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Best Practices in Internal Controls

Last Updated: May 12, 2025 9:50:26 AM PDT
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Learn about documenting your department's key control activities to detect and correct financial errors.

IMPORTANT: Click the link to read the Internal Controls Policy.

 

Internal Controls Policy Highlights

Background

The Regents of the University of California have adopted the principles of internal controls published by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission.

UC San Diego is committed to upholding the principles of internal controls published through COSO’s Internal Control – Integrated Framework.

In coordination with the University of California, Office of the President, UC San Diego develops campus-wide policies and procedures to ensure a system of internal control is maintained per policies established by the Board of Regents of the University of California and the University of California, Office of the President.

Why perform control activities

An internal control is an action your department takes to prevent and detect errors, omissions, or potentially fraudulent transactions in its financial statements. Your department should already have key financial review and follow-up activities in place. Ongoing monitoring activities and other planned actions to address risks result in an effective internal control system. This ensures sound business practices, which minimizes our risk of inaccurate financial information and maintains public trust.

To fulfill documentation requirements, departments should review those activities and identify key controls.

Be able to answer these questions:

  • What controls exist?
  • Are those controls working?
  • Are those control activities documented, properly performed, and reviewed?

Why documenting control activities is critical

  • All units are required to document their performance and certification of control activities.
  • A checklist has been developed to assist departments with documenting who performed and certified the control activities.  See the control activities section below for more information.
  • It provides documented evidence that internal control activities are performed regularly as prescribed by SAS 115.
  • Documentation must provide evidence of performance and demonstrate that review and corrective action were completed. Communications like emails, letters, chat messages, etc. can be part of the documentation to be saved.
  • Retention of documentation is necessary for audit purposes.
  • Documentation should be saved electronically, in a location determined by the department’s leadership, and accessible to authorized personnel.
  • If electronic sign-off is used, performers and certifiers should consider using electronic signature tools, like DocuSign, to document timeliness or review.

Responsibilities

  • Performer is an individual within the department responsible for creating and storing the underlying documentation of the internal controls review. A performer should not review or certify their work.
  • Certifier is an individual (i.e., department head, Department Business Officer, or Management Services Officer) within the department other than the performer. A certifier will verify that the control activities have been performed appropriately and within the prescribed accounting period.
  • Department Head establishes and delegates responsibilities to Department Administrators (i.e., the Performer and Certifier roles) within the department. Department heads are ultimately responsible for ensuring control activities have been completed. Contact Internal Controls & Accounting via Services and Support if you have questions about the delegation.
  • Department Administrators are responsible for ensuring that internal controls are established, properly documented, and maintained for activities within their jurisdiction and areas of responsibility.
  • Vice Chancellor offices should have jurisdiction over their departments and may have additional requirements for department administrators to follow.
  • Internal Controls & Accounting provides guidance and best practices for control activities (i.e., policies and procedures).
  • Audit and Management Advisory Services will have access to the documentation of control activities completed by departments, upon request.

Resolving internal control deficiencies

Department administrators and managers are responsible for prompt and effective corrective action on internal control findings and for implementing remediation or action plans as internal and external auditors recommend.

Internal Controls Checklist

A checklist has been developed to assist departments with documenting who performed and certified the control activities. Some control activities are required by University policy, and others can be optional as determined by the school or department's leadership.

Checklist for Best Practices in Internal Controls.

How to Get Help

How to get help

Checklist Best Practices

Best practices include the following items:

  • Download the checklist at least quarterly and when new updates are posted in the Weekly Digest.
    • A list of updates to the checklist is at the bottom of this Blink page.
  • Optional: delete rows that do not apply to the department to shorten the list of activities to perform.
    • If this option is used, maintain document to support this modification to the standard checklist.
  • Review resources and information on this Blink for each activity to understand requirements.
  • Focus on running monthly reports and summarize items to take action on later (within 60 days).
  • To distribute effort, perform quarterly activities throughout a calendar quarter. It is not advised to concentrate all of the work at once.
    • Quarterly activities can be performed more frequently if beneficial or required internally.
  • Some departments may have specific activities not listed within the checklist and are acceptable alternatives. If that is the case, please note the reason on the checklist.

Checklist Instructions

  1. Determine the control activities to be performed.
    1. Note: See the tab named "Example Activities by FinU" as an example of one method to determine the activities to perform for the department's financial units.
  2. Use the "Applicable?" column to identify whether or not the activities will be performed.
    1. For "No" responses, explain (they should align with "No" items from the Example tab as noted in Step 1).
  3. For Monthly activities, complete activities as required by your Department Administrators within 60 days after the final close of each accounting period.
    1. Ledger close dates are reported on Blink.
    2. Best practice: use KB0035082 to schedule Cognos reports for automatic monthly delivery.
    3. Note: Activities do not need to be done all at once and can be worked on at different times within the 60-day timeframe unless there is a specific requirement by formal policy.
    4. The best practice is to correct errors within 60 days of discovery.
    5. UC policies or campus policies can require certain activities to be done in less than 60 days after the accounting period closes, and those items have been noted on the checklist.
  4. For Quarterly activities, completion is done 4 times per fiscal year and can be done within 60 days after the quarter is finally closed.
    1. For example, the quarter ending in March and the final closed on 4/24 can be done by 6/23.
    2. Quarterly activities can be performed more frequently if the Department determines that frequency is appropriate for their operations, because Department sizes/needs vary and you may choose to do reviews more often.
    3. Activities do not need to be done all at once and can be worked on at different times within the 60-day timeframe unless there is a specific requirement by formal policy.
    4. The best practice is to correct errors within 60 days of discovery.
  5. Performer completes the checklist and signs off on activities completed.
    1. Note: Corrective action needs to be documented within the checklist, it can be documented elsewhere as required by Department Administrators. Refer to Resources To Review and Objectives & Risks (What To Do) columns for guidance.
  6. Certifiers will review the checklist and supporting documentation (i.e., downloaded reports, notes, testing results) and sign off that work has been performed.
  7. Communicate deficiencies to the Department Administrators for corrective action.
  8. Either the Performer or Certifier will store documentation in a designated and secure location electronically (for example, a shared network drive, Google Drive, or SharePoint site). Warning: Do not save to your personal computer.
    1. Note: The documentation needs to be easily retrievable by department personnel when requested by auditors.

Timeline of Checklist Changes

3/18/2025 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

Review the latest resources and information for best practices in internal controls.  Most importantly, the internal controls checklist has been updated so it is easier to use and focuses on higher priority activities to perform monthly and quarterly. The following changes have been made:

  • Removed the following activities:
    • Monthly - Review of Separated and Transferred list in the AccessLinkTNG
      • Reason to remove: this activity applied to affiliates only, and they are assigned expiration dates so it is not needed.
    • Monthly - Recharge Billing Summary
      • Reason to remove: This activity was not previously approved. It is better to remove it and decide later whether to add it. Alternatively, it can be added manually if needed by the department.
    • Annual - Review of Equipment Inventory Report
      • Reason to remove: this one can be included as part of the quarterly activities, if needed, or done biennially per UC policy.
    • Annual - Petty Cash/Change Funds Custodial Certification
      • Reason to remove: process is initiated by Financial Operations each year and can be completed as part of the quarterly verification count.
  • Cover Sheet tab changes:
    • Added column for additional info to note specific exceptions, such as which activities are optional for general projects.
    • Consolidated Exceptions Report is listed as one row instead of many.
    • Renamed credit card processing activity.
  • Removed other tabs from the workbook and left only the Cover Sheet tab.
    • Reasons for change:
      • All information (i.e., resources and instructions) on the activities have been published on Blink.
      • It is more efficient to work directly on the Cover Sheet.
        • Also, easier to communicate and see when changes are made.
      • Links to individual sections of Best Practices for Internal Controls Blink page are provided on Cover Sheet (column B).
      • Links to individual reports are provided on the Cover Sheet (column C).

 

1/28/2025 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

Equipment Management Activities and the Graduate Student Funding Report were moved to the Quarterly activities. Additionally, the activities for Recharge Units and Cost Share Reconciliation were moved to the Monthly Financial Reporting activities to eliminate the third Monthly tab in the checklist. Finally, the Instructions have been updated to explain that Quarterly activities can be performed more frequently if the Department determines that frequency is appropriate for their operations, because department sizes/needs vary, and they may choose to do reviews more often.

 

1/22/2025 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

The UCPath-Oracle Salary Reconciliation Report was moved from the Monthly As Needed activities to the Monthly Financial Reporting activities. This report identifies variances that need to be corrected on a monthly basis. As a reminder, The Default Project Payroll report is the best choice for reviewing corrections that need to be made to payroll posted to default project.

 

12/17/2024 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

As a result of the Department Exceptions Panorama Clean Up announced in last week’s digest, the internal controls checklist has been updated to reflect these changes.

 

9/17/2024 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

The checklist has been updated recently due to the Procure to Pay Panorama refresh announced in last week’s digest edition.  Also, the Budget & Finance User Group has endorsed the addition of the Award Project Task Personnel Report as a quarterly review activity for sponsored projects.

 

8/20/2024 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

The internal controls checklist has been updated to reflect the release of the new Consolidated Exceptions Report.

 

6/18/2024 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

Reminder: The internal controls checklist has been updated to reflect the feedback received from users.

 

6/11/2024 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

The internal controls checklist has been updated to reflect the feedback received from users.

 

4/16/2024 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

The internal controls checklist has been recently updated. Please refer to KB0033904 FAQ: Internal Controls Checklist for answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

 

3/5/2024 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

The Internal Controls Policy (PPM 300-15) has been fully approved and published in the Policy & Procedure Manual. The policy formally establishes responsibilities and procedures regarding internal controls for departments and is effective as of February 29, 2024.

Efforts to draft the policy originally started in the calendar year 2019. They continued with the publication of the Best Practices in Internal Controls on Blink in calendar year 2022 and into calendar year 2023. Along the way, there were several ways the document was reviewed and vetted, and updates were shared through the Weekly Digest. Also, the review and approval process involved many levels of campus leadership including the areas of Audit & Management Advisory Services (AMAS), legal, Budget & Finance User Group (BFG), Finance Governance, Controllers, CFOs, and the Chancellor’s Office.

Thank you to everyone who made contributions or supported the input process, provided feedback, asked questions, reviewed, and approved the policy.

Additionally, the internal controls checklist has been updated, and you can obtain a copy of the current checklist on Blink.

 

4/18/2023 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

Recently, it was discovered that the checklist for internal controls had broken links to Blink resources.  The issue has been resolved, so please be sure to download the latest version of the checklist from Blink.

 

2/28/2023 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

Over the past few months, the checklist for internal controls has been evolving as new reporting is made available to our University community.  Please be sure to download the latest version of the checklist from Blink.

 

6/21/2022 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

Internal Controls & Accounting is working to improve the internal controls guidance to our University community on Blink: Best Practices in Internal Controls.

The internal controls guidance includes a checklist with periodic control activities to be performed and certified by departments across the University. The checklist allows departments to document the control activities that have been completed by performers and certifiers, and it includes links to articles and Blink pages that provide instructions on how to run reports and what to look for during the review process.

The Budget & Finance User Group (BFG) has endorsed a soft launch of the checklist during the next fiscal year for testing and process improvement. In addition, a workgroup is being formed by Internal Controls & Accounting to vet the requirements and guidance for quality assurance, and ensure departments are performing the control activities appropriately.

An internal controls policy will be issued in the campus Policy and Procedure Manual to make performance and certification of control activities a requirement for departments. A draft of the internal control policy can be found here. Currently, the target date for policy publication is set for July 1, 2023.

 

5/10/2022 Budget & Finance Weekly Digest

Along with the release of the new Transaction Details report in the Business Analytics Hub, Internal Controls & Accounting is publishing new internal controls guidance to our University community on Blink: Best Practices in Internal Controls.

The internal controls guidance includes a checklist with periodic control activities to be performed and certified by departments across the University. The checklist allows departments to document the control activities that have been completed by performers and certifiers, and it includes links to articles and Blink pages that provide instructions on how to run reports and what to look for during the review process.

Monthly Financial Reporting Activities

Reports for Monthly Reconciliation

Review: Transaction Details Report (TRD) - PPM High Risk Ledger Review

*For VCHS Departments, users have the option to use FINMAN-Detailed Ad-Hoc Data report as an alternative to fulfill this requirement.
*Depending on the volume of results, departments have the option to use sampling methods based on internal risk assessment (cost-benefit analysis) to ensure proper review is completed.

 Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

Best Practice: Download the report to Excel to make notes as to whether transactions are okay or require additional follow-up, as well as provide justification for charges that are questionable but acceptable.
  1. Identify and correct transactions that have been miscoded as equipment. These impact the fixed asset capitalization process and result in incorrect indirect costs on sponsored projects.
  2. Identify and correct transactions that have been inappropriately coded as cost share. This impacts sponsor billing and the proper recording of indirect costs in the general ledger.
  3. Review recharge transactions for applicability to the correct project. These may be reviewed on a summary or sampled basis. Note: A less detailed review may be appropriate for routine recharges such as water cooler rental and mail charges on non-sponsored projects. (i.e., requesting documentation for all transactions may not be necessary).
  4. Review transactions posted to sponsored projects after the award ended, as these have high audit risk and may represent new costs posted after FER submission.
  5. Review costs posted to questionable expenditure types on sponsored projects, as auditors may disallow these.
  6. Review high dollar purchases to verify receipt of goods or services. Note: Subaward invoices and Concur Travel and Expense invoices are reviewed and approved before posting in Oracle; full transactional review is not required.

Review: GL-PPM Reconciliation Report

*Reconciliation of GL to PPM on sponsored projects is a required key control. Users may also wish to reconcile differences between GL and PPM for general projects.
*For VCHS Departments, this report is optional for general projects.
Resources to Review
Objectives & Risks (What to do)
  • Required: Costs on sponsored projects must be posted to PPM to ensure accurate balance reporting and sponsor billing.
  • Optional: Departments may opt to manage non-sponsored projects using PPM budget and costs, in which case it is important to ensure that PPM reflects all project costs. The Resources tab displays amounts on general projects that do not post as costs to PPM and should be included in a PPM Budget.
  • What To Do: Click on the hyperlink for each difference identified on the report to view the transactions causing the difference. All the corrections should be requested through the Subledger Transaction Correction Form, which includes a dropdown with different options to select depending on the transaction source of the discrepancy.
  • For instructions on how to take corrective action see Blink page: What do I do when I find differences?

Review: Default Project Payroll Report

Resources to Review
Objectives & Risks (What to do)
  • What To Do: Identify transactions posted to the department default project that need to be moved to the correct project via Direct Retro/Salary Cost Transfer or cost transfer in Oracle PPM. Any transactions that have already been resolved through either PPM cost transfers or Direct Retros/Salary Cost Transfers in UCPath will not appear on the report.
  • Blink page for guidance on type of cost transfer to do.

Payroll Accounting & Reconciliation

Review: DOPE Report

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What to do: review payroll expenses for a given payroll cycle.
  • Risks: Specific examples of items to look for include overtime recorded by employees that was not approved and/or not worked, and payments to employees that are not categorized correctly (i.e., regular pay categorized as a fellowship, which has tax consequences once discovered.

 

Review: Funding Issues Report

*This report is a group of reports that identify specific issues or potential issues related to funding. If not addressed timely, payroll transactions will be recorded to your department default project.

Resources to Review

  • Refer to the report's Detail Card for guidance on how to run the report tabs and how to make corrections.

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What to do: review each report tab and make any necessary corrections per the tab instructions below:
  • Tab 1: Positions without Funding Report
    • Step 1: Filter the report by your Department area(s) using the "Department" column (if your department doesn't appear, you may ignore this report)
    • Step 2: Filter the "End Dates Category" column by the "End Date Past" category (if your department doesn't appear, go to step 4)
    • Step 3: Confirm if the end date relates to Position Funding or the Project [*Health Sciences - submit a ticket to ARC/HHR]
      • a. For expired Position Funding requiring position termination, request that your department HR initiator terminate the position in UCPath (employee will continue to get paid until this is complete!)
      • b. For expired Position Funding where the end date needs extension, update the position funding in UCPath
      • c. For expired Projects, update funding in UCPath
      • d. For expired Projects pending an official modification from sponsor to extend award, submit extension to Sponsored Projects Finance; if not approved, update funding in UCPath
      • e. For expired Projects getting replaced with a new one (i.e. an NIH Federal Flow Thru), update funding in UCPath
      • **TIP: for multi-year Federal Flow Through (FFT) awards, projects are created in advance, so suggest setting up future funding with new projects once they're available
    • Step 4: Filter the "End Dates Category" column by all other categories (focusing on near term expirations first) and ensure that funding and or project updates have been made beyond the expiration date to prevent future defaults
    • Step 5: Process a Direct Retro for any expired entries that were recorded to your FinUnit default chartstring in UCPath in prior periods
    • Step 6: Process an Oracle PPM Cost Transfer for entries that are correctly recorded in UCPath, but went to your default project in Oracle PPM
  • Tab 2: Funding & Project End Date Report
    • Step 1: Filter the report by your Department area(s) using the "Department" column (if your department doesn't appear, you may ignore this report)
    • Step 2: Filter the "End Dates Category" column by the "End Date Past" category (if your department doesn't appear, go to step 4)
    • Step 3: Confirm if the end date relates to Position Funding or the Project [*Health Sciences - submit a ticket to ARC/HHR]
      • a. For expired Position Funding requiring position termination, request that your department HR initiator terminate the position in UCPath (employee will continue to get paid until this is complete!)
      • b. For expired Position Funding where the end date needs extension, update the position funding in UCPath
      • c. For expired Projects, update funding in UCPath
      • d. For expired Projects pending an official modification from sponsor to extend award, submit extension to Sponsored Projects Finance; if not approved, update funding in UCPath
      • e. For expired Projects getting replaced with a new one (i.e. an NIH Federal Flow Thru), update funding in UCPath
      • **TIP: for multi-year Federal Flow Through (FFT) awards, projects are created in advance, so suggest setting up future funding with new projects once they're available
    • Step 4: Filter the "End Dates Category" column by all other categories (focusing on near term expirations first) and ensure that funding and or project updates have been made beyond the expiration date to prevent future defaults
    • Step 5: Process a Direct Retro for any expired entries that were recorded to your FinUnit default chartstring in UCPath in prior periods
    • Step 6: Process an Oracle PPM Cost Transfer for entries that are correctly recorded in UCPath, but went to your default project in Oracle PPM
  • Tab 3: No Task or Funding Source
    • Step 1: Filter the report by your Department area(s) using the "Department" column (if your department doesn''t appear, you may ignore this report)
    • Step 2: Update funding where task and or funding source is missing. [*Health Sciences - submit funding changes to SWAT/HHR/ARC with new POETAF info]
    • Step 3: Process a Direct Retro for invalid entries that were recorded to your FinUnit default chartstring in UCPath in prior periods

 

Review: UCPath-Oracle Salary Reconciliation Report

*For sponsored projects, this report is required for award closeout.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What to do: the report has three levels: a main report and two levels of drill-through reports. The third report level is where you will identify the reason for any differences between UCPath and Oracle and determine the corrective action to take.
  • Recommendation: review the Default Project Payroll report before completing this activity because it will identify most issues that need to be corrected.
  • Blink page for guidance on what to do with variances.

Procure to Pay and Concur

Review: Procure to Pay Panorama - Procure to Pay Action Items - Only Invoice Holds & Invoices Pending Approval areas

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Clear AP invoice holds and complete pending approvals. For items reviewed previously, reasonably determine if we should clear them from the list.
  • Risks: Unresolved invoice holds and delays in completing approvals cause late payments to vendors and potential violations of contracts.

 

Review: Outstanding Card Charges Report

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Cardholder must reconcile expenses to clear them from the report. For items reviewed previously, reasonably determine if we need to clear them from the list.
  • Risks: Card transaction expenses post to financial ledgers only once expense reports have been submitted and approved.  Outstanding card charges have not yet been recorded in the financial ledgers and may cause balances to be overstated. Also, a traveler won't get reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses until all associated charges on an expense report are fully approved.  Cardholders may violate the Cardholder Agreement.

For Recharge Units Only

Review: Unprocessed Transactions with Errors Report

*Primarily for groups that are posting transactions into PPM. Not required for departments that do not process recharge transactions.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What to do: review unprocessed costs in PPM as well as cost transfers that fell into exception status.

Cost Share Reconciliation

Review: Cost Share Reconciliation Dashboard - Misposted Transactions

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: For projects created before 8/1/2022, identify transactions posted to a cost share task and external funding source or non-cost share task and internal funding source to be resolved.

Monthly UC Policy Activities

Deficit Balance Review

According PPM 300-2, Financial Deficits should not occur and must be remedied immediately when they do occur.

About these activities: According to PPM 300-2: Financial Deficit Policy, financial deficits should not occur and must be remedied immediately when they do occur.

Review: Financial Deficit Balances on Operating Funds

*For VCHS departments, users have the option to use FINMAN-Fund Balance Summary report as an alternative to fulfill this requirement.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What to do: Review operating fund balances with deficits to be resolved for a single accounting period for an individual financial unit or any level of the Financial Unit hierarchy.

 

Review: Financial Deficit Balances on Sponsored Funds

*Alternative reports to use: Project Management Dashboard (PMD) or Faculty and Researcher Dashboard

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Review sponsored project balances with deficits to be resolved for an individual PPM Organization (Financial Unit), with a specific focus on Ended Projects.

Receivables & Cash Operations

About these activities: Review and reconciliation of department credit card clearing accounts and depository clearing accounts to ledger accounting entries. Periodic follow-up of variances to resolve. Process correcting entries within 30 days of occurrence as prescribed in policy (UC Policy BUS-49: Policy for Cash and Cash Equivalents Received).

Unclaimed receipts must be identified by department as prescribed by policy and (PPM 300-13: Accounts Receivable Policy).

Reconcile: Incoming Credit Card Payment Processing (Merchant Payments)

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Clear and reconcile credit card clearing accounts by filling out a merchant receipt template within 30 days of occurrence.
  • Risks: Unreconciled activity causes balances to be lower than they should be.

 

Review: Receivables Aging Report for General Projects

*Note: invoice aging for sponsored projects is reviewed by SPF. SPF will reach out to departments if collections support is needed.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Review and monitor invoices that have not been paid by customers (past due for more than 45 days) and reasonably determine why the customer has not paid or if receipt was not applied correctly. At a minimum, departments should focus on invoices over 60 days overdue where no follow-up with the customer has occurred.
  • Risks: Each campus department incurs the financial risk of any amounts owed to it by its Customers, which includes the responsibility to resolve deficits incurred as a result of any uncollectible balances that may lead to a write off.

 

Review: Unapplied Receipts in OFC

*Unclaimed receipts must be identified by department as prescribed by PPM-300-13.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: After review of AR aging, check the Unapplied Receipts infotile in the Oracle Receivables module for any items to claim.
  • Risks: Unclaimed funds cause balances to be lower than they should be, and mean there is an inaccurate sense of how much is available to spend.

Quarterly Activities

Consolidated Exceptions Report

Review: Transactions on No Project Project

*For VCHS departments, users may use FINMAN-Detailed Ad-Hoc Data report as an alternative to fulfill this requirement.

Resources to Review

  • See Blink for guidance: Transactions on No Project.
    • No Project code is 0000000.
  • This report does not include transactions intended to post with no project segment, such as sponsored fund revenue or cash transactions.

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Required: Expenses on sponsored funds must be recorded on a project in PPM for proper sponsored billing and balance reporting.
  • Optional: Departments may opt to manage non-sponsored funds using projects. Use this report to identify revenue and expenses that should have been recorded on a project but were not.
  • What to Do: Click on an amount to view the transaction in the Transaction Details Report, then complete and submit the Subledger Transaction Correction Form.

 

Review: Project Setup to GL Match Errors

Resources to Review

  • See Blink for guidance: Project Setup to GL Match Errors.
    • Refer to the "What do I do when I find mismatches?" section for instructions to resolve differences.

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Risks: chartstrings with incorrect financial units, funds, or projects will result in incorrect balances when viewing GL-based reports.
  • What To Do: Click the link on the dollar amount to view the detailed transactions on the Transaction Details report. The first (PPM) tab will be empty, but the second (GL) tab will have the transactions of interest.

 

Review: Closed Projects with GL Balance

*For VCHS departments, users have the option to use FINMAN-Fund Balance Summary report as an alternative to fulfill this requirement.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Risks: PPM Closed Projects with GL Balances report includes balance sheet accounts (liabilities, accounts receivable, etc.) that are not included on the GL Project Balances report.
    What To Do: It is important for departments to address them as they are responsible for all financial activity on their FinU. For example, if there is a balance on an accounts receivable account, that generally means that a customer has not paid one of the invoices for this project. It is important to follow up and make sure the payment is made.

 

Review: Salary on Fellowship

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Required for departments with federal awards: Use this report to identify potential employment related costs that are charged to fellowship awards and are unallowable.

 

Review: Misposted Misc Receipts on SP

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Required for departments with sponsored projects: Use this report to view the PPM accounting to reconcile and identify mismatches between the AR and PPM.

 

Review: Multiple Project Roles

*Pending confirmation to add to checklist (not required to be done)

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

Financial Management of Funds (Pick One)

Pick One Report to Review

Fund Balance Scorecard

  • See Blink page: Fund Balance Scorecard
  • What to do: Review overall department-controlled and faculty-controlled resources available at various levels of the Financial Unit hierarchy across campus.

 

Net Operating Results and Fund Balance Report (NOR)

 

Department Operations Dashboard

 

VCHS Quarterly Financial Statement

  • VCHS conducts quarterly financial statement and variance on Academic and Clinical missions.
  • For VCHS only: Review quarterly financial statement and provide summary comments on overall actual to budget variance and bottom line results.

 

Alternative Reporting

  • If an alternative reporting option or process is used, then document in Comments & Explanations.
  • What to do: Save documentation that shows fund balances and resources available were reviewed.

Financial Management of Projects (Pick One)

Pick One Report to Review

Project Management Dashboard (PMD)

 

GL Project Balances

 

Fund Summary

 

Expanded Project Summary (EPS)

 

VCHS Quarterly Deficit Report

  • VCHS conducts quarterly deficit review on both non-contracts and grant funds and sponsored projects areas.
  • For VCHS only: Both General Project and Sponsored Project balances.

 

Alternative Reporting

  • If an alternative reporting option or process is used, then document in Comments & Explanations.
  • What to do: Save documentation that shows fund balances and resources available were reviewed.

Department Exceptions Panorama

Review: Incorrect PPM Budget Resources

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Fix incorrect PPM Budget Resources. This report will display any PPM Budgets with inappropriate Budget Categories.
  • Note: Financial Resources on Sponsored Projects may represent restricted balances. Please check with your SPF accountant before re-budgeting.

 

Review: Uncleared Concur AP Credit Memos

*Alternative method to access report: Procure to Pay Panorama - Uncleared Concur AP Credit Memos tab.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Use this report to identify uncleared Concur AP credit memos.
  • To clear an outstanding Credit Memo, the employee submits their check to the Cashier’s office and fills out a Cashier’s Deposit Form through Services & Support. Include the employee name and the Invoice (Credit Memo) Number or Concur Report ID in the comments.  Follow this KBA to use the correct chart string for the deposit.
  • Do not submit a check if there is another expense report where the employee is owed funds greater than the Credit Memo amount (without the negative sign). OFC will automatically net the reimbursement with the Credit Memo and pay the employee the difference.

Contract Management Dashboard - Non-Sponsored Contract Reports

Review: Generate Invoice Process Errors - Non-Sponsored

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Use this report to identify errors that occur when a "Generate Invoices" job does not successfully generate an invoice for a specific contract and project.
  • Both scheduled or manually run “Generate Invoices” jobs might experience issues due to validation rules and system-imposed constraints. The report will provide notification of the encountered issue/s and potential suggestions for resolution.
  • What to do: troubleshoot using the error message and correct the transaction in OFC under the PPM module.

 

Review: Non-Sponsored Contract Lines Without Project or Task

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Use this report to identify non-sponsored contracts missing a project, task, or both and correct those contracts as needed (see KB0033499).

 

Review: Non-Sponsored Contract Without Revenue Account or Fund

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Use this report to identify non-sponsored contracts missing a revenue account, fund, or both, and contract as needed (see KB0033499).

 

Review: Non-SP Contact AR COA Billing Exceptions

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Identify non-sponsored project contracts revenue with invoices that have an incorrect revenue fund, account, or project (no project) assigned.
  • What to do for corrective action:

 

Review: Non-SP Contract PPM COA Billing Exceptions

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Identify non-sponsored project contracts revenue with invoices that have an incorrect revenue fund, account, or project (no project) assigned.
  • What to do for corrective action:

Verify Petty Cash or Change Funds

About this activity: quarterly review of cash on hand balances is required by UC Policy BUS-49: Policy for Cash and Cash Equivalents Received. 

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Ensure cash is counted and variances are reported to Campus Cash Handling Coordinator. All lost funds must be reported through Services & Support.

Review: Sponsored Compliance Dashboard - Key Personnel

*Sponsored Projects Finance (SPF) is responsible for providing the data, but campus departments need to review data.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What to do: Run the report by Award Owning Organization and review personnel on active awards only. Notify sponsors when there is significant reduction in effort (25% or more) or when one of the key people leave the project.
  • Risks: If reduction of effort is not reported, then the award is not in compliance with Uniform Guidance 200.308(c).

OFC and Concur Roles Review

About this activity: appropriate personnel have been assigned the proper system access to the UC IS-3 Policy for Electronic Information Security.

Review: Campus User Roles Report

*Roles should be reviewed for any employee or affiliate that changes job responsibilities or separates.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

 

Review: Award Project Task Personnel Report

*Roles should be reviewed for any employee or affiliate that changes job responsibilities or separates.

*This activity is recommended for non-sponsored projects, but not required.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • Required for Sponsored Projects only: Periodic review of Award roles to ensure the appropriate ones are listed when SPF send FERs and milestone invoice notifications from SPARCM.
  • What To Do: Verify that tasks (where there are multiple) have been assigned to the appropriate Task Manager and Task Fund Manager.

Review: Transaction Details Report - PPM Commitments

*Alternative reports to use:

  • Expanded Project Summary (EPS)
  • Procure to Pay Panorama - Action Items
  • Project Management Dashboard (PMD)

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Using the Transaction Details Report (TDR), review aging of outstanding PPM commitments, then lift commitments when needed.
  • Risks: Unresolved commitments cause balances to be lower than they should be, and mean there is an inaccurate sense of how much is available to spend.

Review: Graduate Student Funding Report

*Fiscal staff should be working closely with their Graduate Student Coordinators or Advisors to review this report.

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Download the Summary table year-to-date and review data to:
    • Verify funding sources for payroll, tuition, fees, and stipends/fellowships.
    • Verify if students receive guaranteed funding according to their offer letters (i.e., compare to internal tracking documentation from Graduate Student Coordinators or Advisors).
    • Resolve funding issues and incorrect payments promptly (at least quarterly).
    • Potential issues to look for:
      • The report is missing a student from your department (i.e., expenses you are expecting to see for the student are not showing). This could be a SSN mismatch issue, submit a ticket to About - BI & Financial Reporting, Related to - Financial Reporting, More Specifically - Report an Issue or Error with Existing Financial Reports.

Equipment Management Activities

About this activity: for a complete listing of definitions for all items the University is required to track, please see the BFB-BUS-29: Management and Control of University Equipment and the property terms of each applicable award.

For more information related to sponsored projects refer to the Code of Federal Regulations (Uniform Guidance) 200.313 - Equipment.

Place Property ID Tags on Equipment

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

  • What To Do: Ensure tags are properly placed on inventorial equipment.
  • Once you receive inventorial equipment and have not yet received tags:

 

Report Fabrications Completed

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

 

Report Equipment Disposals & Transfers

Resources to Review

Objectives & Risks (What to do)

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