SECTION 1: Accounting for Departmental Transactions

The Controller’s Office requires each department to keep an updated record of every account for which it is responsible. This record will allow the department to know the balance in its accounts at all times and provide information to meet reporting requirements. The University accounting system (A17) is the official financial record for Michigan State University and therefore, departments are required to reconcile their records to A17 in a timely fashion.

Each month, A17 prepares official monthly general ledger statements for each account. These monthly statements are available electronically through DocViewer. On a monthly basis, all transactions per the official statement must be verified with departmental records to ensure the amounts are correct and all charges have posted to the correct account number. In the event that errors are discovered in this reconciliation process, it is the departmental fiscal officer’s (FO) responsibility to correct any errors by either 1) contact the department that originated the error and request correction; or 2) processing a journal entry (eJVE) to correct the transaction(s). All corrections must be made in a timely fashion (within 30 days).

Each day, updated general ledger activity is posted in DocViewer at “A17Activ-1”. Departments are encouraged to reconcile account activity frequently and not wait for the monthly ledger statement. This will allow for a more timely reconciliation of accounts and for the possibility of the correction of errors prior to the processing of the monthly statement.

Regardless of the method you select for maintaining the accounting records in your department, there are a number of forms used on campus to execute various types of transactions. Although some of the forms mentioned are available through University Stores, most have been re-created electronically for ease of use (this will be discussed later in this section). For purposes of this discussion, the forms will be presented by accounting function. This listing does not address all forms used on campus but includes the forms most commonly used by campus accounting personnel.

Each of the above forms is discussed in detail in the respective sections noted above.

The monthly cut-off policy that is applied by the Accounting Department in processing transactions is that any non-check transaction that arrives in Accounting by 5:00 p.m. on the last business day of the month shall be processed and included on that month’s fund ledger statement. The only exception to this is when the transaction is lacking proper authorization and/or sufficient supporting documentation. It is important to note that when initiating any transaction that affects the accounting records of another department you must provide that department with sufficient documentation as to the nature of the transaction (e.g. copy of Journal Voucher Form, invoice, monthly statement, etc.)

In addition to maintaining the daily accounting activity, each department has many other reporting requirements (both internal and external) that your accounting data is used to satisfy. As a helpful resource, we have accumulated a battery of electronic information to assist you in reconciling and analyzing your accounting data. Although we are always working on more effective ways to distribute accounting information, the following is our current list of resources available.