Best Practices

➤ Departmental policies and procedures for the activity should be formally documented. This should include authorized activity, workflow, responsibilities, documentation requirements and step-by-step instructions for processing activity.

➤ Documented policies and procedures helps ensure departmental personnel understand expectations and requirements, and promote accountability and consistency in activities.

➤ Guidelines for students that will be billed should be formally established. The process may require financial reviews of the students and their ability to pay.

➤ Key duties should be segregated as much as possible. In cases where complete segregation is not feasible due to staff resources, strong compensating controls (e.g., monitoring and oversight) should be used.

➤ Cashiers should not have access to accounts receivable records.

➤ Student accounts should be reconciled regularly (preferably monthly).

➤ The receivable system should routinely be reconciled to Kentucky State University’s financial system.

➤ Customer statements are mailed monthly by third party service provider for debt collection.

➤ Consistent collection efforts should be taken for all past due accounts. The actions should be formally documented, with escalation provisions included in the process.

➤ Management authorization is required to adjust billing terms, conditions, and write-offs.

➤ Accounts that have been written off are kept in a memorandum ledger or credit report file for reference.

➤ Critical databases, especially the student master file, are protected by system access controls.

➤ Access to sensitive databases is limited to only those with a need.

➤ Regular backups of databases are performed to allow restoration of processing activities in the event of a system failure.

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