Research Financial ServicesAudit Roles and Helpful Hints

Research Financial ServicesRole during the audit:

  • Coordinate the audit
  • Liaison between auditor/agency and department undergoing audit
  • Receive requests from auditor/agency and contact department for documentation
  • Review department documentation prior to submitting to auditor/agency to ensure completeness and accuracy
  • Provide general documentation
  • Submit contract and amendment/modification information
  • Generate general ledger of project expenses
  • Provide F&A calculations
  • Provide Waste calculations
  • Submit University rate information (i.e. benefit rates, approved F&A rates, waste fees)
  • Gather payroll information such as labor distributions and remuneration statements
  • Provide any cash receipts documentation requested by the auditor

Department Role during the audit:

  • Non-expense Documentation:
  • Maintain Faculty and Staff certifications and provide upon request by auditor
  • Technical/Scientific Reports are maintained and available upon auditor request
  • Expense Documentation:
  • Responsible for maintaining all documentation to support expenses throughout the life of the project
  • Send documentation requested by the auditor in PDF format to Research Financial Services via email attachment:
  • Travel expenses – include the travel vouchers and all receipts for each requested travel expense so the auditors can get a picture of the entire trip.
  • PRD – PRD coversheet and all documentation submitted with PRD document
  • PO information – contact AP for invoices (See the “How to Find Backup Documentation for PO Documents” procedure on the Research Financial Services website.)
  • ProCard- edit information and invoices
  • EDI – order confirmation email should be utilized as invoice (i.e. Office Max orders)
  • Internal services such as PPD, STEPS, or phone charges require invoices from the service center or recharge operation.
  • Journal vouchers – any cost transfer that was corrected via a journal voucher should include the backup provided with the journal voucher.

Helpful Hints:

  • Prior to an Audit:
  • In order to demonstrate sound account management and internal controls, reconcile accounts monthly according to the Business Procedures Manual (BPM) E-17-6 “Reconciliation and Review of Financial Transactions”. Make any corrections as necessary via journal voucher in a timely manner following BPM E-4-1 “Journal Voucher” and BPM Appendix 2 “Cost Transfers for Sponsored Projects”.
  • Save all monthly reconciliations and supporting documents in a central location for quick and easy retrieval during an audit or review.
  • Follow up on any missing items from the reconciliation to determine if the expense was posted to an incorrect cost object and make any necessary corrections.
  • Review labor distributions monthly to ensure payroll was charged appropriately
  • Keep copies of the backup for an original charge with any credit/return documentation
  • The reconciliation should create a complete picture so anyone can compare each line in the list of project activity each month to the associated backup documents. The department should not be surprised or have questions about those account expenses during the audit.
  • During the Audit:
  • Documentation deadlines are given to departments based on audit dates given to the university by the auditor. Please communicate any timing issues to Research Financial Services as soon as possible to ensure that the auditor’sdeadlines are met.
  • Do not send links to documentation on websites external to the university system. Instead, the documentation should be submitted to Research Financial Services via email attachment.
  • Email the backup information to Research Financial Servicesso that the filename is the document number of the transaction from the general ledger that was requested by the auditor.
  • If possible, please include all information for each general ledger document number

as one PDF attachment.