Revolving Fund advances and it's associated bank accounts require continuous oversight and strong internal controls within a campus department. Below are standards set by the University of Washington in regards to managing your revolving fund and the revolving fund bank account.
Below is a breakdown of the basic roles required for a Revolving Fund:
Check Signers (max 3 check signers)
This person has the ability to write checks. The check writer would have filled out a signature card and have his/her signature on file at the bank.
Cash Handler
Only applicable for departments that possess cash on site and have a safe with security cameras. This person is in control of the cash on site for the department.
Reconciler
This person does the bank reconciliation, fund reconciliation and the reimbursement requests.
Approver
This person signs off on the fund reconciliation and reimbursement requests. The approver should be verifying the revolving fund reimbursement request for accuracy and should be authorized to charge the budgets for the expenditures submitted.
Contact
This person is the primary contact for the revolving fund account.
Custodian
This person oversees all activity on the account and is in charge of making sure reconciliations and reimbursement requests are submitted in a timely manner.
Auditor/Verifier
This person audits and verifies the reconciliations, reimbursements, and proper use of the account. This is highly recommended as revolving fund accounts are fully responsible to be maintained by the department.
Revolving Fund Ownership Standards – University of Washington
Below are standards set forth by the University of Washington for revolving fund bank account signers, reconcilers, check writers, custodians, and contacts. The standards help ensure that best practice in banking is in place in each UW department, streamlining processes between the campus department and central administration and lowering our exposure to fraud.
Departmental Procedures and Controls:
- Ensure check writers do not reconcile bank accounts and reconcilers do not write checks.
- Make sure all blank checks associated with check writing bank accounts are accounted for and secured in a locked location out of public reach and view.
- Ensure checks written on our bank accounts are for University of Washington business only.
- Do not “pre-sign” checks and distribute them with the payee and/or amount blank at any time.
- Write checks in sequential order.
- All voided checks are to be marked void and kept with original carbon/check stub for auditing purposes.
- Do not to co-mingle personal funds in a University of Washington bank account.
- Do not reproduce or modify any banking documentation, including scanning checks for circulation.
- Checks are written to research subjects only and not to “cash”.
- Revolving fund bank accounts are only to be used to write checks to research subjects. Any services outside check writing is not allowed, including ATM/debit cards and PayPal accounts.
Departmental Due Diligence:
- Review and reconcile our bank account activity monthly. Even when it is suspected there is no activity, we will review monthly for any suspicious activity.
- Make sure that we have online access to our banking activity, including statements.
- Report all suspicious activity to Revolving Funds immediately at revfund@uw.edu.
- Ensure transactions errors are reported within 30 days of the occurrence.
- Monitor the revolving fund continuously to ensure it is still needed and the funding of that bank account is appropriate.
- Ensure our revolving fund equals two month’s expenditures.We increase or decrease our fund as needed.
- Close out bank accounts that have no activity within a 90 day period.
- When asked for information about our bank account, we follow all state laws as it pertains to public records requests.
- Report all checks 6+ months old to Revolving Funds for stale dating and unclaimed property reporting.
- Understand that borrowing monies for personal use or misappropriation of public funds from a University of Washington bank account is not allowed, and may result in disciplinary action.
On Site Visits
Occasionally, the Revolving Fund Specialist will come out for an on-site visit to the campus department to ensure revolving fund standards are being met.