FAQs

FAQs from current and, if still relevant, prior years' seminars and workshops are listed below.
Click on the one you're interested in to expand the answer.

Q. What codes should be used for departmental accruals?

Departments can either use CC/SoF = “0000”, or they can use the relevant cost centre, then use SoF “0000”

Q. At what level of certainty should income be accrued for?

The level of certainty has to be very high otherwise do not accrue. Be aware that the auditors usually run spot checks on income received in August and September against Year End income accruals.

Q. What do we do if the HoD is away when the year end certificate needs signing?

Ask the HoD to put delegation in writing before leaving, and this written delegation of authority should be attached to the certificate (signed by individual assigned to task)

Q. Late internal AR invoices will miss the AP/Shared Services posting deadline, how can we get these into July?

Identify these in your batches going to shared services and mark as urgent. Shared Services Finance (SSF) will accept internal trading invoices beyond the 8 August deadline date, but whilst making every effort, cannot guarantee capture. Only send current year invoices during this time.

Q. Why is clearing open POs necessary?

To remove commitment of funds and free up budget (Grants) and to identify any issues with the PO process. Good financial practice.

Q. Why are there so many open POs, some going back years?

Departments have not taken appropriate action. There are a number of reasons why POs are still open, for example receipting was not carried out, or it may be a call-off order. The date, items bought, type of order, supplier etc should be taken into account before taking the appropriate action [1].

Q. Some POs are part of a contract which rolls over. Is this a problem?

No - it is the date of the receipt which is important for year end purposes

Q. What does finally closing an order mean?

POs will have any committment removed and be closed to any further actions being taken. This includes receipting or matching of invoices. A finally closed PO cannot be re-opened.

Q. Where do you find the Invoice Register?

Oracle (UFS) for all AP and AR reports

Q. Who gets the AP holds and unaccounted transaction reports?

From July, the report is sent out weekly to the nominated department finance contact, or if requested, the department generic inbox. If there is a more appropriate contact, the Helpdesk needs to be informed. For the rest of the year, these reports are sent out monthly.

Q. Does the University encourage departments not to accrue/prepay for under £10,000?

No. It is entirely up to the department as to what is material for them and their accounts. Best practice would be to reflect accruals and prepayments but for audit purposes, it is mandatory to do so for amounts of £10,000 or more

Q. Is the £10,000 mandatory amount for individual transactions or totalled?

It is for individual transactions. Please note that for all accruals, prepayments, income received in advance, if the total amount is £200,000 or more, all relevant paperwork should be sent to Central and Research Accounting.

Q. Why does the cashier require a printed copy of IPO requests for non-standard currency when shared services will accept scanned papers?

By requesting paper copies from the department or Shared Services Finance, the cashier has assurance that the paperwork is only received once. This is key as the payment is made before the transaction is processed on CUFS so the risk of duplication is greater.

Q. If an invoice is awaiting SIA, how does this impact the YE accounts?

It’s the primary validation that creates the accounting entry, delay in secondary approval does not change the accounting but it may delay the payment of the invoice. Please bear in mind that if invoices are amended after they have been secondary approved, the secondary approval process will need to be done again, even for paid invoices .

Q. What happens if I can’t get the Barclaycard receipts from the cardholders over year end?

The change in the date of receipt of Barclaycard statements allow more time to gather paperwork. Additionally, even if costs have not been allocated to the correct place, they will now be accounted for in the correct year.

Q. Is the Finance Division looking at improving the distribution of Internal Trading invoices?

As part of the review of internal trading, a request has been submitted to FSG to look into bursting or attaching internal trading invoices to the AP record.

Q. Does Project Pectus cover all allocations to Departments (ie Admin Funds)

Yes.

Q. In respect of Fixed Assets, what constitutes an untracked invoice?

Central and Research Accounting will check for any items of £5,000 or more, and based purely on this, ask departments to verify whether it is an asset or not

Q. How will the July VAT adjustments on Research Grants be dealt with?

These will be posted to the normal control account and then have to be allocated to the Research Grant in 2018/19.