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Financial Reporting Process
Financial reporting is critical to providing information that is useful in making business decisions. Financial Reporting provides business managers with:
- Historical record of financial activity
- Comparative and trend analysis
- Data for budgeting future periods and a basis for measuring performance
- Allowing managers to make business critical decisions
- Evaluating and monitoring operating performance
Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of information. Financial Partners, Business Managers and Executive Management have a shared responsibility to ensure that all transactions are accurate and properly recorded in a timely fashion.
UIS/OAS Directors must review, analyze and understand all monthly financial reports produced for their respective organizations. Financial statements should be reviewed monthly with department managers and with their respective Financial Partner’s. Major budget variances must be disclosed to the Executive Director and/CIO in a timely fashion. Additionally, major budget variances must be disclosed and explained to the Executive Director and/CIO in a timely fashion.
UIS/OAS Managers with budgeting and reporting responsibilities must review, analyze and understand the financial reports produced for the appropriate organizations on a monthly basis. Significant variances to budget must be communicated to the group Director and their respective Financial Partner in a timely fashion.
Finance and Planning staff must review, analyze and understand all the financial reports they produce for the organizations they support. Significant variances to budget must be communicated to the Financial Services Director as well as to the appropriate business Manager and Director in a timely fashion.
It is the responsibility of the Financial Services Director, the Executive Director and the CIO to review and understand all department-wide financial reports produced for the organization on a monthly basis. Significant variances to budget must be communicated to the Executive Director and CIO by the Financial Services Director in a timely fashion.
At the beginning of each fiscal year, the Month-end Closing and Reporting Schedule is produced and distributed (it is Month-end Closing and Reporting Schedule (based on the University closing schedule, the UIS/OAS internal accrual process, and the time required to consolidate the financial information across the entire organization) is produced and distributed. Below is a sample closing schedule:
Financial Handbooks are assembled and distributed on an annual basis and contain much of the information that business managers need to manage their organization’s finances. The handbooks contain specific budgeted detail information on capital, debt, staffing, etc. and are customized for each manager’s business area. They also contain sections that managers can use to maintain selective financial reports that are distributed.
CREW represents the common reporting environment for the University’s General Ledger system (Data Warehouse). Examples of reports that are generated for the month-end and year-end close processes include the Budget Variance Report, Detail Listing, and Summary Actual Report.
Because of the unique nature of UIS businesses and their related transactions, customized standard income statements and GL detailed listing reports have been developed to ensure that financial information can be presented and reviewed in a way that best facilitates management’s decision making. The income statement (i.e. Monthly Budget Variance Report (MBVR)), combines external and internal revenue, separates costs of goods sold from other business expenses, and classifies other costs into categories to assist in the analysis process. The GL detailed listing report, which shows all YTD transaction tinformation, is a compact and organized format that makes line-item review as simple as possible.
Each month, managers and directors with budgeting and financial management responsibilities receive a reporting package, which includes financial reports related specifically to the businesses they manage. Additionally, specific managers may receive the Office of the CIO Financial Summary Reports. These reports are distributed following the month-end close in accordance with the Monthly Closing and Reporting Schedule published at the beginning of the fiscal year.
UIS/OAS YTD Income and Expense Summary
The Department YTD (year-to-date) Income and Expense Summary Report is a high level, year-to-date snap shot of income and expense by business or department as compared to budget. The report also shows income and expense variances, as well as prior year business unit balances and year-end forecasts (when completed). Below is a sample report:
UIS/OAS YTD Direct Expense Summary
The YTD Direct Business Unit Expense Report shows total year-to-date direct expenses by business or support unit as compared to budget. Using this report, directors and managers are able to assess the business’ financial performance to budget for those costs that they have direct control over. Below is a sample report:
Monthly Budget Variance Reports
Monthly Budget Variance Reports (MBVRs) are generated and distributed for each business or support group on a monthly basis. These reports show year -to-date, detailed line-item income and expense for the individual department as compared to budget, prior year, and year-end forecast information.
General Ledger Detailed Listing Reports
The General Ledger Detailed Listing reports are generated and distributed for each business or support group on a monthly basis. These reports show the individual detail transactions that support each year-to-date income, expense or balance sheet, by 33 digit codes.
Balance Sheet
The UIS/OAS Balance Sheet is typically distributed on an annual basis as part of the Summary of Year-end Operating Results report, which is provided to all business managers and directors, the CIO, the University Budget Office, the VPF, the Office of Sponsored Programs, and the Provost. This report compares the current year-end balance of all assets, liabilities and net assets to the prior year. Mid-year Balance Sheets are also run as needed.
Capital/Debt Reports
UIS/OAS maintains an internal database that contains all capital assets and related loans. A number of reports have been created that contain information regarding capital assets and loan balances, including:
- YTD Depreciation for All Assets
- Budget Capital Asset Detail by Org Report
- Budget Debt Detail by Org Report
These reports are generated for the Annual Budget Process and again at fiscal year-end, but also on an as needed basis. At fiscal year-end these reports are used to reconcile to the University’s general ledger. (i.e. Rate Setting)
Business Unit Balance Report
Reserve transactions (i.e. contributions and uses) are posted to the reserve accounts annually during the year end general ledger close process. Once the year-end close has been completed, the reserve summary report is produced. This report appears in the Summary of Year-end Operating Results report.
Additional Business Specific Reports
Business managers require specific information in order to properly analyze their respective businesses. To this end, certain reports have been created in order to assist the managers in their decision process. These reports are updated monthly, annually, and or as part of the budget process. Some examples include:
- Business Unit Budget Template
- Staffing Templates
- Capital Spending Expenditures
- Revenue and Margin Trend Analysis
- Reconciliations (Revenue and Inventory)
- Vendor Savings Analysis
- Other Metrics
- Software and Hardware Analysis
Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Financial Partner.
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