Journals/Accordioncontent

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1.    Review of balance sheet accounts

  • Check balances on the accounts are as expected, including for items such as accruals and prepayments
  • Review and clear petty cash balances and advances promptly
  • Identify any recurring issues with Barclaycard reconciliations and take action to ensure reconciliations are completed promptly  

These balances can be accessed via the Month-End Dashboard or the Trial Balance report.

2.    Internal trade

Regular recharges for goods/services can be dealt with via journals.

Where the quantity and price is the same or non-negotiable each month for at least three months (i.e. due to external recharging for e.g. telecoms, utilities), internal trade should be managed via journals.

These journals can be initiated by either the selling or buying department depending on the nature of the transaction. Most internal trade journals are posted by divisional offices, Estates Services or IT Services.

3.    Accruals and prepayments

In line with the accruals process guidance (doc) you should consider the following adjustments on general ledger accounts: 

  • Income accounts
  • Expenditure accruals
  • Prepayments
  • Income in advance

4.    Correcting journals

Keep correcting journals to a minimum by posting to the right place first time wherever possible. Corrections should be identified promptly as part of the month-end process and correcting journals posted promptly. 

  • Payroll – review costing reports to identify any payroll costs that need adjustment
  • Variances on income and expenditure reports – perform detailed review of transaction listing

Note: If you did not achieve the deadline for submitting credit card reconciliations, these transactions will need shifting off the default account

 

1.    Review of pre-award and project suspense

The pre-award and project suspense accounts should be reviewed monthly and cleared to zero where possible.

These can be accessed via project reports, reports issued by Research Accounts, or the Month-End Dashboard.

2.    Internal trade, commonly Small Research Facilities

Regular recharges for goods/services can be dealt with via journals.

Where the quantity and price is the same or non-negotiable each month for at least three months (i.e. due to external recharging for e.g. telecoms, utilities), internal trade should be managed via journals.

These journals can be initiated by either the selling or buying department depending on the nature of the transaction.

Research facilities  (directly incurred costs) will always require journals for the recording of costs. Buying departments need to ensure that the correct rates have been applied and that the selling department maintains audit records.  

Journals should not be used for the positing of general laboratory (or other) consumables that have not been directly incurred by the project. 

3.    Accruals and prepayments

Further details of the process can be found in the guidance notes on the year-end website. 

Note: Accruals and prepayments are posted to projects at year end only

 

4.    Correcting journals

Keep correcting journals to a minimum by posting to the right place first time wherever possible. Corrections should always be identified promptly as part of the month-end process and correcting journals posted promptly. 

  • Payroll – review costing reports to identify any payroll costs that need adjustment
  • Project status and activity report – enables review by project to check that all transactions are relevant to, and legitimate for, that project. Recommended for use by Principal Investigator (PI)
  • Project actual expenditure report – enables detailed transaction review

Note: If you did not achieve the deadline for submitting credit card reconciliations, these transactions will need shifting off the default account

 

The approval workflow for general ledger (GL) journals is set up on Oracle Financials; the audit trail for GL journal approvals is maintained on the system.

The general ledger approval workflow operates as follows:

  • Every user with access to post general ledger journals is assigned an approval limit from £0p upwards
  • Any journal that exceeds their limit is routed to their GL Supervisor for approval

For example: 

  1. A user has a £0p GL limit, all their journals will go to their GL supervisor for approval.
  2. A user has a £10k GL limit, their journals up to £10k will self-approve, but journals over £10k will go to their GL supervisor for approval. If the journal exceeds the supervisor’s limit it will continue up to their supervisor. 

Tips:

  • Keep GL supervisor details up to date

It is important to keep supervisor details up to date. If a supervisor has left the University, the journal will get stuck and you will need to contact the Helpdesk to get it released. 

When a supervisor leaves, any individual for whom they were supervisor will need a new GL Supervisor appointed. Please see information on managing Oracle access - removing access, for more information.

The User Access Dashboard can be used to monitor general ledger user access.

  • Use vacation rules

Remember to set vacation rules if you are away from the office. This can be done via the vacation rules link on the main Oracle Financials screen under Worklist. Please note that you are delegating your approval limit when setting up vacation rules. Please see information on managing Oracle access - maintaining access, for more information.

 

There is no approval workflow set up in Oracle Financials for the approval of project journals and transfers departments therefore need to implement manual processes. 

1.    Who should approve

It is necessary to consider who will approve project journals and transfers off system. By default, it is assumed that general ledger journal limits and supervisors will operate for project journals and transfers i.e. approvers have the same limits but approval is via a manual process rather than via the system. 

If you do not wish to use the general ledger (GL) journal limits and supervisors for project journals and transfers (for example, you may wish to include different people or assign different limits), this can be done but the delegations must be managed and recorded in line with the guidance on managing delegations of authority. 

Note: Approval limits must be manually applied

Because there is no system record of limits, care must be taken that approval limits are manually applied and the process and approval limits communicated to all members of the department that have access to projects in Oracle Financials

 

2.    How to approve

Journals should be approved in advance wherever possible; however, practically this may be difficult.

When approving journals retrospectively, approvers have the same responsibility for undertaking a thorough check of each individual journal and delivering the same confirmations as if they approved in advance. Evidence of authorisation should be saved with the journal evidence. 

To implement a manual process and maintain an audit trail of approvals, different options are available:

  • Email – email approval is acceptable. Details of the journal or transfer can be emailed to an approver. Their approval email should be saved with the evidence of the reason for the journal or transfer; for example, approval of the spreadsheet to be posted via the journal wizard, or approval of details of the transfer to be made.

In this case, the transfers report can be reviewed to confirm that the transfers have been posted as approved.

  • Paper-based – the approver signs a paper copy of the journal which is saved with the evidence. This may be approval of the spreadsheet to be posted via the journal wizard.
  • System-based (project journals only) – one person prepares and submits the journal on the Oracle forms view, then notifies the relevant approver that it is ready for review. The approvers releases the journal on Oracle. This only applies to project journals (it does not work for the journal wizard or for transfers).
     

Review of income and expenditure reports or transaction listing and review of balance sheet reconciliations underpin these checks; for example, high level review may reveal variances resulting from incorrect journals. 

In addition, where transactions relate to trust funds, these should be reviewed by the Board of Management responsible for the relevant fund.

The UO Journal Activity Report and UO Transfer Activity Report produce a list of journals and transfers respectively. These reports are included on the Month-End Dashboard. It is recommended that managers review them on a monthly basis to confirm the appropriateness of journals.

It is possible that departments operate an approval process whereby the details of a journal or transfer to be made is approved in advance but not the journal or transfer itself. These reports are then used to confirm that the approved change has been correctly implemented within Oracle Financials.

If a robust approval process is in place, departments may take a risk-based approach to checking journals and transfers, focusing attention on high value items and unusual items (based on expenditure type or description).

Checking journals may also form part of the regular review of the UO Project Status and Activity Report or UO Actual Expenditure Enquiry Report. 

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