Back to Main Menu

Weekly and monthly internal controls

Bank reconciliations

​​The Treasury Accountant in Accounting Services receives the monthly bank statements from Isabella Bank, and five (5) from PNC (Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Credit Cards, Main Wire Transfer/ACH account, and the Investment Savings Account). The accountant also receives the American Express and Discover/Visa/MC statements monthly.

The Treasury Accountant reconciles the bank statements, and various credit/debit statements, to the monthly activity in CMU's SAP system.

The accountant does not handle cash, invoicing, or the processing of A/P, A/R and/or P/R checks. ​

Bank wire transfers

​​​The Treasury Accountant in Accounting Services receives the approved list of accounts by Bank from the Assistant Coordinator of Financial Services in Payroll. The Treasury Accountant receives copies of deposits and/or withdrawal tickets and bank notices daily directly from the bank. The account numbers for the accounts are confirmed to be CMU bank accounts. The wire transfers are recorded in a spreadsheet. Any discrepancies found during the review process will be reported to the Associate Controller for Financial Reporting.

Deficit reports

Departments are responsible for reviewing and reconciling their cost centers in SAP monthly. Departments should review their accounts for the validity of the charges and to ensure the balance in the account is not deficit.

As a second review, to ensure that accounts are being monitored by the departments, Accounting Services prepares deficit reports. Deficits are reviewed for all cost centers/fund centers and WBS (grants). Accounting Services follows up with the person(s) responsible for the deficit cost center(s) to determine if and when additional funding is expected to cover the deficit balance.​

Financial aid draw reconciliations

Accounting Services performs a monthly financial reconciliation on all Financial Aid Draws and Refunds for Direct Lending and Pell Grants.

Comparisons are made between Financial Aid, Receivable Accounting and the U.S. Department of Education. The reconciliations are designed to find errors or irregularities between the University and the U.S. Department of Education.​

Reconciliation of gift revenues between development reporting and general ledger

​​Development and Alumni Relations provides Accounting Services with a monthly spreadsheet summarizing the amount of gifts reported on Development's gift-tracking software. Accounting Services compares this information to the amount of gifts recorded on the general ledger for each of the cost centers listed. Discrepancies are investigated to ensure consistent reporting of annual gifts between Development and Alumni Relations and the financial reporting provided via the general ledger.

On a quarterly basis, Accounting Services reconciles the amounts reported on Development and Alumni Relation's quarterly board report to the general ledger.​

Reviewing and processing journal entries

​​Certain individuals outside of Accounting Services have the permission to park (place in a queue) a journal entry document in SAP. Trained individuals enter the journal entry information directly into SAP. The department verifies the correct information is entered into the journal entry screen before it is parked in SAP. The backup for these entries is attached to the parked document within SAP.

Accounting Services reviews all journal entry requests that are done via the parked document function in SAP for the following:

  • required approval of the journal entry
  • adequate support or explanation of the entry
  • appropriate use of general ledger accounts
  • propriety of the expense
  • total debit entries equals total credit entries

Entries posted to accounts are reviewed by the accountant responsible for the respective fund to ensure compliance with the restrictions of the cost center.