Monitoring & Reconciling Expenditures

Reviewing and Reconciling Financial Transactions

• The Principal Investigator is responsible for reviewing the expenses to ensure appropriateness toward their research.

• There should be proper separation of duties between reconciler, purchaser, and requestor of goods.

The Medical School utilizes M-Pathways eReconciliation, an online method for reviewing and reconciling financial transactions posted to the General Ledger. Although the University transitioned to a Shared Services Center (SCC) model, the Medical School and Health System are currently considered out-of-scope for sponsored project review & reconciliation. System auto-reconciliation changes that resulted from the transition to SSC impacted the ability of units to reconcile most sponsored project general ledger activity. General ledger activity that has been auto-reconciled is indicated by a light grey box with a checkmark in theh REC column. Units are still required to review all activity monthly, including auto-reconciled charges, to ensure expense and revenue activity is accurate, timely, complete, allowable, and properly documented.

The SAPOC is responsible for verifying and reconciling any items that are not auto-reconciled by the system. Unreconciled items from prior months should be revisited for resolution or updates. The SAPOC is also responsible for reviewing ALL charge activity. To facilitate unit documentation of review of sponsored charges in May 2020 eReconciliation was enhanced and a unit review column was added to allow units to document the charge was reviewed.

To Review & Reconcile activity in eReconcilaition, enter the Project/Grant number, and the time period for which you are reconciling & reviewing, click Search and use the blue buttons to navigate through the reconciliation and review process below.

Use the blue buttons to navigate through the reconciliation & review process

What is the difference between reconciling and reviewing an expense?

Reconciliation is an accounting process that compares two sets of records (e.g. an expense transaction and support documentation) to check that they are correct and in agreement. Activity should also be Reviewed for compliance with university, state, federal (when applicable), and sponsor/award terms and conditions as well as appropriateness according to the approved budget and intended purpose of the sponsored project. Review and reconciliation together ensure all activity belongs to the project and that there appropriate source documentation to support the activity. There may be instances where review of reconciled activity indicates an error (e.g. an expense that is not within the project period) and corrective action should be taken in a timely manner.

ALL sponsored project transactions should indicate reconciled (REC) and Unit Reviewed. During the reconciliation and review process, it may be necessary to view imaged documents. There is a View Documents column where documents created by the Tier 2 or SAPOC can be viewed. For other support documents, such as JE’s, or invoices that are submitted directly from the vendor to Accounts Payable, the image can be viewed by clicking on the Journal ID, instead of the View Documents column, and then selecting View Imaged Document.

Once activity has been reconciled and reviewed, it must be reported to and reviewed by the Principal Investigator. While responsibility for the day-to-day management of project finances my be delegated to administrative or other staff, overall fiscal management ultimately rests with the PI.