General Ledger (GL)

Module closes at 5pm on Monday 1 September

On this page:

Essential tasks	Final date for completion
CUEF units: last instructions to be received by Treasury & Investment Team for 2024/25	Thu 19 Jun
Process and reconcile petty cash for 2024/25	Thu 7 Aug
Movement of monies on deposit	Wed 20 Aug
Clear Trust Fund deficits based on review of 2^nd interim statement	Wed 27 Aug
Process any remaining credit card expenditure by journal	Mon 1 Sep
Complete spreadsheets for income and expense accruals	Mon 1 Sep
Code expenditure to same source of funds as related income and clear deficits	Mon 1 Sep
Submit signed year-end certificate(s) to Finance Division	Wed 24 Sep

Finance Division activities - for information	Key date
Chest Allocation	Weekly postings from 1 Aug
Indirect Cost Contribution posted	Fri 1 Aug Tue 2 Sep
Trust Fund overheads posted	Fri 1 Aug Tue 19 Aug Tue 2 Sep
Institution summary reports, plus distribution of Year End Certificates on 9 Sep	Mon 4 Aug Fri 22 Aug Wed 3 Sep Tue 9 Sep
Issue Trust Fund statements to institutions	Fri 8 Aug Fri 22 Aug Fri 5 Sep
EC PI Time adjustment posted	Wed 20 Aug
CUEF distribution July accrual and deposit interest posted	Thu 21 Aug
Budget field frozen	Wed 27 Aug
Final journal for Jul-25 VAT Adjustments	Thu 28 Aug
CUEF revaluation posted for June and July (into July GL period)	Tue 9 Sep
Actual July CUEF Distribution posted into Adjustment Period 1	Tue 9 Sep

In case of queries please email the General Ledger Helpdesk [1] or tel. 39660

Cambridge University Endowment Fund (CUEF) sales/purchases

There are no purchases or sales of CUEF units at 31 July. The last day for dealing for 2024/25 is 17 June. Contact Treasury if there are any queries.

Process and reconcile petty cash

The institution’s petty cash needs to be closed as at 31 July. The GL journal (and Grants journal if necessary) must have a July 2025 date.
Petty cash expenditure for August 2025 must be journaled into August 2025.
The institution’s petty cash control account balance should reflect the amount of cash held as at 31 July.

NB. It may be that your first visit to the University Cashier after the year end includes two petty cash forms, one for each year. This is expected and acceptable.

Budget Freeze

The Chest allocation is processed through institutions accounts as actual income.

Institutions can move Chest Allocation by using a budget journal and liaising with their Finance Business Partner and institution Heads of Finance.

Central and Research Accounting (CRA) will update the actual income in CUFS on the following dates.

Actual Posting of July Chest Allocation	Tue 1 Jul
2^nd Posting of July Chest Allocation	Fri 1 Aug
3^rd Posting of July Chest Allocation	Fri 8 Aug
4^th Posting of July Chest Allocation	Fri 15 Aug
5^th Posting of July Chest Allocation	Fri 22 Aug
Budget field frozen in CUFS	Wed 27 Aug
Final posting of July Chest Allocation	Thu 28 Aug

If an institution requires posting of budget journal after the 27 August, please contact the Finance Business Partner and institution Head of Finance who can liaise with Academic and Financial Planning and Analysis

Monies on deposit

20 August is the last date for placing eligible funds on deposit as at 31 July.

Institutions are reminded that monies should be taken off deposit to reduce account deficits.
Deposit Account and CUEF interest will be posted on 21 August.
Details on eligible sources of funds, how to place money on or take money off deposit are available in Ch12 Investments, Financial Procedures Manual [2].

Expenditure accruals

These are amounts owed by the institution for goods and services that they have received prior to 31 July. Therefore, the costs need to be included in the 2024/25 financial year. This is done by the process of accruals.

Expenditure accruals occur where:

Goods or services have been received on or before 31 July but no invoice has been received and therefore not processed on CUFS; or
Goods or services have been received on or before 31 July and the invoice has been received after AP module has closed and therefore the invoice will be processed in AP in 2025/26 financial year

This year Central Finance will review all non-fully processed invoices within SoftCo and raise accrual journals for these and post them to the relevant institutional accounts in consultation with institutions.

In case of queries please contact the General Ledger Helpdesk [1].

Accruals must be raised for transactions over £10,000

For non-SoftCo invoices, follow the guidance on creating journals for accruals as detailed in Appendix A [3].

By using the Auto Reversal journal category these journals should be automatically reversed into the AUG-25 period. Ensure that the July journal is posted posted or released.
If the journal category Accrual is used, then remember to manually reverse it in the AUG-25 period using the More Actions button and to post or release both journals.

Sometimes journals need to be reversed in a period later than August. For example, if expenditure has been accrued in July but the invoice is not received until September then the Jul-25 journal should be the Accrual type (not Auto Reversal) and should be manually reversed in September.

Where accruals for a single institution total over £200,000, supporting detail must be sent to CRA by 1 September.
Detailed supporting working papers must be retained for audit inspection.

In case of queries email the General Ledger Helpdesk [1] or tel. 39660

Unearned revenue

Income should be deferred where it has been received by the institution in advance of the goods or services being supplied (e.g. conference bookings, course fees). If income received in advance is not deferred, it will be credited and shown in the incorrect financial year.

Appendix B [4] provides guidance on processing unearned revenue or, in case of queries, please contact the General Ledger helpdesk [1].

Income received in advance must be deferred for single transactions over £10,000.
Where unearned revenue for a single institution totals over £200,000, send supporting details to CRA by 1 September.
Detailed supporting working papers must be retained for audit inspection.

Other debtors (accrued income)

These are amounts owing to the institution for services or goods provided to external customers but noy yet invoiced at the year end.

Appendix C [5] provides guidance on processing accrued income or, in case of queries, contact the General Ledger Helpdesk [1]

Accrued Income must be raised for single transactions over £10,000.
Where accrued income for a single institution totals over £200,000, send supporting details to CRA by 1 September.
Detailed supporting working papers must be retained for audit inspection.

Prepayments

A prepayment occurs when a payment has been processed on CUFS in advance of the goods or services being received. When this occurs over the year end, the proportion of the payment that relates to goods or services received in the new financial year (August 2025 and beyond) has to be calculated. The expenditure for 2024/25 is then reduced by this prepaid amount.

Appendix D [6] provides guidance on processing accrued income or, in case of queries, please contact the General Ledger Helpdesk [1].

Prepayments are only necessary for single transactions over £10,000.
Where prepayments for a single institution total over £200,000, send supporting details to CRA by 1 September.
Detailed supporting working papers must be retained for audit inspection.

Accruals or deferrals and internal partners

If the expenditure or income that is being accrued or deferred relates to a transaction with another institution (for example internal trading) check with the General Ledger Helpdesk before posting the journal. The Helpdesk will be able to check that the other institution is making the equal and opposite accrual or deferral. This is important to ensure that the elimination of internal transactions is correct.

Matching the source of funds for related expenditure and income

Recording expenditure against the same source of funds (SoF) as the related income is an important process for institutions.

Raise a GL journal to move the net balance of each type of expenditure to the correct SoF. Use the original expenditure transaction code for both the debit and credit entries of the journal.

Example:

Initially all photocopying paper expenditure (transaction code ESFZ) was coded against SoF AAAA.
However, the institution used £100 worth of paper when it was running off posters for an exhibition.
The exhibition is a trading activity with income on SoF GAAA.
Therefore a journal should be raised to match the paper costs with the exhibition as follows.

CREDIT	U. Dept. CC . AAAA . ESFZ	£100
DEBIT	U. Dept. CC . GAAA .ESFZ	£100

This procedure should NOT be used to correct transaction miscoding and applies only to movement of expenditure between sources of funds and cost centres.

If clarification is needed, contact the Finance Business Partner or institution Head of Finance.

Detailed supporting working papers must be retained for audit inspection.

Clearing deficits

Before clearing deficits, institution accounts must be reviewed and adjustments made to:

correct miscoding
match the SoF coding for related expenditure and income (as above)
account for accruals, prepayments, other debtors and income accruals (as above)
remove monies from deposit.

Deficits may then be off-set against surpluses on non-restricted and trading sources of funds by journaling expenditure using the transfer transaction code EZXX.

Care should be taken with this process and the transaction code EZXX must be used on both sides of the journal.

Further information and guidance on their use is available from:

the Institution's Finance Business Partner or institution Head of Finance
Best Practice Guide - Transfer Codes [7]
Online course - Transfer Codes [8]

VAT Transactions

The central Tax Team posts journals to correct Services Tax, Acquisition or Import Tax and sales correction transactions.

Services Tax (or reverse charge)	The amount of VAT would have paid on that service if it had been bought it in Great Britain (GB)
Acquisition or Import Tax	The amount of VAT that would have paid on goods if they were purchased in the UK
Sales Tax Adjustments	Occurs when a sale has been entered with the wrong tax code

In a normal month, any tax adjustments for these items would take place in the month following the original AP or AR entry. However, for the year end, all the July AP services/import tax adjustments are posted in the same month.

As the Tax Team are not able to work on the July tax adjustments until AP and AR have closed (15 August), postings to institution accounts in respect of these adjustments will be posted by no later than the end of 28 August. The GL closes to institutions on 1 September.

Roll forward

In accordance with University policy, year-end income and expenditure totals, by SoF and cost centre, will be rolled forward to create the standard brought-forward balances for 2025/26 by the close of business on 5 September. Any institution with specific roll forward requests should submit these to their Finance Business Partner for input into CUFS by no later than midday on 9 September. As part of the preparation of the final accounts, adjustments may be necessary. This means that the balances rolled forward may change. Any such adjustments will be communicated to institutions.

Two adjustment periods have been set up on GL for this purpose ADJ1-25 and ADJ2-25. Under certain circumstances, postings into ADJ1-25 are allowed provided prior approval from the Financial Reporting section has been obtained. All year-end postings should be entered into Jul-25, and Jul-25 should be used for all year-end reporting.

Trust funds

Individual statements for all Trust Funds will be sent to institutions as follows.

Date	Statement
Thu 10 Jul	30 June statement
Fri 8 Aug	1^st interim statement as at 31 July (will exclude Jul-25 distribution)
Fri 22 Aug	2^nd interim statement as at 31 July (will include Jul-25 distribution)
Fri 5 Sep	Final statement as at 31 July

Journals are to be processed centrally to transfer expenditure to Trust Funds relating to appropriations in aid and overhead charges. It is planned that all such journals will be included on the 1st interim statement. All Trust Funds deficits based on a review of 2nd interim statements must be cleared by 27 August.

In case of queries email the Trust Fund helpdesk [9] or tel. 66946