Reconciliation of Accounts

How to reconcile/certify my accounts? 

Reconciliation (https://afm.utexas.edu/hbp/part-2/5-account-reconciliation) is a control activity to compare departmental records to The University of Texas at Austin’s official accounting records.  The reconciliation process includes identifying and correcting/ reconciling items within thirty days of the prior month’s close. 

In addition to monthly reconciliations, departments are required to certify annually that all transactions have been reconciled. 

University of Texas System UTS 142.1 – Policy on the Annual Financial Report https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/policy-library/policies/uts-142-financial-accounting-and-reporting  

UT Systems available for monthly reconciliation: 

DEFINE LMM - DEPARTMENTAL ACCOUNTING LEDGER 

EAC – Expense Account Certification https://utdirect.utexas.edu/acct/eac/ 

The BFS team provides monthly reconciliation/certification via these systems on our customer department’s behalf as an optional service.   

If the BFS team is performing the task in the system, the department is still responsible for doing the following: 

Compare information in transaction listings against departmental records. Transaction listings can be obtained via UT Direct (https://utdirect.utexas.edu/acct/gen/trans/trans.WBX),  UT Box folder (https://utexas.box.com/s/tcqhwjr8ldi1w6uih2ya2ziektffwpjz), or COGNOS report (access is required).   

Identify and keep a record of any reconciling items. 

Initiate any corrections needed by contacting the appropriate department and following up to confirm all reconciling items have been resolved.  Corrections may be requested using the UT Tracker system (https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/campus/invoicetracker/). 

Keep a record giving evidence that reconciliations were completed and reviewed by business officers or departmental managers. 

If a department has appropriate segregation of duties (https://afm.utexas.edu/treasury-risk-administration/risk-management/segregation-reconciliation-accounts-monitoring) in processing their income and expense transactions, they may focus their monthly review of transactions that post without a departmental approval such as:  

  • Travel Agency payments for Airfare, hotel or rental car - a Request for Travel Authorizations (RTA) does not provide the exact amount of the expense for departmental approval 

  • Interdepartmental Transfers (IDT) 

  • Accounting entries (VJ types) 

  • Electronic Funds Transfers or wire transfers  

The annual certification process is managed by the BFS team using Docusign to route the required forms to UT Risk Management to submit to UT System.  This process usually happens sometime in October for the previous fiscal year.  BFS sends an e-mail in mid to late September to notify departments what to expect.