Finance and Accounting - Financial Resource Management
Effectiveness and efficiency of operations
A. Duties are segregated appropriately.
- Is segregation of duties maintained between functions such as 1) confirmation processing, 2) settlement processing, 3) payment processing, 4) risk management and reconciliations, and 5) the accounting process?
Reliability of financial reporting
A. Investments held by custodial accounts are recorded completely and accurately.
- In an independent monthly reconciliation, are the custodian records compared to the general ledger? Are any discrepancies researched in a timely manner and corrections made as necessary?
B. Classification of sale of investment transactions as short-term or long-term gains or losses is correct.
- Are custodian records compared to University records to assess the correct classification of investment transactions as short-term or long-term gains or losses for each reporting period?
C. Investments are valued properly.
- Is the listing of investments held by the custodian reconciled to the general ledger each month? Are any discrepancies researched in a timely manner and corrections made as necessary?
- Are input documents separated into groups for batch totals before processing is complete and numerical totals calculated for the quantity of documents, dollar amount, and hash items? Are these totals compared to reports following inputs and updates, and all out-of-balance conditions researched and reentered in a timely manner?
- Is it required that personnel independent of the treasury and investment process compare adjustments to investment values to documentation provided by third-party pricing sources?
- Is management required to regularly compare the fair market valuation of held-to-maturity and available-for-sale securities to historical costs to identify any investments that are impaired more than temporarily? Are all unusual items researched and corrected as necessary?
D. Pricing sources used to value the investment portfolio are valid.
- Is management required to periodically review and approve the list of agencies used to price investments to ensure the list represents well-known and widely accepted pricing agencies?
E. University actions are recorded completely and accurately.
- Is the listing from the custodian compared to the listing from the outside reporting source in a one-to-one check? Are any discrepancies identified and resolved in a timely manner?
F. Approved general ledger adjustments are input for processing completely and accurately.
- Are reports following inputs and updates compared to the adjustment source documents, confirming completeness and accuracy in a one-to-one check of adjustments input into the system?
- In using batch totals, are input documents separated into groups and numerical totals calculated for the quantity of documents, dollar amount, and hash items? Are these totals compared to reports following inputs and updates and all out-of-balance conditions researched and reentered in a timely manner?
G. Approved changes to standing data are input for processing completely and accurately.
- Are reports following inputs and updates compared to the change source documents for completeness and accuracy in a one-to-one check of changes input to the system? Are discrepancies resolved and the reentered data subjected to the same control process?
- In using batch totals, are input documents separated into groups and numerical totals
calculated for the quantity of documents, dollar
amount, and hash items? Are these totals compared to reports following inputs and
updates? Are all out-of-balance conditions
researched and reentered in a timely manner?