➤ 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.
➤ The use of ancillary accounts, especially if disbursements are involved, should be justified and properly documented.
➤ Finance and Business Affairs should authorize all off-book accounts.
➤ The responsibilities for deposits, disbursements, reconciliations, and monitoring should be segregated so that more than one person is involved.
➤ The responsibility for performing bank reconciliations should be assigned to one individual, who is separate from the deposit / disbursement process.
➤ Bank accounts should be completely reconciled at least monthly. This includes all clearing accounts.
➤ Bank account reconciliations should be documented and appropriate documentation maintained.
➤ Timely follow-up actions should be taken, and properly documented, to resolve any unusual or outstanding items identified as part of the reconciliation.
➤ Check stock and other financial records should be properly safeguarded.
➤ Two person authorizations (signatures) should be required for disbursements over a predefined threshold.
➤ Signature authorizations should be updated as needed when personnel changes occur.
➤ Periodic reviews should be performed to ensure the signature authorizations are current.
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