2003–2004 Year-End Closing

Internal Controls Assessment

Last summer (June — August 2003) Indiana University underwent an internal controls assessment. This review provided information on the completeness of the university’s internal control system. Seventeen of IU's administrative financial functions were reviewed. Although recommendations for improvement were made, the overall assessment from PricewaterhouseCoopers found that there were no significant deficiencies.

Internal controls can be a hard concept to understand. There is no formal list of the things an organization should be doing in order to have a good internal control structure. However, IU provides guidance on what the basic concepts of internal controls are and what goals internal controls assist in achieving. As many fiscal officers know, Financial Accounting Policy I-1 indicates that fiscal officers are responsible for having controls in place for their organization.

The following link (Internal_Controls ) takes you to an introduction to internal controls, internal control systems, and the internal control environment. In the upcoming months, FMS will be designing and offering a training session on internal controls for fiscal officers. Until that training is available, all fiscal officers are asked to think about the philosophy of internal controls that is laid out in this article and ask yourself, how is my organization doing?

YEC Newsletter Contents

Year-End Closing
Important facts about year-end closing.

Year-End Closing Schedule
Print off a copy of the year-end closing schedule and keep important dates close at hand.

Year-End Production Reports
Available reports during the year-end closing process.

CAMS Closing
Year-end closing notes for Capital Asset Management.

Contract and Grant Closing
Year-end closing information for Contract and Grant accounts.

Auxiliary Accounting
Year-end closing information for Auxiliary and Service accounts.

Accounts Receivable
Changes with Write-Off Receivables and other Accounts Receivable news.

Accounts Payable
Learn about a new change that may affect the date that your TOPS transactions are referenced in the General Ledger.

FIS/TP Documents
A number of documents are designed specifically for processing financial transactions after June 30.

Clearing Accounts
Emerging policy on the use of Clearing Accounts.

At a glance . . .

With this issue of the FMS Newsletter, we hope to provide our readers with information that will be helpful throughout the year-end closing process.

Checklist

Specific items that you should be aware of are discussed in the Year-End Closing.

Schedule

Included in this newsletter is a Year-End Closing Schedule. You may want to print out a copy so you can access it more easily.

Documentation

You can access and download a number of current FIS Support Documents in both HTML and Microsoft Word versions.

FIS Training

For information on FIS training, or to view class schedules, go to the FMS Training page.

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Feedback

If you have any questions about what you have read in this newsletter, or if you have any suggestions for changes or improvements, please fill out the feedback form.

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The FMS Newsletter Online serves the Indiana University community by keeping faculty, staff, and students informed about university financial policies, initiatives and changes in business practices, and updates and enhancements to the Financial Information System (the university-wide electronic financial transaction processing environment).

Last updated: 05/19/2004
Comments: FMS Help Desk
Copyright 2004, The Trustees of Indiana University