Policies/Questions Reviewed by ASG Group:
- February: 2 and 5
- December: 1 and 11
- November: 4 and 8
Links (UI Budget Officers):
- This PowerPoint presentation provides an overview of the background of the Sarbanes Oxley Act and the events leading up to it. It also provides highlights of why financial sub-certification is beneficial to higher education.
- The comprehensive implementation of financial sub-certification within higher education is a major effort which must be done prudently in order to be successful. Find out more about the implementation schedule and communication plan.
- Each of the sub-certification questions relates to specific UI policies, which units are required to comply with in order to appropriately answer “yes” to the question on the sub-certification document (UI .pdf document, CLAS Microsoft Word form). Furthermore, for each question, the Budget Officers have provided a list of specific training classes and other resource links to learn more about compliance with the specific topic. Finally, each question contains a list of control documents. The existence of control documents indicates that a unit is compliant with the related policies.
The 16 Questions:
Session #1 - Compliance with Human Resources and Ethics Policies
- Does the unit communicate with faculty and staff with fiscal responsibilities about the importance of understanding and observing the University of Iowa Ethics Policy? (December)
- Does the unit follow personnel and payroll policies as set forth by Human Resources? (February)
Session #2 - Compliance with Finance, Accounting, and Audit Requirements
- Does the unit require staff with fiscal responsibilities to attend relevant financial systems and processes training offered by Finance & Operations?
- Does the unit have processes and monitoring activities in place to ensure compliance with the University's Cash Handling
Policy? (November) - Does the unit submit the required information to Financial Management to ensure compliance with the Service Center Policy? This may include the submittal of financial statements, amounts billed to federal grants & contracts, total volume of activity and the calculation of proposed billing rates for the upcoming year. (February)
- Does the unit have an established process for reporting material financial risks, issues, errors, etc. to senior administrators within the college and to the Controller?
- Has the unit addressed and resolved all outstanding internal and external audit issues?
- Does the unit perform reconciliations of transactions appearing in its general ledger reports to internal source documents on a monthly basis? (November)
Session #3 - Purchasing, Travel and Resource Usage Compliance
- Does the unit follow practices which help to ensure understanding and compliance with policies regarding use of University resources as set forth in the Operations Manual?
- Does the unit follow practices, including monitoring activities, which help to ensure compliance with University purchasing policies, travel policies and procurement card policies? (December)
Session #4 - Research & Gifts Compliance
- Does the unit encourage donors to direct their gift to the UI Foundation? For those gifts received directly by the University, are they deposited into appropriate gift accounts and applicable donor information forwarded to Grant Accounting? Does the college/unit have processes in place to ensure compliance with UI spending policies and restrictions imposed by donors?
- Does the unit formally route all externally sponsored applications, proposals and awards through the Division of Sponsored Programs or Clinical Trials Office? Does the college/unit have effective processes in place to ensure accurate disclosure and compliance with UI Sponsor policies?
- Does the unit have processes in place to help ensure timely compliance with UI policies and restrictions imposed by granting agencies and other sponsors, including, but not limited to, funding limits and allowability of costs?
Session #5 - Compliance with Capital Assets and Record Management Policies
- Does the unit perform reconciliations of all non-cash assets and liabilities to supporting detail?
- Does the unit have processing and monitoring activities in place to ensure effective custody over non-cash assets, including maintenance of accurate equipment inventory records, measures to prevent loss/theft of items, and compliance with University surplus/disposal policies?
Session #6 - Records Management Compliance