UNC FIT

UNC FIT

David J. Price, CPA

Financial Director of State Funds,

Financial Reporting and Transactions

[email protected]

What Does UNC FIT Address?

• What does UNC FIT stand for? The University of North Carolina: Finance Improvement and

Transformation• UNC General Administration initiative

to improve financial processes.• Applies to all 16 universities

Why UNC FIT?

• Main Goals:– Identify and implement best practices

within the UNC System.– Desired outcomes:

•Improve internal controls•Encourage consistency between universities•Minimize audit findings•Increase efficiency of processes

What Does UNC FIT Address?

• Five categories of standards are in place:– General Accounting– Grants and Contracts– Financial Aid– Student Accounts– Capital Assets

How Does UNC FIT Work?

• Standards developed and implemented

• Universities must comply with standards

• Report Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to UNC GA: – Green – Compliant – Yellow – Caution – Red – Non-compliant

How Does UNC FIT Work?

• KPI information is summarized for all campuses and reported to the UNC Board of Governors annually

• Monitoring visits – Annually, UNC GA sends representatives to campuses to verify compliance with standards

• Documentation is available for examination by Internal and State Audit

How Does UNC FIT Work?

• Action plan development, if needed• Impact on funding – part of the

Performance Funding Model • UNC FIT results reported to:

– Chancellor– ECU BOT– UNC BOG

General Accounting

• Journal entries• ACH and ProCard usage• Bank reconciliations – errors and

timing• Fund authorities – approval and

spending• Banner Finance security access

reviews

General Accounting

• Monthly review of account activity– Duplicate transactions– Keying errors– Review validity of transactions– Maintain documentation

• Contracts, agreements, e-mails, invoices and receipts

– Sign up for future training classes via OneStop (April 24th and May 22nd)

– Website for guidelines: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/financial_serv/accountg/index.cfm

Grants and Contracts

• Timely financial reports• Management of receivables• Time and effort reporting

(reallocations)• Federal compliance

Financial Aid

• Satisfactory academic progress• Eligibility requirements• Reconciliation of expenses

Student Accounts

• Timely billing• Timely collections• Schedule cancellations• Percentage of refunds via direct

deposit• Management of receivables

Capital Assets

• Tagging timely – departmental assistance

• Annual inventory• Accurate useful lives• Lists of missing assets to Vice

Chancellors

Other UNC FIT Initiatives

• Payroll KPI’s – Standards to come later– Percentage of employees paid via direct

deposit– Percentage of new hires in a given month

not paid (EPAF submission and follow up)– Dollar value of employee overpayments– Collection of receivables

Other UNC FIT Initiatives

• E-Commerce focus– Prevalence in KPI’s

• General Accounting• Student• Payroll

– What are we doing at ECU?• Employee non-travel reimbursements via ACH• Encourage expanded use of ProCard• Expansion of ACH to AP vendors?• Added an e-commerce manager position –

Robin Owens who reports to Dee Bowling

UNC FIT Takeaways

• Timely, accurate financial reporting• Expanded use of e-commerce• Federal and State compliance• Billing and collection of receivables• Review and approval of transactions• Results are reported to the Chancellor,

ECU BOT and UNC BOG

Other Noteworthy Items

• Cash management– Daily deposit act– Pay invoices on time

• Timely receiving in PORT• Prompt delivery of direct payment invoices to AP

– Non-student accounts receivable and collections

• Banking – cannot use ECU’s FID to open private bank accounts

• Review encumbrances using query in SSB

Questions?