Monthly Reconciliation Policy » PHHP Resources » College of Public Health and Health Professions

POLICY NAME: Monthly Reconciliation Policy
EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2023
Revision Date: October 9, 2023
PURPOSE
To provide best practices to complete the monthly financial reconciliation and review process. The
Departmental Ledgers reconciliation and review is a key fiscal management control ensuring University
financial transactions are accurate, allowable, and complete.

TRAINING AND COMMUNICATION REQUIREMENTS: PST130
Individuals responsible for completing any portion of the monthly reconciliation process should
complete the university’s PST130 Reconciliation for Tier 1 training course and be subscribed to the
UFACC listserv. This listserv alerts subscribers when the Monthly Financial Reports (departmental
ledgers), the reports needed to complete the reconciliation and review process, are updated each
month. All Tier 2 and 3 reviewers must complete the university’s CFO400 Fiscal Responsibilities for
Leaders.

ROLES: The monthly reconciliation process will require a three-tier review.

TIER 1 – An employee within a department or college administration that will collect and save
the transaction detail report from enterprise reporting and reconcile. This employee must
not be engaged in both procurement and disbursement activities within the department or
serve as the tier 2 or tier 3 reviewer. This employee may however provide fiscal support for
procurement or disbursement and serve as the tier 1 reconciler. In most instances for our
college, tier 1 reconciliation will be provided by a member of the College’s Fiscal Team.
TIER 2 – Department and Research Administrators are responsible for reviewing the Tier 1
reconciliation, assessing each transaction to ensure its accuracy, verifying that all expected
transactions are charged or credited correctly and matching transactions with supporting
source documentation.
a. Department Administrators serve as Tier 2 Reviewer and Approver for all funds,
except 201, 209, 212 and 214.
b. Research Administrators serve as Tier 2 Reviewer and Approver for all 201 and 209
funds.
TIER 3 – College level Directors and/or the Executive Director will review and approve
the reconciliation.

The final approval should be performed by the Vice President, Dean, Director, or Department
Chair, who should document the approval.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Tier 1
- a. Obtain and save the Transaction Detail Report (MyUFL>Enterprise Analytics> Team Content>Financial Information>Comprehensive Transaction Detail)), usually ready by the 5th business day of the month, to the college’s reconciliation share drive in the corresponding departments folder.
- b. Review and Reconcile the Transaction Detail Report (operating expense portions
  only) to source documents and verify information for accuracy. Transactions on each
  report should be reviewed for the following:
  - i. Correct posting and/or Chartfield
  - ii. Unusual dollar amounts
  - iii. Appropriateness of the transaction
  - iv. Duplicate payments (repetitive dollar amounts, multiple payments to the
    same vendor, duplicate invoice numbers, etc.)
  - v. Unfamiliar vendor/payee names
  - vi. Unusual, unallowable, or incorrect account codes or types of expenditures
    e.g., a federal grant that does not allow foreign travel.
  - vii. Unusual purchase order numbers that may not belong to your department.
  - viii. Unauthorized cardholders for purchasing card transactions and
    appropriateness of purchasing card transactions.
  - ix. All journal entry transactions must have supporting documentation stored as
    part of the journal entry in myUFL, such as source documents, and/or items
    necessary to substantiate the accuracy and appropriateness of a journal
    entry. Typical supporting documentation should include general ledger
    reports, related e-mails, worksheets, etc.
  - To facilitate efficient and effective monthly fund reconciliations, the source or
    supporting documentation for all operating expense transactions must:
    - Be saved in a single PDF in the appropriate department’s folder within the college’s reconciliation share drive by fiscal year and classified as nonresearch or research funds (201, 209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 275) using the following file naming conventions:
      - PCARD: Report number (6 digit # from UFGO detail report) Card Holder Last Name Vendor (Requestor) Amount Transaction Date YY.MM.DD_Optional Wildcard (Flex, Description, etc.)
        
        Example: N96RLZ_Royal Amazon (Virnig)_50.00_22.10.24
        
        Pcard expense report numbers can be gathered while processing the expense report in UFGO or by running the UFGO Vouchers Report from Enterprise Analytics via the Expense Report generated by UFGO.
      - Vouchers – Voucher#_Vendor (Requestor)_Amount Invoice Date YY.MM.DD_Optional Wildcard (PO#, Flex, Description, etc.)
        
        Example: V094586_Dell (Virnig)_1095.00_22-10-24
      - Expense Reports – *Report number (6 digit # from UFGO detail report) _Traveler/Payee Last Name_Amount_Expense Report Date YY-MM-DD_Optional Wildcard (Conference Acronym, Flex, etc.)
        
        Example: N96RLZ_Virnig_1050.75_22-10-24
      - Air Cards– Aircard_Report number (6 digit # from UFGO detail report) Last Name_Amount_Expense Report Date YY_MM_DD
        
        Example: Aircard_N96RLZ_Malin_492.80_23-05-08
        
        *Tier 1 may need to run the UFGO Voucher report to link/reconcile Air card L report numbers and expense reports.
      - Journals – JE#_Type (BT, E2E, or E2R) _Vendor/Recipient_Amount_Date YY-MM-DD
        
        Example: JE0123456789_E2R_UFIT$24.58_22-10-24
    - Include an itemized receipt/invoice.
    - Demonstrate confirmation of receipt of goods and/or services, e.g., packing slip or email (All packing slips for items purchased on research related dollars must be signed and dated by recipient)
    - Include the fully approved Purchasing Request with valid business/research purpose.
    - All documentation should be saved in the appropriate reconciliation folder at the time transaction is processed. If transaction was processed on another department’s funds, email full backup documents to that department fiscal immediately.
    - PCard Charges
      - In emergency situations, prior approval may be submitted after the purchase due to the critical and/or emergent nature of the purchase.
      - Travel PCard charges can include a copy of the travel authorization or expense report instead of a fully approved purchasing request.
    - Marketplace Payments
      - For vendors with selected expedited approval (SEA) status such as Fisher Scientific, Mr. Paper, Amazon etc., the myUFMarket request would serve as the invoice of record. These invoices may not be attainable from the Peoplesoft (myUFL) voucher attachment or link.
    - Travel Reports must include: UFGO Detail Report document, itemized receipts and conference agenda or email invitation for informal meetings, etc.
    - Journal Entry Corrections must include:
      - an approved UFF-PA form (for transactions involving foundation funds),
      - a fully approved Cost Transfer Form (for transactions being moved on to Sponsored projects),
      - supporting documentation from original transaction,
      - justification and approval for moving expense.
    - Honorariums must include the flyer announcement or email invitation
- c. Research, correct errors, and annotate discrepancies and corrective actions for the Tier 2 Reviewer.
- d. Document the completed Transaction Detail Report by noting the reviewer and the date of completed review in the monthly transaction detail review.
- e. Tier 1 reconciliation and review should be complete within 30 days of the Monthly Financial Report release.
- For details and examples of university best practices see pages 13-20 of the Guide to Complete the Monthly Financial Reports Reconciliation.
Tier 2
- a. Review Tier 1 reconciliation for accuracy utilizing the same process outlined in Tier 1. Reconcile.
  - i. There are 8 standard Monthly Financial Reports. These are the four essential
    reports for reconciliation.
    - 1. Transaction Detail (See Tier 1 for report navigation)
    - 2. Payroll Reconciliation Detail
    - 3. Appropriations Summary, Cash Summary, or PI Summary (as
      appropriate)
    - 4. Projected Payroll Detail
  - Each of these Monthly Financial Reports provides different information about your department’s monthly financial activities. Note: Dependent upon the business activity within your department, you may not have all these reports each month.
- b. Ensure all Tier 1 annotated discrepancies as well as any newly identified discrepancies are appropriately corrected.
- c. Document review and approval of all Monthly Financial Reports by noting the reviewer and the date of completed review on all required reports listed in (a) above.
- d. Tier 2 review and approvalshould be complete within 30 days of the Tier 1 review completion.
Tier 3
- a. A Tier 3 review of departmental activity should begin at a high level. Tier 3 should
  focus on unanticipated/unreasonable activity. An analytics report is available to
  assist in this process and can be found with the following navigation: Team
  Content>Financial Information>Tier 3 Reports>Financial Transaction Spot Check
- b. One of the purposes for the Tier 3 approval review is to look for unusual activity or
  balances by comparing actual data for different periods.
- c. Any inaccuracies (wrong account code, disputed Pcard charge, etc.) should be noted
  on the ledgers, investigated, and corrected (if needed) by Tier 1 and/or Tier 2.
- d. Salary and fringe expenses are typically the largest expense for a department, so
  payroll activity should be reviewed for accuracy.
- e. Document review and approval of all Monthly Financial Reports by noting the
  reviewer and the date of completed review on all required reconciliation reports.
- f. Tier 3 review and approvalshould be complete within 30 days of the Tier 2 review
  completion. The total timeline to complete all three levels of review should not
  exceed 90 days from the Monthly Financial Reports’ release.

Additional Resources:
Article Category: Tier 1 Resources – Finance & Accounting (ufl.edu)
Article Category: Tier 2 Resources – Finance & Accounting (ufl.edu)
Article Category: Tier 3 Resources – Finance & Accounting (ufl.edu)
Review-Your-Accounts-Guide-to-Completing-the-Monthly-Reconciliation.pdf (ufl.edu)