Although institutional researchers devote a great deal of time mining and using student data to fulfill mandatory federal and state reports and analyze institutional effectiveness, financial and personnel information is also necessary for such endeavors. In this article, the authors discuss the challenges that arise from extracting data from administrative systems, negotiating the administrative process that manages these data, addressing compliance issues, and avoiding common pitfalls while working with personnel and financial data. They articulate the importance of institutional researchers' knowledge of business processes in relation to personnel and finance data in order to interpret the meaning of data accurately. In addition, common reports and surveys that involve personnel and financial data are summarized. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)