Communication from the Business Officer Advisory Group

Reconciliation guidelines - Issued October 2010

Context

Reconciling the Statement of Operations is an important part of the overall control framework within the University and should be completed on a monthly basis.  These monthly reconciliations help ensure that only valid charges have been applied against your account and that transactions you expect have been posted as anticipated.

Financial Services receives numerous requests each month to provide supporting documentation or information for charges that have been applied to departments.  Dollar values of the transactions for which supporting documentation is being requested range from less than five dollars to more than one thousand dollars.

Establishment of a Reconciliation Threshold

Reconciling statements on a monthly basis can be time consuming and a balance between level of effort and level of accuracy is important. 

In support of this objective, it is the recommendation of the Business Officer Advisory Group that individuals adhere to a reconciliation transaction threshold of $50. 

Individuals reconciling department statements need not seek additional supporting documentation for transactions of less than $50 unless there is concern of an error. 

In supporting the community with respect to reconciliations, Financial Services will focus efforts on requests for transactional information above $50, and to those where there is a concern of an error.