What are common audit recommendations on Disbursement and Purchasing?
Purchasing
- Assign to separate people the duties of approving purchases, receiving and reconciling transactions to the My Financial Desktop (FD).
- Purchase must be approved by an authorized individual
- Ensure disbursements are supported by appropriate documentation which includes purchase authorization, invoices, and evidence that goods and services were received prior to payment.
- Do not use signature stamps to authorize transactions
References:
Procard
- Monitor procard transactions to ensure users do not split purchases to avoid exceeding the transaction limits and competitive bid requirements.
- Establish procedures for issuing and cancelling procards.
- The cardholder and reviewer must sign and date the “UW Transaction Detail with Notes & Accounting Codes” report review for signifying appropriate business purpose, reasonableness and accuracy of transaction
References
Petty Cash and Revolving Funds
- Separate the custodian’s duties so that no one person has custody of the fund, approves reimbursements, and reconciles the bank statement.
- Retain voided checks
- Ensure checks are not made out to “Cash”
- Perform annual unannounced fund verifications.
References:
Cellular phone
- Review cellular phone billings to ensure appropriate usage
Travel
- Ensure that travel expense reports are approved by supervisors or a designee who does not report to the claimant.
- Ensure that out-of-state and foreign travel is properly authorized in advance when require
- Ensure personal leg of travel is not reimbursed by the University
- Retain conference brochures to support ravel status and per diem reimbursements.