the MIT community make thoughtful decisions about allocating resources by collecting and reporting financial data. VPF is an administrative unit of the Office of the Executive Vice President and Treasurer.
 

How we work

• We solve problems. VPF is a highly collaborative, customer service-focused organization. Our teams work with you on routine day-to-day tasks and can help solve problems as they come up. When you send an email to a specific business unit address, our teams respond quickly to all messages and will work with you until your question or issue is resolved.
   
• We take calls. Sometimes it is easier to solve something by picking up the phone. Call us. Get to know us. We are always happy to sort out a problem by having a conversation with you.
   
• We welcome visitors. Our VPF Reception and Service Desk at NE49-3000 is open. You can drop in to resolve an issue, pick up or drop off forms, or check with us about a payment Monday-Friday 9 am - 5 pm. In addition, HR/Payroll staff are on hand at the Atlas Service Center (E17) to help international students, faculty, researchers, and staff determine their U.S. tax status and complete required forms. Drop in on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 4:30 pm or call 617-253-2799 to set up an appointment.
• We provide training. We offer online, drop-in, and classroom-based training sessions on a range of topics relating to sourcing, contracting, buying, paying, travel expenses reporting, and overall financial and accounting practices. We can set up a custom training session in your area to address topics that fall outside of the regular training offerings. No training session topic is too small or too complicated for us to consider. If we can help you and your team, we will.
   
• We do more than transactions. VPF finance experts will partner with you on matters of strategy, growth, global operations, budget development, the finance implications for new areas of business, or new and innovative ways your department, lab, or center is working to advance education and research on campus or around the world.
   
• We want to hear from you. If you have ideas on how to expedite, simplify, or reinvent financial functions, let us know. The VPF Finance and Administrative Services team maintains an ongoing dialogue with the MIT community to help set priorities for improving financial processes. The team engages business units within VPF with central administrative partners to streamline functions that cut across multiple VPF business units. Reach out to with your feedback and ideas.
   

The VPF website — your online guide to finance at MIT

• The VPF website provides you with the how and why of finance at MIT. You can get to Atlas—MIT’s self-service administrative systems hub—from any page on the VPF website, by clicking on the red banner on the top right. A list of the key platforms in use at VPF is available for your reference on the VPF Essentials page.  VPF by the Numbers provides a snapshot of our annual financial transactions.
• VPF’s task-based website is organized by six major topics and provides step-by-step instructions to carry out financial tasks associated with Buying and Paying; Travel Planning and Expensing; Payroll; Budget Management; Property, Tax, and Accounting; and Payments to MIT. Check out the Task Menu for a complete overview, and the corresponding Policy Menu.
• There are 19 business units within VPF. Check out the VPF Organization Chart for the big picture. You can find a short description of each unit’s work here, and a full Staff Directory here. When you search the Directory by business unit, you will find the unit leadership at the top of the list, followed by staff in alphabetical order. You can also search the entire Staff Directory by last name. If you are not sure who to contact, view Contact Us for a list of email addresses and key phone numbers.
• VPF is the publisher of record of the MIT Treasurer’s Report, a public document, and the Report of Sponsored Research Activity (known as “The Brown Book”), which requires an MIT certificate. The VPF Statement, a roundup of finance news of interest to the MIT community, is published twice per quarter. You can subscribe to the VPF Statement by sending an email to the VPF Communications Team. Past issues are archived on the Publications Page.