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Office of Internal Auditing

Internal Controls: Revenues and Receivables

Below is a listing of internal control (IC) best practices and the related University policy, if applicable:

IC 1: Cash and checks are:

  1. Deposited weekly: Procedures should be developed to ensure funds are deposited in a timely manner. Funds should be deposited weekly, and twice a week during peak processing times.
  2. Held securely prior to deposit: To safeguard revenue from misappropriation or theft, cash/checks should be held in a secure location (vault or safe).
  3. Tracked and documented: The receipt of cash or checks should be documented using a point-of-sale system or log/form. If possible, the department should eliminate cash handling.The U-Store marketplace offers a way to accept payments via credit card through a secure website (Touch-Net).
  4. Handled by limited staff members: The number of individuals that handle the cash should be limited to ensure accountability is established over the funds.

IC 2: If the department receives revenue, records are reconciled to Colleague on a monthly basis.

Each revenue account should be reconciled monthly (or at peak times) and this reconciliation along with source documentation should be provided to the Budget Officer for review. There should be a reconciler, an individual that reconciles all sales supporting documentation to Colleague monthly. There should then be an approver, the Budget Officer, that reviews the monthly reconciliations from the reconciler to ensure that all revenues, and transfers were authorized and appropriate. These reconciliations should include expected revenue (# of students, # of tests, contract payment schedule, etc.) with the revenue recorded in Colleague.

IC 3: If the department receives revenue, there is a separation of duties so that the same person does not receive, deposit, record, and reconcile account funds without oversight.

Funds should not be received, deposited, and reconciled by the same individual. An additional person should be involved in the cash/check handling process to ensure an appropriate segregation of duties exist.