Description
This dashboard shows budget information on where a Cost/Expense Transfer was moved (the Award the expense was moved onto).
Potential High Risk Activities
The expense is being added to a sponsored Award at a later date than originally posted. The following issues can arise:
- There can be a question of whether the expense actually belongs to the Award onto which it has been moved. If the expense was originally posted to another Award, it needs to be documented why it belongs to the Award it is being moved onto.
- Transfers where expenses are moved off an over-spent Award or moved onto an under-spent Award can be viewed as being done for budgetary convenience.
- A high volume of Transfers on a single Award, within a single unit, or by an individual PI is an indicator of a lack of Internal Controls within a department or unit.
- All Transfers must be documented in MyFD and such documentation is publicly available and open to review. Such documentation can indicate a lack of internal controls or exposure to inappropriate financial management practices.
- A delay in transfer of more than 120 days from original posting violates GIM 15, indicates a lack of internal controls, and is a long period where the expense was paid by another award.
High Risk Indicators
- A high volume of Transfers by a single unit, PI, or Budget.
- A high volume of Transfers onto an Award in the last 30 days before the Total or Budget Period End Date. This can be an indication that the Award was underspent and expenses were moved onto the Award for Budgetary Convenience.
- A large number of days between an expense's original posting and the posting of the Transfer. Transactions with a number of days greater than 120 are in violation of GIM 15 and should be reviewed.
- A large dollar value of an individual transaction can be an issue. Large transactions have bigger impacts on budgets and erroneous billing to sponsored awards. An incorrect large transaction posted to an incorrect budget for more than 30 days is an indication of a lack of internal controls.
Filters
The following transactions are filtered out (not included) in the Dashboard:
- Transfers onto Non-Sponsored Award budgets;
- Transfers with an absolute value of less than $100;
- Transfers between a Parent and Sub Budget; and
- Transfers between Sub Budgets with the same Parent.
Action
A Cost/Expense Transfer cannot be removed from the financial system (it can be reversed but not removed) nor can the information provided in MyFD be edited or removed. Given that:
- If a Transfer was done in error or the expense was moved to an incorrect budget, then the expense should be moved to the correct budget.
- All expenses moved onto an Award should have documentation that clearly shows the benefit of the expense to the Award. This is particularly true if the expense was transferred more than 120 days from the original posting; if the expense was transferred near the end date of the receiving Award; if the receiving Award had a surplus balance prior to moving the expense; or if a number of other expenses were moved onto the same Award at the same time.
- If a Transfer has weak or incomplete supporting information, then additional explanations can be added to the expense file to support the Transfer in the event of a review.
- A high volume of transfers within a unit, by an individual PI, or on a single award should be reviewed to determine the cause.