Account Maintenance

All accounts have a digital file starting April 2020 on the Network Drive. Each file is separated into 4 folders: Information, Outstanding, Statements, and Processed. It is the account manager’s responsibility to keep these files up to date with current information and expenditure documents.  

N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fiscal-DM  

All processed documents are saved in PDF format and named as specified here. 

Setting up New Accounts 

New accounts should be set up within 24-48 hours of being issued. Notification will either come from Kuali (for department accounts) or Sponsored Programs (for sponsored research projects). All account information is sent via email or Kuali action list in order to get the account set up. 

The first step to setting up an account is to build it in the WCNR accounting system.

  1. Go to Project Info
  2. Click “Insert New Project”
  3. Fill in the information accordingly based on the information received
  4. Make sure to mark as “open”
    1. All CNHP and CEMML accounts must select “Calc’ Add. Rates”
    2. Fringe should be selected on all accounts except for 13s and State 15 accounts
  5. Click “Insert New Project”

Next, if you are given budget, be sure to enter that right away using the “Budget Allotment” entry form. See the Entry section of this manual for more information on how enter budgets 

Once the account is set up in the WCNR account system, digital file folders need to be created on the N-drive.  

  1. Go to N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fiscal-DM 
  2. Find the account type folder and then the respective department folder and open 
  3. Create a new folder and title it ACCOUNT # and PI LAST NAME (ie. 5309319 BAGLEY) 
  4. In that folder, create 4 folders and label them:
    • Information
    • Outstanding
    • Processed
    • Statements
  5. Once folders are created, be sure to move all important account documents into the “information” folder 

Entry

Entry is the process of entering or importing transaction data based off documents processed in Kuali into the WCNR accounting system. Each document processor will save their processed documents to the entry folder on the N-drive (N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fiscal-DM -> entry). One or two staff members are assigned to role of data entry. It is the staff member’s responsibility to pull the documents from the entry folder every day and enter the information in the WCNR account system.  

To enter data, go to the WCNR intranet’s account page. For budget entries, use the “budget allotment” option, for revenue or expenses, use the “expense/revenue” option. All data needed to fill out this form will be on the document that needs to be entered. Data entry MUST BE DONE IN ALL CAPS!  

Once a document is entered, the entry processor will dump the document into the Outstanding folder on the N-drive (N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fiscal-DM -> Outstanding filing)  

Outstanding Filing

Outstanding filing is the process of taking all entered documents and moving them into their perspective account file. The person filing is responsible to ensure documents are put into their perspective accounting files each day.  

The best way to do this is to have two file manager windows open at once. One window should have the outstanding folder open and the other will have the perspective accounts open. Drag and drop each document into their perspective account files outstanding folder. Payment Requests should be filed in the perspective “open PO” folders if the account has one

Reconciling

Reconciling is the process of checking balances and clearing transactions between the WCNR accounting system and Kuali’s official reports.  

Kuali reports will be pulled from vista plus by a staff member on the first working day of each month and distributed via email to account managers.  

Each account manager shall follow these procedures for account reconciliations for all accounts. 

  1. Account reconciliation will be completed after each month end close for all accounts.  If possible, the duties of processing revenues and expenditures should be segregated from the individual preparing the account reconciliation.  Exemption to this must be approved in advance by the WCNR Dean if there is not a clear separation of duties. 
  2. The account reconciliation shall be a comparison to the University’s financial reporting system or to the reports created therein. 
  3. Actual revenues and expenditures shall be compared to budget to ensure that the account is not overspent. 
  4. Cash and fund balances of an account shall be reviewed to ensure that the account is not in deficit. 
  5. Revenues and expenditures shall be reviewed for appropriateness, completeness, reasonableness and accuracy.  Procedures should be in place to ensure that the reconciliation can be relied on and documentation for all transactions should be readily available for review. 
  6. Abnormal balances in object codes shall be reviewed and supported (for example, credits to assets, debits to liabilities, debits to revenue or credits to expenses). 
  7. Clearing accounts and clearing object codes shall be reconciled (for example, a credit card clearing object code, other clearing object codes or a revolving copier or supply account). 
  8. Departmental subsystems shall be reconciled to the University’s accounting system records.  (For example, stand-alone billing and accounts receivable, inventory, and ticketing or revenue systems.) 
  9. Errors shall be identified and corrected before the next month end close or if in June, before fiscal year end close. 
  10. Account reconciliations shall be signed by the reconciler.  After the reconciler has signed the account reconciliation, a second individual designated by the department shall review the reconciliation, approve and sign. 
  11. Account reconciliations and supporting documentation shall be retained for six years.  Documentation for Sponsored Programs accounts may require longer retention and the department should contact Sponsor Programs in regards to the retention period. 

In addition to the minimum account reconciliation procedures, other review procedures may also increase the reliance of an account reconciliation. Reviewing an account ensures that: 

  1. Prior period corrections have been entered 
  2. Accounts with no activity have been reviewed to ensure that activity is not being miscoded in another account 
  3. A vendor is recognized and appropriate 
  4. Large dollar amounts are reasonable 
  5. Procurement card allocations have been completed 
  6. Prorate calculations are accurate 
  7. Pre encumbrances and/or encumbrances are stated correctly
  8. Support for sensitive expenses is appropriate and complete 
  9. Hourly payroll is reasonable 
  10. Calculated comparisons/variances are reviewed and explained (budget to actual, prior month revenue/expense to current month revenue/expense, salaries to benefits 
  11. Internal and external billings have been completed 
  12. All entries have completed the approval process 
  13. Timing differences have been identified (cash not received for credit card sales, revenue and cash not recorded yet for prior day sales) 
  14. The description of the expense is  reasonable in relationship to the object code the expense is posted under 
  15. Charges from another department’s internal billing is reasonable

The process of reconciling can be done in several ways. Below outlines one method to do this. 

  1. Open the vista plus report for an account in Adobe Pro 
  2. Using split screen, open the WCNR intranet account site  
    • Click on the “reconciling frs” option under forms 
    • Type in the account number you are working with 
  3. Any transaction without a “cleared FRS” date is pending to be cleared. Looking at the vista plus report, clear each transaction by typing in the date of the month you are working with 
    • EX: 10/20 (for clearing in October of 2020).  
    • Click the enter button on the keyboard or the “update” button at the bottom of the page to officially clear each transaction 
  4. Once you’ve cleared all transactions that are on the vista plus report, run a “transactions – one month” report in WCNR 
    • Type in the account number you are working with and the month you are working on 
  5. Review that all transactions are cleared 
    • If you missed any, go back to step 4 and clear anything that’s missing 
  6. Verify that your indirect and direct totals on the “month totals” line match the vista plus report 
    • If they do not, double check and verify all data again 
  7. Next, review all outstanding transactions. Outstanding transactions will be any item listed below the “month totals” line 
    • Check for old documents, duplicate entries, and reasonableness of all transactions 
    • Delete any unnecessary entries (duplicate data, disapproved docs, etc.) 
    • Re-run the “transactions – one month” report if any changes were made 
  8. Run a “project summary” report in another window from the WCNR accounting site 
  9. Ensure balances between the vista plus report, WCNR transactions report, and the WCNR project summary report match. 
    • A calculation may be needed to add and subtract encumbrances in kuali vs. WCNR 
  10. If all balances match, save the two WCNR reports to a PDF and then combine all 3 reports as one PDF file in the following order:
    • Project Summary
    • Vista Plus
    • Transactions
  11. Name the file as: account # MONTH YEAR (ex: 1317000 OCT 2020) 
  12. Save the account file to the account review folder on the N-Drive (N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fiscal-DM -> ACCOUNT REVIEW)

Further reconciliation instructions with screenshots can be found here

Account Review

All staff members who manage accounts will be paired up with another staff member for
account review. This pairing can change at any time according to the college business officer.
The goal of account review is to double check the reconciliation work of another staff member
for correctness and accuracy. It is also used as a learning tool to understand different types of
accounts.

pairing can decide how they would like to handle account hand off, completion notifications,

Account Review Steps:

  1. Verify the balance on project summary, Vista (usually page2-3), and transactions page all match/balance
  2. Check project and budget dates vista vs. project summary page
  3. Verify totals on the transactions report match the monthly totals on vista reports (oe. monthly direct spent total, indirect spent total, and total total)
  4. Verify transactions are reasonable and accurate (ie. ensure salary and fringe match for the same month, invoices with similar amounts are cleared correctly, recurring charges are cleared for the appropriate month, etc.)
  5. Review outstanding transactions for old entries or duplicates

Pull Docs

Pull docs is the process of moving pending files from the outstanding folder to the processed folder for each active account on the N-drive each month. Pull docs is to be completed by months close.  

The process of pull docs can be done several ways. Below is one method to do this. 

  1. Open the PDF file for the account that is ready for docs to be pulled 
  2. Open the N-drive in file manager and find the account you are working with 
  3. Open the outstanding folder and move every PDF document that cleared on the account statement to the processed folder. 
    1. Open each PDF to ensure it is the correct document before moving 
    2. Only move transactions that have a cleared date on the statement should be moved 
    3. Anything below the “month totals” line is still outstanding and can remain in the outstanding folder 
  4. Once all files are moved over, track down any missing files and save them to the processed folder  
  5. Review the files left over in the outstanding folder: 
    1. Verify that they are filed in the correct account 
      • If anything is mis-filed, move it to the correct account folder 
    2. Verify that documents are not “old” 
      • Check Kuali for any “old” documents 
      • Move any missed cleared documents to processed 
      • Delete any disapproved documents 
  6. File the account statement into the statement folder for the respective account 
  7. Close the folders and start the process over for the next account 

Pulling Vista Plus Reports 

Vista plus reports are used as part of the reconciliation process. Reports are pulled on a monthly basis by each account manager

To pull reports:

  1. Go to AAR.colostate.edu 
  2. Expand the “Application Systems” menu and click on Vista Plus 
  3. Log in with your CSU eid and password 
    1. Note that access needs to be granted to each employee in order to access this system. The electronic application can be found here
  4. Click on Browse
  5. Click the KFSX_Account_Statement_92 folder 
  6. Click the KFSX_Natural_Resource_Academic_Units_H1 folder (it should be on page 1)
  7. Open the CSUFR092_YTD_ORG_H1_RevExp report and download to your desktop 
    1. Using Adobe Pro, export each active account to its own PDF  
      1. The easiest way to do this is to move each account bookmark to the top level in adobe 
        1. Open the bookmark menu on the left hand side of Adobe 
        2. Toggle the drop downs to find the accounts you are looking for 
        3. For each account number, drag and drop the menu link from its current position to the top of the menu list so that it’s in line with the tab titled “Natural Resources – Academic Units” 
      2. Delete any pages and bookmarks that aren’t needed 
      3. Once all bookmarks are at the top level, go to “organize pages” and click “split document” 
      4. Split by top level bookmarks and under output options, select “use bookmark names for file names” 
      5. Click split 
      6. This will create a PDF for each account 
    2. An alternative method would be to extract each accounts page range through the organize pages function in Adobe and save as a separate PDF file 
  8. Certain accounts require a balance sheet report in addition to the RevExp report. Use the CSUFR092_YTD_ORG_H1_bal report and download to your desktop 
    1. Pull the balance sheet reports for each account that needs them 
      • All 12s, 21s, 22s, 25s, and 64s 
      • Also 1384001 (1480), 1384002 (1480), 1380007 (1401)
    2. Save each balance sheet as its own PDF and combine with RevExp reports accordingly  

Foundation Reports

Foundation reports are specific to 64 accounts. They are distributed to the college business officer on a monthly basis. Foundation reports are required in order to aid in the reconciliation of 64 projects. Foundation reports are to be kept with the account statement file once accounts are reconciled.  

Each 64 account (except for 64 cost shares) have its own respective foundation account number. An excel sheet with all active 64s and their corresponding foundation account number can be found in the fs-bo folder on the N-drive (N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fs-bo). 

Cost Transfers

Colorado State University expects costs to be charged to the appropriate accounts when first incurred. It is the responsibility of the account manager to verify that all charges are allowable, allocable, and a direct benefit to an account. WCNR has several protocols in place to ensure costs are charged to appropriate accounts when they occur however, there are some circumstances in which it may be necessary to move charges from one account to another. This process is called a cost transfer.

Cost transfers are permissible only when they are timely, reasonable, allocable, allowable and consistently applied direct costs of the sponsored project (as defined by institutional policy and the sponsor’s policy).  Typically, the purpose of a cost transfer is to correct errors in processing the original charges, move costs between accounts for closely related work that is supported by more than one funding source, or to transfer pre-award costs in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Guidance.

Cost transfers must be submitted within 60 days of the original charge without review. Cost transfers are allowable up to 90 days of the original charge but requires business officer approval prior to the correction taking place.

Cost Transfers can be for salary or non-salary expenses. Salary expense corrections are done through a Past Period Distribution Adjustment (PPDA) in Oracle. Non-salary corrections are done through a General Error Correction (GEC) in Kuali.

When a cost transfer is determined necessary, the WCNR account manager should submit a WCNR Student Processing request on the intranet. This will trigger the request to be reviewed by account managers, and the college business officer for verification that the cost transfer meets the criteria. WCNR Business office students will then process the cost transfer in the appropriate system.

Justifications should include:

  • A description of the cost(s) being transferred, including why and when the original charge(s) occurred
  • Why the receiving account was not originally charged
  • Why it is appropriate to charge the receiving account—the cost item must be allowable under the terms and conditions of the sponsored agreement and other regulations governing the sponsored agreement
  • That any systematic or administrative deficiency (if any) that caused the need for the transfer has been addressed

Back up documentation required for GECs:

  • The original Kuali document showing the original charge
  • Applicable receipts/back up for the original charge
  • When original charge documentation is unavailable (ie. for direct billings such as mail), the general ledger from Kuali should be used as the supporting documentation

Closing Accounts

The account closeout process involves ensuring that all expenses have posted and cleared and verifying that an extension is not needed.  

Department accounts close on a fiscal year basis.  

Sponsored research projects close as determined by the award (see project end dates) and may involve extra steps with sponsored programs.  

Once an account meets its end date, all expenses and corrections are posted, and docs are pulled, the account file can be moved to “archive” within the N-drive (N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fiscal-DM->Zarchive accounts) 

Additionally, make sure to close the project in the WCNR account system: 

  1. Go to project info
  2. Type in the account number
  3. Edit account
  4. Mark as closed

Retention

Retention refers to the time period in which departments must keep accounts before getting rid of the data. All account files, once closed, are kept on the N-drive (N-drive -> administration -> fiscal_hr -> fiscal-DM->Zarchive accounts). 

All accounts have a retention of 6 years plus current before data can be deleted 

Sponsored research project retention date is based off the Account Close red line date in Research Project Status (RPS). A retention date cannot be set for 53 accounts until the project has this date.  

Department accounts retention date is always the last day of the fiscal year (June 30th)  

Account files in the Archive folder are re-named by a business office staff member so that they reflect the retention date for easy file purges. Files should be renamed as follows: YYMO ACCOUNT # (21DEC 5374990). If the account does not have a retention date yet, the file name should just be the account number (ie. 53749990).  

Once retention is met, a business office staff member can delete the digital file folder.